Swanson’s ambitious if uneven latest (after A Talent for Murder) tells a murder mystery in reverse. Thom and Wendy Graves appear to have it all: a beautiful home, flourishing careers, a successful son. There’s just one thing: Wendy is planning to kill her husband. Moving from the current decayed state of the Graves’ two-and-a-half-decade marriage to its beginning, Swanson takes readers through the couple’s birthday celebrations, the birth of their son, the purchase of their first home, and—at the very start of their relationship—a violent decision that bonded them together. As the couple grows younger, readers gain insight into Wendy’s coldness and Thom’s drunkenness, until they finally learn what, exactly, has tied them to each other through the decades. As is typical for Swanson, there’s plenty of shrewd sleight-of-hand, but the book’s wily structure is often too clever for its own good, with certain surprises either deflated or overcomplicated by the demands of reverse chronology. The emotional impact, too, is often blunted. The author has done better before. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Conflict rages on between the Shepherds (holy warriors in service to God) and the Dark Ones (demon-possessed human minions of Satan) in the pulse-pounding fourth entry in Andrews and Wilson’s Christian-themed thriller series (after Dark Fall). After defeating the leader of the Dark Ones in the previous book, former Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson is ordered to take some much-needed rest. While vacationing in the Dominican Republic, Jed rescues a child from an attempted abduction. Convinced the incident was part of a larger plot by the Dark Ones, he calls his handlers for backup. Gayle James, a CIA liaison to the Shepherds, who’s still adjusting to the reality of the spiritual war that Jed and his team are waging, arrives to assist. While Jed and Gayle investigate a series of kidnappings orchestrated by Haitian voodoo priestess Manbo Athaliah Guerriera, teenagers Sarah Beth Yarnell and Corbin Worth, who have psychic gifts, discover that the Dark Ones are set to choose their new leader in an upcoming unholy ritual. Andrews and Wilson set a lively pace, and never let the mayhem become too convoluted or self-serious. Series fans will walk away satisfied. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rao serves up an immersive second adventure for Sikh police sergeant Akal Singh (after A Disappearance in Fiji). The year is 1915, and Singh, who has been transferred to the backwater British colony of Fiji due to an indiscretion at his former posting in Hong Kong, is still being assigned only the most inconsequential tasks by his commanding officer, inspector-general Jonathan Thurstrom. This time out, Thurstrom asks Singh to escort two visiting British ladies on their sightseeing tour of the island of Ovalau. As an afterthought, he also suggests that Singh follow up on a local shopkeeper’s report of spotting German soldiers on the island (since WWI is raging in Europe, officials consider the alleged sighting improbable at best). Accompanied by his friend and colleague Taviti Tukana—the nephew of a prominent Fijian chief—Singh tackles both assignments, only to stumble into a murder investigation when a local pariah on Ovalau turns up dead. Through Singh, who’s an outsider both to Fijians and his British superiors, Rao deploys sharp observations about colonial rule and classism. Though the book’s many subplots unfold at a leisurely pace, the author ties them together in shrewd and satisfying ways. Historical mystery fans will enjoy this. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Ryan Tapia gets entangled with a protest movement in Ricks’s so-so second thriller featuring the Maine FBI agent (after Everyone Knows but You). Ryan’s lover, Solidarity Harrison, harbors ambitions to be Maine’s next governor, but her advisers warn her that a romance with a federal agent is an electoral liability, leading her to end their relationship. A brokenhearted Ryan gets a second blow when he learns that his new supervisor is the Bureau’s most notorious screwup. As he adjusts to both changes, Ryan looks into a bizarre murder case: a corpse has been dumped in the Gulf of Maine with a yellow wig nailed to its skull. Agents suspect the crime’s connected to a Native American–led climate change protest movement, which has elicited a hostile response from the U.S. president and is poised to play a major role in Maine’s upcoming elections. As Ryan digs deeper into the murder, he grows increasingly sympathetic to the protestors’ cause, leading him to a crisis of conscience as the government tries to quash the movement. While Ricks nimbly weaves together elements of political thriller, whodunit, and domestic drama, his characterizations are disappointingly generic. This fails to leave a mark. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

The real-life 2022 University of Idaho murders form the bedrock of this disquieting thriller from Winstead (Midnight Is the Darkest Hour). Jane Sharp, 24, has just dropped out of college in Florida and sunk into a profound depression after the death of her father. Seeking distraction, she stumbles into the true crime forums of TheRealCrimeNetwork.com, first as an observer and then as a quasi-vigilante who tries to track down suspects. Soon, Jane forms an alliance with four other true crime obsessives, who fuel her fascination and offer her a sense of belonging through wide-ranging, late-night chats. When three young college students are murdered in an Idaho sorority house, the message boards light up, as users dub the killer the Barbie Butcher and frustrate local police with their relentless speculation. After three more young women are slaughtered, Jane and her fellow online gumshoes decided to meet in person for the first time in the small Idaho town where the murders took place. There, they confront the limitations of parasocial sleuthing and dig up even more darkness than they expected. Winstead ably tackles themes of grief, loneliness, and obsession, but the hefty page count drains the mystery plot of some tension. Still, it’s a chilling and thought-provoking effort. Agent: Melissa Edwards, Stonesong. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Horowitz dazzles with the brilliant third entry in his Susan Ryeland series (after Moonflower Murders). At the outset, Susan has just broken up with her Greek boyfriend, Andreas, leaving him and their bustling Crete hotel behind for her dreary London flat and a new freelance project with Causton Books. She’s been hired to edit the late Alan Conway’s unfinished final novel featuring detective Atticus Pund, which has been completed by young writer Eliot Crace. Soon, Susan discovers an ulterior motive behind Eliot’s additions to the story: he believes someone in his violently competitive family poisoned his famous grandmother, Miriam Crace, author of an überpopular children’s book series and owner of Marble Hall estate, and has nestled clues about his suspicions in Conway’s manuscript, using the fictional Chalfonts as a stand-in for the Craces. Thus Horowitz throws down a gauntlet for the reader: will finding the killer in Eliot’s novel, which takes up a solid chunk of this book’s page count, translate to a conviction in the frame story? Horowitz is at the top of his game here, linking past and present in a virtuoso finale worthy of Agatha Christie. Fans will clamor for the sequel. Agent: Jonathan Lloyd, Curtis Brown UK. (May)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

A Virginia man is sucked into a brutal drug syndicate in this fitfully inspired crime novel from bestseller Cosby (All the Sinners Bleed). After a long absence, Atlanta finance manager Roman Caruthers returns home to Jefferson Run, Va., where his father is in a coma after a suspicious car accident. When the accident gets linked to his younger brother Dante’s drug dealing, Roman offers his financial expertise to the Black Baron Boys, a gang led by brothers Torrent and Tranquil Gilchrist, who are as inclined to murder Dante as to let Roman help settle his several-hundred-thousand-dollar debt. Engaging with criminals sets Roman on a path of escalating violence that builds to a tragic, near-Shakespearean crescendo. Meanwhile, Roman and Dante’s sister, Neveah, reinvestigates the still unsolved disappearance of their mother a decade earlier. En route to the novel’s tragic finale, Cosby hits some off notes: Roman’s passage from rescuer to aspiring kingpin is almost too smooth, his growing appetite for violence is overplayed and undermotivated, and the book’s unyielding nihilism can feel more suffocating than powerful. Still, Cosby continues to excel at evocative scene-setting and drawing richly detailed portraits of rural Black family life. This is best suited to the author’s devoted fans. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

CrimeReads editor-in-chief Murphy (The Stolen Coast) charts the complex relationships between a group of longtime friends in this masterful psychological thriller. After attorney Jim inherited his family’s beach house in southeastern Massachusetts, he made it a summer retreat for his four closest college friends and nicknamed it the Nanumett Sand and Swim Club. In recent years, the group has drifted apart, but Jim and his new wife, Valentina, have decided to reunite the crew, who are all at new phases of their lives: Bruce is a bestselling novelist; Rami a diplomat; Maya an art teacher; and her partner, Shannon, an expectant mother. Though the reunion begins well, things take a turn when Bruce chides Jim for bad parenting, causing the pair to get into a physical confrontation. The next day, Bruce disappears. Ties between the group unravel further when a woman named Camille arrives, claiming Bruce invited her. Eventually, somebody winds up dead. Murphy takes time to flesh out each of his main characters before executing a series of dizzying rug pulls. It’s a devilish twist on the traditional locked-room mystery. Agent: Duval Osteen, UTA. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Broadchurch showrunner Chibnall flexes his talents for characterization and complex plotting in his engrossing first novel. Det. Sgt. Nicola Bridge, 38, has recently transferred from the Liverpool CID to her childhood home of Fleetcombe, a small West Dorset village. She hopes the transfer will bring her a quieter work life that doesn’t put additional strain on her fraying marriage. Almost as soon as she arrives, however, Nicola is assigned to investigate a murder: the bloody body of Jim Tiernan, landlord of the White Hart pub, has been discovered tied to a chair in the middle of the road, a huge crown of deer antlers attached to his head. As Nicola and her rookie DC, Harry Ward, examine the theatrical murder, they discover an undercurrent of crime, lies, and cruelty flowing just beneath Fleetcombe’s placid surface. Nicola is an exceptionally well-rounded sleuth whose personal challenges—including her philandering husband—help explain her aptitudes as a sensitive and skilled observer. As in his TV work, Chibnall gives equal depth to his supporting cast, making the potentially familiar premise feel lived-in and consequential. This deserves a sequel. Agent: Eugenie Furniss, 42MP. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

The kaleidoscopic fifth installment in MWA Grand Master Burke’s Holland Family saga (after Every Cloak Rolled in Blood) follows 14-year-old Bessie Mae Holland as she navigates threats to her family in WWI-era Texas. The action kicks off with Betsy’s brother, Cody, losing an eye during a dispute with local bully Jubal Fowler. Betsy and Cody’s father, former Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland, struggles to suppress his violent instincts while confronting Jubal’s father, Winthrop, but Bessie shoots Winthrop, wounding him, and ends up in jail. A friendly drifter tampers with evidence to get Bessie released, and Cody flees to New York City, where he’s sucked into the criminal underworld. Meanwhile, Indian Charlie, an unscrupulous security guard for the Atlas Oil Company, seeks revenge against Hackberry for an old criminal case, putting Bessie—who longs to join her brother in New York—in harm’s way. Vivid, atmospheric prose (“The grit [was] so dense it could knock a squirrel out of a tree, the dust so high the sun was a pink wafer”) enhances Burke’s wrenching portrayal of Betsy’s hope for a better life. This is another winner from a crime writer at the top of his game. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink