I’ve Got Sand in All the Wrong Places

Scottoline, a prolific and bestselling thriller author, is joined again by her daughter, Serritella (the two write a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer called “Chick Wit”), for this warm and engaging seventh volume in their series. The duo discuss everything: their many pets, Scottoline’s embracing of the empty nest, and Serritella’s Manhattan doorman, who grades her boyfriends. Scottoline, nearing 60, has learned the joys of having time to get together with her best friend and do girls’ nights with her horse club, and of perfecting the art of saying no: “It took me fifty years to figure out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it.” She is liberated now that her life no longer looks like a to-do list. But not all is light-hearted fun, as when Serritella writes about being mugged and assaulted near her home in the summer of 2015. She’s shaken by trauma but also experiences kindness from strangers who come to her aid and locate her glasses, and from the police who stay with her all night and accompany her afterward when she walks her dog. Family is a perennially popular subject, and Scottoline and Serritella bring wisdom and laughs to make sure it never gets boring. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. (July)