Octopus salad, a heated bidet, and a $10,000 advance—what more could ex-social worker Marie Jones want from her second case as PI Luella Van Horn in Firestone’s hilarious sequel to Murder on Sex Island? After cracking the case of a slaughtered reality show contestant, Marie takes a new assignment from wealthy New Yorker Mark Fontaine, who wants the lowdown on his cheating wife, Caitlin. According to Mark, Caitlin has been carrying on a tryst at Murder Island, an eerie private isle in the East River joint-owned by the Fontaines and other powerful East Coast families. Marie dons her blonde Luella wig and heads upriver to investigate. A short time into her stay, Mark appears, drugged-up and armed with a letter opener, and locks her in a room. She escapes down a rickety staircase, only to discover an orgy-in-progress in Caitlin and Mark’s sex dungeon and the dead body of Caitlin’s lover. Sexy waiters, spooky butlers, and a kinky boat pilot named Betsy all support Luella’s madcap murder investigation. For sheer laughs, this beats the previous book, and readers will hope to encounter the colorful cast of sidekicks in future installments. It’s a riot. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group. (June)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

A struggling actor teams up with a suave, design-obsessed ex-cop to investigate a string of suspicious deaths in this zany series launch from Goldberg (the Eve Ronin novels). Wally Nash, whose credits mostly include drug commercials, is on the brink of living out of his Hyundai when a temp agency links him up with Triax Global Insurance for a strange gig as the assistant and sensitivity trainer to claims investigator Edison Bixby. Bixby was a hotshot LAPD homicide detective until a bullet to the face induced a neurological condition that makes him blurt out insensitive comments. Fired from the force after too many outbursts, Bixby now flexes his investigative skills by probing life insurance claims for Triax. Each of his inquiries is rooted in his lifelong belief that the design of a building is often both a coconspirator in someone’s death and the most important clue. Together, Wally and Bixby investigate four separate cases, most prominently that of Caroline Crowley, a PR agent who tumbles to her death down a still-under-construction staircase at a Southern California mall. Goldberg’s goofy concept succeeds by never taking itself too seriously, with Bixby coming off like a cross between James Bond and Adrian Monk. This lighthearted whodunit goes down smooth. (June)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

TV director Klein debuts with an intriguing series launch that blends police procedural and alternate history. An audacious bank robbery in Buenos Aires nets the thieves hundreds of millions of dollars, but a weathered briefcase nabbed from a safety deposit box holds the greatest treasure. The deposit box belongs to Richard Franklin, CEO of one of the world’s wealthiest drug companies, whose son, California senator John Franklin, is the Republican candidate and front-runner in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Richard’s employee, ex-mercenary Matias Paz, tracks down and kills the thieves one by one in pursuit of the briefcase, which once belonged to Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler’s personal secretary. Chief Insp. Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department finds the briefcase first and discovers its dark secrets: irrefutable proof that Hitler not only survived WWII, but the soon-to-be-elected president of the United States is his grandson, and it’s all part of a Nazi plot decades in the making. Klein takes a fascinating what-if scenario familiar from Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil and Irving Wallace’s The Seventh Secret and brings it to vivid life with slimy villains and an investigator worth rooting for. Readers will look forward to the next installment. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

The Hudson Valley town of Fervent holds its breath when James and Ella White, convicted murderers who were released after a year and a half in prison when a different suspect confessed to the crime, return home in this profoundly moving mystery from Winslow (In West Mills). Even before their arrest, the couple, who were among Fervent’s few non-Black residents (though their adopted son, Morgan, was Black), were notorious for their hair-trigger tempers—which time behind bars and Morgan’s recent death seem unlikely to have remedied. Among the most apprehensive locals are Syl Upshaw, a divorcée who may have indirectly caused Morgan’s death, and her gay best friend, high school social studies teacher Fate Jolly. Previously targeted by James because of his sexual orientation, Fate enraged the Whites with his damning testimony during their trial. As the couple launches an escalating campaign of harassment against Syl and Fate, Winslow gracefully weaves in story lines concerning lingering pushback over integration in the area and the recent arrest of a white supremacist serial killer. A stunning climax and rich atmosphere ensure this makes a major impression. It’s a gut punch of a novel. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (June)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this barn burner of a novel from Walsh (The Love of My Life), a woman unearths disturbing truths about her short-lived first marriage. In 2022, former surgeon Carrie Cole leads a sedate life in Devon, England, with her second husband, Robin, and their young twins. With Robin struggling to find work, Carrie accepts an invitation to travel to Stockholm for a conference held by Roof, the Airbnb competitor through which she leases her vacation property. While she’s there, she plans to meet with a prominent Swedish surgeon who could reignite her medical career. Browsing Roof for rentals in Stockholm, Carrie comes across a property owned by Johan Kullberg, the man she married 12 years earlier in Thailand who was arrested for drug trafficking the day of their wedding. Johan insisted that Carrie leave Thailand and forget him, but the shock of stumbling upon him gets the best of Carrie’s curiosity. After arriving in Stockholm, she meets up with Johan and learns details about his arrest that dramatically recast the past decade of her life. With breakneck pacing, simmering romantic tension, and jaw-dropping twists, this raucously entertaining domestic thriller stands apart from the crowd. It’s pure popcorn. Agent: Allison Hunter, Trellis Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Garman debuts with an addictive mystery centered on the residents of a rambling Chelsea boarding house in 1953 London. Bohemian publisher Honor Wilson rents her rooms to creative Londoners living on the fringes of respectable society. One day, a man named Jimmy Sullivan shows up and asks for lodging, igniting a panic in Honor that she tries to hide from her other tenants. The ensuing vignettes—in which Jimmy tends to pregnant model Georgina, who needs money for an abortion, and a visit from the elderly friend of Holocaust refugee Saul reveals details about Honor’s past—gradually hint at how Jimmy and Honor are entwined. Everyone in the house has secrets, including writer Robbie and 17-year-old aspiring gumshoe Mina, and they come to a head with the arrival on the scene of Det. Insp. Hilary Comyns. Readers know from the opening pages that Jimmy winds up dead, but revealing more would do a disservice to Garman’s serpentine plot. En route to the finale, she skillfully captures the decimated mood of postwar London, with its overflowing pubs and lingering food shortages, and maximizes suspense with perfectly timed reveals. Readers will hope for more from the author soon. Agent: Cara Lee Simpson, Susanna Lea Assoc. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

James Bond reemerges to stamp out chaos at MI6 in the scattershot conclusion to Sherwood’s trilogy about the next generation of Double O agents (after A Spy Like Me). Conrad Harthrop-Vane, Agent 000, has turned traitor, kidnapped Moneypenny, and begun murdering his fellow agents. With Moneypenny gone, Joseph Dryden, Agent 004, struggles to restore order at London HQ. Meanwhile, Colonel Mora, the sadistic head of private military company Rattenfänger, is plotting an attack on Great Britain that will leave the West helpless. The Double Os’ only hope is that Johanna Harwood, Agent 003, can break Bond out of a prison near Moscow and get him back into action. This finale has all the Bond hallmarks, including suggestive banter, shaken martinis, and a campy death trap (in this instance, a snake pit). The plot momentum, however, is choppy, lurching from set piece to set piece as the proceedings grow increasingly convoluted. Though 007 diehards will appreciate the Easter eggs Sherwood scatters throughout, more casual readers are likely to get lost. It’s a mixed bag. Agents: Viola Hayden and Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown U.K. (May)

Reviewed on 03/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Patterson (Cross and Sampson) teams up with Oscar winner Davis (Finding Me) for a legal thriller that’s stronger on characterization than plot. Alabama circuit judge Mary Stone, well-known for offering free breakfasts at her home in the small town of Union Springs, finds herself in a tough spot as her reelection campaign approaches. She’s been assigned the trial of Dr. Bria Gaines, who is charged with intentionally performing an illegal abortion after terminating the pregnancy of 13-year-old Nova Jones. Under state law, the act is a felony, and a conviction could send the doctor to prison for the rest of her life. The case attracts attention from people on both sides of the abortion debate, including Union Springs’ local pastor as well as Alabama governor Bert Lamar. After the state attorney general asks Judge Stone to recuse herself in favor of a more experienced jurist, tensions escalate further, and someone intimately involved with the case is murdered. Though Judge Stone proves a memorable, fiercely independent lead, and the authors deserve credit for tackling a hot-button issue, contrivances abound and the narrative ends with a whimper. Despite glimmers of promise, this never quite gels. Agent: Deneen Howell, Williams & Connolly. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Byrne (Chain Reaction) pulls out all the stops in his pulse-pounding fourth adventure for Dez Limerick, an Irish ex-mercenary who juggles guitar-playing gigs and high-profile hacking jobs. This time around, Dez is in Paris working as a bodyguard for a client whom he saves from two assassins, killing one and letting the other—a woman known as Ash—live. Months later, Dez is tapped by the FBI for a case involving the Fuchs Underground Neutrino Collector, a scientific facility in Newfoundland doing complex particle physics research. Fuchs has gone into lockdown and stopped communicating with the outside world after a visit from donor Petra Alexandris, the CEO of Triton Expediters, the bank “for much of the world’s military and government infrastructure.” The Bureau’s Hostage Rescue Team recruits Dez to help them infiltrate Fuchs, make sure Alexandris is alive and well, and determine where the orders to seal off the facility came from. The seemingly straightforward mission gets complicated when Ash resurfaces. Byrne brilliantly braids plot threads from previous installments into the action, creating a high-octane page-turner that respects its audience’s intelligence. Readers will be tempted to devour this in a single sitting. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Maggi’s solid second outing for National Park Service special agent Emme Helliwell (after A Murder in Zion) matches a diverting puzzle with convincing emotional stakes. A family kayaking on Yellowstone Lake is stunned when a geyser spews a severed, sneaker-clad foot that lands near their boat. To Emme’s chagrin, she’s assigned to investigate; she fumbled her last case in Yellowstone National Park three years earlier, and her superiors assign her ex-boyfriend, park ranger Holden Thrush, to help with the new investigation. A coroner’s report indicates the foot belonged to a teenager. After Emme finds a pocketknife in the geyser that belongs to a wilderness school for troubled teens, she and Holden dig into the organization’s shady enrollment practices. Maggi peppers the action with enough clues—including potential links to Emme’s previous, unsolved Yellowstone case—to keep armchair sleuths guessing, while Emme’s fraught relationship with Holden adds emotional stakes. Paul Doiron fans will appreciate this. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink