2026 ARC Reviews

A high-profile domestic abuse trial just ended. The gavel bangs, the courtroom clears out, but the nightmare is far from over. Told through several different viewpoints, this book blurs the line between the law and actual justice. The system worked exactly like it was supposed to, but it left a dangerous question in its wake: what happens when the courts fail, and someone decides to settle the score themselves?

Iris is the perfect employee: reliable, friendly, and entirely forgettable. From her post at a quiet lingerie boutique in a declining mall, she spends her days blending into the background while meticulously studying the customers she serves. Iris isn't just selling silk and lace; she is decoding the secrets of the people around her.
When a series of women vanish from the mall, the disappearances are dismissed as random occurrences in a sea of transient faces. But Iris has been paying attention.
She isn’t the only one. Across the corridor, Eiralynne has been observing Iris with equal intensity, waiting for the perfect moment to move.
As the walls close in and long-buried secrets emerge, Iris realizes she is entangled in a lethal pattern—one that stretches back decades and hits closer to home than she ever dared to fear. In a game of observation and evolution, the greatest threat isn't the stranger you don't know, but the person who knows you too well.