Wreck Your Heart, Lori RaderDay
Wreck Your Heart, Lori RaderDay
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Wreck Your Heart
A Mystery

Author: Lori Rader-Day

Narrator: Lauren Ezzo

Unabridged: 12 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/06/2026


Synopsis

From award-winning author Lori Rader-Day, Wreck Your Heart is an engaging, “wisecracking and wonderful” crime novel with a big heart, about a country and midwestern singer out to catch her big break before family—or murder—wrecks everything.

Dahlia “Doll” Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning that could launch a thousand broken-hearted country songs, but now she’s the star of her own stage at McPhee’s Tavern. As part of Chicago’s—yes, Chicago’s—country music scene, Dahlia is an up-and-coming singer in spangles and boots of classic country tunes. Up and coming, that is, until her boyfriend Joey up and went, taking the rent money with him.

So Dahlia is back to square one, relying on Alex McPhee—again. Alex helped her out of a bad situation when she was a kid living rough with her mother. Now he’s part landlord, part band booster, all-around rescuer. It’s just that Dahlia wishes she didn’t keep giving him reasons to have to do it.

Just as Dahlia suspects she’s scraped rock bottom, the mother she hasn’t spoken to in twenty years shows up with something to say. The next morning, a distraught young woman arrives at the bar, asking after her missing mother—Dahlia's mother, too, even if the missing suburban PTA mom the girl describes sounds pretty different from the one who let Dahlia down all those years ago.

Though no one is using the word sister any time soon, Dahlia lets herself be drawn into reuniting the family that might have been hers. But when a body is discovered outside McPhee’s Tavern, the crime threatens not just the place Dahlia has made into a home, but everything she’s believed about her past, her dreams for the future, and the people she was just, maybe, beginning to let into her heart.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

About Lori Rader-Day

LORI RADER-DAY is the Edgar Award−nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark Award−winning author of The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, and others. Lori cochairs the crime fiction readers’ event Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Greg, and their dog, Clementine. Find the playlist of songs that inspired the writing of Wreck Your Heart and Lori’s other books at www .LoriRaderDay.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angie on December 08, 2025

This audiobook was a lovely surprise for me to listen to this week. A big thanks to McMillan audio for bringing it across my radar, because this is not an author that I had been familiar with previously. It’s a raucous adventure, with a hot mess, female main character named Dahlia. She’s just been l......more

Goodreads review by Erin on November 27, 2025

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date: Jan. 6, 2025 She’s a little bit country, and a little bit crime fighter. Her entire life, Dahlia Devine has wanted to take over the Chic......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on December 10, 2025

I’ve been sitting with this review for a minute now, but better late then never! The music sub-genre has gotten me again, and sadly, I’m still not a fan. I think this book had potential, but there were too many story lines to follow that we really lose sight of the original plot. It feels like this......more

Goodreads review by Delaney on December 15, 2025

The beginning wasn’t hooking me, but about 20% in I got invested, and then the last few chapters lost me. I enjoyed the overall plot but found everyone’s storylines a bit much to keep up with. I also found the main character difficult to root for at times. If the book description intrigues you, I’d......more

Goodreads review by Anne on December 06, 2025

This novel is a fascinating look at the world of country music with all its heartaches-=-and murder! "Doll" sings and plays guitar at McPhee's Pub but when patron, Joey is discovered dead, rolled up in rags in the alley, all hell breaks loose as everyone had always liked him. It's a mystery, a famil......more


Quotes

"Exceptional...Rader-Day excels at conjuring the sights and sounds of her Chicago setting, and Dahlia is a spunky, unforgettable heroine. The result is a consistently surprising mystery that readers will be hard-pressed to put down." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Suspense novelist Rader-Day changes pace with this sharply funny, heartfelt mystery, and every bit of it works. Its exploration of family secrets will delight fans of Nina Simon’s Mother-Daughter Murder Night and Nita Prose’s The Maid."--Library Journal (starred review)

“A buoyant thriller with vivid characters and wisecracks aplenty.”—Kirkus Reviews

"Rader-Day’s fully realized characters and redemption through-line will hook readers here; recommended for fans of Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski mysteries."--Booklist

"Lori Rader-Day’s writing is phenomenal. Dahlia Devine has a voice so unique, clear, and strong, she'll break your heart. This book absolutely sings."--Elle Cosimano

"Wise-cracking and wonderful, Philip Marlowe meets VI Warshawski. A love letter to country music and to Chicago, but very much more than that. Nobody does strong women better than Rader-Day." –Ann Cleeves

"Lori Rader Day is one of the most creative—and boldest—voices in contemporary crime fiction. She constantly explores new narratives and new viewpoints. Wreck Your Heart is one of her best novels yet."—Sara Paretsky

“Lori Rader-Day is back with a tour de force that only she—with her uniquely observant, poetic voice and her gift for drawing fully-fleshed characters—could pull off. Set in Chicago’s vibrant streets and shadowed by the haunting chords of country music, Wreck Your Heart weaves a tale of betrayal, buried secrets, and fractured family ties. The slow burn suspense tightens with every twist, leading to an unforgettable crescendo.” —Jess Lourey