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The Girls of Maple Close
Amanda Brittany
Boldwood Books
313 Pages
Pub. Date Apr. 13, 2026
This is a psychological thriller for the 21st century. Usually, I eschew novels that have any mention of podcasts; I always fear that such books try too hard to be relevant to the times that we live in. However, here, the fact that the protagonist is a podcaster is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the plot; she is the one to solve the mystery.
Daisy and two other girls were in a house fire 11 years before. One of the girls died in the fire. Another girl in the community, Zara, was accused and found guilty of having committed the arson. Zara was committed to an asylum and has not spoken since. Zara’s mother did not believe that her daughter set the fire and asks Daisy to look into it. This was an interesting set up for what is otherwise a standard thriller. It has a reasonable pace and some twists and turns. The novel was certainly worth reading for anyone interested in thrillers but there is nothing that sets it apart from other similar books.
The author used different points of view to keep pace and to keep the reader guessing. The setting was also a positive element; this was one of those small, otherwise seemingly safe neighborhoods where nothing should ever happen. Yet it does. For a while, it seemed like there were several candidates for whomever committed the murder. The reader knows that it was not Zara, otherwise there would not be the reason for the book. Yet we knew that she had some involvement in what happened or there needed to be some reason for her silence for all these years, and that is as much a mystery as the arson.
The protagonist was also interesting because she had some skeletons in her closet, which is how Daisy became a true crime podcaster. However, this was something that could have been used more creatively than it was. All in all, this was a good, solid thriller. Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books advanced copy of this book. All of the opinions herein are my own.
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