I’m posting this selective list of the coming season’s new crime, mystery, and thriller works rather later than I had hoped. My original intention was to finish it prior to Christmas, but that turned out to be a forlorn wish. There was simply too much end-of-the-year news to report, and too many
“best books of 2023” picks to mention.
From my perspective, though, assembling this piece for the blog was a breeze compared with the challenges I faced the last time I tried putting together such a quarterly compilation of releases.
You should know that creating these catalogues of anticipated attractions requires I begin amassing information about books well in advance of their reaching shelves. I spend considerable time each week reading about the genre, and whenever I come across word of a forthcoming new book, I make a note of it or bookmark the date of its debut in my computer. So by the time I sit down to compose one of these lengthy lists, I already have a solid grounding of potential recommendations from which to choose. I then build that out, drawing on editorial sources such as CrimeReads, Stop, You’re Killing Me!, Euro Crime, and Shotsmag Confidential, and retail Web sites on the order of Blackwell’s and Goldsboro Books, both based in the UK, and—finally—Amazon, which (despite its inimical impact on independent bookshops) is a useful register of titles nearing print.
Ideally, this process runs predictably and smoothly. Last summer, however, as I was preparing to construct The Rap Sheet’s inventory of new books expected during the concluding four months of 2023, I accidentally deleted from my desktop computer all of the information about imminent publications. You can only imagine what shock I felt as I stared at my screen, bewildered by the disappearance of months worth of research, and knowing I had precious little time to re-create those files before leaving for
Bouchercon in San Diego. If I screamed or tore my graying hair out over the situation, I have no memory of it.
My recollection is that, instead, I took a few (well, perhaps more than a few) deep breaths and dove into reconstituting the results of my previous labors.
By the time I was done, I’d accumulated
more than 400 different crime, mystery, and thriller works worth buying for oneself or giving as holiday presents.
For the initial three months of 2024, I’ve identified—below—roughly the same quantity of new crime-fiction works, all deserving of particular notice. My only qualifications were that the books had to appear in English, and be available in either the United States or Great Britain. There’s something here for most fans of this diverse field, I believe. You’ll find fresh fiction from Thomas Perry, Elly Griffiths, Duane Swierczynski, Tana French, Robert Littell, Stacy Willingham, Chris Hammer, S.J. Bennett, Terry Hayes, Louise Welsh, Alex Michaelides, Lynda La Plante, Jim Fusilli, B.A. Paris, Charles Todd, Laurie R. King, Gerald Seymour, Abigail Dean, R.J. Ellory, Dervla McTiernan, Lee Goldberg, Sulari Gentill, Derek B. Miller, Jane Casey, and many others.
Argylle, the novel on which an
espionage-comedy film of the same name (premiering February 2) is based, is just out from “Elly Conway,” which may or may not be a pseudonym for singer-songwriter and political activist
Taylor Swift. British author Simon Mason has a third entry in his excellent Ray Wilkins/Ryan Wilkins police procedural series,
Lost and Never Found, ready to roll out next week. Mariah Fredericks, having at least briefly left behind her Gilded Age-era lady’s maid-cum-sleuth, Jane Prescott, follows up her Agatha Award-nominated
The Lindbergh Nanny with
The Wharton Plot, enlisting real-life writer
Edith Wharton in pursuit of whoever murdered a fellow (but significantly less beloved) scribbler on the steps of his swank Manhattan club. Also arriving this month is
Where You End, about twin sisters, lost memories, and threatening shadows from the past, penned by Abbott Kahler, whose last book—published under the byline “Karen Abbott”—was the 2019 non-fiction yarn
The Ghosts of Eden Park.
Waiting in the wings is
End of Story, by A.J. Finn (
The Woman in the Window), which asks whether a “perfect” crime writer might have committed a “perfect crime.” In
Village in the Dark, her sequel to last year’s stunning
City Under One Roof, Iris Yamashita has Alaska Detective Cara Kennedy questioning whether her husband and young son perished accidentally ... or were victims of gang violence. Amanda Jayatissa’s
Island Witch propels us back into 19th-century Sri Lanka, where we find the daughter of a “demon-priest” trying to solve killings among coastal villagers—and clear her father of suspicion in the bargain. I’m still hoping Thomas Mullen will return to his captivating series about Black cops in 1950s Georgia (
Darktown), but in the meantime he delivers a spirited new thriller,
The Rumor Game, that imagines a fact-check-focused newspaper reporter in World War II-era Boston struggling to untangle a puzzle that links domestic fascism and propaganda with the expiry of a factory worker. Watch, too, in February for
Owning Up, a short anthology comprising four novellas by George Pelecanos, and
Under the Storm, Swedish crime-fictionist Christoffer Carlsson’s follow-up to
Blaze Me a Sun.
If all of those don’t satisfy, you can look forward as well to David Downing’s eighth John Russell/World War II spy novel,
Union Station; Icelandic writer Óskar Guðmundsson’s dark noir tale,
The Dancer, built around the psychological and criminal consequences of child abuse; E.S Thomson’s latest case for Victorian-era London apothecary Jem Flockhart,
Under Ground (released last fall in the UK);
Death Comes Too Late,
a collection of 20 more-or-less-hard-boiled short stories by Charles Ardai, founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, released to commemorate his imprint’s 20th anniversary; Amanda Flower’s
To Slip the Bounds of Earth, which places Katharine Wright, the teacher/suffragette sister of pioneering aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright, in the unexpected role of investigator after her siblings’ flying machine goes missing;
Murder at the College Library, by Con Lehane, which tasks Raymond Ambler, the crime-fiction curator at New York City’s 42nd Street Library, with making sense of a slaying supposedly perpetrated by an old friend and colleague; Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov’s
The Silver Bone, an outstanding mystery set in 1919 Kyiv and introducing rookie detective Samson Kolechko; and
The Last Murder at the End of the World, a post-apocalyptic whodunit about people whose safety on a remote island is dangerously unsettled by homicide in their midst, composed by Stuart Turton (
The Devil and the Dark Water).
I think of the following record of January-March 2024 releases as the start, not the end of my efforts to appraise this genre’s most compelling new additions. Have little doubt that I shall expand it as the weeks go on and I learn of further alluring options. If you are already familiar with other books I should have included here, but did not, please
drop me an e-mail note with that information.
Per my usual practice, books I’ve marked with an asterisk (*) are non-fiction, while the rest are novels or treasuries of short stories.
JANUARY (U.S.):
•
Agent 355, by Marie Benedict (Open Road Media)
•
The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free, by Gregg Olsen (Thomas & Mercer)*
•
Anna O, by Matthew Blake (Harper)
•
Argylle, by Elly Conway (Bantam)
•
The Ascent, by Adam Plantinga (Grand Central)
•
The Beaver Theory, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
•
Before the Dawn, by D.S. Butler (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Blizzard, by Marie Vingtras (Overlook Press)
•
A Body at the Séance, by Marty Wingate (Bookouture)
•
The Body in the Bed / The Body Beautiful, by Bill S. Ballinger
(Stark House Press)
•
A Body on the Doorstep, by Marty Wingate (Bookouture)
•
Broadcast Blues, by R.G. Belsky (Oceanview)
•
The Bulldog Detective: William J. Flynn and America's First War against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists, by Jeffrey D. Simon (Prometheus)*
•
Bull’s Eye, by Shannon Baker (Severn River)
•
The Busy Body, by Kemper Donovan (John Scognamiglio)
•
The Butler Died in Brooklyn / Murder Runs a Fever, by Ruth Fenisong (Stark House Press)
•
California Bear, by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)
•
The Cleaner, by Brandi Wells (Hanover Square Press)
•
The Clinic, by Cate Quinn (Sourcebooks Landmark)
•
Crimeucopia: Say It Again (Murderous Ink Press)
•
The Curse of Pietro Houdini, by Derek B. Miller (Avid Reader Press)
•
The Dark Corner / Sleep My Love, by Leo Rosten (Stark House Press)
•
Dark Ride, by James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn
(Independently published)
•
Deadly to the Core, by Joyce Tremel (Crooked Lane)
•
Dead Man’s Hand, by Brad Taylor (Morrow)
•
Death at a Scottish Wedding, by Lucy Connelly (Crooked Lane)
•
The Deceiving Look, by Victor Methos (Thomas & Mercer)
•
The Deepest Kill, by Lisa Black (Kensington)
•
Deep Freeze, by Michael C. Grumley (Forge)
•
The Devil’s Daughter, by Gordon Greisman (Blackstone)
•
Dream Town, by Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Easter Basket Murder, by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross (Kensington Cozies)
•
The Escape, by Ruth Kelly (Pan)
•
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, by Benjamin
Stevenson (Mariner)
•
The Expectant Detectives, by Kat Ailes (Minotaur)
•
Firetrap, by Otho Eskin (Oceanview)
•
First Lie Wins, by Ashley Elston (Pamela Dorman)
•
Friday Harbor, by D.C. Alexander (Acheron)
•
Front Sight, by Stephen Hunter (Atria/Emily Bestler)
•
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice, by Elizabeth
Flock (Harper)*
•
The Fury, by Alex Michaelides (Celadon)
•
The Fury of Beijing, by Ian Hamilton (Spiderline)
•
The Glass Box, by J. Michael Straczynski (Blackstone)
•
The Glass Woman, by Alice McIlroy (Datura)
•
Goodbye Girl, by James Grippando (Harper)
•
The Guests, by Margot Hunt (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Halifax: Resurrection, by Roger Simpson (Blackstone)
•
Harbor Lights, by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press)
•
The Heiress, by Rachel Hawkins (St. Martin’s Press)
•
Hero, by Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press)
•
Holmes, Marple and Poe, by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (Little, Brown)
•
Ilium, by Lea Carpenter (Knopf)
•
Invisible Woman, by Katia Lief (Atlantic Monthly Press)
•
The Kelsey Outrage, by Alison Louise Hubbard (Black Rose)
•
A Killing in November, by Simon
Mason (Quercus)
•
The Lies You Wrote, by Brianna Labuskes (Thomas & Mercer)
•
The Lost Van Gogh, by Jonathan Santlofer (Sourcebooks Landmark)
•
Man-Killer, by Lawrence Kelter (Black Rose)
•
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge, by Lizzie Pook (Simon & Schuster)
•
Midnight, by Amy McCulloch (Doubleday)
•
The Missing Witness, by Allison Brennan (Mira)
•
The Morning Show Murders, by Al Roker and Dick Lochte (Blackstone)
•
The Mountain King, by Anders de la Motte (Atria/Emily Bestler)
•
Murder Beyond the Pale, by Wendy Church (Polis)
•
Murder in Transit, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)
•
My Favorite Scar, by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Crime)
•
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, by Janice Hallett (Atria)
•
Necessary Deeds, by Mark Wish (Regal House)
•
A Night at the Shore, by Tony Knighton (Brash)
•
The Night of the Storm, by Nishita Parekh (Dutton)
•
No One Can Know, by Kate Alice Marshall (Flatiron)
•
Northwoods, by Amy Pease (Atria/Emily Bestler)
•
The Nubian’s Curse, by Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
•
Obey All Laws, by Cindy Goyette (Level Best)
•
Of Hoaxes and Homicides, by Anastasia Hastings (Minotaur)
•
One of the Good Guys, by Araminta Hall (Gillian Flynn)
•
Only If You’re Lucky, by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)
•
The Paris Mistress, by Mally Becker (Level Best)
•
The Pike Boys, by Danny Cheery Jr. (Big Easy Press)
•
The Price You Pay, by Jim Fusilli (Down & Out)
•
The Problem of the Wire Cage, by John Dickson Carr (Penzler/American Mystery Classics)
•
Rabbit Hole, by Kate Brody (Soho Crime)
•
Radiant Heat, by Sarah-Jane Collins (Berkley)
•
Searching for Patty Hearst: A True Crime Novel, by Roger D. Rapoport (Lexographic Press)
•
The Search Party, by Hannah Richell (Atria)
•
The Sign of Four Spirits, by Vicky Delany (Crooked Lane)
•
The Silence in Her Eyes, by Armando Lucas Correa (Atria)
•
A Song for the Dead, by D.K. Hood (Bookouture)
•
The Son’s Secret, by Daryl Wood Gerber (Severn House)
•
A Soul for a Soul, by Carol Wyer (Thomas & Mercer)
•
The Storm We Made, by Vanessa Chan (S&S/Marysue Rucci)
•
A Taste of Blood, by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)
•
This Plague of Souls, by Mike McCormack (Soho Press)
•
Thunderball, by Ian Fleming (Morrow Paperbacks)
•
The Truth About the Accident, by Nicole Trope (Grand Central)
•
Twenty-Seven Minutes, by Ashley Tate (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
The Twilight Queen, by Jeri Westerson (Severn House)
•
The Washing Away of Wrongs, by G.M. Malliet (Constable & Robinson)
•
The Wharton Plot, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
•
What Mother Won’t Tell Me, by Ivar Leon Menger (Poisoned
Pen Press)
•
Where the Body Was, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
(Image Comics)
•
Where You End, by Abbott Kahler (Henry Holt)
•
Who’s Watching the Children? by Carren Strock (Gray Rabbit)
•
Who to Believe, by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
•
The Woman on the Ledge, by Ruth Mancini (Harper)
JANUARY (UK):
•
The Accident, by L.H. Stacey (Boldwood)
•
The Actor, by Chris MacDonald (Michael Joseph)
•
The Beholders, by Hester Musson (Fourth Estate)
•
The Best Revenge, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
•
Blotto, Twinks, and the Phantom Skiers, by Simon Brett (Constable)
•
Cover the Bones, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)
•
Death on the Lusitania, by R.L. Graham (Macmillan)
•
Directions for Dark Things, by Stephanie Sowden (Canelo)
•
The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, by Antony Johnston
(Allison & Busby)
•
The Excitements, by C.J. Wray (Orion)
•
Farewell Dinner for a Spy, by Edward Wilson (Arcadia)
•
The Favourite, by Rosemary Hennigan (Orion)
•
Fear Stalks the Village, by Ethel Lina White (British Library)
•
The Girl in Room 12, by Kathryn Croft (Bookouture)
•
The Girl in Seat 2A, by Diana Wilkinson (Boldwood)
•
The Grief House, by Rebecca Thorne (Raven)
•
The Guests, by Agnes Ravatn (Orenda)
•
A Guilty Secret, by Philippa East (HQ)
•
Halfway House, by Helen FitzGerald (Orenda)
•
Harlequin Butterfly, by Toh EnJoe
(Pushkin Press)
•
Helle & Death, by Oskar Jensen (Viper)
•
Here in the Dark, by Alexis Soloski (Raven)
•
House Woman, by Adorah Nworah
(Borough Press)
•
The Knowing, by Emma Hinds
(Bedford Square)
•
The Last Word, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
•
Laying Out the Bones, by Kate Webb (Quercus)
•
Life Inside: The Hard Reality of Prison and What It Takes to Survive, by Linda Calvey (Welbeck)*
•
The Longest Goodbye, by Mari Hannah (Orion)
•
Lost and Never Found, by Simon Mason (Riverrun)
•
The Lover of No Fixed Abode, by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini (Bitter Lemon Press)
•
Miss Austen Investigates, by Jessica Bull (Michael Joseph)
•
Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Gondola of Doom, by Olga
Wojtas (Saraband)
•
Moscow X, by David McCloskey (Swift Press)
•
Munich Wolf, by Rory Clements (Zaffre)
•
Murder by Candlelight, by Faith Martin (HQ Digital)
•
Murder on Lake Garda, by Tom Hindle (Century)
•
Poppy Takes the Lead, by Leigh Russell (Crime & Mystery Club)
•
The Queen of Poisons, by Robert Thorogood (HQ)
•
The Reckoning, by Martina Murphy (Constable)
•
The Spy Coast, by Tess Gerritsen (Bantam)
•
Taken, by Dinuka McKenzie (Canelo)
•
The Teacher, by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus/Aries)
•
Thorn in My Side, by C.J. Skuse (HQ Digital)
•
Three Little Birds, by Sam Blake (Corvus)
•
To the Dogs, by Louise Welsh (Canongate)
•
The Trials of Marjorie Crowe, by C.S. Robertson
(Hodder & Stoughton)
•
Unburied, by Heather Critchlow (Canelo)
•
What Goes Around, by Jen Faulkner (Bloodhound)
•
The Wizard of the Kremlin, by Giuliano da Empoli (Pushkin Press)
FEBRUARY (U.S.):
•
Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards, by Tony Lee Moral (Titan)*
•
Almost Surely Dead, by Amina Akhtar (Mindy’s Book Studio)
•
The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, by C.L. Miller (Atria)
•
At Any Cost, by Jeffrey Siger (Severn House)
•
The Atlas Maneuver, by Steve Berry (Grand Central)
•
At the River, by Kendra Elliot (Montlake)
•
The Bad Weather Friend, by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer)
•
The Best of Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc (Vintage)
•
The Bezzle, by Cory Doctorow (Tor)
•
The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age, by Michael Wolraich (Union Square)*
•
The Boy Who Cried Bear, by Kelley Armstrong (Minotaur)
•
Cahokia Jazz, by Francis Spufford (Scribner)
•
The Chaos Agent, by Mark Greaney (Berkley)
•
The Cliff’s Edge, by Charles Todd (Morrow)
•
Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder, by Amelie Hastie
(Duke University Press)*
•
The County Line, by Steve Weddle (Lake Union)
•
Cult Trip: Inside the World of Coercion & Control, by Anke Richter (HarperCollins)*
•
Dark Arena, by Jack Beaumont (Blackstone)
•
Death in Hilo, by Eric Redman (Crooked Lane)
•
Death of a Spy, by M.C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Grand Central)
•
The Diabolical, by David Putnam (Oceanview)
•
End of Story, by A.J. Finn (Morrow)
•
The Essential Harlem Detectives: A Rage in Harlem / The Real Cool Killers / The Crazy Kill / Cotton Comes to Harlem, by Chester Himes (Everyman’s Library)
•
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead, by Jenny Hollander (Minotaur)
•
Fatal First Edition, by Jenn McKinlay (Berkley)
•
Final Appeal, by Remigiusz Mróz (Crooked Lane)
•
The Floods of Fear, by John and Ward Hawkins (Black Gat)
•
The Fortune Seller, by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (St. Martin’s Press)
•
The Framed Women of Ardemore House, by Brandy Schillace (Hanover Square Press)
•
Ghost Island, by Max Seeck (Berkley)
•
The Ghost Orchid, by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine)
•
The Guest, by B.A. Paris (St. Martin’s Press)
•
Hard Girls, by J. Robert Lennon (Mulholland)
•
A Haunting in the Arctic, by C.J. Cooke (Berkley)
•
Hollywood Hustle, by Jon Lindstrom (Crooked Lane)
•
The Holy Terrors, by Simon R. Green (Severn House)
•
Hurt for Me, by Heather Levy (Montlake)
•
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka
Older (Tordotcom)
•
I Only Read Murder, by Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson (Mira)
•
Island Witch, by Amanda Jayatissa (Berkley)
•
Keep Your Friends Close, by Leah Konen (Putnam)
•
King Nyx, by Kirsten Bakis (Liveright)
•
The Lantern’s Dance, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
•
Last Night, by Luanne Rice (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Last Seen in Havana, by Teresa Dovalpage (Soho Crime)
•
Leave No Trace, by A.J. Landau (Minotaur)
•
Lethal Vengeance, by Robert Bryndza (Raven Street)
•
Lone Wolf, by Gregg Hurwitz (Minotaur)
•
McKee of Centre Street, by Helen Reilly (Penzler/American Mystery Classics)
•
Murder by Lamplight, by Patrice McDonough (Kensington)
•
A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime, by Casey Sherman (Sourcebooks)*
•
Murder in Masquerade, by Mary
Winters (Berkley)
•
The Museum Heist: A Mystery Agency Puzzle Book, by Henry Lewis (Mobius)
•
My Name Was Eden, by Eleanor Barker-White (Morrow)
•
Nightwatching, by Tracy Sierra (Pamela Dorman)
•
Nobody’s Angel, by Jack Clark (Hard Case Crime)
•
No One Dies Yet, by Kobby Ben Ben (Europa Editions)
•
Nowhere Like Home, by Sara Shepard (Dutton)
•
Once Upon a Murder, by Samantha Larsen (Crooked Lane)
•
One Wrong Word, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)
•
Ordinary Human Failings, by Megan Nolan (Little, Brown)
•
Original Sins, by Erin Young (Flatiron)
•
Owning Up, by George Pelecanos (Mulholland)
•
Paper Cage, by Tom Baragwanath (Knopf)
•
Past Crimes, by Jason Pinter (Severn House)
•
The Phalanx Code, by A.J. Tata (St. Martin’s Press)
•
The Phoenix Crown, by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (Morrow)
•
A Plague on Both Your Houses, by Robert Littell (Blackstone)
•
The Price You Pay, by Nick Petrie (Putnam)
•
Queens of London, by Heather Webb (Sourcebooks Landmark)
•
The Resort, by Sara Ochs (Sourcebooks Landmark)
•
The Rumor Game, by Thomas Mullen (Minotaur)
•
Silent Came the Monster, by Amy Hill Hearth (Blackstone)
•
The Smoke in Our Eyes, by James Grady (Pegasus Crime)
•
Smoke Kings, by Jahmal Mayfield (Melville House)
•
The Split, by Kit Frick (Atria/Emily Bestler)
•
Spy Hunter, by H.B. Lyle (Mobius)
•
The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming (Morrow Paperbacks)
•
A Step Past Darkness, by Vera Kurian (Park Row)
•
Stigma, by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger (Orenda)
•
The Stranger in the Asylum, by Alys Clare (Severn House)
•
The Stranger in the House, by John Marrs (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York, by Barbara Weisberg (Norton)*
•
The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)
•
The Teacher, by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
Three-Inch Teeth, by C.J. Box (Putnam)
•
The Tigress / The Exotic / Angel! by Carter Brown
(Stark House Press)
•
Under the Storm, by Christoffer Carlsson (Hogarth)
•
Union Station, by David Downing (Soho Crime)
•
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells, by Rebecca Rego Barry
(Post Hill Press)*
•
A Vigil of Spies, by Candace Robb (Severn House)
•
Village in the Dark, by Iris Yamashita (Berkley)
•
Watch Her Run, by Paula Lennon (Wildfire)
•
The Wedding Party, by L.R. Jones (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Whale Fjord, by Michael Ridpath (Yarmer Head)
•
What Is Mine, by Lyn Liao Butler (Thomas & Mercer)
•
What We Buried, by Robert Rotenberg (Simon & Schuster)
•
When She Left, by E.A. Aymar (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Where They Lie, by Claire Coughlan (Harper Perennial)
•
The Woman Who Lowered the Boom, by David Handler
(Mysterious Press)
•
The Year of the Locust, by Terry Hayes (Atria/Emily Bestler)
FEBRUARY (UK):
•
The Borrowdale Body, by Rebecca Tope (Allison & Busby)
•
The Dancer, by Óskar Guðmundsson (Corylus)
•
Dead Heat, by Jessie Keane (Hodder & Stoughton)
•
Deadly Animals, by Marie Tierney (Zaffre)
•
Death at Lovers’ Leap, by Catherine Coles (Boldwood)
•
A Death in Chelsea, by H.L. Marsay (Tule)
•
A Death in Diamonds, by S.J. Bennett (Zaffre)
•
Deep Harbour, by Tove Alsterdal (Faber and Faber)
•
The Dream Home, by T.M. Logan (Zaffre)
•
The Escape Room, by L.D. Smithson (Bantam)
•
Every Smile You Fake, by Dorothy Koomson (Headline Review)
•
For Our Sins, by James Oswald (Wildfire)
•
The Fox Wife, by Yangsze Choo (Quercus)
•
The Gathering Storm, by Lynne McEwan (Canelo)
•
The Girl in the Smoke, by Matt Hilton (Severn House)
•
A Grave for a Thief, by Douglas Skelton (Canelo)
•
The Holiday, by John Nicholl (Boldwood)
•
Impact of Evidence, by Carol Carnac (British Library)
•
In Her Shadow, by Emma Christie (Welbeck)
•
Jericho’s Dead, by William Hussey (Zaffre)
•
Knife Skills for Beginners, by Orlando Murrin (Bantam)
•
The Lagos Wife, by Vanessa Walters (Hutchinson Heinemann)
•
The Last Reich, by Brian Klein (Spirit Entertainment)
•
Last Seen, by Anna Smith (Quercus)
•
The Lesson, by James Craig (Constable)
•
The List of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey (Hutchinson Heinemann)
•
Mayday, by Grethe Bøe (Mountain
Leopard Press)
•
The Murder After the Night Before, by Katy Brent (HQ Digital)
•
Murder at the Leaning Tower, by T.A. Williams (Boldwood)
•
Murder in the Library, by Anita
Davidson (Boldwood)
•
A Nye of Phesants, by Steve Burrows (Point Blank)
•
The Other Fiancé, by Ali Blood (Avon)
•
The Perfect Parents, by J.A. Baker (Boldwood)
•
Red Menace, by Joe Thomas (Arcadia)
•
The School Run, by Ali Lowe (Hodder & Stoughton)
•
The Shadow Network, by Tony Kent (Elliott & Thompson)
•
The Sister Queens, by Justin Scott (Severn House)
•
The Sleeping Beauties, by Lucy Ashe (Magpie)
•
The Spider, by Lars Kepler (Zaffre)
•
The Summer of Lies, by Louise Douglas (Boldwood)
•
Too Many Cooks, by Rosemary Shrager (Constable)
•
The Trials of Lila Dalton, by L.J. Shepherd (Pushkin Vertigo)
•
True Crime, by Georgina Lees (One More Chapter)
•
The Winter Visitor, by James Henry (Riverrun)
MARCH (U.S.):
•
The Admirable Physician, by Sarah Woodbury
(Independently published)
•
The Babylon Plot, by David Leadbeater (Avon)
•
Baby X, by Kira Peikoff (Crooked Lane)
•
The Berlin Letters, by Katherine Reay (Harper Muse)
•
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband, by Alexia Casale (Penguin)
•
Big Time, by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland)
•
Black Wolf, by Juan Gómez-Jurado (Minotaur)
•
Blessed Water, by Margot Douaihy (Gillian Flynn)
•
Bye, Baby, by Carola Lovering (St. Martin’s Press)
•
Cape Rage, by Ron Corbett (Berkley)
•
The Cat Wears a Noose, by Dolores Hitchens (Penzler/
American Mystery Classics)
•
Cheater, by Karen Rose (Berkley)
•
Circles of Death, by Marcia Talley (Severn House)
•
Cirque du Slay, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)
•
Committed, by Chris Merritt (Wildfire)
•
Dark Dive, by Andrew Mayne (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Day One, by Abigail Dean (Viking)
•
A Deadly Endeavor, by Jenny Adams (Crooked Lane)
•
The Dead Years, by Jeffrey B. Burton (Severn House)
•
Death and Fromage, by Ian Moore (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
Death Comes Too Late, by Charles Ardai (Hard Case Crime)
•
Deliver Me, by Malin Persson Giolito (Other Press)
•
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport, by Paulette Kennedy (Lake Union)
•
Don’t Forget Me, by Rea Frey (Thomas & Mercer)
•
The Dredge, by Brendan Flaherty (Atlantic Monthly Press)
•
The Esmeralda Goodbye, by Corey Lynn Fayman (Konstellation Press)
•
Everyone Is Watching, by Heather Gudenkauf (Park Row)
•
Every Single Secret, by Christina Dodd (Canary Street Press)
•
The Extinction of Irena Rey, by Jennifer Croft (Bloomsbury)
•
The Far Side of the Desert, by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (Oceanview)
•
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, by Elle Cosimano (Minotaur)
•
A Friend in the Dark, by Samantha M. Bailey (Thomas & Mercer)
•
Galway Confidential, by Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press)
•
Geisha Confidential, by Mark Coggins (Down & Out)
•
Good Half Gone, by Tarryn Fisher (Graydon House)
•
The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties, by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley)
•
A Grave Robbery, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
•
Hanging with Hugo, by Katherine Bolger Hyde (Severn House)
•
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (Morrow)
•
The House on Rye Lane, by Susan Allott (Borough Press)
•
How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin (Dutton)
•
The Hunter, by Tana French (Viking)
•
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harper)*
•
The Inmate, by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
The Innocents, by Bridget Walsh (Gallic)
•
In Sunshine or in Shadow, by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles (Minotaur)
•
In the Fog, by Richard Harding Davis (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
Kill for Me, Kill for You, by Steve Cavanagh (Atria)
•
Kingpin, by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
•
Knife Skills, by Wendy Church (Severn House)
•
The Last Verse, by Caroline Frost (Morrow)
•
Like It Never Happened, by Jeff Hoffman (Crooked Lane)
•
Lilith, by Eric Rickstad (Blackstone)
•
Listen for the Lie, by Amy Tintera (Celadon)
•
Lost Man’s Lane, by Scott Carson (Atria/Emily Bestler)
•
A Man Downstairs, by Nicole Lundrigan (Viking)
•
A Midnight Puzzle, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)
•
Murder and the Missing Dog, by Susan C. Shea (Severn House)
•
Murder at la Villette, by Cara Black (Soho Crime)
•
Murder at the College Library, by Con Lehane (Severn House)
•
Murder Road, by Simone St. James (Berkley)
•
The Mystery Writer, by Sulari Gentill (Poisoned Pen Press)
•
The New Couple in 5B, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)
•
The #1 Lawyer, by James Patterson and Nancy Allen (Little, Brown)
•
Off the Air, by Christina Estes (Minotaur)
•
One in the Chamber, by Robin Peguero (Grand Central)
•
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, by Ian Fleming (Morrow Paperbacks)
