Titles listed below garnered starred reviews in one or more of the four library journals (Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal) and a glowing review in Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine as indicated.  In 2022 we started adding the recommendations of the amazon.com Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Month lists (AZ).

This list will be added to as the year progresses and more titles are published.  Any titles added after the last list to appear in an issue of DP will be highlighted by the title in italics and more ****preceding the title.

But first we have some of DP’s Contributors’ Best of the Year So Far Lists (more to follow).

---

George Easter’s Best of 2026 So Far

Best Novels
IRONWOOD, Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, May)
THREE REASONS FOR REVENGE, Dervla McTiernan (Morrow, July)
WHERE THE ROAD ENDS, Brian Freeman (Blackstone, October)
TWO KINDS OF STRANGER, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, March)
HIDE AND SEEK, Soren Sveistrup (Harper, July)
MISSING, E. A. Jackson (Atria/Emily Bestler, March)

Best First Mystery Novels
DISSECTION OF A MURDER, Jo Murray (Dutton, May)

Best Thrillers
STORM TIDE, Paul Doiron (Minotaur, June)
McKENNA’S GUY, Mike Lawson (Blackstone, July)
THE HARD LINE, Mark Greaney (Berkley, February)
CHOKE POINT, Brad Thor (Emily Bestler/Atria, June)
DARK COUNTRY, Adam Plantinga (Grand Central, October)

Best U.K. Only
THE DANGEROUS STRANGER, Simon Mason (riverrun, March)
THE LOST WOMEN, Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph, February)

---

Larry Gandle’s Best of 2026 So Far

Jeff Popple’s Best of 2026 So Far

---

Meredith Anthony’s Best of 2026 So Far

---

Mike Dillman
(Barry Award Committee Member) —
Best of 2026 So Far

Best Novels
TWO KINDS OF STRANGER, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, March)
ONE SECOND AWAY, Rick Mofina (Doubleday Canada, April)
IRONWOOD, Michael Connelly (Little, Brown, May)
ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI, Ashley Elston (Viking/Pamela Dorman Books, January)
THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF, Evelyn Clarke (Harper, April)
MISSING, E. A. Jackson (Atria/Emily Bestler, March)

Best First Mystery Novels

Best Thrillers
McKENNA’S GUY, Mike Lawson (Blackstone, July)

---

Robin Agnew’s Best of 2026 So Far

---

---

Craig Sisterson’s Best of 2026 So Far

---

---

Mystery Mike Bursaw’s Best of 2026 So Far

Best Mystery Novel
MCKENNA’S GUY, Mike Lawson
IRONWOOD, Michael Connelly
CONTEMPT OF COURT, Jake Needham
HEARSAY EVIDENCE, Jake Needham
A JURY OF HIS PEERS, Jake Needham
BROTHERS MCKAY, Craig Johnson
WISDOM CORNER, David Heska Wanbli Weiden
A PAST WITHOUT PICTURES, Jonathan Ames
INSIDE MAN. John McMahon

Best Thriller
WOLF 6, Alex Shaw
FOURTH OPTION, Jack Carr
PENDERGAST, Preston and Child
GOD’S COUNTRY, Kent Krueger
HARD LINE, Mark Greaney
CHOKE POINT, Brad Thor
DARK COUNTRY Adam Plantinga
ROCKETS RED GLARE, Patterson and Evermann
DARK TIME, Nick Petrie
STORM WARNING, James Byrne

Best U.K. Only
BODY OF LIES, Jo Callaghan

---

Hank Wagner’s Best of 2026 — So Far

---

Deadly Pleasures Best of 2026

Best Mystery Novel

***THE FINE ART OF LYING, Alexandra Andrews (Harper, $30.00, May). It was Clare Bast’s love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan’s Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband. When the well-connected wife of Jed’s new boss introduces her to influential friends—a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad—Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Kirkus & PW

***THE HADACOL BOOGIE, James Lee Burke(Atlantic Crime, $30.00, February). Robicheaux #25. When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux’s property, he knows his world and family are about to change. With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter Alafair. LJ & PW

***THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF, Evelyn Clarke (Harper, $30.00, March). Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished. Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggli­ng sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus. It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending. LJ & AZ

***RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON, Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime, $27.99, January). Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Max Allan Collins (author of ROAD TO PERDITION) brings closure to this crime classic, reuniting all the surviving members of the original cast alongside femme fatales, crooked collectors, and greedy gangsters for one more thrilling, deadly chase through the streets, wharves, morgues, bars, and back alleys of 1920s San Francisco – and finally answers the question, Whatever became of the Maltese falcon? PW, DP(3) & BL

***IRONWOOD, Michael Connelly(Little, Brown, $32.00, May). Stilwell #2. Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong. He soon crosses paths with Renee Ballard and they join forces. BL, LJ & DP

***A RIVER RED WITH BLOOD, John Connolly (Atria, $30.00, June). Charlie Parker #23. In a darkly brilliant thriller set in Maine’s rural Kennebec River Valley, the body of a young runaway from a “troubled teens” school has been found in the water, seemingly drowned, while a teenage girl has gone missing, believed dead. Now it is up to one man, private investigator Charlie Parker, to find the connection, and bring two evils—one new and one ancient—to an end.

***I’M NOT THE ONLY MURDERER IN MY RETIREMENT HOME, Fergus Craig (Berkley, $30.00, February). Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She’s hoping her past as a serial killer won’t come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it’s not long before a fellow resident—who happens to be a former police commissioner—drops dead, and Carol’s true identity is leaked—making catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward. Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn’t the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaks—it’s filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol’s guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong…without killing anyone, for once. PW, AZ, DP & Kirkus

***WE WILL SEE YOU BLEED, Ron Currie (Putnam, $30.00, July). It’s late summer 1984, and Babs Dionne’s hometown of Waterville, Maine is on the verge of collapse. A strike at the paper mill has dragged on for a year, pitting neighbor against neighbor, leaving everyone broke and exhausted. As head of the union local, Babs has presided over Little Canada’s decline. She’s sworn off violence since killing a man when she was a teenager, and has stuck to this vow even as it’s become clear that only violence can save their community. When Babs’ best friend Rita returns home after five years away, she is shocked by the state of things. And as the strike comes to a head, Rita notices something else: the men may be broken, but the women are furious, ready to do whatever necessary to take back Little Canada. AZ & PW

***THE KEEPER, Tana French(Viking, $32.00, March). Cal Cooper #3. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river. In a close-knit small Irish town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line. AZ & DP

***KILLER VIBES, Jack Friday (Minotaur, $29.00, July). Meet Peter Key: self-proclaimed “laziest private investigator in Texas” (it’s harder than it looks), unapologetic bisexual, dedicated stoner, and the surprised recipient of a windfall inheritance from an uncle he barely knew. Peter’s life was a mess before, but now― as the owner of a dilapidated house in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Austin―he has a mountain of debt to deal with and pressure to sell from every side. But Peter doesn’t like to be pushed around. And when he discovers a bag full of cash, he starts to suspect his uncle’s death wasn’t an accident. BL & PW

**STRANGERS IN THE VILLA, Robyn Harding (Grand Central, $29.00, March). Sydney Lowe’s life in New York is shattered when her husband, Curtis, admits to a meaningless affair with a client. Begging for forgiveness and vowing to prove his devotion, Curtis suggests the couple retreat to a remote hilltop house in Spain to repair their marriage. High above the Mediterranean, Sydney and Curtis are working on the isolated property and their relationship when a pair of Australian travelers turns up at their door in dire need of help. Lonely for companionship and desperate for free labor, Sydney and Curtis invite the attractive young couple to stay. But as the days pass, dark secrets come to light, the Lowes’ bond is tested, and not everyone will leave the villa alive. LJ, AZ & BL

***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. PW, LJ, DP & AZ

***MAD MABEL, Sally Hepworth (St. Martin’s, $29.00, April). Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea―or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying. Because Elsie hasn’t always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller―Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she’s kept her secret buried for decades. BL, LJ & AZ

***A DEADLY EPISODE, Anthony Horowitz (Harper, $32.00, April). Hawthorne & Horowitz #6. Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is dead. Or, rather, the actor playing him in the film adaptation of The Word is Murder is. Rising star David Caine has been stabbed, and it seems that everyone on the set had a motive. PW

***MISSING, E. A. Jackson (Atria, $28.00, March). In August 1990, baby Bella Carpenter is snatched through the open window of her London hotel room. Detective Inspector Martha Allen is assigned the high-profile case and, knowing that it could make or break her career, is determined to find Bella. When a young woman named Nell Beatty walks into the police station with a baby who appears to be Bella, and whom Nell claims she found on a bench, it seems that the mystery is solved. But DI Allen isn’t convinced — something about Nell’s story doesn’t ring true. But she’s ordered to close the investigation. Thirty years later, Nell Beatty is found dead. Now a superintendent, Allen has never really gotten over her doubts about the Carpenter case and can’t resist doing a little digging on her own time. PW & DP

***THE FINAL PROBLEM, Arturo Perez-Reverte (Little, Brown, $29.00, February) June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens next: Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside a beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all time. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes’ amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best equipped to uncover the truth. Kirkus & PW

***RUBY FALLS, Gin Phillips (Atlantic Crime, $29.00, March). An historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression, about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in the caves, and a woman who’s never felt more alive. Kirkus, BL, DP & PW

***WRECK YOUR HEART, Lori Rader-Day (Minotaur, $29.00, January). Dahlia “Doll” Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning that could launch a thousand broken-hearted country songs, but now she’s the star of her own stage at McPhee’s Tavern. She’s part of Chicago’s – yes, Chicago’s – country music scene, until her boyfriend Joey ups and goes, taking the rent money with him. PW, LJ & AZ

***NIGHT OBJECTS, Lev Raphael (Grand Central, $29.00, May). Lenny Winter is fifteen years-old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest’s elite, where wealth and tradition rule. Blanchard is dazzling, insular—and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school’s greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. As privilege collides with grief and loyalty warps into obsession, Lenny’s choices will lead to an unforgettable reckoning—and a murder investigation that will test every story she tells herself about guilt, power, hope, and who she is becoming. PW, LJ & AZ

***FIRST DO NO HARM, S. J. Rozan (Pegasus, $27.95, January). Lydia Chin/Bill Smith #16. With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses’ strike, a wealthy benefactor is set to give a large donation to honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine: Dr. Elliott Chin, the brother of private investigator Lydia Chin.Before the donation can be finalized, a member of the nurses’ negotiating committee is found murdered. LJ, BL & DP

***HIDE AND SEEK, Soren Sveistrup (Harper, $32.00, July). On Valentine’s Day, detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess are searching to find the missing woman. But when they uncover links to a decades-old cold case, their investigation takes a terrifying turn. A violent killer is on the loose. Can Hess and Thulin catch them, before they strike again? Sequel to THE CHESTNUT MAN, which won a Barry Award. DP

***FROM THE DUST, David Swinson (Little,Brown, $30.00, March). Graham Sanderson thought he’d left it all behind. His years as a Washington, DC, homicide detective, his tragically dead wife, pain, violence. Taking over his father’s house in the remote Finger Lakes region of rural New York, and looking after his shut-in brother, Tommy, seemed like a respite. That is, until the first body is found. The chief of the town’s small police jurisdiction, who is also a family friend, asks for Graham’s assistance. Graham’s instincts immediately kick in and he soon discovers there’s more to the area – the people, its brutally quiet, sophisticated hierarchies – than he or his family ever knew. PW

***FURIOUS VIOLET, Sara Walker (Harper, $30.00, July). Violet “West” Shelley has unwillingly spent her life in the spotlight as the only daughter of a legendary poet and feminist icon who died tragically young. Now, as the self-described “lowbrow” crime journalist approaches fifty—burned out, creatively blocked, and far older than her mother ever was—she retreats to her hometown in the Colorado mountains hometown to finish a long-overdue book about the “Crying Killer,” a notorious serial killer who sobs for his mother after committing his crimes. But what begins as a bid for solitude quickly spirals into something far more sinister. A stalker emerges—mysterious, relentless, with accusations disturbingly intimate: this invisible stranger insists that West is their long-lost mother, though West has never had children. As the threats escalate and her carefully defended privacy starts to shatter, West is drawn into a chilling psychological web where the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to collapse. Kirkus, LJ, PW & BL

***WISDOM CORNER, David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco, $30.00, July). Virgil Wounded Horse is desperately trying to escape his past as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. But when a legendary figure from the reservation is murdered, Virgil is forced to return to the job. Making matters more complicated, threats are coming from the Pine Ridge 705—a street gang from a neighboring reservation who want to expand their reach into Rosebud—and Mitch Gagnon, a shady politician who will stop at nothing to gain more power. AZ & DP

***COOL MACHINE, Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, $30.00, July). In 1981, New York City is emerging from financial ruin while reluctant fence and furniture salesman Ray Carney gambles on one last heist. In 1983, seasoned criminal Pepper takes on a gig as a bodyguard, plunging into the alien territory of the East Village art and club scene. And by 1986, the two have teamed up together for one last job and one final shot to get it all right. Kirkus, BL, AZ & PW

**PROMISED LAND, Henry Wise (Atlantic Crime, $ , September). One morning, a pickup truck is found jammed into the mud, the driver’s door open amidst scattered bullets and bloodstai­ns on the seat. The driver, Rainbo Boon, is nowhere to be found, but his tracks lead Deputy Sheriff Will Seems and his partner, Tania Jameson, into the swamp. Kirkus & PW

Best First Mystery Novels

***A BAD, BAD PLACE, Frances Crawford (Soho Crime, $28.95, March), Glasgow, 1979: If it hadn’t been for her wee stupid dog, Sid Vicious, twelve-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she’d still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn’t be so worried all the time. And maybe Billy “The Ghost” Watson, a notorious gangster, wouldn’t be on her tail—for it’s Billy’s daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers. While Janey swears she can’t remember the details of that morning, the cops think she’s hiding something—and indeed, there’s something she knows that she’s not quite ready to tell anyone, not even her nana, who won’t rest until this whole thing is behind them. BL & PW

***THIS STORY MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE, Tiffany Crum (Flatiron, $29.99, March). Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different “against all odds” survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy, they’ve been the best friends everyone wants to befriend―and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy’s husband, Xander, they’ve built a lucrative empire. Best friends Benny and Joy like to say they’ve been saving each other’s lives since the moment they met. Until the day Joy disappears and Benny is suspected of murder. BL, AZ & PW

***MY NAME WAS GERRY SASS, Tiffany Hanssen (Atlantic Crime, $27.00, May). One morning in 1986, his life of crime catches up to him when two men march him out into the woods and shoot him in the back of the head. Plunged into purgatory, he’s doomed to a painful examination of his life. Unbeknownst to the assassins, Gerry’s closest friend, a Catholic priest named Father Dan, witnesses his execution – yet does nothing to stop it. Meanwhile, Gerry’s daughter, Early, jumps into his prized Mustang with a thirst for revenge. On her adrenaline-fueled hunt, she comes to realize that she’s more like Gerry than she ever wanted to admit. PW

***A GIFT BEFORE DYING, Malcolm Kempt (Crown, $28.00, January). After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Corporal Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights. With his family having severed all ties, Cole waits out the result of a civil lawsuit alone—the wrong verdict could end what’s left of his flailing career. His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her death dredges up demons he thought he’d buried along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between him and his estranged daughter. BL, PW, DP & AZ

***MY GRANDFATHER, THE MASTER DETECTIVE, Masateru Konishi (Putnam, $29.00, March). Debut Novel. As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s no surprise that schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday mysteries more often than your typical twenty-seven-year-old. Solving them is another matter, though. For that, she turns to her beloved grandfather, who retains a keen sharpness of mind despite his dementia, and who was once a key member of The Waseda Mystery Club. From impossible locked room murders to confounding missing persons cases, the grandfather-granddaughter duo “weave stories” to get to the bottom of every mystery. BL & AZ

***WHIDBEY, T Kira Madden (Mariner, $27.00, March). Debut Novel. Birdie Chang didn’t know anything about Whidbey Island when she chose it, only that it was about as far away as she could get from her own life. She’s a woman on the run, desperate for an escape from the headlines back home and the look of concern in her girlfriend’s eyes—and from Calvin Boyer, the man who abused her as a child and who’s now resurfaced. On her way, she has an unnerving encounter with a stranger on the ferry who offers her a proposition, a sinister solution and plan for revenge. BL, PW, Kirkus & AZ

***HOW TO COMMIT A POSTCOLONIAL MURDER, Nina McConigley (Pantheon, $26.00, January). Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—into their house in rural Wyoming where they’ll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it’s time for their uncle to die. According to Georgie, the British are to blame. And to understand why, you need to hear her story. She details the violence hiding in their house and history, her once-unshakeable bond with Agatha Krishna, and her understanding of herself as an Indian-American in the heart of the West. PW, Kirkus, LJ & AZ

***THE MURDER AT WORLD’S END, Ross Montgomery (Morrow, $30.00, January). Stockington & Pike #1. Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley’s Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom—every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within… By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow. PW, DP & Kirkus

***DISSECTION OF A MURDER, Jo Murray (Dutton, $19.00, May). When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she’s shocked by the victim: a well-known, well-respected judge, whose death sent shockwaves through the legal community. She’s also incredulous—she’s nowhere near experienced enough to handle such a high-profile assignment—but the defendant is insistent: he wants her, and only her, to represent him. Except he’s refusing to talk. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, Leila soon learns her opponent is the most ruthless prosecutor she’s ever known: her husband. It’s an impossible situation, yet Leila is determined to sway the jury—until she’s blindsided once again by a shadowy figure from her past PW, DP & BL

***A SOCIOPATH’S GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE, M. K. Oliver (Atria, $29.00, February). Being good might be its own reward, but Lalla can’t pretend she hasn’t missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. And, as a wife and mother, she’s already an expert multitasker. So disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world’s best homemaker should be easy to achieve. Kirkus & AZ

***NIGHT OBJECTS, Eli Raphael (Grand Central, $29.00, May). Lenny Winter is fifteen years-old when she moves with her parents to an aging houseboat off the rugged coast of Washington. She imagines a quiet life spent charting constellations and chasing her dream of becoming an astronomer. Instead, a sudden tragedy shatters her world and catapults her to Blanchard, a renowned boarding school for the Pacific Northwest’s elite, where wealth and tradition rule. Blanchard is dazzling, insular—and haunted by its own legends. At its heart lurks the Pascalianum Club, a secret society known to shape the school’s greatest and most notorious students, and whose influence stretches far beyond campus walls. Hungry to belong, Lenny is drawn into its orbit, even as she senses that the club feeds on the very vulnerabilities she is desperate to hide. PW, LJ & AZ (Best Mystery of 2026 So Far)

***MURDER AT THE HOTEL ORIENT, Alessandra Ranelli (Gallery/Scout Press, $30.00, May).In modern Vienna, American ex-pat Sterling Lockwood is the loyal concierge at the infamously secretive Hotel Orient, where cameras are banned, aliases are required, and every guest has something to hide. After the double murder of two guests, including a tech mogul building an Austrian surveillance state, Sterling must turn detective. But finding the truth will require breaking the Orient’s sacred code of secrecy while keeping a few secrets of her own. DP

***YOU’LL NEVER FORGET ME, Isha Raya (Bantam, $30.00, January), Struggling actress Dimple Kapoor wouldn’t call herself a murderer, per se—she’d prefer the term “opportunist.” Years ago, she did what had to be done to get herself out of a bad situation. And now, after accidentally killing her Hollywood rival, Irene Singh, at a party, she’s simply seizing the chance to nab her dream leading role and resuscitate her career in the process. There’s only one problem: Someone else at the event witnessed the crime . . . and caught it all on camera. LJ & AZ

Best Paperback Original Mysteries

***CARNEY, A. F. Carter (Mysterious Press, $17.95, February). Delia Mariola #5. Baxter’s a city on the move. You can’t drive along a single street without running into a construction project. Captain Delia Mariola understands all of this, and the Baxter Police Department is prepared to battle against the city’s drug dealers, pimps, and stick-up artists. The department began recruiting shortly after the Nissan contract was awarded, which began the city’s rapid transformation, but the commission vetting new hires rushed to bring in almost anyone with a law enforcement background. Men and women were added as fast as they applied, creating a vortex that perfectly suited a group of ex-cops from Missouri as corrupt as they are brutal..Delia’s not afraid—she’s got Tom Carney, an undercover cop who is giving her good intel. PW

***THE MIDNIGHT TAXI, Yosha Gunasekera (Berkley, $18.99, February), Siriwathi Perera never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving. When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected. Publishers Weekly Starred Review

***CHILDREN OF THE SAVAGE CITY, Elizabeth Heider (Penguin, $17.99, February). Nikki Serafino #2. A peaceful evening mass at the historic Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo is shattered when a young au pair is killed in one of the cathedral’s quiet chapels. The daughter of the US Ambassador sees it happen—but she’ll speak only to one person: Nikki Serafino. Shaken by betrayal in her last high-profile case, Nikki has retreated from the relentless vigilance that once defined her work as liaison between Italian police and the US military. Withdrawn and mistrustful, she works her shifts, cares for her aging family, teaches self-defense classes, and avoids entanglement. But this case threatens her self-imposed invisibility—drawing her into a web of lies and resurfacing old wounds and buried loyalties. DP

***ONE SECOND AWAY, Rick Mofina (Doubleday Canada, $17.95, April). One sunny day in California, Jessie is hugging her nine-year-old son, Dylan, goodbye at the airport. He’s travelling by himself, all the way across the country, to visit his father, Jessie’s soon-to-be ex-husband, and his grandparents. Her heart breaks, but she puts on a brave face and gives her son one last wave as a flight attendant leads him away. Several hours later, Jessie gets a frantic call from Dylan’s grandmother in New York. Dylan is missing. DP

***CODEBREAKERS, Stella Sands (HarperPerennial, $18.99, August). Wordhunter#2. Steamy, seedy, swampy south-central Florida once again serves as the backdrop for the unlikely duo of loquacious, tattooed, trash-talking Maggie Moore and laconic Detective Silas Gabriel Jackson—linguistic genius and genius detective, respectively. Now operating their own agency and using their extraordinary skills in forensic semiotics (her), and good old-fashioned observation (him), the pair decode clues embedded in words and symbols to uncover a sadistic criminal who preys upon unsuspecting men. DP

***THE PATIENT, Tim Sullivan(Atlantic Crime, $17.00, February). George Cross #3. DS George Cross can be rude, difficult, and awkward with people. But his unfailing logic and dogged pursuit of the truth means his conviction rate is the best on the force. Now, this unusual detective is met with an even more unusual case. When a young woman is found dead, the Bristol Crime Unit is quick to rule it a suicide: the woman had a long history of drug abuse. But her mother is convinced it was murder: her daughter had been clean for years and making strides in a new therapy program. As an outsider himself, DS Cross is drawn to cases involving the voiceless and the dispossessed. He is determined to defy his bosses and re-open the investigation. DP

***HOW TO KILL A GUY IN TEN DATES, Shailee Thompson (Gallery, $18.00, February).

When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime. Kirkus, AZ, PW & LJ

Best Thrillers

***STORM TIDE, Paul Doiron (Minotaur, $29.00, June). Mike Bowditch #16. When the magnificent home of entrepreneur Brian Malloy mysteriously goes up in flames, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch tries to pull Malloy’s burning body from the fire but is too late. Malloy was suspected of murdering his young, illegitimate son. Now it looks like someone else has delivered a verdict. Miles away, on a lonely stretch of icy railroad track, the body of Axl Deming, once accused of a brutal rape, is found literally cut in half. Though the two murders seem unrelated, a cryptic text from an unknown number draws Bowditch to the scene—and hints at a chilling connection. BL & DP

***THE HARD LINE, Mark Greaney(Berkley, $31.00, February). Gray Man #15. Somewhere at the top of the US Intelligence apparatus, security experts and intelligence operations worldwide are threatened. It starts with a blown safe house in Tunis. Then Court himself barely escapes from an ambush in the jungles of Nicaragua. Now key members of the U.S. counterintelligence community are being assassinated in their own neighborhoods. With the feds compromised, it’s up to Court and his team to stop the hit squads. DP

***THE CORMORANT HUNT, Michael Idov (Scribner, $29.00, January). Ari Falk #2. Disheartened CIA officer Ari Falk, now hiding in the Republic of Georgia, is hailed as a hero by some and branded a traitor by others after blowing the lid off a massive conspiracy. But his quiet exile is shattered when a mission arises—one perfectly suited for someone as jaded and unpredictable as him. Kirkus & DP

***THE ASSET, Mike Lawson(Atlantic Crime, $27.00, February). Joe DeMarco #19. Former Speaker of the House John Mahoney is approached by Diane Lake, an ex-CIA agent with a gift for Mahoney: she reveals that the wife of one of his biggest rivals in the U.S. Senate has a wife (Lydia Chang) who may be passing top secret information to the Chinese. Mahoney has two choices: 1. forward this information on to the FBI and possibly destroy the Senator’s reputation, or 2. put his fixer Joe DeMarco on it to verify if the allegations are true. Mahoney chooses the latter, and DeMarco wonders if his boss has an ulterior motive. It doesn’t take DeMarco long to discover that Lydia Chang is being blackmailed with a disturbing video of her daughter, a young Georgetown University student. DP

***McKENNA’S GUY, Mike Lawson (Blackstone, $29.909, July). When an intruder with murderous intent breaks into Roger Smith’s modest home one night, the big brute gets more than he bargained for, ending up a bloody corpse staining Roger’s carpet. Washington DC Detective Grace Lillinthal is summoned to the crime scene and marvels at the outcome. Why would anyone want to kill gray-haired Roger Smith? He’s the picture of respectability–a widower devoted to his family, an amateur painter, and a civil servant who works at the Government Printing Office. When asked why he’d be a target, a clearly shaken Roger claims to be baffled. But instinct tells Grace there’s more to Roger’s story. DP

***INSIDE MAN, John McMahon (Minotaur, $29.00, January). Head Cases #2. PAR’s latest case involves a militia group stockpiling weapons. When their confidential informant in the case is killed, it quickly becomes clear that the militia did not kill him. As the squad looks into the evidence surrounding his murder, an unidentified man is caught on camera with their informant. This mystery man’s picture is connected to another case at the FBI, an unsolved series of murdered women, buried in the ground in north Florida. Could they have uncovered a serial killer? And if so, what is his connection to their C.I.? DP

***GUNNER, Alan Parks (Pegasus, $27.95, April). March 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France. Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to lie low as the Luftwaffe begins bombing Glasgow. But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When it turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate. PW, BL & DP

***THE TREE OF LIGHT AND FLOWERS, Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press, $27.95, March). Jane Whitefield #10. A violent car crash brings on the premature birth of the baby that Jane Whitefield and her husband have hoped for, but it also shatters the period of calm in their lives. Within weeks, Jane’s peaceful time as a new mother in a safe, harmonious home starts to revert to her harrowing previous life. She had spent over a decade rescuing and sheltering people from dangerous foes, taking them to new locations, and teaching them to live under new identities. It was something that she’d hoped to never have to do again. But there are still people who are determined to capture the woman who makes people disappear so they can force her to reveal where their potential victims are now. LJ & DP

***THE DARK TIME, Nick Petrie(Putnam, $30.00, March). Peter Ash #9. Katelyn Thorsen, known as KT to her friends and enemies, is an independent journalist who receives a very specific death threat. Fortunately, Peter Ash has arrived in town to protect KT at the request of his girlfriend, June Cassidy. From the moment of his arrival, he’s thrown into a maelstrom of violence trying to protect KT and her daughter and discover the source of the death threat. DP(2)

***DARK COUNTRY, Adam Plantinga (Grand Central, $30.00, October). After the bloodshed in Fenton, Arizona, former Detroit cop Kurt Argento had to disappear. He reemerges in the small town of Barton, South Dakota, working under an assumed name as a church handyman. It’s a serene existence of tending to the church grounds and avoiding questions. Until he meets seventeen-year-old Majed, a Syrian refugee trying to build a life in Barton with his single mother, as he’s running for his life. Two men with hard eyes are close behind. Argento steps in, and Majed’s pursuers retreat with a thin excuse about a stolen wallet. It’s a story Argento doesn’t buy for a second. Digging deeper, he uncovers something far more lethal than a street-level shakedown. Majed isn’t just in trouble—he’s a target. And the hunters are closing in. DP

***PENDERGAST: The Beginning, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (Grand Central, $30.00, January). Prequel. It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand new FBI agent—a certain A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended. Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. DP

***TARGET ECHO, Alex Shaw(Boldwood, $18.99, Kindle – $4.99, February). Wolf Six #3. Elite Ukrainian assassin Ruslan Akulov, aka Wolf Six, is a ghost. A weapon for hire forged in the fires of conflict and tempered by experience. Known by both the underworld and international intelligence agencies, he works alone, guided only by the next mission and his unwavering commitment to his personal kill code. So when a routine contract in Argentina turns from simple to chaotic in the squeeze of a trigger, Akulov is thrown into a complex web of deceit and dangerous tests of loyalty. Akulov had heard of the French intelligence operative Sophie Racine – her reputation and skills are world-class, but when her business becomes his problem, Wolf Six must quickly learn to work with others. DP

***CHOKE POINT, Brad Thor (Atria/Emily Bestler, $30.00, June). Scot Horvath #25. A devastating series of bombings tears through Bangkok. Scores of American citizens are dead. The attacks send shock waves around the world. As global assistance pours into Thailand—including the FBI’s famed Evidence Response Team—the president of the United States quietly prepares a plan B: Scot Harvath, America’s top spy, trained to operate outside the law and probe the dark corners others can’t…or won’t. But the bomber Harvath is pursuing isn’t a terrorist. He’s something far more dangerous—one of ours. DP

Deadly Pleasures Best of 2025

Best Novel

**THE IMPOSSIBLE THING, Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, April). 1926. On the cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. A small girl—penniless and neglected by her family—retrieves one such treasure. Its discovery will forever alter the course of her life.
A century later. In a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort finds his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now. PW, DP (3) & AZ

**SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET, William Boyle (Soho Crime, $28.95, February). Gravesend, Brooklyn, 1986: Risa Franzone lives in a ground-floor apartment on Saint of the Narrows Street with her bad-seed husband, Saverio, and their eight-month-old baby, Fabrizio. On the night Risa’s younger sister, Giulia, moves in to recover from a bad breakup, a fateful accident occurs: Risa, boiled over with anger and fear, strikes a drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot. The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for self-defense, or bury the man’s body and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, in the late hours of the night, they call upon Sav’s childhood friend—the sweet, loyal Christopher “Chooch” Gardini—to help them, hoping they can trust him to carry a secret like this. PW & Kirkus

**WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $29.99, March). Something is wrong with Ruby Johnson. A former resident of the ultra-elite Manhattan upper class, Ruby now works as a maid in the type of houses she used to live in. Unassuming, she sees everyone’s dirty secrets from the inside of their beautiful, renovated brownstones. But when Ruby witnesses a murder, she has wicked plans in mind that don’t involve telling the authorities the truth.
Eddie Flynn, streetwise ex con-artist-turned-defense attorney, is the only lawyer in New York City willing to take on hopeless cases. And none is more hopeless than John Jackson’s—the gun that killed his neighbor found, with Jackson’s DNA, in his own home. Flynn and his unconventional team will need to use every trick they know to keep an innocent man from being locked up. But to save his client’s life, Eddie must first protect his own, as the scariest organized criminals in the city are out for his head. PW, AZ & DP

**THE BIG EMPTY, Robert Crais (Putnam, $30.00, January). Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now, ten years later, Traci is a high-profile influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire the best detective she can find: Elvis Cole. Elvis heads to Rancha where an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. Kirkus, BL & DP

**THE SAVAGE, NOBLE DEATH OF BABS DIONNE, Ron Currie (Putnam, $29.00, March). Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction. When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs’s youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn’t seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath. Kirkus, PW, AZ, DP & LJ

**THE DEATH OF US, Abigail Dean (Viking, $27.00, April). Together, Edward and Isabel move to London. They are young and in love, occupied by friends, work and fun. But late on a spring evening when they are thirty years old, their home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, each tries to come to terms with a night that changed everything — and their marriage begins to crumble.
Twenty-five years later, their tormentor is caught, and Edward and Isabel reunite for his sentencing. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be brought to justice. Edward has tried to think about anything else. As they prepare to deliver impact statements in the public eye, it is time to revisit their love story. Will they finally be able to confront the secrets, longings and lies that tore them apart? Kirkus, AZ & PW

**THE QUIET LIBRARIAN, Allen Eskens (Mulholland, $29.00, February). Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.
Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head. BL, AZ & DP

**SALT WATER, Katy Hays (Ballantine, $30.00, March). In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.
Haunted by the specter of that night, the legendary Lingate family unity is pushed to a breaking point, and Helen seizes the opportunity. Enlisting the help of Lorna Moreno, a family assistant, the two plot their escape from Helen’s paranoid, insular family. But when Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened, Helen has to confront the fact that everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect—her controlling father, Richard; her rarely lucid aunt, Naomi; her distant uncle, Marcus; and their circle of friends, visitors, and staff. Even Lorna, her closest ally, may not be who she seems. BL, PW & AZ

**MARBLE HALL MURDERS, Anthony Horowitz (Harper, $31.00, May). Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel and her Greek boyfriend, Andreas, in search of a new life back in England.
Freelancing for a London publisher, she’s given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace who died twenty years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered—by poison.
To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring.
The more Susan reads, the clearer it becomes that Eliot has deliberately concealed clues about his grandmother’s death inside the book.
Desperately, Susan tries to prevent Eliot from putting himself in harm’s way—but his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic. Another murder follows . . . and suddenly Susan finds herself to be the number one suspect. PW, AZ & DP

**A KILLING COLD, Kate Alice Marshall (Flatiron, $28.99, February). When Theodora Scott met Connor – wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family – she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives. Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood. Kirkus, BL & AZ

**HANG ON ST. CHRISTOPHER, Adrian McKinty (Blackstone, $28.99, March). Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protege is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hitman and why? LJ & DP

**HEAD CASES, John McMahon (Minotaur, $28.00, January). FBI Agent Gardner Camden is an analytical genius with an affinity for puzzles. He also has a blind spot on the human side of investigations, a blindness that sometimes even includes people in his own life, like his beloved seven-year-old daughter Camila. Gardner and his squad of brilliant yet quirky agents make up the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, the FBI’s hidden edge, brought in for cases that no one else can solve. When DNA links a murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, the team springs into action. A second victim establishes a pattern, and the murderer begins leaving a trail of clues and riddles especially for Gardner. PW, AZ & DP

**LEO, Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly, $28.00, February). Detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido are languishing in Stellenbosch. Run-of-the-mill police work in the leafy university town is a far cry from their previous life in Cape Town fighting crime and government corruption at the highest level. Then a student is found dead on a mountain trail, and the key suspect, a local businessman, is found murdered in what looks like a professional hit delivering a message—suffocated by fast-action filler foam sprayed down his throat.
On the other side of the country, a beautiful wildlife guide is recruited by a group of special forces soldiers to act as a honeytrap, part of a dangerous multi-million-dollar heist that goes tragically wrong. A single link connects the murdered businessman to the special forces, making Benny and Vaughn’s case all the more mysterious. Another former soldier is soon killed, as is an agent of the country’s disgraced former president; and then the heist crew reorganizes with an even more audacious theft in mind. PW & DP

**BEEN WRONG SO LONG IT FEELS LIKE RIGHT, Walter Mosley (Mulholland Books, $29.00, January). Joe King Oliver’s beloved Grandma B has found a tumor, and at her age, treatment is high-risk. She’s lived life fully and without regrets, and now has only a single, dying wish: to see her long-lost son. King has been estranged from his father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was a young boy. He swore to never speak to the man again when he was taken away in handcuffs. But now, Grandma B’s pure ask has opened King’s heart, and through his hunt, he gains a deeper understanding of his father as a complicated, righteous man—a man defined by women, a man protected by women, a man he wants to know. Although Chief was released from prison years ago, he’s been living underground ever since. LJ & AZ

**THE RAILWAY CONSPIRACY, John Shen Yen Nee & S. J. Rozan (Soho Crime, $29.95, April). London, 1924. Following several months abroad, Judge Dee Ren Jie has returned to the city to foil a transaction between a Russian diplomat and a Japanese mercenary. Aided by Lao She—the Watson to his Holmes—along with several other colorful characters, Dee stops the illicit sale of an extremely valuable “dragon-taming” mace.
The mace’s owner is a Chinese businesswoman who thanks Dee for its retrieval by throwing a lavish dinner party. In attendance is British banking official A. G. Stephen, who argues with the group about the tenuous state of Chinese nationalism—and is poisoned two days later. Dee knows this cannot be a coincidence, and suspects Stephen won’t be the only victim. Sure enough, a young Chinese communist of Lao’s acquaintance is killed not long after—and a note with a strange symbol is found by his body. BL, PW & AZ

**BLOOD TIES, Jo Nesbo (Knopf, $30.00, February). Nesbø’s sequel to THE KINGDOM follows murderous Norwegian brothers Carl and Roy Opgard as they interfere with plans for a new highway while dodging a suspicious sheriff. PW & BL

**THE GHOSTS OF ROME, Joseph O’Connor (Europa, $28.00, February). In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir successfully smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls wounded from the sky, The Choir is plunged into danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened. The Escape Line’s collapse would leave thousands stranded. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, its architect and the acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, paralyzed by the perils of keeping his Roman underground railroad functioning. Meanwhile, SS Commander Paul Hauptmann has been tasked with destroying the entire operation, and the price of failure is high—his wife and children are under Gestapo lock-and-key in Berlin. PW, BL, AZ & Kirkus

**THE RELUCTANT SHERIFF, Chris Offutt (Grove Press, $27.00, March). Mick Hardin never wanted to be sheriff. An ex-Army CID officer, he’s supposed to be retired—or he was until his sister, Linda, was shot in the line of duty, requiring him to step in as interim sheriff while she recovered. Now he’s stuck in Rocksalt, the place he was most hoping to escape.
Back in uniform, Mick is chafing at the sudden dissolution of his retirement plans, wearied by the petty squabbles of Rocksalt’s townsfolk. It’s all business as usual, until the murder of a local bar owner draws an unlikely suspect who threatens to fan the flames of Mick’s past. When two more bodies turn up, seemingly unconnected to the first, Mick is forced to reckon with the mysterious circumstances of a case not so open-and-shut as everyone believes. Meanwhile, Linda is slowly healing when a familiar business tycoon with a vested interest in her returning as sheriff makes it difficult for her to remain on the sidelines. Kirkus, AZ & DP

**THE WHITE CROW, Michael Robotham (Scribner, $28.99, July). Philomena McCarthy has defied the odds to become a young officer with the Metropolitan Police despite her father and her uncles being notorious London gangsters.
On patrol one night, Philomena finds a barefoot child, covered in blood, who says she can’t wake her mother. Meanwhile, three miles away, a London jeweler has a bomb strapped to his chest in his ransacked store and millions are missing.
These two events collide and threaten Philomena’s career, her new marriage, and her life. In too deep, and falling further, Phil must decide who she can trust—her family or her colleagues—and on what side of the thin blue line she wants to live. DP

**DEAD IN THE FRAME, Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday, $28.00, February). NEW YORK CITY, 1947: Wealthy financier and ghoulish connoisseur of crime, Jessup Quincannon, is dead, and famed detective Lillian Pentecost is under arrest for his murder. Means, motive, and a mountain of evidence leave everyone believing she’s guilty. Everyone, that is, except Willowjean “Will” Parker, who knows for a fact her boss is innocent. She just doesn’t know if she can prove it. LJ & BL

**PRESUMED GUILTY, Scott Turow (Grand Central, $30.00, January). Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail. BL, PW & AZ

Best First Mystery Novel

**A THOUSAND NATURAL SHOCKS, Omar Hussain (Blackstone, $26.99, May). Dash, a reporter in Monterey, California, is desperate to outrun his past. During the day, he investigates the reemergence of a long-dormant serial killer. At night, he has become entangled with a criminal cult that promises a pill to erase his traumatic memory.
But as Dash begins to lose his memories—and his sense of self—he discovers a dark secret about the cult, one that would horrify its members. And soon he finds himself in a race against time to evade the cult, unveil the killer, and reconcile his past before his own memories fade away. Publishers Weekly Starred Review

**DEAD MONEY, Jakob Kerr (Bantam, $30.00, January). In her job as unofficial “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets. But this time, she’s in way over her head—or so it seems. The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast. Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league. Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it. Kirkus, PW & AZ

**THE MUSEUM DETECTIVE, Maha Khan Phillips (Soho Crime, $27.95, April). When Dr. Gul Delani receives a call in the middle of the night from the Sindh police, she thinks they may have finally found her niece, Mahnaz—a precocious, politically conscious teenage girl who went missing three years prior. Gul has been racked with grief since Mahnaz’s disappearance and distracts herself through work: a talented curator at the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, she is one of the country’s leading experts in archaeology and ancient civilizations, a hard-won position for a woman.
But there is no news of Mahnaz. Instead, Gul is summoned to a narcotics investigation in a remote desert region in western Pakistan. In her wildest dreams, Gul couldn’t have imagined what she’d find there: amid a drug bust gone wrong, there is a mummy—life-size, seemingly authentic, its sarcophagus decorated with symbols from Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. The discovery confounds everyone. It is both too good to be true, and for Gul, too precious to leave in careless or corrupt hands. LJ, DP & AZ

**JOHNNY CARELESS, Kevin Wade (Celadon, $27.99, January). Police Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island’s North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective’s shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a “have-not” among the glittering “haves,” a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it. When the corpse of Jeep’s childhood friend Johnny Chambliss – born into privilege and known as “Johnny Careless” for his reckless, golden-boy antics – surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. PW, AZ & DP

Best Paperback Original Mystery

**LEAVE NO TRACE, Jo Callaghan (Random House, $18.00, January). When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of a hill in the British Midlands, AIDE Lock—the world’s first AI detective—and Detective Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case. DP

**THE UNDOING OF VIOLET CLAYBOURNE, Emily Critchley (Sourcebooks Landmark, $17.99, March). 1999: When successful writer Gillian Larking receives a letter from the nephew of an old friend, she knows that her past has finally caught up with her. Violet Claybourne, her old boarding school roommate, was a girl who captivated Gillian with stories of her charming sisters and their picturesque home at Thornleigh Hall. Violet Claybourne pulled Gillian into her life, into her family, and changed Gilly’s path forever. Violet Claybourne also spent the past sixty years in a psych hospital, and now she wants Gillian to tell her story. The real story. LJ & BL

**MAKING A KILLING, Cara Hunter (Morrow, $18.99, May). Forensic evidence found on the body of a young woman discovered in a shallow grave belongs to a girl that police believed was murdered 8 years ago. Now DCI Adam Fawley and his crew must figure out where they went wrong and where the young girl can be found. DP

**THE KILLING PLAINS, Sherry Rankin (Thomas & Mercer, $16.99, February). Crescent Bluff, West Texas. Everybody knows everybody. And everybody has a secret. When a boy is found dead with the skin of a hare’s head in his hand, everyone knows who killed him – Willis Newland, just released from prison after serving twenty years for an identical murder. But what if everyone’s wrong? Detective Colly Newland reluctantly agrees to investigate a case that seems to involve the whole town, including her dead husband’s extended family. But the deeper she digs, the more secrets she unearths. And as threats against her escalate, Colly realizes someone is willing to kill to keep theirs. AZ & CWA Debut Dagger

**VERA WONG’S GUIDE TO SNOOPING (ON A DEAD MAN), Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley, $19.00, April). Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly…bored.
Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena’s, Vera finds a treasure trove: Selena’s briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.
Online, Xander had it all: a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can’t seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents. Kirkus, AZ & DP

Best Thriller

**THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, Joseph Finder (Harper, $30.00, January). Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who can seemingly predict his every move. Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana—unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several U.S. intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government. BL, AZ & LJ

**MIDNIGHT BLACK, Mark Greaney (Berkley, $30.00, February). The Gray Man is determined to rescue his partner and lover Zoya Zakharova from a Russian prison camp. The task proves to be even more difficult than imagined. My early pick for best thriller of 2025. DP (3)

**UNTOUCHABLE, Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, February). Brandon Cartwright was a rich guy worth a couple billion bucks—inherited, of course—meaning he hadn’t worked a day in his life. But he sure knew how to party, and the people he rubbed shoulders with were all sorts of rich and famous: politicians and movie stars and British royalty and Russian oligarchs. So when Brendan Cartwright is executed in his own home, the cops quickly conclude that he was most likely killed by one or more of the rich, powerful people he partied with. But when John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, emerges from a clandestine meeting with the head of the National Archives, he learns there’s evidence suggesting that the President of the United States was somehow involved with Cartwright’s death. Mahoney needs someone who can investigate from the shadows—enter Joe DeMarco, Mahoney’s fixer. PW & DP

**HARD TOWN, Adam Plantinga (Grand Central, $30.00, April). After surviving a deadly prison break, ex-Detroit cop Kurt Argento is ready for some quiet. Still working through his grief over the passing of his wife, Argento finds himself house-sitting for a friend with his loyal companion, Hudson, a Chow Chow-Shepard mix. It’s a simple life, but it’s one that Argento is content to live. Then Kristin Reed shows up, begging Argento to find her missing husband and son.
Argento starts to notice that Fenton, Arizona is more than meets the eye. First there’s the large, overly equipped public safety team complete with specialized tactics and sophisticated weaponry. Then there’s the unusual financial boosting of failing small businesses by the U.S. government. Finally, there’s a man with no name with unprecedented control over the town. Argento finds himself unraveling not just the truth behind the disappearance of a family, but a conspiracy that’s taken a whole town to cover up.
Fenton, Arizona is going to push him further than he’s ever had to go. And along the way, he may just lose a part of himself. Because justice isn’t as black and white as Argento would like to believe. PW, AZ & DP

**THE MAILMAN, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press, $26.95, January). Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address that threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. A problem for most delivery men but not Carter — because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service. After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals – but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. A chase ensues. AZ, LJ & DP

---

George Easter’s Best of 2024 So Far

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Chris Whitaker (Crown, $30.00, June)
THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Penguin, $16.99, May)
KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $27.99, March)
BLACK WOLF, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $28.00, March)
THE WRONG HANDS, Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly Press, $27.00, July)
CLOSE TO DEATH, Anthony Horowitz (Harper, $30.00, April)
CALIFORNIA BEAR, Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland, $29.00, January)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath (Knopf, $28, February)
THE WAITING, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, October)
MIDNIGHT AND BLUE, Ian Rankin (Mulholland Books, October)
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, Jo Callaghan (Random House, $17.99, August)
THE DETECTIVE GONE GRAY, Jake Needham (Half Penny, $18.99, October)
THE GOD OF THE WOODS, Liz Moore (Riverhead, $30.00, July)
LOCKED IN, Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton, $30.00, December)

Best Thrillers

ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hanover Press, $30.00, April)
FIRST STRIKE, Stephen Leather (Independently published in U.S., $20.00, July)

Best U.K. (not published yet in U.S.)

LOST AND NEVER FOUND, Simon Mason (Riverrun, £16.99, January UK only)
THE WILD SWIMMERS, William Shaw (riverrun, May UK only)
THE MERCY CHAIR, M. W. Craven (Constable, June UK only)
WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (UK, August, in US, March, 2025)
LEO, Deon Meyer (UK, October, in US, February, 2025)

Best Australian/New Zealand Crime Fiction

SHADOW CITY by Natalie Conyer (Echo, Kindle $7.99, September)
TIPPING POINT, Dinuka McKenzie (February Australia)
THE CALL, Gavin Strawhan (Debut, March, Australia/New Zealand)

Larry Gandle’s Best of 2024 So Far

KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $27.99, March)
CITY IN RUINS, Don Winslow (Morrow, $32.00, April).
WILD HOUSES, Colin Barrett (Grove Press, $27.00, March)
BLACK RIVER, Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo, $17.95, September)
THE GOD OF THE WOODS, Liz Moore (Riverhead, $30.00, July)
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Chris Whitaker (Crown, $30.00, June)
WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (UK, August, in US, March, 2025)

Jeff Popple’s Best of 2024 So Far

THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Penguin, $16.99, May)
EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT, Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner, $30.00, January)
KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $27.99, March)
BLACK WOLF, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $28.00, March)
THE INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS, John Connolly (Atria, $29.99, May)
PITCH DARK, Paul Doiron (Minotaur, $29.00, June)
THE MERCY CHAIR, M. W. Craven (Constable, June UK only)
WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (UK, August, US, March, 2025)
DON’T LET THE DEVIL RIDE, Ace Atkins (Morrow, $30.00, June)
LOOK IN THE MIRROR, Catherine Steadman (Ballantine, $30.00, July)
MIDNIGHT AND BLUE, Ian Rankin (Mulholland Books, October)

Australia/New Zealand Crime Fiction

SANCTUARY, Garry Disher (April Australia)
TIPPING POINT, Dinuka McKenzie (February Australia)
THE CREEPER, Margaret Hickey (July, Australia)
THE HITCHHIKER, Gabriel Bergmoser (July, Australia)
SHADOW CITY, Natalie Conyer (September, Australia)
THE CALL, Gavin Strawhan (Debut, March, Australia/New Zealand)
WHEN IT RAINS, Dave Warner (Australia)

Steele Curry’s Best of 2024 So Far

THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Penguin, $16.99, May)
GALWAY CONFIDENTIAL, Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press, $26.95, March)
THE HUNTER, Tana French (Viking, $32.00, March)
THE LAST FEW MILES OF ROAD, Eric Beetner (Level Best Books, $16.95, February)
PHANTOM ORBIT, David Ignatius (Norton, $29.99, May)
ONE DEADLY EYE, Randy Wayne White (Hanover Square Press, $28.99, June)
A DEATH IN CORNWALL, Daniel Silva (Harper, $32.00, July)
DEAD GROUND, Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus, $30.00, October)

Mike Dillman (Barry Award Committee Member) — Best of 2024 So Far

ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hanover Press, $30.00, April)
FIRST LIE WINS, Ashley Elston (Pamela Dorman Books, $28.00, January)
SOMEONE SAW SOMETHING, Rick Mofina (MIRA, $18.99, April)
EVERYONE IS WATCHING, Heather Gudenkauf (Park Row, $17.99, March)
NOBODY’S HERO, M. W. Craven (Flatiron Books, $29.99, December)
CAPE RAGE, Ron Corbett (Berkley, $28.00, May)
RED SKY MOURNING, Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester, $29.99, June)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
LISTEN FOR THE LIE, Amy Tintera (Celadon Books, $26.99, March)
A CALAMITY OF SOULS, David Baldacci (Grand Central, $30.00, April)
THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL, Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley, $29.00, September)
THE WAITING, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, October)

Best U.K. (not published in U.S.)

PROFILE K, Helen Fields (Avon, April; in the U.S. as THE PROFILER, February, 2025)

Meredith Anthony’s Best of 2024 So Far

CALIFORNIA BEAR, Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland, $29.00, January)
MATTERHORN, Christopher Reich (Thomas & Mercer, $28.00, April)
MURDER AT LA VILLETTE, Cara Black (Soho Crime, $27.95, March)
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Chris Whitaker (Crown, $30.00, June)
THE IMPOSITION OF UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES, Malka Older
(Tor, $20.99, February)
GALWAY CONFIDENTIAL, Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press, $26.95, March)
THE HUNTER, Tana French (Viking, $32.00, March)
MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, Riley Sager (Dutton, $30.00, June)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath (Knopf, $28, February)
ASH DARK AS NIGHT, Gary Phillips (Soho Press, $27.95, April)
THE STARS TURNED INSIDE OUT, Nova Jacobs (Atria Books, $27.99, March)
THINGS DON’T BREAK ON THEIR OWN, Sarah Easter Collins (Crown, $28.00, July)
THE LOST BOY OF SANTA CHIONIA, Juliet Grames (Knopf, $29.00, July)
A VERY BAD THING, J. T. Ellison (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, September)
THE LAST TIME SHE SAW HIM, Kate White (Harper, $30.00, May)
IN TOO DEEP, Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte, $30.00, October)
WORDHUNTER, Stella Sands (Harper, $18.99, August)

Robin Agnew’s Best of 2024 So Far

MURDER BY LAMPLIGHT, Patrice McDonough (Kensington, $27.00, February)
A DEADLY ENDEAVOR, Jenny Adams (Crooked Lane, $29.99, March)
THE LAST WORD, Elly Griffiths (Mariner Books, $27.99, April)
AGONY HILL, Sarah Stewart Taylor (Minotaur, $26.00, August)
THE LAST HOPE, Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam, $27.00, May)
MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE, Allison Montclair (Minotaur, $29.00, July)
A COLLECTION OF LIES, Connie Berry (Crooked Lane, $30.99, June)
MISERY HATES COMPANY, Elizabeth Hobbs (Crooked Lane, $29.99, November)
DEATH AT THE SANITORIUM, Ragnar Jonasson (Minotaur, $29.00, September)
A MESSY MURDER, Simon Brett (Severn House, $29.99, September)
A GATHERING MIST, Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane, $29.99, October)
PONY CONFIDENTIAL, Christina Lynch (Berkley, $28.00, November)

“Mystery” Mike Bursaw’s Best of 2024 So Far

ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hanover Press, $30.00, April)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
THE MERCY CHAIR, M. W. Craven (Constable, June UK only)
FIRST FROST, Craig Johnson (Viking, $30, May)
ERUPTION, Michael Crichton & James Patterson (Little, Brown, $32.00, June)
BLOODLANDS, Mark Dawson (Independently Published, $14.99, April)
THE GOLDEN LIBRARY, Scott Mariani (HarperNorth, $19.59, July)
THE WAITING, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, October)
A DEATH IN CORNWALL, Daniel Silva (Harper, $32.00, July)
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, Jo Callaghan (Random House, $17.99, August)
SPIRIT CROSSING, William Kent Krueger (Atria Books, $28.99, August)
THE DETECTIVE GONE GRAY, Jake Needham (Half Penny, $18.99, October)
SIN CITY, James Swain (Independently Published, $19.99, July)

Ted Hertel’s Best of 2024 So Far

WHEN WE WERE SILENT, Fiona McPhillips (Flatiron Books, $28.99, May)
THE UNQUIET BONES, Loreth Anne White (Montlake, $28.99, March)
LAKE COUNTY, Lori Roy (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, June)
DEATH COMES TOO LATE (short stories), Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime, $18.99, March)
THE PRICE YOU PAY, Nick Petrie (Putnam, $29.00, February)
THE MURDER OF MR. MA, John Shen Yen Nee & S. J. Rozan (Soho Crime, $25.95, April)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
SPIRIT CROSSING, William Kent Krueger (Atria Books, $28.99, August)
CLETE by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28.00, June 2024)  
CREAM OF THE CROP: Best Mystery and Suspense Stories of Bill Pronzini by Bill Pronzini (short stories) (Stark House, $19.95, August 2024)

Ali Karim’s Best of 2024 So Far

KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $27.99, March)
THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Penguin, $16.99, May)
CRAMPTON, Thomas Ligotti and Barndon Trenz (Chiroptera Press, tpb, $40.00, February)
A TALENT FOR MURDER, Peter Swanson (Morrow, $30.00, June)
LEO, Deon Meyer (Hodder & Stoughton; in U.S. by Atlantic Monthly, Feb 2025)

Craig Sisterson’s Best of 2024 So Far

PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath (Knopf, $28, February)
RETURN TO BLOOD, Michael Bennett (Atlantic, $27, May)
SANCTUARY, Garry Disher (Text Publishing, $34.99 AUD, April)
DEVIL’S KITCHEN, Candice Fox (Forge Books, $28.99, June)
MISSING WHITE WOMAN, Kellye Garrett (Mulholland, $29, April)
EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT, Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner, $30.00, January)
CITY IN RUINS, Don Winslow (William Morrow, $32, April)
THE WRONG HANDS, Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly Press, $27.00, July)
JERICHO’S DEAD, William Hussey Bonnier, £16.99, 29 February
THE TRIALS OF MARJORIE CROWE, C. S. Robertson (Hodder & Stoughton, $26.99, September)
HOME TRUTHS, Charity Norman (August Australia)

Maggie Mason’s Best of 2024 So Far

THE DISSECTION MURDERS, Steve Packwood (Level Best Books, $16.99, August)
BETWEEN A FLOCK AND A HARD PLACE, Donna Andrews (Minotaur, $28.00, August)
THE PHANTOM PATROL, James R. Benn (Soho, $27.95, September)
THE WAITING, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, October)

Hank Wagner’s Best of 2024 So Far

THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK, Emiko Jean (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, May)
DON’T TURN AROUND, Harry Dolan(Atlantic Monthly Press, $27.00)
ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone, $25.99, April)
CALIFORNIA BEAR, Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland, $29.00, January)
KINGPIN, Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, February)
WORST CASE SCENARIO, T. J. Newman (Little, Brown, $30.00, August)
SUGAR ON THE BONES, Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland, $27.00, July)

Titles listed below garnered starred reviews in one or more of the four library journals (Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal) and a glowing review in Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine as indicated.  In 2022 we started adding the recommendations of the amazon.com Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Month lists (AZ).

This list will be added to as the year progresses and more titles are published.  Any titles added after the last list to appear in an issue of DP will be highlighted by the title in italics and more ****preceding the title.

Best Mystery/Crime Novel 2024

****THE HEART IN WINTER, Kevin Barry (Doubleday, $28.00, July). October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives. PW, Kirkus and BL

**RETURN TO BLOOD, Michael Bennett (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, May). After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career as a detective in the Auckland CIB. Hoping that civilian life will offer her the opportunity to rest and recalibrate, she returns to her hometown of Tata Bay, where she moves back in with her beloved father, Eru. Yet the memories of the past are everywhere, and as she goes for her daily run on the beach, Hana passes a local monument to Grace, a high school classmate who was murdered more than twenty years ago and hidden in the dunes overlooking the sea. A Maori man with a previous record was convicted of the crime, although Eru never believed he was guilty. When her daughter finds another young woman’s skeleton in the sands, Hana soon finds herself awkwardly involved. DP

**THE WRONG HANDS, Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, July). Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Well, two problems. First, there’s his dead wife and her yet-to-be-solved murder. He really should stop talking to her ghosts… Second, and most pressing, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne’er do well Wayne Cutler—a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife’s death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of. DP

**ANNA O, Matthew Blake (Harper, $30.00, January). Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive—and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.” Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O’”case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect—he’s got career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own. As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and whether Anna should be held responsible for her crimes. Only Anna knows the truth about that night, but only Benedict knows how to discover it. And they’re both in danger from what they find out. Kirkus, PW & AZ

**KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh (Atria, $27.99, March). One dark evening in New York City, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realise they have so much in common. They both feel alone. They both drink alone.
And they both desperately want revenge against the two men who destroyed their families.
Together, they have the perfect plan. If you kill for me, I’ll kill for you. PW, AZ & DP

****ONE OF US KNOWS, Alyssa Cole (Morrow, $28.99). Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity. Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect. BL, LJ & AZ

**THE INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS, John Connolly (Atria, $29.99, May). In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone—ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk—has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty. But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built. DP

****THE NIGHT IN QUESTION, Susan Fletcher (Union Square, $28.99, April). Florrie Butterfield—eighty-seven, one-legged, and of cheerful disposition—believes there can’t be any more adventures or surprises in life to experience. Yet one midsummer’s evening, there’s an accident at Babbington Hall—the adult residence where she lives—so shocking and strange that Florrie is suspicious; is this really an accident? Or is she being lied to? Is she, in fact, living alongside a potential murderer? In her efforts to learn the truth, Florrie is forced to look back on her own life, with all its passions and regrets; she must confront her own bloody secret—and, at last, forgive herself. Above all, Florrie learns, through the help of her new friend, Stanhope, that you’re never too old to have the life you’ve always dreamed of. When it comes to love, it’s never too late. BL, PW & AZ

**THE HUNTER, Tana French (Viking, $32.00, March). Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge. AZ & DP

**BLACK WOLF, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $28.00, March). Antonia Scott is the lynchpin of the Red Queen project, created to work behind the scenes to solve the most dark, devious and dangerous crimes. In southern Spain, in the Costa del Sol, a key mafia figure is found brutally murdered in his villa, his pregnant wife, Lola Moreno, barely escapes an attempt to kill her and is on the run. An unusual shipping container arrives from St Petersburg in Spain with the corpses of nine women. Now Antonia, with the help of her protector, Jon Gutierrez, must track down the missing Lola. But they aren’t the only ones – a dangerous hitman, known as the Black Wolf, is also on her trail. And Antonia Scott, still plagued by her personal demons, must outwit, out-maneuver, and, ultimately, face this terrible, mysterious killer. AZ & DP

**CLOSE TO DEATH, Anthony Horowitz (Harper, $30.00, April). Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong, and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate. It is the perfect idyll, until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, gaggle of shrieking children, and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and quickly offend every last one of the neighbors. When Charles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case. Kirkus, BL & DP

****SOUTHERN MAN, Greg Iles (Morrow, $36.00, May). Fifteen years after the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage is alone. Nearly all his loved ones are dead, his old allies gone, and he carries a mortal secret that separates him from the world. But Penn’s exile comes to an end when a brawl at a Mississippi rap festival triggers a bloody mass shooting—one that nearly takes the life of his daughter Annie. As the stunned cities of Natchez and Bienville reel, antebellum plantation homes continue to burn and the deadly attacks are claimed by a Black radical group as historic acts of justice. Panic sweeps through the tourist communities, driving them inexorably toward a race war. But what might have been only a regional sideshow of the 2024 Presidential election explodes into national prominence, thanks to the stunning ascent of Robert E. Lee White, a Southern war hero who seizes the public imagination as a third-party candidate. Dubbed “the Tik-Tok Man,” and funded by an eccentric Mississippi billionaire, Bobby White rides the glory of his Special Forces record to an unprecedented run at the White House—one unseen since the campaign of H. Ross Perot. Kirkus & BL

****SHANGHAI, Joseph Kanon (Scribner, $28.99, June). After the violence of Kristallnacht (1938), European Jews, now desperate to emigrate, found the consular doors of the world closed to them. Only one port required no entry visa: Shanghai, a self-governing Western trading enclave in what was technically Chinese territory, a political anomaly that became an escape hatch—if you were lucky enough to afford a ticket on one of the great Lloyd liners sailing to the East and safety. Daniel Lohr was one of the lucky ones—lucky enough to have escaped the Gestapo when his colleagues in the resistance were caught, lucky to have an uncle waiting in Shanghai, lucky to find a casual shipboard flirtation turn unexpectedly passionate. But even lucky refugees have to confront the reality of Shanghai. With all their assets, and passports confiscated by the Nazis, they arrive penniless and stateless in a tumultuous, nearly lawless city notorious for vice. When you can sink fast, how far are you willing to go to survive? Kirkus, PW & BL

**SPIRIT CROSSING, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $27.99, August). The disappearance of a local politician’s teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O’Connor’s grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman—but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it’s clear that Cork’s grandson is in danger of being the killer’s next victim.

**THE MOUNTAIN KING, Anders de la Motte (Atria, $29.99, January). Detective Leonore Asker seems to have the leading position at Malmö’s Major Crime Division within reach. But things go awry when, in the middle of a high profile kidnapping case, management relegates her to the so-called Department of Lost Souls—the unit for odd, cold cases banished to the basement of the police station. Despite the humiliation, Asker is drawn into one of the more peculiar cases. Someone is secretly placing small ominous figures in a huge model train displays and one of the figures seems to represent the missing woman from the kidnapping case. As Asker’s investigation leads her into the world of the abandoned and forgotten, she reaches out to her old friend and urban explorer Martin Hill. Together they discover that an unusual kind of evil lurks—at the heart of a mountain, deep down in the darkness. PW, AZ & DP

**THE RUMOR GAME, Thomas Mullen (Minotaur, $29.00, February). Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis spies and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. Tired of chasing silly rumors about Rosie Riveters’ safety on the job, she wants to write about something bigger. Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing industrial sabotage and his Sundays spying on clerics with suspect loyalties – and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war. When Anne’s story about Nazi propaganda intersects with Devon’s investigation into the death of a factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime, and domestic fascism –one that implicates their own tangled pasts and threatens to engulf the city in violence. BL & AZ

****THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE, Jo Plazza (Dutton, $28.00, April). Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered. Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and learn the story of Serafina—a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly the more she challenges the status quo, the more she finds herself in danger. Kirkus, BL & AZ

**THE MURDER OF MR. MA, S. J. Rozan & John Shen Yen Nee (Soho Crime, $25.95, April). London, 1924. When shy academic Lao She meets larger-than-life Judge Dee Ren Jie, his quiet life abruptly turns from books and lectures to daring chases and narrow escapes. Dee has come to London to investigate the murder of a man he’d known during World War I when serving with the Chinese Labour Corps. No sooner has Dee interviewed the grieving widow than another dead body turns up. Then another. All stabbed to death with a butterfly sword. Will Dee and Lao be able to connect the threads of the murders—or are they next in line as victims? PW & DP

**AT ANY COST, Jeffrey Siger (Severn House, February). Kaldis is initially dismayed to be asked to investigate a series of suspicious forest fires that took place last summer. In Greece, forest fires are an inevitability, and he fears he and his team are being set up to take the political blame for this year’s blazes. He quickly becomes suspicious, though, that the forests were torched for profit – and for a project on a far grander scale than the usual low-level business corruption. There are whispers on the wind that shadowy foreign powers intend to establish a surreptitious mega-internet presence on the island of Syros, with the intent to weaponize the digital world to their own dark ends. BL & DP

**EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS SUSPECT, Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner Books, $30.00, January) “When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.” AZ, Kirkus & DP

****A TALENT FOR MURDER, Peter Swanson (Morrow, $30.00, June). Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger. A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women. Is she married to a serial killer? PW & DP

**CALIFORNIA BEAR, Duane Swierczynski (Mullholland Books, $29.00, January). Four unlikely vigilantes pit themselves against the villain behind California’s coldest case when they decide to take justice into their own hands. LJ, BL, PW & DP

****THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Stuart Turton (Sourcebooks Landmark, $27.99, May). Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world. Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists. Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn’t solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island?and everyone on it. PW, BL, AZ and LJ

**ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Chris Whitaker (Crown, $30.00, June). Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who is broken by her best friend’s disappearance. Soon, she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him. But when she does: it will break her heart. Patch lies in a pitch-black room – all alone – for days or maybe weeks. Until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she takes him from the darkness and paints their world with her words. In this hopeless place, they fall in love. But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed. To find her again, Patch charts an epic search across the country. And, to set him free, Saint will shadow his journey: on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them. DP

**CITY IN RUINS, Don Winslow (Morrow, $32.00, April). Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich. The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman – a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with. Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far. PW

**VILLAGE IN THE DARK, Iris Yamashita (Berkley, $28.00, February). On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances. Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet. LJ, AZ & DP

Best Debut Mystery/Crime Novel 2024

**PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath (Knopf, $28.00, February). Lorraine Henry is generally content to keep her head down and get on with her work as a records clerk at the Masterton police station. But when children start going missing in her small town, Lo can’t help but pay attention. After all, she has Bradley, her young nephew, to worry about, and the cops don’t seem to be putting much effort into finding the kids. And then the unthinkable happens: Bradley disappears. Distraught but determined, Lorraine vows to bring him home no matter what. And, together with a detective from Wellington, she embarks on a dangerous mission, one that will illuminate all the good and all the bad in Masterton. Kirkus

**ORDINARY BEAR, C. B. Bernard (Blackstone Publishing, $25.99, April). Farley stands out among his Iñupiat neighbors in the Alaska village he calls home, both white and enormous, like the hungry polar bears that wander its streets. Jovial and a little hapless, he works as an investigator for a North Slope oil company, When his young daughter visits from thousands of miles away in Portland—where she lives with her mother, who despises him—a shocking moment of violence leaves her dead and Farley injured. Crippled by his wounds and hamstrung with guilt over his inability to save her, he goes home to Oregon to try to make amends. There he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a single mother and her daughter. With their help, he begins the slow process of healing—until the girl goes missing. Faced with the opportunity to do what he couldn’t do for his own daughter, Farley sets out on a brutal odyssey through Portland’s quirky and dangerous underworld, using his wits and his fists to try to save her life along with the shattered remains of his own. DP(6)

**RADIANT HEAT, Sarah-Jane Collins (Berkley, $27.00, January). The blaze came out of nowhere one summer afternoon, a wall of fire fed by blustering wind. Yet, somehow, Alison is alive. She rode out the fire on the damp tiles of her bathroom, her entire body swaddled in a wet woolen blanket. As flames crackled around her, the bitter char of eucalyptus settled in the back of her throat, each breath more desperate than the last. The wildfire that devastated the Victoria countryside Alison calls home sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to obliterate the carefully constructed life she is living. When Alison emerges from her sheltering place, she spots a soot-covered cherry red car in her driveway, and in it, a dead woman. Alison has never met Simone Arnold in her life . . . or so she thinks. So what is she doing here? AZ & LJ

****BLOOD RUBIES, Mailan Doquang (Mysterious Press, $26.95, July). Seven days are all it takes for Rune Sarasin’s life to completely derail. It starts with a routine heist: lifting a pouch of rubies from the Bangkok hotel room of wealthy smuggler Charles Lemaire. Rune nearly gets caught when Lemaire’s goons give chase, but she manages to escape with her boyfriend Kit. Then Kit delivers some terrifying news: his teenage sister Madee has gone missing. They track her cell phone to the dangerous Khlong Toei slum, but the trail ends there. The night gets even worse when Rune realizes she lost the pouch of gems somewhere in the slum while searching for Madee. Charles Lemaire is the wrong man to mess with. He is a perfectionist when it comes to both his attire and his crimes, and he isn’t afraid to kill to get what he wants. When he catches up to Rune and Kit, he gives Rune an ultimatum: return his rubies or she will never see her boyfriend again. Now Rune must race against time to either recover the lost gems or find something even more valuable with which to ransom Kit back from Lemaire. But she also still needs to find out what happened to Madee. As Rune investigates deeper into the shadows of the Khlong Toei slum, she uncovers a web of crime with consequences far more insidious than just one missing girl and a handful of stolen rubies. AZ & DP

****WHEN WE WERE SILENT, Fiona McPhillips (Flatirorn, $28.99, May). Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. At first, Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield’s web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet. Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair,” when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna’s brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify. Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. PW & DP

**NORTHWOODS, Amy Pease (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $27.00). Eli North is not okay. His drinking is getting worse by the day, his emotional wounds after a deployment to Afghanistan are as raw as ever, his marriage and career are over, and the only job he can hold down is with the local sheriff’s department. And that’s only because the sheriff is his mother—and she’s overwhelmed with small town Shaky Lake’s dwindling budget and the fallout from the opioid epidemic. The Northwoods of Wisconsin may be a vacationer’s paradise, but amidst the fishing trips and campfires and Paul Bunyan festivals, something sinister is taking shape. When the body of a teenage boy is found in the lake, it sets in motion an investigation that leads Eli to a wealthy enclave with a violent past, a pharmaceutical salesman, and a missing teenage girl. Soon, Eli and his mother, along with a young FBI agent, are on the hunt for more than just a killer. PW & AZ

****THE MANY LIES OF VERONICA HAWKINS, Kristina Pérez (Pegasus Crime, $27.95, September). When Martina Torres arrives in the glamorous and vibrant metropolis of Hong Kong, newly married to her high school sweetheart, the world seems to be her oyster.Adrift in a foreign city, with no job and no friends, Martina chafes in her new role as Expat Wife. But her luck changes when she meets Veronica Hawkins. Beautiful, sophisticated, and very, very rich, Veronica is the epitome of Old Hong Kong—the last surviving member of a British mercantile dynasty that built the city during its colonial heyday. Martina can hardly believe her fortune when she’s taken under Veronica’s wing and into her confidence, with Veronica helping her to find a new apartment, a new career, and most importantly, a new self. Veronica transforms Martina’s life and then, shockingly, she dies. She disappears over the side of a yacht during a party attended by Hong Kong’s most influential people—yet somehow there are no witnesses. Was it murder? Suicide? A terrible accident? LJ & BL

**THE ASCENT, Adam Plantinga (Grand Central, $30.00, January). When a high security prison fails, a down-on-his luck ex-cop and the governor’s daughter are going to have to team up if they’re going to escape. Kirkus, PW & AZ

THE RUSH, Michelle Prak (Crooked Lane, $29.99, April). With a massive downpour and flash floods predicted, Quinn Durand leaves work and races for the safety of home. The first drops start to fall as she spots something strange on the familiar bush route. With no reception and nothing but an empty road for miles in either direction, she investigates and discovers it’s a body, dumped by the side of the road. When she approaches to check for signs of life, an arm reaches out and grabs her. Back at the country pub where Quinn lives, her boss Andrea has prepared for the torrential downpour. She’s bunkered down with her toddler son sleeping in the back room when she’s startled by a banging at the door. It’s a biker, seeking shelter from the punishing storm. Meanwhile, out on the roads, two young couples on their way across the country struggle against the lashing rains. Tensions rise as they realize that they don’t really know each other, nor are they remotely prepared for the storm. Alone, angry, and afraid in unfamiliar surroundings, flooding isn’t the only threat bearing down on them. DP

**NIGHTWATCHING, Tracy Sierra (Viking: Pamela Dorman Books, $29.00). Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.
She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender. PW, AZ & Kirkus

Best Paperback Original Mystery/Crime Novel 2024

**NO ONE DIES YET, Kobby Ben Ben (Europa, $18.00, February). It is 2019, The Year of Return. Ghana is inviting Black diasporans to return and get to know the land of their enslaved ancestors. Elton, Vincent, and Scott arrive from America to explore Ghana’s colonial past, and to experience the country’s underground queer scene. Their visit and activities are narrated by two very different Ghanians: the exuberant and rebellious Kobby, who is their guide to Accra’s privileged and queer circles; and Nana, the voice of tradition and religious principle. Neither is very trustworthy and the tense relationship between them sets the tone for what turns into a gripping, energetically told, and often funny tale of murder reminiscent of the novels of Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene, Chinua Achebe, and Alain Mabanckou. PW & BL

****IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, Jo Callaghan (Random House, $18.00, August). Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her intuition, honed through years of on-the-beat police work. Picked to lead a pilot program that has her paired with Lock, an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity)—a hologram that is activated by a device on Kat’s wrist—Kat’s gut reactions about people and motives come up against Lock’s statistical calculations and data analysis that can be devised in seconds. But as the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help when the case begins to target Kat personally. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line, can the pair work together to solve the mystery in time? DP, CWA New Blood Dagger Award, Capital Crime’s Overall Crime Book of the Year, Crimefest’s Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award.

**THE TRANSLATOR, Harriet Crawley (Bitter Lemon Press, $17.95, April).
Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is turned on its head when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the interpreter to the Russian President. At the embassy, Clive learns of a Russian plot to cut the undersea cables linking the US to the UK which would paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy. Marina stuns Clive with the news that she’s ready to help stop the attack, betraying her country for a new identity and a new life. DP

**A FONDNESS FOR TRUTH, Kim Hays (Seventh Street, $19.95, April). Andi Eberhart is riding her bicycle home on an icy winter night when she is killed in a hit-and-run. Her devastated partner, Nisha, is convinced the death was no accident. Andi had been receiving homophobic hate mail for several years, and the letters grew uglier after the couple’s baby was born. Bern homicide Detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to investigate what happened to Andi. As she pieces together the details of Andi and Nisha’s lives, her assistant Renzo Donatelli looks into Andi’s job advising young men drafted into Switzerland’s civilian service. Working closely together, Giuliana and Renzo are again tempted to become more than just friendly colleagues. DP

**ALL THE RAGE, Cara Hunter (Morrow, $18.99, February). After being abducted and assaulted, a teenage girl somehow managed to escape from her captor. She is traumatized and needs to heal, but the police need her help to catch her assailant—information she clearly knows, but is unwilling to give. Without the girl’s assistance, DI Adam Fawley’s investigation is at a dead end. When another girl vanishes under the same circumstances, he recognizes a disturbing pattern—and a link to something long buried in his past. DP & AZ

**SMOKE KINGS, Jahmal Mayfield (Melville House, $18.99). Nate Evers, a young black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate shuns the graffiti murals, candlelight vigils, and Twitter hashtags that are commonplace after these senseless deaths. Instead, he leads 3 grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution, kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For 3 of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate – pure revenge. Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends’ world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own. As the 4 vigilantes fight to thwart their ruthless pursuers, they’re forced to accept an age-old truth: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Kirkus, AZ & PW

**CAST A COLD EYE, Robbie Morrison (Bantam, $18.00, April). Glasgow, 1933. Murder is nothing new in the Depression-era city, especially to war veterans Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn and his partner, “Bonnie” Archie McDaid. But the dead man found in a narrowboat on the Forth and Clyde Canal, executed with a single shot to the back of the head, is no ordinary killing. AZ

**TO DIE IN JUNE, Alan Parks (Canongate, $18.00, May). A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, seconded from the cop shop across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ’s Suffering, he suspects there is more to Michael’s disappearance than meets the eye. Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about – but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father. Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence – to investigate corruption in the station. DP

**THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Penguin, $16.99, May). Historian Max Archer is invited to a clandestine meeting with legendary Cold War spymaster, Scarlet King. Her offer to share the explosive secrets born of over half a century at the heart of global espionage would be life-changing. Soon he is on the wrong side of the law and on the run. As the net closes tighter around him he must somehow discover the truth. DP (4)

Best Thrillers 2024

****TRUST HER, Flynn Berry (Viking, $30.00, June). Three years after they narrowly escaped the IRA’s worst punishment for informing, Tessa and Marian have built a new life in Dublin with their young children. Though Tessa is haunted by the abrupt and violent end to her old life, she does her best to immerse herself in the joys of Finn’s childhood and the rhythms of her new job at the Irish Observer. It’s a small island, though, and just as quickly as they disappeared, figures from the sisters’ past surface to drag them back into the conflict. Tessa is told she must track down her old handler from MI5, Eamonn, and attempt to turn him into an IRA informant, or lose everything. Kirkus & BL

**ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hanover Square, $30.00, April). Agent Seventeen, the most infamous hitman in the world, has quit. But whoever wants to become Assassin Eighteen must track him down and kill him first. So when a bullet hits the glass inches from his face, he knows who fired it – doesn’t he? But the sniper isn’t the hardened killer he was expecting. It’s Mireille – a mysterious, silent child, abandoned in the woods with instructions to pull the trigger. Reuniting with his spiky lover, Kat, Seventeen must protect Mireille, and discover who sent her to kill him, and why. DP(3)

**ILIUM, Lea Carpenter (Knopf, $27.00, January). The young English narrator of Lea Carpenter’s dazzling new novel has grown up unhappily in London, dreaming of escape, pretending to be someone else and obsessed with a locked private garden. On the eve of her twenty-first birthday, at a party near that garden, she meets its charismatic and mysterious new owner, Marcus, thirty-three years older, who sweeps her off her feet. Before long they are married at his finca in Mallorca, and at last she has escaped into a new role – but at what price? On their honeymoon in Croatia, Marcus reveals there is something she can do for him—a plan is in place and she can help with “a favor.” This turns out to be posing as an art advisor to a family on Cap Ferret, where Marcus asks her to simply “listen.” A helicopter deposits her at a remote, highly guarded and lavishly appointed compound on a spit of land in the Atlantic. It’s presided over by an enigmatic, charming patriarch Edouard, along with his wife Dasha, children Nikki and Felix, and populated by a revolving cast of other guests—some suspicious, some intriguing, perhaps none, like her, what they seem. BL & Kirkus

****PITCH DARK, Paul Doiron (Minotaur, $29.00, June). Legendary bush pilot Josie Jonson can’t believe her luck when a skilled builder just happens to show up after she purchases land near Prentiss Pond. All Mark Redmond asks in return for building Josie’s dream cabin is that he be left alone to homeschool his 12-year-old daughter, Cady. For Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, the intensity of Redmond’s secretiveness is troubling, especially in light of suspicious criminal activity being reported around the area?including rumors of an armed man offering large sums of money in exchange for the location of Redmond and Cady. Josie, though hesitant to violate the trust of her prized builder, eventually agrees to fly Mike and his father-in-law Charley Stevens to the secluded pond in an attempt to protect Redmond and Cady. But hours after landing, the trip takes a dark turn when they witness a horrific murder and are taken captive themselves. Freeing himself, Mike is forced to set off through the impenetrable Maine forest towards Canada, alone and unarmed in pursuit of a mysterious fugitive. Kirkus, BL & DP

**KINGPIN, Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, February). Carson Newman doesn’t think of himself as a gangster. He doesn’t have a consigliere or operate out of the back room of a bar. No, Carson’s a different sort of gangster, a billionaire Boston real estate developer, who only breaks the law when necessary—and he doesn’t usually get his hands dirty. Joe DeMarco, on the other hand, is paid to get his hands dirty. So, when John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, calls, DeMarco knows it’s time to get to work. Brian Lewis, an intern who worked for Mahoney, has been found dead, seemingly from a drug overdose. But Brian didn’t seem like a drug user, and even more concerning, he seemed to be on the cusp of releasing a report that identified a group of politicians who had taken bribes. DP

**HERO, Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press, $27.95, January). Justine Poole takes her job seriously providing security for wealthy and high-profile Hollywood stars. When she prevents a brazen robbery at the Beverly Hills home of two of her clients – killing two of the five armed robbers in the process – she is initially lauded in the media as a local hero. But the spotlight soon puts her in the crosshairs of the crime kingpin behind the burglaries. Kirkus, BL & DP

**THE PRICE YOU PAY, Nick Petrie (Putnam, $29.00, Februar). Lewis has helped Peter Ash out of more trouble than Peter cares to remember. So he doesn’t hesitate when Lewis asks a favor in return. Lewis has left his criminal past behind, but a former associate may be in trouble, and he and Peter must drive into the teeth of a blizzard to find him. When they discover blood in the snow and a smoldering cabin, both men know things are bad. Then they learn that someone has stolen notebooks full of incriminating secrets about Lewis’s long-ago crimes, and realize the situation is much worse than they’d thought. DP

George Easter’s Best of 2023

EVERYBODY KNOWS, Jordan Harper (Mulholland, January)
LYING BESIDE YOU, Michael Robotham (Scribner, $27.99, February)
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
RED QUEEN, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $27.99, March)
MY FATHER’S HOUSE, Joseph O’Connor (Europa Editions, $27.00, February)
THE DETECTIVE UP LATE, Adrian McKinty (Blackstone, $26.99, August)
THE MOTHER, T. M. Logan (Zaffre, £16.99, April — U.K. only)
PHILANTHROPISTS: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners,
Rozlan Mohd Noor (Arcade Crimewise, $26.99, March)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
THE LAST GOODBYE, Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph, £14.99, June — U.K. only)
EXPECTANT, Vanda Symon (Orenda, $16.99, September)
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, November)
THE RUNNING GRAVE, Robert Galbraith (Mulholland, $32.50, September)
MURDER IN THE FAMILY, Cara Hunter (Morrow, $19.99, September)
HOLLY, Stephen King (Scribner, $32.00, September)

Best Debuts

THE BITTER PAST, Bruce Borgos (Minotaur, $28.00, July)
BETTER THE BLOOD, Michael Bennett (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, January)
CITY UNDER ONE ROOF, Iris Yamashita (Berkley, $27.00, January)
THE GOLDEN GATE, Amy Chua (Minotaur, $28.00, September)
THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, I. S. Berry (Atria, $28.00, May)
THE TRIAL, Rob Rinder (U.K. only)

Thrillers

THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Michael Joseph, 2024 title in U.S.)
BURNER, Mark Greaney (Berkley, $29.00, February)
GOING ZERO, Anthony McCarten (Harper, $30.00, April)
THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron (Soho Crime, $27.95, September)
ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hodder & Stoughton, August; April, 2024 in U.S.)
SECOND SHOT, Cindy Dees (Kensington, $27.00, June)

Larry Gandle’s Best of 2023

SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
AGE OF VICE, Deepti Kapoor (Riverhead, $30.00, January)
KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh
(UK only, August, in the U.S. in 2024)
DROWNING, T. J. Newman (Avid Reader Press, $28.00, May)
RED QUEEN, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $27.99, March)
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, $27.99, June)
CROOK MANIFESTO, Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, $29.00, July)
PROPHET SONG, Paul Lynch (Oneworld, £16.99, September)
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, November)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
THE VASTER WILDS, Laura Groff (Riverhead, $28.00, September)

Jeff Popple’s Best of 2023

Best Crime Novels
LYING BESIDE YOU, Michael Robotham (Scribner, $27.99, February)
TAKEN, Dinuka McKenzie (Australian)
NO TRACE, Michael Trant (Australian)
THE DETECTIVE UP LATE, Adrian McKinty (Blackstone, $26.99, August)
KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh
(UK only, August, in the U.S. in 2024)
THE CARETAKER, Gabriel Bergmoser (Australian)
ORPHAN ROAD, Andrew Nette (Australian)
EXPECTANT, Vanda Symon (Orenda, $16.99, September)
THE KIND WORTH SAVING, Peter Swanson (Morrow, $30.00, March)
THE SEVEN, Chris Hammer (Australian)
EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT, Benjamin Stevenson (Australian, 2024 publication in the U.S.)
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, November)

Best Thrillers
MOSCOW EXILE, John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press, April)
THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron (Soho Crime, $27.95, September)
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster, May)
RUSH, Michelle Prak (Australian)
THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Michael Joseph, June — 2024 in U.S.)

Debut Novels
HEADLAND, John Byrnes
THE DIVE, Sara Ochs

Steele Curry’s Best of 2023

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron. $27.99, June)
THE BLOOD OF OTHERS, Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus, $29.99, September)
THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson (Michael Joseph, 2024 title in U.S.)
MY FATHER’S HOUSE , Joseph O’Connor (Europa, February)
EVERYBODY KNOWS, Jordan Harper (Mulholland, January)
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
MOSCOW EXILE, John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press, April)
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster, May)
TRIBES, John Clarkson (John Clarkson, Inc., $16.95)
MIDDLEMEN, Scott Thornley (Spiderline, $16.99)
THE BURNING TIME, Peter Hanington (Baskerville/London, UK only in July)
THE COLLECTOR, Daniel Silva (Harper, $32.00, July)
THE DETECTIVE UP LATE, Adrian McKinty (Blackstone, $26.99, August)
THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron (Soho Crime, $27.95, September)
THE CITY OF GOD, Michael Russell (Constable UK, August/Constable U.S., $28.99, November) 
A PATIENT DEATH, John Farrow (Exile Editions trade paperback, $29.95, November)
DARK RIDE, Lou Berney (William Morrow, $30.00, September) 
WHO THE HELL IS HARRY BLACK?, Jake Needham (Half Penny, $18.99, November)

Mike Dillman (Barry Award Committee Member) — Best of 2023

LYING BESIDE YOU, Michael Robotham (Scribner, $27.99, February)
DARK CORNERS, Megan Goldin (St. Martin’s, $29.00, August)
SLEEPLESS CITY, Reed Farrel Coleman (Blackstone, $26.99, June)
NO SECRETS, David Jackson (Viper, February — U.K. only)
ONLY THE DEAD, Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester, $29.99, May)
WHAT WE HAVE DONE, Alex Finlay (Minotaur, $27.99, March)
DROWNING, T. J. Newman (Avid Reader Press, $28.00, May)
GOING ZERO, Anthony McCarten (Harper, $30.00, April)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hodder & Stoughton, August; April, 2024 in U.S.)
SECOND SHOT, Cindy Dees (Kensington, $27.00, June)
LION & LAMB, Duane Swierczynski & James Patterson (Little,Brown, $30.00)
THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, I. S. Berry (Atria, $28.00, May)
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, November)

Meredith Anthony’s
Best of 2023

THE MOTION PICTURE TELLER, Colin Cotterill (Soho Crime, $27.95, January)
LAST SEEN IN LAPAZ, Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime, $27.95, February)
OUT OF THE ASHES, Kara Thomas (Thomas & Mercer, $16.99, April)
THE CLIFF EDGE, Charles Todd (Morrow, $30.00, February)
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
BURNER, Mark Greaney (Berkley, $29.00, February)
STANDING IN THE SHADOWS, Peter Robinson (Morrow, $30.00, April)
THE CLEMENTINE COMPLEX, Bob Mortimer (Scout Press, $17.99, September)
MY FATHER’S HOUSE, Joseph O’Connor (Europa Editions, $27.00, February)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
MALIBU BURNING, Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, June)
THE LOCK-UP, John Banville (Hanover Square Press, $30.00, March)
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, $27.99, June)
THE TRAITOR, Ava Glass (Bantam, $28.00, September)
DROWNING, T. J. Newman (Avid Reader Press, $28.00, May)
THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, I. S. Berry (Atria, $28.00, May)
DEADLOCK, James Byrne (Minotaur, $28.00, August)
THE SPY COAST, Tess Gerritsen (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, October)
THE HELSINKI AFFAIR, Anna Pitoniak (Simon & Schuster; $27.99, November)
THE MYSTERY GUEST, Nita Prose (Ballantine Books; $29.00, November)
THE SECRET, Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press; $28.99, October)
THE RUNNING GRAVE, Robert Galbraith (Mulholland, $32.50, September)

Craig Sisterson’s Best of 2023

SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, $27.99, June)
THE DETECTIVE UP LATE, Adrian McKinty (Blackstone, $26.99, August)
OZARK DOGS, Eli Cranor (Soho Crime, $26.95, April)
EVERYBODY KNOWS, Jordan Harper (Mulholland, January)
SING HER DOWN, Ivy Pochoda, MCD, $28.00, May)
STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND, Liz Nugent (Gallery/Scout Press, $27.99, July)
EXPECTANT, Vanda Symon (Orenda, $16.99, September)
DARK RIDE, Lou Berney (William Morrow, $26.99, September)
PROM MOM, Laura Lippman (Morrow, $30.00, July)

Ted Hertel’s Best of 2023

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, $27.99, June)
HER DEADLY GAME, Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, March)
EVIL INTENTIONS COME, Timothy J. Lockhart (Stark House, $15.95, April)
OZARK DOGS, Eli Cranor (Soho Crime, $26.95, April)
WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS, Kate Alice Marshall (Flatiron, $28.99, January)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
LOWDOWN ROAD, Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime, $15.95, July)
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April)
DARK RIDE, Lou Berney (William Morrow, $26.99, September)
TOO MANY BULLETS by Max Allan Collins (HardCase Crime, $26.99, October)
HERE IN THE DARK by Alexis Soloski (Flatiron, $27.99)

Robin Agnew’s Best of 2023

Best Cozy

A FATAL GROOVE, Olivia Blacke
BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE, Leslie Budewitz
HOT POT MURDER, Jennifer J. Chow
A WEALTH OF DECEPTION, Trish Esden
THE SOCIALITE’S GUIDE TO DEATH AND DATING, S.K. Golden
WRONG POISON, Nikki Knight
MURDER AND MAMON, Mia P. Manasala
HOP SCOT, Catriona McPherson
REHEARSED TO DEATH, Frank Anthony Polito
VERA WONG’S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS, Jesse Q. Sutanto

Best Historical

A COLD HIGHLAND WIND, Tasha Alexander
PROUD SORROW, James R. Benn
PICTURE IN THE SAND, Peter Blauner
ACT LIKE A LADY, THINK LIKE A LORD, Celeste Connally
I HEARD A FLY BUZZ WHEN I DIED, Amanda Flower
A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL, Julia Kelly
THE MISTRESS OF BHATIA HOUSE, Sujata Massey
THE LADY FROM BURMA, Allison Montclair
MURDER UNDER A RED MOON, Harini Negendra
A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI, Nilima Rao

Best of the Year

GLORY BE, Danielle Arceneaux
MURDER MOST ROYAL, S.J. Bennett
THE RAGING STORM, Ann Cleeves.
THE MOTION PICTURE TELLER, Colin Cotterill
A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Deborah Crombie
THE BONES OF THE STORY, Carol Goodman
THE LAST REMAINS, Elly Griffiths
BLOOD BETRAYAL, Ausma Zehanat Khan
BLOOD SISTERS, Vanessa Lillie
A STOLEN CHILD, Sarah Stewart Taylor

Hank Wagner’s Best of 2023

BREAKNECK, Marc Cameron (Kensington, $27.00, April)
SISTERS OF THE LOST NATION, Nick Medina (Berkley, $27.00, April)
THE WILD ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Vol. 2, Will Murray
(Odyssey, March)
THE DONUT LEGION, Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland, $28.00, March)
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September)
HOLLY, Stephen King (Scribner, $32.00, September)
LOWDOWN ROAD, Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime, $15.95, July)
TOO MANY BULLETS, Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime, $26.99, October)
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books, $27.99, June)

“Mystery” Mike Bursaw’s Best of 2023

MY FATHER’S HOUSE, Joseph O’Connor (Europa Editions, $27.00, February)
GOING ZERO, Anthony McCarten (Harper, $30.00, April)
ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN, John Brownlow (Hodder & Stoughton, August; April, 2024 in U.S.)
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly (Little,Brown, $30.00, November)
ONLY THE DEAD, Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester, $29.99, May)
ALLIGATOR ALLEY, Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, February)
UPPERCUT, Mark Dawson (Independently Published, $14.99, August)
NO RESERVE, Felix Francis (Crooked Lane, $29.99, September)
THE VICAR, A. J. Chambers (Blackstone, $26.99, September)
BURNER, Mark Greaney (Berkley, $29.00, February)

Ayo Onatade’s Best of 2023

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby
THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron
THE SECOND MURDERER, Denise Mina
THE TURNGLASS, Gareth Rubin (£16.99, UK only)
VIPER’S DREAM, Jake Lamar
THE MCMASTER’S GUIDE TO HOMICIDE, Rupert Holmes
EVERYBODY KNOWS, Jordan Harper
OZARK DOGS, Eli Cranor
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane
THE LAND OF LOST THINGS, John Connolly
THE LOST DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS, Jack Jewers (2022 title in U.S.)
THE SQUARE OF SEVENS, Laura Shepherd Robinson

Ali Karim’s Best of 2023

THE TURNGLASS by Gareth Rubin
RESURRECTION WALK, Michael Connelly
SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane
EVERYBODY KNOWS, Jordan Harper
KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU, Steve Cavanagh
LYING BESIDE YOU, Michael Robotham
HOLLY, Stephen King

Non-Fiction

WORD MONKEY by Christopher Fowler

Best Thrillers

THE SCARLET PAPERS, Matthew Richardson
THE SECRET by Lee and Andrew Child

Deadly Pleasures Best of 2023

Titles listed garnered starred reviews in one or more of the four library journals (Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal), an Amazon Editors’ Choice, and/or a glowing review in Deadly Pleasures as indicated. Titles added since the last issue are in italics and preceeded by *****.

Best Mystery/Crime Novel

**BEWARE THE WOMAN, Megan Abbott (Putnam, $28.00, May). And Jacy felt like she finally did. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband, Jed, embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Dr. Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive in the cozy cottage in the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Dr. Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt. But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. At the same time, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem eerily to be impeding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside? BL & PW

**THE HOUSEMATE, Sarah Bailey (Polis, $27.99, April). Three housemates. One dead, one missing and one accused of murder. Dubbed the Housemate Homicide, it’s a mystery that has baffled Australians for almost a decade. Melbourne-based journalist Olive Groves worked on the story as a junior reporter and became obsessed by the case. Now, nine years later, the missing housemate turns up dead on a remote property. Olive is once again assigned to the story, this time reluctantly paired with precocious millennial podcaster Cooper Ng. As Oli and Cooper unearth new facts about the three housemates, a dark web of secrets is uncovered. The revelations catapult Oli back to the death of the first housemate, forcing her to confront past traumas and insecurities that have risen to the surface again. DP (2)

**THE LIE MAKER, Linwood Barclay (Morrow, $30.00, May). Your dad’s not a good person. Your dad killed people, son. These are some of the last words Jack Givins’ father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could. Years later, Jack is a grown man with problems of his own. He’s a talented but struggling author, barely scraping by on the royalties from his moderately successful first book. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he’s in no position to turn them down. They’re recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection—people like Jack’s father. The coincidence is astonishing to Jack at first, but he soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. Only there’s one problem—Jack’s father hasn’t made contact with his handlers recently, and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger, and Jack may be the only one who can find him. DP

**HELL BENT, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron, $29.99, January). Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory – even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls. PW, BL, AZ and Kirkus

**THE WRITING RETREAT, Julia Bartz (Atria/Emily Bester, $27.00, February). Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement. But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell—they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza’s erratic behavior, Wren’s cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot. With the clock running out, she’s desperate to discover the truth and save herself. Kirkus, BL & AZ

*****THE LAST DANCE, Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28.00). Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner) Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins and Miller begins to reconnect with his old network—his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep. PW, AZ & DP

**STORM WATCH, C. J. Box (Putnam, $29.00, March). When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries while hunting down a wounded elk on his district as an epic spring storm descends upon him. First, he finds the professor’s vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then Joe finds the professor’s frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by federal agents, extremists, and Governor Colter Allen. Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company—and financing this through crypto mining with the assistance of Geronimo Jones. He’s then approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists that is gaining in power and influence, and demanding that Wyoming join other western states and secede from the union—by force, if necessary. They ask Nate to throw in with them, but he’s wary. Should he trust them, or is he being set up? As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways—and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides. PW, AZ & Kirkus

*****THE RAGING STORM, Ann Cleeves (Minotaur, $29.00). When Jem Rosco – sailor, adventurer, and legend?blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded. PW, LJ, AZ & Kirkus

**I WILL FIND YOU, Harlan Coben (Grand Central, $30.00, March). David Burroughs was once a devoted father to his three-year-old son Matthew, living a dream life just a short drive away from the working-class suburb where he and his wife, Cheryl, first fell in love–until one fateful night when David woke suddenly to discover Matthew had been murdered while David was asleep just down the hall.  Half a decade later, David’s been wrongly accused and convicted of the murder, left to serve out his time in a maximum-security prison—a fate which, grieving and wracked with guilt, David didn’t have the will to fight. The world has moved on without him. Then Cheryl’s younger sister, Rachel, makes a surprise appearance during visiting hours bearing a strange photograph. It’s a vacation shot of a bustling amusement park a friend shared with her, and in the background, just barely in frame, is a boy bearing an eerie resemblance to David’s son. Even though it can’t be, David just knows: Matthew is still alive. David plans a harrowing escape, determined to achieve the impossible – save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened.  But with his life on the line and the FBI following his every move, can David evade capture long enough to reveal the shocking truth? DP

**ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron, $27.99, June). Titus Crowne is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County. A former FBI agent and security expert, Titus came home to take care of his father and look out for his troubled younger brother. He ran for Sheriff to make a difference, especially in the Black community which has so often been treated unfairly by the police. But a year to the day after his election, a school shooting rocks the town. A beloved teacher is killed by a former student, and as Titus attempts to deescalate and get the boy to surrender, his deputies fire a fatal shot. In the investigation, it becomes clear that the student they shot had been abused by the dead teacher, as well as by unidentified perpetrators. The trail leads to buried bodies – and dark secrets. As Titus tries to track down a killer hiding in plain sight, while balancing daily duties like protecting Confederate pride marchers, he must face what it means to be a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South. PW, BL, LJ, AZ & DP

**OZARK DOGS, Eli Cranor (Soho Crime, $26.95, April). After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt. Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. BL & DP

**A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Deborah Crombie (Morrow, $30.00, February). On a rainy November evening, trainee doctor Sasha Johnson hurries through the evening crowd in London’s historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her as they brush past. A moment later, Sasha stumbles, then collapses. When Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene, they discover that she’s been stabbed.  Kincaid immediately calls in his detective wife, Gemma James, who has recently been assigned to a task force on knife crimes which are on the rise. Along with her partner, detective sergeant Melody Talbot, Gemma aids the investigation. But Sasha Johnson doesn’t fit the profile of the task force’s typical knife crime victim. Single, successful, career-driven, she has no history of abusive relationships or any connection to gangs. Sasha had her secrets, though, and some of them lead the detectives uncomfortably close to home. LJ & DP

**SCORCHED GRACE, Margot Douallhy (Gillian Flynn Books, $27.95. February). When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past. PW & AZ

*****SAVING EMMA, Allen Eskens (Mulholland, $28.00). When Boady Sanden first receives the case of Elijah Matthews, he’s certain there’s not much he can do. Elijah, who believes himself to be a prophet, has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past four years, convicted of brutally murdering the pastor of a megachurch. But as a law professor working for the Innocence Project, Boady agrees to look into Elijah’s file. When he does, he is alarmed to find threads that lead back to the death of his colleague and friend, Ben Pruitt, a man shot to death four years earlier in Boady’s own home. Ben’s daughter, Emma, has lived with Boady and Boady’s wife Dee ever since that awful night. Now fourteen years old, Emma has been growing distant, and soon makes a fateful choice that takes her far from the safety of her godparents. Desperate to bring her home, and to free an innocent man, Boady must do all he can to investigate Elijah’s case while fighting to save the family he has deeply come to love. Kirkus, PW, DP & AZ

*****GOOD BAD GIRL, Alice Feeney (Flatiron Books, $29.99). Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth. Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything. Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good. With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. PW, LJ & AZ

*****GANGSTERS DON’T DIE, Tod Goldberg (Counterpoint, $28.00). Mafia hit-man-turned-rabbi Sal Cupertine is ready to get out of the life. But it’s not going to be easy. His once-brilliant plan to pass himself off as Rabbi David Cohen is unraveling. Enemies on both sides of the law are hot on his trail. His wife and son are unreachable in witness protection and are probably in danger. In order to find his family, get out of the desert alive, and salvage his long-sought-after happy ending, Sal is going to have to confront some very bad people from his past. Native American kingpin Peaches Pocotillo has wrested control of Chicago’s mob family while expanding his criminal empire in the west, and now seeks to settle an old score with Sal. These two antiheroes have a history that stretches back decades, and the blood feud between Peaches and Sal will lead them to a violent showdown deep in the heart of the low desert. PW & AZ

**RED QUEEN, Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur, $27.99, March). Antonia Scott – the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother – has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she’s refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment.
Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao – disgraced, suspended, and about to face criminal charges – is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case.
The case is a macabre, ritualistic murder – a teen-aged boy from a wealthy family whose body was found without a drop of blood left in it. But the murder is just the start. A high-ranking executive and daughter of one of the richest men in Spain is kidnapped, a crime which is tied to the previous murder. Behind them both is a hidden mastermind with even more sinister plans. And the only person with a chance to see the connections, solve the crimes and successfully match wits with the killer before tragedy strikes again…is Antonia Scott. DP

**THE TWYFORD CODE, Janice Hallett (Atria, $27.00, January). Forty years ago, Steven “Smithy” Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. When he showed it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, she believed that it was part of a secret code that ran through all of Twyford’s novels. And when she disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy became convinced that she had been right. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Smithy decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. In a series of voice recordings on an old iPhone from his estranged son, Smithy alternates between visiting the people of his childhood and looking back on the events that later landed him in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code holds a great secret, and Smithy may just have the key. PW & AZ

**EXILES, Jane Harper (Flatiron Books, $27.99, January). Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend’s baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation. This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie’s disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim’s older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can’t leave the case alone.
As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie? BL, PW & DP

*****BLACK SHEEP, Rachel Harrison (Berkley, $27.00). Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep. Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen. When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world. PW, LJ & AZ

**THE VILLA, Rachel Hawkins (St. Martin’s Press, $28.99, January). As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder. As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind. Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends. Kirkus, AZ & BL

**MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER, The McMasters Guide to Homicide, Rupert Holmes (Avid Reader, $28.00, February). Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live. LJ & AZ

**DON’T FEAR THE REAPER, Stephen Graham Jones (Gallery/Saga Press, $27.99, February). Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho. Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday. Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over. Might be considered horror. PW, Kirkus & AZ

**AGE OF VICE, Deepti Kapoor (Riverhead Books, $30.00, January). New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold. In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire.  Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?  BL, PW, LJ & AZ

*****HAPPINESS FALLS, Angie Kim (Hogarth, $28.00). “We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. AZ, Kirkus & BL

*****BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN, Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books, $27.99), The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed. Across the country, Tina Cannon is convinced her missing friend was targeted by the man papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer—and that he’s struck again. Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation. PW, BL, Kirkus, LJ & AZ

**AN HONEST MAN, Michael Koryta (Mulholland Books, $29.00, July). Israel Pike was a killer, and he was an honest man. They were not mutually exclusive. After discovering seven men murdered aboard their yacht – including two Senate rivals – Israel Pike is regarded as a prime suspect. A troubled man infamous on Salvation Point Island for killing his own father a decade before, Israel has few options, no friends, and a life-threatening secret. Elsewhere on the island, 12-year-old Lyman Rankin seeks shelter from his alcoholic father in an abandoned house only to discover that he is not alone. A mysterious woman greets him with a hatchet and a promise: “Make a sound and I’ll kill you.”As the investigation barrels forward, Lyman, Israel, and the fate of the case collide in immutable ways. PW & DP

*****THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger (Atria, $28.99, September). On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past. BL, AZ & DP

**MOSCOW EXILE, John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly, $28.00, April). Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in the nation’s capital with her second husband, a man who looks intriguingly like Clark Gable, but her enviable dinner parties and soirées aren’t the only things she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union. Charlie is soon shocked to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame of his, who, thanks to all her gossipy parties, has a packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share. Two decades or so later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above his pay grade—but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies. BL, AZ & DP(2)

**SMALL MERCIES, Dennis Lehane (Harper, $30.00, April). In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business. Kirkus, LJ, BL, AZ & DP(4)

**PROM MOM, Laura Lippman (Morrow, $30.00, July). Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as “Prom Mom”—the girl who allegedly killed her baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance—as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted.  The problem is, Amber can’t stay away from Joe. And Joe finds that it’s increasingly hard for him to ignore Amber, if only because she remembers the boy he was and the man he said he was going to be. Against the surreal backdrop of 2020 and early 2021, the two are slowly drawn to each other and eventually cross the line they’ve been trying not to cross.  And then Joe asks Amber to help him do the unthinkable. BL & DP

**PARIS REQUIEM, Chris Lloyd (Pegasus Crime, $27.00, February). Paris, 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in, but must work under. He’s sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not so easily forgotten. When an old friend—and an old flame—reappear, begging for his help, Eddie must decide how far he will go to help those he loves. PW, AZ & BL

**I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, Rebecca Makkai (Viking, $28.00, February). A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie. But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case. BL, AZ & PW

*****THE MURDER WHEEL, Tom Mead (Mysterious Press, $26.95, July). “Can you solve the Ferris wheel murder case?” When a sensational killing rocks 1938 London, local newspaper ads offer a hefty sum to the person who can say whodunnit. A man has been shot dead at the top of a Ferris wheel, and his wife ? the only other person in their carriage ? insists on her innocence. But who else could have fired the deadly bullet and escaped unseen? The sheer implausibility of the claim is enough to whip the press into a frenzy and, for young and idealistic Edmund Ibbs, the lawyer representing the accused, that frenzy may be his only hope at discovering the truth of the mysterious murder. As he digs into the case, Ibbs unwittingly enters a shadowy web of conspiracy and murder, soon finding himself implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes. First, a corpse appears out of thin air during a performance by a famed illusionist, then a second victim is mortally wounded in a locked dressing room backstage. Edmund is in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, attracting the suspicion of Scotland Yard inspector George Flint. His only hope at freedom comes in the form of retired stage magician Joseph Spector, a man steeped in the art of misdirection, who happens to be in the audience for the deadly show. Spector’s mastery of illusion is capable of piercing the veil of deceit, but will his deductive powers be strong enough to explain this utterly confounding series of crimes? PW & AZ

*****THE STOLEN COAST, Dwyer Murphy (Viking, $27.00, July). Jack might be a polished, Harvard-educated lawyer on paper, but everyone in the down-at-the-heels, if picturesque, village of Onset, Massachusetts, knows his real job: moving people on the run from powerful enemies. The family business—co-managed with his father, a retired spy—is smooth sailing, as they fill up Onset’s holiday homes during the town’s long, drowsy off-season and help clients shed their identities in preparation for fresh starts. But when Elena, Jack’s former flame—a dedicated hustler who’s no stranger to the fugitive life—makes an unexpected return to town, her arrival upends Jack’s routine existence. Elena, after all, doesn’t go anywhere without a scheme in mind, and it isn’t long before Jack finds himself enmeshed in her latest project: intercepting millions of dollars’ worth of raw diamonds before they’re shipped overseas. PW & Kirkus

**MURDER UNDER A RED MOON, Harini Nagendra (Pegasus, $26.95, March). When new bride Kaveri Murthy reluctantly agrees to investigate a minor crime to please her domineering mother-in-law—during the blood moon eclipse, no less—she doesn’t expect, once again, to stumble upon a murder. With anti-British sentiment on the rise, a charismatic religious leader growing in influence, and the fight for women’s suffrage gaining steam, Bangalore is turning out to be a far more dangerous and treacherous place than Kaveri ever imagined—and everyone’s motives are suspect. Together with the Bangalore Detectives Club—a mixed bag of street urchins, nosy neighbours, an ex-prostitute, and a policeman’s wife— Kaveri once again sleuths in her sari and hunts for clues in her beloved 1920s Ford. But when her life is suddenly put in danger, Kaveri realizes that she might be getting uncomfortably close to the truth. PW, DP & BL

*****PHILANTHROPISTS: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners (Arcade Crimewise, $26.99, March). Eight months after the assassination attempt that nearly ended his life, Inspector Mislan Latif is back on twenty-four-hour duty with his assistant, Detective Sergeant Johan Kamaruddin, when the call comes in: double murder in a house in the police district of Sentul. The two dark-skinned men were killed identically, execution-style. In the master bedroom of the rental, in plain sight on the bed, is almost three pounds of drugs, while no identIfying documents, wallets, phones, and the like are to be found. No shots were heard, or the neighbors won’t admit to hearing them, but someone called the killings in to notify the police. In the area, drugs are rampant and also foreign nationals, legal and illegal. If the vics were foreign, without papers, where do they start? PW & DP

*****STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND, Liz Nugent (Gallery/Scout Press, $27.99). Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the center of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world, and why does he call her Mary? And why does her new neighbor seem to be obsessed with her? PW, AZ & DP

**48 CLUES INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY SISTER, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press, $26.95). Marguerite, a beautiful woman, has disappeared from her small town in Upstate New York. But is foul play involved? Or did she merely take an opportunity to get away for fun, or finally make the decision to leave behind her claustrophobic life of limited opportunities? Her younger sister Gigi wonders if the flimsy silk Dior dress, so casually abandoned on the floor, is a clue to Marguerite’s having seemingly vanished. The police examine the footprints made by her Ferragamo boots leaving the house, ending abruptly, and puzzle over how that can help lead to her. Gigi, not so pretty as her sister, slowly reveals her hatred for the perfect, much-loved, Marguerite. Bit by bit, like ripping the petals off a flower blossom, revelations about both sisters are uncovered. Subtly, but with the unbearable suspense at which Joyce Carol Oates excels, clues mount up to bring to light the fate of the missing beauty. PW, BL & AZ

**MY FATHER’S HOUSE, Joseph O’Connor (Europa Editions, $27.00, February). September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, a neutral, independent country nestled within the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits as they attempt to aid those seeking refuge. BL, PW, AZ, Kirkus & DP(4)

**CODE OF THE HILLS, Chris Offutt (Grove Press, $27.00, June). Mick Hardin is back in the hills of Kentucky. He’d planned to touch down briefly before heading to France, marking the end to his twenty-year Army career. In Rocksalt, his sister Linda the sheriff is investigating the murder of Pete Lowe, a sought-after mechanic at the local racetrack. After another body is found, Linda and her deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver wonder if the two murders are related. Linda steps into harm’s way just as a third body turns up and Mick ends up being deputized again, uncovering evidence of illegal cockfighting, and trying to connect all the crimes. Kirkus, LJ, AZ & DP(2)

*****THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE, Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books, $29.00). It’s rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club. Shocking news reaches them—an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. The gang’s search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters—as well as heartache close to home—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust. With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? LJ, AZ & DP

**SING HER DOWN, Ivy Pochoda (MCD, $28.00, May). Florence “Florida” Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women’s prison – or so her ex-cellmate, Diosmary Sandoval, keeps insinuating. Dios knows the truth about Florida’s crimes, understands the truth that Florence hides even from herself: that she wasn’t a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world’s refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida’s eyes and unleash her true self. When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios’s fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles. PW & DP

**LYING BESIDE YOU, Michael Robotham (Scribner, $27.99, February). As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre and slowly pieced his life back together. Now, after almost twenty years, his brother is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital—and Cyrus is expected to forgive Elias and welcome him home. Elias is returning to a very different world. Cyrus is now a successful psychologist, working with the police, sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying. Evie has gone back to school and is working part-time at an inner-city bar, but she continues to struggle with authority and following rules. When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to profile the killer and help piece together Maya Kirk’s last hours. Police believe she was drugged and driven away from the same bar where Evie is working. Soon, a second victim is taken, and Evie is the only person who glimpsed the man behind the wheel. But there’s a problem. Only two people believe her. One is Cyrus. Kirkus, AZ & DP(3)

*****HOW CAN I HELP YOU, Laura Sims (Putnam, $27.00). No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron’s death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper—even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming. AZ, LJ & PW

**EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner, $30.00, January). Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. PW, AZ & DP(3)

**PLAYING IT SAFE, Ashley Weaver (Minotaur, $28.00, May). As the Blitz continues to ravage London, Ellie McDonnell – formerly a safecracking thief, but currently determined to stay on the straight and narrow to help her country – is approached by British Intelligence officer Major Ramsey with a new assignment. She is to travel under an assumed identity to the port city of Sunderland and there await further instructions. In his usual infuriating way, the Major has left her task as vague and mysterious as possible. Ellie, ever-ready to aid her country, heads north, her safecracking tools in tow. But before she can rendezvous with the major, she witnesses an unnatural death. A man falls dead in the street in front of her, with a note clutched in his hand. Ellie’s instincts tell her that the man’s death is connected in some way to her mission.
Soon, Ellie and the major are locked in a battle of wits and a race against time with an unknown and deadly adversary, and a case that leads them to a possible Nazi counterfeiting operation. BL & PW

**THE END OF THE ROAD, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press, $26.95, April). Myles’s courtroom testimony should have put Pryor, their one-eyed ringleader, behind bars after the bank robbery gone wrong, yet somehow Pryor got off scot-free while Myles served time. Now, upon his release, Myles decides he is done with his life of crime?a change that will only be possible if he can kill Pryor and turn over a new leaf. Pryor has other ideas, and the collision between these two deadly forces soon leaves the ex-con in critical condition, clinging to life in a hospital bed. With Myles in recovery, it’s up to his girlfriend Penny to avenge her lover and salvage their chance at normalcy. As Pryor and his cronies prepare for their biggest score yet–stealing the legendary fortune said to be hidden in a farmhouse outside their small Ohio town–Penny is hot on their heels. But is she prepared for the carnage Pryor will gleefully wreak on the path to his prize? DP

**ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS, Stacy Willingham (Minotaur, $27.99, January). One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her – literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster?but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. BL & AZ

**CITY OF DREAMS, Don Winslow (Morrow, $30.00, April). Hollywood. The city where dreams are made. On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops, the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life. A quiet, peaceful existence. But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him. 
And when Hollywood starts shooting a film based on his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and begins to rebuild his criminal empire. Then he falls in love. With a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own. As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny Ryan has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born. Or where they go to die. BL & AZ

**THE WHITE LADY, Jacqueline Winspear (Harper, $30.00, March). A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government. The private, quiet “Miss White” as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers seems something of an enigma. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a “grace and favor” property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor’s war work had been, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past.
It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White’s icy demeanor—but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. Yet in her quest to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path—yet it is one that leads to her freedom. LJ, BL & Kirkus

Best Debut Mystery/Crime Novels

**LOCUST LANE, Stephen Amidon (Celadon, $28.00, January). On the surface, Emerson, Massachusetts, is just like any other affluent New England suburb. But when a young woman is found dead in the nicest part of town, the powerful neighbors close ranks to keep their families safe. In this searing novel, Eden Perry’s death kicks off an investigation into the three teenagers who were partying with her that night, each a suspect. Hannah, a sweet girl with an unstable history. Jack, the popular kid with a mean streak. Christopher, an outsider desperate to fit in. Their parents, each with motivations of their own, only complicate the picture: they will do anything to protect their children, even at the others’ expense. BL, AZ & DP

**BETTER THE BLOOD, Michael Bennett (Atlantic Monthly, $27.00, January). A tenacious Maori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to an historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Maori Chief. Hana realizes that the murders are utu—the Maori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer. Kirkus, AZ, PW & DP

*****THE BITTER PAST, Bruce Borgos (Minotaur, $28.00, July). Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he’s back home, doing the same lawman’s job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn’t strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck’s investigation. In a case that unfolds in the past (the 1950s) and the present, it seems that a Russian spy infiltrated the nuclear testing site and now someone is looking for that long-ago, all-but forgotten person, who holds the key to what happened then and to the deadly goings on now. LJ & DP

**HOW I’LL KILL YOU, Ren DeStafano (Berkley, $27.00, March). Sissy has an…interesting family. Always the careful one, always the cautious one, she has handled the cleanup while her serial killer sisters have carved a path of carnage across the U.S. Now, as they arrive in the Arizona heat, Sissy must step up and embrace the family pastime of making a man fall in love and then murdering him. Her first target? A young widower named Edison—and their mutual attraction is instant. While their relationship progresses, and most couples would be thinking about picking out china patterns and moving in together, Sissy’s family is reminding her to think about picking out burial sites and moving on. Then something happens that Sissy never anticipated: She begins to feel protective of Edison, and before she can help it, she’s fallen in love. But the clock is ticking, and her sisters are growing restless. It becomes clear that the gravesite she chooses will hide a body no matter what happens; but if she betrays her family, will it be hers? PW, LJ, AZ & BL

*****THE GOLDEN GATE, Amy Chua (St. Martin’s, $28.00, September). In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris’s sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth – not the powerful influence of Bainbridges’ grandmother, nor the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, or the interest of China’s First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings? Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion. BL, AZ, DP & LJ

**STONE COLD FOX, Rachel Koller Croft (Berkley, $27.00, February). Like any enterprising woman, Bea knows what she’s worth and is determined to get all she deserves—it just so happens that what she deserves is to marry rich. Filthy rich. After years of forced instruction by her mother in the art of swindling men, a now-solo Bea wants nothing more than to close and lock the door on their sordid partnership. When Bea chooses her ultimate target in the fully loaded, thoroughly dull and blue-blooded Collin Case, she’s ready to deploy all of her tricks one last time. The challenge isn’t getting the ring, but rather the approval of Collin’s family and everyone else in their 1 percent tax bracket, particularly his childhood best friend, Gale Wallace-Leicester.Going toe-to-toe with Gale isn’t a threat to an expert like Bea, but what begins as an amusing cat-and-mouse game quickly develops into a dangerous pursuit of the grisly truth. Finding herself at a literal life-and-death crossroads with everything on the line, Bea must finally decide who she really wants to be. PW, Kirkus, AZ & LJ

**THE GOLDEN SPOON, Jessa Maxwell (Atria, $27.00, March). Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for “Bake Week” but also the childhood home of the show’s famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy Martin isn’t as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s merely sabotage—sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high—but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect. PW, Kirkus & LJ

*****A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI, Nilima Rao (Soho Crime, $25.95, June). 1914, Fiji: Akal Singh, 25, would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise—or, as he calls it, “this godforsaken island.” After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong or his native India. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees—but soon finds himself far more invested than he could have expected. Now not only is he investigating a disappearance, but also confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workers’ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in Fiji—along with his own thorny notions of personhood and caste. Early interrogations of the white plantation owners, Indian indentured laborers, and native Fijians yield only one conclusion: there is far more to this case than meets the eye. BL, PW, AZ & DP

**A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER, Julia Seales (Random House, $27.00, June).
Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township—she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters— beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she’d be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever. For her family’s sake, she’s vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family’s estate, and they will be ruined or, even worse, forced to move to France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior . . . which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball. Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. PW & Kirkus

**THE BANDIT QUEENS, Parini Shroff (Ballantine, $28.00, January). Five years ago, Geeta lost her no-good husband. As in, she actually lost him—he walked out on her and she has no idea where he is. But in her remote village in India, rumor has it that Geeta killed him. And it’s a rumor that just won’t die. It turns out that being known as a “self-made” widow comes with some perks. No one messes with her, harasses her, or tries to control (ahem, marry) her. It’s even been good for business; no one dares to not buy her jewelry. Freedom must look good on Geeta, because now other women are asking for her“expertise,” making her an unwitting consultant for husband disposal. And not all of them are asking nicely. BL, LJ & AZ

*****THE TUMBLING GIRL, Bridget Walsh (Gallic Books, $17.95, May). 1876, Victorian London. Minnie Ward, a feisty scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall, is devastated when her best friend is found brutally murdered. She enlists the help of private detective Albert Easterbrook to help her find justice. Together they navigate London, from its high-class clubs to its murky underbelly. But as the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they’re going to track down the killer – and make it out alive. PW & LJ

**CITY UNDER ONE ROOF, Iris Yamashita (Berkley, $27.00, January). When a local teenager discovers a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore of the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is on the case. A detective from Anchorage, she has her own motives for investigating the possible murder in this isolated place, which can be accessed only by a tunnel. After a blizzard causes the tunnel to close indefinitely, Cara is stuck among the odd and suspicious residents of the town—all 205 of whom live in the same high-rise building and are as icy as the weather. Cara teams up with Point Mettier police officer Joe Barkowski, but before long the investigation is upended by fearsome gang members from a nearby native village. Kirkus, PW, AZ & LJ

