Detroit PI Amos Walker helps a woman escape her vengeful brother-in-law in the sterling latest installment of Estleman’s long-running series (after Smoke on the Water). Sage Holland, niece of Walker’s deceased lover, Iris, has driven from Alaska to Michigan to seek his help. After Sage was convicted of poisoning her husband, David, by slipping ricin into his dinner, the decision was overturned on appeal because the prosecution tampered with the jury. Despite the exoneration, David’s brother, Alaska cop Greg Holland, still holds Sage liable for David’s death. Greg has stalked Sage all the way to the Midwest, harassing her with threats of violence at every opportunity, and Sage begs Walker to make it stop. Walker agrees to see what he can do, and the stakes skyrocket when his investigation appears to lead to the murder of one of his informants. Estleman enhances the tight plot with characteristically excellent prose (Michigan is a place “where we measure our summers in hours and our winters in months”). This series shows no signs of wear and tear. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Lowkis (Spitting Gold) serves up an enticing sapphic love story that takes place on a supposedly cursed English manor. In 1926, Vee Morgan hopes to make a new start after a mysterious event landed her parents in jail. She takes a job as a gardener at Harfold Manor, working for the reclusive Lady Arabella Lascy and her dastardly illegitimate brother, Morry Reacher. Lady Lascy has buried four brothers and believes her family is cursed, and that she is next. Vee doubts it, but when her cottage on the grounds is destroyed by rain, she moves into the main house and the pair begin an affair. Lowkis makes frequent allusions to Vee’s and Arabella’s past troubles, but doesn’t reveal the specifics until the final act, which will have readers reassessing their view of the characters. Lowkis effortlessly toggles between past and present, and the novel swerves artfully from gothic tropes (“The lane sucks at my boots, as if the manor grounds don’t want me to leave”) to knotty and surprising psychological suspense. There’s much to admire in this twisty tale. Agent: Ginger Clark, Ginger Clark Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Shree, whose novel Tomb of Sand won the International Booker Prize, unfolds a dreamlike narrative of the mysterious friendship between two women in an unnamed city in India. Following the death of his aunt Chachcho, Bitva is staying in the apartment where she raised him with her husband, Om Babu, who’s also dead. To Bitva’s chagrin, Chachcho’s closest friend, Lalna, moves into the apartment and sets about rearranging the rooms and sorting through Chachcho’s belongings. In the days that follow, Bitva recollects the deep and unusual connection between Chachcho, a dutiful and obedient wife, and Lalna, who Chachcho took in after her marriage failed. He also remembers speculation among the neighbors that Lalna was his biological mother. Her long-ago affair with Om Babu further clouds the truth of Bitva’s origin. Later sections of the evocative novel are told from Lalna’s perspective and that of an omniscient narrator, further exploring a friendship that defies social expectations and the boundaries of familial kinship, and whose most vivid moments are shared on the rooftop of the apartment complex, where the private lives of the women unfold freely. Readers are in for a treat. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Architecture is out of touch with the issues of the day—climate change, economic inequality, and political instability—and must reinvent itself as a “force for good,” according to this fiery if incomplete treatise. Dutch architect de Graaf (Architect, Verb) contends that architectural firms exploit their workers, that their founders stay too long (Brazilian architect Oscar Neiemeyer was still designing buildings at 104), that their principals take credit for what is collaborative work, that architectural education ignores practice for theory, and that more attention is unjustly paid to client desires than user needs. To address these ills de Graaf offers numerous recommendations, including for architects to unionize, retire at age 67, make architectural education more hands-on and affordable, utilize AI for “frivolous” design choices while allowing architects to focus on more important ones, and adapt existing buildings rather than demolishing them and designing new ones. Many of de Graaf’s accusations are logical and indisputable, though he’s less clear about how his proposed reforms might be implemented or how the political activism he advocates might be made compatible with the goals of architecture. De Graaf raises salient points about architecture’s place in the world, but readers may be left with more questions than answers. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Champion marathoner Rideout debuts with a gritty and inspiring autobiography. Born in working-class Somerville, Mass., in 1971, Rideout grew up watching his uncle Barney shooting heroin and vowed never to touch drugs himself. Nevertheless, he went on to experiment with cocaine in college, and after moving to New York City, he suffered an ankle injury and became addicted to opioids. While navigating a vicious, yearslong cycle of sobriety and relapse in the aughts, he found support and relief from his future wife, Shelly. When his sobriety was finally stable, Rideout turned to athletic training to keep his demons at bay, and much of the account details his experiences in triathlons, half-marathons, and marathons. Rideout’s recollections of first-place finish after first-place finish—he won his age category in major races including the New York and Boston marathons, making him one of the world’s fastest over-50 marathoners—are admirably straightforward: he doesn’t brag about his prowess or sugarcoat the anxieties, fears, and physical pain that accompanied him through nearly every victory. Instead, he convincingly argues that hard work and dedication can turn around even the most desperate circumstances. Readers will be galvanized. Agents: Byrd Leavell and Dan Milaschewski, UTA. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Rossi (A Pack for Winter, written as Emilia Emerson) delivers a smoldering dark romance, the first in the Empire of Royals series, originally self-published in 2024. After 13 years as Don of the Italian mafia in New York City, Matteo Rossi, 38, is dealing with encroachment from rival mobsters and decides to settle the matter with a marriage alliance. Cruel Chicago crime boss Rustik Ivanov offers up one of his sheltered daughters, 21-year-old Sofiya, as a candidate, with a photo that entrances Matteo against his will. What he doesn’t learn until their wedding day is that Sofiya has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic connective tissue disorder that often leaves her unable to walk. Gentle yet strong, Sofiya has always dreamed of a love match, but steels herself to accept what Matteo offers, as he is unwilling to derail his life with romance. Sofiya’s chronic illness sets her apart from most dark romance heroines and, though she encounters a lot of ableism over the course of the novel, her disability is sensitively handled. Meanwhile, Rossi keeps the drama coming at a fast pace, with plenty of threats, violence (including the satisfying dispatches of several ruthless enemies), and spicy, if eventually repetitive, sex scenes. Mafia romance fans will eat this up. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Times of London business editor Prescott debuts with a riveting investigation into the late tech founder Mike Lynch, who was accused of defrauding Hewlett-Packard during the $11 billion sale in 2011 of his software company, Autonomy. Two sudden deaths, which occurred hours apart in August 2024, loom over the author’s query: Lynch himself, who drowned when his superyacht capsized, and former Autonomy VP Stephen Chamberlain, who was hit by a car. The author spends minimal time on conspiracy theorizing, however, instead tracking Lynch’s ambitious rise—a son of Irish immigrants, he was “hailed as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ ”—and heavily litigated fall. Prescott evocatively channels the exhilaration of Autonomy’s rapid ascent after its 1996 founding, as well as the pressures of the 2008 recession, when the company began to fudge its books, including by logging sales before their completion. Though whistleblowers raised red flags, Autonomy’s accounting irregularities only became a problem when Hewlett-Packard, reeling from buyer’s remorse, accused Lynch of fraud. Prescott’s detailed examination of the subsequent legal battles captivates, but the book shines as an in-depth character study of Lynch. The founder is at once brilliant and tyrannical, an eccentric who named boardrooms after Bond villains and “a king of spin” who could “lie... with fluidity” (he once pretended to have a finance director who simply “did not exist”). It’s an enthralling tale of tech industry hubris. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Abraham Lincoln was a gifted party organizer and shrewd political operator, according to this eye-opening biography. Historian Pinsker (Lincolnr’s Sanctuary) tracks how Lincoln forged a winning Republican coalition in 1850s Illinois by steering between antislavery radicals (i.e., abolitionists) and moderates (who wanted slavery restricted), only to swerve decisively to a radical position in 1858 to undercut his proslavery Democratic rival, Stephen A. Douglas. As president, Lincoln walked a similar tightrope between pro- and anti-emancipation Republican camps, once again swerving hard to the radical position in order to win reelection in 1864. Pinsker’s prosaic Lincoln is a fascinating departure from typical depictions; Lincoln the party boss “rarely indulged in the warm, folksy language of his popular legend,” but was rather a man forever twisting arms, counting votes, considering (but not committing) voter interference, “barking out orders, providing advice, [and] pressing others to stay on task.” Examples of Lincoln’s sharp-elbowed tactics include calling a meeting with Frederick Douglass, who had begun to support radicals’ calls for Lincoln’s ouster, to casually raise the possibility of revoking the Emancipation Proclamation; Lincoln also allowed pro-Southern Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham to return from exile so the Democrat’s strident antiwar rhetoric would alienate voters during the 1864 election. The result is a penetrating study of low politics in the pursuit of higher purpose. (Feb.)

Correction: A previous version of this review misidentified the author’s previous title.

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Berlinerblau (As Professors Lay Dying), a professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University, delivers a thought-provoking survey of contemporary comedians who have sparked controversy. The prevalence of these comedic disputes demonstrates that the general consensus about free speech—the belief that political, intellectual, and artistic expression should not be suppressed—is being challenged, Berlinerblau argues. In a section on American comedians, he contends that Dave Chappelle’s jokes have “punched down” at the LGBTQ+ community. The more LGBTQ+ people pushed back, the more time Chappelle devoted in his sets to mocking them, according to the author, who writes that “to consume Chappelle’s art is to be consumed by the controversies triggered by Chappelle’s art!” In India, consensus around free speech is “crumbling” and “jokes are literally being policed,” Berlinerblau explains. For example, the comedian Vir Das, who has made jokes about the Hindu nationalist government, has been frequently threatened with charges of sedition. In Zimbabwe, comedian Samantha Kureya was kidnapped and tortured by a group widely believed to be associated with the government, after she participated in a sketch insinuating Zimbabwean law enforcement was corrupt and abusive. Through detailed case studies, Berlinerblau effectively reveals how “humorists are increasingly confronted by those who wish to shut them up and shut them down.” This amounts to a thorough report on the shifting landscape of modern comedy. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/13/2026 | Details & Permalink

Mount Shasta, Calif., high school senior Izumi Tanaka is a normal 18-year-old American girl: she enjoys baking, watching Real Housewives, and dressing like “Lululemon’s sloppy sister.” But Japanese American Izzy, conceived during a one-night stand in her mother Hanako’s final year at Harvard, has never known the identity of her father. So when she and her best friend find a letter in Hanako’s bedroom, the duo jump at the chance to ferret out Izzy’s dad’s true identity—only to find out he’s the Crown Prince of Japan. Desperate to know her father, Izzy agrees to spend the summer in his home country. But press surveillance, pressure to quickly learn the language and etiquette, and an unexpected romance make her time in Tokyo more fraught than she imagined. Add in a medley of cousins and an upcoming wedding, and Izzy is in for an unforgettable summer. Abrupt switches from Izzy’s perspective to lyrical descriptions of Japan may disrupt readers’ enjoyment, but a snarky voice plus interspersed text conversations and tabloid coverage keep the pages turning in Jean’s (Empress of All Seasons) fun, frothy, and often heartfelt duology starter. Ages 12–up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary Management. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink