Here is EVERY Mystery & Thriller Hitting Bookstores this Fall!
Ryan Steck The Real Book Spy
Whether you're in the mood for a cozy mystery, a head-spinning whodunit, or an action-packed thriller that'll have your heart rate up and leave you ducking for cover, good news—fall has it all! Technically, a few of these titles are actually coming out in the summer, as the fall season doesn't officially kick off…
https://i0.wp.com/therealbookspy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cropped-Book-Spy-Logo-2017.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1
Ryan Steck's The Real Book Spy
Whether you’re in the mood for a cozy mystery, a head-spinning whodunit, or an action-packed thriller that’ll have your heart rate up and leave you ducking for cover, good news—fall has it all!

Technically, a few of these titles are actually coming out in the summer, as the fall season doesn’t officially kick off until September 22 (running through December 21st). But since our summer reading list ended with the month of August, we couldn’t leave these early September titles off the list.

With that bit of info out of the way, browse everything set to hit bookstores (in order of publication) in the coming months below, and don’t forget to check back for individual reviews right here on TRBS.

Happy Reading!

Capture or Kill, A Mitch Rapp Novel by Don Bentley

Release Date: September 3

Atria/Emily Bestler Books

ORDER NOW

Mitch Rapp faces an Iranian foe bent on destabilizing the Middle East in the newest thriller from Vince Flynn’s #1 New York Times bestselling series, now written by the “worthy successor to Tom Clancy” (Publishers Weekly) Don Bentley.

April 2011: On a remote mountaintop overlooking the remains of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, Azad Ashani witnesses a Quds Force demonstration of a capability meant to upend America’s war in the Middle East. Ashani, director of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and Irene Kennedy’s former back channel to the Iranian government, recognizes the demonstration’s true significance, and the nation-ending conflict it will provoke. Alone, Ashani stands no chance of preventing this rush to madness.

But with the help of one man, he just might.

In Washington, DC, CIA director Irene Kennedy briefs the president that the operational window to kill or capture Osama bin Laden at his recently discovered compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan is rapidly closing. But before he’ll authorize a commando raid on Pakistani soil, the president demands irrefutable proof of bin Laden’s presence.

Proof he trusts just one man to provide.

Preventing a looming war in the Middle East while delivering justice for the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11 would be a big ask for anyone.

Mitch Rapp isn’t just anyone.

The Trap by Ava Glass

Release Date: September 3

Bantam

ORDER NOW

British spy Emma Makepeace races against the clock to stop the Russians from carrying out a high-profile assassination in this gripping thriller from the author of Alias Emma.

“Emma Makepeace is a worthy heir to the James Bond mantle.”—JAMES PATTERSON

She has just one week to stop a killer.

Emma Makepeace is headed to Edinburgh for the global G7 Summit when her team is tipped off about a high-profile assassination the Russians are planning—but they have no idea who the target is.

Surrounded by the world’s most powerful political leaders in a gridlocked city, Emma must set a trap and use herself as bait.

With time running short, Emma faces the most perilous mission of her career. How far will she go to catch the killer?

The Accomplice by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson

Release Date: September 3

Amistad

ORDER NOW

The New York Times bestselling multitalented artist delivers an electrifying novel—The Accomplice–that combines the imaginative page-turning suspense of S. A. Cosby’s books with the high-tension thrills of the Netflix blockbuster series Money Heist.

In The Accomplice, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and award-winning mystery writer Aaron Philip Clark introduce readers to New York-born and Texas-bred Nia Adams, who always dreamt of becoming a Texas Ranger. She knows the dangers of the job, and as the first Black female ranger, she knows the politics, but she’s never encountered a criminal like Desmond Bell. A Vietnam vet turned thief, Desmond steals more than money; he steals the secrets of the rich and powerful and blackmails them for millions. When Desmond steals from the Duchamps, the wealthiest family in the country, Nia’s investigation into the robbery threatens to expose him and the criminal enterprise he works for. As the bodies pile up, Nia digs deeper for the truth, putting her life and career in danger. It’s a deadly cat-and-mouse game between ranger and thief, but to protect their family’s secrets, the Duchamps won’t hesitate to kill them both.

Clive Cussler Ghost Soldier by Mike Maden

Release Date: September 3

G.P. Putnam’s Sons

ORDER NOW

A deadly war game. An adversary as hard to find as he is to kill. Weapons so sophisticated, none have seen the like before. Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon have finally met their match in this pulse-pounding new adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

When African jihadis attack a Nigerian regiment using American weapons, Cabrillo and the Oregon crew are on the case, investigating from Afghanistan to Kuala Lumpur to track a mysterious arms dealer—a genius, or perhaps a devil—known only as the Vendor.

Cabrillo goes undercover to find the Vendor’s base, but his adversary isn’t just an arms smuggler. He’s an arms maker, and Cabrillo just walked into a lethal military game alongside the most dangerous mercenaries in the world, designed to test the Vendor’s cutting-edge AI arsenal.

And yet, surviving an arena full of flame-throwing robots isn’t even his biggest problem. The Vendor has an army of high-speed drones headed for a pivotal military site, and if the Oregon crew can’t stop them from releasing a deadly neurotoxin, the entire globe will erupt in conflict.

King of the Night by D.J. Williams

Release Date: September 9th

ORDER NOW

“DJ Williams’ KING OF THE NIGHT is chocked full of everything I love in a novel: international intrigue, political gamesmanship, strange science, and a hero—Chase Hardeman—who is a juggernaut of skill and vengeance. Think Jack Reacher tossed into a Tom Clancy novel. Grab this rollercoaster of a thriller and hold on with both hands!” —James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestseller of Tides of Fire

Chase Hardeman Returns! What is Ryan Steck, author of Out For Blood and founder/editor in chief of The Real Book Spy, the industry’s number one source for mysteries and thrillers, saying about the sequel? “Fast, knee-deep in conspiracies and intriguing characters, D.J. Williams’ King of the Night is a sensational thriller from an author who should be watched closely moving forward.”

Chase Hardeman, who fought the war on terror in the shadows under the secretive direction of the Oval Office, is on an international hunt for revenge. After the kidnapping of an FBI agent, who the government refuses to acknowledge, Hardeman and his partner Dexter Thompson embark on a dangerous globetrotting journey against the clock to rescue a woman who betrayed them.

Caught in the crosshairs of a takeover within the Bratva, Hardeman and Thompson must shadow their enemy as they navigate the treacherous underworld of international espionage while in the dark corridors of the White House the Commander in Chief battles between a re-election campaign and decisions he’s kept from the American people.

Hardeman and Thompson will return to the darkness through shocking alliances, heartbreaking losses, and world-shattering revelations in a fight for freedom as they uncover a scandalous truth that threatens to fracture the United States beyond the swamp of Washington’s elite.

With the pulse-pounding action of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and the relentless determination of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, D.J. Williams’ Chase Hardeman will keep you on the edge of your seat. Perfect for fans of fast-paced espionage and military thrillers.

Readers have praised Williams’ gripping storytelling, comparing it to the likes of James Patterson, David Baldacci, Daniel Silva, and Brad Thor. Don’t miss out on this sensational read that will leave you breathless and craving for more!

Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson

Release Date: September 10th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

Fresh off his career-changing standalone co-written with Icelandic PM, Reykjavík, #1 Icelandic bestseller Jonasson presents a riveting new thriller spinoff from The Darkness, soon to be a TV series.

1983

At a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland, now a hospital ward, an old nurse, Yrsa, is found murdered. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir and her boss, Sverrir, are sent to investigate her death. There, they discover five suspects: the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker, who is arrested following false testimony from one of the nurses, but subsequently released.

Less than a week after the murder, the chief physician, is also found dead, having apparently fallen from a balcony. Sverrir, rules his death as suicide and assumes that he was guilty of the murder as well. The case is closed.

2012

Almost thirty years later, Helgi Reykdal, a young police officer, has been studying criminology in the UK, but decides to return to Iceland when he is offered a job at the Reykjavik police department―the job which detective Hulda Hermannsdottir is about to retire from.

He is also a collector of golden age detective stories, and is writing his thesis on the 1983 murders in the north. As Helgi delves deeper into the past, and starts his new job, he decides to try to meet with the original suspects. But soon he finds silence and suspicion at every turn, as he tries to finally solve the mystery from years before.

Robert B. Parker’s Buzz Kill by Alison Gaylin

Release Date: September 10th

G.P. Putnam’s Sons

ORDER NOW

Boston PI Sunny Randall is back to investigate the disappearance of a hard-partying energy drink mogul, in the latest thriller in Robert B. Parker’s bestselling series.

After a near-death experience, Sunny Randall is ready to lighten her load as a PI, that is until she is called upon by billionaire media magnate Bill Welch to investigate the disappearance of his son, Dylan, the cofounder of the Gonzo Energy Drink company. Lazy, unscrupulous and a notorious partier, Dylan isn’t exactly reliable. But Dylan’s mother, Lydia, insists this time is different. She knows him. He’s her son. And she believes he’s in serious danger.

Unable to turn down the Welches’ life-changing offer, Sunny takes on the case, starting off by befriending Dylan’s smart young business partner, Sky, who seems like his polar opposite. Sky is bright, innovative, ambitious and empathetic — yet surprisingly, she adores Dylan, and desperately wants Sunny to find him.

As Sunny traces the marks left behind by Dylan’s past, she must unearth all the skeletons in his closet. She discovers not only his bad behavior with women, but also his reckless moves within the business world, producing an energy drink that, despite its marketing, has proven dangerous and even deadly. Still, Sky insists he’s a good man. Who is Dylan, really? And why has he vanished? When bodies start to pile up, unny must find answers quick, before she—and those she cares about—get caught in the crossfire.

Den of Iniquity by J. A. Jance

Release Date: September 10th

William Morrow

ORDER NOW

New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance returns with a new pulse-pounding suspense novel featuring beloved private investigator J. P. Beaumont as his investigation of a seemingly accidental death uncovers a complex web of evil.

Former Seattle homicide cop J. P. Beaumont faces trouble in the small town of Ashland, as both his personal and professional lives are thrown into turmoil. Beau’s daughter and son-in-law are having marital troubles, and his grandson, a senior in high school, shows up on his doorstep, wanting to live with Beau and his wife Mel as he finishes out the school year.

Meanwhile, a friend from his past asks for Beau’s help in looking into what appears to be an accidental death. A young man died of a fentanyl overdose, but those closest to him are convinced that he would never have used the drug, and that something much more sinister has happened. Beau agrees to unofficially reopen the case, and his investigation leads him to uncover similar mysterious deaths that all point to a most unlikely suspect.

As the case becomes more complicated than he could have imagined, and past and present mysteries collide, it will take everything Beau has to track down a dangerous vigilante killer.

Break Every Rule by Brian Freeman

Release Date: September 10th

Blackstone Publishing

ORDER NOW

From the New York Times bestselling author of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series comes a breathtaking thriller about a man whose only chance to rescue his family is to return to the past he thought he’d left behind.

Tommy Miller is a man with deadly skills, hiding in Florida under a false identity. After being set up on an overseas mission, he’s on the run from terrorists–and from the government who betrayed him. So when his wife and daughter are violently abducted, it seems his ghosts are finally catching up with him.

But Tommy isn’t the only one with secrets. His wife, Teresa, has been concealing her own dangerous past, and as Tommy races to rescue his family, he must peel away the clues she’s left behind. With a hotshot police detective, Lindy Jax, close on his trail, Tommy follows a twisted path from Florida to the Bahamas, one that brings him face-to-face with ruthless enemies.

His search for answers soon puts him on the wrong side of the law–hunted by the police and pursued by men who want him dead. Worst of all, if he hopes to save Teresa and their daughter, Rosalita, he must become the man he once was–a killer operating from the deepest shadows.

But when the lives of the people you love are at stake, rules are made to be broken.

Precipice by Robert Harris

Release Date: September 17th

Harper

ORDER NOW

“Robert Harris is, simply put, masterful.”—Karin Slaughter

A spellbinding novel of passion, intrigue, and betrayal set in England in the months leading to the Great War from the bestselling author of Act of Oblivion, Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, and Munich.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe.

In London, twenty-six-year-old Venetia Stanley—aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless—is part of a fast group of upper-crust bohemians and socialites known as “The Coterie.” She’s also engaged in a clandestine love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.

As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer with Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a leak of top-secret documents. Suddenly, what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that could topple the British government—and will alter the course of political history.

An unrivaled master of seamlessly weaving fact and fiction, Precipice is another electrifying thriller from the brilliant imagination of Robert Harris.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Release Date: September 17th

Pamela Dorman Books

ORDER NOW

“Madcap fun, with an entertaining new cast of characters and Osman’s trademark wit. Delightful!” —Shari Lapena

Solving murders. It’s a family business.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .

As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer.

Cold Trail by Taylor Moore

Release Date: September 17th

William Morrow

ORDER NOW

In the fourth pulse-pounding thriller in the series, DEA Special Agent Garrett Kohl must find out what’s truly tainted in the energy industry and uncover a deep-rooted plot in order to protect his new business, beloved ranch, and family. Perfect for fans of C. J. Box and Jack Carr.

On leave from the DEA, Garrett Kohl is ready to settle down and build a stable foundation for his family. But that’s easier said than done. In order to give his girlfriend, Lacey, and adopted son, Asadi, the life they deserve, and get out from under crippling debt, some risks have to be taken. And shocking alliances have to be formed.

First, Garrett partners with an old nemesis to form his new energy venture: Savage Exploration. Then his estranged, aloof sister, Grace, reemerges, keen on brokering a contract to connect the Kohl Ranch energy play to a pipeline on the Texas coast. But the company’s earlier success is endangered when an explosion at a nearby natural gas plant injures several workers. Garrett begins to suspect foul play and embarks on a winding investigation, teaming up with his old war buddy, Kai Stoddard, and reaching out to his CIA contacts, uncovering a sinister conspiracy overseas.

From an ex-CIA intelligence officer and consultant for the Department of Defense, this exhilarating thriller follows a man’s turbulent journey to fight for his family and hold on to the land that he calls home, culminating in an explosive final showdown that he never could have expected.

Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg

Release Date: September 17th

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

The secrets hidden in smoldering ashes hold the fate of a city in an explosive thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.

Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It’s a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex–US marshal who craves action.

But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man’s corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers. The burn patterns and charred body tell Sharpe a bizarre story that only creates more questions for Eve. So the four detectives team up to find the answers. Their investigation into the two unrelated cases leads to one shocking discovery after another.

Now they must gamble their lives to unmask a brilliant arsonist, crack open a massive swindle, track down a desperate fugitive with a terrifying secret, and race against time to save thousands of people from an agonizing death.

Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror by Jack Carr and James M. Scott

Release Date: September 24th

Atria/Emily Bestler Books

ORDER NOW

The first in a new in-depth nonfiction series examining the devastating terrorist attacks that changed the course of history from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott, beginning with the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut.

1983: the United States Marine Corps experiences its greatest single-day loss of life since the Battle of Iwo Jima when a truck packed with explosives crashes into their headquarters and barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. This horrifying terrorist attack, which killed 241 servicemen, continues to influence US foreign policy and haunts the Marine Corps to this day.

Now, the full story is revealed as never before by Jack Carr and historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott. Based on comprehensive interviews with survivors, extensive military records, as well as personal letters, diaries, and photographs, this is the authoritative account of the deadly attack

Murder in Berkeley Square by Vanessa Riley

Release Date: September 24th

Kensington

ORDER NOW

Embracing the true diversity of the Regency era, award-winning author Vanessa Riley brings readers a vibrant historical mystery starring an engaging heroine with an independent streak, a notorious past, and a decided talent for sleuthing in Murder in Berkley Square the latest novel in her Lady Worthing Mystery series.

A marriage of convenience saved Lady Abigail Worthing’s family from disgrace, but she’s finding her absent husband’s endless conditions increasingly repressive. Unable to stay at their London home during the oncoming winter, she accepts a ride to the country from her neighbor, Stapleton Henderson. However, she’s less than delighted that she’s his excuse to avoid a dinner held by Lord Charles Duncan, one of London’s most powerful—and relentless—magistrates. More irritating, women are decidedly unwelcome at the evening’s prestigious discussion of criminality—even though Abigail and Stapleton have solved several cases together . . .

Then an unexpected blizzard strands them at Lord Duncan’s with his now-houseguests. Suddenly, an evening of fine dining, fine brandy, and insightful debate becomes an inescapable—and deadly—ordeal. The ultimate test for Abigial’s skill. One of the dinner guests is found dead in front of the Berkley Square mansion. And when another party is murdered, Abigail discovers each had received a taunting, prophetic nursery rhyme . . . coincidence, or clues left by a killer on the loose?

Through deft interrogation, she learns everyone present is connected to Lord Duncan’s greatest failure in the courts: the conviction of a Martinique plantation informant for a murder he didn’t commit. But as Abigail races to find who was really responsible for the miscarriage of justice, she’ll be forced to put her own and Stapleton’s lives at risk in a gambit that will alter their fates forever—or end them permanently.

Congo Nightfall by Jason Kasper

Release Date: September 24th

Severn River Publishing

ORDER NOW

FROM FORMER GREEN BERET AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR JASON KASPER

When elite CIA operative David Rivers and his paramilitary team are dispatched to the heart of Africa, their mission is clear: eliminate the notorious terrorist warlord, Chijioke Mubenga, before he can unleash chaos upon the world.

But fate has other plans.

A streak of anti-aircraft fire lights up the night sky, turning a covert parachute jump into a nightmare descent. Stranded miles from their rendezvous point and deep within a hostile jungle, Rivers and his team are cut off, hunted, and desperate.

In their quest for survival, they uncover a web of treachery that extends far beyond the Congo’s borders. As they close in on Mubenga, Rivers uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to reshape the very fabric of global security.

In a land where trust is a luxury and every path holds potential danger, Rivers must navigate his team through a maze of betrayal, drawing on every ounce of his skill, leadership, and instinct to outwit an enemy that always seems two steps ahead. The hunt is on.but in the Congo, nothing is as it seems.

And the cost of failure is unimaginable

Legacy of Blood by Heather Graham

Release Date: September 24th

MIRA

ORDER NOW

In the streets of Paris, someone wants to paint the town red…

When Special Agent Jeannette LaFarge is called in to investigate a vineyard in the Reims region of France, the last thing she expects to find is multiple bodies with every vein bled dry. It’s yet another case tailor-made for Blackbird. Joining her is recent recruit Detective Daniel Murray, eager to use his newfound abilities to track down whoever is terrorizing Paris and its surrounding areas.

With each ashen victim grows the realization that those responsible weren’t inspired by vampiric creatures of the night but by Elizabeth Báthory herself. The Hungarian noblewoman’s unspeakable crimes against her people are being reenacted in both the City of Lights and across the French countryside. Unless the two of them act quickly, the upcoming harvest promises to yield blood instead of wine.

Death by Misadventure by Tasha Alexander

Release Date: September 24th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

In the latest installment of Tasha Alexander’s New York Times bestselling series, Lady Emily must solve a string of high stakes “accidents” while trapped in a lavish villa in the Bavarian Alps.

In the winter of 1906, Lady Emily and husband Colin are invited to the opulent home of Baroness Ursula von Duchtel in the Bavarian alps. Outside is a mountainous winter wonderland with a view of Mad King Ludwig’s fairy tale castle. Inside, the villa hosts a magnificent but eclectic art collection―as well as an equally eclectic collection of fellow guests, among them a musician, an art dealer, a coquette from the demi-monde, and Kaspar, the Baroness’ boorish son-in-law, whom, it begins to appear, someone wants dead.

Almost forty years earlier, Niels, a young German lord, sings to himself in the forest surrounding those same alps, capturing the attention of a not-yet-mad King Ludwig. Niels and the king become fast friends, their relationship deepening into something more as their time together stretches on. But while King Ludwig is content to live out a fantasy where their responsibilities don’t matter and the outside world doesn’t affect them, Niels knows that their bliss cannot last forever…

Decades later, Emily continues to investigate Kaspar’s increasingly lethal “mishaps” when tragedy strikes, ensnaring the guests in a web of fear and suspicion. It’s up to Emily to sift through old secrets and motivations, some stretching far into the past, to unmask the killer.

Bad Liar by Tami Hoag

Release Date: September 24th

Dutton

ORDER NOW

Masterful #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag is back with a riveting, emotionally powerful new thriller!

Small-town labels are hard to shake. Hometown hero. Fallen angel. Can anyone ever escape their past?

A murder victim dumped at the dead end of a lonely country road, face and hands obliterated by a shotgun blast, is not the way sheriff’s detective Nick Fourcade wants to start his week. His only lead takes him to the family of a hometown hero suddenly gone missing. Marc Mercier left his home for a weekend hunting trip and hasn’t been seen since.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s detective Annie Broussard begins her first day back on the job after suffering a brutal attack by taking on the case of B’Lynn Fontenot, a mother desperate to find her grown son, a recovering drug addict. Robbie Fontenot has been missing for eight days, but the local police have no interest in the case, telling B’Lynn that an adult has the right to disappear, and a missing addict is no big surprise. But B’Lynn swears her son was turning his life around. Sympathetic to a mother’s anguish, Annie agrees to help B’Lynn, knowing she’s about to start a turf war with the city police.

As Annie searches for Robbie Fontenot and Nick investigates the disappearance of Marc Mercier, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems in the lives of either man. And it’s still not clear whether either—or neither—of them might be the unidentified murder victim. Old jealousies and fresh deceits, family loyalties gone wrong and love turned sour all lay a twisting trail that leads deep into the Louisiana swamp, endangering all who cross the path of a bad liar.

Lies He Told Me by by James Patterson and David Ellis

Release Date: September 30th

Little, Brown and Company

ORDER NOW

An attorney and mother of two discovers her husband’s secret life—and it might cost them all their lives.

“Wow! Lies He Told Me is a roller coaster from start to finish! I was hooked from the first page, and the final twist blew me away! This is a thriller you won’t want to miss!”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden

Everyone in Hemingway Grove, Illinois, knows David and Marcie Bowers.

David owns the local pub.

Marcie is a former big-city lawyer who practices family law.

When David jumps into Cotton River to save a drowning stranger, he’s celebrated as a hero. His muscled physique, shaved head, and piercing blue eyes are broadcast on every news outlet.

For most people, newfound fame is a lifeline.

For David Bowers, it’s a death sentence.

For Marcie Bowers, it’s a test.

A wife knows the difference between a loving husband and father and a cold-blooded assassin. Right

The Mermaid Mystery by Tamar Myers

Release Date: October 1st

Severn House

ORDER NOW

In a small seaside town, something fishy’s going on . . .

Tidal Shores, a small seaside town in South Carolina, has seen its fortunes nose-dive. But not for much longer! The ‘Big Ten’ on the town council have come up with a range of ingenious ideas to get tourists flocking back, from buried pirate treasure to beauty pageants, but it’s handsome taxidermist Gunner Jones’ plan to dupe the public into believing that his creation ‘Miss Lucy’ – combining the top half of an albino ape with a large goliath tigerfish – is a real mermaid that wins the day.

As Gunner’s bizarre creature takes center stage, inquisitive reporter Zoe Porter isn’t fooled by its supposed credibility, but with mermaid mania sweeping the country, will anyone believe her expos�? And when events take a sinister turn, Zoe is suddenly drawn into a much darker story

The Mistletoe Mystery A Maid Novella by Nita Prose

Release Date: October 1st

Ballantine Books

ORDER NOW

Molly the Maid has a whole new mystery to solve in this heartwarming novella from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest.

Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s mofinst joyful yet.

But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?

A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.

The Elias Network by Simon Gervais

Release Date: October 1st

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets political thriller in this heart-pounding series debut about two undercover flames whose new mission risks exposing their true identities to the world…and, worse, each other.

Caspian Anderson is a translator for the United Nations―or so he’s led everyone to believe. No one suspects that mild-mannered Caspian, with his baggy clothes and sensible car, is actually an elite assassin for the US government. And that’s just how he wants it.

For ten years, Caspian has worked under the code name Elias for Onyx, a black program deep within the Department of Homeland Security. His latest mission takes him to Switzerland to kill a target tied to a human trafficking ring. There, Caspian stumbles onto a web of conspiracies involving high-level political figures.

Meanwhile, Caspian’s girlfriend is starting to pull away, and he wonders whether she may have secrets of her own. The truth is, Liesel Bergmann’s a spy. But neither knows the truth about the other…yet. As their covert operations converge, trust becomes paramount. Can they work together to bring down the enemy with their lives―and hearts―still intact

r. & Mrs. Smith meets political thriller in this heart-pounding series debut about two undercover flames whose new mission risks exposing their true identities to the world…and, worse, each other.

Caspian Anderson is a translator for the United Nations―or so he’s led everyone to believe. No one suspects that mild-mannered Caspian, with his baggy clothes and sensible car, is actually an elite assassin for the US government. And that’s just how he wants it.

For ten years, Caspian has worked under the code name Elias for Onyx, a black program deep within the Department of Homeland Security. His latest mission takes him to Switzerland to kill a target tied to a human trafficking ring. There, Caspian stumbles onto a web of conspiracies involving high-level political figures.

Meanwhile, Caspian’s girlfriend is starting to pull away, and he wonders whether she may have secrets of her own. The truth is, Liesel Bergmann’s a spy. But neither knows the truth about the other…yet. As their covert operations converge, trust becomes paramount. Can they work together to bring down the enemy with their lives―and hearts―still intact?

The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey

Release Date: October 1st

W.W. Norton & Company

ORDER NOW

Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people’s secrets. Now they must steal each other’s.

A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter’s doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.

As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter’s closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow’s mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood―from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive “Seventh Floor” of CIA’s Langley headquarters―are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?

Taking readers from Langley to Moscow to Paris and beyond, The Seventh Floor explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.

No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle

Release Date: October 1st

William Morrow

ORDER NOW

A deliciously twisty and suspenseful novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl in the Mirror, about a desperate young woman and the manipulative wealthy couple who will stop at nothing to ensure their worst nightmare becomes a dream come true.

“No One Will Know is a gonzo thrill ride; the audacious Rose Carlyle kept me riveted and guessing, and every time I thought I knew where the devious plot was headed, I was dead wrong. I loved it and you will, too.” —Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of With My Little Eye

They’re the perfect couple. They have the perfect plan. All they need is the perfect victim.

Julia and Christopher Hygate have the picture-perfect life: gobs of money thanks to their lucrative shipping enterprise and an estate on a secluded island.

When they meet Eve Sylvester, they know she is the exact person they should hire to be their child’s nanny. Eve doesn’t have any living relatives, she’s lost touch with her friends, and her partner is out of the picture. Best of all, she’s expecting a baby.

Eve thinks she’s landed the greatest gig—previously desperate and penniless, now she’ll live like a queen and have a promising future for her daughter.

But the job seems too good to be true. Why would the Hygates hire Eve if she has no prior nannying experience? Why must Eve stay out of sight? And what’s with the mysterious yachts coming in and out of the Hygates’ private marina?

It’s too late to ask questions, though, Eve is already in far too deep.

Set against the backdrop of a remote island, an endless stream of secrets, and unbelievable wealth,No One Will Know is a propulsive, seductive novel of suspense that shows the terrible consequences of shocking greed, staggering lies, and fatal mistakes.

Christmas at Glitter Peak Lodge by Kjersti Herland Johnsen

Release Date: October 1st

HarperVia

ORDER NOW

Mark the days till Christmas with this feel-good cozy mystery set at a quaint family inn in the snowy mountains of Norway—structured as an advent calendar for your daily reading pleasure.

An old mystery. A tragic accident. Secrets. Confessions. A new beginning.

After a traumatic climbing accident, well-known Alpinist Ingrid Berg has returned to the small Norwegian village that her family has called home for generations to take over the management of the Glitter Peak Lodge from her aging grandmother, who’s no longer up to the task. With Christmas rapidly approaching, the Glitter Peak Lodge staff are busy bakingkransekakeand saffron buns, decorating an enormous tree with tinsel, and enlisting guests to participate in their Santa Lucia celebration.

But within short order of Ingrid’s return, complications arise that seem out of the ordinary. Unexpected cancellations. An outspoken American guest who seems to unsettle Ingrid’s beloved grandmother. Leaking pipes that may imply sabotage. And then one day, Ingrid discovers a yellowed, decades-old newspaper clipping about an unsolved local mystery . . .

Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown

Release Date: October 1st

Bantam

ORDER NOW

“A dark and haunting debut that explores secret societies, the bonds of sisterhood, and the intricacies of privilege at an elite college . . . I couldn’t put this twisty tale down.”—Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat

“With this powerhouse debut, Lauren Ling Brown has established herself as a remarkable talent to watch.”—Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, author of The Girls Are All So Nice Here

How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion—it’s been a decade since she graduated, and she is looking forward to seeing old faces and reminiscing about her time there. This visit is special because Maya will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya’s worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister’s death, she begins to realize how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya’s warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus—the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

The more Maya uncovers, the more terrified she becomes that Naomi’s decision to follow in her footsteps might have been what got her killed. Because Maya’s time at Princeton wasn’t as wonderful as she’d always made it seem—after all, her sister wasn’t the first young woman to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she’s kept all these years.

Hard Duty by J. B. Turner

Release Date: October 3

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

From bestselling author J. B. Turner comes a deadly mission for Jon Reznick―but when the target is a master of disinformation, finding him might be harder than killing him.

Black-ops specialist Jon Reznick is hoping for some well-earned down time under the Florida sun when he gets a surprise call from the CIA. An embittered US counterintelligence expert is about to sell a career’s worth of state secrets to the Russians, and the Agency wants Reznick to track him down.

With the spook holed up somewhere in the diplomatic cauldron of the Middle East, protected by highly trained Russian mercenaries, Reznick knows it’s almost certainly a suicide mission. But with tough Scot Mac McCafferty and cybersecurity genius Trevelle Williams to back him up, patriot Reznick is soon racing across the region in pursuit of the target.

Time is ticking and death is a strong possibility, but with stakes this high, for Jon Reznick there are no rules that can’t be broken…and failure is never an option.

The Book of Witching by C. J. Cooke

Release Date: October 8th

Berkley

ORDER NOW

A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?

Identity Unknown by Patricia Cornwell

Release Date: October 8th

Grand Central Publishing

ORDER NOW

Autopsies can reveal the secrets of the dead.

And this victim is sending Scarpetta a message…

Summoned to an abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once had an intense love affair with.

The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Giordano’s skin is strangely red. Scarpetta’s niece Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue.

As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil.

Murder, She Wrote: A Killer Christmas by Jessica Fletcher; Terrie Farley Moran

Release Date: October 8th

Berkley

ORDER NOW

It’s Christmastime in Cabot Cove, but there’s more homicide than ho-ho-ho in the newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series.

Christmas is not an easy time to sell a house, but in Boston tycoon John Bragdon, Cabot Cove Realtor Eve Simpson has found a buyer for the old Jarvis homestead. Unfortunately, Eve gets a lump of coal in her stocking in the form of Kenny Jarvis, who has been missing for years and presumed dead but has now come back to stop his sister from selling their childhood home.

Eve presses on, organizing a welcome dinner for Bragdon and his wife, Marlene, to meet the leading citizens of the town, including Jessica Fletcher. Dinner is interrupted by an uninvited guest—not Santa but Kenny, who threateningly promises Marlene she will never live in his house.

When Marlene is found dead a few days later, Kenny is the natural suspect. But Jessica isn′t so sure he′s on the naughty list.

The Night Woods by Paula Munier

Release Date: October 8th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

The sixth Mercy Carr Mystery in which Mercy and Elvis must prove the innocence of a new friend accused of murder.

Record snow and sleet and rain are pummeling Vermont and a wild boar has escaped from an exclusive hunting club nearby―but that won’t stop a very pregnant and very bored Mercy Carr from hiking her beloved woods with her loyal dog Elvis. She’s supposed to be decorating the nursery and helping her mother plan the baby shower, but she’d much rather be playing Scrabble with Homer Grant, a word-loving, shotgun-toting hermit living deep in the forest. But when she and Elvis drop by Homer’s cabin for their weekly game, they arrive to find an unknown dead man―and no sign of Homer.

As they search the woods, Mercy discovers a patch of devastation that could only be left behind by wild boar. She’s relieved when Elvis tracks Homer, injured but alive. But Homer’s troubles are far from over, as he’s still the number one suspect and he remembers nothing of the attack. When another corpse with a link to Homer is found, Mercy is determined to help her friend, an effort complicated by the unexpected arrival of her young cousin Tandie, sent by Mercy’s mother to keep an eye on her until the baby is born.

As the floods worsen, Troy and Susie Bear are called out with all the other first responders, and Mercy finds herself alone at Grackle Tree Farm with a concussed Homer, Tandie, and Elvis. As waters rise and the wild boar rampages, Mercy realizes that the murderer is out there ready to strike again, this time much closer to home.

The Slate by Matthew FitzSimmons

Release Date: October 8th

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

An exiled political operative in search of redemption is drawn back into her past in a piercing thriller about secrets, scandals, and capital chaos by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

In another life, Agatha Cardiff was Congressman Paul Paxton’s chief of staff, a coolheaded fixer who made all his problems disappear. At Paxton’s behest, she covered up a shocking scandal that would have ruined a powerful senator’s career. It was one moral compromise too far and Agatha vowed, Never again.

After twenty years in exile, Agatha’s life in the margins of Washington, DC, is about to become much more difficult. The rules have changed in her absence―that senator is now president, and Paxton, number three in the House, expects a nomination to the Supreme Court. After all, he knows where the president’s skeletons are buried.

At the same time, Agatha’s quiet life on Capitol Hill shatters when her tenant―a woman with complex connections to DC―vanishes. Suddenly, Agatha is drawn back into a mire of corruption, blackmail, and deception precisely when she can least afford it. Any hope of redemption won’t come easy, because the true cost of Agatha’s sins is finally coming to light, and it is far from certain who will pay.

Dark Space by Rob Hart & Alex Segura

Release Date: October 8th

Blackstone Publishing

ORDER NOW

Bestselling and acclaimed authors Rob Hart and Alex Segura join forces on Dark Space, a sweeping sci-fi spy thriller that blends the epic scope and character-driven spark of Star Trek with the intrigue of John le Carré’s Smiley novels.

If life were fair, ace pilot Jose Carriles should have ended up a desk jockey like his former friend Corin Timony, back on the lunar colony of New Destiny. Instead, he’s the pilot of the Mosaic–a massive ship taking the Interstellar Union’s first-ever mission to outside our solar system.

Timony should have been the best spy at the Bazaar, the lunar colony’s international intelligence arm. Instead, she’s been demoted to admin duties like monitoring long-range communications. She has no one to blame but herself–and maybe Carriles.

But when the Mosaic experiences a series of strange malfunctions and Carriles is forced to take a wild gamble to save the ship, he begins to suspect the reasons behind the exploratory mission weren’t exactly on the up and up.

At the same time, Timony’s old instincts kick in as she realizes the distress call she received from the Mosaic has been wiped without a trace.

As people start to end up dead and loyalties are tested, Timony and Carriles find themselves entangled in a star-spanning conspiracy that drags them through the darkest corners of their government–and their own personal failures–and face-to-face with a reckoning that could destroy humanity as we know it

Killing Time by M. C. Beaton and R.W. Green

Release Date: October 8th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

Beloved New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton’s cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin―the star of her own hit T.V. series―is back on the case again.

Agatha Raisin’s private detective agency has their work cut out for them when a series of shop burglaries disturbs their quiet Cotswolds village. When the break-ins take a violent turn and a murder occurs, it’s all hands on deck to find the killer. As if that weren’t keeping Agatha busy enough, Sir Charles Fraith has called on her to help stage a glamorous promotional extravaganza on the grounds of his ancestral home, Barfield House.

When Agatha begins to receive death threats and narrowly avoids being kidnapped, she takes advantage of a previously arranged trip to Mallorca with her recent paramour, former police officer John Glass, to lie low for a while.

Can Agatha track down whoever it is that wants her dead, nail the murderer, and keep her romance alive too? It’s a race against the clock as the Cotswolds’ favorite PI rushes to put the pieces together before the seconds run out

Agatha Raisin’s private detective agency has their work cut out for them when a series of shop burglaries disturbs their quiet Cotswolds village. When the break-ins take a violent turn and a murder occurs, it’s all hands on deck to find the killer. As if that weren’t keeping Agatha busy enough, Sir Charles Fraith has called on her to help stage a glamorous promotional extravaganza on the grounds of his ancestral home, Barfield House.

When Agatha begins to receive death threats and narrowly avoids being kidnapped, she takes advantage of a previously arranged trip to Mallorca with her recent paramour, former police officer John Glass, to lie low for a while.

Can Agatha track down whoever it is that wants her dead, nail the murderer, and keep her romance alive too? It’s a race against the clock as the Cotswolds’ favorite PI rushes to put the pieces together before the seconds run out.

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict

Release Date: October 8th

Poisoned Pen Press

ORDER NOW

A puzzling new Christmas mystery from USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Benedict!

Rest. In. Pieces.

On 1st of December, renowned puzzle setter, loner, and Christmas curmudgeon Edie O’Sullivan finds a hand-delivered present on her doorstep. Unwrapping it, she finds a jigsaw box and, inside, six jigsaw pieces. When fitted together, the pieces show part of a crime scene – blood-spattered black and white tiles and part of an outlined body. Included in the parcel is a message: ‘Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.’ It’s signed, Rest In Pieces.

Edie contacts her nephew, DI Sean Brand-O’Sullivan, and together they work to solve the clues. But when a man is found near death with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean fears that Edie might be in danger and shuts her out of the investigation. As the body count rises, however, Edie knows that only she has the knowledge to put together the killer’s murderous puzzle.

Only by fitting all the pieces together will Edie be able to stop a killer – and finally lay her past to rest.

The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni

Release Date: October 8th

Random House

ORDER NOW

Two sisters. A lost imperial treasure. The world’s greatest puzzle master has twenty-four hours to solve the most dangerous mystery of his life . . . or die trying, in the new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Puzzle Master, hailed as “thrilling” by David Baldacci.

“This rip-roaring adventure thriller is an escapist puzzle box of delights: a neurodivergent hero, an unsolvable mystery, and death hanging over every move.”—Catherine Steadman, author of Something in the Water

It is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the ingenious Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo, Japan, to open the legendary Dragon Box.

The box was constructed during one of Japan’s most tumultuous periods, when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. In this moment of crisis, Emperor Meiji locked a priceless Imperial secret in the Dragon Box. Only two people knew how to open the box—Meiji and the box’s sadistic constructor—and both died without telling a soul what was inside or how to open it.

Every twelve years since then, in the Year of the Dragon, the Imperial family holds a clandestine contest to open the box. It is devilishly difficult, filled with tricks, booby traps, poisons, and mind-bending twists. Every puzzle master who has attempted to open it has died in the process.

But Brink is not just any puzzle master. He may be the only person alive who can crack it. His determination is matched only by that of two sisters, descendants of an illustrious samurai clan, who will stop at nothing to claim the treasure.

Brink’s quest launches him on a breakneck adventure across Japan, from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to the pristine forests of Hakone to an ancient cave in Kyushu. In the process, he discovers the power of Meiji’s hidden treasure, and—more crucially—the true nature of his extraordinary talent.

The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins

Release Date: October 8th

Atria Books

ORDER NOW

A high-stakes legal thriller that is perfect for fans of John Grisham and Scott Turow following a Washington, DC, litigator who is hired to defend his best friend, the former President of the United States, against a murder charge.

After a long career as one of DC’s most powerful litigators, Rob Jacobson is faced with the case of a lifetime: the former President of the United States—his childhood best friend—has been accused of murdering his mistress.

Rob knows he’s the only one who can prove his friend’s innocence, but he is soon overwhelmed as he attempts to devise a strategy to defend an authoritative man with a taste for infidelity, serious anger issues, and unconventional sexual appetites. As the high-profile case unfurls, the troubled, intertwining pasts of the two men complicate Rob’s efforts and soon, doubts begin to grow in his head. Could his oldest friend truly be capable of murder or is something even darker at play?

The Waiting by Michael Connelly

Release Date: October 15th

Little, Brown and Company

ORDER NOW

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, and enlists a new volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch.

At the same time, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer. But Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls—a case that may be the most iconic in the city’s history. Complex, satisfying, and full of dexterous twists, The Waiting demonstrates once more that “you can’t do better than Michael Connelly” (Forbes).

The Man In Black by Elly Griffiths

Release Date: October 15th

Mariner Books

ORDER NOW

From the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries, an eclectic, thrilling collection of short stories, featuring many characters that readers have come to know and love.

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.

There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.

In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.

Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.

Brooklyn Kills Me by Emily Schultz

Release Date: October 15th

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

In this sharp and suspenseful sequel to Sleeping with Friends, a reluctant detective investigates a suspicious death, the party where it happened―and the secrets no one’s willing to tell.

Book editor Agnes Nielsen never anticipated the viral celebrity that would come after solving the attempted murder of her best friend. Suddenly swept up in a world of luxury, she finds herself mingling with New York’s movers, shakers, and moneymakers―among them the enigmatic heiress Charlotte Bond, who takes Agnes under her wing.

But those wings, it turns out, aren’t enough to save Charlotte from a fatal fall.

When police dismiss the death as accidental, Agnes takes on the scions and wannabes of New York society, even if she sometimes doubts her new skill set as a hipster detective. After all, she only has a vague recollection of the party that ended Charlotte’s life, and everyone else has a different story. Or so they say.

As she digs into the details of that night, Agnes finds that the sparkling veneer of wealth and success hides plenty of blemishes…and the cracks below may be deep enough to swallow her whole

Long Time Gone by Hannah Martian

Release Date: October 15th

Crooked Lane Books

ORDER NOW

A family goes to drastic lengths to protect their version of the truth in this dual-timeline rural debut mystery, perfect for readers of Kelly J. Ford and Hayley Scrivenor.

In the small town of Wonderland, Wyoming, the truth is whatever the Coldwater family says it is. When their prodigal daughter, Jessica, was murdered forty years ago, their truth was that Holly Prine killed her–regardless of Holly’s innocence.

But the Coldwaters aren’t the only reason private investigator Quinn Cuthridge hasn’t set foot in the town in nearly a decade. After her aunt sent her away when she was a teen, Quinn swore she’d never return. When she gets an unexpected call from her aunt’s ranch hand, Hunter, Quinn learns that her aunt has gone missing. Reluctantly, she returns to Wyoming to investigate and soon realizes that her aunt was getting dangerously close to long-buried Wonderland secrets, including who really murdered Jessica Coldwater.

As Hunter and Quinn dig into what lies in the Wyoming backcountry, attraction flares between the two women, complicating their investigation–and Quinn’s steadfast refusal to have any ties to Wonderland. With someone threatening Quinn and her own dark past echoing in the present, Quinn must struggle against her hometown and herself to find the truth in this rich queer mystery.

Rockin’ Around the Chickadee by Donna Andrews

Release Date: October 15th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

Bells are ringing and alarms are sounding in Donna Andrews’ latest cheery addition in the New York Times bestselling Meg Langslow series.

Meg’s sister-in-law, Delaney, is pregnant. Since her due date is on or around Christmas Day, this is putting a bit of a damper on the usual holiday festivities. Meg and Michael are NOT hosting the usual house full of relatives and parties. Instead, Meg, along with her mother, her grandmother, her cousin Rose Noire, and her good friend Caroline, are militantly doing everything they can think of to keep Delaney quiet and healthy. All the relatives are farmed out to friends and neighbors; all the parties are being held somewhere else; and while Delaney is bored and mutinous, she’s doing well, and they’re managing to maintain a serene, peaceful environment for her . . . until a body is found in Meg and Michael’s yard.

The body turns out to be an attendee at Presumed Innocent, a nearby conference that Meg’s grandmother has organized. Some of the attendees want to learn how to exonerate a friend or family members who has been unjustly convicted, while the rest are avid true crime aficionados. And since the dead guy has been very vocal about his belief that most actual and would-be exonerees are guilty, guilty GUILTY!, nearly everyone at the conference dislikes him. But would any of them hate him enough to kill him? And can Meg still keep Delaney calm in the middle of a murder investigation, all while trying to catch the killer?

The Treasure Hunter’s Club by Tom Ryan

Release Date: October 15th

Atlantic Monthly Press

ORDER NOW

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone meets The Goonies in The Treasure Hunters Club—a rollicking murder mystery set in a seaside town filled with pirate lore, family secrets, unforgiveable grudges, secret societies, and of course, a treasure lost to time.

WELCOME TO MAPLE BAY, NOVA SCOTIA

For nearly a century, people have ventured to the idyllic seaside town of Maple Bay in search of a legendary lost pirate treasure, but locals know there’s more than just gold buried in the sand. As the paths of three strangers converge in Maple Bay, the truth is about to be blown wide open. But not before the bodies start to pile up.

Peter Barnett is rapidly approaching 40 with little to show for it when a mysterious letter invites him to Maple Bay and the mansion his estranged family has called home for generations.

Seventeen-year-old Dandy Feltzen is isolated and adrift following the death of her beloved grandfather, until his final request and a tantalizing clue sets her on a mission to solve the mystery he spent his entire life chasing.

Cass Jones has given up on her dream of being a successful author when an unexpected opportunity lands in her lap: a housesitting gig in remote Maple Bay, where she stumbles on the perfect subject matter for her breakout book—and the handsome sailor who might be just the person to help her research it.

Peter, Dandy and Cass have never met, but they’re on a collision course with each other and the mystery that has defined Maple Bay for two centuries, and none of them are prepared for the shocking truths that may or may not still be buried there.

Karla’s Choice, a John le Carre novel by Nick Harkaway

Release Date: October 22nd

Viking

ORDER NOW

An extraordinary new novel set in the world of John le Carré’s most iconic spy, George Smiley, written by acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war against the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only for a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumor that George Smiley might almost be happy.

But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Szusanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead.

But in his absence, the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley soon finds himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come and set him on a collision course with the greatest enemy he will ever make.

Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in John le Carré’s George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Karla’s Choice marks a momentous return to the world of spy fiction’s greatest writer.

Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly

Release Date: October 22nd

Kensington

ORDER NOW

First in a captivating new series, Jane Austen’s Emma Knightley entertains a different role in Highbury—going from clever matchmaker to Regency England’s shrewdest sleuth.

Less than one year into her marriage to respected magistrate George Knightley, Emma has grown unusually content in her newfound partnership and refreshed sense of independence. The height of summer sees the former Miss Woodhouse gracefully balancing the meticulous management of her elegant family estate and a flurry of social engagements, with few worries apart from her beloved father’s health . . .

But cheery circumstances change in an instant when Emma and Harriet Martin, now the wife of one of Mr. Knightley’s tenant farmers, discover a hideous shock at the local church. The corpse of Mrs. Augusta Elton, the vicar’s wife, has been discarded on the altar steps—the ornate necklace she often wore stripped from her neck . . .

As a chilling murder mystery blooms and chaos descends upon the tranquil village of Highbury, the question isn’t simply who committed the crime, but who wasn’t secretly wishing for the unpleasant woman’s demise. When suspicions suddenly fall on a harmless local, Emma—armed with wit, unwavering determination, and extensive social connections—realizes she must discreetly navigate an investigation of her own to protect the innocent and expose the ruthless culprit hiding in plain sight.

You Have Gone Too Far by Carlene O’Connor

Release Date: October 22nd

Kensington

ORDER NOW

With the haunting, moody prose of Tana French and the compulsive storytelling of Dervla McTiernan or Ann Cleeves, bestselling author Carlene O’Connor lures readers to a remote village on Ireland’s southwest coast, where winding windswept roads open to spectacular views of rugged cliffs against immense, lonely beaches…and some fear a mysterious cult could be connected to the disappearance of a young pregnant woman.

After two pregnant women in Dingle who have never met each receive a chilling email warning them that they’re in grave danger, the two decide to meet each other to figure out what is going on. But when one of the mothers, Shauna, a deaf woman, arrives at their meeting place at the village Spring Festival, she fears a trap and hurries off to meet the couple who plan to adopt her baby.

Meanwhile, Dimpna Wilde has her hands full with lambing season and keeping track of her father, so she’s grateful for the help of a well-meaning ten-year-old boy, Dylan, at the veterinary clinic. But when the lad goes missing after going into a bog on a dare with two other boys to search for a “monster,” she is desperate to help find him.

After the adoptive couple are discovered tied up in their home, telling a terrifying story of a deaf pregnant woman being abducted by a man wearing a butterfly mask, Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien and Detective Sergeant Barbara Neely fear a repeat of a disturbing case from twenty years earlier, when a charismatic leader calling himself the Shepherd, lured poor pregnant girls into his enigmatic cult. Though allegations of baby smuggling were never proven, he’d been put away on other charges. But then they learn that the Shepherd has recently been released from prison.

Trapped in a cold, dark room with a frightened boy, Shauna fears for their lives as well as that of her unborn baby. If she has any chance of getting out and away from the Moth Man, as she calls her abductor, she’ll have to figure out the truth behind who she really is and how that connects to the ordeal she finds herself in now. But time is running out and her baby will be born soon . . .

Murder on the Page by Daryl Woof Gerber

Release Date: October 22nd

Kensington Cozies

ORDER NOW

This delectably intriguing new series debut from one of the queens of cozy mysteries features a caterer who crafts literary-themed dinner parties—and must ensure that a killer gets their just desserts . . .

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a genuinely top-notch party must be in want of a theme. Allie Catt, caterer and personal chef in the beautiful mountain community of Asheville, North Carolina, has devised a winning formula by using her clients’ favorite books as inspiration. Her first themed event is based on Pride and Prejudice (Allie’s cat, Darcy, approves), and it’s so popular that soon she has grand ideas for future parties based on Rebecca, The Great Gatsby, Babette’s Feast and more.

Business is booming, and a rival catering company is fuming. But there’s a sting in the tale when the aunt of one of Allie’s clients and best friends, Tegan, is murdered. Tegan is the victim’s sole heir, and quickly becomes the main suspect. Allie has no doubts about her friend’s innocence, but how to prove it?

Murder Takes the Stage by Colleen Cambridge

Release Date: October 22nd

Kensington

ORDER NOW

In this delightful historical mystery, Phyllida Bright—amateur sleuth and Agatha Christie’s esteemed housekeeper—discovers a killer stalking the stages of London’s illustrious theaters.

Housekeeper Phyllida Bright is quite in her element at Mallowan Hall, the charming English manor that she keeps in tip-top shape. By contrast, the bustling metropolis of London, where her famed employer Agatha Christie has temporarily relocated, leaves Phyllida a bit out of her depth. Not only must she grapple with a limited staff, but Phyllida also has to rein in a temperamental French cook who has the looks of Hercule Poirot, but none of the charm.

