I’ll Be Waiting

Armstrong (Hemlock Island) shines in this nail-biting thriller that hinges on whether its protagonist is dealing with natural or supernatural evil. Nicola Laughton was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, and told she’d be lucky to live past 20. Despite this prognosis, Nicola, now in her 30s, is running her own company and happily married to Anton Novak. Then their marriage ends tragically when Anton dies in a car crash. Bystanders report his last words to Nicola—“I’ll be waiting for you”—to the press, with one claiming to have photographed Anton’s ghost as he spoke them, and the publicity makes Nicola a reluctant celebrity. To settle the matter in her own mind, she seeks out mediums to contact Anton’s spirit and plans a séance in his family’s old beach house. What starts with unsettling noises and weird phenomena, including clouds of insects, eventually leads to violence and threatens to expose secrets from Nicola’s past. Armstrong’s insightful characterization of her lead, even as it keeps readers guessing about Nicola’s reliability as a narrator, makes suspending disbelief easy. Riley Sager fans will be delighted. (Oct.)