Alex Michaelides’s debut, a psychological thriller, is one of the season’s hottest titles, and veterans such as James Ellroy, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, and Don Winslow also deliver big books.
Top 10
Beautiful Bad
Annie Ward. Park Row, Mar. 26, (hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7783-6910-3)
According to Park Row editorial director Erika Imranyi, this domestic thriller, set largely in the Balkans, has all the elements “that are working right now: a man you can’t trust, and women you can’t trust.” Rights have been sold in 11 foreign territories.
Bluff
Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Poisoned Pen, Apr. 2 (hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-4642-1067-9)
Drawing on the financial fleecing of her mother, Edgar finalist Hitchcock delivers what our starred review called a “delicious tale of sweet revenge,” and it has all the tension of a high-stakes poker game.
The Border
Don Winslow. Morrow, Feb. 26 (hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-266448-8)
In bestseller Winslow’s conclusion to his epic cartel trilogy, DEA agent Art Keller faces a host of enemies as he fights to stem a deadly heroin epidemic. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
The Killer Collective
Barry Eisler. Thomas & Mercer, Feb. 1 (hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5039-0426-2)
Bestseller Eisler’s assassin John Rain and his allies combat a vile government conspiracy in what PW’s starred review deemed a “crackling-good thriller.”
Metropolis
Philip Kerr. Putnam/Wood, Apr. 9 (hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-7352-1889-5)
Edgar finalist Kerr (1956–2018) charts Bernie Gunther’s efforts to catch a serial killer in his final novel featuring the wisecracking Berlin cop. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
The Reckoning
Yrsa Sigurdardottir, trans. by Victoria Cribb. Minotaur, Feb. 12 (hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-13628-2)
Icelandic author Sigurdardottir is at the top of her game in this follow-up to 2017’s The Legacy, about the horrifying crimes visited on child abusers and their enablers.
The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides. Celadon, Feb. 5 (hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-30169-7)
This first novel, about an emotionally troubled psychotherapist’s efforts to treat a traumatized woman who murdered her husband, has already sold rights in 40 territories. PW’s starred review said it “establishes Michaelides as a major player.” 200,000-copy announced first printing.
This Storm
James Ellroy. Knopf, June 4 (hardcover, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-307-95700-9)
This historical from MWA Grand Master Ellroy chronicles murder and other crimes in Los Angeles and Mexico in the wake of Pearl Harbor. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
Those People
Louise Candlish. Berkley, June 11 (hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-451-48914-2)
British author Candlish follows her stellar U.S. debut, Our House, with a novel of domestic suspense that poses the question, Could your neighbor make you angry enough to kill?
[Editor's note: this article has been updated to remove a title from the top 10 that is no longer publishing in spring 2019.]
Mysteries & Thrillers Listings
Akashic
Bellini and the Sphinx by Tony Bellotto, trans. by Clifford E. Landers (Feb. 5, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-
1-61775-662-7). Private detective Remo Bellini plunges into the underworld of São Paulo in search of missing dancer at the behest of her married lover, a renowned surgeon, who soon turns up dead.
Atlantic Monthly
The Woman in the Blue Cloak by Deon Meyer (May 7, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-0-8021-4723-3). Capt. Benny Griessel of the South African police investigates the murder of Alicia Lewis, an expert in old Dutch Masters paintings. He learns that Lewis was seeking a rare painting by Carel Fabritius, Rembrandt’s finest student, not seen since it disappeared from Delft in 1654.
Atria
The Last by Hanna Jameson (Apr. 9, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-9882-3). In this dystopian psychological thriller, an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel—along with 20 others—as the world descends into nuclear war becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a little girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.
Ballantine
Triple Jeopardy: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Apr. 9, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-62095-2). Sydney, a British diplomat stationed in early 20th-century America, flees to London after he’s accused of the violent theft of a necklace. Young lawyer Daniel Pitt, who’s forced to defend Sydney in court, turns detective after he realizes he’s not getting the whole story.
Bantam Dell
Whiskers in the Dark by Rita Mae Brown (June 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-425-28718-7). After the discovery of an old friend’s body in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia by the local hunt club’s faithful beagles, it’s up to Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen—with the aid of her crime-solving pets—to sniff out a trail of clues.
Bitter Lemon
Evil Things by Katja Ivar (Feb. 6, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-912242-09-2). In 1952, Hella Mauzer, the first ever woman inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit, is exiled to a small village in Lapland, where she seizes the chance to look into the disappearance of local Erno Jokinen. Erno’s grandson refuses to tell anyone his grandfather’s secret, which relates to Cold War conflict.
Blackstone
The Deadly Kiss-Off by Paul Di Filippo (Apr. 2, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-5384-5029-1). In this follow-up to The Big Get-Even, two con men stumble on a lone scientist and his bizarre invention, which seems to promise a big payoff if they can dupe the right buyers.
Cinco Puntos
The Bird Boys by Lisa Sandlin
(Apr. 16, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-947627-13-0). In this sequel to The Do-Right, ex-con Delpha Wade and her boss, neophyte PI Tom Phelan, take on what seems like an easy case—one Bird brother is looking for the long-lost other. It turns out that one brother is a murderer. But which one?
Crown
American Heroin by Melissa Scrivner Love (Feb. 19, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-525-57312-8). Lola Vasquez, who was introduced in Lola, will stop at nothing to protect her growing drug empire in South Central Los Angeles, even if she has to go to war with a rival cartel and risk losing the better life she’s always dreamed of.
Diversion
No Saving Throw by Kristin McFarland (May 16, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-63576-582-3). The future of Autumn’s gaming store, Ten Again, is looking bright, until one of her gamers is mysteriously murdered. Autumn is going to have to do some sleuthing of her own to save her shop.
Doubleday
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell (Mar. 5, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-385-54436-8). In 1935, a psychiatrist takes his new post at an asylum for the criminally insane outside Prague that houses Czechoslovakia’s most depraved murderers. Meanwhile, in Prague, a detective struggles to understand a brutal serial killer, who has spread fear through the city and who may have ties to the asylum.
Ecco
The Good Lie by Tom Rosenstiel (Feb. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-247539-8). The U.S. president hires political fixer Peter Rena to investigate the bombing of a shadowy American diplomatic complex in North Africa. Peter and his partner, Randi Brooks, hope to do the job quietly, but that becomes impossible when the story blows up into an all-out public scandal.
ECW
Arrow’s Fall by Joel Scott (May 14, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-77041-427-3). In this adventure thriller, the follow-up to Arrow’s Flight, Arrow and her crew seek an 18th-century sunken ship and a fortune in gold, but they must contend with ex-Marine Lord Barclay Summers, the owner of the Golden Dragon, a 240-foot sailing machine crewed by his band of mercenaries.
Faber & Faber
The Elegant Lie by Sam Eastland (Feb. 19, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-0-571-33569-5). In 1949, in the bombed-out ruins of Cologne, Hanno Dasch directs the most successful black market operation in postwar Germany. The CIA sets in motion an undercover operation to infiltrate and destroy Dasch’s empire, but it soon becomes clear that the black market ring has already been compromised.
FSG/Crichton
What We Did by Christobel Kent (Feb. 5, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-28875-4). Twenty years after Bridget Webster was sexually assaulted by her violin teacher, Anthony Carmichael, Carmichael walks into her dress shop in the English coastal town where she now lives with her husband. Bridget will do all she can to protect herself and others from this evil man.
Flatiron
I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney (Apr. 23, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-14734-9). When actress Aimee Sinclair comes home and discovers her husband is missing, she doesn’t seem to know what to do or how to act. The police think she’s hiding something, and she is—a secret that she’s never shared, but someone who wishes her ill appears to know.
Forge
They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall (Apr. 9, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-9814-7). Seven strangers, each harboring a secret, accept a surprise invitation to a luxurious private island. Odd accidents begin to occur in a scenario Agatha Christie fans will find familiar.
Gallery
Labyrinth by Catherine Coulter (July 23, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-5011-9365-1). While driving on a mountain road in West Virginia, FBI agent Lacey Sherlock loses control of her car and hits a man, a CIA analyst, who survives the accident but later goes missing. His disappearance turns out to be connected to a string of local murders.
The A List by J.A. Jance (Apr. 2, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-5011-5101-9). When Ali Reynolds’s high-profile newscaster life blew up on the West Coast, she went back home to Sedona, Ariz., to start over. Ten years later, someone from her past comes asking for help and Ali worries that revisiting the past will jeopardize her future.
Grand Central
Untitled Memory Man Thriller by David Baldacci (Apr. 16, hardcover, $29, ISBN 978-1-5387-6141-0). While visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, Det. Amos Decker runs across Meryl Hawkins, the first person he ever arrested for murder. The terminally ill Hawkins maintains his innocence. Could it be that Decker made a mistake all those years ago? 1,000,000-copy announced first printing.
Hard Case Crime
A Bloody Business by Dylan Struzan, illus. by Drew Struzan (Apr. 16, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-78565-770-2). Based on recorded interviews with the man the FBI called the oldest living godfather in America, Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo, who died in Florida at 96, this novel tells the real story of the Mob’s rise to power during Prohibition.
Harper
The American Agent: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (Mar. 26, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-243666-5). When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs during the Blitz, Maisie Dobbs helps Mark Scott, an agent from the U.S. Department of Justice, investigate. Maisie also might be falling in love again.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna by Mario Giordano, trans. by John Brownjohn (Mar. 5, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-1-328-91902-1). Auntie Poldi, retired to Sicily from Germany, worries that the Mafia is flexing its muscles when the water to her neighborhood is cut off and a dear friend’s dog is poisoned. Poldi makes herself unpopular in the pursuit of justice. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Kensington
Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke (Feb. 26, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4967-1886-0). When Hannah Swensen’s bakery becomes the setting for a TV special about movies filmed in Minnesota, Hannah hopes to shine the spotlight on her bakery—not the scandal swirling around her personal life as a disenchanted newlywed. But that’s practically impossible when a murder victim turns up in her bedroom.
Little, Brown
If She Wakes by Michael Koryta (May 14, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-29400-3). Tara Beckley, a college senior assigned to chaperone a visiting engineer to a conference, is the victim of a road accident that kills the engineer and leaves her fully alert, but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, Tara discovers that someone powerful wants her dead—but why?
Midnight Ink
The Murder Book by Lissa Marie Redmond (Feb. 8, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-0-7387-5427-7). When Buffalo, N.Y., cold case detective Lauren Riley wakes up in the hospital, she’s sure of two things: she was stabbed and left for dead, and the person who did it was a cop. Figuring out who attacked her and why won’t be easy.
Mira
The Fifth Doctrine by Karen Robards (Mar. 19, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7783-6947-9). Bianca St. Ives is either going to save the world—or die trying—in one last mission that involves her feeding fake information to the rulers of North Korea as part of an intelligence operation to bring down that country’s tyrannical regime.
Mulholland
Trigger by David Swinson (Feb. 12, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-26425-9). When an old friend from Frank Marr’s days with the D.C. Metro police needs Frank’s help to prove he didn’t shoot an unarmed civilian, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts. Aided by a young man he nearly executed years before, Frank charges headfirst into D.C.’s drug wars.
Mysterious
The Coronation: A Fandorin Mystery by Boris Akunin, trans. by Andrew Bromfield (Feb. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-8021-2781-5). After the four-year-old son of Russia’s Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich is kidnapped, the duke receives a ransom letter demanding the enormous diamond on the royal scepter that’s part of the forthcoming coronation of Nicholas II. Can Erast Fandorin, gentleman detective, find the boy in time?
Norton
Afternoon of a Faun by James Lasdun (Apr. 9, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-324-00194-2). When an old flame accuses expat English journalist Marco Rosedale of sexual assault in her memoir, his reputation and livelihood are at stake. Marco finds himself caught between the obligations of friendship and an increasingly urgent desire to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller.
Oceanview
Rag and Bone by Joe Clifford (June 4, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-60809-326-7). Handyman Jay Porter returns to his hometown of Ashton, N.H., after a fruitless search for evidence that would put his longtime nemeses, Adam and Michael Lombardi, behind bars. Now Jay is convinced that the Lombardis started a fire at the former rehab farm of his old friend/flame, Alison Rodgers, as a scare tactic to pressure Alison to sell.
Other
Article 353 by Tanguy Viel, trans. by William Rodarmor (Mar. 12, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-59051-933-2). Martial Kermeur, a laid-off shipwright in a depressed Brittany town, isn’t surprised when the police arrest him for the drowning murder of real estate developer Antoine Lazenec. Called before a judge, Kermeur explains what drove him to commit such a crime.
Pantheon
The Department of Sensitive Crimes: A Detective Varg Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Apr. 16, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5247-4821-0). The author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency mysteries sends up Scandinavian noir in this series launch about a Swedish police department that solves the most unusual, complicated, and, often, insignificant crimes.
