HANDLE WITH CARE
By: Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
Published: April 14, 2026
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Suspense/Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Back in 2019, I listened to WHEN WE WERE WORTHY during a 7+ hour drive. I loved the small town setting and Whalen’s character-driven mystery. When I saw she had a new book out and it was set in a post office, I was definitely interested.

Sunset Beach, North Carolina, is an idyllic community where life is quieter and simpler, and everyone there is happy… or so you assume. Until three women walk into a post office, ready to mail something that might change their lives. Instead, a young man named Tommy is also in the post office, and the choice he makes that Spring day changes all of their lives forever. The lives of the three customers, the post office employee, Tommy, and the local police officer, Hope, collide after Tommy decides to hold them all hostage after receiving his wife’s divorce papers.

He doesn’t seem like a killer, but do killers always seem like killers before they kill?

Whalen slowly introduces you to each character and what brought them into the post office that day. Each of the customers has a package or a letter that they are struggling with mailing for a variety of reasons. As Tommy holds them hostage, we learn bits and pieces about his life, what led to the demise of their marriage, and why Hope is struggling with being the hostage negotiator.

Sylvie, an elderly woman who is hiding a secret about her husband, Morrow, a soon-to-be empty-nester who fought with her daughter just that morning, and Blythe, a woman who is regretting taking advice from her mother, which brought her to the post office that day, and Nadine, Tommy’s wife, are all from different generations yet come together during their time being held in the post office. They support each other, listen to each other’s struggles, and slowly wonder if this will be how their lives end.

“We can, she thinks as the door that leads outside opens wide, the daylight streaming through, do a lot of things we don’t think we can do.”

The story includes multiple mysteries, including what brought each woman to the post office that day, a secret that Nadine has kept from Tommy, and what painful event brought Hope to this small-town police station. Combine those mysteries with the suspense of Tommy holding each of them hostage, and you have quite a page-turner. I quickly became invested in the characters, especially Morrow. Ironically, Morrow in the story is named after her mom’s favorite book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, GIFT FROM THE SEA, which is a book I just purchased on my trip to Florida and hadn’t heard of until then. I love bookish serendipity when I’m reading.

“She is, she thinks, already a different person than the one who walked into the post office holding the innocuous-looking package.”

I related to each of the women reflecting on their lives, the choices they made that day, and how if they hadn’t decided to come to mail that letter or package, or had arrived just a few minutes earlier or later, they wouldn’t have been in this situation. We’ve all been in situations where we wonder What if?. These women never would have been friends outside of this situation, and now are bound by it for life. But, in this situation, the characters found a way to connect, relate to each other, and overcome their own particular struggles. Marybeth Mayhew Whalen writes in her author’s note that for years she’s been “writing about characters seeking to overcome isolation and connect emotionally with other people.” Whalen’s flawed characters are just like you and me. Yet, these women were put into a difficult situation and came out better people because of it.

“People are shaped by their circumstances, formed by what happens to them, for better or for worse, in lack and in plenty.”

If you like a character-driven story that is suspenseful, yet hopeful, give this one a read. Note that even though it is a hostage situation, there is minimal violence.

Marybeth Mayhew Whalen is the author of eleven novels. Marybeth received a BA in English with a concentration in Writing and Editing from NC State University and has been writing ever since. Marybeth and her husband, Curt, are the parents of six kids who are now all in various stages of adulting. A native of Charlotte, NC, Marybeth now calls Sunset Beach, NC, home. Check out her website, HERE.

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Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this book for this review. This review is my honest opinion. If you choose to purchase through the above links, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase.