As a huge Marisa de los Santos fan, I was thrilled to receive an advanced reader copy of her first thriller, THE TRUSTED.

This might be new territory for the author, but her characters are classically de los Santos: unique and wonderful. And her dialogue is still the best. I would love to see this become a series.

THE TRUSTED is set in a tight-knit community in Pennsylvania and introduces Detective Lina Cordova and her partner Aaron Case.

Lina is in her early 40s, half Filipino, and the divorced, badass mom of two. She lives with her kids and her dad, a retired neurosurgeon who has morphed into grandparent of the century. Her son is neurodivergent and has a heartwarming relationship with his big sister, and Lina is on excellent terms with her ex, another fabulous character. (Did I mention I love the whole family?)

Aaron, who escaped an abusive homelife in rural Tennessee, is in his mid-twenties. He’s new to the area but Lina’s family has already embraced him. (Her son calls him Battery, and you’ll have to read the novel to find out why.)

Lina and Aaron are still reeling from their failure to get justice for a mother who disappeared a year earlier, when a body is discovered in a remote hunting cabin. The victim, shot three times in the head, was at the center of an older–but not forgotten–scandal that rocked the community. There are plenty of suspects, all of whom Lina knows, lots of dark twists, and some tough questions for our detective heroes to answer about trust and betrayal.

I had no idea who the killer was, but one question kept surfacing: How far would you go for the people you love?

Preorder this book now and thank me later.