McGowan (Truth Truth Lie) delivers an enticing tale of murder and troubled marriages set in the Canary Islands. London couple Beth Jones and Vince Castries arrive at a ritzy resort in Tenerife, hoping the sea- and sun-filled setting might help repair their faltering union. Meanwhile, London police detective Alison Hegarty and her husband Tom are staying at the same hotel, intent on enjoying a little relaxation before the imminent arrival of their first baby, and beautiful Corinna and her partner Joel—half-sneeringly dubbed “The Influencers” by the other guests—seem intent on flaunting their looks and money in front of their followers and fellow guests. When the hotel’s sexy lounge singer, Ana Garcia de Vasquez, turns up dead on the beach, one of the guests is arrested by Spanish police, and Alison can’t stifle her instinct to investigate. Soon, she casts suspicion on the other main characters, each of whom is hiding secrets that could destroy their relationship. The White Lotus influence is strong, but McGowan elevates her novel above copycat territory with sharply drawn characters. It’s an effective bit of escapism. Agent: Diana Beaumont, DHH Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

A London family comes unglued when traces of a decades-old affair resurface in this tedious domestic drama from bestseller Parks (Two Dead Wives). Connie Baker is happily married to Luke, with whom she has three daughters. When Christmas rolls around, she’s eager to welcome home from college her oldest girl, 21-year-old Fran, who’s bringing along her first serious boyfriend, Zac Knight. On the day of the pair’s arrival, the Bakers are shocked to discover that Fran is pregnant and has every intention of keeping her baby. Furthermore, Connie finds out that Zac’s father is John Harding, the man she had an affair with at the start of her marriage 25 years ago. Though Luke forgave her, Connie has kept this secret from her daughters, so when Zac announces plans for the two families to meet, she starts to sweat. Meanwhile, chapters from the viewpoints of Fran and Zac reveal that they have secrets of their own, one of which will put the whole family in grave danger. Unfortunately, Parks saps all suspense from the proceedings with tedious internal monologues, and she paints her Gen-Z characters with an exhaustingly broad brush. By the time the melodramatic finale arrives, even Parks’s fans will have tuned out. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Even among the wit and wealth of Harvard’s freshman class, there’s something special about Lucien Alexandre Orsini-Conti, the charismatic enigma at the heart of this addictive thriller from Thornton (Beautiful Country). Lucien is precisely the sort of person who exacerbates the imposter syndrome of his randomly assigned roommate, Christopher Novotny, an awkward Baltimore scholarship student who’s rich only in artistic talent. But Lucien takes Christopher under his wing, rebranding him as the more sophisticated-sounding “Atlas.” Soon he’s lending Atlas his bespoke wardrobe, giving him a glimpse of a glittering social world he never dreamed existed, and even orchestrating his campaign to join the exclusive Hasty Pudding Club. When Atlas finds himself in dire financial straits, Lucien manipulates him into painting a forgery that he offers to sell to a Boston gallery for a hefty cut. As cracks form in Lucien’s fabulous facade and the pair’s lives spiral out of control, Thornton’s well-oiled plot threatens to tip into melodrama. He saves the day with granular detail about life in the Ivy League and keen observations on the elaborate yet empty gestures of Lucien’s social circle. The result is a wild ride readers won’t soon forget. Agent: Alice Whitwham, Cheney Agency. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Texas PI Shyla Sinclair takes on a daunting supernatural case in this taut mystery from Compton (Devils Kill Devils). Shyla is intrigued but apprehensive when she receives a note from Saxton Braith, the billionaire owner of a shipping company, asking to interview her for a job. She sets aside her misgivings and heads to Braith’s gothic estate, where, in the midst of their first conversation, Braith’s assistant punctures his skull with an iron rod. Despite the flow of blood and brain matter, however, Braith remains alive, and a stunned Shyla is asked to help him figure out why he’s unable to die. Tempted by the challenge and the prospect of a multimillion-dollar payday—plus the threat that Braith might reveal an unsavory episode from her past if she doesn’t comply—Shyla accepts the gig. For support, she enlists her friend and sometime assistant, Jinh, who recommended Shyla’s services to Braith. Despite the fantastical plotline, Compton manages to make the stakes and details of Shyla’s investigation feel remarkably grounded. It’s a wickedly satisfying whodunit for genre fans looking for something off the beaten path. Agent: Lane Heymont, Tobias Agency. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this run-of-the-mill slasher from Ryan (Bless Your Heart), horror writer Jill Marshall moves to a suburban neighborhood where a serial killer hunts the PTA. In leafy, well-to-do Brunswick, N.J., Jill stands out. She’s not perky like her neighbor Darla, cutting like local ringleader Maribel, or comfortable swanning around in athleisure like supermom Kellen. She joins the PTA anyway in hopes of fitting in while she procrastinates work on her latest book. Then a killer, disguised in a Barbie-like mask that resembles the face of the woman who previously owned Jill’s home, starts targeting citizens of Brunswick. Readers will have little trouble figuring out what’s going on, but Jill takes a bafflingly long time to ferret out the culprit. Ryan attempts to salvage her well-worn premise with a frenetic prose style (a character applying makeup “rubs oceans around each eye, her fingertips smudging bruisy blue on the stubby pink lipstick cylinder clenched in her fist”), but the effect is more overstimulating than invigorating. This misses the mark. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

A young woman is murdered and another goes missing in Cox’s inventive second whodunit featuring Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, as a sleuth (after The Lace Widow). In 1805, more than a year after Alexander’s death, Eliza has found friends among her fellow widows at Manhattan’s Pearl Street House. As a result, she feels an intense sense of responsibility when Rebecca Dickens, an orphan whom the Pearl Street women took in and trained to make lace, is found murdered in New York’s unsavory Water Street district. Meanwhile, Jo Ambrose, another of the widows’ charges, has gone missing after setting out to find Rebecca. Drawing on the skills she learned during her previous murder investigation, Eliza carefully examines Rebecca’s corpse, uncovering evidence of arsenic poisoning that the coroner missed. Her subsequent digging reveals that Rebecca was ensnared in criminal activity before her death, leading Eliza into dark corners of New York City’s underworld as she seeks the truth. Cox combines a remarkable talent for bringing the past to life with well-shaded characterizations. Historical mystery fans will be thrilled. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Box’s predictable latest thriller featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett (after Battle Mountain) puts Joe’s daughters center stage. At the outset, Joe’s wife Marybeth gets a call from a hunter informing her that a bullet-riddled Game and Fish vehicle, possibly Joe’s, was spotted on an isolated road with somebody inside. Joe is soon identified as the victim, and his wounds, including a traumatic brain injury, have left him in a coma. While Joe recovers, his adult daughters Sheridan, April, and Lucy set out to find his assailants. Box identifies the culprits early on as a pair of dim-witted guns-for-hire named Dorn Peddy and James Dale O’Bryan but keeps the identity of the person who hired them a mystery. Unfortunately, Peddy and O’Bryan prove to be uninspiring antagonists, and Joe’s daughters aren’t particularly competent sleuths, taking far too long to identify the mastermind behind the assassination plot. This will leave series fans longing for Pickett’s glory days. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

This breezy standalone from Rollins (Arkangel) isn’t up to the author’s usual standard. Sharyn Karr, an American student of magic and occult science at England’s University of Exeter, is studying in the school’s library when professor Julian Wright frantically entrusts her with an ancient tome. The book, a locked and encrypted journal from the Count of Saint-Germain, an 18th-century alchemist, supposedly contains the location of the Count’s vast treasure, and perhaps even the secret to immortality. When Wright is killed shortly after handing Sharyn the volume, she and four other students are blamed for his murder and go on the run from both law enforcement and a shadowy group called Confrérie des Illuminés that’s determined to seize the book. Malick Laurent, member of an opposing group that has sworn to protect the diary, joins the quintet as they’re pursued across England and France to the Italian Alps. Solid action and eye-catching historical tidbits enliven the proceedings, but they can’t offset the story’s underdeveloped characters, dull villains, and improbabilities. Readers drawn to the Dan Brown–esque premise will be disappointed. Agent: Russ Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 12/05/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bala delves into the messy workings of international philanthropy in her thoughtful follow-up to The Boat People. When Children of the World, a struggling nonprofit founded by an aging rock star, hires seasoned PR professional Clare Talbot to revive its fortunes, she invites Hollywood actor Dallas Hayden to visit their clinic in the Latin American country of Santa Rosa. Dallas’s immediate bond with Maria, an ill child from a near-destitute family, prompts her to aggressively pursue adoption—never mind Maria’s loving family—and pledge a hefty donation to Children of the World. Moral queasiness aside, Clare accepts the apparent victory. Then the story gets picked up by tenacious freelance journalist Emmanuelle Clemmons, who digs into both the details of Maria’s adoption and the operations of Children of the World, unearthing a string of unsavory practices that force Clare to reckon with her dreams of “doing good.” Bala’s blackly comic tale rotates through a kaleidoscopic cast of narrators, each of whom believes themselves to be the hero in their own story. With a satirical eye that never tips into cynicism, Bala delivers a quietly profound, thriller-adjacent dissection of global inequality that bruises even as it entertains. Agent: Martha Webb, CookeMcDermid. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Breedlove debuts with an impressive paranormal-tinted mystery set on an island off the coast of Maine. Willow Stone, 28, is surprised to receive a letter from her godmother, Sue Davis, after hearing nothing from the older woman for 15 years. Sue’s letter asks Willow to return to Little North Island, where Willow spent summers as a child. When a quick internet search reveals that Sue died shortly after writing the missive, Willow feels compelled to head east for her funeral. After arriving on Little North, she’s ensnared in long-standing feuds about the ownership of Cameron House, a rambling mansion passed down through multiple generations of the island’s founding family until former owner Effie Cameron left it to Sue with the request that she operate it as a historical society. That bequeathal set many tongues wagging. Now, Sue’s death has dug up fresh questions about the mansion’s ownership, which intensify when someone in the mix to inherit the property turns up dead. Horrified, Willow works to get to the bottom of the case, receiving unexpected help from the ghosts who haunt the mansion. Breedlove supplies enough suspects, red herrings, and family secrets to keep readers guessing until the final page. It’s a promising first effort. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/28/2025 | Details & Permalink