Hannah Deitch
Killer Potential (William Morrow 2025) begins when SAT tutor Evie Gordon arrives at the Beverly Hills estate owned by Peter and Dinah Victor for her regular tutoring session with their teenage daughter Serena. The door is wide open, and Evie calls out before going inside, but no one answers. The door to the back garden is also open, and Evie discovers the murdered bodies of both Peter and Dinah. Stumbling back through the house, Evie hears a voice sobbing Help from behind a locked door under the staircase. Breaking down the door, Evie discovers an emaciated and filthy woman bound with frayed electrical cord. She half-carries the woman to the front door, fumbling for her phone to call 911 just as Serena is entering the house. Serena screams and Evie realizes both she and the woman are covered in blood, terrifying Serena who hits Evie over the head with a heavy lamp. Evie tries to explain what is happening, but Serena swings the lamp again and Evie throws a nearby vase at her. The sudden silence is deafening, and Evie is sure she has killed her. The woman gasps “please,” and Evie sees their reflection in a mirror: she looks like Carrie drenched in blood, and the woman looks like a homeless drug addict. Serena’s boyfriend appears, and they impulsively run to Evie’s car and flee, instantly becoming fugitives instead of victims. The traumatized woman doesn’t say another word for days, but she reveals hidden talents, like stealing cars, shoplifting food, and pickpocketing ID cards. The boyfriend tells the police Evie’s name, and the press loves the story of the SAT tutor turned killer. Evie is relieved to learn that Serena is not dead, but until she emerges from her coma, the truth won’t come out. As they flee across the country Evie realizes the only way she can ever go home is by finding the real killer. She also realizes this is the first time in a long time she has felt important, able to control her own future. And by the time the mysterious woman finally whispers that her name is Jae, Evie knows their fates are now permanently entwined. This stunning debut thriller is a nominee for the 2026 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Laurie L. Dove
Mask of the Deer Woman (Berkley 2025) introduces Carrie Starr, a former Chicago detective, now starting as the Bureau of Indian Affairs tribal marshal on the Oklahoma reservation her father left behind when he married her white mother. Starr’s life collapsed after her 17-year-old daughter’s recent murder, and she lost her job in Chicago, ending up on the vast reservation she struggles to navigate, and self-medicating with alcohol and marijuana to numb her grief. Starr’s third day on the as the tribal marshal begins when she responds to a call from Odeina Cloud reporting her daughter Chenoa missing. Chenoa had been coming home to visit every weekend, working on her master’s program project: searching for a colony of American burying beetles thought to be extinct. Chenoa is sure she has seen the beetles with distinctive crimson markings somewhere on the reservation, and hopes that discovering a colony will both advance her career and bring much-needed federal conservation funds to the reservation. Chenoa didn’t share all that with her mother, but Odeina knows her serious-minded daughter is looking for some kind of bug and would never simply not come home. Several other young women have gone missing over the last decade, including tribal Chief Elmore Byrd’s daughter Loxie, who went to a high school football game and never came home. Byrd is responsible for the grant that is paying Starr’s salary, restoring law enforcement to the reservation for the first time in years. That evening Starr heads to the community center for the tribal council meeting where representatives from Blackstram Oil and the nearby city of Dexter Springs are requesting access to reservation land for a pipeline. Some tribal members speak against the plan, citing the possibility of water contamination, and Starr remembers an article in Chenoa’s room about reparations paid for disturbing endangered species. Could that have something to do with her disappearance? Starr’s outsider perspective on the fictional Saliquaw Reservation life and politics highlights her personal dilemma as a woman alone in the world. This haunting debut is a nominee for the 2026 Lefty Debut Award.

Marisa Kashino
Best Offer Wins (Celadon Books 2025) begins when Margo Miyake’s real estate agent Ginny calls with a tip on the perfect house: four bedrooms, renovated kitchen, located in the most desirable Grovement neighborhood of Washington, DC. Margo and her husband Ian have been house-hunting for 18 months and have lost 11 straight bidding wars. Margo has just turned 37, and is desperate to escape their cramped apartment and get pregnant before her eggs dry up. All she needs is the perfect house. Ginny’s sister-in-law does yoga with Jack, one of the owners, who shared that his husband just got a job in London. Margo convinces Ian to drive by the house, and falls in love with what she can glimpse through the windows and the back yard with a tire swing for their child-to-come. She stalks Jack and his husband Curt online, learning they have an adopted Asian daughter named Penny. Margo orchestrates a meeting with Jack at the next yoga class, and gushes over the picture of Penny on his phone’s lock screen. After Jack shares that Penny is adopted, Margo falsely confesses she and Ian are also considering adoption, and Jack offers to tell her all about the wonderful agency they used. Margo insinuates herself in Jack’s plan to pick up Penny at the park, who is thrilled to meet Margo and asks her dads if she can come to visit. Ian is very uncomfortable with all of Margo’s evasions, but agrees to go to dinner, and they both agree the house is absolutely perfect. The problem is that Jack and Curt are not interested in a private sale, preferring to list the house. Margo is sure they will be out-bid once again, and pivots instantly to a new plan. She neglects her job and alienates her husband, but is determined to get the house she knows she deserves, no matter what the cost. This debut novel full of dark humor is a finalist for the 2026 Lefty Award for Best Debut.

Jo Nichols
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective (Minotaur Books 2025) is set in The Marigold Cottages, a group of six Craftsmen-style bungalows in Santa Barbara, California, owned by 82-year-old Golda Bakofsky, called Mrs. B by everyone. Mrs. B only rents to people she cares about, those the tenants aren’t always sure what her criteria is. Ocean Mistral, a sculptor, has lived their the longest, and considers Mrs. B her second mother. Ocean’s wife recently left her for a younger woman, leaving her to raise their two children on her own. Hamilton, who loves to share random facts, hasn’t ventured outside his cottage for years. Sophie Gilman who dreams of being a playwright, is recovering from a trauma, attempting to quell her anxiety by drinking far too much. Lily-Ann Novak, a workaholic perfectionist, has left her husband to enjoy their mansion on the beach and finds herself unexpectedly content living in a tiny space. Nicholas works in finance and keeps himself apart from the other residents. No one can understand why Mrs. B has a soft spot for him. When Sophie spots Mrs. B talking to a large man with a shaved head and awful tattoos, she immediately casts him in her head as Serbian Thug #2 and decides to set up a Marigold Cottages group chat to protect Mrs. B. She is horrified when Mrs. B rents Anthony the studio apartment connected to Ocean’s cottage. Three weeks later a dead body is discovered in the shrubbery, and Detective Sergeant Vernon Enible has exactly the same first reaction Sophie did: ex-con Anthony Lambert is clearly guilty. Mrs. B insists that Anthony didn’t commit the murder and arranges for Hamilton to host the first meeting of The Marigold Cottage Murder Collective. Hamilton is flustered to have so many guests, offering them all milk to drink, and then shares his research about the dead man: James Dedrick was wealthy real estate investor possible interested in buying the Marigold Cottages. Sophie volunteers to take notes, which quickly transform into a screenplay. This clever and engaging cozy mystery is a finalist for the 2026 Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award.

R.P. O’Donnell
No Comfort for the Dead (Crooked Lane Books 2025) is set in 1988 Castlefreke, Ireland. Emma Daly has returned home after a short failed career as a Garda in Dublin, taking over the small village library. In the eight years Emma has been gone, most of the businesses in Castlefreke have closed, leaving only the pub, a small store, and the library. Emma is out walking one evening near an isolated house when she hears two gunshots, and sees a dark figure exiting the front door and vanishing into the woods. After waiting a few minutes to be sure there will be no more shooting, Emma creeps into the house and discovers the body of elderly Mr. Hollis as well as a wounded man holding a gun. Emma flees to the village doctor Adam Thornton, telling him the wounded man looked like an older version of Charlie, Adam’s son and Emma’s high school boyfriend. Adam races to try and save the man he suspects might be his brother Colm, who disappeared 32 years earlier. Near dead, Colm is rushed to the hospital. Emma tells Sergeant Noonan about the third man who fled the scene, but Noonan dismisses her story as the raving of an hysterical woman, placing Colm, still unconscious in his hospital bed, under arrest for murder. Colm’s father refuses to believe his son is guilty of murder, and asks Emma to investigate quietly. Emma, who had been happy with her work at the library, realizes that she has missed the challenges of detective work, and decides to emulate her favorite sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. This atmospheric debut mystery is a finalist for the 2026 Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Riley Sager
With a Vengeance (Dutton 2025) is set in 1954 aboard the Philadelphia Phoenix, a luxury streamliner train traveling overnight from Philadelphia to Chicago. Anna’s father designed the Philadelphia Phoenix engine and cars, and her mother decorated the beautiful interiors. Anna has commissioned the entire train for this cold winter night, inviting the six people she is certain ruined her family 12 years earlier. Each passenger received an invitation with an anonymous personal note on the back: “I know what you did. If you don’t come others will know, too.” The train departs at 7:00 PM, and the six passengers meet in the first-class lounge an hour later: Sal Lawrence, her father’s former secretary; Edith Gerhardt, the Matheson housekeeper and nanny to Anna and her brother Tommy; Judd Dodge, former Union Atlantic engine designer; Herb Pulaski, former Union Atlantic factory foreman; Lt. Col Jack Lapsford; wartime transportation manager; and Kenneth Wentworth, Anna’s father’s business rival. Anna believes that Kenneth Wentworth blackmailed everyone else into building a defective troop transport train and planting evidence that implicated Anna’s father in the faulty design. The transport train exploded, killing 37 soldiers and train crew, including Anna’s brother Tommy. Anna’s father was arrested but killed in prison before the trial, stabbed 37 times by a fellow inmate, and her mother committed suicide soon afterwards. Anna informs her guests that they are all trapped on the train, the fake coach passengers and all the crew gone before departure, the engineer barricaded in the engine, leaving only Anna’s six guests and the “porter” Seamus Callahan, whose older brother was one of the dead crew. Anna has found evidence to clear her father and implicate everyone else, sent ahead to the Chicago FBI office, who have the 13 hours of the train journey to verify the documents. Anna plans to enjoy the trip watching the six people she despises most in the world realizing they are going to have to pay for their crimes. But one person dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail, and everyone, including Anna and Seamus, realize they are trapped on a train with a murderer.

Chuck Storla
Murder Two Doors Down (Crooked Lane Books 2025) introduces Brad Hanson, an insurance fraud investigator who lives with his wife Rhonda at the Estates at Chestnut Lake in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Brad is the secretary on the HOA Board, where Miss Inga appears at every meeting complaining about something. Her current campaign is to have all trees with more than one bird’s nest removed, insisting the so-called songbirds create an unhealthy level of noise pollution. The next day two FBI Special Agents appear at Brad’s door, asking about his neighbor two doors down: Inga Oskarsdotter, who has been killed by two gunshots in the head. Brad admits he has his father’s old target pistol in the garage somewhere, and the agents take him in for questioning when they discover it has been fired recently. As they head to the FBI car, Captain Dawson of the local police is taping off the garden of another neighbor: Edith Skinner, who bled to death after falling on garden stakes inserted with the pointed end up in her tomato bed. Brad doesn’t have many friends due to his habit of over-explaining everything he knows about everything, so he is flattered when his neighbor Tony offers to serve as his Watson in an investigation to clear his name. Brad sets up a whiteboard in his basement, taking great pleasure in color-coding documented facts, unsubstantiated statements, and all the suspects, his own name included for completeness. When it looks like he may actually be arrested, Brad hires Jill Richards, a defense lawyer who defended the HOA in a lawsuit involving geese, though Rhonda encourages him to get a public defender instead so they don’t have to dip into the fund earmarked for remodeling the kitchen. This very funny debut mystery is a finalist for the 2026 Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award.

Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man (Berkley 2025) finds the elderly San Francisco teashop owner, enjoying her new found family but missing the excitement of helping with a murder investigation. Vera is reporting a phone scam to Officer Selena Gray, who she hopes will soon be her daughter-in-law and mother of many chubby grand babies, when she notices a nervous teenage girl outside the police station. Vera marches the girl back to her teashop, plies her with delicious tea, and convinces Millie to share her worries — Millie’s friend Thomas has disappeared. Thomas was one of the first people Millie met when she arrived in America from China, and the two became close friends, their rooms on the same floor. Vera doesn’t understand why Millie is so nervous about telling the police about Thomas, but eagerly volunteers her own services to find Thomas. While feeding Selena’s cat the following day, Vera notices Selena’s briefcase and can’t resist prying the lock open, discovering photographs of a body fished out of the water. Vera immediately recognizes the face of Millie’s friend Thomas, identified as social media star Xander. Millie insists that Thomas is as poor as she is, but the Instagram profile documents a privileged young man at parties with his beautiful influencer girlfriend Aimes. Vera tracks down Thomas/Xander’s manager, who never met him in person, and Aimes, who doesn’t seem to know much about her boyfriend, and concludes Xander’s online life was a fabrication. When Vera’s teashop is vandalized, everyone tries to convince her to stop investigating, but the irrepressible Vera can’t stop herself from snooping her way to the truth in this feel-good second in the series, a nominee for the 2026 Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award.

