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

There’s nary a dull moment in bestseller Cavanagh’s electrifying latest legal thriller featuring con-man-turned-attorney Eddie Flynn (after The Trial). Elly Parker is a young influencer known for filming random acts of kindness. One night, she returns to her Manhattan apartment in the middle of a livestream and discovers, in front of 132 million viewers, that James, her husband of six months, has been having an affair with her best friend. When James and his mistress die by poisoning a short time later, suspicion falls on Elly, and she’s charged with their murders. Insisting on her innocence, she hires Flynn, whose considerable talents are tested by the prosecution’s strong case. Meanwhile, Flynn tries to protect his ex-wife, Christine, and his 16-year-old daughter from con man Arthur Cross, who’s targeting Christine’s new husband with physical threats and menacing letters. Cavanagh shrewdly braids the two main plot threads together, alternating perspectives between Flynn, his legal assistants, Elly, and a sociopathic killer who’s lurking in the background. With relentless surprises and surprisingly sharp commentary on social media narcissism, this is sure to win Cavanagh new fans. Agent: Jon Wood, Rogers, Coleridge & White. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

A podcaster’s disappearance casts suspicion on her secretly besotted best friend and business partner in Crum’s dynamite debut. Joy Moore and Benny Abbott have been BFFs for 13 years, the last four of which they’ve cohosted a chart-topping “comedy survival” podcast about people’s near-death experiences. The pair has spent months negotiating a lucrative distribution deal, so it’s a shock when Joy invites Benny over one evening and announces she needs a break from the show. She promises to explain why later, but when Benny returns the next morning, Joy and her husband are gone. A window is broken, the couple’s dog is loose, and they’re not answering their respective phones, so Benny calls 911. The LAPD suspect that an angry or jealous Benny committed foul play, so he launches his own investigation. As he soon discovers, however, he’s not the only one keeping secrets. Crum skillfully intercuts Benny’s narration with draft chapters from Joy’s memoir-in-progress, heightening suspense while gradually establishing that Benny’s unspoken love for Joy is reciprocal. By turns hilarious, harrowing, heartbreaking, and profound, Crum’s mystery ticks every box. It’s a triumph. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Scotland Yarder Ian Rutledge’s promotion to chief inspector is disrupted by a difficult case in Todd’s brilliant latest historical mystery featuring the tortured investigator (after A Christmas Witness). In 1921, Rutledge’s boss, Chief Superintendent Markum, orders him to travel to Northumberland to investigate the death of Oswin Dunn, a pilot whose body washed ashore near Lindisfarne, “the cradle of Christianity in England.” The location makes the drowning a concern for the Church of England, which is worried that Dunn’s death on the sacred island could stir up bad press. Aware that he must tread carefully, Rutledge begins searching for a murderer after an autopsy reveals that Dunn was fatally bludgeoned before entering the water. The chief inspector pursues two possible motives for the killing: anti-German prejudice directed against Dunn for having a German brother-in-law, and anger over Dunn’s investigation of the sinking of the British Royal Navy’s HMS Ascot just before the 1918 armistice. As usual, Rutledge is haunted throughout by the ghost of a man he killed in WWI, and Todd expertly balances a moving depiction of Rutledge’s torment with a masterful whodunit plot. The author is in fine form. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Swinson’s moody regional mystery (after Sweet Things) works better as a character study than a police procedural. Three years after the death of his wife, workaholic D.C. homicide detective Graham Sanderson has left the force and returned to his hometown in Upstate New York. There, he reunites with his younger brother Tommy, who suffers from PTSD and agoraphobia stemming from emotional abuse the boys’ mother inflicted on them when they were young. Graham’s hopes to leave detective work behind him are dashed when the local police chief, family friend William Finn, calls upon his expertise to help solve two baffling murders. Both bodies, one of which belonged to the chief’s nephew, were found with four stab wounds made by a “tri-edged cylindrical instrument,” possibly a dagger. The victims were both members of Narcotics Anonymous, but as more bodies pile up, Finn and Graham become less and less sure of the killer’s motive. Swinson convincingly evokes his gloomy setting and shades Graham, Tommy, and Finn with care, but the core mystery resolves in disappointingly formulaic fashion. This starts out promising but ends with a whimper. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Head-knocking courier Mercury Carter gets tangled in overlapping criminal conspiracies in Welsh-Huggins’s solid sequel to The Mailman. Carter, a former U.S. Postal Service cop, now makes a living delivering sensitive goods. The novel opens on a delivery run to Rhode Island, when he stops to help a woman who’s been in a car accident. After an armed man threatens the woman, Carter chases him off, then continues on his way, only to discover that the woman slipped him an envelope containing a ring and a business card for a Pawtucket banker. The ring, Carter learns, belonged to Terri Watkins, a missing woman with a drug habit and a history of prostitution. After assuring Watkins’s parents that he’ll help find her, Carter discovers that her pimp has been drugging clients with fentanyl, and a few of them have died. One victim is a key figure in a massive data theft scam engineered by a sleazy, money-hungry New England couple. Carter’s tenacity and physical durability help support Welsh-Huggins’s propulsive set pieces. Occasionally, though, the proceedings get bogged down by needless plot contortions. Still, fans of the first book will find this diverting enough. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Messenger follows up his memoir The Twenty-Ninth Day with a ponderous novel about a Minnesota man contemplating his failures as he tries to survive a blizzard on Lake Superior. Hugh McLaren has been estranged from his children since his wife died in a car accident decades earlier and he shrunk at the prospect of being a single parent. A terminal cancer diagnosis—the same prognosis that killed Hugh’s emotionally neglectful father—spurs him to examine his regrets and embark on a solo ice fishing trip on Lake Superior. As Hugh dreams up ways to reconnect with his adult children, a blizzard lashes the lake, and the patch of ice he’s stationed on breaks away and becomes a floe. Though the setup has the trappings of a survival thriller, Messenger opts for something more spiritual, neglecting all but the most basic narrative intrigue while banking too hard that readers will invest in Hugh’s long-winded reckoning with his own mortality. A contrived third-act resolution doesn’t help. This is a letdown. Agent: Philip Turner, Philip Turner Book Productions. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink