Thriller Thursday

The Grapevine (The Lost Highway #1) by Alexandra Sokoloff and Craig Robertson.  Blackstone Publishing, 23 June 2026.

Lou Gomersall’s 19-year-old daughter Abby disappeared a year ago, while driving south on I-5 from the University of California, Berkley.

Even though the police seem to have given up searching for Abby, Lou hasn’t.

She’s been driving through the highways and back roads of Northern California for nearly the whole time, talking to people at truck stops and campsites. 

Certain she can find a pattern if she tries hard enough, Lou has begun tracking other young women who have vanished while driving in the same area.

Lou is nothing if not determined, and during her travels, she finds people who gather information for her.  She even finds a few detectives who are in her corner, though they contend that Lou could be putting herself in danger.

The title comes from a stretch of I-5 in Kern County through the Tejon Pass, with Fort Tejon at the north end and the unincorporated town of Grapevine at the south, and most of the story takes place in the area surrounding The Grapevine.

Lou is intelligent woman, certain of her mission, and though some might call her stubborn rather than persistent, she’s still a sympathetic protagonist.

The story is timely, and riveting, though very intense.  Highly recommended!

Many thanks to Alexandra Sokoloff and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley to review.

(Cross-posted on my Substack.)

April favorites

The House of Hidden Letters by Izzy Broom. Berkley Publishing, 17 March, 2026.

Skye MacKinnon is desperate for an escape. When she wins a lottery to buy a run-down cottage on a Greek island for only one euro, Skye jumps at the chance to get out of England and start over. As she unlocks the tattered blue door of her whitewashed new cottage, the sun-kissed sea glinting in the bay outside her windows, Skye immediately feels like she’s found her true home.

Skye and the other lottery winners—the first residents in these houses since the 1940s—form a tight-knit group, finding in one another the strong relationships they’d been missing in their own lives. When Skye and local contractor Andreas find a set of mysterious letters, they begin to unravel the history of the prior residents, and the truth about life on Folegandros during World War II.

The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly.  Gallery Books, 20 October 2026.  (Review to come.)

1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson’s life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house’s beautiful garden is Miss Pearce’s proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.

1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.

Stifled by expectation as Pasadena’s newest doyenne, Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.

The Grapevine by Alexandra Sokoloff and Craig Robertson.  Blackstone Publishing, 23 June 2026.  (Review to come.)

How far would you go to find your missing child?

Lou Gomersall's going as far as it takes. And there's no turning back.

When her nineteen-year-old daughter Abby disappears, Lou embarks on a reckless road trip in the family RV, scouring the highways and back roads of California. Through desert and mountains, into the woods, and to the ocean's edge.

A year later, the police don't believe Lou's theory that four other missing young women have been taken by the same elusive predator. So, when another college sophomore vanishes, Lou jumps on the fresh trail, enlisting millennial #vanlifers, Gen Z entrepreneurs, boomer RVers, homeless sages, truck stop prostitutes, and everyone in between in her do-or-die mission to rescue Abby …

(Watch for my upcoming review of The Grapevine!)

Today is Earth Day!

                                    Earth Day    by Jane Yolen

                                        I am the Earth

                                        And the Earth is me.

                                        Each blade of grass,

                                        Each honey tree,

                                        Each bit of mud,

                                        And stick and stone    

                                        Is blood and muscle,

                                        Skin and bone.

                                        And just as I

                                        Need every bit

                                        Of me to make

                                        My body fit,

                                        So Earth needs

                                        Grass and stone and tree

                                        And things that grow here

                                        Naturally.

                                        That’s why we

                                        Celebrate this day.

                                        That’s why across

                                        The world we say:

                                        As long as life,

                                        As dear, as free,

                                        I am the Earth

                                        And the Earth is me. 

Poem of the day

The Guest House

Rumi
(Translated by Coleman Barks)

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Poem of the Day

 I, Too

By Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

From The Selected Works of Langston Hughes, Knopf Doubleday, 2011.

Funny Friday

March Favorites

Definitely Maybe Not a Detective (Wyatt Investigations #1) by Sarah Fox.  (Random House Publishing Group, 6 January 2026.)

I loved this cozy mystery about Emersyn Gray, guardian to her seven-year-old niece Livy.  Emersyn is "between jobs", as well as broke because her ex cleaned out her bank account.

In an effort to help, Emersyn's friend Jemma half-jokingly makes her some business cards for "Wyatt Investigations" (Wyatt being the name of her imaginary childhood crush).

While tailing her ex, Emersyn bumps into a handsome security expert named... Wyatt, and somehow they end up working together to get Emersyn's money back.

The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman.  (Simon & Schuster, 12 May 2026).

This is a twisty and charming mystery starring the residents of a London boarding house in 1953.  

When a secretive young man who introduces himself as "Jimmy" appears one night, and landlady Honor Wilson takes him in without question, the  four current residents are confused and intrigued.  

They are all convinced that he's bad news, and each attempts in her/his own way to determine who he really is.

The Primrose Murder Society by Stacy Hackney.  (HarperCollins, 3 March 2026).

This is another charming cozy about a woman and child solving mysteries together. 

Lily Shaw's husband has been arrested for white-collar crime. When she is turned out of her home by the FBI, Lily and her 10-year-old daughter move into a junk-filled apartment to clean it out.  

When the owner of the building's penthouse dies a few days after Lily and Bea move in.  When they learn that his will set up a two-million-dollar reward for whoever solves the murder of his granddaughter 21 years earlier.  

As an avid true-crime fan, Bea is determined to figure it out, and, acknowledging the need for money, Lila reluctantly agrees.

Like the heroines of Definitely Maybe Not a  Detective, Lila and Bea are intelligent, appealing protagonists.

The Tree of Light and Flowers  (Jane Whitefield #10) by Thomas Perry.  (The Mysterious Press, 3 March 2026). 

After the birth of her daughter, May, Jane Whitefield believes she's retired from helping people disappear. 

Three unrelated incidents change her situation.  

A teenaged girl and a middle-aged man who are seeking justice track her down.

Russian mob boss who thought Jane was dead learns that she isn't and sends his best to deal with her.

As a result, Jane is not only attempting to help two runners disappear, she's trying to protect her family and save her own life.

Cross-posted on Substack.