Well-to-do policeman Leo Herzfeldt investigates a string of grisly murders in 19th-century Vienna in Pötzch’s lively sequel to The Gravedigger’s Almanac. In 1892, venerated Egyptologist Alfons Strössner discovers an unplundered tomb while lost in the desert. After sand collapses around him, he’s rescued by three colleagues, and they unearth the treasure together. Two years later, two of those colleagues have died under suspicious circumstances. When Strössner’s body is found inside a sarcophagus in Vienna’s Museum of Art History with emeralds pressed into his eye sockets, it looks like murder. As Leo investigates, more killings plague Vienna, including a mauled zookeeper and dismembered male prostitutes. Battling antisemitism and skepticism of his scientific methods from police colleagues, Leo enlists the investigative help of his love interest Julia Wolf and eccentric gravedigger Augustin Rothmayer, setting the stage for an entertaining if far-fetched climax. Other elements may also test the reader’s patience, including contrived romantic troubles between Leo and Julia, but this is still a supremely enjoyable, well-researched adventure. Readers will have fun. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Perveen Mistry gets tangled in deadly Bollywood drama in Massey’s clever fifth novel featuring 1920s Bombay’s only female lawyer (after The Mistress of Bhatia House). Perveen and her father are hired by newlyweds Subhas and Rochana Ghoshal to fend off a lawsuit from Rochana’s former employer for breach of contract. Rochana, one of India’s biggest movie stars, worked for Royal Indian Pictures until, six months ago, she left to marry Subhas, owner of Champa Films, and join his studio as leading lady and coproducer of a new film. While the Mistrys plan their defense, Perveen and her best friend are invited to an advance screening of Rochana’s movie. What begins as a pleasant evening ends with the discovery of a film censor’s corpse, raising red flags for Perveen. Before she can dig too deeply, a key witness vanishes, increasing her fears that the Ghoshals are more dangerous than they seem. As always, Massey balances shrewd plot mechanics with an illuminating look at Perveen’s hardships and advantages as a professional woman. It’s another satisfying installment of a dependable series. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Hill (Who to Believe) wrings every last drop of suspense from what at first appears to be an open-and-shut case in this superior thriller. When Charlie Kilgore was an infant, his father, Mark, stabbed his friend Isaac Haviland to death in the family’s New Hampshire lake house before turning the knife on his wife. Charlie’s older brother rowed the siblings to safety, and Mark disappeared. Twenty-five years later, Charlie decides to make a podcast about the murders, which he has no memory of, in hopes that doing so will turn Mark into something other than the “monster who haunts the shadowy corners of my world.” Charlie’s trip down memory lane doesn’t sit well with some of his family members, however, especially when his initial probe reveals that the lead detective on the case died under strange circumstances. As Charlie continues to relitigate the crime, he receives threats meant to discourage him from looking any further. Though the premise is familiar, Hill takes things in surprising and inspired directions, and populates the action with remarkably well-shaded characters. This is an absolute treat. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

An unsolved murder haunts small-town Kentucky in this formulaic standalone from Greene (The Lake of Lost Girls). Fifteen years ago, teenager Jenn Moore was bludgeoned to death while hitchhiking out of her hometown of Fern River, leaving behind inconclusive evidence about what happened between the moment she left home and the moment she was killed. In the present, new physical evidence emerges and an eyewitness comes forward, giving police grounds to question Fern River resident Rhett Clark. Rhett’s wife, Lucy, balks at the questioning, insisting to friends and neighbors that no one should care who killed Jenn. Flashbacks reveal that Rhett was having an affair with the teenager shortly before she died, an entanglement that appears to give him and Lucy sufficient motive for murder. The truth, however, is more complicated, and Greene teases it out gradually by toggling between the night Jenn died and Rhett and Lucy’s fracturing marriage in the present. Unfortunately, clichéd prose (“The thing about secrets is that they never stayed hidden”) and familiar plot beats mar the proceedings. This falls flat. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Small-town crime reporter Eleanor Wooley tracks a serial killer through the Sierra Nevada in Somers’s sturdy sequel to Eleven Stolen Horses. At the outset, Eleanor cuts her coverage of the Mother’s Day Rodeo in Gold Strike, Calif., short when word arrives of a wildfire raging nearby. The fuss is quickly followed by the discovery of a woman’s body submerged in Wild Bear River. Though some assume the victim died fleeing the blaze, signs of strangulation and flowers jammed in her mouth put Eleanor on the trail of a murderer. When another woman dies under similar circumstances, the community fears that a serial killer might be in their midst, and Eleanor tries to connect the dots between victims. Meanwhile, her romance with rancher Easton Jode deepens while the pair search for Goldenrod, a wild stallion mistakenly rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management. Somers makes up for her workmanlike prose with a palpable affection for rural life and formidable expertise on equine matters. The core mystery resolves in satisfying-enough fashion, but the real draw of this series is Somers’s depiction of life in a little-discussed corner of the Golden State. This gets the job done. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

