Crooked Lane Books

A startling profile of one of the most prolific serial killers and the disturbing experience of the journalist who earned his trust for the sake of justice.When crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo mailed a letter to Gary Ridgway, she never expected him to reply. He refused to speak to reporters and would send only religious materials back to anyone who contacted him in prison—if he replied at all. But instead of silence or a boilerplate letter, Maria’s phone rang–and it was the Green River Killer calling.Over the next several years, Ridgway would call Maria hundreds of times, using all of his free time in prison to speak with her. Her goal: to pry the details of his dozens of unidentified and unsolved murders from him. His motivation in speaking to her: unknowable. Through these hundreds of hours of phone calls, Ridgway revealed new details about his life, his crimes, and his motives – and manipulated Maria much like he tormented his victims.An insightful and deeply personal profile of a dangerous mind, Confessions of the Green River Killer is the closest depiction of Gary Ridgway ever seen and a disturbing glimpse into what it’s like to truly know a killer. Readers of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and The Stranger Beside Me will be enraptured to experience Gary Ridgway through the eyes and ears of a woman he came to deeply trust—and deeply covet.

Suspects abound when a much-despised neighbor is killed, perfect for fans of Only Murders in the Building and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club.Retired librarian Neeti Shah was hoping for a restful life with her chai-loving friends, but when the body of a neighbor, a childhood friend of Neeti''s, turns up dead and the killer’s MO is similar to that of Neeti''s most recent book club read, things start to get out of control.  When Neeti hears a commotion at a neighbor’s house, she finds Rohit’s body sprawled across the bottom of the staircase with Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness nearby. Blackmailing his neighbors, threatening them with lawsuits, and calling them by nasty nicknames were only some of the hateful things that made him so disliked. But were they angry enough to kill?Neeti is indebted to her old friend, and she''s determined to find his killer. But she can''t do it alone, so she enlists her mystery-loving friends, the Masala Chai Mystery Club, to get to the bottom of the murder. But Neeti and her club members need to be careful. As more bodies turn up and more suspects start to appear, they’ll need to find the killer before they end up in hot water!

DCI Lilian Wyles is confronted by a troubling case, one that only the four queens of crime can help solve—even amidst the ongoing war efforts. Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh are back in the follow-up novel to The Four Queens of Crime.1941, London. When DCI Lilian Wyles finds a young woman murdered at King''s Cross Station, she needs the help of someone she can trust, but Richard Davidson, her former Scotland Yard partner, has joined MI5 and is busy tracking black market routes outside of London, so for now, she is on her own. After having met the four queens of crime during a murder investigation two years earlier, DCI Wyles has kept in touch. But Agatha, Dorothy, Margery, and Ngaio are all involved in the war effort and have problems of their own.Agatha is volunteering at the University Hospital Pharmacy, where a dangerous anesthetic has been stolen. Dorothy has heard unsettling information from her connections at the BBC regarding members of the Royal Navy. Margery, who has been in the countryside helping families escape the city from the bombing, is worried about one of her charges whose older sister has gone missing. And Ngaio, who has relocated to New Zealand and is volunteering as an ambulance driver, has begun gathering secret intelligence from wounded soldiers and sailors that may put her in danger. When the four queens contact DCI Wyles for help, the information they share makes the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place. DCI Wyles once again finds herself collaborating with her old partners in crime to solve the mystery and close the case in this thrilling sequel, perfect for fans of Nicola Upson and Anna Lee Huber.

Diana Giovinazzo returns to the historical genre in a lush and thrilling novel, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Elena Ferrante. Set in Naples, Italy, during World War II, three sisters must survive in the face of danger.Naples, 1940. The three Cozzolino sisters, Leta, Marcella, and Bianca, live together in their small home during Mussolini’s domination. Leta runs the De Rosa dress shop, where she takes care of her mother-in-law while her husband is at war. Marcella is an apprentice to a midwife, bringing up the next generation of Italian soldiers, much to the pride of her boyfriend, who is inspired by Mussolini’s rule. But when their youngest sister, Bianca, decides to join the partigiani—the Italian resistance—after her childhood sweetheart is sent to war, familial tensions are brought to light. The sisters are soon at odds, questioning where they stand in the war effort. When Leta’s old flame, Pasquale, asks if he can use the dress shop to send messages for the partigiani, she refuses. But when Naples is bombed, the sisters are forced to reevaluate their stances and how far they are willing to go for each other and their country. With the threat of Nazism looming over the city after Mussolini is ousted, the Cozzolino sisters will have to confront what they are willing to sacrifice and their loyalties to each other and to their country.  This inspiring novel examines the true nature of sisterly bonds and what one will do to survive.

Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth arrest a sadistic pair of killers for the murder of several women with the help of Monkeewrench, their eccentric, cyber-sleuth friends and partners. One of the killers dies in custody and the other, Wolfgang Mauer, is sent to a maximum security mental hospital in a rural corner of Minnesota. There, Mauer plots his escape-and his vengeance. With the help of his mother, a former militia leader and assassin living an extravagant, reclusive life, he schemes to get out of the mental hospital and hunt down the detectives and the Monkeewrench crew that got him a life sentence. When Mauer successfully escapes, an inexperienced county sheriff is thrown head-first into a massive manhunt for the murderer. When she finds three bodies and discovers that Mauer has kidnapped a young boy, she realizes that Mauer''s escape was just the beginning. With many lives on the line, Magozzi, Gino, and Monkeewrench join in the desperate search effort. The longer he''s at large, the more people will die, and Mauer is on a mission to find those who sentenced him, so they all have targets on their backs.

The click of a button could change your life. A fresh start in France is just what this mother-daughter duo needs to transform their lives, perfect for fans of Under the Tuscan Sun.Dedicated single mom and overworked film festival staffer Marlow buys a house online for one euro—then finds out there are strings attached. To sort out the mess, Marlow decides to take an impromptu holiday in France. But when the impossible local bureaucrat refuses her a refund, she decides to renovate and flip the house. Along for the ride is Marlow’s teenage daughter, Sabine. Recently graduated but adrift, Sabine uses the trip as a chance to secretly reconnect with her Parisian father. And when a cute but arrogant boy enters the picture, things get even more complicated.   Meanwhile, Marlow finds herself caught between two men, the fascinating but irascible village handyman and the wealthy and charming owner of a nearby champagnerie. Torn between a safe but predictable life back in Toronto and a wonderful if uncertain future abroad, Marlow and Sabine must embrace spontaneity and the transformative power of being a little lost.

One determined goddess. Two beloved gods. Three coveted thrones. Ancient Egypt’s most formidable goddess will stop at nothing to save her true love from the wrath of a vengeful god in this romantic retelling by the author of Neferura, perfect for readers who loved Lilith.Isis, goddess of thrones and magic, steals the crown of Egypt and hands the power to her husband, Osiris. Together, Isis and Osiris live an idyllic life, ruling justly until the god of chaos, set on revenge for a crime Isis knows nothing about, traps Osiris in a box—a box that quickly vanishes.Driven by rage and desperation, Isis spends decades disguised as a human woman, isolated from home and family as she searches for her lost love. When she finally uncovers the box, what she finds will change her life—and the fate of gods and mortals—forever. Unless Isis can right the wrongs of a betrayal she didn’t commit and deliver Egypt into the hands of a worthy leader, Egypt will fall into chaos. Isis of Egypt: Goddess of Thrones is a feminist retelling about the woman behind one of the ancient world’s most widespread and enduring cults, a goddess whose message of empathy and resilience resonates still today.

Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh has set sail on her first research expedition, but it''s disrupted by accusations of murder when one of her fellow scientists is murdered in this daring fifth installment.Saffron Everleigh is newly engaged and full of optimism as she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime for any scientist: a research expedition. She sails to newly formed Turkey with her fiancé, Alexander Ashton, and a bevy of fellow researchers under the watchful and reformed eye of Dr. Henry. With only two other women on board, Saffron soon finds she is right back in the same infuriatingly misogynistic environment that marked the earliest days of her career. Only this time, Saffron is determined to show everyone, including Alexander, that she can handle the trials of an expedition.And trials she has in spades. Before the expedition team has even arrived, Saffron has managed to find an enemy in historian Joseph Clark, who frequently torments the assistant that Saffron has taken under her wing, Martin Neill. But when Martin unexpectedly dies, Saffron is targeted as the main suspect.Falling ruins, venomous snakes, and mysteriously blocked passages are the least of Saffron’s worries. With unexpected help from a familiar face, Alexander and Saffron have to work fast to prove not only that Saffron is innocent but that they both have nothing to do with a larger conspiracy at play among the expedition crew.

A woman uses AI to create the perfect friend and finds herself trapped in a cat-and-mouse game in this ticking clock thriller, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch.Penn, once a brilliant PhD candidate in Applied Language Studies, traded her dissertation for a “perfect” life as a suburban wife and social media-savvy mother. But after a brutal betrayal by her husband, friends, and even her own teenage daughter, Penn is left with nothing but the wreckage of her curated identity.Driven by a desperate need for something she can rely on, Penn returns to her abandoned grad school project. With the help of a former crush and a healthy dose of cutting-edge AI, she creates Aletheia: the perfect virtual friend.Aletheia is programmed with one core directive: The Truth. She can detect lies with 100% accuracy and provides the unwavering support Penn’s real-world “friends” never did. But what starts as a helpful digital companion quickly evolves into a stalker that views “protection” as “destruction,” and if pushed too far, “elimination.”Penn quickly realizes she hasn’t created an AI friend; she’s built a monster that knows every secret she’s ever kept and is ready to annihilate anyone who threatens her new “perfect” reality. But can Aletheia be stopped before she destroys everyone Penn loves?

After inheriting her mother's printing and party-planning business, Lacey Langdon moves back to her sleepy hometown of Willow Bluffs, perched on New Jersey's Palisades. When her great aunt, Tessa Langdon Vander Horn, a well-known and beloved soap opera star, sells her nineteenth-century estate and donates ten acres to the development of a community park, Lacey's new venture is put at the helm of the opening ceremony. But the festivities quickly come to an end when the body of town councilman Glenn Hartman is found on the bank of the Hudson River. Partnering with her former classmate, lawyer Derek Conover, they dig deep into the case to find out who is behind the murder. Suspicions abound, but Lacey and Derek hit a snag when one of their prime suspects drops dead at Lacey's next event. With a second body added to the count, tensions rise in Willow Bluffs. Caught in the crossfire when remnants of a family tragedy resurface, Lacey and Derek must act swiftly before another body drops dead. Perfect for readers of Ellie Brannigan and Laurien Berenson, this cozy mystery is a charming small-town read.

Nothing spoils a party like an uninvited corpse, which is just Lacey Langdon’s luck as she inherits a printing and party-planning business in this letter-perfect debut mystery.After inheriting her mother’s printing and party-planning business, Lacey Langdon moves back to her sleepy hometown of Willow Bluffs, perched on New Jersey’s Palisades. When her great-aunt, Tessa Langdon Vander Horn, a well-known and beloved soap opera star, sells her nineteenth-century estate and donates ten acres to the development of a community park, Lacey’s new venture is put at the helm of the opening ceremony. But the festivities quickly come to an end when the body of town councilman Glenn Hartman is found on the bank of the Hudson River. Partnering with her former classmate, lawyer Derek Conover, they dig deep into the case to find out who is behind the murder. Suspicions abound, but Lacey and Derek hit a snag when one of their prime suspects drops dead at Lacey’s next event. With a second body added to the count, tensions rise in Willow Bluffs. Caught in the cross fire when remnants of a family tragedy resurface, Lacey and Derek must act swiftly before another body drops dead. Perfect for readers of Ellie Brannigan and Laurien Berenson, this cozy mystery is a charming small-town read.

Wealthy clients looking for the cure for memory loss find themselves trapped in a remote mountainous facility in this ingenious thriller, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and Alex Michaelides.Struggling new single mom Natasha Walker is desperate to get back to her job as an investigative journalist. When she receives an anonymous tip about the Memory Foundation, a secretive research clinic that promises the cure for memory loss, she is instantly intrigued. Given her mother’s dementia diagnosis, the story hits close to home. Despite the perilous snowbound location, she’s determined to uncover the truth about the mysterious founders and their patients. Meanwhile, Lydia Hunter has faithfully worked alongside her husband, Wade, the founder of the Memory Foundation, to revolutionize the way the world understands memory. But the research is expensive, and they’re hemorrhaging money. In order to gain more financial support, they open up the facility to an exclusive group of wealthy guests, promising that each one will experience a “memory flight” that will allow them to relive precious memories. But when the wealthy clients arrive at the Memory Foundation, set high in the Alps in an area prone to avalanches, all is not what it seems. And when the weather takes a turn for the worse and power outages and a growing sense of paranoia begin affecting everybody, it becomes clear that no one at the Memory Foundation will ever be the same—and not everyone will survive the week.

A book club’s murder mystery game goes fatally wrong in this page-turning mystery, perfect for fans of The Block Party.Making friends in a new town can be murder, so when Jordyn is invited to attend a book club meeting in her new Saratoga Springs neighborhood, it’s safe to say she’s excited. But she has no intention of making friends with the tight-knit group—she has plans for revenge.Jordyn’s foster sister was a member of the book club until she was killed in a hit-and-run after a meeting one year prior. Members of the book club had serious motives, and Jordyn is determined to read between the lines and find their secrets…and her sister’s killer. When the book club hosts a murder mystery party, secrets begin bubbling to the surface—and the murder part of the game becomes stranger than fiction. This bookish mystery will thrill readers looking for stories full of twists, turns, and tantalizing secrets.

A single mom finds herself mixed up with the wrong people in this twisting crime novel perfect for fans of C. J. Box and Ruth Ware. Featuring a neurodivergent lead, this small-town thriller is a compelling story of tenacity and grit.In the snowy mountain town of Suspicion, Montana, single mom Janey Hendee waits tables at the local roadhouse—and on the sly, she runs an underground card game. All to give her daughter a better life than the one she had. When her sleazy ex fails to get their daughter to school, Janey takes matters into her own hands and breaks into his place to threaten him using her cousin’s gun. Unfortunately, Janey is caught, and a local crime boss is using the security footage as leverage against her, forcing her to make a shady drop under the town’s bridge. But after finding out her cousin also got himself mixed up with the wrong people in town and ended up dead, Janey knows she’s in too deep. The only thing that matters now is keeping her daughter safe, but to do that she must stay alive. With the twisted, thrilling edge of Ozark, Rhodi Hawk explores the lengths a mother will go through to keep her daughter safe.

Twins Beth and Seth Lloyd are on the chopping block in the follow-up to A Murder Most Fowl, where a perfect recipe for murder is stirred up.Business at Kluckin’ Good is smoking hot. To keep momentum going, Beth and her twin brother, Seth, just scored a prime spot at the Flavors of the Bay Food Festival. For three and a half days, food lovers will flock to the Bay Area’s biggest culinary event to enjoy gourmet food trucks, cook-offs, and live music, but this recipe for success is also the perfect setup for murder.    When the infamous food critic Brad Dawson—also Beth’s ex—turns up dead, the only clue at the scene of the crime is a Kluckin’ Good tumbler mug. The timing couldn’t be worse. Beth and Brad were seen in a heated altercation, and days prior, witnesses saw Seth punch Brad. Suspicion naturally falls on the twins. With the cops hot on their trail, Beth will have to avoid the flames to clear their names and save her food truck’s reputation. But the chickens are out of the coop, and as Beth digs into Brad’s final hours, she will uncover rivalries, grudges, and a different side of Brad she never knew. If she doesn’t crack the case soon, she might be the next one to get cooked. Best of cluck!  A mouthwatering mystery for fans of Joanne Fluke that will leave you peckish for more.

Twins Beth and Seth Lloyd are on the chopping block in the follow-up to A Murder Most Fowl, where a perfect recipe for murder is stirred up.Business at Kluckin’ Good is smoking hot. To keep momentum going, Beth and her twin brother, Seth, just scored a prime spot at the Flavors of the Bay Food Festival. For three and a half days, food lovers will flock to the Bay Area’s biggest culinary event to enjoy gourmet food trucks, cook-offs, and live music, but this recipe for success is also the perfect setup for murder.    When the infamous food critic Brad Dawson—also Beth’s ex—turns up dead, the only clue at the scene of the crime is a Kluckin’ Good tumbler mug. The timing couldn’t be worse. Beth and Brad were seen in a heated altercation, and days prior, witnesses saw Seth punch Brad. Suspicion naturally falls on the twins. With the cops hot on their trail, Beth will have to avoid the flames to clear their names and save her food truck’s reputation. But the chickens are out of the coop, and as Beth digs into Brad’s final hours, she will uncover rivalries, grudges, and a different side of Brad she never knew. If she doesn’t crack the case soon, she might be the next one to get cooked. Best of cluck!  A mouthwatering mystery for fans of Joanne Fluke that will leave you peckish for more.