Jessa Maxwell follows up her acclaimed cozy whodunit, THE GOLDEN SPOON, with another tautly plotted, edge-of-your-seat mystery, I NEED YOU TO READ THIS.

Alex Marks has spent years reading the famous Daily Herald advice column “Dear Constance.” “Constance” --- aka Francis Keen --- had the innate ability to tap into her readers’ deepest fears and insecurities and meet them halfway, never pitying or condescending in her replies, but truly empathizing. Having fled her small town and unstable mother for New York City, Alex found not only hope and inspiration in Francis’ column, but a sense of camaraderie as well. But that ended --- all too abruptly --- when Francis was stabbed to death in her beach home, where she had gone to disconnect and recharge from pressures at work. Her killer was never caught, but the nature of her death smacks of something personal to Alex. After all, she knows what it means to have a few skeletons in your closet.

"...[a] tautly plotted, edge-of-your-seat mystery... In I NEED YOU TO READ THIS, [Maxwell] once again takes a sweet, tender subject and completely upends it, exposing the darkest corners of anonymity and vulnerability."

When we meet Alex, she is just getting by in her career as a copywriter for a pharmaceutical company. She works from home and enjoys a comfortable work-life balance, but her existence is a lonely one, save for Janice and Raymond, regulars at the diner right across the street from her postage-stamp apartment. Janice, a waitress, and Raymond, a retired detective, provide a cozy “home” for Alex. They’re comfortable enough to tease her about her obsession with “Dear Constance,” but when Raymond points out that the Daily Herald has published a notice that they’re finally ready to replace the legend, Alex sees a chance.

One bottle of wine and haphazard application later, Alex is hired. Not only will she fill the shoes --- and desk --- of her idol, she will be edited by the Howard Demetri, an award-winning editor who has made the Herald a force to be reckoned with…and making double her current salary. It’s a dream come true, but Raymond advises her to be wary. “Dear Constance’s” killer is still out there.

Alex arrives to eight months of letters from the needy, the lost, the hurt and the suffering. Like Francis, she is determined to read every bit of mail that comes to her. She expects the bottomless inbox and even the gigantic stack of handwritten mail in the mailroom, but she doesn’t anticipate finding a book of poetry wedged in Francis’ desk with its own note tucked inside: I know. This omen combined with other oddities at the office --- a stressed and volatile Howard, an angry investor and general anxiety among the staff --- put Alex on edge. Then her own letters start to arrive. “Dear Constance, I know who you are. You are hiding something, aren’t you? Soon everyone else will know too. If you aren’t careful you are going to end up just like Francis.” Well, there’s no subtext there.

Alternating between the letters of a lost young girl enduring an abusive relationship and Alex’s own investigation into what really happened to Francis, Jessa Maxwell pens a truly compelling, atmospheric mystery that combines the glamour and intrigue of the newsroom with the very real threat of a killer on the loose. But what could a murderer possibly have against both Francis --- an iconic senior citizen running New York --- and timid, lonely Alex? Hating the column doesn’t seem like reason enough, but even Alex’s excitement about the job can’t drown out Raymond’s insistence that a threat is viable evidence of danger.

The answer, it seems, lies not only in Francis’ column, but in the letters she received, particularly those from “Lost Girl.” As Alex is about to find out, opening your heart and mind to the public to help them navigate breakups, layoffs and tricky dynamics also means opening yourself to them. Allowing herself to be vulnerable in her writing is also making herself vulnerable to danger.

Readers of THE GOLDEN SPOON will already know that Maxwell has a knack for penning mysteries that are disarmingly cozy and quaint but also surprisingly tense and atmospheric. In I NEED YOU TO READ THIS, she once again takes a sweet, tender subject and completely upends it, exposing the darkest corners of anonymity and vulnerability. It’s a bit darker than her debut, but the darkness is wielded expertly, always in support of her plot rather than distracting from it. Her characters, particularly Janice and Raymond, are canny and charming, demonstrating all the best aspects of the “buddy cop” genre while still allowing her protagonist to shine. The slow creep into Alex’s past, Francis’ death and how their lives are inextricably tied is scintillatingly tense.

While there are some overwritten passages, the journey to the end is so pulse-pounding that you’ll hardly notice. In sum, I NEED YOU TO READ THIS.