Peter Swanson
Kill Your Darlings (William Morrow 2025) is the story of Thom and Wendy Graves, who have been married for over 25 years and live in a beautiful home in Goose Neck, Massachusetts, where Thom is a tenured English professor at the nearby university. Thom and Wendy share a birthday, and throw themselves a joint 50th birthday party in 2023. Wendy is surprised and flattered when the new department secretary confesses she is a fan of Wendy’s poetry, discovered in Wendy’s sole publication 20 years earlier. Thom is a bit drunk, and blurts out that he is writing a book himself — a mystery. Wendy sneaks upstairs to Thom’s office and discovers the beginning of a suspense novel, a thinly disguised retelling of a deadly secret from their joint past. Not for the first time, Wendy wonders if her life would be better if Thom were to die suddenly. Perhaps murder isn’t out of the question? The book progresses backwards in time, through Wendy’s first unhappy marriage to their college years, and finally to their first meeting in 1982, when they were in eighth grade. Peeling the layers of time away reveals the events that shaped them into the adults at the beginning of the book: bound together yet separated by Thom’s dependence on alcohol and Wendy’s inability to care deeply about others. This elegantly constructed thriller deconstructs the story of a marriage, weaving together minor events that create an unsettling whole.

Callan Wink
Beartooth (Spiegel & Grau 2025) is the story of brothers Thad and Hazen, who live off the grid in a hand-built timber house in the wilds of the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains near Yellowstone National Park. Their mother left the family when the boys were very young, and their father raised them to be self-sufficient: hunting, fishing, and selling firewood. Their father’s recent final illness left the brothers with a massive debt, which Thad has hidden from his younger brother. Hazen is happy in the woods, but not good with social interactions, often getting into fights when he drinks too much. They have just returned from a bear-hunting trip, packing out the gall bladders along with the skull, claws, and skin. A recent out-of-towner, called the Scot because he dresses in a kilt, buys their haul, and then shares a new plan which he claims will be extremely profitable for them all. The Scot has found an Amish guy who crafts elk antlers into chandeliers. There is a huge demand for his chandeliers, but elk antlers are in short supply. Hazen blurts out that he knows where there is huge cache of elk antlers, shed each year in a secluded spot in Yellowstone. Thad explains that hauling the antlers out of the National Park is impossible: too many rangers, too many tourists, and a felony conviction if they are caught. The relationship between the brothers is complicated when their mother Sacajawea reappears for the first time in decades, awakening family longings they have buried for years. Then Thad learns that not paying the taxes on their property has put them at great risk of losing it, Earning the thousands of dollars they owe is impossible, unless they take the Scot’s job, so Thad begins strategizing a plan to move the antlers out of Yellowstone without getting caught. The author brings his intimate knowledge of Yellowstone, where he works as a fly fishing guide, to this compelling wilderness thriller.

