October 2026: Books I Read Last Month

Written by Graeme

What a month October was.

I spent so many hours doing stuff related to books – but not as much reading as I wanted to.

I was busy working on the Author Genre Search at Book Notification. Be sure to check it out – you can search for and find authors via over 650 genres and it’s all curated by me and my team; not just pulled from the same generic database listings.

You’ll see that work affect BSIO soon; I’m thinking some sort of breakdown by genre of all the authors currently on here.

Here’s what I did read though:

The Silent Woman by Minka Kent: This one says “thriller” on the cover and let me tell you – it’s very misleading. It’s the story of a woman in a new marriage, and the mans ex-wife still lives on the property but after an accident she can’t talk or communicate etc.

Then she hands the new wife a note just stating “RUN”. Seems thrilling right? It was not. It was more a domestic suspense novel which went at a slow place and was more a story, with a complete lack of any sort of twists or thrills.

Despite that I surprisingly enjoyed it. Minka is a great writer and the characters and story I was interested in. I’ll read more by her for sure.

She Didn’t See It Coming by Shari Lapena: What can I say about Shari Lapena? One of the consistently great psychological thrillers out there. Top top book like the majority of hers.

The Unwilling by John Hart: Had never read John Hart before but always wanted to – I’ve had The King of Lies on my TBR forever. This was an absolutely wonderful story which I listened to which took place in the South during the Vietnam War. High recommendation especially if you listen to it – it’s that sort of tale that is just great with the right narrator – and that’s who they got for this one.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi: Kept seeing this one at the top of the bestselling lists and we made it an I Care About Books Book Club pick. I really enjoyed this one. Something very different from my usual, and I really loved the concept and story. Very well-written. Also if you are in a book club I highly recommend it as it is GREAT for discussion.

Falling by T.J. Newman: Very fast-paced all action thriller about a pilot whose family is held hostage and he has to choose; crash the plane or let his family die. Pretty fun one that unfortunately got pretty silly as time went on – suspension of disbelief can only go so far. In saying that I still enjoyed the ride wnd will read more by T.J.