Best Paperback Original Mystery/Crime Novels

*****BOOMTOWN, A. F. Carter (Mysterious Press, $17.95). Police captain Delia Mariola is still struggling to drive the predatory drug dealers from the rustbelt town of Baxter, before the new Nissan plant owners lose faith in this forgotten corner of America. It doesn’t help that a boomtown has grown up just outside of city limits?a wild west designed to feed every unsavory desire of the workers building the plant. And like vultures homing in on the weak, criminal gangs from the big cities have also been drawn to the boomtown, knowing how freely money will flow to those willing to supply drugs and women to these workers far from home, looking for comfort and distraction. With no police actively enforcing the rule of law in the unregulated town, the criminals have turned on each other as they try to claim control.
In the midst of this drug war, a young prostitute’s body turns up on the streets of Baxter, well within Delia’s jurisdiction to investigate. Hoping this might be the case that allows her to finally be able to crack down on Boomtown, Delia is relentless in her pursuit of the killer and the group she believes is behind the criminal enterprises plaguing her streets. But Delia isn’t the only person looking for the murderer. Two strangers have arrived in town, claiming to be the family of the deceased and possibly looking for a version of justice that has more to do with back hills vigilantism than the court of law. This complicates everything for Delia, who is unfairly made the target of criticism not only for the criminals running amuck in Boomtown, but also as a woman and lesbian in a small-town police force. AZ & DP

**DEATH IN FINE CONDITION, Andrew Cartmel (Titan, $16.95, June). Cordelia knows books. An addict-turned-dealer of classic paperbacks, when she’s not spending her days combing the charity shops and jumble sales of suburban London for valuable collector’s items, she’s pining for the woman of her dreams and nimbly avoiding her landlord’s demands for rent. The most elusive prize of all, her white whale, has surfaced — a set of magnificent, vintage Sleuth Hound crime novels. Gorgeous, and as rare as they come. Just one problem. They’re not for sale. Still, that won’t stop a resourceful woman like Cordelia… One burglary later, the books are hers. Unfortunately, the man she’s just robbed turns out be one of London’s most dangerous gangsters, and now he’s on her trail and out for blood. PW & AZ

*****THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF ILL-MANNERED LADIES, Alison Goodman (Berkley, $16.99, May). Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband. The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan. Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need—society be damned! LJ & AZ

**SONS AND BROTHERS, Kim Hays (Seventh Street Books, $17.95, April). Walking his dog along Bern’s Aare river on an icy November night, a surgeon in his seventies is hit in the face and thrown into the river to drown. When his bruised corpse is found, his watch is missing. A mugging gone wrong? The more Swiss police detective Giuliana Linder and her assistant Renzo Donatelli learn about Johann Karl Gurtner, the more convinced they are that his death was not random. Talking to Gurtner’s family raises as many questions as it answers, but one thing becomes clear: the surgeon’s relationship with his middle son, Markus, was grim. Tracking others who might have had reason to hate Gurtner, Giuliana and Renzo find themselves once again dealing with their attraction to one another and their ambivalence about having an affair.
Behind their investigation, another story has been unfolding. During the year leading up to Gurtner’s death, his son Markus became friends with a former classmate of his father’s from the village where the two men grew up. Unlike the privileged young Gurtner, Jakob Amsler was forcibly removed from his mother at nine and contracted to live and work on a village farm. From Jakob, Markus learns that his father’s early life contains some very odd secrets—secrets that Giuliana and Renzo are now trying to uncover. DP

**EVERY THING SHE FEARED, Rick Mofina (MIRA, $18.99, April). When a teen falls while taking a selfie at the edge of a cliff, the last thing she sees before plummeting to her death is Katie Harmon, the nine-year-old girl she was babysitting, looking down at her. Investigators gather at the scene, and Katie’s mother, Sara, rushes to comfort her daughter. Yet there’s a small, secret ping of alarm in Sara’s heart that she cannot share—though rookie detective Kim Pierce senses it. For years, others have tried to unravel this secret. From true-crime podcasters to a haunted journalist searching for a killer who vanished after being released from prison several years ago. And now, with detectives tightening the focus of their investigation, Sara is consumed by her darkest fear—that the babysitter’s death was not an accident. AZ

**BLACK RIVER, Matthew Spencer (Thomas & Mercer, $16.99, June). During a stifling summer in Sydney, the body of a chaplain’s daughter is found wrapped in black plastic on the deserted grounds of an elite boarding school. Is it the work of the killer who’s been stalking the privileged neighborhoods along the Parramatta River? Gut instinct tells Detective Sergeant Rose Riley something even more devious might be at play. Eager to find the so-called Blue Moon Killer before he strikes again, Riley forms an uneasy alliance with Adam Bowman, a journalist with a valuable, and unsettling, link to the school’s history. As Riley’s investigation takes her deep into the secret lives of Sydney’s prominent citizens, Bowman delves into the darkest places of his own childhood for answers. When their paths converge, Riley must use every bit of her cunning to stop another murder. DP

*****EXPECTANT, Vanda Symon (Orenda, $16.99, September). The shocking murder of a heavily pregnant woman throws the New Zealand city of Dunedin into a tailspin, and the devastating crime feels uncomfortably close to home for Detective Sam Shephard as she counts down the days to her own maternity leave. Confined to a desk job in the department, Sam must find the missing link between this brutal crime and a string of cases involving mothers and children in the past. As the pieces start to come together and the realisation dawns that the killer’ s actions are escalating, drastic measures must be taken to prevent more tragedy. For Sam, the case becomes personal, when it becomes increasingly clear that no one is safe and the clock is ticking. DP(3)

*****THE LAST SONGBIRD, Daniel Weizmann (Melville House, $17.99, May). A struggling songwriter and Lyft driver, Adam Zantz’s life changes when he accepts a ride request in Malibu and 1970s music icon Annie Linden enters his dented VW Jetta. Bonding during that initial ride, the two quickly go off app— over the next three years, Adam becomes her exclusive driver and Annie listens to his music, encouraging Adam even as he finds himself driving more often than songwriting. Then, Annie disappears, and her body washes up under a pier. Left with a final, cryptic text— ‘come to my arms’— a grieving Adam plays amateur detective, only to be charged as accomplice-after-the-fact. Kirkus

*****THE MAN IN THE CORDUROY SUIT, James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press, $15.95, June). The story of an internal investigation into the past of a British spy suspected of having been turned by Russian agents. British intelligence is in a state of panic. Cracks are appearing, or so a run of disciplinary cases would suggest. To cap it all, Willa Karlsson, a retired secret services officer collapses, the victim of what looks like a Russian poisoning. Leonard Flood is ordered to investigate – and quickly. Notorious for his sharp elbows and blunt manner, Leonard’s only objective is to get the job done, whatever the cost. When Leonard discovers that he is also a suspect in the investigation and that Willa’s story is less a story of betrayal than one of friendship and a deep sense of duty, he must decide whether to hand her to her masters or to help her to escape. PW

Best Thrillers

**NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS, Cara Black (Soho Crime, $27.95, March). October 1942: it’s been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a risky three-pronged mission in Paris. Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of forbidden biological material. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate’s life—and get out. Kate will encounter sheiks and spies, poets and partisans, as she races to keep up with the constantly shifting nature of her assignment, showing every ounce of her Oregonian grit in the process. AZ

*****THE VICAR, A. J. Chambers (Blackstone, $26.99, September). Terry Nolan, an off-the-books MI5 operative known as The Vicar, has been officially dead for the past thirty years. But when Nolan is attacked in Boston, it becomes clear his cover is blown. Even worse, his Parishioners – the network of spies who work under The Vicar – have all been compromised.
Nolan races to New York to try and find his last remaining agent, Shae, whom he personally recruited years ago. Instead, he finds Kristen, a young civilian who is determined to save Shae, too – and who may know more than she’s letting on. In the search for his missing agent, Nolan intercepts intelligence that indicates weapons of mass destruction are on their way to Britain’s four largest cities. DP (2)

**FEARLESS, M. W. Craven (Flatiron Books, $27.99, July). Ben Koenig used to head the US Marshal’s elite Special Operations Group. His team hunted the bad guys – the really bad guys, and he could find anyone. Then one day Koenig himself disappeared. Koenig has been on the run for six years. Now suddenly his face is on every television screen in the country and his cover is blown. A woman has gone missing, and her father will do anything to find her. He wants Koenig to discover what happened, no matter the cost. The trail leads Koenig to a small town in the burning heat of the Chihuahuan Desert, where some people have a secret they’ll do anything to protect. But Koenig has a secret of his own: a unique condition that makes him unable to feel fear. Now Koenig is coming for them. And they should be afraid. DP

**KILLING ME, Michelle Gagnon (Putnam, $28.00, May). Amber Jamison cannot believe she’s about to become the latest victim of a serial killer—she’s savvy and street smart, so when she gets pushed into, of all things, a white windowless van, she’s more angry than afraid. Things get even weirder when she’s miraculously saved by a mysterious woman…who promptly disappears. Who was she? And why is she hunting serial killers?  You’d think escaping one psychopath would be enough, but Amber’s problems are just beginning. Her close call has law enforcement circling a past she’s tried to outrun. So she flees across the country, ending up at a seedy motel in Las Vegas with a noir-obsessed manager and a sex worker as her unlikely companions…and danger right behind. She’s landed in the crosshairs of the world’s most prolific killer, caught up in a deadly game that’s been going on for years. To survive, she’s forced to dust off her old playbook and partner with someone she can’t trust. AZ & DP

**THE TRAITOR, Ava Glass (Bantam, $28.00, September). An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one thing: Someone is sending a message.
As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man—whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and clear: Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?
To pick up where he left off without ending up in a suitcase of her own, Emma goes undercover on one of the oligarch’s million-dollar yachts, scheduled to set sail from the Cote D’Azur to Monaco. Under other circumstances, this would be a dream vacation. But if Emma’s real identity gets discovered, it’s a death sentence. DP

**MALIBU BURNING, Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99). Hell comes to Southern California every October. It rides in on searing Santa Ana winds that blast at near hurricane force, igniting voracious wildfires. Master thief Danny Cole longs for the flames. A tsunami of fire is exactly what he needs to pull off a daring crime and avenge a fallen friend. As the most devastating firestorms in Los Angeles’ history scorch the hills of Malibu, relentless arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his wild card of a new partner, Andrew Walker, a former US marshal, suspect that someone set the massive blazes intentionally, a terrifying means to an unknown end. While the flames rage out of control, Danny pursues his brilliant scheme, unaware that Sharpe and Walker are closing in. LJ, AZ & DP

**BURNER, Mark Greaney (Berkley, $29.00, February). When you kick over a rock, you never know what’s going to crawl out.  Alex Velesky is about to discover that the hard way. He’s stolen records from the Swiss bank that employs him, thinking that he’ll uncover a criminal conspiracy. But he soon finds that he’s tapped into the mother lode of corruption. Before he knows it, he’s being hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the CIA. Court Gentry and his erstwhile lover, Zoya Zakharova, find themselves on opposites poles when it comes to Velesky. They both want him but for different reasons. That’s a problem for tomorrow. Today they need to keep him and themselves alive. PW, AZ & DP

*****THE SECRET HOURS, Mick Herron (Soho Crime, $27.95). Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating “historical over-reaching” by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain. Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history. PW, BL, LJ, AZ & DP

**THE BULLET GARDEN, Stephen Hunter (Atria/Emily Bester, $28.99, January). July, 1944: The lush, rolling hills of Normandy are dotted with a new feature—German snipers. From their vantage points, they pick off hundreds of Allied soldiers every day, bringing the D-Day invasion to its knees. It’s clear that someone is tipping off these snipers with the locations of American GIs, but who? And how? General Eisenhower demands his intelligence service to find the best shot in the Allied military to counter this deadly SS operation. Enter Pacific hero Earl Swagger, assigned this crucial and bloody mission. With crosshairs on his back, Swagger can’t trust anyone as he infiltrates the shadowy corners of London and France for answers. BL & AZ

**RED LONDON, Alma Katsu (Putnam, $27.00). After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help. Following a suspicious attack on Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg’s property in a tony part of London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire’s aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. Fortunately for Lyndsey, there’s little to dissuade Emily from taking in a much-needed confidante. Even being one of the richest women in the world is no guarantee of happiness. But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia’s geopolitical past, one that could upend the world order and jeopardize Lyndsey’s longtime allegiance to the Agency. BL & AZ

**BLACK WOLF, Kathleen Kent (Mulholland, $29.00, February). It is 1990 when Melvina Donleavy arrives in Soviet Belarus on her first undercover mission with the CIA, alongside three fellow agents—none of whom know she is playing two roles. To the prying eyes of the KGB, she is merely a secretary; to her CIA minders, she is the only one who can stop the flow of nuclear weapons from the crumbling Soviet Union into the Middle East. For Mel has a secret; she is a “super recognizer,” someone who never forgets a face. But no training could prepare her for the reality of life undercover, and for the streets of Minsk, where women have been disappearing. Soviet law enforcement is firm: murder is a capitalist disease. But could a serial killer be at work? Especially if he knew no one was watching? As Mel searches for answers, she catches the eye of an entirely different kind of threat: the elusive and petrifying “Black Wolf,” head of the KGB. PW, AZ & DP

**ALLIGATOR ALLEY, Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press, $27.00, February). When Andie Moore, a 23-year-old working in the DOJ’s Inspector General’s Office, is murdered in cold blood in Florida’s Everglades, it falls on DeMarco to get to the bottom of things. Paired with Emma, an enigmatic, retired ex-spy with seemingly endless connections in the military and intelligence communities, they venture south to the scene of Andie’s murder: Alligator Alley. DeMarco and Emma waste no time in identifying two suspects—a pair of crooked, near-retirement FBI agents named McIntyre and McGruder. But as they keep digging, it becomes clear that these FBI agents weren’t acting alone, and that this goes much deeper than just the murder of an innocent 23-year old woman. BL, PW, AZ & DP

**GOING ZERO, Anthony McCarten (Harper, $30.00, April). TWO HOURS TO VANISH. Ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test a ground-breaking piece of spyware. Pioneered by tech-wunderkind Cy Baxter in collaboration with the CIA, FUSION can track anyone on earth. But does it work? Each participant is given two hours to ‘Go Zero’ – to go off-grid and disappear – and then thirty days to elude the highly sophisticated Capture Teams sent to find them. Any Zero that beats FUSION will receive $3 million. If Cy’s system prevails, he wins a $90 billion-dollar government contract to revolutionize surveillance forever. For one contestant, an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than anyone imagines. Kaitlyn needs to win as badly as Cy needs to realize his own ambitions. They have no choice but to finish the game and when the timer hits zero, there will only be one winner. BL, AZ & DP(2)

*****TO CATCH A STORM, Mindy Mejia (Atlantic Monthly, $28.99, August). When her husband’s car is found abandoned and on fire—in the middle of a rainstorm—Eve Roth becomes the police’s number one suspect. After all, her husband was suspended from the University of Iowa for inappropriate conduct with a student, and who else but an atmospheric physicist could incinerate a car in a downpour? But Eve has no idea why her husband disappeared. She’s desperate to find him, both for herself and her beloved, disabled father-in-law. Jonah Kendrick appears on their doorstep with a theory. He’s seen Eve’s husband, bound and bleeding in a barn. Claiming to be a psychic detective who dreams of the lost, Jonah has helped find missing people his entire life. He dreamed about a young woman trapped in the same barn months ago, and she’s still missing. As a firm believer in the laws of nature, Eve rejects anything to do with psychics, but their investigations soon collide. As the temperature drops and Iowa turns to ice, Eve and Jonah race across the state to discover what happened to the people they’ve lost. But the truth is more deadly either of them expected, and the physicist and the psychic must learn to believe in each other if they want to escape this storm alive. PW & AZ

**DROWNING, T. J. Newman (Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster, $28.00, May). Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside. More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives. Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff. There’s not much time. There’s even less air. Kirkus, LJ, AZ & DP

**THE COLLECTOR, Daniel Silva (Harper, $32.00, July). Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master-thief to track down the world’s most valuable missing painting but soon finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.  DP(2)

**ZERO DAYS, Ruth Ware (Gallery/Scout Press, $29.99, June). Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her. BL, AZ & DP

**BLIND FEAR, Brandon Webb & John David Mann (Bantam, $28.99, July). By day, AWOL Navy SEAL Finn is hiding out on Vieques, a tiny island paradise off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, living in a spare room behind a seafood restaurant owned by a blind local. By night he scours the dark web, hunting for the rogue officer responsible for the crimes he is accused of committing. But Finn’s world is about to be turned upside down by a new nightmare, when his employer’s two grandchildren go missing. To find them, he’ll have to infiltrate the island’s dangerous criminal underbelly and expose a shadowy crime network known as La Empresa—even if it means exposing himself in the process. DP

**THE PARTISAN, Patrick Worrall (Union Square, $17.99, April). Summer 1961: The brutal Cold War between East and West is becoming ever more perilous. Two young prodigies from either side of the Iron Curtain, Yulia and Michael, meet at a chess tournament in London. They don’t know it, but they’re about to compete in the deadliest game ever played. Shadowing them is Greta, a ruthless Lithuanian resistance fighter who is hunting down some of the most dangerous men in the world. Men who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the USSR’s greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily is Yulia’s minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. When the world is accelerating towards an inevitable and catastrophic conflict, what can just four people do to prevent it? PW & DP (2)

---