One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh

 

When the mistress of a wealthy political candidate is found dead, suspicion falls on the politician's wife, Vanessa. Eddie Flynn is hired to defend Vanessa, but throughout the case, he's convinced something just isn't right.

One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh is the tenth book in the Eddie Flynn series. With each book, Flynn seems to have a knack for getting himself into ever more dangerous situations, and this book is no different. From the opening pages, it looks as if Eddie has finally reached the end of the road. The story then jumps back four months to show us how he has ended up in such a dire situation.

When Eddie is approached to represent Vanessa Vanderpool, alarm bells immediately begin to ring for both him and the reader. Vanessa has married into one of America's wealthiest families. Why have they engaged the services of Eddie and not some huge Manhattan law firm?

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the head of the Vanderpool family is willing to sacrifice Vanessa for the sake of his son's reputation and future political career. Fans of the series will be well aware that behaviour like this is like a red rag to a bull as far as Eddie is concerned. He's determined to get his client acquitted, however Vanessa seems to be holding back. At times, it's almost as if she wants to be found guilty. It's impossible to figure out what dark secrets are being hidden.

Eddie is supported by the usual cast of characters: Harry, Bloch, and Lake, who all play an invaluable role. Bloch and Lake, in particular, are involved in some tense situations. If you like your action bloody, then you will find the story highly satisfying.

There are some lighter moments. As usual, there is a minor case which is used to highlight the skills Eddie picked up as a conman; he's an expert at reading people and manipulating them. The vast majority of the tale, however, is dark. We see Eddie pushed to his limit and reacting physically. Eddie isn't soft, but his behaviour this time around is extreme.

Towards the conclusion, the twists begin to appear, and although one in particular seemed to be obvious, author Steve Cavanagh fools the readers. Overall, I found the conclusion surprising, one that I would never have guessed at in a million years. However, the general theme of the story shows how much privilege and power the extremely wealthy hold.

One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh will be published on 30th July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Headline for a review copy.

Author Details

Steve Cavanagh has sold over a million copies of his novels in the UK alone and over four million worldwide. His third novel, The Liar, won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year 2018. Thirteen won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2019. Twisted, Fifty-Fifty, The Devil’s Advocate and The Accomplice were all Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers and his three most recent books – Kill For Me Kill For You, Witness 8 and Two Kinds of Stranger – were all Sunday Times Top 5 bestsellers.

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell

 

Struggling writer Martha is forced to take a job as a ghost-writer for Jacqui Dulac, a TV star still living off the fame of her long-cancelled show. Martha has to join Jacqui on board a luxurious cruise liner as it crosses the Atlantic. What neither of them knows is that the liner is also hosting a convention for serial killers.

Author David Fennell has penned one of my favourite thriller series of recent years, the DI Grace Archer books, so as soon as I spotted All Killers Aboard, I just knew I had to read it. I was also intrigued by this new direction, a comedic murder mystery. Would the author be able to pull it off?

I really didn't need to worry, as the author has managed to tread the fine line between dark humour and the macabre with seeming ease. Characters are well fleshed out, without spending too much time on the backstories of the serial killers, and this keeps the momentum flowing. The array of killers is varied, from "Mom and Pop" teams, through to mysterious men in black garb, all passing as passengers aboard the ship. To add to the suspense, there are "normal" passengers, but fans of thrillers will know to watch for people pretending to be something they're not.

There are some truly comical moments, with one in particular reminiscent of a perverse version of "Weekend At Bernie's", however David Fennell's twisted imagination is never far away, and there are still some darker moments that will make you wince.

Martha and Jacqui are a great double act. The start of their relationship is prickly. Jacqui was once a huge TV star, but is now considered a has-been and is living off her fame; she expects subservience and fawning. Millennial Martha is not going to grovel to anyone; she quickly learns how to handle Jacqui's demands. I loved the way that by the conclusion, their relationship had become almost like a mother and daughter. I do hope we haven't seen the last of this pairing.

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell will be published on 30th July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing for a review copy.

Author Details

David Fennell was born and raised in Belfast. He left for London at the tender age of eighteen and jobbed as a chef, waiter and bartender for several years before starting a career as a writer in the software industry. He is now a full time author of six books including the multi-award nominated SLEEPER series. His third novel, the bestselling THE ART OF DEATH, marked the beginning of a popular new crime series. His latest book, A VIOLENT HEART, is out now.

