Patricia Bruder

You can hide in your houses. You can lock your doors. But nothing is keeping The Locksmith out.

Just thinking about someone stealthily lurking around your house, creeping into your bedroom while you're sleeping, sent shivers down my back. This book began as an investigation into a gruesome serial killer but turned into so much more. It explores the unknown impact our actions may have on others, the obsessions we hold while ignoring what should matter more to us, and the perceptions that blind us to facts.

The author built the story slowly, but by the end, things move so rapidly that you cannot avert your eyes quickly enough to the chaos that is about to unfold.

I guarantee you will never approach a wine tasting in the same way after reading this book.

Yes, the cork will pop with professional ease. The bouquet of the wine will be delightful. The sommelier will provide a scripted origin story of the grape, or they may even go off-script. But you will never know what they are really thinking.

This is a story of the lasting effects of bullying, of a woman who survived her childhood, who put in the hard work to learn to talk, to come to work in a place where she feels safe. But then, by fate, or wrong place/wrong time, she discovers her childhood classmates are due for a wine tasting. Which wine she chooses will depend on them.

And the ending might leave you in tears.

The Locksmith by Danielle Fear lodged under my skin, so I jumped at the chance to read this. And now I want to read Danielle's entire backlist because...she's that good