Friday Reads 5.8.26

For Those New To The Series, Doctoring Skills, and This Week’s Books

Happy Friday, my friends. I hope your week has been uneventful. Mine has not, but this is life, right? I unfortunately had to cancel my trip to Thrillerfest because of a family emergency with my father in law, and have spent the week at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, adding to my growing body of medical knowledge. My streak continues—no less than four doctors have asked if I’m in the field. I speak doctor. It is a missed calling, I think. I wanted to go to med school, but the cadavers held me up. What a silly thing to have been afraid of.

So now I’m living vicariously through self, spouse, and two sets of parents as we all navigate the healthcare system.

As such, there has not been a lot of reading this week, though in the quieter moments, I’ve managed to sneak in some chapters of Belle Burden’s STRANGERS. It is a wildly compelling divorce memoir. I empathize with her. In a happy marriage myself, the idea of a spouse suddenly flipping the love switch off after two decades is as foreign as she makes it out to be.

I also missed my pal Anne Bogel interviewing Laurie Frankel about her new book, ENORMOUS WINGS, which sounds absolutely bonkers in all the best ways.

And a heads up to your thriller lovers, the absolutely wonderful Alex Finlay’s newest, THE ANNIVERSARY, drops on Tuesday. It’s amazing.

I also grabbed myself Gillian McAllister’s CALLER UNKNOWN.

Maybe the last two will remind me how to write again, because I’ve forgotten.

ANYWAY. I had a book release myself this week! Let’s talk about Taylor Jackson.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the lyrics of my bad country song…When I moved to Nashville in 1998, I did not have the best go of it. My only job experience had been in presidential politics and aerospace marketing, not exactly high desire skills in the Nashville market. I couldn’t find a job, I was not plugged into any communities so finding friends was proving difficult, and my 19 year old Siamese was ill. So ill that we had to send her over the rainbow three weeks after we moved. It was awful.

But life is cyclical. We got a new cat. I found a job. We made friends. Then I blew out my back and had to have surgery. Also not ideal. But during rehab, I discovered John Sandford’s Prey series. And three books in, I knew I wanted to try writing again, after an (extremely) extended hiatus.

Taylor Jackson was born on I-40, driving downtown to rehab. She leapt into my brain fully formed, half cop, half rock star, this stunning beauty with a heart of gold and a moral code that meant anyone who bent the rules or got in her way regretted it. Nashville’s Athena, the warrior goddess protecting us all. To say I was influenced by Sandford, by Cornwall, by Gerritsen and Kava and Spindler and Connolly and Child, is an understatement. My idols wrote these amazing crime stories, and I wanted to as well.

It is hard to believe that the week we start rereleasing Taylor will be 20 years almost to the day that I sold those first three books. What a way to celebrate an anniversary!

I love Taylor, and I can’t wait to introduce her to those of you who haven’t met her yet. And for those of you who’ve been along on the ride these past 20 years, don’t you worry. More to come…

You can order ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS now, and preorder the next three in the series, too. Click on the covers below for more.

What wonderful books are you reading this weekend?

And Happy Mother’s Day to my mommy, mother in law, BFFs, and all your wonderful moms out there 💐