Staff Picks: Books We Loved This Year

This year has been packed full of thrilling murders, twisty mysteries, and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful reads. Discover the books that had our jaws dropping this year.
She flies to Tuscany for answers. There, Julia learns that Rossi suffered from delusions of grandeur, believing herself to be a descendant of Caterina Sforza, a powerful Renaissance duchess. Julia doubts that is true, but she can’t deny the uncanny resemblance between her, Caterina, and Rossi. She starts to unearth eerie parallels between them—and disturbing secrets. Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed and experiences disorienting delusions of her own. Even meeting a romantic Florentine doesn’t quiet her unease. Then events turn deadly, and Julia finds herself in a harrowing struggle for sanity and survival.
Malamar Veracruz has never left the dust-choked town of El Valle. Here, Mal has done her best to build a good life: She’s raised two children, worked hard, and tried to forget the painful, unexplained disappearance of her sister, Elena. When another local girl goes missing, Mal plunges into a fresh yet familiar nightmare. As a desperate Mal hunts for answers, her search becomes increasingly tangled with inscrutable visions of a horse-headed woman, a local legend who Mal feels compelled to follow. Mal’s perspective is joined by the voices of her two daughters, all three of whom must work to uncover the truth about the missing girls in their community before it’s too late.