Fielding’s excellent latest (after The Housekeeper) nestles a murder mystery inside a witty novel of friendship and loss. Linda Davidson, 76, is starting to admit she’s growing old. Since she lost her husband to cancer two years ago, she’s opened her home in Jupiter, Fla., to her youngest daughter, Kleo, and her chauvinistic son-in-law, Mick. Linda’s best friend, Carol, has recently been diagnosed with dementia and is now living in an “upscale oceanfront memory care facility that calls itself—with not the slightest hint of irony—Legacy Place.” Linda pays regular visits to the facility, even though Carol no longer recognizes her. On one such occasion, she’s approached by diminutive 92-year-old Jenny Cooper, who tells her a secret: “I kill people.” Initially, Linda brushes it off as the ramblings of a sick woman, until a sudden death at the facility spurs her to take Jenny’s confession more seriously. Linda starts to visit Jenny, who tells her stories of the men she’s supposedly killed, moving Linda—and readers—to wonder if she’s befriending a serial killer. Fielding renders Linda and Jenny’s blossoming friendship with sensitivity while ensuring things never get mawkish. Punchy, surprising, and sweet in equal measure, this tale of twisted sisterhood is a home run. Agent: Tracy Fisher, WME. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

This overstuffed supernatural suspense novel from Strohmeyer (We Love to Entertain) follows mild-mannered 30-year-old Stella O’Neill, who works as a library archivist in Cambridge, Mass. Twenty years ago, Stella witnessed the murder of her mother, Rose, while the two were members of a cult called the Diviners in rural Vermont; ever since, she’s attempted to keep a low profile. Those efforts get upended when, in 2023, a post about Rose’s death goes viral and exposes Stella’s current whereabouts. In recent years, the cult’s “enforcement arm” (who call themselves the Facilitators) have become “the bullies of the internet,” incessantly searching for slander against their leader, Radcliffe MacBeath, and tracking down former members who might be willing to spill their secrets. Knowing that either the Facilitators or Rose’s killer will soon come after her, Stella heads to Vermont to confront Radcliffe. Gradually, in chapters that alternate between Stella’s perspective and Rose’s, Strohmeyer reveals the details of the latter’s death. Despite the sturdy setup, Strohmeyer throws too much at the wall—a thread about paranormal powers is particularly goofy—and Rose’s chapters are far more involving than Stella’s. This disappoints. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

In physician Scott’s impressive debut, a young man with a spotty past returns home after seven years away. Jack Quinlan, now going by the alias Luke Harris, arrives in Melbourne hoping to put his mother’s overdose and his father’s criminal history—which sent Jack into foster care—behind him. Working as an in-home caregiver, he soon finds a stable income, a chance to put himself through university, and the possibility of romance with a client’s daughter. But his new life is threatened when he encounters Gus Alberici, a crime boss whose sinister mentorship shaped Jack into a loyal enforcer when he was a boy. Gus demands his help locating Jack’s father, who vanished years ago after stealing a large sum from Gus. With Gus under pressure to repay a rival kingpin, Jack is roped back into his criminal past, and forced to get his hands dirty if he wants to preserve his future. Scott makes the life-or-death stakes of Jack’s dilemma palpable, and the novel’s terse prose and three-dimensional characters add depth. This gritty coming-of-age tale grabs readers’ attention and doesn’t let go. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hambly’s sturdy latest historical mystery featuring Black pianist and physician Benjamin January (after The Nubian’s Curse) combines a clever plot with a vivid evocation of mid-19th-century Louisiana. In 1841, January is performing at a masked ball in New Orleans when Bastien Damoreau, who is deep in debt, accuses Edouard-Georges Couvillier, a recent arrival from France, of being a Black man attempting to pass as white. Couvillier responds by challenging Damoreau to a duel, and January accepts a request to be one of the surgeons present at the skirmish, where he witnesses Damoreau shoot and kill Couvillier. However, January’s subsequent examination of Couvillier’s corpse reveals that the bullet that killed him came from behind, leading the doctor to suspect that Damoreau was perhaps hired to insult Couvillier and bait him into a fake duel that could serve as cover for a more personally motivated slaying. Initially reluctant to investigate further, January gets roped into the case anyway. As always, Hambly fully immerses readers in her humid historical setting, and January proves an astute, empathetic sleuth. This long-running series shows no signs of slowing down. Agent: Sarah Yake, Frances Collin Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

The tepid latest standalone from bestseller Berry (after The Atlas Maneuver) is a paint-by-numbers legal thriller. Attorney Brent Walker has returned to Concord, Ga., to work as assistant general counsel for Southern Republic, the paper manufacturer where his late father worked as a machinist. What Walker doesn’t know is that Southern Republic’s three partners have spent years limiting expenses by hiring hit men to assassinate employees who run up sizable medical expenses on the company’s insurance policies—and Walker’s father was one such victim. Things take a turn when Hank Reed, head of the union representing most Southern Republic workers, stumbles across a coded document while preparing for a round of labor negotiations. He brings the code to Walker, who cracks it, revealing the Social Security numbers of the company’s victims and setting him on a path to unraveling the scheme with help from one of Southern Republic’s guilt-ridden partners. Far-fetched contrivances and a lack of surprises mar this from the get-go. Even the author’s devoted fans are likely to find this rough going. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Pavesi (The Eighth Detective) impresses with this head-spinning meta-mystery. In 1999, antiques dealer Anatol invites five close friends to celebrate his 30th birthday at his family estate in Witshire. The festivities revolve around a parlor game Anatol has devised called Motive Method Death. Participants draw two names—that of a victim and that of a murderer—from martini glasses, then dream up one another’s deaths in the form of short stories or lurid sketches. Pavesi ups the ante by refusing to differentiate between rounds of Motive Method Death and real life, leaving readers to wonder, for long stretches, about the veracity of a fatal fire or a gruesome car accident or an impalement on a sundial. Meanwhile, the author probes the backstories of Anatol and his “friends,” unearthing incidents of blackmail, backstabbing, and attempted murde. Early on, Anatol acknowledges that his game owes a debt to Agatha Christie’s remote-location classics and the gothic spirit of Shirley Jackson; the novel does justice to the comparisons. With shrewd plotting and a bewitching atmosphere, Pavesi ensures that fans of Anthony Horowitz will delight in staying one step ahead of his befuddled characters. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

