Kristen L. Berry
We Don’t Talk About Carol (Bantam 2025) begins when Sydney Singleton is helping her mother and sister Sasha clean out her grandmother’s house in Raleigh, North Carolina. She finds a faded picture of a young girl who looks just like Sydney, and remembers finding the same picture many years ago, and then told by her Grammy, “We don’t talk about Carol.” Her mother admits Carol was her aunt, who disgraced the family by running away to become a Motown singer when she was 17. Sydney and her husband Malik have been trying unsuccessfully to start a family for years, and she decides to distract herself from the current round of fertility treatments by resurrecting her journalist skills from her previous job on the crime beat at the San Francisco Chronicle. Sydney’s mother won’t talk about Carol either, but a neighbor who visits with a sympathy casserole tells Sydney that several teenage girls vanished in the 1960s, all from houses along the creek that runs behind Grammy’s house. She gives Sydney an old yearbook with a remembrance page for the six missing Black girls aged 16-18 who vanished between 1963 and 1965. Hidden in Carol’s old room, Sasha and Sydney find Carol’s high school diary, revealing her passion for music and a romance. Sydney is horrified to find there was very little news coverage of the disappearances and begins searching for relatives, hoping some will be willing to talk to her. Malik is concerned that Sydney is endangering a possible pregnancy, reminding her that she gave up her newspaper job for one in PR because she couldn’t handle the stress of the crime beat. But Sydney can’t let the story go, searching through copies of police records a relative shares, posting on a true crime site, and trying to convince the Raleigh police to reopen the cold cases. This character-driven debut novel explores the racial imbalance in crime investigations and celebrates the power of community.

Becky C. Brynolf
I Found a Body (Crooked Lane Books 2025) begins in 2019 when influencer Kylie May is filming a livestream on her phone outside her “permaculture getaway” at Back to Earth Holidays near Bath, England. Kylie isn’t a fan of the simple life or the environment, but is doing damage control after the backlash from her fans after promoting a cute gym kit that turned out to be constructed by children in Bangladesh. She is horrified to discover that the picturesque flock of sheep she saw near the stream the previous evening has vanished, but babbles on about the healthy air before noticing the nearly naked body of a woman in the water. Detective Sergeant Mona Hendricks is driving her 13-year-old daughter Cassie to school when Cassie insists on showing her the live stream of Kylie looking pale and sick, pointing at the body behind her: “I found a body.” Recently relocated to the Avon and Somerset police force, Mona is partnered with over enthusiastic Trainee Constable Theo Knight, known as PC Muscles, and pressured to bring the high profile case to a close as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately Kylie decides investigating the murder of Lana Cottrell herself is her chance to break out of the influencer pack, and frightens an important witness into disappearing. Nine years later the case is still unsolved. Mona has been dismissed from the force and is living in a decrepit bedsit when Kylie appears at her door explaining she has new evidence and together they can finally bring the killer to justice. The dual timelines alternate with online fan forums who dissect Kylie’s every expression, criticize the police in general and Mona in particular, and argue amongst themselves. This clever debut mystery plants fair play clues while exposing the narcissism of social media influencers who place self-promotion above anything else.

Kelsey Cox
Party of Liars (Minotaur Books 2025) takes place at Sophie Matthews’s Sweet Sixteen birthday party at her father’s lavishly restored Victorian mansion in Comal County, Texas. Built by Wilhelm Vogel, the mansion was abandoned for a century after Ada Vogel fell to her death from a balcony after the death of her infant daughter. Ethan Matthews and his ex-wife Kim spent a decade restoring the mansion before their divorce. Kim hasn’t forgiven Ethan for living in what was their dream house with his new much-younger wife Dani and their baby daughter, but spends far more than she can afford for a fancy dress for Sophie and promises herself not to drink too much at the party. Dani is a popular Instagram influencer specializing in desserts, but hasn’t felt like herself since giving birth to Charlotte. Dani has no memory of the “incident” that put Charlotte in danger and hopes Ethan will soon agree that she is mentally stable enough to care for her daughter without the help of Órlaith, their superstitious Irish nanny who believes the house is haunted. Dani spends the morning decorating a three-tiered birthday cake for Sophie, meticulously placing each tiny sprinkle in place. Sophie’s best friend Mikayla has been feeling neglected ever since Sophie was selected for the cheer squad, and isn’t happy that all of Sophie’s new friends have been invited to the party. Sections narrated from the perspectives of Dani, Kim, Órlaith, and Mikayla lead up to a scream as someone falls from the balcony to the stone patio below. This intricately constructed thriller is a nominee for the 2026 Thriller Award for Best First Novel.

Susie Dent
Guilty by Definition (Sourcebooks Landmark 2025, UK 2024) is set in Oxford, England, where Martha Thornhill is the new senior editor for the Clarendon English Dictionary (CED). Martha has spent the last ten years in Berlin, working for a small academic press and trying to escape the pervasive sadness of the disappearance of her older sister Charlie. Martha has moved back into the family house to keep an eye on her father, further crushed by the recent death of her mother from cancer. Martha loves her job researching words with her three team members (Alex, Simon, and Safi) until a mysterious letter arrives addressed to the editors and signed Chorus. They ignore it at first, but then each receive a postcard with a picture of the CED on the front and a pointed quote hinting at betrayal on the back. Going back to the letter they figure out the first word of each line forms a phrase that sounds like a crossword clue, resolving into MMX: 2010, the year Charlie went missing. The letter ends with a quote from The Merchant of Venice: “Truth will come to life. Murder cannot be hid long.” Martha takes the letter and postcards to the police, expecting to be brushed off, but Detective Oliver Caldwell is very familiar with the case, one of his first after joining the force. He shares the case notes with Martha, who wasn’t aware of many of the details since she had just left home for university. Further letters from Chorus prove harder to decipher, but the CED team are clever and very determined to solve each puzzle. Dent is an etymologist and infuses the characters in this clever debut mystery with her passion for language, beginning each chapter with a dictionary definition of an obscure word, and leaving the reader feeling a bit finifugal on the final page, not wanting the book to end.

Jessie Garcia
The Business Trip (St. Martin’s Press 2025) begins when Jasmine finally hoards enough money to escape from her abusive boyfriend Glenn. After drugging Glenn with several Ambien crushed into his beer, she flees to the airport, arriving at dawn to buy a ticket to Denver with cash. The flight doesn’t leave until the afternoon, so Jasmine hides out behind security. Stephanie Monroe is the news director at Channel 3 in Madison, Wisconsin, heading to a convention in San Diego, with a plane change in Denver. Stephanie isn’t thrilled about one more boring work trip, especially since the station won’t pay for Business Class. The two women end up sitting next to each other on the plane, falling into casual conversation about themselves and where they are going. Jasmine has long blond hair and Stephanie’s light brown hair is cut into a chin-length bob, but they bear a striking resemblance to each other, mistaken for sisters by another passenger. Throughout the rest of the flight Jasmine dreams about what her life would be like if she could switch places with Stephanie. Stephanie leaves her purse on the seat between them while visiting the restroom, and Jasmine steals her ID. She doesn’t have time to take the credit cards, but impulsively decides to follow her to San Diego. Stephanie’s next door neighbor Robert is a good friend, and the two have a habit of texting frequently during the day. He finds it a bit odd that she doesn’t respond as quickly as usual, but figures she is having a good time at the convention. Then he receives a text saying she has met a man named Trent, and is taking a side trip to Atlanta before returning to Madison. Stephanie’s work colleagues also find it strange that she isn’t in communication, and sound the alarm when she doesn’t return to work after the convention. Narrated in short propulsive chapters set before and after the flight, this twisty debut thriller is expertly plotted.

Amran Gowani
Leverage (Atria Books 2025) begins when San Francisco hedge fund manager Ali “Al” Jafar has the worst trading day of his life, losing $300 million for Prism Capital. Called into the top floor office of Prism founder Paul Kingsley, Al is sure he will be fired instantly. Instead Al is given an ultimatum: three months to earn that $300 million back or become the fall guy for the government insider-trading investigation of Prism. Al knows making the money back on that short timeline is impossible, but chooses three months of desperate struggle over an immediate jail sentence. The mounting pressure erodes Al’s already fragile sense of self-worth, making him even more aware of how much of an outsider he is at Prism, and how little support he has outside of work. Al never knew his father, and has a difficult relationship with his mother. He reaches out Damon, his only friend from college. Damon agrees Al has little chance of fighting the frame-up, and gives him a number to call from a burner phone, with instructions to leave a message that he is a hedge fund manager looking for a little R and R. A return call from Simon Heldstrum brings Al to New York City to mingle with shady individuals who provide tips that are incredibly successful in exchange for a percentage of earnings. Al knows he is incriminating himself for real now, but the money piling up in his Prism account almost compensates for his compulsion to begin each day researching ways to commit suicide. This darkly comedic debut thriller by a former Wall Street analyst pits a brilliant but mentally unstable antihero against the depraved masters of finance.

