The Literate Kitty

  in particular, that two people could communicate simple thoughts to each other via their minds. We spent hours swapping roles of sender and receiver, trying to transmit images we’d drawn on a set of cards telepathically to each other.  Our success rates skewed higher than the average, so of course we were positive we had The Gift. Did we  really  possess any sixth sense abilities... or were our positives mere chance?  [We’ll never know; our “tests” were completely unscientific.] Yet scientific studies have long been conducted, with compellingly positive results. Some were discussed publicly while they were going on, but probably at least as many studies were kept top-secret by researchers and governments... and remained so for  decades , until the truth about what actually transpired became too heinous to stay buried forever. Sarah Pekkanen’s latest thriller,  The Women in White , is the terrifying tale of what one such hush-hush research project mig...

That sisterly—or sibling—bond is something I, an only child, will never know.   But wow, have I wondered about it, over the years.   What would it be like, to grow up with other people my own age?   To share secrets and rivalries. To bicker... but probably also (at least sometimes), to have each other’s backs.    But take that a few steps further, and imagine how it would feel to have a sibling—a  twin , no less—of whom you’d never been  aware...  until you’d already lived more than three decades?   And then, after learning that truth... you only reached out—to that previously-unknown person you’d once shared a womb with— after  you’d been accused of murder?   Bestselling thriller author Sarah Pekkanen takes a stab at how such a scenario might play out with her latest,  The Locked Ward .     For some reason, most of us don’t expect the uber-rich to have Big Problems. (As though obscene sums of money should be the...

Anyone who’s been in a relationship (so, the majority of people who’ve reached adulthood, however that’s defined these days) knows that there’s a fair bit of effort involved in keeping things on an even( -ish ) keel.   Another thing those with a relationship or two under their belts know is that things often look rather different to anyone not in that relationship (so, everyone else ). But what happens when someone outside knows just enough of the hidden bits and pieces—the secrets or lies, the silences or tears... the stuff that isn't all "happy families"  on display—to affect what happens next, in the relationship? When that someone purposefully manipulates things, for an outcome only he or she wants? Writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen follow up their previous psychological thrillers (among them, The Wife Between Us , reviewed here , and You Are Not Alone , reviewed here ) with a look at that scenario in their upcoming work, The Golden Couple . ____...

For female singletons—especially those who’ve moved from elsewhere—life is about more than mundane matters of work and chores... it’s about  surviving , and often feeling very alone while doing so.   Writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen explore how that might look and feel in their latest,  You Are Not Alone .       For Shay Miller, her new life is... not ideal.   She’s sharing an apartment with someone she has feelings for... who’s engaged to someone else. She gets the occasional job temping... but no permanent gigs have come her way.  And her prospects for anything resembling “fun” are… well, she can barely remember what that even  is .   Until, that is, the day she meets two women, Cassandra and Jane—sisters of similar age to her, who are vibrant, beautiful, captivating, and ( what??)  apparently utterly charmed  by her —and everything changes.    If these fabulous, successful women could really...

The quest for romantic love is exciting, exhausting, and full of unknown variables. Will we need to kiss a lot of frogs... or luck out and find our perfect matches right away? Will we crush a few hearts... or be the ones to get our hearts broken? That last is really the scariest part, because rejection always hurts like hell. But how we handle rejection—what we do, how we cope—is also   where things really get interesting. And, in  The Wife Between Us  (by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen), we get a look at just how far some people might push the “coping” envelope.       Vanessa used to “have it all” in the eyes of her friends.    A handsome, wealthy, and doting husband—Richard, her prince in a bespoke suit—had whisked her away from her former life, requesting that she quit her low-paying jobs in Manhattan to move out to the beautiful suburban house he surprised her with as a wedding present.    Fancy dinners and soirees to attend, a...