Heart of Glass: A Novel

"One of the most anticipated books of 2026!" ―New York Times
"One of the finest suspense writers of her generation. Amazing dialogue, complex characters and a dazzling plot. Never has betrayal seemed so fascinating. " ―S.A Cosby

Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead, her body surfacing in a flooded cranberry bog not far from where she was murdered.

Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he's arrested for the murders of five young women – one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei – Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. Their past safely behind them, they’ve both moved on with their lives.

But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.

Jennifer Hillier imagines the worst about people, and then writes about it. She's the bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark (ITW Thriller Award winner, 2023). Earlier novels include the national bestseller Little Secrets, Jar of Hearts (ITW Thriller Award winner, 2019), Wonderland, The Butcher, Freak, and Creep. Her novels have been published in twenty-four languages so far. Born and raised in the Toronto area, she currently lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada with her family. Her newest thriller, Heart of Glass, will be coming August 25, 2026 from Minotaur Books.

"Jennifer Hillier is the master of suspense." ―Freida McFadden

"No one maps the valley of fear that exists in the hearts of her characters better than Jennifer Hillier. She doesn't just write thrillers she creates epics that take you beyond the event horizon where what we think we know breaks down and we just hold on for dear life. Not to be missed!" ―S. A. Cosby, NYT bestselling author

"Hillier delivers another knockout thriller with compulsively readable prose and sly, subtle twists. A must-read." ―Booklist (starred review)

"Juicy and spicy, voyeuristic and indulgent, layered and complex, gripping and satisfying. Another wildly entertaining thriller from an author who always delivers." ―Best Thriller Books

"Deliciously chilling." ―South Florida Sun Sentinel

Jennifer Hillier’s Heart of Glass is a psychological thriller about murder, buried secrets, friendship, betrayal, fame, guilt, and the dangerous consequences of believing that the past can truly be left behind. Set in the fictional seaside town of Seaside, Washington, the novel moves between a murder that happened twenty-five years earlier and a disturbing series of events unfolding in the present. At the center are three teenage girls—Barb, Lorelei, and Nicolette—whose friendship was shattered when Lorelei was murdered. The man convicted of killing her, Samuel Figg, became known as the “Carnival Killer” after being connected to the murders of five young women. But twenty-five years later, Figg recants his confession and claims that although he killed four of the women, he did not kill Lorelei. Almost simultaneously, a new body washes ashore as the notorious Wonderland amusement park prepares to reopen. The two events force Barb and Nicolette to confront the secrets they have spent decades trying to bury.

The story begins with Barb Bonifacio, a woman who has remained in Seaside while much of her past has moved on without her. Twenty-five years earlier, Barb was one of three inseparable teenage friends. She, Lorelei Glass, and Nicolette spent time together at Wonderland, the local amusement park that would eventually become associated with one of the town’s darkest chapters. Their lives changed when a charming drifter calling himself Sam entered their world. He did not look dangerous, which makes his eventual identity as the Carnival Killer all the more disturbing. Soon after the girls met him, Lorelei was murdered, and her body was discovered in a flooded cranberry bog. The crime became part of a larger serial-killing investigation, and Samuel Figg was ultimately arrested and convicted. The terrible irony is that Barb and Nicolette had actually met him before they knew what he was.

After Lorelei’s death and Figg’s arrest, the three friends' lives diverge. Nicolette leaves Seaside to pursue fame, while Barb remains behind and eventually works as a reporter for the local newspaper. The contrast between the two women is important to the novel. Barb is tied to the physical place where the tragedy occurred, surrounded by memories and people who remember Lorelei. Nicolette, meanwhile, attempts to reinvent herself away from the town. Yet neither woman has actually escaped the past. Hillier uses their different lives to explore the question of whether changing your surroundings—or even changing your identity—can really erase guilt and trauma.

The past suddenly becomes impossible to ignore when Samuel Figg, now imprisoned and dying from cancer, agrees to participate in a documentary. During the interview, he makes a shocking revelation. He admits that he killed four women but says he did not murder Lorelei. He claims that on the night Lorelei died, he was with her and her friends, but when he left, Lorelei was still alive. His confession had previously made the case against him appear settled, so this reversal threatens the entire understanding of what happened twenty-five years earlier.

Figg’s claim creates the novel’s first major mystery: if the Carnival Killer did not kill Lorelei, then who did? More importantly, why would a convicted serial killer falsely confess to a murder he did not commit? His new story could be a final manipulation by a dying criminal, an attempt to gain attention, or a genuine effort to reveal the truth. Hillier deliberately makes each possibility plausible enough to keep readers questioning the established version of events.

The timing becomes even more unsettling because Wonderland is preparing to reopen. The amusement park, once associated with youthful excitement and innocence, has become a symbol of Seaside’s violent history. Its reopening promises economic renewal for a town that has struggled, but it also threatens to turn tragedy into entertainment. The same place where Barb, Lorelei, and Nicolette once met Sam is now being revitalized as a tourist attraction. The juxtaposition is central to the novel: the town wants to move forward, but the past refuses to stay buried. The official story has become part of Seaside’s identity, and disturbing that story threatens both personal reputations and the town’s future.

Then another body appears.

A young woman’s body washes ashore, immediately connecting the present with the murders of the past. What initially looks like an isolated crime begins to suggest that someone may once again be targeting women. The victim is connected to the world of reality television, introducing another major element into the story: celebrity culture. Barb’s investigation begins to intersect with missing and endangered reality stars, and the novel increasingly moves between small-town journalism, true-crime fascination, television fame, and the private lives of people whose public images conceal much darker realities.

Barb is particularly well positioned to become involved. As a journalist, she naturally investigates the new developments, but her interest is far more personal than professional. She is not merely trying to solve a new murder. She is trying to understand what happened to Lorelei. If Figg is telling the truth, then the foundation of the story she has lived with for twenty-five years is false. Every memory becomes suspect. Every person who was present that night could potentially be hiding something.

This is where Hillier makes memory itself part of the mystery. Twenty-five years is long enough for people to convince themselves that they remember events accurately even when their memories have been altered by grief, fear, shame, or repeated retelling. The girls were teenagers when Lorelei died. They were young enough to misunderstand events but old enough to carry responsibility and secrets. Their adult identities have been built on what they believe happened. Discovering that their foundational memory may be wrong threatens more than their understanding of one murder—it threatens their understanding of themselves.

Nicolette, meanwhile, has transformed herself into a public figure. The woman who once knew Barb and Lorelei as a teenager is now living under the pressures of fame, where reputation and image can be more important than truth. Her past as one of Lorelei’s closest friends becomes increasingly relevant as the investigation develops. The relationship between Barb and Nicolette is therefore one of the book’s emotional cores. They share an enormous secret history, but that shared history does not necessarily mean they trust one another.

Their friendship demonstrates one of Hillier’s recurring thriller themes: people can love each other and still lie to each other. Barb and Nicolette have survived for twenty-five years partly because they have avoided confronting certain truths. Their silence may have protected them emotionally, but it has also allowed unanswered questions to grow. Once the investigation begins, the women have to determine whether they can trust one another enough to tell the truth.

The novel also explores the darker side of celebrity and reality television. Reality stars appear to live highly visible lives, but that visibility can create a dangerous illusion of intimacy. Audiences believe they know people because they watch them on television, follow their relationships, and consume stories about their private lives. Hillier uses this world to examine voyeurism and the appetite for scandal. True crime and reality television are both built, in different ways, around turning private human experiences into public entertainment. Heart of Glass places murder inside that ecosystem and asks what happens when real suffering becomes another form of spectacle.

The investigation into the new murder gradually suggests that the present-day crime may not be separate from the older tragedy. A predator may be operating again, and the victims appear to have connections to the world of reality television. At the same time, the mystery surrounding Lorelei becomes increasingly complicated. Rather than presenting the past and present as two unrelated investigations, Hillier gradually brings them together, creating the possibility that the same hidden patterns of manipulation, exploitation, and violence may have survived for decades.

One of the book’s strongest themes is betrayal. The official description emphasizes that the novel explores the darkest consequences of betrayal and asks whether escaping the past really means becoming free of it. Betrayal operates at several levels. There is betrayal between friends, betrayal within relationships, betrayal by people trusted to protect vulnerable individuals, and betrayal of the truth itself. Hillier repeatedly shows that the most dangerous secrets are often not created by strangers but by people who know one another intimately.

