What do you think?
Rate this book
Pretty Dead Things
Not yet published
Expected 7 Jul 26
Secrets emerge as a
Texas
beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.
2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.
2025: The Lone Star Princess Pageant is about to begin, but this year it’s offering more than an annual dose of rhinestone heels and plunging necklines. Competition is stiffer than ever —and long standing grudges are about to resurface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.
When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.
Beauty dies. Secrets never do.
KELSEY COX'S NOVELS
"Riveting." —People
"Heart-pumping." —Nina Simon
"Jaw-dropping." —Amanda Eyre Ward
"Joins my auto-buy list forever." —Rachel Hawkins
2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.
2025: The Lone Star Princess Pageant is about to begin, but this year it’s offering more than an annual dose of rhinestone heels and plunging necklines. Competition is stiffer than ever —and long standing grudges are about to resurface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.
When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.
Beauty dies. Secrets never do.
KELSEY COX'S NOVELS
"Riveting." —People
"Heart-pumping." —Nina Simon
"Jaw-dropping." —Amanda Eyre Ward
"Joins my auto-buy list forever." —Rachel Hawkins
Kindle Edition
Expected publication July 7, 2026
1 person is currently reading
664 people want to read
About the author
Kelsey Cox
3 books424 followersKelsey Cox received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap.
Follow Me on Instagram!
Follow Me on Instagram!
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Want to read
January 22, 2026I really enjoyed Party Of Liars by this author
I know this one is going to be a doozie!
Roll on July!
🩵💜🩵💜
I know this one is going to be a doozie!
Roll on July!
🩵💜🩵💜
Want to read
December 26, 2025I loved Party of Liars so Super excited to read another from this author!
Pub date: July 2026
Pub date: July 2026
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Welcome to Texas where beauty pageants are taken very seriously. This has a lot of characters and past and present time lines to keep straight so you need to read slow and pay attention. Ingrid has been grieving the loss of her twin sister and wondering what happened as her body hasn't been found.
Hannah, Olivia and Sara Lynn are all entering the pageant this year. Their mothers all have secrets from what happened before and some will go to great lengths to keep their secrets hidden.
This has so many layers and the characters are complex all dealing with different issues that it keeps you engaged the whole time. This gives off mean girls vibes.
Thank you NetGalley for advance copy.
Hannah, Olivia and Sara Lynn are all entering the pageant this year. Their mothers all have secrets from what happened before and some will go to great lengths to keep their secrets hidden.
This has so many layers and the characters are complex all dealing with different issues that it keeps you engaged the whole time. This gives off mean girls vibes.
Thank you NetGalley for advance copy.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4.5 stars
Wow this was utterly gripping and unhinged and I could not stop reading. I love a good twisty book that feels authentic and not ridiculous and this checked all of the boxes. I am officially a Kelsey Cox superfan- she creates the most original, addictive mysteries. And yet again, I can see the Texas setting so vividly as a born + raised Texan. PS- I kept imagining Melanie as Melanie Lynskey in my mind, ha!
Wow this was utterly gripping and unhinged and I could not stop reading. I love a good twisty book that feels authentic and not ridiculous and this checked all of the boxes. I am officially a Kelsey Cox superfan- she creates the most original, addictive mysteries. And yet again, I can see the Texas setting so vividly as a born + raised Texan. PS- I kept imagining Melanie as Melanie Lynskey in my mind, ha!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Beauty dies. Secrets never do.
Pretty Dead Things (Summer 2026) is Kelsey Cox’s follow-up to her USA Today bestselling debut, Party of Liars. We’re back in Texas, but this time the spectacle is bigger: a beauty pageant where every young contestant (and every one of their mothers) has something to lose, and more than one reason to kill.
What I love most about Cox’s writing is that beneath the commercial hook (a Sweet Sixteen murder, a Texas beauty pageant gone wrong), she’s deeply invested in character. No one exists simply to move the plot forward. Everyone feels human and complicated in ways that ring true. You’re never fully sure who to trust, and for me, that uncertainty is where the tension in great mystery-thriller fiction lives.
The pageant isn’t just a setting, either. Cox uses the Texas freeze from a few years back as inspiration to lock her characters into a pressure cooker. Generational grudges, body image issues, ambition, fading beauty, and quiet resentment all build alongside the approaching pageant and storm, before the book turns into a locked-room whodunit. Cox allows the reader to piece together motives and secrets organically, and once again left me reeling at the shocking final chapters.
Much like Party of Liars, Pretty Dead Things is a page-turner filled with tension and earned twists—and the character work makes it linger far longer than most.
Thank you to the author for the absolute pleasure of getting to read this early.
Pretty Dead Things (Summer 2026) is Kelsey Cox’s follow-up to her USA Today bestselling debut, Party of Liars. We’re back in Texas, but this time the spectacle is bigger: a beauty pageant where every young contestant (and every one of their mothers) has something to lose, and more than one reason to kill.
What I love most about Cox’s writing is that beneath the commercial hook (a Sweet Sixteen murder, a Texas beauty pageant gone wrong), she’s deeply invested in character. No one exists simply to move the plot forward. Everyone feels human and complicated in ways that ring true. You’re never fully sure who to trust, and for me, that uncertainty is where the tension in great mystery-thriller fiction lives.
The pageant isn’t just a setting, either. Cox uses the Texas freeze from a few years back as inspiration to lock her characters into a pressure cooker. Generational grudges, body image issues, ambition, fading beauty, and quiet resentment all build alongside the approaching pageant and storm, before the book turns into a locked-room whodunit. Cox allows the reader to piece together motives and secrets organically, and once again left me reeling at the shocking final chapters.
Much like Party of Liars, Pretty Dead Things is a page-turner filled with tension and earned twists—and the character work makes it linger far longer than most.
Thank you to the author for the absolute pleasure of getting to read this early.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews