If any of the titles garnered starred reviews in the four library journals, that is indicated after the plot summary of the title. Amazon does a good job of coming up with these monthly lists and especially its year-end best list. But of late it appears that the editors of amazon are trying to introduce us to new authors and ignore some of our favorite authors.
This month’s list contains four debut novels and several novels by authors I have hitherto been unacquainted with. It also contains a little bit of everything for the mystery thriller reader – including a military thriller and a horror novel. A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE by Jordan Harper appears to be the best on the list, but it is very dark.
Novels that I would have put on my list of Best of May are: A RIVER RED WITH BLOOD by John Connolly, CITY ON FIRE by Simon Elegant, IRONWOOD by Michael Connelly, THE LAST MANDARIN by Louise Penny & Mellissa Fun, and THE BROTHERS MCKAY by Craig Johnson. Some of these appear to be obvious oversights.
Disclaimer: this is not intended to advertise amazon.com or encourage you to buy books from that site. It is for information purposes only.
Amazon Editor’s Picks: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense –May, 2026
FIVE, Ilona Bannister (Crown, $28.00, May). Have you ever tried to pass the time by imagining the lives of the strangers standing next to you? Ilona Bannister’s Five introduces readers to five seemingly random people waiting for a train. But these are not just any five people. From the beginning we know that one of them is going to die soon. Very soon. In five minutes the next train to London will arrive, killing one of them. But before this happens you will learn their stories. Kirkus Starred Review
A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE, Jordan Harper (Mulholland, $29.00, April). A city ready to explode: A Hollywood pedophile is arrested, and is ready to tear down the city to get his freedom. A young woman goes missing—and men in black rubber gloves who look like cops clean out her apartment in the middle of the night. And the serial killer known as the LA Ripper is on the loose, leaving tragic/graphic/brutal crime scenes in his wake. Three people trying to keep their heads above the dirty water will find themselves coming together to unite these strands into one enormous, unspeakable crime. Publishers Weekly and Library Journal Starred Reviews
BORING ASIAN FEMALE, Canwen Xu (Berkley, $30.00, April). Elizabeth Zhang is well aware of her place in the world. She’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. While she’s never been the most beautiful or the most liked, she knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough—which she knows means she’s just another boring Asian female—her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can’t figure out how this could have happened. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interesting? At first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura’s hobbies are. All of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable person to Harvard. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot. Debut Novel.
THE ANNIVERSARY, Alex Finlay (Minotaur, $29.00, May). On May 1, 1992, Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley hardly know each other. Jules is high school queen bee in a small Midwestern town when she survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer―a predator who strikes every May 1st and then vanishes without a trace. Quinn, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested the same night after trying to break up a fight and nearly killing someone. By morning, their lives are forever connected. A year later, Jules is haunted by trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was she spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to devastating news―the unsolved murder of his mother. Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year: May 1st. As the years pass, secrets surface, lies unravel, and the paths of Jules and Quinn draw closer together. Two mysteries edge toward the truth―what really happened the night Jules was attacked, and who murdered Quinn’s mother? All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there. Library Journal Starred Review
THE LIBRARY AFTER DARK, Ande Pliego (Bantam, $30.00, May). Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled—she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well. As a Valentine’s Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library—the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind.
HONEY, Imani Thompson (Random House, $29.00, May). Yrsa is bored: bored with her PhD program, her entitled students, and the never-ending pages of racial violence and feminist theory she has to read. But most of all, she’s bored with the men in her life—especially the bad ones.
And then, one sunny afternoon, she accidentally kills one. Suddenly a problematic professor is dead, and Yrsa, well—she’s no longer bored. Emboldened, she starts to chase the high, and soon no misbehaving sexist man within commuting distance is safe. Debut Novel. Publishers Weekly Starred Review
SAFARI MURDER PARTY, Rachel Moore (Berkley, $30.00, May). After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher Spence finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great…until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company. Debut Novel. Publishers Weekly Starred Review
MEN LIKE OURS, Bindu Bansinath (Bloomsbury, $28.99, May). When Matthew Pillai is found dead, slumped over the wheel of his BMW, the women of Willow Road are roped into the investigation of their friend’s death. At the center of the case are the Sharmas–Anita, a widow whose late husband introduced Matthew to the neighborhood, and her boundary-pushing daughter, Leila, who called him Uncle. To Anita, who has been in freefall since her arrival in the United States as a young woman, Matthew’s presence offered hope, including a promise of betterment for Leila. The truth, however, is far stranger. Debut Novel.
2084, Elliot Ackerman & Admiral James Stavridis (Penguin Press, $29.00, May). By the year 2084, the world is divided into the equatorial countries that bear the brunt of the climate crisis—led by Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia—and wealthier countries like China and the US, beset by their own problems after a series of civil wars. Tensions between the two sets of countries have reached a breaking point, until finally the so-called Reparationist nations of the equator decide that only military force can bring them justice. Publishers Weekly Starred Review
FEMME FERAL, Sam Beckbessinger (Penguin Books, $18.99, May), The head of a company she started from the ground-up, the worried mother of a troublingly secretive daughter, and the wife of an easy-going man who always has her picking up the slack—Ellie is already juggling too much. So, it’s an inconvenient time to find herself beset by strange physical changes: hair sprouting in new places, running hot, trouble sleeping, losing time, finding bloodstains in all her clothing. And underneath it all, a boiling rage that threatens to disrupt the life she’s worked so hard to build. Her doctor diagnoses perimenopause. But it’s another twenty-eight-day cycle that’s taking hold, one that involves fur, teeth, and a not-insignificant amount of howling at the moon—and that gifts Ellie incredible strength and speed. Her new power’s thrilling, as is releasing the anger she’s suppressed for years—especially as it turns out that there are some problems that can be solved with violence. Debut Novel