Writer’s redemption turns truly terrifying

Jenny wrote an article that catapulted her to international celebrity. Then, before she could catch her breath, it felt like the entire world turned against her. Now she stakes what’s left of her career on one last-ditch story: an exposé of Mia Wright, who claims to be living happily as a “trad wife” but who, Jenny hopes, is keeping the dark truths about her life a secret.

Well, it turns out Jenny is right, but not in the way she had expected. Sarah Langan’s Trad Wife (Atria, 320 pages, $27) begins as a story about a writer trying to salvage her career, but soon turns into a full-blown horror story, and a really good one. Like Jenny, the reader has no idea what’s in store for them; this is one shocking surprise after another.

Langan has won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award three times, and it’s easy to see why: this is a terrifically terrifying horror story.

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In 1883, Emma M. Lion comes home to the peaceful neighbourhood of St. Crispin’s in London. She’s looking forward to a quiet, introspective life, but her plans are soon wrecked by her eccentric family and her rather unusual neighbours. She chronicles her day-to-day life, as well as a series of bizarre encounters and weird events, in The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volumes 1 and 2 (HarperCollins, 352 pages, $26).

It’s all a lie, of course. This is actually a novel, written by Beth Brower: a spoof of late-19th century diarists. There’s a big clue in the title (Emma am lyin’?), but it shouldn’t take you long to figure out what’s going on.

And then you’ll settle in for a spell, soaking in Brower’s period-perfect prose — it really does sound like this was written nearly 150 years ago — and exquisitely goofy characterizations. Fresh and funny, the book is a delight for fans of humorous fiction.

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Maple Bay is a charming little town in Nova Scotia, one of those places where everybody knows everybody and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. Except: murder.

Tom Ryan introduced us to the fictional Maple Bay in 2024’s The Treasure Hunters Club — which was a deservedly smash hit — and he takes us back there now, in Return to Breakneck Island (Simon & Schuster, 368 pages, $27).

A group of mystery hunters are determined to uncover the truth behind the century-old disappearance of an entire family from an island off the coast of Maple Bay. There are rumours of a hidden fortune, perhaps buried somewhere on the island; stories, perhaps speculation but maybe not, about the vanished family.

Ryan is a talented storyteller (see also 2025’s We Had a Hunch), and this is one of those sequels that’s superior to its predecessor: darker, with a more intricate story and a lively cast of genuinely compelling characters. A first-rate mystery.

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In 2022, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Gilbert King launched a podcast, Bone Valley, which examined the miscarriage of justice that led to the 1989 conviction of Leo Schofield for the murder of his wife. It’s an appalling story — a tragic tale of police incompetence, judicial misconduct, and flagrant corruption.

King’s new book, Bone Valley: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida (Flatiron Books, 384 pages, $29), expands on the podcast, chronicling not just Schofield’s horrifying ordeal (he was eventually granted parole, in 2023) but King’s own investigation of the case.

This is a personal book: not one of those just-the-facts true crime books, but a deeply involving, emotional story of a wrong convicted man and a writer who won’t stop digging until he’s uncovered every last shred of the truth.

There have been many books about people whose lives have been destroyed by the system that’s supposed to protect them (see Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and John Grisham’s The Innocent Man); Bone Valley is among the very best of them, haunting and infuriating and absolutely spellbinding.

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Halifax freelancer David Pitt’s column appears the first weekend of every month. You can follow him on Bluesky at @bookman.bsky.social.