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| Hi there! One the most-anticipated books of 2023 is out this week and the early reviews are raves. We talk to the author of People’s Book of the Week about her scheming heroine. Plus, lady adventurers get in on the artifact-finding fun. |
 | The Introduction |
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| Rachel Koller Croft’s Scheming Women |
The Book
Stone Cold Fox follows a lifelong con artist named Bea who’s determined to pull off one last job: marry a very, very rich man. Boring blue-blood Collin Case is the perfect target—if Bea can withstand the scrutiny of Collin’s childhood best friend Gale.
The Author
Rachel Koller Croft’s thrilling debut was a People Pick of the Week and has already been optioned for TV—plus, a movie she wrote is in the running for a Writers Guild of America award. It’s a good time to be Rachel, and we were so excited to have her chat with author Catherine McKenzie about her new book!
Catherine McKenzie: Where did you get the idea for Stone Cold Fox?
Rachel Koller Croft: There was just something about Bea’s voice. She’s a mixture of myself and my three best girlfriends. I started writing a few pages, and she kept making me laugh. I wanted to put her into a dark and twisty situation because I’ve been gravitating toward writing thrillers and horror movies. As far as the one-percent of it all, I am simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by the whole thing. It’s a world most people feel a push and pull with.
CM: How is writing a book different from writing a screenplay?
RKC: I think screenwriting first made me a better novelist in terms of pacing, hitting the right beats, and making sure the story stayed thrilling throughout. The skill that I had to stretch and hone and practice is just that a book has a lot more words! With a script, there are things I see in my head but can’t go into because there’s not as much real estate. You can’t linger on what people are wearing or what the rooms look like or get too much interiority from a character. They’re just different mediums.
Check out three recent reads that Rachel loved: |
 | | The Shards | | RKC: “I loved it. It was kind of a softer side of him as an author that was unexpected for me.” | | Add to reading list |
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 | | Love, Pamela | | RKC: “A different type of celebrity memoir that had a lot of depth and magic to it.” | | Add to reading list |
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 | | The Lioness | | RKC: “A mishmash of a lot of things I enjoy: Hollywood, people on safari, people being kidnapped. It was riveting!” | | Add to reading list |
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 | The Highlight |
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| “If there’s a common thread running through the decades of Oscar wars, it’s power: who has it, who’s straining to keep it, who’s invading the golden citadel to snatch it.” |
 | | Oscar Wars | | New Yorker writer and cultural critic Michael Schulman dives into the history of that vaunted statuette in this witty, fascinating history of the film industry’s biggest awards. | | Add to reading list |
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 | 20 Words: Guess The Novel |
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| A parade of talkative residents of an otherworldly plane tell stories to an amusement park mechanic after his accidental death. | |
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| Answer in footer |
 | The Stack |
Together with  |
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| Treasure-hunting Heroines |
| Indiana Jones is coming back to the big screen, which got us thinking: Why should men in fedoras get to have all the fun? In The Recovery Agent, Gabriela Rose leads an action-packed hunt through the jungles of Peru for the lost Ring of Solomon. To find it, she’ll have to cooperate with her infuriating ex and outwit the drug lord determined to claim the treasure for himself. Gabriela’s not the only woman on the hunt for lost loot. |
 | | Marah Chase and the Conqueror’s Tomb | | Relic runner Marah Chase is picked up by an MI6 agent named Joanna Mason. To earn her freedom, Marah agrees to find the lost tomb of Alexander the Great—but both she and Joanna face enemies at every turn. | | Add to reading list |
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 | | The Antiquities Hunter | | When her best friend, who investigates the theft of ancient treasures, is injured in the line of duty, PI Gina Miyoko takes her place on a mission in which she teams up with an archeologist to infiltrate a black market antiquities ring. | | Add to reading list |
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 | | Beautiful Sacrifice | | Archeologist Lina Taylor joins forces with a former immigration agent to track down four missing Mayan artifacts in this adrenaline-fueled caper. | | Add to reading list |
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| See more of our favorite treasure-hunters. | |
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 | Bookmarks |
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Critical Love
National Book Award finalist Rebecca Makkai’s new novel was on most anticipated lists from NPR, Time, Salon, and more. Publishers Weekly calls it a “clever and deeply thoughtful story” and Vanity Fair says its “bewitching.” |
 | | I Have Some Questions for You | | Successful podcast host Brodie Kane returns to the New England boarding school she attended in the 90s and finds herself revisiting the murder of her former roommate—and her role in it. | | Add to reading list |
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The Big Debut
Kirkus says Julia Bartz’s thriller is “a perfect winter’s night haunting” and Publishers Weekly praise its “gleefully twisted plot” and “boldly drawn characters.” |
 | | The Writing Retreat | | Alex is thrilled when her idol, feminist horror author Roza Vallo, invites her to attend an exclusive writing retreat at Vallo’s estate. But the house is plagued by strange occurrences, and when a competition between the writers turns ugly and one of them vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex has to untangle reality from her dark imagination in order to survive. | | Add to reading list |
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 | Bookworld |
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👩🏾 Oprah announced her next pick for the original celebrity book club.
🌆 Award-winning author N.K. Jemisin’s newest duology has been optioned for TV.
👩❤️👨 A 2012 mystery becomes a bestseller thanks to the author’s daughter and her TikTok posts.
🐅 Calvin and Hobbes author Bill Watterson finally—finally!—has a new book coming out this fall. |
 | Page to Screen |
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