When a man named Archibald Allston is found dead in an armchair onstage at the Adelphi Theater, first impressions are that he died of natural causes. But the very next day, the unlucky actor playing Benvolio at the Belmont Theater is found with his head bashed in. And when a third victim turns up, this time with double-C initials, the fatal pattern is impossible to ignore.

With panic erupting among theater folk—a superstitious bunch at the best of times—Phyllida steps up to help with the investigation. The murderer’s MO may be easy to read, but can Phyllida uncover the killer’s identity before the final curtain falls on another victim?

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

Release Date: October 22nd

Mariner

ORDER NOW

Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, “deviously good fun” (Nita Prose), Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.

My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?

The Knife Before Christmas by Kate Carlisle

Release Date: October 22nd

Berkley

ORDER NOW

Contractor Shannon Hammer hopes for a peaceful Christmas with her fiancé, Mac, until murder throws a wrench in her holiday plans in a brand-new installment of the USA Today bestselling Fixer-Upper Mystery Series.

Christmas has come to Lighthouse Cove, but business hasn’t slowed down for Shannon Hammer. She’s been contracted to renovate a local hotel owned by the Garrisons, a family that’s so devoted to the holidays they serve a seven-course dinner every night from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Last year’s festivities featured a train that transported guests around the breathtaking Cliffside property. This year, Shannon and her crew have been commissioned to build a Victorian-style carnival midway with games and prizes galore.

Everyone in town loves the hotel’s spirit, except the Garrisons’ children and their spouses, who are hum-bugged by the money being wasted on holiday cheer while their inheritance goes up the chimney. Things turn nasty when a mischief-maker close to the family is found dead. It’s up to Shannon and Mac to catch a sinister Scrooge before all of Lighthouse Cove receives coal for Christmas.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni

Release Date: October 22nd

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

A master manipulator accused of murder. An attorney sworn to defend her. Keera Duggan returns in a riveting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

When Jenna Bernstein, disgraced wunderkind CEO of a controversial biotech company, is accused of murdering her former partner and lover, she turns to Seattle attorney Keera Duggan to defend her. Keera is more than a master chess player who brings her intuitive moves into court―she’s Jenna’s childhood friend. But considering their history, Keera knows that where Jenna goes, trouble follows.

Five years earlier, Keera’s father successfully defended Jenna when she was tried for the killing of her company’s chief scientist who threatened to go public with allegations of corporate fraud. Keera knows Jenna too well. When she was a kid, Keera saw Jenna for what she was: a manipulative and frighteningly controlling sociopath. Now, with only circumstantial evidence against Jenna, Keera is willing to bury any trepidation she might have to defend a woman she believes, this time, to be innocent.

As the investigation gets underway and disturbing questions arise, Keera puts her trust in a client who swears that this time she’s telling nothing but the truth. If this is all just another devious game, Keera might be working to set a murderer free.

Catch You Later by Jessica Strawser

Release Date: October 22nd

Lake Union

ORDER NOW

One impulsive decision changes the lives of two best friends forever in a powerful novel of suspense by the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Caretaker.

If Lark and Mikki didn’t have each other, they’d have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again.

Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki’s lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki’s disappearance, and she’s engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol. But when the stranger who drove off with Mikki reappears looking for her, nobody knows what to believe.

As the search reignites, Lark fights to find out whether Mikki is really missing or doesn’t want to be found. But piecing together the chain of events set into motion that fateful night could threaten everything―and everyone―Lark has left.

Mystery in the Title by Ian Ferguson

Release Date: October 22nd

MIRA

ORDER NOW

From the bestselling authors of I Only Read Murder comes a sidesplitting mystery of epic movie-of-the-week proportions, featuring the unstoppable Miranda Abbott.

Miranda Abbott, actor, will once again be a star. After a very long dry spell that followed her network hit series, Pastor Fran Investigates, Hollywood has come calling and wants Miranda back. This time, she will be the female lead in an oddly expensive movie of the week being filmed in Happy Rock. Miranda signs on the dotted line, but her trusty assistant, Andrew, a whiz with apps and clouds, thinks it all seems a bit fishy.

Things go from bad to worse when Miranda’s costar makes a grand entrance at a media-packed press conference by crashing through the atrium window at the Duchess Hotel and being very much dead. The out-of-town cast and crew are horrified, but the great citizens of Happy Rock—including police chief Ned Buckley, grumpy bookstore owner and soon-to-be ex-husband Edgar Abbott, Bea of Bea’s B&B, and the malodorous Melvin Jacobson of S.J. Fertilizer Supply—return to help solve the case in this second Miranda Abbott mystery.

Death Stake by Andrew Mayne

Release Date: October 29th

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

The trail of missing coders leads a spy into an international underworld of treachery, double agents, and digital espionage in a propulsive thriller by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money.

Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one―not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs, or the Royal Thai Police―is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die.

Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage, and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders. As the line between ally and enemy blurs, and the stakes become life and death, Trasker must navigate the dangerous intersection of modern intelligence and old-school spy games to survive.

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

Release Date: October 29th

Mariner Books

ORDER NOW

The propulsive and powerful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

“The best Paula Hawkins yet — by a tense and haunting mile.” — Lee Child

“The Blue Hour is an atmospheric, stylish puzzle box of a thriller with a deliciously inventive premise. I love a locked-room mystery–or, in this case, a locked-island mystery–and Paula Hawkins has delivered a truly exceptional one.” — Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River and The God of the Woods

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge….

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

Release Date: October 29th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

Death is only the beginning in Olivia Blacke’s A New Lease on Death, a darkly funny supernatural mystery that introduces an unlikely crime-solving duo.

Ruby Young’s new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she’s kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can’t solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn’t kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can’t, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. As the roommates form an unlikely friendship and get closer to the truth about Jake’s death, they also start to uncover other dangerous secrets.

Murder at the Hacienda by Amanda Allen

Release Date: November 5th

Severn House

ORDER NOW

Former New York darling turned amateur sleuth Madeline Vaughn-Alwin finds herself trapped in the beautiful hacienda of the Luhan family with a killer at Christmas!

Newly engaged Maddie is hoping for a quiet Christmas filled with fun and festivity with her gorgeous husband-to-be Dr David Cole, but the moment she bumps into old friend Katrina Wilton, Maddie’s Christmas plans are thoroughly destroyed. Katrina is now married to the dashing, yet troubled veteran Alfonso Luhan, son of the infamous local landowner, Don Victor Luhan, and is celebrating Christmas at the family hacienda, Los Pineros – Katrina insists that Maddie and David simply must join them.

However, Maddie and David quickly find that things in the Luhan family are far from merry . . . Don Victor casts a cruel and overbearing hand over his ailing wife Isabella and their four children – all with their own secrets and eccentricities. So when Maddie stumbles across Don Victor’s brutally murdered body early one morning, snow turned crimson around the ghastly scene, she cannot believe she has once again been thrown into a murder mystery!

As a snowstorm rages, and everyone is trapped inside the idyllic manor house, Maddie must act fast to solve a very tricky family affair and bring the murderer to justice before Christmas.

Mr. Campion’s Christmas by Mike Ripley

Release Date: November 5th

Severn House

ORDER NOW

The Campions are snowed in at Christmas, but just when they think it can’t get any colder, their holidays take an even chillier turn.

1962, Norfolk. Boxing Day looks set to be a quiet affair for the Campions when they are snowed in at their remote farmhouse, Carterers – until a charabanc full of ‘pilgrims’ travelling from London to the Shrine of Our Lady in nearby Walsingham crashes into their imposing granite gateposts and the family unexpectedly find themselves playing host to the eccentric passengers.

But any lingering festive cheer is in short supply when a shocking discovery is made the following day, while a terrifying twist reveals that some of the guests are not who they seem. Which – if any – can they trust? Suddenly hostage to events, the Campions are drawn into a fiendish web of espionage as the Cold War comes chillingly close to home.

Death and the Old Master by G.M. Malliet

Release Date: November 5th

Severn House

ORDER NOW

Cambridge University master Sir Flyte Rascallian has little interest in the innocent-looking set of old paintings he inherits from his aunt Beatrice, until he takes a closer look . . . and ends up dead

Something is bothering Sir Flyte Rascallian, renowned art expert and Master of Hardwick College at the University of Cambridge. Are the grimy paintings he recently inherited from his aunt as worthless as he claims?

Curator Ambrose Nussknacker believes one of the paintings could be a genuine Rembrandt. Why is Sir Flyte so reluctant to get it authenticated, and so determined to avoid the tributes due to the discovery of one of the world’s great lost treasures?

