All the Little Houses

A striving Texas mother gets mixed up in violent business in this juicy thriller from bestseller Cobb (The Hollywood Assistant). In the small East Texas town of Longview, Charleigh Andersen may be filthy rich, but it’s all new money, and her daughter, Nellie, doesn’t fit in with the children of the town’s true queen bees. Then farm girl Jane Swift arrives in Longview, and rather than being ostracized for her homemade clothes or her agrarian lifestyle, she’s embraced by Nellie’s frenemies. Soon, Jane’s entire family becomes popular, much to Charleigh’s bafflement. When one of Longview’s elite teens is seriously injured in an accident, Jane and Nellie both fall under suspicion, and Charleigh does everything she can to control the situation. Before long, though, her efforts go awry—with deadly consequences. Cobb toggles between the perspectives of Charleigh, Jane, and Nellie to unfold this intricate tale of secrets and lies, which gets a lot of mileage out of its soapy twists before arriving at a strangely abrupt conclusion. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Jan.)