The fifth entry in Maberry’s Rogue Team International series (after Burn to Shine) is another relentless page-turner. Nicodemus, the immortal leader of the evil Red Order, has resumed his crusade against former Army ranger Joe Ledger and his team tasked with stopping global bio-threats. Accosting Ledger at the grave site of his murdered family, Nicodemus issues a cryptic warning for Ledger’s boss, Mr. Church: “Tell your lord and master he owes me, and the debt has come due.” From there, Maberry flashes back to the medieval founding of the Red Order, following Nicodemus’s Dark Ages search for an elixir granting immortality. As he subsequently spreads the Black Death across Europe, Nicodemus is pursued by the last of the Templars, a nameless, ageless knight sworn to stop him. Meanwhile, in the present, an outbreak of weaponized pneumonic plague erupts at the U.K. headquarters of Ledger’s sister team. His crew is sent to contain the disease, but the hermetically sealed skyscraper they descend on may prove to be their tomb. Series fans will devour this. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Dean (Ice Town) chronicles a dysfunctional family’s implosion in this grim domestic thriller. Drew and Peggy Jenkins live with their 14-year-old son, Samson, on a canal boat in an unnamed Midwestern town where they’ve relocated after Drew forced them to sell the bungalow they inherited from Peggy’s mother. The domineering and abusive Drew—who’s seen in the prologue locking his parents in their bedroom and burning down his childhood home—won’t let Peggy work and makes little money himself. As Samson faces bullying at school, Drew tries to make his artistic dreams come true by plugging away at his novel. Secretly, Peggy has been writing one too, in between volunteer shifts at the local library. When she finishes her manuscript before Drew completes his and excitedly tells him of her success, including interest from a publisher, he’s thrown into an especially intense rage, pushing the family to the brink of disaster. Dean subjects Peggy and Samson to one humiliation after another at the hands of Drew but fails to generate enough narrative tension to justify the onslaught of misery. There’s a certain dark pull to Dean’s characterization of the sociopathic Drew, but this ends up being too predictable for its own good. Agent: Kate Burke, Friedmann Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Brinkworth, a pseudonym for couple Jo Dinkin and Catherine Brinkworth, debuts with a lightweight cozy featuring a pair of budding gumshoes. After three months of unemployment, Jane Pye signs up for a private investigation class in the London borough of Croydon. She coerces her friend Simon Mash, a lackadaisical corporate consultant, to join her for weekly lectures given by grizzled PI Gavin Smith. To earn their certificates, Jane and Simon must submit coursework on a real crime. Gavin assigns them the case of “the recurring disappearance of Nellie Thorne,” an urban legend that has baffled Kent police for more than 50 years: every decade or so since 1971, a different young woman named Nellie Thorne has vanished, leaving behind a puzzled boyfriend. The most recent Nellie leaves behind schoolteacher Dev Hooper, whose desperation to find her prompts him to accept Jane and Simon’s help. As the duo’s bumbling efforts unfold in the present, Brinkworth weaves in flashbacks to 1997, when Gavin conducted a failed search for a Nellie of his own. Though the characters are painted with a broad brush, zany humor saves the day. There’s enough here to support a sequel. Agent: Daisy Chandley, Peters Fraser + Dunlop. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Lounge singer Zakia Zaghouani is murdered in a politically unstable Algerian city in the late 1980s in this intricate mystery from Khatibi (Sarajevo Firewood). When a shepherd discovers Zakia’s body in a meadow, it sparks a police investigation led by Inspector Hamid, whose home life is marred by his crumbling marriage and strained relationships with extended family. Hamid quickly identifies Zakia’s troubled lover, Bachir Labtam, as the primary suspect, prompting Bachir’s cousin, lawyer Noura Arkoub, to launch an effort to clear his name. Other characters—including Ibrahim Derras, a down-on-his-luck video store owner and friend of Bachir’s, and Maimoun Belassal, operator of the Sahara Hotel, where Zakia worked—soon get roped into the investigation, sharing narration duties as the truth behind Zakia’s death comes to light. Meanwhile, political tensions simmer in the background, culminating with a fictionalization of the violent 1988 “Black October” protests against Algeria’s ruling party. While the pace occasionally bogs down under the weight of the sprawling cast, elegant prose and a keen sense of place help bring the narrative to life. It’s a solid whodunit that doubles as a captivating look at a country in transition. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

The intriguing latest in Hiarhara’s Japantown series (after Evergreen) centers on Ryunosuke “Louie” Wada, an 18-year-old orphan who leaves Yokohama, Japan, for the immigrant hub of sunny Pasadena, Calif., at the turn of the 20th century. Louie was trained in carpentry by his father, a master craftsman who was killed in a work accident not long after Louie’s mother died of tuberculosis. After accepting a carpentry apprenticeship in Pasadena and surviving a turbulent ocean journey, Louie moves into a seedy boarding house, where he meets Jack, a mysterious photographer; the Boyles, a pair of rowdy Irish brothers; and Gigi, a beautiful Japanese seamstress. Louie’s hired to work the annual cherry blossom dinner at a nearby hotel, where a painting owned by the event’s host, Japanese American artist Toshio Aoki, is stolen. Louie and Jack volunteer to locate the thieves, fancying themselves budding PIs, and Gigi also asks them to track down a man who owes her money. From there, the friends plunge into a vividly rendered, bygone Pasadena, full of opium dens, political corruption, and anti-Asian sentiment. Their adventures are delightfully escapist if a bit thinly plotted. Hirahara’s done better, but this is still an immersive treat. Agent: Susan Cohen, PearlCo Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink