Christopher Bollen
Havoc (Harper 2024) is the story of Maggie Burkhardt, an 81-year-old Wisconsin widow with a compulsion to “fix” relationships she doesn’t believe are healthy. Maggie was forced to leave her last hotel in Switzerland after her well-intended plans had disastrous results. Borders were closing because of COVID, but Egypt was still accepting foreigners, so Maggie ended up at The Royal Karnak Palace Hotel in Luxor. Three months later she is happy with her choice. The carpets are threadbare, but the former luxury shines through. Hotel manager Ahmed, and the staff are tolerant of her efforts to bring the guests together, allowing her to wander the halls ringing a bell each evening to gather everyone to enjoy the amazing sunsets. She has been able to resist her compulsion to intervene until she accompanies Shelly Bradley and her daughter Stella on a tour of Hatshepsut’s Temple. Maggie has observed Shelly’s husband Geoff ogling other women, and is convinced Shelly is deeply unhappy and needs to be released from her marriage. Maggie decides that Carissa, a dramatic Greek divorcée who wears a different yellow silk scarf each day, would be the perfect trap. Two new residents arrive: Tess and her eight-year-old son Otto. At first Maggie feels she has a connection with Otto, but then he notices her coming out of Carissa’s room with bit of yellow peeping out of her pocket. When Shelly Bradley checks out in tears the next morning, Otto gives Maggie a knowing smirk, and then demands she buy him presents to ensure his silence. As the days pass Otto proves to be as devious as Maggie herself, gleefully ringing the daily sunset bell before she can get downstairs, and gradually taking over her other social duties. The unpleasant power struggle between the young boy and elderly woman gets worse every day, ending in a shocking climax.

Katrina Carrasco
Rough Trade (MCD 2024) finds Alma Rosales living as Jack Camp, a stevedore boss of a rough hauling company in 1888 Takoma, Washington Territory. Alma’s secret lover and partner is Delphine Beaumond, a beautiful high-society woman and head of the West Coast opium smuggling ring. Alma’s crew offloads the opium at the docks and transports it for shipment on the Northern Pacific Railroad while Delphine cajoles and bribes the appropriate officials. Most of Alma’s crew doesn’t know she isn’t a man, or that she used to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency before William Pinkerton dissolved his father’s Women’s Bureau. Alma sent anonymous letters to a few of her former Women’s Bureau colleagues when she arrived in Takoma, and her former partner Bess Spencer appears at the office of Jack Camp. Bess and her man are down on their luck, and Alma offers them both a job, though Bess is soon recruited by Delphine to infiltrate society. The Tacoma Longshoremen’s Cooperative has called a strike for better wages and shorter hours, and Alma watches in horror as the scabs unload one of their opium crates from the Ferndale, a crate that was specially marked to be hidden for later removal by her crew. The inspector opens the crate, spots the opium tins, and then discovers two more in the hold. The news of the opium brings both the law and determined newspaper reporter Ben Collins to town, eager to uncover the smuggling ring. Ben follows Alma’s crew to a bar that caters to all sexual desires, giving in to his own repressed attraction to men and falling for one of Alma’s crew. Life is hard in Takoma, and each of the characters has secrets to hide, forced to balance self-preservation with loyalty to their friends and lovers. This intense exploration of queerness in the 1880s frontier is a finalist for the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Mystery.

Scott Carson
Lost Man’s Lane (Atria/Emily Bestler Books 2024) begins in February 1991 Bloomington, Indiana, when Marshall Miller celebrates his 16th birthday and brand-new drivers license by taking a drive. He is pulled over by a cruiser and gives his license and registration to menacing Corporal Maddox. When Maddox returns to his cruiser to check the paperwork, Marshall notices a tearful teenage blond girl in the back seat, wearing the distinctive uniform of the Chocolate Goose, a local ice cream shop. Marshall wonders why the girl is wearing the uniform in the winter when the shop is closed, but when Corporal Maddox lets him leave with the speeding ticket, he tries to put the whole thing out of his mind. Not wanting to worry his single mother, a television weather reporter, Marshall hides the ticket away, planning to pay it secretly when the summons arrives. In March, Marshall attends his first kegger with his best friend and neighbor Kerri Flanders on football star Sean Weller’s property. Sean, who refers to himself as The Weller, is a fan of Marshall’s AOL Instant Messenger Away messages, a series of escalating responses telling a witty story, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Wanting to make an impression, Marshall tells the story of his ticket and the girl in the backseat of the cruiser, recasting his uneasiness as humor. A Missing Person flyer about Meredith Sullivan, missing since February 11 while wearing a Chocolate Goose polo shirt, changes everything. Marshall reports the encounter with Corporal Maddox to the police, learning that rank doesn’t exist and there is no one called Maddox. So he gets in touch with Noah Storm, the private investigator listed on the flyer. Noah is impressed by Marshall’s attention to detail, and agrees to hire him part time when summer arrives. Their wide-ranging investigation uncovers a snake-handling cult and other missing girls who all bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. This horror-tinged thriller is riveting.

Ally Condie
The Unwedding (Grand Central Publishing 2024) is set at Broken Point, a luxury resort on the cliffs of Big Sur in California. Ellery Wainwright was supposed to be celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary with her husband Luke, but he moved out in July to live with his new girlfriend and their divorce was finalized in September. The Broken Point deposit was not refundable and Ellery decided to go by herself rather than let Luke enjoy it with his girlfriend. Ellery is still stunned by the sudden change in her life, and grieving the loss of the man she thought was her life partner. She is horrified to realize there is a wedding taking place at Broken Point over the weekend, depressed by the young couple starting a new life together. Entering the resort restaurant the first evening, two strangers ask her to join them. Ravi and Nina are long time platonic friends who enjoy traveling together, and their kindness helps Ellery forget her sadness for a while. Ravi confesses they always steal something on their vacations, and suggests crashing the wedding reception to “steal” a drink. Startled, Ellery agrees. She meets the bride Olivia in the bathroom, and apologizes for crashing a private event. Olivia confesses the fancy wedding was not what she and her fiancé Ben wanted, but her mother insisted. The next day Ellery meets some other guests on a hike, including the second-best-man Andy, who tells her everyone loves Ben because he is the nicest person in the world. At the evening resort cocktail party, Olivia’s mother Catherine interrupts to say that the wedding is off because Ben abandoned her daughter at the altar, and everyone is welcome to help themselves to the reception food so it doesn’t go to waste. That night Ellery discovers a dead body in the pool, and a storm destroys the bridge that is the only access to Broken Point, leaving them trapped. Determined to get back to her children as quickly as possible, Ellery works with Ravi and Nina to check alibis and identify the killer. This engaging traditional mystery is the adult debut of the author of young adult and middle grade fiction.

Nick Harkaway
Karla’s Choice (Viking 2024) begins in 1963 London, when young Hungarian immigrant Susanna Gero arrives at the publishing office of Bánáti and Clay to find that Mr. László Bánáti has not arrived before her for the first time in three years. Instead she meets Miki, a short, heavy man smelling strongly of cigarettes who announces he has arrived to kill Bánáti on the personal instruction of a senior officer of the Thirteenth Directorate of the Committee for State Security of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Luckily God has told Miki he should not be a murderer any more, instead perhaps a comic movie actor like Peter Sellers. Locking Miki in the office, Susanna rushes to Bánáti’s flat, letting herself in with the emergency spare key. She doesn’t find Bánáti, but does notice signs of a quick departure. Not knowing what else to do, Susanna takes Miki along with her to the Adams Secretarial Agency, which recommended her for the job, and is soon talking with Millie McCraig, the Head of Housekeeping at the Circus, the British overseas intelligence agency. Control, the Head of the Circus, sends for George Smiley, who resigned after the disastrous events of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Smiley has been spending his days with his society wife Ann and her friends and family, finding himself unexpectedly content to have little to do while Ann is happy to have George all to herself. Millie convinces George to come back for just 48 hours to protect the innocent Susanna from the ramifications of a Russian assassination plot. Smiley agrees if he can have Soviet intelligence expert Connie Sachs and Hungarian specialist Toby Esterhase. They soon discover Bánáti is actually Ferencz Róka, but the reason for his assassination order from the Russian spymasters is unclear. This slow-burning spy thriller is set in the time before Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and features many familiar characters. Written by John Le Carré’s son, this book perfectly captures the tone of Smiley’s universe, as well as his instinctive tradecraft and meditation on the morality of espionage.

C.L. Miller
The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (Atria Books 2024) begins when Freya Lockwood gets a call from her Aunt Carole explaining that antiques dealer Arthur Crockleford has died from a fall down the stairs in his shop. Arthur was once Freya’s mentor, but they haven’t spoken since they were together in Cairo twenty years earlier when Freya’s boyfriend was killed. Returning to London, Freya married James, who discouraged her interest in antiques or anything outside of James himself and their daughter Jade. When James left Freya for another woman, she devoted herself to Jade, who has grown up and moved to America for college. Carole asks Freya to come help with the soliciter and she is soon back in her hometown of Little Meddingtown. They stop at the Teapot Tearooms and are given a letter from Arthur left with the owner. In the message filled with hidden clues, Arthur explains he has been betrayed, and begs Freya to finish his twenty-year quest to find an item of immense value that will restore Freya’s career as an antiques expert. Solicitor Franklin Smith reveals that Arthur came in the day after his friend Lord Metcalf’s death to make a new will leaving Crockleford Antique Shop jointly to Carole and Freya. Arthur also requested that if for any reason he was himself unavailable to serve as verifier for Lord Metcalf’s estate that Freya should serve in his stead. Freya and Carole figure out the new alarm code for the shop, and discover seven leather-bound journals before realizing someone is trying to break into the shop as they dash out the back. In the journals they find lists of antiques marked with colored dots, and a Booking Confirmation for an Antiques Enthusiasts Retreat at Copthorn Manor for Freya Lockwood, Verifier. Deciding to attend, they set off for Copthorn Manor, Lord Metcalf’s estate, where Freya immediately notices all the manor’s antiques are reproductions and the strange collection of people all seem to have something to hide. This enjoyable debut traditional mystery featuring the appealing Freya and her eccentric Aunt Carole is the first in a series.

Wanda M. Morris
What You Leave Behind (William Morrow 2024) is the story of Deena Wood, who has returned to her childhood home of Brunswick, Georgia. Her depression after the death of her beloved mother contributed to the end of her marriage and the loss of her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. Deena decided she needed a “dayclean,” what the local Geechee people call a fresh start. Deena is working at a boring job at Medallion Company, and staying in her childhood bedroom with her father and his new wife, who Deena has not forgiven for trying to take her mother’s place. Deena has put offers in on several small houses, but is always outbid. She takes long drives to get away from both her uncomfortable work and home environments, and one day finds herself on one of the Georgia Golden Islands, walking and enjoying the sea air. An older Black man shoots at her, demanding to know who sent her and insisting he will never sell the land that has been in his family since the end of the Civil War, left to him and his sister Delilah by their parents. Deena tries to explain she has no idea what he’s talking about and Holcomb Gardner escorts her off his property and back to her car. Back at the office, Deena give in to curiosity and looks Gardner up, finding little about Holcomb and an obituary for Delilah, who died six months earlier. LaShonda Graham, Deena’s neighbor and frenemy since fourth grade, asks her for some free legal help. After her stepfather died, LaShonda’s mother believed she had inherited the house, but now one of the stepfather’s relatives is claiming part ownership. Deena explains that this might be heirs property situation, resulting from relatives claiming part of an estate if there was no will. Returning to the island a week later, Deena discovers that Holcomb, his dog, and his trailer are all gone, leaving only a FOR SALE sign from Empire Realty, the same company demanding a payment of more than the house is worth from LaShonda’s mother. Deena reports Holcomb missing, but since she isn’t a relative the police don’t take the report seriously, and Deena decides to investigate herself. This intense thriller set in the unique Gullah-Geechee culture of the Georgia Low Country deftly balances Deena’s emotional vulnerability with her dedication to protecting the rights of her Black community.

Abir Mukherjee
Hunted (Mulholland Books 2024) begins a week before the hotly contested US presidential election when a bomb goes off in a Los Angeles shopping mall. A young Muslim woman named Yasmin Malik is caught on camera with the exploding bomb, which kills her. The Sons of the Caliphate claim responsibility for the bombing, threatening more to come. FBI Special Agent Shreya Mistry follows leads to Portland, Oregon. Shreya is a talented investigator, but finds it difficult to verbalize her instinctive thinking process, prompting her to move ahed without permission while others are still searching for evidence. Greg Flynn, who has been coerced into building the bomb, was horrified when he learned of the death toll, having been assured the bomb would be detonated in a deserted area of the mall and that Yasmin would return safely. Fearing that Aliyah, who slated for the next mission, is also facing certain death, Greg tries to convince her to escape the compound with him. But Aliyah is intent on retribution, having never recovered from the violence that erupted at a protest in London three years earlier leaving her older sister Mia in a permanent coma. The FIB tracks Yasmin’s entry to the United States from London, traveling with Aliyah Khan. Authorities in London question Aliyah’s father Sajid, who insists his daughter is teaching English in Tokyo. Presented with the proof of her flight from Heathrow, Sajid is stunned. The next day a woman appears on his doorstep. Carrie Flynn has traveled from Florida because of a letter from her son Greg mentioning a girl from England named Aliyah, the only one who is kind to him. Carrie convinces Sajid that they must work together to find and protect their children since the authorities will never believe they are worth saving. As Shreya gets closer to finding the Sons of the Caliphate, she suspects someone at the FBI is working with them, signalwing her every move. This intense character-driven modern thriller is the first standalone by the author of an award-winning historical series set in Calcutta, India.

