Saturdays at the Café

Saturdays at the Café is a weekly feature hosted here to talk about and discuss the books I’ve discovered during the past week, added to my shelf and am excited about reading. They may be new/scheduled releases I’ve seen on NetGalley, at the library, or from publishers or they may be older titles my friends have reviewed and shared on Goodreads or blogs.

---

An attorney’s defense of his own mother in a murder trial exposes a dark world of deception in a gripping thriller by Chad Zunker, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Not Our Daughterand Family Money .

Twenty-six-year-old Denver attorney Josh King returns to Austin after his estranged mother, Lauren Snow—the city’s powerful mayor—is accused of murdering his wealthy stepfather. Though his relationship with Lauren is fractured, Josh wants to be there for his fragile younger sister, Kinsey.

But when he arrives, Josh is persuaded to defend his mother in court. Of course Lauren insists she’s innocent. Killing the man with the money and influence that could fuel her ambitions would be political suicide. She’s ruthless, not reckless. Then again, his mother built her career on smoke and mirrors, and Josh has no idea who she really is anymore or what she’s capable of doing. With camera-ready grief, she’s playing the role of victim to perfection. Josh is duty bound to believe every word she says.

When Josh uncovers a web of conspiracies and devastating family secrets, he’ll be forced to choose between justice and protecting the people he loves—even as he gets closer to the truth.

Thanks to Yvo @ It’s All About Books for featuring this in her Stacking the Shelves post. Scheduled for release in November, it’s an audio review hopeful.

---

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham delivers a gripping, suspenseful page-turner about a Paris honeymoon gone horribly wrong—and the nightmare that follows.

After Paul and Chelsea Tanner’s fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would target them, and why? It turns out this is not the first crime of its kind. The search for clues soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA, and French Intelligence trying to work together to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Struggling to find answers, a young lawyer is recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA operation.

Propulsive and surprising, The French Illusion is an unmistakable Grisham thrill ride—gripping and impossible to put down.

I learned about this from a NetGalley email. Scheduled for release in September, it’s an audio review hopeful.

---

Her life is filtered to perfection. But the truth is not. From acclaimed author and podcaster Hillary Frank comes a suspenseful and shocking original audiobook.

Zara is one half of a fitness-influencer power couple. She has the upscale Philadelphia home, the dream husband, and millions of followers on the country’s hottest fitness app. But behind the bright lights and bumping music, Zara desperately wants a baby—a desire her husband does not share. Despite the stress of her “ticking clock,” she says she’s fine. Happier than ever, actually.

When Zara rekindles a friendship with Oscar, an old flame, he starts questioning her all-too-cheery demeanor. Zara wants to blame Oscar’s jealousy, but his pointed observations force her to reckon with the cracks she’s been trying to her eerie and erratic health episodes, as well as the strange and mysterious incidents terrorizing her. The further her life spirals out of control, the closer she comes to the sinister truth.

Featuring haunting sound design and original music, Wedlocked is an immersive audio experience that explores the space between the lives we post, the lives we actually lead, and the forces behind a woman’s choice.

Thanks to a Goodreads friend for the heads up. Scheduled for release in October, it’s an audio review hopeful.

---

From “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) Janice Hallett, a follow-up to her blockbuster debut novel The Appeal, featuring the Fairway Players as they put on Agatha Christie’s play The Hollow and find themselves embroiled in murder, blackmail, and betrayal once again.

Welcome back to Lower Lockwood. The Fairway Players return with Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald as committee cochairs. This year, they have chosen to stage Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. But auditions aren’t their only problem: Sarah-Jane’s sister, Nicky-Rose, is suddenly back in town under mysterious circumstances, having sold her home in Barbados, left her business providing entertainment on cruise ships, and moved back into their mother Carol’s house.

As always, they’re short on men, and new Player Fran Elroy-Jones enlists a young married couple and the husband’s cousin to join. But no one wants to play the part of the hated Gerda, leaving Kevin and Sarah-Jane with no option but to reach out to an old member they know would be happy to perform in any role.

As with any production, tensions run high, and our intrepid lawyers Femi and Charlotte are tasked with uncovering exactly what happened on the opening night of The Hollow—and whether the correct person has taken the blame.

Thanks to Becky @ Bookmarked by Becky for featuring this in her book mail post. I loved the first two books in this series. Scheduled for release in August, it’s an audio review hopeful.

---

A gripping short psychological thriller from USA Today bestselling author Lucinda Berry about how our safest routines can become our deadliest traps.

Riley Fletcher’s morning run should have been ordinary—muscle memory, fresh air, home by breakfast. Instead, she wakes bound and bleeding in a lakeside cabin, her captor a ghost from her past: Dawson Miller, a former coworker with nothing left to lose.

Escape seems simple until her injuries leave her dependent on the very man who took her. As he tends her wounds with unsettling care, Riley realizes this isn’t random violence. Dawson has a plan—one that’s been carefully constructed, methodically prepared. And somehow, she’s essential to it.

Trapped and injured, Riley must find the strength to outwit her captor and unravel his twisted scheme before it’s too late. Because if she doesn’t stop him, no one will.

I received this for audio review.

---

New York Timesbestselling author Kimberly McCreight delivers a tour de force of character-driven the story of two women whose secrets and desires entrap them in a deadly love triangle.

You had to rely on the power of love. That he loved you enough not to do the thing that would break your heart.

It was paper-thin ice on which to stake your survival.

Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue sophisticate born into great wealth and blessed with a storybook marriage, knows she lives a charmed life, and she’s not about to risk losing any part of it. That’s why she tried to convince Richard, her devoted husband and father to their three children, notto join his old college friends on an expedition almost eight thousand miles away, to the imposing peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Little did she know the beautiful artist climbing alongside him might prove the far greater danger.

Frankie Callahan’s dream of artistic success is within reach, with her career-making exhibition at a celebrated New York gallery only weeks away. If all goes well, the show will leave her financially independent, free of the tainted money that ties her to a past—and a man—she’s desperate to escape. To mark the end of this chapter, she is going to climb Kilimanjaro. But when she learns she’s the sole female accompanying a group of male friends, Frankie realizes that nothing about the trip will be as she expected. She certainly hasn’t counted on meeting anyone like the very charismatic, very rich, very married Richard Falk. By the time the group descends—with one fewer than when they began—they have lost more than they ever could have imagined.

Now, just two weeks after returning to New York, Frankie is dead, her East Village loft a blood-soaked crime scene. When Richard is charged in Frankie’s death, it falls to Gretchen to piece together how the life she so carefully constructed could have imploded so completely. There are only two things Gretchen knows for she’s the only woman Richard has ever loved, and he would never hurt anyone.

Someone Else’s Husband is the sweeping and suspenseful story of two women on a collision course with love—and with each other—in which no one is right and everyone is very, very wrong.

Thanks to Nikki @ Nikki Lee Thrill Seeker for her great review. I’m in the library queue for the audiobook.

---

Amateur private investigator and new dad Charlie Shaw gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to track down a young girl’s missing father in Rob Phillips’ award-winning debut.

Charlie Shaw is low on sleep. And cash. Otherwise, life is going pretty well for the ex-crime reporter: He’s happily married to his college sweetheart, he’s a first-time dad to the most adorable baby girl in existence, and he’s making ends meet as a rookie PI. But when Charlie meets Friday Finley, a frightened sixteen-year-old runaway on a stakeout-gone-wrong, his world gets a little more complicated.

Friday is looking for her estranged father Shawn, an unreliable alcoholic who left when she was young—and who also happens to be her only shot at avoiding the foster care system since her mother’s death a few weeks earlier. At first, Charlie believes the man is simply hiding out somewhere, avoiding his responsibilities as usual, but the more he investigates, the more unsettling—and dangerous—Shawn’s disappearance becomes. When his own family is threatened, Charlie realizes he’s in over his head, but can he back out now that he’s begun to care for Friday as his own?

A perfect blend of humor and high stakes, Stakeouts and Strollers is a heartwarming story of fatherhood, family, and what it really means to be a “Girl Dad.”

I accepted this for audio review.

---

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Next Mrs. Parrish comes an unmissable thriller about a woman who becomes embroiled in the mystery of her husband’s deceased first wife—and after moving to his remote house in the woods, uncovers terrifying secrets.

Aspiring writer Savannah’s scheme to meet superstar horror novelist Bennett Bryson turns out better than she ever imagined: not only does her charming and handsome literary idol offer to read her work, he is instantly smitten with her. After a whirlwind romance, Savannah says “yes” to marriage, and the two settle into Bennett’s secluded upstate home.

But just as Savannah thinks she has it made, cracks appear in her perfect new life. Bennett’s behavior becomes dark and controlling: he criticizes Savannah’s writing, dictates her permitted activities, and spends most of his time locked in his office, forbidding her from entering. And everywhere, Savannah cannot escape the shadow of Bennett’s first wife, the free-spirited and passionate artist Poppy, who died in a tragic accident, but who seems still to be Savannah’s rival for Bennett’s affection.

Then comes an enigmatic warning: Bennett is not who he seems. The women that came before Savannah have disappeared. And Savannah could be next.

Isolated and unsure whom to trust, Savannah tries to piece together the mystery of the man she married, and the woman he married first. But Savannah has no idea what her husband is really hiding. And someone out there knows Savannah has secrets of her own. As these two writers will learn the hard way—past really is prologue.

With memorably complicated characters, deliciously devious betrayals, and truly shocking twists, this edge-of-your-seat novel from one of today’s most original writers will keep you guessing until the last page.

I learned about this from a BookBub email. Scheduled for release in August, it’s a library audiobook hopeful.

---

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?