Pegasus Crime
Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee (Mar. 5, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-64313-014-9). In 1921, Capt. Sam Wyndham, a shell-shocked veteran of WWI, struggles to keep his opium addiction secret from his superiors in Calcutta. Meanwhile, he must investigate a murder in an opium den.
Penguin
The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (Feb. 5, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-0-14-313113-7). Sicilian Insp. Salvo Montalbano looks into a series of strange abductions of young women who work in banks. He also has to deal with an arson case centered on the missing owner of a household appliances shop that burned—and who may have run off with his lover.
Polis
Once More unto the Breach by Meghan Holloway (May 14, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-947993-60-0). Welsh sheep farmer Rhys Gravenor arrives in Paris during the city’s liberation in 1944 in search of his estranged missing son. Rhys tries to unravel the mystery of his son’s wartime actions with little hope that his son is still alive.
Putnam
A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais (June 18, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-53568-3). PI Joe Pike rescues bank teller Izzy Roland from two men who try to abduct her. The men are arrested, but after posting bail, they’re murdered and Izzy disappears. Joe turns to his pal Elvis Cole for help. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
Quercus
Blood Feud by Anna Smith (Mar. 5, trade paper, $13.99, ISBN 978-1-78648-652-3). Kerry Casey wants to avoid the dirty dealings of her Glasgow gangster family, but when her brother Mickey’s funeral turns into a bloodbath at the hands of a group of anonymous shooters who kill Kerry’s mother, Kerry finds herself at the head of the Casey family and eager for revenge.
Redhook
The Killer You Know by S.R. Masters (May 14, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-0-316-48943-0). In this debut psychological thriller, a group of childhood friends arrange a reunion in their hometown 15 years after they last saw each other. One of their group fails to show up, and he might be a serial killer.
Scout
Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik (May 21, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-6892-5). Lily Buschwald welcomes the adventure of a lifetime: teaching English to a wealthy family in Cochabamba, Bolivia. But the program turns out to be a scam, and she gets involved with a savvy, handsome local, who leads her into a ruthless new world of lawless poachers, heartless missionaries, and impoverished indigenous tribes.
Seventh Street
The Body in Griffith Park: An Anna Blanc Mystery by Jennifer Kincheloe (May 7, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-63388-540-0). One day in 1908 in Griffith Park, Anna Blanc, who’s precariously employed by the LAPD as a police matron, and her lover, Det. Joe Singer, discover the body of a young gambler. Anna can’t resist trying to solve the murder, despite her other, more mundane duties.
Severn House
The Shaker Murder by Eleanor Kuhns (Feb. 1, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-7278-8837-2). Circa 1796, traveling weaver Will Rees, his pregnant wife, and their six adopted children take refuge in a Shaker community in rural Maine. Shortly after their arrival, screams in the night lead to the discovery of a drowned body. Is it murder or an unfortunate accident?
Soho Crime
Killing with Confetti by Peter Lovesey (July 9, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-64129-059-3). Career criminal Joe Irving’s daughter and Deputy Chief Constable George Brace’s son are getting married in Bath, England. Brace retains detective Peter Diamond to run security, but Diamond doubts he can keep everyone in the wedding party alive until the couple is safely on their honeymoon. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Sourcebooks Landmark
The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste (Feb. 5, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-4926-7129-9). One autumn day, four teenagers venture into an unused tunnel in a nature reserve, the supposed home of an urban myth known as the Bone Keeper. Only three of them return. Twenty years later, a body turns up.
St. Martin’s
Connections in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.D. Robb (Feb. 5, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-20157-7). New York homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, investigate the suspicious overdose death of Lyle Pickering, who recently escaped a spiral of addiction and crime. Eve and Roarke must venture into the gang territory Lyle used to inhabit to find his killer.
Subterranean
The Big Crush by David J. Schow (Feb. 28, hardcover, $40, ISBN 978-1-59606-902-2). In this contemporary urban thriller, Dave Vollmand uses an online locator site to look up his old high school crush, Daisy Villareal, who turns out to be a hit person for hire. Dave renews his relationship with Daisy just as the head of a professional hit organization targets her.
Viking
Early Riser by Jasper Fforde (Feb. 12, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-670-02503-9). In this dystopic thriller, most of the population of Wales is in hibernation, but not Charlie Worthing, the newest member of the order-maintaining team of Winter Counsels, which must deal with an outbreak of viral dreams from which people are dying. Then the dreams come to Charlie.
This article has been updated with new bibliographic information.