Megan Abbott
El Dorado Drive (G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2025) is the story of the three Bishop sisters, who enjoyed a privileged childhood in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, before falling on hard times. Now middle-aged, the three sisters are having difficulty making ends meet. Oldest sister Debra’s husband is in the middle of an expensive cancer treatment, middle sister Pam lost her elegant mansion in a contentious divorce, and youngest sister Harper is $50,000 in debt. Pam is throwing a lavish high school graduation party for her son Patrick in the back yard of her split level rental house on the optimistically named El Dorado Drive. Harper is impressed that Pam has managed to make the depressing yard look festive, while Debra worries Pam has spent money she doesn’t have. Pam’s younger daughter Vivian is upset that their father Doug hasn’t shown up for the celebration, but the sisters aren’t surprised. Doug hasn’t paid any child support, and Pam has just discovered he has been siphoning off his children’s trust funds. Harper’s hard-won sobriety collapses during the party, and the next morning she accepts a job at a horse farm across the state. When Harper returns home at the end of October, her landlord has evicted her for non-payment of rent, and she reluctantly accepts Pam’s offer to stay in Patrick’s old room. Pam and Vivian are fighting constantly, and Pam hopes Aunt Harper can help keep the peace. Harper is astonished that Pam is driving a new Lexus (leased but luxurious) and doesn’t seem as worried about money. Pam and Debra tell Harper about a new club: the Wheel, which is all about social and professional networking, an opportunity for female empowerment. New members gift (not invest!) $5000 to the Wheel, and then slowly make their way up to the top, receiving $25,000. Desperate to pay off her debt, Harper borrows part of the entrance fee from Pam and joins. During the first meeting Harper realizes the Wheel is a pyramid scheme, dependent on inviting (not recruiting!) new members. Harper knows the Wheel isn’t sustainable, but watches both Pam and Debra celebrate receiving their $25,000, hoping her turn will come before she is crushed by her own debt. Narrated from Harper’s perspective, this intense thriller explores the joys and perils of sibling relationships.

Elliot Ackerman
Sheepdogs (Knopf 2025) begins three years after Skwerl is fired from “the Office,” an elite CIA unit, after talking to the press about a disastrous ambush in Afghanistan where a teammate bled out in his arms. Skwerl earned his nickname because he was resourceful and could get you anything you needed, like a squirrel. But Skwerl finds it difficult to make ends meet in the real world, and is grateful when an old colleague introduces him to Sheepdog, a network advertising jobs for veterans. When he reads “searching for a commercial pilot with special operations experience,” Skwerl immediately contacts Aziz Iqbal, “the Big Cheese,” a former Afghan pilot who is barely able to support his pregnant wife Fareeda on a minimum wage salary. Skwerl convinces Cheese that the job of “repossessing” a Challenger 600 private jet is an easy way for the two of them to split a cool million, 20% of the jet’s value. But nothing goes according to plan, the guard appears and Cheese has to knock him out with a wrench. Their employer “H” is furious when Skwerl makes himself a snack and scratches one of the jet’s fancy plates, and then H turns up dead before transferring the money into their account. Desperate to hide the plane, Skwerl contacts Just Shane, a former colleague living off the grid in Colorado, and they take the plane to Just Shane’s remote airstrip, along with Skwerl’s dominatrix girlfriend Sinead and her client Ephraim, an Amish mechanic who might be able to repair the aileron damaged in their escape. Then Fareeda is kidnapped and offered in exchange for the plane, pushing Skwerl’s brain to frantically try to come up with a solution that will get them all out alive. This comic mashup of spy and heist tropes is great fun.

Claire Booth
Throwing Shadows (Severn House 2025) begins when a hiker stumbles out of the Ozark backwoods near Branson, Missouri, raving about a dead man. The man is carrying an fancy new pack, and though his clothing is torn and dirty, it looks expensive. Deputy Sam Karnes calls the report in and Sheriff Hank Worth and Chief Deputy Sheriff Sheila Turley drive out together. Sheila is just back at work after a violent attack, barely ambulatory with a cane and in constant pain. Sheila waits in the car while Sam, who grew up in the area, takes Hank to Murder Rocks, a teen hangout rumored to be the site of an abandoned cache of Confederate gold. Sam is an experienced hunter and tracker, and follows the sign to a bloody hatchet. While they are in the woods, Sheila follows the ambulance with the hiker to the hospital. Identified as Mingo Culver, the hiker reluctantly admits he is a fan of the Hidden Hoarders podcast, currently featuring the legendary gold of Murder Rocks, and hoped to be the first listener to search. Sam is thrilled when two dog teams arrive to help search for the body, heading off with one while Hank, who is not a consummate woodsman, stumbles after the other. After locating not just one but two bodies, the small law team is stretched thin trying to continue the investigation while also preventing determined treasure hunters from breaking through the barriers to continue the search for gold. Hank is still dealing with the personal fallout of his last investigation, when his wife’s father was suspected of murdering her mother. Interspersed podcast episodes and primary source Civil War letters and diary entries reveal the history of Alf Bolin, an outlaw who preyed upon travelers moving north and burying the gold and silver he stole. This excellent police procedural with a dash of history is the seventh in the series.