A Cinderella Story screenwriter Dunlap debuts with a dishy tale of death and betrayal in the Deep South. In the wealthy Atlanta suburb of Buckhead, Ga., wolfishly charming youth baseball coach and financial adviser Anderson Tupper is found beaten to death in a dugout. Homicide detective LaShay Claypool takes the case, but her efforts are immediately stonewalled by the “Buckhead Betties”: cutthroat baseball moms who seem intent on scrambling the detective’s signals. Among them are lawyer Venita Wiley, femme fatale Sutton Chambers, and YA author Kira Brooks. Gradually, Claypool peels back Buckhead’s many layers, revealing that Anderson mismanaged both his own fortune and the assets of others before his death, that each member of his team had a complicated home life, and that tragedy lies just beneath the surface of the most fearsome Betties’ glittering lives. Dunlap’s gleefully exaggerated characters are a little bit Desperate Housewives, a little bit Jacqueline Susann, and the delicious whiff of camp carries Claypool’s investigation through to its truly surprising conclusion. This is a hoot. Agent: Lesley Sabga, Seymour Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Wilson’s disquieting debut, 18-year-old Chloe Hughes gets off to a bumpy start at Dern University when her snobbish roommates bully her for her northern English accent. Her fortune changes when she returns a lost scarf to fellow student Clara Holland. Clara, the daughter of fashion moguls, is an influencer and model who throws lavish parties at her family’s estate. As a thank-you for the scarf, Clara invites Chloe to one such party; from there, their friendship intensifies, and Clara soon asks Chloe to live with her. Together, they plan increasingly extravagant gatherings, to which Clara invites several of her adoring fans. When Vanessa, one of Chloe’s former roommates, apologizes for bullying her, Chloe responds by inviting her to a New Year’s Eve party. Then Vanessa disappears, and Clara begins inviting more girls to live on her estate, where she subjects them to cultlike rules (“No prioritizing outside friends or family over the group”) that make Chloe increasingly uncomfortable. Wilson’s prose is moody and elegant (“I missed lounging in the orangery, the warm dirt and citrus scent of it, the mildewed cushion soft beneath my back”), but she never offers a convincing reason why Chloe would continue her friendship with the increasingly erratic Clara. Still, fans of slow-burn thrillers will find plenty here to admire. Agent: Chloe Seager, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Noonan’s meandering second adventure for puzzle-obsessed 65-year-old Oregon librarian Alice Pepper (after Puzzle Me a Murder) suffers from jagged pacing. When former action film star Michelle Chong—now the middle-aged proprietor of a martial arts and dance studio in West Hazel, Ore.—disappears, her husband, temperamental artist Lars Olsen, tells police his wife must have been kidnapped. Alice, meanwhile, finds Lars’s behavior suspicious: he displays little grief over Michelle’s disappearance, and instead exploits the situation to boost publicity for his latest paintings. She decides to investigate with the help of her many friends, including wig retailer Ruby Milliner and senior center manager Stone Donahue. Also joining the hunt is Alice’s sister, Violet, who sincerely believes she has psychic abilities, and her granddaughter, Madison, a rookie cop on the West Hazel force. The crew’s initially breezy investigation takes a dark turn when someone connected to the case turns up dead. Noonan’s rambling plot trips over false leads, red herrings, and interpersonal dramas until it arrives at an unremarkable resolution. This misses the mark. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Gervais’s overlong sequel to The Elias Network, DCS operator Caspian Anderson is on an unsanctioned assassination mission in Nairobi, Kenya, when he thinks he sees his girlfriend, German spy Liesel, on the back of a motorbike. Caspian knows Liesel is supposed to be at home, but he can’t ask her about it, because he told her he was going on a diving trip. Then Caspian’s parents are taken into custody by ATF agents shortly after they dine with him and Liesel, and he realizes something is seriously amiss. Meanwhile, an enemy from Caspian’s past targets Frank LaBelle, CEO of an American space company due to be sold to one of the country’s leading aerospace and defense manufacturers. Gervais churns through a lot of tedious backstory before a strained coincidence links his two main story threads and the plot finally comes to a boil. As in other Gervais novels, the action is the main draw, and the author’s crisp, bone-snapping prose does manage to get the blood pumping. Most readers, however, will wish he spent less time setting things up and more time letting his characters do what they do best: chase, catch, and kill. Agent: Eric Myers, Myers Literary Management. (July)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink