Riley Thorn is back as Lucy Score swaps meet-cutes for murder
Riley Thorn is back as Lucy Score swaps meet-cutes for murder
Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYFri, June 26, 2026 at 2:01 PM UTC
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Bestselling romance author Lucy Score is trading meet-cutes for murder in her next novel.
Score is known for small-town romance novels like "Story of My Life" and "Things We Never Got Over," soon to be a Prime Video series. But hardcore fans also know her Riley Thorn series, which follows a reluctant psychic and her handsome private investigator boyfriend.
Score is bringing her beloved character back in a new Christmas mystery. USA TODAY is exclusively revealing the title and cover of "The Heist Before Christmas," out Nov. 10 from Bloom Books.
"This series, it's my happy place. I don't have any rules on myself in this series. I'm not holding myself to some literary standard. I am just in it for pure fun," Score tells USA TODAY.
See the cover for 'The Heist Before Christmas' by Lucy Score
"The Heist Before Christmas" by Lucy Score comes out Nov. 10, with a revamped look for the entire Riley Thorn series.
Score is "playing Santa Lucy" with "The Heist Before Christmas," an ode to longtime fans of the series. Without giving away too many details, Score teases the end of the fifth book has a surprise for these loyal readers.
"Readers have been looking forward to something in this series since book one and they will get it in the last line of this book," Score says.
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Score didn't expect to publish a new Riley Thorn book, but had an idea so good she couldn't let go of it. After she finished writing "Just One More Chapter," the final installment in her Story Lake trilogy, well ahead of schedule, Score asked her publishers to add a second novel to her editorial calendar for 2026.
"This was just no holds barred, I was laughing every single day when I was writing it," Score says.
In "The Heist Before Christmas," Riley is dreading the holiday season for many reasons, including a backlog of invoices, a PI license nearly revoked and a disapproving grandmother who has a few ominous predictions about her upcoming wedding. Plus, her psychic abilities don't seem to work on the one piece of the future she wants to see – her life with her fiancé, Nick Santiago. Throw in an undercover mission to catch a mall theft ring and Riley's got herself a true nightmare before Christmas.
The cover features a facelift for the entire series, a look that allows Score and her publishers to "flirt" with cozy mystery readers more.
"I just love that this is a Christmas book and there's a chalk outline of a dead body on the cover," Score says. "Nothing says Christmas like a dead body."
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lucy Score is writing a new Riley Thorn mystery. See the cover
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
