Melanie Johnson > Recent Status Updates

What if your phone suddenly alerted you that a nuclear missile has been launched and you only have 59 minutes until impact? This book is the story of characters whose lives intersect when this message is blasted over cellphones in England. This is my favorite book of 2026 so far and it was a nail-biter with so much happening before the countdown was finished.

I usually love Kevin Wilson’s books because they are funny and quirky. This one is quirky, but it was also sad. A group of half-siblings go to find their dad who left all of them one at a time with different moms. The author had a lot of sympathy for the dad, but I guess I have too much anger towards deadbeat parents to think this was funny.

What a fantastic book☁️ Set in the 80’s when women were just beginning to be able to become astronauts, although they were not able to pilot a space shuttle. This book made me proud and it also made me deeply sad. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Two couples are on holiday at a resort when Allison, a police officer, notices the other couple, Beth and Vince sitting nearby and Beth seems upset. Allison is concerned about Beth and befriends her. Later in the week, a woman who works at the resort is found dead and Vince is taken in as a suspect. This was a pretty good and fast read.

Kylie and Zach are back, leading the elite task force of NYPD, Red. They are racing against the clock as someone sets off a bomb in NYC at 11:59. Several people are killed and soon after, another bomb goes off at 11:59. NYPD Red needs to catch the bomber before he terrorizes the entire city.

Enjoyed this one by Webb. I assume by the ending that this will be a series. Vera goes home to her small town when her stepmother is found dead in a cave, many years after going missing. The problem is that the cave is on her family property and Vera is willing to protect her family at all costs.

Shea works at a doctor’s office during the day but writes a true crime blog at night. She is fascinated by her work because she was a victim when she was a child. Now she is researching her small town’s most famous murders, The Lady Killer, who murdered a couple of men back in the 1970’s. I loved the atmospheric writing of St. James and couldn’t put it down.

As the follow up to These Still Black Waters, McDonald writes a fast-paced thriller about a family gone missing after a car accident - except for their teenager daughter. Alice woke up after the accident on the side of the road, van turned over, smoke coming out of the engine but her parents and little sister are nowhere to be found. Are they still alive?

Dark academia is my jam. A snobby professor getting his comeuppance is even better.

Three girlfriends head to the Hamptons for the weekend, but as they are looking for a place to park, a couple steal their coveted spot. After a few drinks they decide to leave a note on the car - “He’s cheating, he always does””. At the time they think it’s a harmless prank but realize that it has caused much trouble than they realized.

A group of college friends head out to a Miami destination wedding of Trevor and Fiona. They had a whirlwind courtship and when they got engaged, everyone was surprised. Well, what the friends didn’t know is that Trevor was blackmailing each friend without each other knowing the secrets he was keeping - as long as they supported the marriage.