Sarah Harman
All the Other Mothers Hate Me (G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2025) begins when 10-year-old Alfie Risby, the heir to a frozen food empire, goes missing during a class trip to the Wetland Centre near their posh St. Angeles school in London. Florence Grimes, a 31-year-old former girl-band singer, at first thinks it serves Alfie right, since he relentlessly bullies her own son Dylan, until she realizes Dylan may be implicated in Alfie’s disappearance. When her ex-husband shows up asking to take Dylan away for a short trip, she quickly agrees, hoping everything will be resolved before he gets back. Then she finds Alfie’s backpack hidden in Dylan’s room, and wonders if her son’s unpredictable temper has finally gotten the best of him. Florence knows Dylan is different. He has never been interested in making friends his own age, instead gravitating to adults like their 76-year-old neighbor Mr. Foster, who supplies Dylan with live crickets to feed the box turtle he rescued from Alfie’s cricket bat. Florence hasn’t made any friends at Dylan’s school either. Her ex-husband is a St. Angeles alumni, but the other mothers look down on Florence for being American, surviving on the minimal income from her online balloon delivery service, and being far too attractive in a disreputable pop-star way. Dylan was Alfie’s partner on the class trip, and the police are very interested in talking to him. New arrival Jenny Choi, a fellow American with twin boys, doesn’t realize Florence is a pariah, and when the police don’t make any progress, the two team up to figure out what happened to Alfie, Florence to clear her son’s name and Jenny because she once dreamed of becoming a PI before being trapped in insurance law. Jenny is organized and has a car, but Florence’s only skills are a thorough knowledge of all of Mariah Carey’s songs and the ability to get most people to talk to her. This funny debut thriller satirizes power struggles between mothers, the value of appearance and class, and the paramount importance of attending the right schools.

Louise Hegarty
Fair Play (Harper 2025) begins when Abigail arrives at Yew Tree House on December 31, 2022, the Airbnb in Ireland she has rented for the New Year’s weekend. Built in the 1790s and then updated a few times, Yew Tree House retains its vintage details of chandeliers and cornices, with the comfort of modern plumbing. The smallest bedroom features an intact wall mural painted by Nathaniel Grogan, a local Irish Old Master. Abigail’s brother Benjamin was born on New Year’s Day, and the party has been a tradition for years. It now includes a murder mystery, and Abigail enjoys planting clues and red herrings and creating personas for the guests, most now experienced participants. Benjamin has known Declan since they were five, and Stephen is another long-time friend. Cormac is a university friend of Benjamin’s and his girlfriend Olivia has been part of the group for three years. Benjamin dated Margaret years ago in college, and they have remained friends. The only new person is Barbara, a work friend of Benjamin’s who feels a bit out of place. At 8:00 PM, with everyone dressed up for the Jazz Age Detective theme, Abigail passes out the individual character cards and sets the scene: Sir Hubert Handesley’s country mansion in 1929 in the midst of a wild New Year’s Party, and Sir Hubert has just been found murdered. Everyone is having a great time discovering clues and making wrong guesses when the midnight fireworks go off and the game is paused until the morning. Benjamin doesn’t come down for breakfast or answer knocks on his locked door, which Declan eventually breaks down. Benjamin is dead, his body next to an empty bottle of sleeping pills. Internationally famous consulting detective Auguste Bell arrives in his Daimler limousine, responding to Abigail’s request to prove her brother did not kill himself. Following the Fair Play rules of Golden Age detective novels, Auguste Bell interviews everyone at Abigail’s family mansion, including the butler, gardener, and housekeeper. The reassuring world of the country house murder trope, where no one really seems to care deeply about the dead person, is in sharp contrast to Abigail’s reality in 2023, where she can barely feed herself, overwhelmed by the constant pain of her brother’s death. This unpredictable, funny, and heart-breaking debut is highly recommended.

Sue Hincenbergs
The Retirement Plan (William Morrow 2025) is the story of four couples (Pam and Hank, Shalisa and Andre, Nancy and Larry, Marlene and Dave) who have been friends for 30 years, enjoying frequent backyard gatherings and looking forward to retirement. Then Pam’s husband Hank comes up with a “can’t fail” investment opportunity, so good that he includes Larry, Dave, and Andre. The investment fails, and five years later Pam and Hank have downsized to a pathetic little house and everyone’s retirement fund is gone. None of the couples are getting along — the women angry at the loss of their nest eggs and the men guilty for losing their life savings. Hank is still working at the casino, and facilitates Dave’s job as the video slot machine technician. Then Dave is killed, crushed by his manual garage door opener. The four women believe it was an accident, but the men know Dave was murdered. For the past four years, they have been taking advantage of a fault in the slot machine programming to siphon off cash every day, withdrawn by Dave, picked up by Andre’s courier service, invested in offshore accounts by banker Larry, and a complete secret from their wives. Then a new boss arrived at the casino: Padma Singh, whose family is part of organized crime in Mumbai. Hank is sure that Padma discovered their ongoing theft and arranged for Dave’s murder. The men decide to hire their barber Hector Chavez, a scary immigrant from El Salvador, to kill whoever is trying to kill them. Meanwhile, Maureen is surprised to receive a one million dollar life insurance payment from a policy she didn’t know existed, and buys a condo in Boca Raton, the very place they all planned to retire to together. The women wonder if they can cash in on their own husband’s life insurance policies, perhaps with the help of Dave’s scary barber. This darkly funny debut thriller is great fun.

Omar Hussain
A Thousand Natural Shocks (Blackstone Publishing 2025) is the story of Dash, a reporter in Monterey, California, plagued by nightmares from his past. Terrified by his dreams, Dash uses a combination of pills to stay awake as much as he can, resorting to cat naps only when he can’t keep his eyes open any longer. A new friend Enzo introduces him to the Liberty Subterraneans, a group led by Rocket, who promises a compete erasure of memory and rebirth into a new life as soon as a series of tasks are completed. Dash is willing to do just about anything to stop his nightmares, and hopes the memory erasure will also cure his addition to pills. To keep his job at the newspaper, Dash pretends he is being stalked by the Coast Killer, who hasn’t killed since the late 2000s. When it becomes clear Dash has fabricated his evidence he is fired. But his article precipitates a new series of murders committed with the same method the Coast Killer used, and Dash is sure he is being stalked for real. Rocket provides Dash with a new source of income, desperately needed to pay for his addiction, and he finds himself preying on the elderly and the disabled. Increasingly convinced that Liberty Subterraneans is a dangerous cult, Dash struggles to balance his need for a new life against the distasteful tasks he is asked to complete, all while trying to track down a serial killer. This intense debut thriller is stunning.

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.

Jakob Kerr
Dead Money (Bantam 2025) begins when a night cleaner discovers the body of Trevor Cannon, the CEO and founder of tech firm Journy, in his top floor office with the stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Three weeks later Mackensie Clyde, the “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalist Roger Hammersmith, is informed by her boss that he has a new assignment for her: work with the FBI to solve the murder of Trevor Cannon. Journy is the jewel of Hammersmith Venture’s investment portfolio, and Hammersmith has lost patience with the inability of the police to identify the killer. The crime scene was completely clean, not a shred of evidence, and the single shot through the forehead from a distance appears to be the work of a professional killer. Hammersmith tells Mackensie that Trevor did something strange just before he died, amending his will with a “dead money” provision freezing his assets until someone is tried for his murder. All 20 billion of Trevor’s shares, including Hammersmith’s 5 billion investment, is frozen, and since the company can’t do anything without a controlling interest, it is stuck in limbo. Hammersmith has used his influence to get the FBI involved, and Mackensie is added as advisor to work with the FBI, using her intimate knowledge of the way the tech industry works to assist the FBI. Special Agent Jameson Danner of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division isn’t convinced that Mackensie, with only a law degree, has anything useful to offer, and isn’t inclined to share anything with her. But when information about recent changes Trevor made to the building security system prove that only the top five executives had access to Trevor’s top floor office, Danner is forced to admit he doesn’t speak their language and needs Mackensie’s help. Interspersed sections fill in Mackensie’s background growing up in poverty with a single parent and the barriers she conquered to make a successful life for herself. Kerr’s background as a lawyer in the tech industry adds depth to this impressive debut thriller.

Laura McCluskey
The Wolf Tree (G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2025) is set on the fictional remote windswept island of Eilean Eadar in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Detective Inspectors Georgina “George” Lennox and Richie Stewart are sent to investigate the death of 18-year-old Alan Ferguson, presumably a suicide though the bruises on his arms look a lot like finger marks. Arriving soaked to the skin, George and Ritchie are welcomed by Cecily Campbell and her three curious children. Though Cecily has lived on Eilean Eadar since marrying her fisherman husband Donald nine years earlier, she hasn’t yet been completely accepted by the community. The population on the island is under 200, and the insular community is quite suspicious of outsiders, many actively hostile. The post office, run by Kathy MacKinnon, houses the only computer on the island and a Satellite phone. Kathy explains that a few of the residents are interested in entering the modern world, but most are content to do things the way they have always been done, taking care of each other under the watchful eye of the resident Catholic priest. Ritchie is an experienced detective, cautious and methodical, while newly promoted George is more impulsive, often acting on intuition without thinking through all the ramifications. Ritchie is soon convinced Alan’s death was indeed a suicide, but George senses something wrong. Just back after medical leave following a skull injury, George is concealing her dependence on pain medication to deal with blinding headaches. When she hears the howl of a wolf and then sees one peering through her window, George isn’t sure if it is reality or a side effect of the pain pills. The freezing weather and limited hours of daylight add to the claustrophobic atmosphere in this debut thriller, longlisted for the 2026 Debut Dagger Award.

Joan O’Leary
A Killer Wedding (William Morrow 2025) is set in Ireland’s Ballymoon Castle Hotel, where Graham Ripton, grandson and heir to Gloria Beaufort’s billion dollar beauty empire “Glo,” is marrying Jane Murphy. Christine Russo, newly promoted senior editor at Bespoke Weddings, has charmed Gloria into insisting Christine cover the wedding all by herself, to editor-in-chief Sandra Yoon’s chagrin. Christine is unexpectedly invited to the intimate family-only dinner two days before the wedding, meeting everyone except Gloria for the first time: Gloria’s two sons Trey and Ben, their wives Clementine and Lyle, Jane’s mother Maggie, and wedding officiant Father Kenneth. Christine hasn’t spent much time with the ultra-rich and is alternatively amazed and horrified by their attitude and behavior, especially Clementine’s bizarre fashion sense and Ben’s obvious alcoholism. Maggie and “Plain” Jane seem to be the only normal people. Event Coordinator Elliot Adler herds her around, arranging time for interviews and throwing fits when things aren’t up to his exacting standards. The family members either ignore Christine completely or look at her suspiciously when they realize she may have overheard something incriminating. At the age of 85 Gloria still holds the reins of Glo tightly, though she has recently passed on her Charleston Grow 2 Glow charity foundation to Graham. Early on the morning the day before the wedding Christine hears a scream coming from Gloria’s room, and runs down the hall to find Gloria dead on the floor, surrounded by the family. She has been shot through the head, but there is no gun in the room, so clearly a murder. Elliot reminds everyone that 350 wedding guests are on their way, and the family decides to cover up the murder until after the wedding. Christine tries to sneak out of the room but Ben insists she is part of it now, and they all need to work together to keep the secret. Interspersed chapters fill in the backstories, giving everyone except Ben and Lyle’s toddler son a motive for murder in this glamorous and deadly debut mystery.

Bailey Seybolt
Coram House (Atria Books 2025) begins when true-crime writer Alex Kelley accepts a job to ghostwrite a book about Coram House, a notorious orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Charges of abuse were filed against the Catholic Church in 1988, but settled out of court for very little. Alan Stedsan, the pro bono lawyer for the case, explains that the plaintiffs couldn’t agree on anything, mainly because so much time had passed and some were very young at the time. Alan admits the records are a mess, but he has confidence she can come up with a book. Alex hasn’t been able to write since her husband died of cancer, and accepts the job even though it requires her to move to Burlington from Brooklyn for six months, hoping the story of the haunted orphanage will provide the spark she needs to bury herself in a new project. Alan gives her the written interviews with the plaintiffs, struggling to remember the details of their lives as children over 20 years before, plus compelling VCR recordings. Most everyone agrees on the sexual abuse by a priest and the physical and emotional abuse by Sister Cecile, but one story lights the spark for Alex. Sarah Dale is haunted by the memory of Sister Cecile taking little Tommy out in the rowboat in the summer of 1968 for a swimming lesson, a bigger boy pushing Tommy into the water, and then the two rowing back to shore when Tommy, who couldn’t swim, never came up. Sarah was terrified of the punishment Sister Cecile would impose on children who talked back — locking them into a dark wardrobe in the attic for hours at a time — and never told anyone what she saw. No one else corroborated Sarah’s testimony. Instead they remember hearing that Tommy ran away, if they remember him at all. When a woman’s body is discovered in the lake, Alex is sure there is a connection with the history of Coram House, but the local police think she is just trying to create interest in her book. This suspenseful debut thriller is longlisted for the 2026 Debut Dagger Award.

Zoë Rankin
The Vanishing Place (Berkley 2025) begins when a small malnourished girl covered in blood emerges from the New Zealand bush, entering the store in the tiny town of Koraha, devouring fresh strawberries and gulping down milk. When Police Constable Lewis Weston arrives she says her name is Anya, and then not another word. Police officer Effie is living on the Island of Skye, Scotland, when the call comes through from Lewis in New Zealand, informing Effie that the traumatized little girl that just emerged from the bush looks just like she did at the same age, with striking green eyes and bright red hair. Lewis helped Effie run away from her family 17 years earlier, when she was only 15 and he was just starting out as a police trainee. Lewis tells Effie he is sure Anya came from Effie’s old family home hidden deep in the bush, a place so isolated the locals call it “The Vanishing Place.” Lewis begs Effie to return since she is the only one who can find the isolated cabin and Anya’s family. When Effie arrives, Anya rushes to her side and clings to her desperately. Effie is sure they are related, and perhaps Anya is the child of one of her siblings. Effie treks to her old family home and discovers the body of a dead man with a crude cross carved into his bare chest. Anya is too frightened to talk, whispering that Effie is breaking the rules by not being silent, but eventually begins to nod and shake her head, revealing she is eight years old and lived with her mum. Flashbacks reveal Effie’s backstory, starting with her mother’s death in 2001 while giving birth to the fourth child in their isolated off-grid cabin. Effie’s father disappears immediately after her mother’s death, leaving little Effie to take care of the newborn boy as well as her younger siblings. He reappears with a neighbor woman, who helps to care for the children, keeping them in her house in Koraha for periods of time until their father periodically reappears to take them back to the bush. As Effie tries to form a relationship with Anya, she reexamines her own past from an adult perspective, finally confronting the violent episode that led to her escape from her father and New Zealand. This excellent debut thriller explores the long term effects controlling adults can have on vulnerable children.

Tanya Scott
Stillwater (Atlantic Monthly Press 2025) is the story of Australian Jack Quinlan, who didn’t meet his father Michael Quinlan until his mother died of a drug overdose when he was seven. Quin takes him to stay with Gail, the mother of his best mate Kevin, currently in prison. Just as Jack is starting to settle in Kevin is released and takes an immediate dislike to Jack. Quin and Kevin fall back into a life of crime and Jack spends time in foster care whenever Quin is arrested. When Jack is 12, Sydney crime boss Gus Alberici appears to collect money Quin owes him, and take a liking to Jack, setting him up with boxing lessons after Jack admits his bruises are from school bullies. Gus give Jack a phone, and he is soon transporting drugs and money in his school backpack. Now 25, Jack has legally changed his name to Luke Harris, and is barely making ends meet as a university student in Melbourne. His job as a part time disability support worker, sends him to the elegant home of Jonathan Whylie to help with his son Phil, a large man close to Luke’s age with autism, severe anxiety, and intermittent psychotic episodes. Phil’s regular carer is in the hospital and Jonathan pays him twice his usual rate in cash to fill in. Luke knows he should be studying for his exams, but needs the money to fix his ancient Subaru. Phil likes him and Luke is attracted to Phil’s younger sister Emma, who eventually convinces him to come out for a drink to meet her friends. On the way out of the bar Luke brushes by a man who immediately recognizes him as Jack Quinlan, and Gus soon appears at his apartment, tossing him a burner phone and insisting he locate Quin and Kevin, who disappeared years earlier with a big pile of money Gus thinks belongs to him. Drawn back into the life he so desperately tried to escape, Luke resurrects his Jack skills to keep himself alive in this high-intensity debut thriller.

Tom Spencer
The Mystery of the Crooked Man (Pushkin Vertigo 2025, UK 2024) is the story of Agatha Dorn, an archivist at the Neele Archive in London, which specializes in first editions, holographic manuscripts, and other rare items. Agatha has been serving as the interim Curator for the past six months, and is sure she will be become permanent. Instead, Nancy, a 24-year-old new hire, is appointed Curator. Agatha’s passion is Gladden Green, the Queen of Golden Age detective fiction, and she was thrilled to receive a box of assorted material donated by the family of Alexander Cust, an amateur writer who was a porter in 1926 at the Pale Horse, a luxury resort outside Harrogate. When Gladden Green disappeared for a 10-day period after learning her husband Archie’s affair with another woman was serious, she checked into the Pale Horse under an assumed name. Gladden Green claimed to be suffering from amnesia, and the truth of her disappearance remained a mystery. In the box Agatha discovers a handwritten letter to Mr. Cusp thanking him for taking such good care of her, and enclosing a novella written during her stay. Sure that the manuscript is a lost Gladden Green work featuring her famous detective Père Flambeau, Agatha hides it in her large handbag and takes it home. The villain in the novella is disguised as a hunchback wearing a black hat and coat, exactly like the frightening figure who has haunted her from early childhood — the Crooked Man. Agatha is always short of money, and the chance of proving her worth to the Neele Archive and making a tidy profit as well is irresistible so she arranges to get the novella published. Agatha’s difficult personality and tendency to drink far too much gin has left her without many friends. Responding to a strange voicemail from former best friend and ex-lover, Amy Murgatroyd, Agatha discovers Amy’s dead body, clutching a scrap of the manuscript. Suspecting murder rather than suicide, and terrified the novella she didn’t take the time to verify might be a fake, Agatha struggles to stay sober long enough to find the truth. This witty homage to Agatha Christie is great fun.

Sophie Stava
Count My Lies (Gallery/Scout Press 2025) begins when Sloane Caraway rushes to help a little girl who has just stepped on a bee in a Brooklyn park. Telling the very attractive father that she is a nurse, Sloane carefully scrapes the stinger out and uses a cold can from their picnic to dull the sting. Jay introduces himself and his daughter Harper, and Sloane impulsively chooses the name Caitlin. Sloane has been watching Jay for the past week during her afternoon break from the nail salon, clad in her uniform of mauve-colored scrubs, noticing the handsome man is not wearing a wedding ring. She is devastated when Jay says his wife Violet will be back on playground duty the following week, but is charmed by beautiful woman who appears at the park with Harper. Violet invites Sloane over for dinner as a thank-you. Sloane is impressed by their beautifully decorated brownstone though puzzled that there is only a single picture of Harper, no wedding pictures, vacation snaps, or family portraits. Sloane became an accomplished liar from a young age, inventing the father she never knew, pets she didn’t have, vacations she and her single mother never took. So it’s easy for Sloane to fall into the Caitlin persona, telling Violet she is taking a leave from nursing to spend more time with her mother who has lupus, offering to babysit Harper when Violet needs to study for the law exam she postponed when Harper was born. Soon Sloane is Harper’s full time nanny, fully inserted into the life she wishes was hers. This twisty debut psychological thriller is a finalist for the 2026 Thriller Award for Best First Novel.

Jennifer Trevelyan
A Beautiful Family (Doubleday 2025) takes place in 1985 during a summer vacation on Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. Alix (10) plans to spend the summer in the water, her sister Vanessa (15) is unhappy about leaving her friends behind, her mother wants to finish writing her novel, and her father is looking forward to doing nothing except grilling and watching cricket. When they arrive, Alix notices a man watching them from the second-floor deck of the house behind their holiday house, but no one else seems to think he is strange. The waves at the beach are rough, so Alix is not allowed to swim alone, instead her mother volunteers to watch her every day from the beach. Alix makes friends with Kahu, a Māori boy also in town for the summer visiting family, and the two swim together and hunt for clues about Charlotte, a young girl who went missing two summers earlier. Alix worries that her mother won’t allow her to explore with Kahu, but her mother’s long walks every afternoon leave them free to wander the dunes alone. Meanwhile, Vanessa finds a new friend who tempts her into shoplifting and sneaking out at night to drink. Bound by the sister code not to tattle, Alix doesn’t tell her parents, instead pretending not to notice as she listens to her cassette tape of Split Enz on her red Walkman. Often ignored, Alix notices things others don’t see, but files them away as yet one more mystery she doesn’t understand. This haunting debut mystery is longlisted for the 2026 Debut Dagger Award.

