Someone’s Listening, the debut novel by screenwriter and award-winning playwright Seraphina Nova Glass, is a sharply written, twisty psychological thriller that could easily fit on your bookshelf next to Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. In convincingly heartbreaking fashion, the novel follows radio host and psychologist Faith Finley’s free-fall from the height of popularity to public enemy and outcast.

Faith has worked hard to get where she is. Her practice, radio show and new book are all taking off, and she’s riding high on her success—until everything suddenly crashes down around her. First, one of her clients accuses her of taking advantage of his trust through unwanted sexual advances. Faith denies the allegation, but neither the public at large nor the media are content to take her word for it. She is vilified for her alleged transgression, tarnishing her reputation and putting her job at risk. But the indignities don’t stop there. Even her husband, Liam, begins to doubt her, causing a rift in their seemingly perfect marriage and planting the seeds for what’s to come.

As bad as things are for Faith, Glass obligingly makes them worse. Faith and Liam are involved in a violent car crash, but when she wakes up in the hospital, Liam is gone. Only a cryptic email remains, further deepening the puzzle.

Told exclusively through Faith’s point of view, Someone’s Listening allows readers to easily empathize with Faith while clinging to an element of doubt. Is she lying about something? Is she keeping something from us? The mystery and ambiguity build with each subsequent chapter en route to a suspense-filled and breathless finale.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage thought he was out—out of the rackets and the crimes that once dominated his early life. He had walked away from that lifestyle, opened his own garage, settled down with a loving wife, had several children. But the past and the demands of the present have a way with catching up with people.

In Bug’s case, mounting expenses—a mix-up with his ailing mother’s Medicaid has left her owing more than $48,000 to her nursing home; his daughter needs tuition money for college; he’s in arrears on loans for the operation of his garage—leave him with nowhere else to turn. So when an old associate, Ronnie, approaches him about a job that could set everything right, Bug reluctantly agrees. 

Author S.A. Cosby quickly establishes Bug’s financial burdens and emotional dilemma in his new novel, Blacktop Wasteland, and never lets up on the gas. The result is a high-octane, white-knuckle thriller that will have readers whipping through the pages at breakneck speed. Needless to say, not everything goes to plan. Bug and Ronnie’s “simple” heist of a jewelry store goes horribly awry in more ways than one. Bug’s skills as a wheelman—and the Plymouth Duster he inherited from his father—enable him and his crew to get away with their lives, but it’s not enough to keep greed, betrayal and vengeance from closing in at every turn.

Cosby’s tightfisted prose fuels this story with heart-pumping (and often brutal) action that begs to be adapted for the big screen but somehow never loses its compassionate edge. Bug’s commitment and dedication to his family is real and heartfelt, as is his determination to make a legitimate life for them. His only fault is putting his trust in people he knows he should have nothing to do with and succumbing to the allure of easy money.

If you have the nagging feeling you’ve read or heard about Beauregard “Bug” Montage before, it’s possible. Cosby, a Virginia writer whose work has appeared in numerous anthologies, first penned a short story about Bug, “Slant-Six,” which was selected as a distinguished story for Best American Mystery Stories 2016, making Blacktop Wasteland a welcome return appearance.

Buckle in. This is one hell of a ride.

Author and screenwriter David Klass turns the serial killer mythology on its head in his new novel, Out of Time, in which the killer is intent on saving mankind through his inconceivable deeds. The Green Man, so dubbed by the media and the FBI pursuing him, doesn’t kill for the sake of some insatiable, perverse sexual desire but out of an acute calling to save the environment.

By targeting certain sites, the Green Man’s terrorist acts are meant to call attention to climate change and heighten awareness of its adverse effects. The novel opens with the destruction of a dam on Idaho’s Snake River. Environmental activists regard his actions as heroic, despite the deaths incurred along the way which the Green Man views as collateral damage.

FBI data analyst Tom Smith—not exactly a memorable name, he admits, adding, “I didn’t choose it”—and a task force of 300 FBI agents only see a killer who must be stopped. Smith brings to the investigation an outside-the-box approach, as he realizes that the killer isn’t just some deranged sociopath killing for kicks or sexual gratification but may be a well-educated, well-adjusted family man whose cause is more important than a few unfortunate deaths. So begins a fast-paced game of cat and mouse as Smith zeroes in on the Green Man’s identity, intent on stopping him before more lives are lost.

Klass, who has written many young adult novels and is best known for a bevy of Hollywood screenplays including Kiss the Girls and Walking Tall, writes in terse, straightforward prose. Chapters alternate between Smith and the Green Man’s point of view, allowing a close-up perspective of each character’s motivations and desires.

While his intentions may have some merit and his deeds may cause readers to stop and think, you know the Green Man’s going down. The fun is in the thrill of the chase, and in that respect Klass delivers.