Don’t Tell Me How to Die

Karp (Snowstorm in August) levels up with this captivating slow burn. Maggie Dunn, mayor of Heartstone, N.Y., only has three months to live, courtesy of the same inflammatory blood disease that killed her mother. While Maggie busies herself finding a suitable new partner for her husband, Alex, before she’s gone, realtor Minna Schultz dies under suspicious circumstances during a powerful rainstorm, spiking Maggie’s anxiety. In flashbacks, Maggie’s dying mother frets about finding her husband, Finn, a wife who will help raise Maggie and her sister. Finn eventually settles on a woman named Connie Gilchrist, whose eagerness to join the family raises alarm bells for a young Maggie. Karp toggles back and forth in time, gradually revealing the root of Maggie’s deep-seated guilt in the present and building to the truth about Minna’s death. What begins as a mystery-tinted character study transforms into a full-bore thriller, with a spate of jaw-dropping twists that recast the entire narrative. Readers should be prepared to stay up all night. Agent: Mel Berger, WME. (Mar.)