In Taylor’s thriller, a woman returns to her hometown to uncover a frightening truth that her mind has buried.

When Lily Doucet gets news that her brother, Beau, has died, she leaves Chicago for Louisiana, where she grew up. She has trouble believing that Beau’s fatal drowning was accidental, as it occurred in a bayou he knew well; it’s the same area where the siblings’ cousin Amelia St. Jeannot vanished two decades earlier. Since Beau had apparently been obsessed with Amelia, Lily feels she’ll “understand his last days” if she learns what happened to their cousin. But her memories from that time are hazy at best. Lily reconnects with old friends and with her stone-hearted Aunt Clara (Amelia’s mom); most of these people seem reluctant to help her dig into the past, as if the truth is better left alone. Lily searches for clues at the library and in a local detective’s case file on Amelia’s disappearance, all the while feeling certain that “Amelia’s ghost wants something.” Taylor builds suspense with a relatively slow pace. Readers don’t know any more than Lily does as she gradually uncovers truths (such as the fact that Amelia wasn’t an especially caring person). Flashbacks reveal more of Lily’s memories and additional details about the mystery surrounding Amelia. Myriad characters, even dead ones, are shrouded in ambivalence as it becomes clear that someone among them is likely guilty of something unspeakable. Throughout, Taylor maintains an unnerving mood that refuses to let up: “The staircase sighs under her weight. Upstairs, the hallway air is thick, unmoving, shadows spilling from corners like ink.” The narrative takes a shocking turn in the latter half, though it’s perfectly in line with everything that precedes it. This novel effectively closes the author’s Oblivion Cycle, a trilogy of harrowing stand-alone books connected by theme.

A wholly absorbing dark mystery.

In this novel, an irrational captain turns a 19th-century sea expedition into a nightmarish ordeal.

Nearly 18 years old, Kit Cabot is heir to a family fortune. But filling out ledgers for his father’s Boston-based Cabot Shipping Company leaves him perpetually stuck in a warehouse. Uncle John, who regales him with sea stories, remains Kit’s one source of excitement. The two also secretly smuggle rum, giving Kit extra income and the chance to buy his own ship and sail off one day. Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with John, who’s just returned from collecting goods. Quartermaster Mr. Whyte claims a red pearl John found in a cave has “changed” him. So Kit stows away on the Apollyon, only to discover his uncle’s deteriorating physical condition (“The man looked less like a sailor and more like something dredged up from the bottom of the sea”). More alarmingly, John’s also become a cruel captain. Is something possessing him? Kit and Mr. Whyte believe the answer lies in getting rid of that pearl, if they can just grab it without alerting John. This book, the second in a series of thematically linked horror novels, thrives on suspense. John’s increasingly erratic behavior means that it’s just a matter of time before the crew mutinies. As in Taylor’s preceding volume, The Memory Keeper (2025), the author’s concise descriptions keep the narrative moving while rarely straying from the spookiest parts. For example, there’s the question of whether something otherworldly has truly possessed John, putting all the men aboard the Apollyon in indisputable danger. The cast is engaging, starting with Kit, whose habitually painful leg (from a childhood injury) remains a constant reminder that he’s struggling to run away from his life in Boston. Other standouts are Kit’s cold, overbearing father, Edmund, as well as Mr. Whyte, a deceptively unassertive man whom the young protagonist comes to rely on. Everything surrounding John and the red pearl becomes much more apparent in the smashing final act, which takes a slight—but exhilarating—genre detour.

Keen characterization fuels a taut horror tale that simmers with tension.

In this psychological thriller, an archivist works in a house haunted by secrets and a diabolical presence.

Mara, a divorced New Yorker with grown kids who are on their own, wants a break from her routine. So the archivist takes a job at the old Dumont House in Massachusetts, where she’ll stay and work for about a week. It’s definitely a change of scenery—a house that’s been empty for decades and so remote that cellphone coverage remains spotty. But she’s unnerved before she even begins recording and indexing everything. Mara sees things that she can’t explain, such as an envelope addressed to her that later changes into something else entirely. She chalks it up to stress but still feels as if the house is watching her. Then comes her obsession with the prior residents—Alaric Dumont and his wife, Isabelle. They’re shrouded in a dark history that Mara vows to unearth, particularly the reason Isabelle has seemingly disappeared from the public record. Surely, whatever’s lurking in that house will try to stop her. Taylor’s eerie novel, which kicks off a thematically linked horror series, practically drips with atmosphere. Mara, for example, observes what appear to be ghosts, although not everyone she sees has died. She’s also surrounded by a murky evil that lingers on the Dumont property. This atmosphere gives the author countless opportunities to deliver superlative prose: “Far below, the forest rippled in shadow. The trees moved in slow conversation with the wind, their branches creaking and swaying in unseen rhythms.” Mara’s troubled past earns her sympathy while her tenacity gives her circumstances plausibility (for example, explaining why she won’t leave the house). An overt but engaging parallelism between Mara and Isabelle plays throughout; both have suffered while dealing with controlling people. A twist in the final act proves effective and nudges the story toward an ending readers won’t soon forget.

A white-knuckled, sharply crafted piece of cerebral horror.