The Fruitcake

Holly Kelly arrives in the sun-soaked enclave of Laguna Palms, Florida, hoping to trade Miami chaos for beachfront community, and she finds exactly that, along with three fast friends and a neighborhood full of glossy secrets. Leah Orr's 2023 thriller turns a beloved holiday tradition sinister when the annual fruitcake exchange starts leaving bodies behind. What looks like a string of accidents gradually reveals something far darker lurking beneath the neighborhood's polished surface, and Holly and her friends find themselves drawn into an investigation that grows stranger and more dangerous with every clue.

Annalee Scott and Danny Montooth share narration duties, trading perspectives in a split-narration format that mirrors the novel's layered mysteries and keeps the pacing brisk across the story's nearly seven-hour runtime. Scott's warmth grounds Holly's suburban-outsider voice, while Montooth adds tonal contrast that serves the thriller's dual-thread structure well. The audio format suits Orr's style particularly well, letting the Southern hospitality and creeping dread build in real time.