The dialogue and small working-class town feel astonishingly authentic and intimate. With Out of the Ashes, Thomas has created a setting and characters so visceral, I felt completely immersed. But Carney protects its secrets, and sometimes the truth is more dangerous than the lie. She’s long suspected law enforcement mishandled evidence and covered up truths that could break the case wide open.

He wants to help and has even found a new witness, yet Sam is wary of Meacham and his offered assistance. The Carney Police have recently assigned investigator Travis Meacham to the Newsom family murder case. Now, new evidence reveals that Sam’s baby sister could have been snatched out of the fire and made it out alive. Twenty-two years ago, Samantha Newsom’s whole family was murdered in a fire. Kara Thomas writes cinematic, fresh, and compelling thrillers, and with Out of the Ashes, she’s created a raw, gritty heroine in the same vein as Mare of Easttown. Tell Me How This Ends, her brilliant debut, grabbed me from the second I read that first page and didn’t let me go until the very end. Henrietta can’t help herself from looking into it, but will she be able to find the truth in time? Jo is the kind of writer that reminds me why I wanted to become an editor.

When she meets terminally ill, charismatic Annie, it’s hard to stay so removed, especially when Annie reveals that, one night, her sister vanished, leaving only a pile of clothes by the side of a canal. But Henrietta only wants to write the facts, not get pulled in by emotion. Henrietta has a new job: to write the life stories of the dying so that a record of them exists once they’ve passed on. Jo Leevers writes with warmth, honesty, and compassion about the human condition, and it is such a privilege to be part of her journey.

Deeply compelling, Tell Me How This Ends is a reminder that, sometimes, confronting our pasts might just be the very thing we need to move forward.

Amazon prime first read