Book excerpt: Looking for a new book that will make your heart race? The eleventh edition of The Minotaur Sampler compiles the beginnings of six can't-miss novels—either standalone or first in series—publishing Spring/Summer 2024 for free for easy sampling. First in Series: Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the irresistible and hilarious series debut from Catherine Mack, introducing bestselling fictional author Eleanor Dash on her Italian book tour that turns into a real-life murder mystery, as her life starts to imitate the world in her books. Standalone: In Kimi Cunningham Grant’s The Nature of Disappearing, a captivating novel of suspense, a wilderness guide must team up with the man who ruined her life years ago when the friend who introduced them goes missing. First in Series: With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, and family with thrilling results. Standalone: In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told from several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The story cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today. First in Series: Set in rural Vermont in the volatile 1960s, Agony Hill is the first novel in a new historical series full of vivid New England atmosphere and the deeply drawn characters that are Sarah Stewart Taylor's trademark. Standalone: Anna Downes's extraordinary next thriller, Red River Road, follows a woman desperate to discover what happened to her sister on a solo road trip through the Australian outback.