June 2026 Reads

 

Author Catherine Ryan Howard can always be relied upon to produce a story with a creepy feeling. Buyer Beware certainly fits the bill. When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, she has an unsettled feeling. Not only is someone lurking around the property, but there’s a strange body-shaped stain under one of the carpets. Ellie has nowhere else to go and nothing to her name; her only option is to stay in the house. As she tries to get to the bottom of what happened at the property, we learn more about her troubled past.

Everything She Didn’t Say by Jane Casey is another book that will have you feeling unsettled. Ruth O’Rourke wakes to find herself covered in blood and her friend missing. As far as everyone else is concerned, Ruth was alone in the isolated cottage. As Ruth recounts how she and her friend, Maura, met, you begin to wonder if she is delusional. Or is something far more sinister taking place? I was on edge throughout, unable to decide what was true and what wasn’t.

Set in 1984, Tell Tale by Claire Parkin evoked lots of memories for me. Eleven-year-old Debbie is a bit of an outcast in the small Welsh village she lives in. She’s prone to telling tales and blackmailing people. Deciding to run away, she stumbles across a dead body. Who can she turn to for help? Her only real allies aren’t available. What she doesn’t realise is that a serial killer is close at hand.

David Fennell has written some of my favourite serial killer thrillers. All Killers Aboard is a slight deviation from his usual work. Set aboard a luxury cruise liner, struggling author Martha is helping a faded TV star write a novel. What Martha doesn’t realise is that the ship is playing host to a serial killer convention. This is such a fun read, with some truly comedic elements. I can easily see Martha and TV legend Jacqui popping up again.

Con man turned lawyer Eddie Flynn returns in One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh. Alarm bells immediately begin to ring when Eddie is hired by one of the country’s richest families in a murder trial. It is obvious that the head of the family is willing to sacrifice his daughter-in-law in order to protect his son. Eddie, however, relishes being the underdog. There’s a lot of violence along the way, and there’s a chance that Eddie may not survive the case.

The Last Time I Saw Her Alive by Kate Riordan is a slow-burning mystery. Rain reluctantly returns to her home, the legendary Tanglewood estate, home to a famous musician from the early 1970s. When a dead body is found just days before the 30^th anniversary of Tanglewood’s famous Gathering, dark secrets begin to surface. There are similarities between current events and those of thirty years ago. As Rain digs deeper into the past, she is faced with danger and uncovering the long-hidden truth about her identity.

The only audiobook I managed this month was One Dark Summer by Sarah Hornsley. Lily is desperate to know more about the mother who abandoned her when she was only four. Discovering her mother’s family used to have a holiday home on the exclusive Osea Island, she travels there hoping to learn more about her mother. As the tale jumps backwards and forward, we follow Lily’s quest and the disturbing story of how her mother left the island under tragic circumstances. There are some very distressing moments within the story, particualry those told from the perspective of a very young Lily.

Publication dates to watch out for are;-

One Dark Summer by Sarah Hornsley will be published on 9/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard will be published on 16/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

Everything She Didn’t Say by Jane Casey will be published on 16/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

Tell Tale by Claire Parkin will be published on 23/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell will be published on 30/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh will be published on 30/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

The Last Time I Saw Her Face by Kate Riordan will be published on 30/7/26 in hardback, ebook, and audio format.

Tell Tale by Claire Parkin

 

Eleven-year-old Debbie-Marie Tunstall has a vivid imagination, one that regularly gets her into trouble. Deciding to run away from home, she stumbles across a dead body. Who can she persuade to believe that she's telling the truth this time around?

I adored author Claire Parkin's debut novel, The Final Hours Of Murial Hinchcliffe MBE, so I was delighted when I received a copy of Tell Tale. From the synopsis, this sounded like an intriguing and fun read.

The main character, Debbie, is one you can't help but fall in love with. She's highly intelligent and has an overactive imagination. At eleven-years-old she still has that mixture of irrational childhood fear and worldliness. There are some laugh-out-loud moments. I loved the way Debbie thought about God, with the local vicar being "God's best mate" and the fact she felt she should avoid church to give God "a chance to calm down a bit". Unfortunately, her snooping and tall tales have made her unpopular in the small community she lives in. This is hardly surprising when we learn of some of her antics. 

Alongside Debbie, there are a host of eccentric characters who live in the village of Llanfair, Wales. The storyline flits between three other characters, but through these, we learn of many more of the inhabitants of the village and the secrets they are hiding. Being set in 1984, the author evokes many memories through her descriptions, particularly those of the fashion of the day.

I did feel that the pace in the first half of the book was slow, with the story really only picking up when Debbie ran away from home. There is lots of mystery contained within the plot, but some of it, such as the thread involving Vanessa, the child psychologist, seemed superfluous. The villain of the piece became fairly obvious towards the end of the story, but the unveiling was cleverly done and held a tinge of sadness.

Tell Tale by Claire Parkin will be published on 23rd July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to Pan Macmillan for a review copy.

Author Details

Claire was born and brought up in a village just outside Cardiff, and graduated from King’s College London with an MA in 19th Century English and American Literature. She worked as a journalist on women’s general-interest magazines for many years, writing for Essentials, Woman & Home and Candis, where she was known for being able to turn her hand to pretty much anything – from interviewing boxing champs and war correspondents, to learning how to pole dance and the correct way to iron a shirt. Other career highlights include taste-testing eight varieties of mince pie during an August heatwave, begging Victoria Beckham to donate a dress to a charity raffle, and visiting six second-hand car dealerships in one afternoon, in a bid to expose sexism in the motoring industry.

She turned to fiction after the birth of her twin son and daughter. Three of her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and one was runner-up in the Fiction Desk Newcomer of the Year Award (2016). She is currently working on her second novel, Tell Tale, about a troubled ten-year-old girl who manipulates rising community tensions for her own amusement.

Claire lives in London with her husband and children. When she’s not writing, she’s a passionate Parkrunner, container-gardener and baker of calorific goods. After a break of several years, she’s finally enjoying mince pies again.

Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Casey

 

Ruth O'Rourke is discovered covered in blood at an isolated house. There's no sign of anyone else, but the blood definitely isn't hers. Ruth is adamant that her friend Maura was staying at the house too and is missing, but as far as everyone is concerned, Ruth was staying in the house alone. Who's telling the truth?

Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Casey opens on an ominous scene, one that fills the reader with trepidation. This sense of unease lingers throughout the story as you are never quite sure what is real and what is contrived. The main characters, Ruth and Maura, also add to the precarious feeling.

When we first meet Ruth, she elicits sympathy. She's in shock, unsure of what has happened, and is being treated as a suspect by the police. As she begins to recount how she ended up at the Shadow House, an isolated cottage in Ireland, these feelings continue. Loneliness and a run of bad luck seem to have plagued her recently. The only thing that seems to be going her way is the recent friendship she has struck up with Maura Ellender. Maura is bright and bubbly; she's brought Ruth out of her shell. The only problem is that Maura has disappeared.

As Ruth recounts the details of her relationship with Maura, you slowly begin to doubt what she's saying. My sympathy towards Ruth began to wane, and I wondered if the story was moving along the lines of "single white female", particularly as Ruth claimed the pair looked very similar. My other thought was that Ruth was delusional, that Maura was a figment of her imagination. These two thoughts kept resurfacing the more I read. While I found it impossible to make a definite decision about either, what I was sure of was that I liked Ruth less and less. My anxiety levels continued to rise, most notably when Ruth was with Ben Butler, one of the detectives investigating the case. Her role as a helpless and misunderstood woman put me on edge.

Ben and his partner, Liam, are brilliant characters. Initially, they don't seem to like each other; they are complete opposites. They do work well together though, having a healthy respect for each other and an almost telepathic form of communication.

My sense of unease grew and grew with each new revelation. I continued to feel that Ruth was manipulating everyone, but I couldn't figure out how or why. Twists and shocks abound as the truth is finally revealed. I was left slack-jawed over one incident in particular. With manipulation being the key to everything, it was wonderful to see the tables turned.

Everything She Didn't Say by Jane Casey will be published on 16th July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Hemlock Press for a review copy.

