> ARRIVALS

Sociopathic flight attendants and vengeful parents headline this collection of gripping new suspenses.

The Perfect Girlfriend By Karen Hamilton The Perfect Girlfriend was published on Dec. 31 and without a backward glance marched to the top spot on the Star’s original fiction bestseller list. It’s a creepy tale about a spurned woman who’s determined to win back her ex no matter what. The author, a former flight attendant, writes knowingly about dealing with cranky clients at 35,000 feet. The title and cover image (a woman in a blue dress) strongly echoes last year’s bestselling The Perfect Nanny. A coincidence or canny marketing?

I Invited Her In By Adele Parks Mel dropped out of university in Birmingham when she found herself pregnant. Today, she has a good job in fashion, is married to Ben, and has two daughters in addition to her first born, Liam, now 17. Enter Abi, Mel’s best friend from university, who comes to stay after her marriage ends. This domestic noir is a slow simmer, with a revelation that thriller fans may tumble to earlier than they should.

For Better and Worse By Margot Hunt In law school, Nathali e and Will agreed they were smart enough to get away with murder. Now, 17 years later, they’re about to find out: The principal at their son’s school – a man they know and like – is accused of molesting a troubled student, but he’s likely to go unpunished. Then Nat and Will’s son, Jacob, tells them the man also touched him, and his story mirrors the first boy’s story. A criminal lawyer, Nat knows the justice system can damage young victims, so she, with Will’s reluctant help, sets out to execute the principal herself. Can they get away with it? And will their marriage survive?

Paul Is Dead By C.C. Benison Lydia Eadon is a book editor in San Francisco. Dorian Grant is an actor based in Vancouver. Decades ago, Lydia, Dorian and their Winnipeg student pals spent a tumultuous weekend at the Eadon’s family cottage in Gimli, Man. A young man (the titular Paul) died, and Dorian and Lydia covered up the crime. Now circumstance brings them back to the cottage to make sure their secret stays buried. Well-developed characters and an immersive plot mark the Winnipeg writer’s eighth novel.

Hunting Annabelle By Wendy Heard Here’s a fine example of a debut novelist taking risks that established writers might avoid. Sean Suh is a young Korean-American schizophrenic who buzzes through life in a haze of antipsychoti c meds. A great guy, for all that, even though he’s served time in a psychiatric hospital for a violent act. He falls for Annabelle, partially for her glittery-copper aura and also because she accepts him on his own terms. When he witnesses her abduction, his mother says he’s delusional and the cops don’t know what to think. A hugely likeable, if unusual hero. The novel is set in 1986 Austin, Texas.