Death in Her Hands

An old widow's life is flipped upside down in this eerie psychological thriller book about her finding a mysterious letter while out on a stroll in the woods, which eventually causes her to doubt everything about her new house.

During her routine daily stroll in the forest with her dog, our main character finds a handwritten message that has been neatly pinned to the ground using a frame of stones. "Magda was her name. Her killer will never be known to anybody. It was not me. This is her lifeless corpse. Our narrator is very shocked and unsure of how to interpret this. She relocated from her longtime home when her husband passed away, so she is new to the neighborhood and doesn't know many people. And even on her finest days, she has a little wobble. Her ruminating over this message soon turns into an obsession as she dedicates herself to investigating the possibilities of her theories on the identity of this lady and how she met her end. Her theories start to have real-world consequences, and as anxiety and excitement grow, the haze of mystery begins to take on a tangible, frightening form. However, as we follow her investigation, odd discrepancies begin to emerge, and we begin to lose faith in her ability to remain grounded. Eventually, though, just as she appears to be confronting some of the darkness from her own past with her late husband, we are forced to consider the possibility that there may be a more innocent—or even more sinister—explanation for everything, one that hits closer to home.

"Death in Her Hands," a brilliant fusion of horror, suspense, and dark humor, challenges us to think about how the tales we tell ourselves both lead us toward and away from the reality. This is the second time that we have been left in the hands of an untrustworthy narrator, but the stakes have never been greater.