When Sir Flyte is found murdered in the Master’s Lodge, Detective Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just must unravel his unusual actions to solve the death of the old master. College fellows, staff, and students all agree something was amiss. But as St. Just investigates, he quickly becomes entangled in a web of deception following the trail of priceless artwork people would kill to possess.

Fans of M.C. Beaton and Dorothy Sayers will love this entertaining mystery featuring delightfully eccentric characters.

Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

Release Date: November 5th

Blackstone Publishing

ORDER NOW

I have one thing to do before I die. And time is running out.

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday.

My mother also died at forty-three. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s.

I am not letting that happen to my family.

I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie.

You’re probably thinking, she’ll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted “Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants”?

From thriller writer Marshall Karp (cocreator with James Patterson of the #1 New York Times bestselling NYPD Red series), and rich with Karp’s deft array of three-dimensional characters and his signature biting humor, Don’t Tell Me How to Die has so many twists and turns, you’d swear he wrote it with a corkscrew.

Kill Yours, Kill Mine by Katherine Kovacic

Release Date: November 5th

Poisoned Pen Press

ORDER NOW

Mia’s grief counselling practice, The Pleiades, is named for the seven sisters from Greek mythology who were the companions of the Goddess of the Hunt―and who, in some stories, die of grief or are killed to be saved from attackers.

Mia has been gathering broken women together for a radical form of group therapy. Amy. Gabrielle. Katy. Brooke. Olivia. Five women crippled with grief by the murders of their sisters―and seething with rage that the partners who killed them all walk free. She just needs one more.

When Mia meets Naomi, she knows she has found the perfect candidate, but Naomi is resistant. She only needs to meet the others before she realizes that they, too, are consumed with desire for hands-on revenge. Under Mia’s guidance, the women devise a plan to heal themselves. They’ll take back their lives from the men who took their sisters. The premise is satisfyingly simple: I’ll kill yours if you kill mine . . .

Best House on the Block by T.R. Ragan

Release Date: November 5th

Thomas & Mercer

ORDER NOW

Revealing a neighbor’s deep secrets and dark obsessions turns to murder in a shocking novel of psychological suspense by a New York Times bestselling author.

Aspiring investigative journalist Shannon Gibbons and her family have moved into a beautiful house in the Fabulous Forties of East Sacramento, where Shannon finds a fast connection with a new neighbor. Renowned journalist Rosella Marlow appears to have a genuine interest in giving Shannon’s own career a boost―as personal assistant on Rosella’s new project. Appearances are deceiving.

Bitter, resentful, and consumed by excruciating grief, Rosella is obsessed with wiping the smiles off her contented neighbors’ faces. Now she’s watching closely, ready to expose their secrets. Secrets dark enough to destroy lives. In Shannon, Rosella has a trusting and unwitting accomplice. But Rosella is being watched, too. And when someone is found murdered, everyone on this quiet block is a suspect. Because everyone has a motive.

With the help of a friend, Shannon begins an investigation into the death of a person she just met. As neighbor is pitted against neighbor, the truth is much scarier than anything they imagined.

Double Barrel Bluff by Lou Berney

Release Date: November 5th

William Morrow Paperbacks

ORDER NOW

Multi-award winning and USA Today bestselling crime writer Lou Berney returns to his critically acclaimed thriller series starring former mob wheelman Shake Bouchon, who finds himself dragged into a high-stakes hostage rescue, among the mighty temples and shadowy underground of Cambodia.

During his years as a wheelman for the Armenian mob in Los Angeles, Shake Bouchon didn’t think of himself as the settling-down type. But now he’s happily married to Gina, the love of his life—and former adversary—in Indiana, of all places.

The great thing about Bloomington, for two people with checkered pasts, is that everyone is nice and no one knows them. Until the day a brutal Armenian thug who has always hated Shake shows up in his backyard. He demands that Shake help him find his missing mob boss, the pakhan—the dangerous and beautiful Alexandra “Lexy” Ilandryan, who also happens to be Shake’s ex-girlfriend.

Shake’s got a lot of history with Lexy, so he reluctantly agrees to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where she was last seen. Once there, he finds himself tangled in an underworld of Cambodian gangsters, mob politics, and opportunistic expats, where the stakes aren’t clear and everyone is looking to score. With only the help of a clairvoyant hippie and the Armenian thug, Shake becomes involved in a high-stakes negotiation for Lexy that might cost him his own life.

But perhaps most threatening of all is Gina’s wrath when she arrives in Cambodia intent on saving Shake from himself—and from all the people trying to kill him.

With Lou Berney’s trademark wit, flawless plotting, vibrant locale, and memorable characters, Double Barrel Bluff is another unputdownable, globe-trotting adventure.

Misery Hates Company by Elizabeth Hobbs

Release Date: November 5th

Crooked Lane Books

ORDER NOW

A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative’s estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Knives Out.

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money, Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives leads to malice—and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed, the question of “who done it” turns into “who didn’t do it?”, and Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her very sense of sel

Murder Town by Shelley Burr

Release Date: November 5th

William Morrow

ORDER NOW

For fans of Jane Harper and true crime, a dark and gripping thriller set in a small town in the Australian Outback, by the author of the international bestseller WAKE.

Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. She knows the tiny, red-dust town’s ins and outs by heart, knows the people like they are her family, their quirks as if they were her own.

She also knows her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths fifteen years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.”

When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland, a former private investigator who earned a living cracking cold cases before he ran afoul of the law.

Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn’t she?

You Can’t Hurt Me by Emma Cook

Release Date: November 5th

Hanover Square Press

ORDER NOW

Meet Eva, who can’t feel pain, and Anna, who can’t escape it.

Everyone has heard about the case of Eva Reid. Ever since she was born, she’s felt no pain: she can get a paper cut, break a limb and even give birth without feeling a single thing. Her story has long captivated the minds of reporters and researchers—including Dr. Nate Reid, Eva’s husband and acclaimed scientist, renowned for his work in the Pain Laboratory. Also among them is Anna Tate, a ruthless journalist with a dark past of her own.

When Eva is suddenly found dead inside her home, it raises a flurry of questions about the last night of her life—and who might’ve been involved. Anna finds herself growing increasingly obsessed with Eva’s case: her protected, painless existence, her promising career as a psychotherapist, and especially her toxic relationship with the alluring Dr. Reid, whom Eva met and married as his former patient. But what other secrets could they be hiding?

When Dr. Reid embarks on the process of writing a book about Eva, an opportunity arises for Anna to work on it alongside him. As she slowly inserts herself into their home to uncover what’s fact and what’s fiction, shocking discoveries await her—and not everyone may come out unscathed . . .

An Insignificant Case by Phillip Margolin

Release Date: November 5th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

A new standalone legal thriller from the international bestselling author of GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.

Charlie Webb is a third rate lawyer who graduated from a third rate law-school and, because he couldn’t get hired by any of the major law firms, has opened his own law firm, where he gets by handling cases for dubious associates from his youth and some court appointed cases. Described as “a leaky boat floating down the stream of life,” Charlie has led unremarkable life, personally and professionally. Until he’s appointed to be the attorney for a decidedly crackpot artist who calls himself Guido Sabatini (born Lawrence Weiss). Sabatini has been arrested – again – for breaking into a restaurant and stealing back a painting he sold them because he was insulted by where it was displayed. But as Lawrence Weiss, he’s also an accomplished card shark and burglar and while he was there, he stole a thumb drive from the owner’s safe.

Not knowing what else Sabatani has stolen, Webb negotiates the return of the painting and “other items’ for the owner dropping charges against Sabatini. But the contents of the flash drive threatens very powerful figures who are determined to retrieve it, the restaurant owner (Gretchen Hall) and her driver (Yuri Makarov) are being investigated for the sex trafficking of minors, and there are others who have a violent grudge against Sabatini. When a minor theft case becomes a double homicide, and even more, Charlie Webb, an insignificant lawyer assigned to an insignificant case, is faced with the most important, and deadliest, case of his life. Going back to his long-time bestselling roots, Phillip Margolin returns with a brilliant standalone legal thriller in the tradition of John Grisham.

The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

Release Date: November 5th

William Morrow

ORDER NOW

“A pure delight from start to finish! Williams, White and Willig are in top form in this clever, engrossing whodunnit with a heart.” —Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The New Couple in 5B

Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists.

The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious.

Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death?

A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance—this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it!

The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit

Release Date: November 5th

Minotaur Books

ORDER NOW

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

The Gardener’s Plot takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut.

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

Release Date: November 5th

Berkley

ORDER NOW

In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.

Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony.

Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene

Release Date: November 5th

Crooked Lane Books

ORDER NOW

Told in alternating timelines, The Lake of Lost Girls is a haunting novel that will thril