The melancholy final installment of Swann’s Agnes Sharp trilogy (after Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime) finds Agnes and her octogenarian housemates in the English village of Duck End planning a wedding. Jack, an ex-contract killer, and Bernadette, a blind former police informant, have decided to hold their nuptials at the ritzy Foxglove Manor in Duck End. The only snag is that Foxglove requires at least 20 people to attend the ceremony. Glamorous vlogger Charlie suggests that her fellow attendees go online to find dates to pad out the guest list, and retired policewoman Agnes reluctantly agrees, while nursing private fears that Bernadette—her best friend—is about to abandon her. When the housemates receive an ominous RSVP letter whose author promises to “be there to make sure your big day goes off with a bang,” Agnes secretly opens an inquiry to avoid worrying Bernadette. With the help of a private investigator, she tries to uncover the source of the threat—and discovers a recent murder in the process. As always, Swann offers witty reflections on aging and stocks the narrative with charming, eccentric characters, but the book’s surprisingly sad home stretch may catch fans off guard. Still, it’s a solid send-off for a strong series. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

A struggling mother turns to contract killing to support her family in this darkly funny thriller from Jiyoung (Shopping Mall for Killers). Recent years have been tough on South Korean matriarch Mrs. Shim: first her husband lost his butcher shop, then he died. Mrs. Shim started working at another butcher shop, but after her boss there is arrested, she finds herself out of a job and scrambling to take care of her two children. Distraught, she responds to a job posting for the Smile Detective Agency and is hired after demonstrating her superior knife-handling skills. The pay is exceptional, but the agency’s work turns out to be less about solving mysteries and more about killing clients. Mrs. Shim proves a talented assassin, but when she stumbles into the middle of a turf war, she inadvertently endangers her family—and realizes the only answer is to carve her way out. Jiyoung tells the story through a series of initially disconnected vignettes that gradually cohere into a rich narrative stuffed with surprises and grim humor. It’s a sharp and satisfying crime novel. Agent: Lisette Verhagen, Peters, Fraser, & Dunlop. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Three members of an online forum for insomniacs try to track down a missing waitress in bestseller Scotch’s fun if underdeveloped latest (after The Rewind). New York City empty-nester Sybil joins the forum and befriends Zeke, a Mets pitcher who’s nursing an elbow injury, and Julian, an ailing candy store owner who also lives in New York. One night, Julian suggests a late-night meetup at a diner, where the trio meet Betty, a waitress and fellow insomniac. Betty joins their ranks, but her guarded behavior leads the others to believe she’s hiding something. When Betty reveals she’s only working at the diner until she can afford a nicer place to live, a concerned Zeke invites her to move into his enormous penthouse, and she accepts. The group grows closer and celebrates Thanksgiving together, but Julian, Zeke, and Sybil still notice Betty’s erratic tendencies. After she fails to return home from work one day, the friends try to uncover the secrets lurking in her past. Effective cliff-hangers and a cast of memorable characters keep the momentum up, but few readers will be satisfied with the far-fetched conclusion, which leaves too many questions unanswered. Still, there’s enough charm on offer here to carry the day. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

This scattershot comic thriller from Blades (Have You Met Nora?) centers on a middle-aged thief whose latest job puts her in direct conflict with her scientist husband. Lu Barlow, 48, is happily married to researcher Harry, with whom she has a precocious eight-year-old son. She’s also, unbeknownst to her family, an accomplished burglar who has been stealing rare items and valuable intelligence for a shadowy crime organization called the Atlas since she was a teenager. When Harry is offered a job at biotech giant Kastille, the family leave their Brooklyn apartment for Partridge Hollow, Conn., the “second wealthiest [town] in the country’s northeast region.” At first, Lu is elated, seeing the move as a way to close the door on her life of crime. The Atlas, however, has other plans: Lu’s next and—hopefully—final assignment is to steal details about a gene editing program from her husband’s job at Kastille, which it turns out the Atlas got him in the first place. Blades has fun with her Mr. and Mrs. Smith–style premise and renders the narrative in crisp, polished prose, but erratic pacing and two-dimensional characters keep things from taking flight. It’s a letdown. Agent: Carolyn Forde, Transatlantic Agency. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

CIA officer Ava Anderson tries to fend off Russian cyberattacks in this so-so spy thriller from Butler (The Syndicate Spy). Ava has been stationed at the U.S. embassy in Moscow with her former trainer, Ben Jennings, for six weeks, trying to recruit someone from the FSB to help her uncover the source of cyberattacks that are destabilizing the U.S. government. She’s also there on a personal mission to unravel the secrets of her mother, a CIA officer who was killed by her handler while she was stationed in Russia decades earlier. As she navigates pushback from tech CEO Nathaniel Grey, whose platform is notorious for spreading misinformation, and Russian oligarch Dmitri Abramovich, who’s trying to goad the U.S. into nuclear war, she carries a torch for Ben, who’s “six-foot-three and built like a Norse God,” and targets an older FSB agent for recruitment. Butler’s nine-year career as a CIA officer lends the proceedings authenticity, but the plot’s espionage elements mix uneasily with its romance tropes, resulting in a lumpy, unfocused narrative that fails to realize its full potential. Readers will be underwhelmed. Agent: Tia Ikemoto, CAA. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sullivan keeps his hot streak alive with the crafty fifth case for neurodivergent detective George Cross of the Avon and Somerset police (after The Politician). Cross’s colleagues call him in when they discover the corpse of Brother Dominic, a monk who’d recently been reported missing, tied to a chair in the woods near his abbey. Dominic was well-liked, and there are no obvious suspects, so Cross and his partner, DS Josie Ottey, probe his life before he became a monk. They learn that his birth name was Alexander Mount, and that he had a reputation as “a fixer, a conciliator, a defuser,” in the words of one friend. Then Cross catches a lead when he realizes that Mount was the brother of an old acquaintance. As the investigation unfolds, Cross also deals with the unexpected reemergence of his mother, who abandoned him and his father when Cross was five years old. The whodunit at the novel’s heart crescendos with a solution that’s surprising, logical, and well clued, and Sullivan once again shrewdly deploys humor to counterbalance the grimness of the central crime. This is contemporary crime fiction at its finest. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Klein’s frothy second whodunit featuring ex-cop turned aspiring rock star Layla Virtue (after Vice and Virtue) is just as charming as its predecessor. At the outset, Layla is still living in a trailer park owned by her ex-rocker father, Don, and scrounging together a living by taking any job that will pay her to play music. After learning that her father is being blackmailed by someone demanding $100,000 to not tell TMZ Don lives in a trailer park, Layla jumps back into investigator mode. Then her former cop colleague, Dayton Castinetto, begs her to help him with a murder investigation concerning a man who was found in a church confessional with his head bashed in. From the book’s chuckle-worthy opening line—“Not even an electric guitar can make you look cool when you’re playing square dance music dressed like a giant turkey”—to its satisfying ending, Klein makes blending humor and mystery look easy. This series continues to play the right notes. Agent: Annie Bomke, Annie Bomke Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Raybourn’s enjoyable latest case for 1890s lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell (after A Grave Robbery) sets the unlikely sleuth on the trail of a possible vampire. Though Veronica and her beau, taxidermist Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane, have been hired for a lucrative gig cataloging a nobleman’s estate, Veronica yearns for the excitement of crime solving. Her ears perk up when she learns that a young man named Maurice Quincey was found dead in a carriage near her local cemetery. Though the consulting physician theorized that Quincey died of natural causes, the two puncture marks in his neck convince Veronica he was killed by a bloodsucker. The mystery deepens when Veronica’s friend, Det. Insp. Mornaday, informs her that a week earlier, Quincey’s best friend, Jameson Harkness, died at home after falling off his balcony. Veronica ropes Stoker and his old friend, Lady Julia Grey—heroine of another Raybourn series—into her inquiry, which proves to be among the series’ most complex. The author’s fans will delight at the well-executed crossover, and armchair sleuths will have fun puzzling out the intricate whodunit plot. It’s a spooky good time. Agent: Pamela Hopkins, Hopkins Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Ambition loosens a second-generation Chinese American’s grip on reality in Xu’s gleefully unhinged debut. High school outcast Elizabeth Zhang longs to escape South Dakota, move somewhere that matters, and lead a life that proves she’s better than everyone she grew up with. After graduating high school as valedictorian, Elizabeth matriculates at Columbia University (just like the characters in her peers’ favorite TV show) and spends the next three-and-a-half years becoming the ideal Harvard Law School candidate. She aces her LSAT, maintains a 3.94 GPA, and submits glowing recommendation letters, only for Harvard to reject her but accept her Korean American classmate Laura Kim. Distraught, outraged, and in complete denial, Elizabeth stalks, catfishes, and impersonates Laura to figure out why she won what Elizabeth sees as her spot—and how to steal it back. Xu’s twisted tale nimbly toes the line between noir and satire, with Elizabeth’s neurotic narration growing increasingly claustrophobic as her desperation mounts and her delusions multiply. This darkly funny descent into madness is certain to make a splash. Agent: Rachel Yeoh, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Horowitz’s ever-inventive Horowitz and Hawthorne series gets extra metafictional in this brilliant sixth installment (after Close to Death). In the world of the novel, Anthony Horowitz is the sidekick to master sleuth Daniel Hawthorne, and the pair’s first murder case was long ago immortalized in the true crime bestseller The Word Is Murder. The action begins with the duo learning that The Word Is Murder is being adapted into a film. Horowitz is suspicious: the project is backed by a little-known production company, and screenwriter Shanika Harris is frank about her lack of interest in stories about murder and desire to depict Horowitz and Hawthorne’s relationship as more tumultuous than it really is. After production gets underway, Horowitz and Hawthorne end up with a fresh homicide to investigate when David Caine, the rising star playing Hawthorne, is stabbed to death in his trailer. Though the initial inquiry focuses on Caine’s many enemies, Horowitz soon comes to suspect that the real Hawthorne was the intended target. As always, the author combines delicious dry humor with a rigorous fair-play whodunit, but this installment’s Scream-like Hollywood satire takes it to another level. This series is in peak form. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink