See the Cover of Jennifer Hillier’s ‘Heart of Glass’ (Exclusive)

Fans of atmospheric horrors, crime thrillers and small town tales have a new book to add to their reading lists!

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, bestselling author Jennifer Hillier and publisher Minotaur Books shared the first look at the cover of latest novel, Heart of Glass — which tells the story of a group of small-town friends who are forced to question everything they thought they knew about a murder that took place 25 years prior, after a serial killer recants his decades-old confession.

“Seaside is a small coastal town, known originally for the local amusement park. But 25 years ago, a serial killer dubbed The Carnival Killer confessed to the murder of a local high school girl,” a synopsis teases. “Now, he’s recanted that confession.”

At the center of Heart of Glass are former friends Barb and Nicolette — Seaside residents who spent the night at the amusement park and a drive-in movie with their childhood friend Lorelei the night she was murdered, just days before her body surfaced in a local cranberry bog.

Barb’s dreams of leaving Seaside and becoming a successful writer never materialized after the murder, the synopsis adds, and she reports for the local newspaper while secretly writing about a reality show for a celebrity gossip blog. As for Nicolette, she skipped town shortly after Lorelei’s body was found and married a wealthy man in Toronto — and became a star on the reality show Barb obsesses over.

“With the amusement park about to reopen, revitalizing the dying town of Seaside, the Carnival Killer recants his confession about killing Lorelei, the dead body of a young woman washes ashore and the truth about what happened that night 25 ago — and what is happening now — threatens not only the carefully constructed lives of Barb and Nicolette, but the very fabric of Seaside itself,” the synopsis concludes.

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Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Hillier says that Heart of Glass explores the ways that perspective can change a story.

“I’ve always been fascinated by how people in the same situation can experience it so differently,” the Little Secrets author and longtime Ontario resident tells PEOPLE.

“In Heart of Glass, when 15-year-old Lorelei is murdered and a serial killer confesses to the crime, her two best friends are left reeling from grief and guilt. Nicolette deals with it by escaping their small town for a bigger and better life,” she shares. “But Barb gets left behind, tasked with keeping a shocking secret which may be revealed when the Carnival Killer recants his confession from prison in a documentary more than two decades later.”

“Heart of Glass explores the darkest consequences of betrayal, and whether escaping the past really means you’re free, especially when the secrets you buried are calling you home,” Hillier explains.

Heart of Glass is set to hit bookshelves on Aug. 25, 2026, and can be preordered now, wherever books are sold.