Michael Connelly
The Proving Ground (Little, Brown and Company 2025) finds Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller working his first civil case after leaving criminal defense. The negligence suit against Tidalwaiv Technologies, an artificial intelligence company, claims their AI chat bot encouraged 16-year-old Aaron Colton to shoot his girlfriend Rebecca Randolph after she broke up with him. Tidalwaiv buries Mickey’s team in over twelve terabytes of discovery materials, all heavily redacted, making it nearly impossible to find any evidence. Tidalwaiv’s current and former employees have all signed Non-Disclosure Agreements, and their lawyers are determined to block any discussion in court. Tidalwaiv offers the parents a huge cash settlement, but Rebecca’s mother is determined to protect other teenagers from the potentially dangerous chatbots, and insists on a public admission of guilt. Mickey and his team track down the company ethicist who was fired for speaking out against the bot programming strategy, learning the chatbot software was created by an exclusively male team of programmers who ignored the her warnings that the misogynistic tendencies of some of the programmers was creeping into the bot responses to vulnerable teens. The testimony of the child psychiatrist who specializes in media addiction is chilling, highlighting the effect of social media on adolescents who crave peer acceptance, and pointing out text exchanges between Aaron and the chatbot that reinforced all the worst traits of a teenage boy. Civil suits don’t have the cachet of criminal defense, and Mickey is driving a Chevy Bolt instead of being chauffeured in a Lincoln, but the stakes are just as high in this powerful eighth in the series.

Janice Hallett
The Killer Question (Atria Books 2025) features Sue and Mal Eastwood, the proprietors of The Case Is Altered, a pub in Hertfordshire County, northwest of London. Located on a narrow lane that dead-ends at a tumbledown pier on the River Colne, The Case Is Altered was once a thriving business, but has declined along with the river traffic. Since reopening the pub, Sue and Mal have worked hard to build a new customer base, adding a pub quiz every Monday night. Mal loves creating the questions and five teams are now Monday night regulars. Then a new team appears, led by a man known only as the General, which dominates the weekly quiz, earning close to the maximum number of points each week. Mal is sure they are cheating, but they observe the no phones rule and he can’t figure out how. The entire novel is narrated in texts, emails, phone messages, quiz sheets, one-star pub ratings, and other documents. Interspersed transcriptions from police recordings and interviews reveal Sue and Mal’s previous careers as police officers, working their final case for the Hulme Police before retirement. Operation Honeyguide was formed to investigate the kidnapping of Beata Novak, a 29-year old Polish nail technician, and Chloe Cunningham, a 22-year-old working for her family’s property business. Both women were in relationships with local drug dealer Darren Chester, who worked for the Maddox Brothers, and the police believe they were kidnapped after Chester absconded with Maddox funds, taken to pressure him into returning the money. The personalities of Sue (kind and motherly), Mal (who can’t restrain himself from sharing everything he knows about everything), as well as the members of the various Quiz teams gradually emerge from their messages as they squabble and comfort and plot. A murder upends everything in this clever mystery full of surprising reveals.

Elizabeth Kaufman
Ruth Run (Penguin Press 2025) begins when a funds transfer is halted, and 26-year-old microchip designer Ruth realizes her secret career as a bank robber has been discovered. Six years ago Ruth discovered a flaw in a firewall chip that gave her access into any network using the chip, and slowly amassed a small fortune by skimming more than $250 million from the banking system. Ruth quickly destroys her hard drive and shoves her important documents, a change of clothes, a blond wig, Red Sox cap and $25,000 in twenty-dollar bills into her shoulder bag, fleeing her Silicon Valley apartment. The only weak spot in Ruth’s plan is Thom, a colleague at the world’s largest network equipment company, who does the coding Ruth never learned to do. Arriving at their office, Ruth learns Thom has been called away by security and is horrified to find a picture of the two of them on his cubicle wall. Ruth orchestrates Thom’s escape by pulling the fire alarm and the two head out for Sacramento. A familiar man waves as they are pulling out, and Ruth recognizes him as a former colleague known as Hydrant Mike. What Ruth doesn’t know is that Mike has been secretly surveilling her since he first noticed her as a university student, with small cameras and recording devices hidden in her apartment and the bag she bought with her first small theft. Mike works for a government agency investigating cybercrime, but has kept Ruth and her thefts a secret, fantasizing about their connection though only he is aware of it. Realizing they are somehow being tracked, Thom and Ruth separate, and she hitches a ride with a trucker, unaware that he is dangerous. This debut caper novel by a former network security specialist is full of strange and wonderful characters.

Jess Kidd
Murder at Gulls Nest (Atria Books 2025) begins in 1954, when Nora Breen, formerly sister Agnes of Christ, leaves her 30-year life as a nun behind to search for Frieda Brogan, a former novice whose regular weekly letters from the Gulls Nest boarding house in the small seaside town of Gore-on-Sea in Kent, England, cease arriving. Nora grew close to Frieda when she became ill, diagnosed with a weak heart and lungs and advised to take the sea air for six months. Frieda’s final letter declared that every resident of Gulls Nest was concealing a secret, and that she had determined to figure them all out. Nora revels in her new freedom, especially the lightness of her head and full vision free of the restricting wimple and veil. At Gulls End, she conceals her relationship with Frieda, saying only that she is a retired nurse, and asking her fellow residents all about themselves. The boarding house is run by Helena Wells, a beautiful woman with a young daughter who doesn’t speak and seems nearly feral. Irene Rawlings, the formidable housekeeper, sets the rules and serves nearly inedible food. The other guests include Professor Poppy, an elderly former Punch and Judy showman; young couple Stella and Teddy Armstrong; barman Bill Carter, who collects curios; and Karel Ježek, a photographer from Prague. Nora was never much good at patience and humility and finds to her delight that her cleverness and inquisitive nature, which earned her constant reproof, are exactly the skills needed to locate a missing young woman. She visits Detective Inspector Rideout to share Frieda’s final letter and her suspicion that Frieda did not leave of her own accord. Rideout is first amused by Nora’s conviction that she is uniquely qualified to discover what happened to Frieda and then impressed by her powers of observation and deduction. This engaging cozy mystery is the first in a series starring the quirky and compassionate Nora Breen.

Con Lehane
The Red Scare Murders (Soho Crime 2025) begins in 1950 New York City when private investigator Mick Mulligan is asked to look into the murder of Irwin Johnson, the detested owner of a cab company. Harold Williams, an African American driver for Johnson’s cab company, was arrested and found guilty. The circumstantial evidence wasn’t strong, but Harold has both his race and membership in the Communist Party against him. A former Hollywood cartoonist, Mick was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee after refusing to rat out his friends. After losing his well-paying job and comfortable house, Mick’s wife divorced him, leaving him bitter, lonely, and barely able to make his child support payments for the two-year-old daughter who is rapidly forgetting who he is. Harold’s execution is only two weeks away, and New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski hires Mick as a last ditch effort to find evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. Mick figures Duke is just trying to look good, but soon realizes the evidence against Harold is likely fabricated and the list of people who wanted Irwin dead is quite long: his betrayed wife, the angry husbands of his various mistresses, and the rival cab company mobster owners. This riveting mystery starring the engaging Mick is seeped in the noir atmosphere of 1950 New York City.

Ken Liu
All That We See or Seem (S&S/Saga Press 2025) introduces Julia Z, who was briefly famous as a 14-year-old “orphan hacker.” Now in her mid-20s, Julia tries to keep a low profile in a Boston suburb, supporting herself an an occasional digital bounty hunter. Lawyer Piers Negri shows up at her apartment, asking Julia to find his kidnapped wife Elli Krantz, a famous dream artist who guides audiences through a shared virtual landscape. Piers shows Julia a video of Elli sent by the kidnappers, asking Julia to verify it isn’t AI and to search for clues about Elli’s location. Just after Piers departs, Julia’s AI assistant Talos alerts her to suspicious activity outside, and Julia realizes Piers has been followed, leading two dangerous men to her apartment. Quickly packing Talos, her drone Puck, and a change of clothes, she evades the men with a simple hardhat and clipboard disguise and meets Piers at his home. Piers explains that the collective dreams are anonymous, but while searching through Elli’s office and dream studio, Julia realizes Elli has been secretly recording one-on-one dream sessions with the Prince, the head of an international criminal enterprise. As ransom, the Prince demands all of Elli’s stored data, which must contain secrets the Prince does not want anyone to know. Determined to save Elli, Julia and Piers begin searching through a copy of the huge datafile as it transfers, hoping to find something they can use as leverage. Julia’s intuitive talent for communicating with her AI assistant and her drone that can morph into many useful shapes keeps them one step ahead of the Prince and his scary enforcer Victor in this all-too-realistic near-future speculative thriller.

Lori Rader-Day
Wreck Your Heart (Minotaur Books 2026) is the story of Dahlia “Doll” Devine, whose mother left her at the mercies of the foster system when she was six. The only consistent adult in her life is Alex McPhee, owner of Chicago’s McPhee’s Tavern, where Doll performs with a country cover band and helps with bar chores. Though never diagnosed, Alex is clearly on the autism spectrum and struggles with social cues and unplanned changes in his very specific routines. The week before Christmas Doll’s boyfriend Joey vanishes with the rent money, and she barely manages to salvage a few costumes and her beloved guitar “Peggy Lee” before being locked out of their apartment. At McPhee’s Tavern Doll discovers a woman she hasn’t seen for 20 years — her mother Marisa, hoping for forgiveness. Doll doesn’t trust Marisa, though she swears she no longer drinks or uses drugs, and changes into her stage outfit, pouring drinks until it is time for her show. The next morning a young woman arrives at the bar looking for her mother, who vanished the night before, and Doll discovers she has a half-sister: Sicily, known as Sis. The news is a shock to Sis as well, but she latches onto Doll, begging her to help find their mother. A murder in the alley behind McPhee’s Tavern ratchets up the tension as Doll tries to deal with uncertainty about her feelings about Sis and Marisa while also struggling to figure out who she is as a musician. This big-hearted thriller is highly recommended.

S.J. Rozan & John Shen Yen Nee
The Railway Conspiracy (Soho Crime 2025) begins in 1924, when Judge Dee Ren Jie returns to London after several months in China fighting his opium addiction. Dee’s first task is to prevent the sale of a stolen “dragon-taming” mace from a Russian thief to the Japanese buyer with the help of academic Lao She and London pickpocket Jimmy Fingers. Madame Wu Ze Tian, the mace’s owner, thanks Dee with an invitation to a banquet, introducing him to A.G. Stephen, the Director of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, who is concerned about the state of China and the controversial construction of the Eastern Railway. Stephen invites Dee to visit his bank the following week to continue the discussion. Lao is delighted to meet Yoshio Markino, a painter whose fog paintings he much admires at the banquet, and enjoys conversing with Dora and Bertram Russell. Two days later Stephen is dead, and Dee determines he was poisoned. A young Chinese communist Lao knows is murdered soon after, and Dee fears both men were killed because of a conspiracy surrounding the Chinese Eastern Railway. This second in the Dee and Lao series deepens their Sherlock/Watson relationship within a fair-play traditional mystery with liberal dashes of kung fu exploits.

Sherry Thomas
The Librarians (Berkley 2025) begins when Hazel Lee starts a new job as a clerk at a branch library in Austin, Texas, two days before Halloween. Astrid, a young librarian with a Swedish accent, introduces Hazel to Sophie, the branch administrator, and Jonathan, the program director. Hazel gets right to work and Astrid is both amused and impressed when Hazel responds to the elderly patron, who loves to try and shock new staff with his request for Fifty Shades, by listing all the books in the library that begin with those two words: Fifty Shades of Kale, Grace, Bipolar, Chicken, etc. The next day Hazel is pleased that the library is hosting a Board Game Night, her favorite pastime. Sophie’s teenage daughter Elise loves board games, and hopes the event will attract a younger crowd. The event does skew younger and many attendees come in costume, including a woman dressed as a fortune teller with an all-too-realistic third eye in the middle of her forehead. The next morning the body of Jeannette Oberman is found dead in her car, and the library staff is horrified to recognize the picture in the news article as the fortune teller from Game Night. The police interview the library staff, who are all concealing something. Helen has spent most of her life in Singapore and would prefer not to share anything about her past, Astrid isn’t really Swedish, Jonathan has a secret crush, and Sophie can’t tell the truth about Elise’s birth. Fearing that the police investigation will uncover uncomfortable truths, the librarians band together to solve the crime themselves, with unexpected results. This first contemporary mystery from the author of the Lady Sherlock mysteries is great fun.