Author Details

Jane Casey is a bestselling crime writer who was born and brought up in Dublin. A former editor, she has written twelve crime novels for adults (including ten in the Maeve Kerrigan series) and three for teenagers (the Jess Tennant series). Her books have been international bestsellers, critically acclaimed for their realism and accuracy. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. In 2019, Cruel Acts was chosen as Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. Stand-alone novel The Killing Kind was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick in 2021, and is currently being filmed for television. Jane lives in southwest London with her husband, who is a criminal barrister, and their two children.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

 

When Ellie moves into her new home, things don't go smoothly. Someone is lurking outside, and there's a body-shaped stain underneath one of the carpets. Ellie's instinct is telling her to flee, unfortunately she has nowhere else to go.

When you pick up a book by Catherine Ryan Howard, you just know to expect something creepy that is filled with twists. Buyer Beware ticks all these boxes, and more. The opening pages set the tone, as viewers move around a house, with one person in particular sensing an unpleasant atmosphere and wondering who the next "victim" of the house will be.

The story then introduces us to Ellie as she moves into the property. From the outset, mystery surrounds Ellie. The narrative is extremely vague about her past and why she has chosen to move into an empty, rundown property. As strange things begin to happen, it becomes obvious that Ellie has nowhere else to turn; the house is the only thing she has going for her. I'm pretty certain that I'd have been out the door like a shot.

As Ellie tries to figure out what is going on with her house, the story jumps back in time, and we are introduced to two more characters. Erin is in her late teens and looking forward to university and a career. Hannah is a successful business owner, happily single and enjoying doing what she wants, when she wants. I liked both of these characters, particularly Hannah. The big question is, how do all three women connect?

Slowly, the stories involving Erin and Hannah move forward, but the mystery surrounding Ellie's past lingers. I had a faint hunch about why she was alone, but couldn't figure out how it connected to Erin and Hannah. I love it when an author has such a carefully constructed plot that the direction of the story isn't immediately obvious to the reader. Catherine Ryan Howard is superb at doing this. 

Even when the three arcs converge, and we begin to get a better picture of what is happening, there are still unanswered questions. I loved the way everything was tied up in the conclusion, skirting around a morally grey area.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard will be published on 16th July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for a review copy.

Author Details

Catherine Ryan Howard is the author of nine novels including the no. 1 bestsellers The Nothing Man, 56 Days, The Trap and Burn After Reading. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Crime Writers Association New Blood and Steel Daggers, and Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. The screen adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 Days, is streaming now on Prime Video. She lives in Dublin.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

 

Elsie Fitzpatrick lives a quiet and unassuming life in an Melbourne suburb. When her neighbour dies in suspicious circumstances, Elsie's life is upended as her infamous past resurfaces.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is going to be a contender for one of my favourite books of the year. I simply loved everything about this book. I was entranced by Mabel, or Elsie as she is known when we first meet her, from the very start. At 81, Elsie is content with the life she leads. Although she knows all of her neighbours, she keeps them at arm's length and is happy to be considered unapproachable. Two things happen that disturb her peaceful existence. Firstly, new neighbours move into the street; a single mother and her seven-year-old daughter, Persephone. Secondly, another neighbour is found dead.

Having been the one to find the body, suspicion immediately falls on Elsie. It's at this point that we discover that she has a past, one she had hoped to keep hidden. Snapshots of Elsie's life as a child and into her teenage years give us a glimpse of what led up to her becoming Australia's youngest convicted murderer, Mad Mabel. Mabel's life should have been one of comfort and privilege, having been born into a wealthy family. However, emotionally distant parents and tragic events surrounding people close to her result in a sad childhood, not helped by being labelled "Mad Mabel" by other children from an early age. I felt so sorry for Mabel and rejoiced when she spent time with her aunt, who was able to shower her with love. 

What really makes this book a delight is the relationship between Mabel/Elsie and Persephone. Mabel wants nothing to do with a child; unfortunately Persephone has other ideas and refuses to stay away. As you would expect, the grumpy old woman act and sarcasm simply wash over Persephone. Gradually, we see Mabel's tough exterior thawing and her protectiveness coming to the forefront.

The ending is bittersweet; we learn of Mabel's conviction and incarceration, followed by a surprising twist in the narrative and a shocking event. This is going to be one of those stories that sits with me for quite a while.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth will be published on 9th July 2026 in hardback, ebook, and audio format. My thanks to Pan Macmillan for a review copy.

Author Details

Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Good Sister and The Soulmate. Drawing on the good, the bad and the downright odd of human behaviour, Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone. They are available worldwide in English and have been translated into twenty languages.

Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family and one adorable dog.