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  • Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox book cover
  • Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox book cover
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Pretty Dead Things

by Kelsey Cox

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A Texas pageant, a vanished sister, and buried grudges

$25.35 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    Instant USA Today Bestseller

AlbakiReads Editorial

A Texas pageant, a vanished sister, and buried grudges

Two timelines connect Isabelle Whitmore’s 2000 disappearance at Sherman Ranch with the return of her sister Ingrid, 25 years later, as the Lone Star Princess Pageant approaches. The pageant draws together women facing old wounds, rivalries, and personal troubles, while construction at the ranch threatens to bring the past into view. When a record-setting storm cuts the power and leaves the group trapped under one roof, the suspense converges on the question of what happened at the ranch—and what the people gathered there may still be hiding. The novel combines a closed-circle thriller setup with the pressures of pageant competition and a family disappearance.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers of psychological suspense set around buried secrets and old conflicts.
  • For readers interested in beauty pageants as a backdrop to a thriller.
  • For readers who enjoy stories linking a past disappearance with present-day events.

Themes

Secrets and unresolved disappearancesFamily history and old grudgesCompetition and rivalryIsolation during a storm

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The Lone Star Princess Pageant is about to begin, but this year it's offering more than an annual dose of rhinestone heels and plunging necklines. Competition is stiffer than ever --and long standing grudges are about to resurface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle's disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state's power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

Beauty dies. Secrets never do.

KELSEY COX'S NOVELS ARE:

"Riveting."--People

"Heart-pumping."--Nina Simon

"Jaw-dropping."--Amanda Eyre Ward

"Joins my auto-buy list forever."--Rachel Hawkins

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