Wreck Your Heart - by Lori Rader-Day (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From award-winning author Lori Rader-Day, Wreck Your Heart is an engaging, "wisecracking and wonderful" crime novel with a big heart, about a country and midwestern singer out to catch her big break before family--or murder--wrecks everything.

Dahlia "Doll" Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning that could launch a thousand broken-hearted country songs, but now she's the star of her own stage at McPhee's Tavern. As part of Chicago's--yes, Chicago's--country music scene, Dahlia is an up-and-coming singer in spangles and boots of classic country tunes. Up and coming, that is, until her boyfriend Joey up and went, taking the rent money with him.

So Dahlia is back to square one, relying on Alex McPhee--again. Alex helped her out of a bad situation when she was a kid living rough with her mother. Now he's part landlord, part band booster, all-around rescuer. It's just that Dahlia wishes she didn't keep giving him reasons to have to do it.

Just as Dahlia suspects she's scraped rock bottom, the mother she hasn't spoken to in twenty years shows up with something to say. The next morning, a distraught young woman arrives at the bar, asking after her missing mother--Dahlia's mother, too, even if the missing suburban PTA mom the girl describes sounds pretty different from the one who let Dahlia down all those years ago.

Though no one is using the word sister any time soon, Dahlia lets herself be drawn into reuniting the family that might have been hers. But when a body is discovered outside McPhee's Tavern, the crime threatens not just the place Dahlia has made into a home, but everything she's believed about her past, her dreams for the future, and the people she was just, maybe, beginning to let into her heart.

Review Quotes

"Lori Rader-Day's writing is phenomenal. Dahlia Devine has a voice so unique, clear, and strong, she'll break your heart. This book absolutely sings."--Elle Cosimano

"Wise-cracking and wonderful, Philip Marlowe meets VI Warshawski. A love letter to country music and to Chicago, but very much more than that. Nobody does strong women better than Rader-Day." -Ann Cleeves

"Lori Rader Day is one of the most creative--and boldest--voices in contemporary crime fiction. She constantly explores new narratives and new viewpoints. Wreck Your Heart is one of her best novels yet."--Sara Paretsky

"Lori Rader-Day is back with a tour de force that only she--with her uniquely observant, poetic voice and her gift for drawing fully-fleshed characters--could pull off. Set in Chicago's vibrant streets and shadowed by the haunting chords of country music, Wreck Your Heart weaves a tale of betrayal, buried secrets, and fractured family ties. The slow burn suspense tightens with every twist, leading to an unforgettable crescendo." --Jess Lourey

About the Author

LORI RADER-DAY is the Edgar Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, and others. Lori lives in Chicago, where she co-chairs the crime fiction readers' event Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. Her next novel, Wreck Your Heart, featuring a Midwestern country singer, will be released from Minotaur/SMPG in early 2026. Visit her at www.LoriRaderDay.com.