Kevin Wade
Johnny Careless (Celadon Books 2025) is set in Bayville, on Long Island’s North Shore. Jeep Mullane, who grew up in Bayville, has returned home to take the job of Chief of Police after earning his detective shield and injuring his knee with the NYPD. At first he doesn’t recognize the body found on the beach, the face a bloody mess, but then spots the tattoo of an X on the man’s ankle, just like the one on his own leg. Jeep met Johnny Chambliss playing elite-level lacrosse, an unlikely friendship between the working class son of a cop and the pampered boy with a trust fund. Johnny was nicknamed “Johnny Careless” by their coach because of his habit of skipping practices and games. Jeep was pulled into Johnny’s circle of descendants of generational wealth, but never quite accepted. Choosing to follow his own father into the police put more distance between them, and the two haven’t spent time together for years. As Jeep investigates Johnny’s death, which he is sure is murder, he relives their time together, beginning with the joint tattoos 21 years earlier to celebrate their lacrosse team. Jeep calls Niven Croft, Johnny’s ex-wife he’s known since middle school, to help him break the news to Johnny’s parents. Niven seems to know a secret about Johnny, but says she can’t share it, and Jeep begins digging into the powerful Chambliss family. He’s warned off by the mayor, but can’t let go of the scent of corruption, which may be a motive for murder. The writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023, suspending all writing work for television and movies, gave Wade the time to write this debut thriller, rich in both character development and plot.

Zoe B. Wallbrook
History Lessons (Soho Crime 2025) begins when Sam Taylor, a popular anthropology professor at elite Harrison University in Calliope, sends a strange text in barely passable French to Daphne Ouverture, a first-year professor of European History specializing in French colonialism. Daphne was returning home after yet one more bad first date, again unable to stop herself from filling an awkward silence by sharing an historical atrocity with full details, when she gets Sam’s text. The two work colleagues aren’t really friends, in fact Daphne isn’t comfortable with the way Sam looks at her, and she deletes the text after wondering for a few seconds why he sent it. Daphne remembers just about everything she has ever read, and is able to recall the words of the text when the police visit the next day asking about her connection with Sam, who sent the text right before he was murdered. Daphne realizes his text was a poor attempt to quote a line from Papillion, an autobiographical 1969 novel by Henri Charrière about a prison break in French Guiana. Searching her bookshelves for her copy of the book, a gift from her Auntie Emmanuelle years earlier, Daphne is surprised to find it missing. She checks her list of books she has lent out just to be sure, but Papillion isn’t there, and the only person who expressed any interest in the book was Sam Taylor. A few days after Sam’s death Daphne is attacked in her cottage by someone who knocks her unconscious and ransacks her bookshelves. She tells Detective Asma Ahmed and police consultant Rowan Peterson about the missing copy of Papillion and learns Sam’s bookshelves were also torn apart after his death. Daphne soon realizes that university politics are involved in Sam’s murder, and begins her own parallel investigation. Of Ivory Coast and Louisiana Creole heritage, Daphne has bonded with two other nerdy young professors: topologist Elise Park and mathematician Sadhika (Sadie) Pandaram, who reluctantly support her investigation. This humorous debut mystery with a soupçon of romance empathetically addresses difficult issues of racism, sexism, and harassment.

Liann Zhang
Julie Chan Is Dead (Atria Books 2025) begins when Julie Chan, an impoverished supermarket clerk, is mistaken for her identical twin sister Chloe Van Huusen, a glamorous social media influencer. Their parents died in a car accident when the twins were only four years old, and they were separated. Chloe was adopted by the wealthy Van Huusens and transported to their luxurious New York home, while Julie was fostered by her aunt, sharing a room with her distasteful cousin. Their only contact was when they were 21 and Chloe suddenly appeared at SuperFoods with a film crew in tow, posting a viral video (Finding My Long-Lost Twin and Buying Her a House #EMOTIONAL). The house isn’t much, but Julie is thrilled to move out on her own, hoping to become part of her sister’s life. A year later Julie is still waiting for Chloe to contact her again, when she receives a call from a New York number, Chloe coughing and moaning she is sorry. The call is quickly disconnected, and Julie’s return calls go straight to voicemail. The next morning Julie checks Chloe’s social media accounts and is shocked to discovered she hasn’t posted in two weeks, a complete disconnect from her usual practice of posting several times a day. Digging out the deed for her house, Julie finds Chloe’s address and buys a bus ticket for New York. Arriving at the Manhattan address, Julie is mistaken for Chloe by the security guard and ushered straight to the elevator, which whisks her to the 27th floor. Chloe’s door is shut but not locked, and Julie enters to discover her sister’s body in the kitchen. Julie uses Chloe’s to call 911, discovering an email from Kare Kosmetics with an invoice for Chloe’s earnings for the last month: $45,000. The police also assume she is Chloe, and Julie finds herself giving her own ID to identify the body, making a snap decision to trade lives with her sister. After all, how hard can it be promoting things online? This debut thriller dissecting the self-absorbed influencer culture is both entertaining and terrifying.