Release date: February 3, 2026

Publisher: St. Martins

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

A deft and immersive psychological suspense debut about a luxury party planner who becomes obsessed with a woman she encounters in a hospital waiting room.

Cady has worked hard to have a good life. She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man she’s loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her beyond best friend, her most trusted confidante. When Cady gets a call that Dana has been in a serious accident and arrives moments too late to say goodbye, her world falls apart.

But to Cady’s family’s growing concern and confusion, it’s not Dana’s death that consumes her. It’s Morgan, a grieving mother Cady encountered in the hospital waiting room, the day her sister died. It can’t be a coincidence, that they both experienced tragedy at the same moment, in the same place—Cady doesn’t believe in coincidences. Instead, she is convinced that she must help this stranger overcome her tragedy, in order to come to terms with her own.

Or…is there more to it? Is it possible that Cady wants something else from Morgan? Something she can’t even admit to herself?

Slyly twisted and deeply provocative, Good Intentionscaptures the moral ambiguity that can arise in the face of impossible choices. Like the aftermath of a car accident—and against your better judgment—you won’t be able to look away.

Review:

Good Intentions is an impressive psychological suspense debut that reads like the work of a seasoned author, its confident, emotionally sharp, and quietly devastating. Walz explores grief, obsession, and moral ambiguity through Cady, a woman whose seemingly perfect life implodes after the sudden death of her identical twin sister. What follows isn’t a straightforward grief spiral, but something far more unsettling: Cady fixates on Morgan, a grieving mother she briefly encounters in a hospital waiting room, and convinces herself that helping this stranger is the key to surviving her own loss.

Cady is a fascinating and deeply flawed protagonist. Watching her unravel is like witnessing a slow motion train wreck—you know the decisions she’s making are irrational, even dangerous, yet you can’t look away. Walz captures the desperation and heartache driving Cady’s actions with empathy, even as the story grows increasingly uncomfortable. The tension lies not just in what Cady does, but in why she does it, forcing the reader to sit with questions about control, projection, and the thin line between compassion and obsession.

The ending is sharp, surprising, and deeply thought provoking, pushing the novel beyond standard psychological suspense into something more morally complex. Good Intentions asks an unsettling question: how far can someone go in the name of grief? Does having “good intentions” actually matter? It’s emotional, unsettling, and quietly devastating in the best way, marking Walz as an author to watch.

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.