Tom Ryan
The Treasure Hunters Club (Atlantic Monthly Press 2024) begins when Peter Barnett receives a letter from a grandmother he didn’t know existed. Nearly 40, Peter works at a dead-end job he hates in Vancouver, Washington, has a non-existant social life, and rents a room from Ricky, a man he doesn’t much like. The letter with a return address of Bellwoods, Maple Bay, Nova Scotia, is from Mirabel Bellwood Johnson, explaining they are the last two Bellwoods and she would like him to visit and learn about his legacy. Ricky looks Bellwoods up online and discovers it is a mansion continuously occupied by the Bellwood family for three generations. In New York City, 32-year-old Cass is about to retreat home to Milwaukee, having spent the entire advance on her debut young adult novel that came out to great reviews and then fizzled. A call from her father’s old friend Alan Trapper changes everthing. Alan and his wife are about to depart for a year in Europe, but their house and dog sitter has just quit. Alan offers Cass the job. Hoping this will give her the chance to write a second book without worrying about debt, Cass accepts and sets off for Maple Bay, Nova Scotia. Seventeen-year-old Dandy is mourning the death of her beloved grandfather “Grandy,” when she finds a letter addressed to her in his cottage in Maple Bay. Grandy asks Dandy to take his place at the monthly meeting of the Treasure Hunters Club: five grandchildren of a group of boys who supposedly found the legendary lost treasure of the pirate ship Obelisk, hidden in Maple Bay in the 1700s. Reginald Feltzen (Grandy), Mirabel Bellwood Johnson, Rose French, Frank Oakley, and Bill Jinx all received anonymous typewritten letters 40 years earlier explaining their grandfathers discovered the pirate treasure in 1920, but then lost it again. Their Treasure Hunters Club has been searching ever since, but the recent deaths of three of the members has disillusioned the remaining members. Cass, who has decided the story of the lost treasure would be the perfect subject for her next book, joins Peter and Dandy in the treasure hunt, which just may put their lives at risk. This clever traditional mystery, the adult debut of a young adult author, is a finalist for the 2025 Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award.

Danielle Trussoni
The Puzzle Box (Random House 2024) begins in February 2024, the Year of the Wood Dragon, when Mike Brink is invited to Japan to open a challenging and dangerous puzzle box. Brink was a teenage football star when a traumatic brain injury transformed him into a mathematical genius with the ability to solve seemingly impossible puzzles, with an eidetic memory and nearly total mnemonic recall. The brain injury also left Brink with a damaged nervous system, anxiety, insomnia and synesthesia — a perceptual phenomenon that causes him to experience one sense through another. Dr. Trevers, Brink’s neuroscientist, speculates that his synesthesia is responsible for his ability to quickly learn and retain information and to see the world as a series of interlocking patterns. Sakura Nakamoto explains that the Dragon Puzzle Box was created in 1868 when the samurai class was disbanded and the shogun lost power. Ogawa Ryuichi, a master of mechanical construction, created the Dragon Puzzle Box for Emperor Meiji, who locked a priceless Imperial secret inside. Both died without revealing the secret for opening the box, which can only be opened during the first full moon of the Year of the Dragon. The box is designed to kill anyone who does not complete the series of steps in order, and everyone who has tried to open the box since its creation has died from poison or a hidden deadly weapon. Brink’s weakness is his craving for challenge; only the strenuous act of puzzle solving brings him a few days of peace. Though he knows this challenge may end in his death, he agrees. At the Imperial Palace in Japan he meets Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako and learns he will have only twelve hours to solve the Dragon Puzzle Box, beginning at moonrise the next evening. Sakura’s older sister Ume is part of a faction determined to steal the imperial treasure and restore the power of the samurai along with Jameson Sedge, legal guardian to Ume and Sakura after their parents were murdered and Brink’s nemesis. This clever and exciting second in the series features Brink’s solitary puzzle-solving efforts along with a mad dash through Japan to locate historical clues before the 12-hour window closes.

Elise Bryant
It’s Elementary (Berkley 2024) begins when Southern California single mom Mavis Miller isn’t fast enough to escape determined Knoll Elementary PTA President Trisha Holbrook at morning drop-off. It’s been a hectic morning already for Mavis since her seven-year-old daughter Pearl had a meltdown when her favorite black and silver striped knee socks were nowhere to be found. Mavis usually manages to scoot off to work quickly, but Trisha chases her down, and insists Mavis is the perfect parent to lead the new mandated DEI committee. Mavis is one of the few Black parents at Knoll, and recently spoke out about the school book fair after Pearl searched in vain for books featuring a character who looked like her, so she puts aside her reluctance to add anything else to her already over scheduled life and agrees. At the PTA meeting that evening, Tricia introduces new Principal Smith and then announces that Knoll Elementary will soon become the district’s gifted school. Principal Smith tries to correct her, explaining that that decision is still under discussion by the school board, but Tricia talks over him, insisting former Principal Brennan had already made a collaborative decision with the PTA. The parents begin shouting out questions: When will students be tested? Will students be bussed in from all over the district? What will happen to current students who aren’t in the gifted program? Tricia pushes Principal Smith to answer the questions and he blurts out that the administration team at Knoll has decided not to proceed with the application; the gifted program will be at another site. Furious, Tricia storms off the stage and Mavis overhears Tricia venting to a friend, swearing she will kill Principal Smith for ruining her plan for the gifted school. While walking her dog later that evening by the school, Mavis sees Tricia dragging first a bag of cleaning supplies and then two other heavy black trash bags to her van. The next day Principal Smith doesn’t come to work but his wife does, frantic that he didn’t return home the night before. With the help of school psychologist Jack Cohen, who is exceedingly attractive, Mavis begins to investigate Principal Smith’s disappearance. Could Tricia really have murdered him? Mavis’s first person narration is both snarky and endearing, as she struggles to add school responsibilities to her already strained balance between home and work life.

Christoffer Carlsson
Under the Storm (Hogarth, 2024, Swedish 2019) begins in November 1994 when the body of a young woman is found in an incinerated farm house in Marbäck, Sweden. At first considered a terrible tragedy that Lovisa Markström was caught in the blaze, the news that she was murdered by a blow to the head tears the community apart. Rookie policeman Vidar Jörgensson lives close enough to smell the smoke, and heads over to help out, first discovering a singed glove and then Lovisa’s boyfriend Edvard Christensson in the woods. Isak Nyqvist is only ten, and his parents try to protect him from the tragedy and then the arrest of his mother’s younger brother Edvard. Isak’s uncle Edvard is his favorite person in the world, other than his mother Eva, and he doesn’t understand why Edvard doesn’t come to visit as usual on Saturday, and then never again. Eva and Edvard’s father August was a violent drunk, getting into fights and beating his wife. Edvard had some trouble in his teenage years and the growing certainty that he inherited his father’s violent nature leads to his arrest. Vidar is tasked with checking the alibis of others in Lovisa’s life, concentrating on her two former boyfriends Billy Oredsson and Jon-Erik Pettersson. When their alibis check out, Edvard is arrested and sentenced to life in prison. Isak is devastated. Not only has he lost his uncle, but rumors at school begin to circulate. Isak looks a lot like his uncle, and the taunts about his “bad blood” take root, causing him to doubt his own capacity to control his anger. Nine years later Victor is investigating a string of burglaries in the 1990s by brothers Božo and Darko Miljanovic. In their final burglary, the homeowner returned unexpectedly, was struck over the head, and the house set afire. Looking at the dates of the Miljanovic burglaries, Vidar is struck by a gap in the sequence. Judging by their pattern, winter 1994 is missing and Marbäck is in the right location. Sorting through the evidence box from Edvard’s conviction, Vidar notices that some threatening notes to Larisa were never placed in evidence. Fearing that an innocent man has been convicted, Vidar convinces Isak to visit his uncle in prison to ask about the Miljanovic brothers. For the first time Isak hears his uncle’s declaration of innocence and his story of what happened that fateful night. This intense psychological thriller by a Swedish criminology professor examines the long-range effect of a crime upon everyone connected to it.

Ash Clifton
Twice the Trouble (Crooked Lane Books 2024) introduces Noland Twice, a former University of Florida football star turned police officer after an injury ended his football career. Noland was good at his job with an excellent arrest record until a drug dealer framed him for possession with the help of some dirty cops. Noland served two years in prison before he was exonerated, enabling him to open Ultima Fortuna Investigations, working as a private investigator with a reputation for using both legal and not-so-legal options for solving cases. Attorney Faith Carlton hires Noland to find Arthur Valkenberg, a partner in Selberis Constructors, a huge construction firm. Valkenberg has stolen 14 million from Selberis’s offshore account, and Faith explains they can’t go to the police. Noland knows he should say no to the shady job, but his mother’s hip replacement wasn’t covered by her insurance and he is two months behind on his mortgage payment. Breaking into Valkenberg’s apartment, he finds the body of a man shot through the head. Noland recognizes the man as Frank Bisby, CEO of Selberis, and calls Faith demanding a meeting of the remaining Selberis partners: William Redding, Shawn Difore, and Karen Voss. Though Karen is the youngest of the trio, with the least impressive title, it’s soon clear to Noland that she is the smartest of the bunch, explaining that there is one more partner: Victor Irinas, a Brazilian gangster, who will not be happy about the missing funds. Noland renegotiates his contract up to 100,000 plus 10% of whatever money he recovers in exchange for taking care of the body in Valkenberg’s apartment. Selberis agrees, giving Noland one week. Noland visits his old friend Kiril, a Russian former loan shark enforcer who learned the copy shop business while in prison and now runs his own with his wheelchair-bound younger brother Freddy. Together they take care of the body and Noland starts working against the clock to find Valkenberg and the money. Noland is clever and used to working on both sides of the law, but things quickly get confusing and dangerous in this high-energy debut thriller.

Emma Cook
You Can’t Hurt Me (Hanover Square Press 2024) begins when journalist Anna Tate is hired to ghostwrite Dr. Nate Reid’s memoir exploring his grief after the death of his wife Eva two years earlier. A renowned neuroscientist specializing in pain, Nate was researching the brain’s pain center when Eva was referred to him after an arm fracture because of her inability to feel any pain. Nate determined Eva suffered from CIP (congenital insensitivity to pain), an extremely rare disorder. Most people with CIP die young since their body doesn’t warn them of burns or cuts or other injuries. Eva found the diagnosis reassuring since it explained why she was so different, but she began to wonder if her inability to feel physical or emotional pain might be preventing her from true artistic creativity, like her hero Frida Kahlo whose art was inspired by chronic pain. Anna visits Nate at his beautiful home in London, where he discovered Eva’s body in her garden studio two years earlier, dead from a drug induced heart attack. At first assumed an accident caused by Eva’s inability to feel the extreme pain of the heart seizure, the inquest jury’s verdict was open; they were unable to draw any strong conclusion due to lack of evidence. Due to many unanswered questions about the bruises on her arms, the vandalized sculptures surrounding her body, her missing cell phone and glass cutting tool; Eva’s older sister Kath never accepted that Eva’s death was accidental, instead accusing Nate and calling for a new inquest. Kath believes Nate took advantage of Eva, using her condition to advance his own career, and is furious that she is not being used as a resource for his memoir. As Anna and Nate work together to transform his clinical prose into an appealing memoir, she is both attracted to Nate and increasingly concerned about his version of Eva, their marriage, and her death. Interspersed sections from Eva’s journal written during the months before her death, which Anna discovers, present an entirely different view of their marriage and Eva’s inner life. Anna herself has an uneasy relationship with her controlling brother Tony, who warns her repeatedly not to get to close to Nate. This excellent debut thriller explores the nature of trust and the secrets we prefer to keep hidden.

Kemper Donovan
The Busy Body (Kensington 2024) begins when the narrator is offered the job of ghostwriting the memoir of former Senator Dorothy Gibson, the independent candidate for president who split the vote and lost the election a few months earlier. Dorothy has retreated to her home in Sacobago, Maine, an upscale suburb of Portland, with her assistant Leila Mansour and a team of private bodyguards. The ghostwriter breaks her cardinal rule of not living with her subject in order to land the job, and finds herself enjoying Dorothy and her staff, especially Denny Peters AKA The Hot Bodyguard. After a long day of outlining the memoir, Dorothy’s son Peter comes for a visit, insisting they need to visit Betty’s Liquor Mart since he just discovered the previous guests drank all the red wine. At Betty’s, a woman Dorothy doesn’t know introduces herself as her neighbor Vivian Davis, telling Dorothy she’s a big fan, and has started a Kickstarter campaign mocking “the idiot who won” with the money going to charity. Dorothy agrees to a selfie, and a few days later Leila appears with the picture on her iPad, explaining Vivian’s Kickstarter campaign is now over $100,000 thanks to the boost of the picture followed by Vivian’s sudden death. Vivian and her husband Walter Vogel rented the Crystal Palace, an exclusive living/meeting space constructed of glass, to convince venture capitalist Samir Shaw to invest in Walter’s new dermal regeneration cosmetic procedure. Walter discovered Vivian drowned in the bathtub, an assumed suicide because of the empty bottle of sedatives by her side. Walter invites Dorothy to the funeral, accompanied by her staff and the ghostwriter. Walter is handsome and charismatic, his personal assistant Eve Turner is young and beautiful, and Dorothy’s sister Laura makes a dramatic brief appearance swathed in a poofy long black dress and veil. The ghostwriter decides to do the unthinkable and mingle, ending up next to Samir, his wife Anne, and their teenage son Alex. Anne is anxious, Samir dismissive of Walter’s ability to come up with anything worthwhile, and Alex calls his parents hypocrites and stalks off. When the autopsy reveals no sign of any drug, the police arrive to investigate the murder. Dorothy is furious to be considered a suspect and the ghostwriter is only too happy to join in the sleuthing to identify the real culprit. The two form a dynamite team: Dorothy’s years in politics have made her an expert in spotting lies and evasions, and the ghostwriter is skilled at asking revealing questions and creating possible scenarios. The ghostwriter’s witty and snarky narration adds to the fun in this clever series opener, an homage to the work of Agatha Christie.

Emily Layden
Once More from the Top (Mariner Books 2024) is the story of Dylan Read, who grew up in Thompson Landing, a small town on Lake Tahawus in upstate New York. Dylan was a shy child, pushed out of her comfort zone in seventh grade by a supportive middle school teacher who encouraged her to read some of her poetry at the talent show. Eighth grader Kelsey Copestenke was just ahead of her on the program, playing guitar and singing a country song. Deciding to save Dylan from social suicide, Kelsey stayed on stage, playing softly while Dylan recited, transforming the poetry into almost a song. The two were inseparable after that, creating music together, until Kelsey vanished at the end of her senior year. By then the two were posting songs on their MySpace page. After Kelsey’s disappearance, Dylan logs on to their MySpace page intending to delete everything and finds a message from a Nashville scout at Melody. This shocks Dylan out of her grief, and she decides to call the scout. Convincing her mother to take her to Nashville, Dylan explains to Melody that it was Kelsey’s voice on the MySpace songs singing Dylan’s lyrics to music they composed together. Dylan is encouraged to sing something she wrote without Kelsey, and is offered a deal. She spends that summer in Nashville, releasing her debut album at the age of 17, self-scrutinizing songs full of grief and guilt, fear and regret. Fifteen years later Kelsey’s remains are recovered from Lake Tahawus, launching a media storm of speculative stories about Dylan’s connection to her high school classmate. Dylan has spent the last 15 years crafting a public narrative to support her career, hiding the most important relationship that fueled her songwriting. The two fought bitterly the night Kelsey disappeared, and Dylan has always blamed herself. But at Kelsey’s memorial service she begins to suspect there was more the story than she ever knew. Alternating sections from the past and present reveal their intense friendship and the evolution of Dylan’s musical career. This intense psychological thriller is highly recommended.

Rob Osler
The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington 2024) introduces Harriet Morrow, a new detective with the Prescott Detective Agency in Chicago. It’s 1898 and female detectives are a still a rarity, though Kate Warne became a Pinkerton detective in 1856. Harriet knows she isn’t the usual young woman interested in beaus and fashion, instead wearing men’s shoes, a plain skirt, and a man’s black bowler while riding her beloved Overman Victoria bicycle. Theodore Prescott is dubious, but agrees to give Harriet a trial as a junior field operative: one week to find his neighbor Pearl Bartlett’s missing maid Agnes Wozniak. Prescott tells Harriet it’s more of a favor than a case, but she eagerly agrees, thrilled to be leaving her boring bookkeeping job behind. Prescott offers her less than the advertised salary since she is a woman, but she is happy to be earning twice her former salary. Just 21, Harriet is supporting both herself and her 16-year-old brother Aubrey, and the extra money is much needed. Pearl Bartlett lives alone in a huge house with only her maid for company. She explains Agnes has been missing for over two days. Pearl is in her 70s and unable to climb the stairs, so Harriett ascends to the third floor, discovering that all signs point to Agnes being abducted. The small window is open, a lamp has been knocked over, the bedclothes are in a jumble, and all of Agnes’s clothes and other belongings are still in the room. Harriett visits the agency that sent Agnes to Pearl to learn her home address, and then the Wozniak apartment in the densely populated Polish neighborhood. Agnes’s older sister Barbara is worried that Agnes did not return to visit as usual on her day off, but explains her father isn’t willing to go to the police. Mr. Wozniak has promised Agnes to the unsavory Bogdan Nowak, a wealthy loan shark who doesn’t want the police in the neighborhood. At the Agency Harriet isn’t given an office like the other detectives, instead the desk nearest the lavatory with the secretaries, who resent her. Carl Somer, who investigated a robbery at Pearl’s house earlier in the year is terse and dismissive. The only kind face is Matthew McCabe, who advises her about the proper way to write a report and offers to take her to the shooting gallery. As she follows clues to criminal lairs and seedy bars, Harriet first realizes there are men attracted to other men and that she isn’t the only woman uninterested in a romantic relationship with men. This new historical series starring the endearing and determined Harriet discovering her place in the world is a winner.

Kristen Perrin
How To Solve Your Own Murder (Dutton 2024) begins in 1965 at the Castle Knoll Country Fair, when teenage Frances Adams and her two best friends Emily and Rose visit a fortune teller who predicts Frances will be murdered with a series of warnings including dry bones, a queen in her palm, betrayal by a bird, and daughters as the key to justice. Emily and Rose laugh off the fortune, but Frances can’t get it out of her head, especially after Emily goes missing almost exactly a year later. In the present, Annabelle (Annie) Adams, a 25-year old aspiring mystery novelist, receives a letter from the solicitors office of Gordon, Owens, and Martlock, requesting her presence in Castle Knoll to discuss her Great Aunt Frances’s will. Annie has never met her Frances, but takes the train from London to the small village of Castle Knoll, where Mr. Gordon explains the meeting will be held at Gravesdown Hall, Frances’s estate outside town, along with his grandson Oliver, Frances’s husband’s nephew Saxon Gravesdown, and Saxon’s wife Elva. At Gravesdown Hall they discover Frances’s dead body, deep punctures on both hands from the white long-stemmed roses she was arranging in a vase. Waiting for the police to arrive, Annie enters a small room off the library and discovers Great Aunt Frances’s obsession: a murder board stretching from floor to ceiling with colored string connecting photos, post-its, and newspaper clippings. On another wall is a smaller murder board with “Emily Sparrow, last seen August 21, 1966” in the center. Frances’s will leaves her entire estate to either Annie or Saxon, whoever solves her murder within the time limit of one week, the solution verified by Detective Rowan Crane. Annie and Saxon are to stay in Gravesdown Hall with access to Frances’s files collected over the years as she attempted to solve her own murder in advance. Interspersed sections from the journal Frances began in September 1966 fill in details from the past while Annie’s first person narration covers the present. This excellent series opener paying homage to Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders, is the adult debut by a British children’s author.

