I Need You to Read This - by Jessa Maxwell (Paperback)

About the Book

"Years ago Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. Now, aside from trips to her regular diner for coffee, she keeps to herself, gets her perfectly normal copywriting job done, and doesn't date. Her carefully cultivated world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column, Dear Constance, and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times. When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies, never expecting to actually get the job. Against all odds, Alex is given the position and quickly proves herself skilled at solving other people's problems. But soon, she begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis's murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. Including her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, who has a habit of staying late at the office and drinking too much. As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor's murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface and Alex suddenly finds herself trapped in a dangerous and potentially deadly game of cat and mouse that takes her all the way from the power centers of Manhattan to Francis Keen's summer house, where her body was found and where the killer may just be waiting for her"--

Book Synopsis

This "super creepy" (The Washington Post) and "perfectly plotted whodunit" (Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author) follows an advice columnist searching for answers about her predecessor's murder--from the bestselling author of The Golden Spoon.

Years ago, Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. Now, aside from trips to her regular diner for coffee, she keeps to herself, gets her perfectly normal copywriting job done, and doesn't date. Her quiet world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column, Dear Constance, and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times.

When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies, never expecting to get the job. Against all odds, Alex is given the position but soon, she begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis's murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. Including her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, who has a habit of staying late at the office and drinking too much.

As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor's murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface and she suddenly finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of cat and mouse that takes her all the way from the power centers of Manhattan to Francis Keen's summer house, where her body was found and where the killer may just be waiting for her in this "fresh and fascinating" (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) page-turner.

Review Quotes

"[A] palm-sweat-inducing psychological thriller." --Booklist

"A fresh and fascinating twist on a classic murder mystery. Not only does Jessa Maxwell transform the comfort of an advice column into something far more cut-throat, but she also deftly balances the darkness of the story with the warmth and wit of its characters. Just be careful which ones you trust!" --MEGAN COLLINS, author of The Family Plot

"Jessa Maxwell has written a smart, thoroughly entertaining mystery, in which empathy is an amateur sleuth's sharpest weapon. Layered and carefully crafted, the pages of I Need You To Read This turn themselves." --CLÉMENCE MICHALLON, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant

"Maxwell embodies the empathy of the advice giver well, while also crafting a propulsive narrative with plenty of twists and turns."--Crimereads

"No one expects their dream job to end up a nightmare, but that's precisely what happens to Alex Marks in Jessa Maxwell's latest perfectly plotted whodunnit, a novel that asks us point blank what price we're willing to pay for our ambition, because it just might be our life. With a crackling pace and series of irresistible twists, it's impossible to know who to trust at the New York Herald, especially when one of your co-workers might be a murderer. It's a killer job, if you can survive." --KATY HAYS, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters

"Scintillating tension." --Publisher's Weekly

"There's real heart beating at the center of this addictive and original mystery about a newspaper's agony-aunt drawn into the murder of her famous predecessor. I sat down to read a few chapters and looked up hours later from the very last page..." --CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD, author of The Trap

"What a perfect title because I need you to read this book! Jessa expertly explores the world of an advice columnist who is desperately in need of some of her own advice--like stay out of murder investigations if you don't want to put yourself in danger! I enjoyed every minute of this twisty, original tale." --CATHERINE MACK, USA Today bestselling author of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

About the Author

Jessa Maxwell is the nationally bestselling author of The Golden Spoon, I Need You to Read This, and Dead of Summer. She is also the author and illustrator of five picture books for children. Her comics and cartoons have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and her writing has been published in Slate, Marie Claire, and many others. She now lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, with her husband, two cats and three-legged dog.