The title Heart of Glass also works symbolically. Glass can appear beautiful and transparent while being extremely fragile. It can separate people while allowing them to see one another. Most importantly, once shattered, it cannot simply return to its original condition. That idea fits the characters and their relationships. The girls’ friendship was shattered by Lorelei’s death. Their lives continued, but they were permanently changed. Their adult identities may look stable from the outside, yet the old wounds remain underneath.

Hillier’s storytelling also benefits from the setting of Seaside, Washington. The town is not merely a backdrop. Its beaches, amusement park, cranberry bogs, local newspaper, and interconnected community create an atmosphere in which the past is constantly present. Small towns often preserve memories through gossip and shared history, and Seaside is no exception. People remember what happened, even when official narratives become accepted as fact. The reopening of Wonderland intensifies this dynamic because it forces residents to revisit a place associated with terrible memories while pretending that it represents a bright new future.

The novel’s treatment of female vulnerability and predatory behavior is another significant element. The victims are women, and the story examines how predators exploit trust, ambition, loneliness, and the desire for recognition. The book contains disturbing material involving grooming, kidnapping, and sexual assault, so it is considerably darker than a conventional mystery. Hillier does not use these subjects simply as sensational devices; they contribute to the larger examination of power and the ways vulnerable people can be manipulated by those who appear charming or trustworthy.

As the investigation progresses, Barb is forced to reconsider the people around her and the story she has accepted for decades. The central mystery becomes increasingly personal: what really happened to Lorelei, and what did Barb and Nicolette know—or fail to understand—at the time? The answer depends not only on forensic evidence but on reconstructing a night that has been buried beneath twenty-five years of fear and silence.

The novel’s tension comes from the convergence of these mysteries. There is the original murder of Lorelei, the Carnival Killer’s recanted confession, the new body found near the reopening of Wonderland, the disappearance of reality personalities, and the complicated relationship between Barb and Nicolette. Each mystery appears to offer an explanation for another, but Hillier uses reversals and revelations to repeatedly undermine assumptions. This is why the book works particularly well as a psychological suspense novel rather than simply a serial-killer mystery. The biggest danger is not always knowing who the killer is; it is realizing that the people you thought you understood may have been hiding something all along.

Ultimately, Heart of Glass is about the cost of burying the truth. Barb and Nicolette have spent twenty-five years building lives that depend, at least partly, on leaving Lorelei’s death in the past. But the past does not disappear simply because people stop talking about it. When Figg recants his confession and another woman is found dead, the carefully constructed boundaries between past and present collapse.

The book’s emotional power comes from the recognition that surviving something is not the same as healing from it. Barb stayed in Seaside, while Nicolette escaped into fame, but neither woman is truly free. Lorelei remains part of their lives because the unanswered questions surrounding her death remain unresolved. Their journey is therefore not simply an investigation into a cold case. It is an attempt to understand what happened to the girls they once were and what their friendship became after tragedy destroyed it.

For readers searching for a Heart of Glass book summary, Jennifer Hillier Heart of Glass ending explained, Heart of Glass plot, Heart of Glass characters, Jennifer Hillier psychological thriller, books like Jar of Hearts, or a small-town murder mystery with secrets and twists, the novel combines several familiar thriller elements—cold cases, serial killers, missing women, unreliable memories, celebrity culture, and buried secrets—but gives them a strongly character-driven foundation. Hillier’s publisher describes it as a story about a serial killer who recants a long-ago confession and forces two former friends to confront both what happened then and what is happening now.

In the end, Heart of Glass suggests that the truth does not become less powerful simply because it has been hidden for a long time. Twenty-five years can change people's appearances, careers, relationships, and identities, but it cannot necessarily erase the consequences of what happened. Lorelei’s murder remains the emotional center of the story, while the present-day killings demonstrate that old patterns of exploitation and violence can reappear in new forms. Barb and Nicolette must finally confront the possibility that the story they have lived with for decades was incomplete—and that the people they trusted may not have been who they seemed.

Jennifer Hillier’s novel is therefore not only a murder mystery or serial-killer thriller. It is a story about friendship after trauma, the burden of guilt, the seductive power of fame, the danger of false narratives, and the complicated ways people protect themselves from painful truths. Heart of Glass asks a haunting question: if your entire adult life has been built around surviving the past, what happens when you discover that the story you survived was never the whole truth? That question gives the novel its suspense, but it is the human consequences of the answer that make Hillier’s thriller particularly compelling.