Thomas Perry
Hero (Mysterious Press 2024) begins when Justine Poole, a security consultant for the Hollywood elite, gets a call from her boss Ben Spengler, who is concerned that Jerry and Estelle Pinsky are being watched at a charity event. There has been a rash of “follow-home” robberies in Hollywood: one robber blocking the closing of the automatic security gate with his body while others quietly enter the gated property. Justine heads to the Pinsky property, entering with the code, and hides just inside the gate. After the Pinskys drive in, a man blocks the gate and four others jump out of a car. As the five masked men run up the driveway, Justine illuminates them with her tactical flashlight, aims her gun, and shouts at them to stop. Two men immediately begin firing at her, and Justine shoots back, hitting two of the men. The SWAT team rounds up the other three men, and luckily the Pinskys, a kind elderly couple who used their television wealth to support many charities, are shaken but unharmed. Mr. Conger, the organized crime boss responsible for the follow-home robberies, is not pleased. Two of his crew are now dead and three others are behind bars. Determined to demonstrate his protection to the men who might be tempted to talk, Conger hires Leo Sealy to kill the bodyguard. Then the news breaks that the bodyguard who protected the beloved Pinskys is a woman, and Conger is even more furious, embarrassed that a lone woman successfully fought off five armed men from his crew. When Justine’s name is released by the press Sealy begins to track her down, but Justine is used to considering all angles of protection and manages to stay one step ahead of him. Conger orchestrates an appeal from the men Justine killed, claiming she is a vigilante, not a hero, hoping to draw Justine out in the open. This extended cat-and-mouse chase is riveting.

Benjamin Stevenson
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Mariner Books 2024) begins when Australian crime author Ernest “Ern” Cunningham gets a text from his ex-wife Erin, begging for help. Ernest is a long-time fan of fair play Golden Age mysteries and had solved two high-profile murders using his powers of observation and knack for understanding how murderers think. Erin is being held in the Katoomba police station, charged with the murder of her partner Lyle Pearse. Erin tells Ern that when she woke up in the morning her hands were covered in blood and Lyle wasn’t in bed next to her. Downstairs she discovered Lyle’s body, stabbed numerous times in the stomach. Erin claims she heard nothing in the night and has no idea how her hands came to be covered in blood. Erin says everyone loved Lyle, and Ern discovers that just might be true. After retiring from acting, Lyle started the Pearse Foundation when his brother died of an overdose of cocaine that had been secretly cut with heroin. Believing that only a passion can overcome the temptation of addiction, Lyle’s foundation uses the power of theater to motivate his crew of former addicts. The Christmas show at the Pease Theater featuring magician Rylan Blaze is a fundraiser for the foundation: Passion Creates Change. Ern identifies six main suspects: the magician, the assistant, the executive, the hypnotist, the identical twin, the counsellor, and the tech. Organized like an advent calendar, the humorous short novel is arranged in 24 chapters, each with a clue leading up to the big reveal in the final chapter. This third in the series can be read as a stand-alone, but new readers will no doubt be inspired to get their hands on Ern’s earlier adventures as well.

Ruby Todd
Bright Objects (Simon & Schuster 2024) is set in the small town of Jericho, New South Wales, near the Black Mountain Observatory. In January 1995 Sylvia Knight is driving home late one night with her husband Christopher along a winding section of Horseshoe Road. Sylvia steers around a rusted old Mitsubishi Sigma and is hit by a speeding sedan heading the other direction. Danny Ward, the driver of the Sigma, calls for help, but the dark sedan doesn’t stop. Christopher is killed instantly, and Sylvia is transported to the hospital with a severe spinal injury. Two years later, Sylvia is still in mourning, and still angry that the hit-and-run driver has not been brought to justice. She suspects the sedan was Sergeant Angus Blair’s patrol car, which collided with a tree later that same night. Blair said he became dizzy because of high blood pressure medication and Senior Sergeant Douglas claims to have breathalyzed Blair at the scene with a negative result. Douglas and Blair are old friends, and Sylvia believes Blair called him to take the report and hide the evidence of an earlier crash. Danny Ward claims to have no memory of the driver or the other car, but is now driving a shiny new Subaru he clearly can’t afford with his minimum-wage job. Sylvia meets Theo St. John, an astronomer who discovered a rare comet that will be visible to the naked eye in a few months, reappearing after four thousand years. For the first time since Christopher’s death Sylvia finds herself interested in something other than the accident, first the comet and then the astronomer himself. Joseph Evans, a local mystic who believes the comet is a divine message, gathers a following including Sylvia’s mother-in-law Sandy, who has never recovered from her son’s sudden death. Theo attends some of Joseph’s public events, speaking about the science of comets, but Joseph’s pronouncements of destruction to come catch the imagination of the public. Some are happy to buy souvenirs and comet biscuits, but Sylvia worries that Sandy and others have been drawn into a doomsday cult. This beautifully written debut thriller explores the debilitating effects of grief and the powerful attraction of the unusual.