April Storm

June 1, 2024

While there aren't many details, this posthumous novel from bestselling Meacham (Dragonfly) features a suburban housewife who's being tracked by a private detective--and a murderer. Prepub Alert.

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September 2, 2024
A suburban housewife comes to believe she’s in mortal danger in this engrossing, posthumously published standalone from Meacham (Dragonfly), who died in 2021. With Kathryn Walker’s grown children out of the house, she passes the time volunteering and serving on charity boards in Avon, Colo., while her surgeon husband, Drew, works at a nearby hospital. Then Kathryn notices a strange man following her, but she decides against going to the police. At the supermarket one afternoon, local rancher Mike McCoy spots Kathryn’s pursuer and lets her know the stalker might be a private investigator. Kathryn can’t imagine who would hire a PI to track her, but things take a turn for the sinister when one of Kathryn’s fellow library volunteers—who happens to be a spitting image of Kathryn—is mowed down by a runaway car. With Drew growing increasingly withdrawn, leading Kathryn to fear he’s having an affair, she flees Avon, unwittingly bringing herself even closer to danger. The espionage-tinted action keeps readers on their toes with finely tuned pacing and twists that land on just the right side of believability. Too-tidy ending aside, this satisfies. Agent: Joanna Castro, Writers House.

September 15, 2024
When Kathryn Walker spots a mysterious man following her around town, she wonders if she's just being paranoid, and her husband, Drew, refuses to take her concerns seriously. Fortunately, Mike McCoy, a local rancher with a background in military intelligence, crosses Kathryn's path and offers his assistance. He learns that her stalker is a private investigator, but Kathryn can't think of anyone who would have a reason to hire a PI to follow her. Then a series of unsettling events shakes Kathryn's life, causing her to fear for her safety and to doubt everything she has come to believe about herself and her marriage. Readers expecting Meacham's (Dragonfly, 2019) trademark sweeping historical epic may be surprised by this taut, fast-paced domesticsuspense novel, filled with unexpected twists and a satisfying resolution. Much of the action is presented from Kathryn's point of view, with occasional chapters from other perspectives to heighten the tension and to serve as a reminder that nobody in her world can be trusted. Fans of Liv Constantine and Kimberly Belle will appreciate the late Meacham's final novel.

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October 1, 2024
When she realizes she's being watched, a suburban Colorado housewife finds her orderly life upended. Texas author Meacham began writing novels in retirement; this last was completed before her death in 2021 at age 83. Her heroine, Kathryn Walker, is the put-together, 40-something wife of a successful orthopedic surgeon; both have come a long way from their impoverished, almost Dickensian backgrounds. Now their daughter is at college in Boulder and their son is a teacher in Houston, so Kathryn spends her time on volunteer work and fancy meals. One day she realizes she's being followed by a man she assumes is a stalker, though the reader knows "Golf Cap" is a private investigator, as does Mike McCoy, a local rancher who's a former member of the military's Special Forces. In reaction to the murder of his pregnant wife decades earlier, McCoy now puts his bad-guy-fighting skills to use as a good Samaritan whenever he can. Though Kathryn's husband doesn't seem to take her situation seriously--he has financial troubles, demands at work, and may even be having an affair--when another library volunteer with blond hair and a Burberry raincoat is the victim of a hit-and-run, McCoy agrees with Kathryn that someone is trying to kill her. The search for who and why eschews both realism and subtlety, but Meacham's fans, who have been eagerly waiting for her husband and her publisher to see her final manuscript though to publication, won't care. What may be lacking in emotional veracity or prose style is made up for by the carefully laid-out plot and its satisfying (and feminist!) resolution. A boldly imagined mystery with twists that are delightful if not overly believable.

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