New York, New York - Author Sandra Block has penned a twisty, true-crime-inspired thriller that will have readers absolutely hooked this fall, and she spilled the secrets of the buzzy new mystery in an exclusive chat with TAG24 NEWS.

Block's newest novel, which hits bookstores on September 3, depicts one nightmare of a bachelorette party as true crime journalist and bride-to-be Alex heads to a remote cabin with her closest pals.

Her friends have opted to channel her macabre interests in their party planning, booking a special stay at a hunting lodge that was the sight of a grisly murder committed by the famous 666 Killer.

But when Alex wakes up the next morning, there's blood splattered across the scene, and her friends have vanished.

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The book takes on dual timelines, alternating between Alex at the bachelorette party and months earlier when she was busy researching the enigmatic serial killer.

"You kind of understand the future from reading the past, so I find that fascinating, that interplay of the past and the present," Block told TAG24.

While Alex's line of work may seem too dark for most of us to handle, it's no secret that true crime media has taken over the pop culture zeitgeist over the past decade. To Block, this obsession with the darker side of humanity comes as no surprise.

"Like everyone, I find serial killers fascinating," Block told TAG24. "We all do, for a couple of reasons.

"One is just sort of [understanding] what goes in the brain that causes that to happen, but also a way of maybe asserting control over something scary that we never want to have to deal with, but something that's out there as a threat – especially for women."

Still, Block uses the novel to reiterate the need to understand the true crime genre as more than a form of entertainment.

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"There's intrigue, and it's fascinating [but] when it comes down to it, these are real lives that are being disrupted, and generations changed, and I tried to put that morsel out there, that this is more than just sort of a prurient kind of interest."

Amid a focus on these inhumane horrors, The Bachelorette Party grounds itself within Alex's perspective, who finds herself becoming jaded by the devastation she comes into such close contact with through her work.

But the book also uses its protagonist, who suffers from REM sleep behavior disorder, to escalate the mystery. Unable to remember what happened the night of the bachelorette party, she is haunted by the possibility that her disorder could have caused her to unknowingly be the culprit.

The novel places its two timelines into something of a distorted mirror, allowing the lines of fact and fiction "to meet in a way that makes everything a little bit deceiving," as Block explained.

With twists and turns galore, The Bachelorette Party is one invitation readers won't want to turn down this fall.

For more on this year's hottest new reads, check out TAG24's Book Release Radars for July and August 2024.