Former FBI agent Brigid Quinn is haunted by past mistakes as she’s ensnared in a troubling new case in Masterman’s nuanced sequel to We Were Killers Once. After leaving the Bureau, Brigid began volunteering at Desert Doves, an Arizona shelter for abused women. There, she bonded with resident Nicole “Nicki” Gleason, whom she trained in self-defense, only to wind up reluctantly testifying against Nicki after she was accused of killing her abusive husband. Four years later, the women’s paths cross again when Nicki moves into a residence for felons near Brigid’s home. After Nicki’s apartment is burglarized by a man who’s killed by police, the violence emboldens Brigid’s neighbor, habitual malcontent Dorita Gordino, to ramp up her campaign to shut down the halfway house. When Dorita’s partly burned corpse is discovered a short time later, both Nicki and Brigid, who’d feuded with the dead woman, come under suspicion. Guilt-ridden over her role in Nicki’s incarceration, Brigid sets out to clear her name by identifying Dorita’s murderer and their connection to the burglary. Well-shaded characters, genuine surprises, and a meaty moral dilemma elevate this soapy thriller. Lisa Unger fans will be pleased. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Riches (The Silent Dead) shifts gears from gritty crime fiction to cozy mystery with this charming whodunit starring middle-aged widow Gillian Swanley, one of seven “senior lackeys” for England’s Chislehurst Green Insurance. Though Gillian hates her job, she can’t afford to quit, as she must provide for her neurodivergent son and cranky, fault-finding mother. Gillian’s therapist suggests she try gardening as a way of channeling her anxiety, which leads her to the Bromley Botanists, a ragtag group of home gardeners who are gearing up for the annual Golden Trowel competition—the most prestigious local prize in community gardening. As the crew ramps up their efforts, they decide to spy on their competitors. Their first stop is the home of Dotty Gloucester, member of the rival Southwark Secateurs and former presenter of BBC Radio’s The Lady Gardeners’ Hour. The group’s recon mission turns dangerous when they find Dotty dead in her garden shed, leading them to wonder if this year’s Golden Trowel might have deadlier stakes than usual. Riches nicely balances the focus between Gillian’s self-actualization and the Bromley Botanists’ investigation of Dotty’s death. The result is a diverting, feel-good puzzler. Agent: Caspian Dennis, Abner Stein. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

In Langsfeld’s elegiac debut, a lifetime of abuse and emotional neglect drives Tom Horak to kill his former childhood friend, Rust Hawkins. After the murder, Tom retreats from his small Colorado town to a cabin in the Rocky Mountains, where he endures a harsh winter with nothing but memories of his painful past and the moose meat he manages to hunt. Tom grew up in a house dominated by his alcoholic father, whose explosive rage and rigid ideas of masculinity prevented him from expressing his love in a healthy way. As a young adult, Tom entered a passionate, on-off relationship with the free-spirited Rose, who eventually married Rust and had his son, Gus, widening the divide between the two friends. Following Rust’s death, Gus, long abandoned by Rose, is taken in by Morris Green, a lonely Lutheran pastor grappling with his own existential doubts. Meanwhile, peace officer Marshal Tomlinson reluctantly pursues Tom, aware that the trauma of his childhood makes any hope of justice or closure an illusion. Like the novels of Tom Franklin and Willy Vlautin, Langsfeld’s meditative noir sanctifies lives steeped in pain and regret, yet still lit by the faint possibility of a brighter tomorrow. It’s an auspicious first outing. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Murphy (The New Mother) crafts a devilish mystery populated by a cast of untrustworthy characters. At the outset, Klara Martin, a torts lawyer eager to make partner at her firm, is approached at a party by handsome fellow attorney Troy Weston. Eventually the two marry, and Murphy intertwines the story of their complex relationship with that of two of their neighbors in the well-off Maryland suburb of Hawthorne Heights. Mary is a peculiar widow who worships her son Owen and has regrets about her relationship with her late husband, Ed. Henry is an unemployed adult with a history of stalking girls as far back as middle school; he spends his days watching Klara, Troy, and Mary from his window, growing convinced that Klara needs saving. As the three households hurtle toward a violence, Murphy pulls the rug out from under the reader, recasting the entire narrative in a new light. Few readers will have seen it coming, but they will, in hindsight, be impressed by Murphy’s ingenious narrative structure and clever placement of clues. Paula Hawkins fans should seek this out. Agent: Sarah Landis, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

This intricate thriller from Adams (The Last Word) kicks off with a daring attempt to rescue a young woman trapped in a remote Washington State cave system known as the Devil’s Staircase. Meanwhile, aging detective Layla Washington of the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department grapples with the fact that she faces mandatory retirement at the end of the year. Sidelined during the rescue mission itself, she’s sent to interview the survivor, Tess. During the interview, Washington teases out the harrowing story of what happened to Tess and her best friend Allie, a successful travel writer and influencer who organized the trip. What began as a bonding exercise, Tess says, quickly turned dangerous when the friends were pursued by an armed killer in the depths of the Devil’s Staircase. As Tess’s tale unfolds, however, Washington notices discrepancies and wonders what the young woman might be hiding. Adams expertly manipulates readers’ expectations, neatly dropping in clues and surprises that cast suspicion in new directions. The result is a visceral tale of daring and deceit that will keep even seasoned suspense fans on their toes. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Married coauthors Knox and Mare reunite Bexley Simon and Samantha Farmer—former costars on a popular detective show who’ve become sleuthing partners and long-distance girlfriends—in this charming sequel to Big Name Fan. Bex and Sam’s first case as real-life detectives earned them a good reputation among “Hollywood people who don’t want to get the authorities involved too soon.” With that in mind, they’re approached by Macie Finn, part of a clique of 1990s stars known to the public as the Ice Crew. Macie is worried about her fellow Ice Crew member Ramona Watts, who’s been missing for more than three days after failing to turn up for the taping of an episode of her new TV series, The Howling. Bex and Sam agree to track Ramona down, and soon discover that her disappearance may be linked to a dark episode from the Ice Crew’s past. The blossoming romance between Bex and Sam is sweet and steamy without overwhelming the main investigation. Witty, rapid-fire dialogue, well-developed characters, and a convincing evocation of Hollywood’s seedier side make for fast, fun reading. Readers will look forward to the duo’s next adventure. Agent: Tara Gelsomino, One Track Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Barelli’s addictive latest (after Unforgivable) sees revelations from a woman’s private diary come back to haunt her. Rose Dunmore is scraping by in New York City when she learns of eerie similarities between her diary, which was stored in a laptop that went missing from LaGuardia Airport two years earlier, and author Emily Harper’s new bestseller. Among the salacious contents of Rose’s diary was an account of how her crush on her junior high school teacher led to her complicity in the murder of his wife. Posing as Iris, an Emily Harper superfan, Rose ingratiates herself into the author’s life in hopes of recovering her computer. Soon, she learns Emily knew more about Rose’s connection to the diary than expected. Then Rose receives unexpected news from a childhood friend that suggests she may not be as complicit in the violent events of her youth as she thought. Barelli makes the pages fly by, ensuring readers will root for Rose to recover her laptop even as new, frightening layers to her personality come to light. The twists never let up in this rollicking psychological thriller. Agent: Lynette Novak, Seymour Agency. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A South Carolina island with a history of witch burnings is rocked by the death of a 19-year-old in this strong 1970s-set mystery from Murphy (Scarlet in Blue). Lola Germany thought she’d left Waverly Island for good when she was admitted to Juilliard. Instead, she returned home after dancing for the New York City Ballet and wound up as the island’s chief detective. Her latest case involves 19-year-old Abel Montague, who was discovered hanging from the so-called “ghost tree” in Dead Witch Forest in a position that mirrors the Hanged Man tarot card found in his pocket. Legend has it that, after Waverly’s witches were burned alive from the 15th to the 17th centuries, their spirits flew to the ghost tree “to rid themselves of the cruelty of their deaths.” Lola thinks it’s no coincidence that Abel, a student at the island’s shadowy St. Luke’s Institute of the Arts, a former monastery where the witch burnings were planned, was killed at the ghost tree. Under intense pressure from Abel’s father, the chairman of the school, Lola hunts for the killer among the many people—both instructors and students—who hated Abel’s arrogance and antisocial behaviors. Murphy crafts a foreboding atmosphere from the jump and makes the occult elements at the center of the story feel entirely plausible. This is a winner. Agent: Miriam Altshuler, DeFiore & Co. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Marshall (A Killing Cold) delivers a superb mystery about a seemingly standard search and rescue mission in the small Pacific Northwest town of Franklin. Audrey Dixon is a talented volunteer with her local Search and Rescue department. Franklin has seen more than its share of missing persons—especially young women, including Janie Martin, Audrey’s best friend who vanished years ago, and Meghan Vale, who’s just disappeared. Some residents blame the urban legend of forest witch Jenny Red-Hands for the disappearances, but Audrey doesn’t buy it, nor is she convinced by local police’s assumption that the girls ran off on their own. Newly dedicated to finding Janie in the wake of Meghan’s disappearance, Audrey notices similarities between both disappearances and uncovers evidence that they may involve the city’s most powerful family. Marshall takes a familiar premise and pushes it into exciting, experimental directions, switching perspectives between Audrey and a captive victim, and teasing out the potentially supernatural urban legend at the heart of the story. Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page. Agent: Lauren Spieler, Folio Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Walter’s latest (after Letters from Strangers) is a slick locked-room mystery set aboard a flight to Puerto Rico. Already rattled by extreme turbulence shortly after leaving San Diego, the passengers—including a bridal party, a high school baseball team, and a heartbroken mother—are further terrified when lightning strikes, plunging the plane into darkness. The pilots regain control of the aircraft, but the shaken crew and passengers face more terror when the lights come up to reveal the battered corpse of former star basketball player Billy Wilcox, the groom headed to his destination wedding. As U.S. Air Marshal Carlos Renaldo and his on-the-ground FBI contact Sam Cooper investigate each passenger one by one, a series of lies and cover-ups come to light that link the murder to the death of another passenger’s son. Facing an emergency water landing on the ill-fated flight, Renaldo and Cooper race the clock to identify the killer before time runs out for everyone aboard. Breakneck pacing makes up for some far-fetched coincidences, resulting in a screen-ready, red herring–filled bit of popcorn entertainment. It’s a flight worth taking. Agent: Carrie Pestritto, Laura Dail Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink