A legendary assassin joins a support group of murderers hoping to cure themselves of their addiction to violence in Hart’s nail-biting latest (after The Paradox Hotel). Mark, who works under the moniker the Pale Horse, has kept his murderous impulses in check for months, but his progress is threatened when he’s attacked after a meeting of Assassins Anonymous. His Russian assailant stabs him in the chest before stealing a notebook with the names of everyone Mark plans to atone to. With the help of his former medic, Astrid, Mark recovers from his injuries. When his apartment is blown up a few days later, Astrid joins him on the run, and the pair head to Singapore, where Mark hopes to track down an old contact and ferret out whether his ex-employers in U.S. intelligence are out to get him, or if someone connected to a former target has come for revenge. Mark’s continued efforts to stay “clean” from violence provide welcome humor to the otherwise breakneck proceedings. Strong characters and rattling suspense lift things further above par. Hart remains a formidable rising talent. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

A Connecticut high school teacher stops a mass murder only to be targeted by a blackmailer in this hair-raising standalone from bestseller Barclay (The Lie Maker). Richard Boyle looks out his classroom window one afternoon just in time to spot Mark LeDrew, a “benign fuckup” of a former student, approaching the building while wearing a vest loaded with dynamite. Boyle tells his class to call 911 and lock themselves in, then goes to confront Mark. He convinces the 20-something to leave—but then Mark trips and sets off the explosives, killing himself and wounding Boyle. The fallout is swift. First, Mark’s parents, who blame Boyle for their son’s death, slap him with a lawsuit. Then Billy Finster, whom Boyle coached on the wrestling team, claims the news about Mark dug up memories that Boyle sexually abused him, and that he won’t go to the cops if the teacher comes up with an unspecified sum of cash. As Boyle scrambles to pay off Billy and hire a lawyer, he discovers links between Billy’s threat and a local crime network. Barclay makes his protagonist’s plight devastatingly immediate, and keeps readers on tenterhooks throughout. This is difficult to put down. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Shady dealings at a California elementary school propel this frothy adult debut from YA author Bryant (Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling). Overextended mom Mavis Miller has been roped into heading the new DEI committee at Knoll Elementary. Cornered into accepting the position by relentlessly peppy PTA president Trisha Holbrook, Mavis—one of the school’s few Black parents—has resolved to set aside any resentments and make an impact however she can. At Mavis’s first PTA meeting after accepting the position, Knoll’s new principal, Thomas Smith, announces that the school will be cutting ties with a district-wide gifted program, causing Trisha to lash out. Later in the evening, Mavis spots Trisha fumbling with heavy trash bags, rubber gloves, and a bottle of bleach as she leaves the school. The next morning, Principal Smith is nowhere to be found. Mavis immediately suspects Trisha of foul play, and joins forces with Knoll’s hunky school psychologist, Jack Cohen, to get to the bottom of the principal’s disappearance; in the process, they uncover class tensions seething beneath the school’s shiny facade. Bryant throws a few too many suspects into the mix, but Mavis is so endearing, and her chemistry with Jack so strong, that readers won’t mind. This deserves a sequel. Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

At the start of Billingham’s electrifying sequel to The Last Dance, Det. Sgt. Declan Miller is still grieving the unsolved murder of his wife, Alex, and adjusting to his unconventional new investigative partner, Sara Xiu, who has a taste for heavy metal music and one-night stands. Alex’s drug addict daughter, Finn, calls Declan one morning to tell him she’s sent a friend, Andy Bagnall, to his doorstep. Hapless Andy has been given a stolen briefcase that contains a pair of severed hands adorned with expensive signet rings, and he’s terrified that holding onto it for too long could put a target on his back. Declan recognizes the grisly contents as the work of gangster Wayne Cutler, whom he suspects of murdering Alex. After he takes possession of the suitcase, somebody murders Andy while searching his apartment for it, lighting a fire under Declan and Sara to track down Cutler. Declan remains a dashing, sharp-witted protagonist, and fans of the previous book will be pleased that Billingham saves room for his dancing exploits at the Majestic Ballroom. Throw in a delightfully madcap plot and breakneck pacing, and readers are left with a caper they won’t soon forget. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Brand’s sharp debut sets a murder mystery amid the cutthroat world of fitness influencers. Gemma Jorgenson is a model, bodybuilder, and personal trainer with half a million Instagram followers. After placing second in the national Bikini Olympia competition several years in a row, she’s confident she can finally take gold, boosting her following and potential brand deals in the process. Her path becomes clearer when Bianca Summers, who regularly stands between Gemma and the trophy, turns up dead in her hotel room. Gemma’s mixed feelings about Bianca’s murder give way to full-blown fear when more Bikini Olympia contestants are killed. Meanwhile, software engineer Ashley Sherma, who’s been yo-yo dieting since the fourth grade, has her life changed when she meets the charismatic and eccentric Lydia Wright, founder of the Fat Activist movement, which seeks to reduce the stigma around being overweight. Ashley puts her dark web skills to work for the organization, but soon learns its aims might be less liberatory than Lydia first let on. In short, punchy chapters that alternate perspectives between Gemma and Ashley, Brand—herself a former bodybuilder—sets the two women on a deliriously entertaining collision course. The mix of top-notch suspense and gleeful social satire makes this sing. Agent: Jackson Keeler, Inkworks Entertainment. (June)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Set in 1946 London, Montclair’s sixth whodunit featuring matchmakers Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge (after The Lady from Burma) is another winning blend of humor and mystery. After Gwen’s husband died in WWII, her wealthy family assigned her a court-appointed guardian, but she’s just received a judicial order freeing her from the arrangement. To celebrate, she proposes that she and Iris throw a New Year’s Eve party for their Right Sort Marriage Bureau clients. With a shortage of available spaces in London, the pair turns to Archie Spelling, Iris’s property baron boyfriend, for help. He sends them to the White Palace, a run-down dance hall, and in the process of making the venue party ready, they discover a corpse. The police—including lead investigator Mike Kinsey, Iris’s ex-fiancé—suspect Archie of the killing, forcing Iris and Gwen to help clear his name. As they investigate, pulling together a list of possible suspects who are too close to their own social circles for comfort, Gwen tiptoes back into the dating world for the first time since her husband’s death. The banter between Iris and Gwen remains brisk and hilarious, and Montclair does a particularly good job throwing readers off the culprit’s scent. Series fans will be over the moon. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

