Every instinct tells him to run. Every memory tells him he can’t.

Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it’s happening again.

Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they’ve allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.

Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along – before he and the people he loves become the next victims.

I first encountered CJ Leede in her first book, Maeve Fly – and was suitably shook by its psychopathic theme-park princess! This is an author who writes in a style that is both easily accessible and wholly new, with a freshness that radiates while describing the most terrible of human experiences. It entices you in as if all is well, before quickly allowing you to realize that you’re very much off the beaten path and in the realm of the monsters.

For my money this is far and away her best book yet. Part FBI thriller akin to Silence of the Lambs, part ‘Twin Peaks’-style cosmic mystery, we follow Special Agent Daniel Stansfield as he tries to figure out his own future as well as that of those suffering the crimes of a terrible killer.

We move from childhood trauma to wartime PTSD, yet Daniel remains sympathetic throughout. He would be the first to agree that he’s a deeply flawed man but despite all, he pushes himself forward, whether driven by duty or simply lacking any way to escape. His friends are also immensely likeable, building up an intimate community of those in his orbit who will inevitably be affected by his investigation, but for the first part of the book (and despite the bizarre nature of the murders), everything seems very real.

We then slip gently into the weeds, via a haunted house, possible spirit possession and a creepy cult leader tracked via Reddit. I’m keeping it brief here because I want you to discover every aspect of this book as I did – by simply turning the pages and moving with Daniel as he parts the curtains of the past and the present to discover just what is going on in his little part of Colorado.

For a good part of the book, I wasn’t entirely sure this would be anything supernatural – as if it would turn out to simply be a mad-genius serial killer after all (for the record, I was also watching the TV series ‘Hannibal’ around this time, and the vibes are very similar). But no, this goes deep into the blurred areas between this world and the next while keeping its feet firmly on the ground, with a skill that’s truly remarkable. Of particular note is a thread that quietly winds in and out of the book so subtly that it’s easy to forget – but which culminates in a moment that had me literally sitting up, saying ‘Oh, you did NOT just do that!’ Sometimes we realize truths as Daniel does, sometimes we see them coming as inexorably as a speeding car. Either way, it’s compelling.

I read this book in two days, and it’s easily one of my Best of 2026. One bit of advice: go in as blind as you can.

Headlights is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org