Little Pretty Things

So the mystery here isn't really Why Did Maddy Hang Herself (or Was Maddy Murdered) but what hold our teen selves have over our lives years later, and how to resolve that - is that a bad thing? Not really.

I wasn't sure Lori Rader-Day could match the achievement of her remarkable debut, THE BLACK HOUR, but I'm happy to say that LITTLE PRETTY THINGS is an extraordinary success. It's hard to compare two different books, but I confess that I enjoyed LITTLE PRETTY THINGS even more than I did THE BLACK HOUR.

Once again, Chicago author Rader-Day (The Black Hour) delivers a breathless psychological thriller with a killer first line, an irresistible mystery and lean chapters soaked with suspense. Comparisons to Tana French (A Secret Place) and Paula Hawkins (The Girl on the Train) have become all too common in the mystery genre, but with two consistently great novels now under her belt, Rader-Day has proved their equal in crafting taut, literary mysteries with fascinating heroines.