By Megan Miranda

Scribner, 2023. 352 pages. Fiction 

A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine claiming the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine surviving classmates are bound together by tragedy and, when one of their own takes their life on the one-year anniversary, a deal is struck: they must all come together each year to prevent another loss. When the Survivors reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of the accident, one of the survivors disappears, casting fear and suspicion on the remaining individuals and on the original tragedy itself. 

The Only Survivors is a meticulously plotted, Slow Burn of a mystery. The Outer Banks beach house that acts as the survivors annual meeting place provided the perfect dichotomy to the dark and suspicious past of our main characters. I particularly enjoyed the multiple survivor perspectives of the accident combined with the present storyline of the ten-year anniversary told solely through protagonist, Cassidy Bent. This was an important element to the plotting of the story and kept me guessing until the end. I always appreciate a mystery that doesn’t give it away immediately, but rather lets the story unfold gradually with each new perspective adding another layer. I recommend The Only Survivors to all mystery lovers who appreciate a good slow burn with unreliable narrators. 

What Have We Done 

By Alex Finlay 

Minotaur Books, 2023. 358 pages. Fiction 

Three disparate lives. One deadly secret. Twenty-five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, a bond forged as residents of Savior House, an abusive group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down, after the disappearance of several kids, the three were split up. Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live successful, if troubled, lives. They haven't seen one another since they were teens, but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them. To save their lives, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their past. It's a reunion none of them asked for or wanted, but it may be the only way to save all their lives. 

The Soulmate

By Sally Hepworth 

St. Martin’s Press, 2023. 327 pages. Fiction 

There's a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa's dream home in a sleepy coastal town, but their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Night after night, Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until he doesn't. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral. Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa's life, her soulmate, lie? As the perfect façade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel.

BW