Hey, it’s Diego.

Still working through some tough personal weeks, so reading time stays limited. Picking up where we left off last Sunday with Part 2 of the short story experiment.

Three more stories from the Deadly Ambition collection, by another set of prolific names.

Let's get into it.

Deadly Ambition - Part 2

A Fatal Delivery by Lauren Oliver

Domestic thriller set in a family home. Good writing and an intriguing setup. We follow a delivery driver on the autistic spectrum as she makes a horrifying discovery in one of the houses she delivers to. I thought the ending didn’t work for me, unfortunately.

The Silent Muse by Lauren Ling Brown

Psychological thriller set in New York. Good writing throughout. We follow a struggling artist and the choice she makes to make it big in the city’s art scene. The setup was quite good although somewhat predictable, and the ending was fitting.

The Line by Tim Weaver

Another psychological thriller, this one set in LA in 1985. Great writing. We follow a journalist uncovering the biggest scandal of the year and price she may have to pay to break the story. The setup is grim and the ending is more so.

All three stories are in the Deadly Ambition collection on Amazon.

More Deadly Ambition Thrillers

The Club by Ellery Lloyd

Ned runs Home, a global chain of exclusive celebrity clubs, and is launching the most ambitious one yet on a private English island. But the staff have their own agendas: a head maid with a vendetta, an event planner who wants Ned's job, his little brother who wants out of the business, and his assistant hiding her past.

In The Club by Ellery Lloyd, we follow four points of view as those agendas collide across the launch.

We Play Games by Sarah A. Denzil

Effie and Ben are partners in marriage and crime. Both from rich backgrounds, they started conning wealthy couples out of their money for sport, then for power. Five years in, Effie has had enough and wants out, but Ben isn't ready to let her walk, knowing what she knows.

In We Play Games by Sarah A. Denzil, we follow two unlikable POVs whose partnership only holds as long as they both want the same thing.

Count My Lies by Sophie Stava

Sloane is a compulsive liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her sad life feel a bit more interesting. So when she sees a young girl in tears at a park and tells the very attractive dad she's a nurse, that small lie ends up landing her a nanny job for him and his wife, Violet, a wealthy and privileged couple. Not everything in their life is as perfect as it looks.

In Count My Lies by Sophie Stava, we follow Sloane as she insinuates her way into the family through escalating lies and gets pulled into something much darker.

Latest Updates

• Unchosen, a six-part British psychological thriller, premiered on Netflix on April 21 and went straight to number one globally in its first weekend. Molly Windsor plays a wife and mother in a strict religious sect whose chance encounter with an escaped convict starts cracking everything she has built her life on.

• As I’ve said, not much time for entertainment lately, but my wife and I have been watching the movie Reptile in 20-minute chunks. It’s a gritty crime thriller starring Benicio Del Toro as a hardened detective investigating a complex murder.

That’s all for this week. See you next time.

— Diego Dunne

P.S. Let me know how I did today by replying to this email.

P.P.S. I would love to hear your recommendations for thrillers you loved. Reply to this email, and I’ll add them to my TBR list. Thanks!