At the start of Afia's underwhelming third mystery starring Black lesbian detective Louise Lloyd (after Harlem Sunset), it's the spring of 1928 and Louise has decamped from Harlem to Paris, where she spends her days clerking in a parfumerie and her nights drinking and dancing. Things take a turn after up-and-coming artist Iris Wright disappears and her mother approaches Louise with a letter of recommendation from a friend back in Harlem and begs her to come out of retirement. Reluctantly, Louise agrees, plunging into the shadowy world of La Mort de Artistes, a secret society of women artists to which Iris belonged. As Louise infiltrates their ranks, she grows frightened of Iris's ruthless milieu, and leans on her circle of glamorous writers and musicians—and her two love interests—for help solving the case. Afia conjures a suitably intoxicating atmosphere, but her plotting drags, and the final reveal is a letdown. In letters to Louise, her friends praise her as “brave,” “brilliant,” and “formidable,” but little on the page bears out such qualities of her character. This disappoints. Agent: Travis Pennington, Knight Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Kurtz’s entertaining second whodunit featuring Atlanta PIs Nick Montaigne and Vern Wister (after Black Jackknife) finds the sleuths trying to connect a recent murder-suicide to a long-unsolved double homicide. Engineer Bertram Ramsey, 68, approaches Chinese businessman Xi Lao Bing at the offices of Bing’s tech company and shoots him in the head, then turns the gun on himself. Journalists speculate that the crime is part of an increase in Covid-related anti-Asian attacks, but a witness account claiming Ramsey said the words “maraschino cherry” before pulling the trigger catches Vern’s eye. From a source on the Atlanta PD, he learns that Ramsey’s twin sister, Irene, and her husband were gunned down in their Ohio home several decades earlier. Local police never cracked the case, so Vern loops Nick in, and they convince Ramsey’s daughter to hire them to see whether the two cases are linked. In Ohio, Nick and Vern dig through the Ramsey family’s past and join forces with a journalist who’s been following the story for years. Kurtz sticks the landing, delivering a surprising-yet-inevitable resolution that will leave readers hungry for the next installment. Harry Dolan fans should check this out. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

A grieving psychiatrist falls for a potentially dangerous patient in the shocking debut thriller from romance novelist Keeland (The Spark). Meredith McCall’s life was upended when her husband, professional hockey player Connor Fitzgerald, started abusing drugs and alcohol after a career-ending injury, then died in a drunk driving accident. In the aftermath, Meredith has grown obsessed with Gabriel Wright, whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash. She’s surprised when Gabriel walks into her office one afternoon, and even more stunned when she agrees to take him as a patient, fearing she’d give away her identity—and the fact that she’s been following him—if she declined. Soon, their relationship crosses the line from professional to romantic, and Keeland unveils, in alternating timelines, the circumstances that led Gabriel to select Meredith as his therapist. Is he playing a long game for revenge? Might Meredith’s memories of Connor’s accident be less than reliable? The tone is a little soapy, but Keeland keeps the twists coming hard and fast, and few readers will be able to predict them. This satisfies. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Gigl returns with an underheated fourth legal thriller featuring transgender New Jersey attorney Erin McCabe (after Remain Silent). Erin and her law partner Duane Swisher have recently taken on the case of white state trooper Jon Mazer, who’s been accused of murdering Black journalist Russell Marshall. Before his death, Marshall was reporting on a story about widespread sexual harassment and racial discrimination within the ranks of New Jersey’s state police. The governor, state attorney general, and police superintendent have all labeled Mazer “a bad apple in an otherwise stellar law enforcement agency,” but Mazer, who was outed as gay shortly before Marshall’s death, insists he was helping the reporter and is being framed. Gigl supplements Erin and Duane’s investigation, which uncovers evidence of government corruption, with updates on Erin’s personal life: she marries her boyfriend, Mark, despite pushback from his bigoted parents, and they attempt to start a family. Gigl—a transgender attorney herself—writes with authority about courtroom procedure, but her trial scenes lack spark, and the pacing is jerky throughout. This one’s strictly for committed series fans. Agent: Carrie Pestritto, Laura Dail Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink