{"id":166411,"date":"2025-08-22T12:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166411\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:02:07","slug":"want-more-the-hunting-wives-try-one-of-these-trad-wife-thrillers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166411\/","title":{"rendered":"Want more \u2018The Hunting Wives\u2019? Try one of these trad wife thrillers"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing thriller authors<\/a> do well, it’s turning the zeitgeist into something sinister and creepy.<\/p>\n

Such is the case with \u201cThe Hunting Wives,\u201d<\/a> the Netflix adaptation of May Cobb\u2019s 2021 novel<\/a> of the same name. In it, an East Coast woman moves to a Texas town and finds herself pulled into a seductive circle of affluent red-state housewives. There\u2019s more than just gun clubs, church groups and gossip to \u201cThe Hunting Wives” \u2013 a murder mystery is at the heart of the story.<\/p>\n

If you’re dying for more entertainment like the Netflix adaptation, or just looking for a twisted take on those viral trad wife<\/a> baking videos, then these seven books are sure to scratch that itch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone is Lying to You\u2019 by Jo Piazza<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is Lying to You\u201d<\/a> is about Lizzie and her former best friend Bex, who disappeared after college and reemerged 15 years later as a \u201ctraditional wife\u201d influencer famous for her videos of her family ranch life. Lizzie, on the other hand, is a struggling magazine writer. Unexpectedly, Bex asks Lizzie to exclusively interview her about her ranch and influencing career. But rather than being a career-making moment, Lizzie arrives to find Bex missing and her picture-perfect husband murdered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018House of Beth\u2019 by Kerry Cullen<\/p>\n

This new book<\/a> follows a young woman named Cassie who escapes to her suburban hometown after a gutting breakup and a horrific work incident. She reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father, and quickly slides into his life as his new wife and stepmother to his children. But there\u2019s something eerie beneath the picturesque life, including gory, haunting visions and the shadow of Eli\u2019s late wife.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Southern Book Club\u2019s Guide to Slaying Vampires\u2019 by Grady Hendrix<\/p>\n

Book club goes awry in this \u201cblood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.\u201d \u201cThe Southern Book Club\u2019s Guide to Slaying Vampires\u201d<\/a> follows Patricia Campbell, a woman with a workaholic husband, independent teenagers and needy mother-in-law. Her crime book club of close-knit Charleston women is the only thing keeping her going. But she finds her community at risk after a series of strange events including a violent attack by an elderly neighbor, a handsome man coming into her life and disappearing children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The Tradwife\u2019s Secret\u2019 by Liane Child<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tradwife\u2019s Secret\u201d<\/a> is a 2025 release about a trad wife influencer who spends her days baking sourdough, picking vegetables, preparing dinner for her husband and caring for her children at their Montana homestead. But their life is a lie. Find out what really goes on behind the cameras in this twisted domestic thriller.<\/p>\n

\u2018Comfort Me With Apples\u2019 by Catherynne M. Valente<\/p>\n

Housewife Sophia lives with a seemingly perfect life with her seemingly perfect husband in Arcadia Gardens in \u201cComfort Me With Apples.\u201d<\/a> She\u2019s devoted to being a good wife, but things spiral when her husband grows absent. Sophia begins to question the darker sides of her husband and life, including the locked basement she\u2019s not allowed to enter and the neighbors that won\u2019t look her in the eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Motherthing\u2019 by Ainslie Hogarth<\/p>\n

Absurd, creepy and hilarious, \u201cMotherthing\u201d<\/a> starts when married couple Ralph and Abby move in with Ralph\u2019s mother, Laura. Abby hopes Laura might become the mother figure she never had, especially as she and Ralph are trying to start a family. But Laura is cruel to Abby, and living with her is hellish. The situation becomes actual hell after Laura dies by suicide and begins to haunt the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives\u2019 by Kristin Miller<\/p>\n

The trophy wives of San Francisco elite get up to trouble in the neighborhood in this thriller. \u201cThe Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives\u201d<\/a> follows newcomer Brooke Davies, a mystery writer with a much older husband who demands perfection; Erin King, a famed news anchor balancing maintaining her image and keeping her husband from straying younger; and Georgia St. Claire, rumored to have murdered her first two husbands for their money.<\/p>\n

Murders, ghosts and crime, oh my!: <\/strong>New thriller books to read this summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY\u2019s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram<\/a>, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter<\/a> or tell her what you\u2019re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n