•
Perfect Opportunity, by Steven F. Havill (Severn House)
•
Peril in Pink, by Sydney Leigh (Crooked Lane)
•
Pierce, by Patrick B. Simpson (Apprentice House)
•
Point of Order, by Michael Ponsor (Open Road Media)
•
Point Zero, by Seichō Matsumoto (Bitter Lemon Press)
•
The Princess of Las Vegas, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday)
•
Rainbow Black, by Maggie Thrash (Harper)
•
The Road to Murder, by Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Crime)
•
The Scream of Sins, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)
•
Secrets of a Scottish Isle, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
•
Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Gray, by Christian Klaver (Titan)
•
The Silence, by Mary McGarry Morris (Open Road Media)
•
The Silver Bone, by Andrey Kurkov (HarperVia)
•
Sleeping Giants, by Rene Denfeld (Harper)
•
The Stars Turned Inside Out, by Nova Jacobs (Atria)
•
Still See You Everywhere, by Lisa Gardner (Grand Central)
•
Street Fight: The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s, by Anne
Morrissy (Lyons Press)*
•
Such a Lovely Family, by Aggie Blum Thompson (Forge)
•
Suspicious Activity, by Mike Papantonio and Christopher
Paulos (Arcade)
•
To Slip the Bonds of Earth, by Amanda Flower (Kensington)
•
The Truth About the Devlins, by Lisa Scottoline (Putnam)
•
Twice the Trouble, by Ash Clifton (Crooked Lane)
•
Under Ground, by E.S. Thomson (Constable & Robinson)
•
The Unquiet Bones, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)
•
The Vinyl Detective: Noise Floor, by Andrew Cartmel (Titan)
•
Watch Where They Hide, by Tamron Hall (Morrow)
•
What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan (Morrow)
•
Wild Houses, by Colin Barrett
(Grove Press)
•
Women of Good Fortune, by Sophie Wan (Graydon House)
•
You’d Look Better as a Ghost, by Joanna Wallace (Penguin)
MARCH (UK):
•
The Assassin, by Tom Fletcher (Canelo)
•
The Bell Tower, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)
•
The Birthday Weekend, by Zöe Miller (Hachette Ireland)
•
Blood Roses, by Douglas Jackson (Canelo)
•
Blood Ties, by Verónica E. Llaca (Mountain Leopard Press)
•
The Brothers, by Kimberley Chambers (HarperCollins)
•
Bridges to Burn, by Marion Todd (Canelo)
•
City on Fire, by Graham Bartlett (Allison & Busby)
•
Crow Season, by Suzy Aspley (Orenda)
•
Death on the Thames, by Alan Johnson (Wildfire)
•
The Devil You Know, by Neil Lancaster (HQ Digital)
•
The Exploit, by Daniel Scanlan (Head of Zeus/Aries)
•
Finding Sophie, by Imran Mahmood (Raven)
•
Follow the Butterfly, by Martta Kaukonen (Pushkin Vertigo)
•
Hotel Arcadia, by Sunny Singh (Magpie)
•
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways, by Eve Kelman (Avon)
•
In Her Place, by Edel Coffey (Sphere)
•
The Kellerby Coce, by Jonny Sweet (Faber and Faber)
•
The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
•
Leave No Trace, by Jo Callaghan (imon & Schuster UK)
•
Listen for the Lie, by Amy Tintera (Bantam)
•
Looking Good Dead, by Stephen Puleston (Independently published)
•
The Mind of a Murderer, by Michael Wood (One More Chapter)
•
The Missing Maid, by Holly Hepburn (Boldwood)
•
On the Run, by Max Luther (Canelo)
•
Out of Darkness, by Alex Gray (Sphere)
•
The Red Hollow, by Natalie Marlow (Baskerville)
•
Revenge Killing, by Leigh Russell (Bedford Square)
•
Savage Ridge, by Morgan Greene (Canelo)
•
A Stranger in the Family, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)
•
A Telegram from Le Touquet, by John Bude (British Library)
•
Ten Seconds, by Robert Gold (Sphere)
•
The Trade-Off, by Sandie Jones (Pan)
•
The Translator, by Harriet Crawley (Bitter Lemon Press)
•
Two Sisters, by Alex Kane (Canelo Hera)
•
White Ash Ridge, by S.R. White (Headline)
•
The Widows, by Pascal Engman (Legend Press)
•
The Wrong Sister, by Claire Douglas (Penguin)
You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that I am well into stockpiling particulars about crime, mystery, and thriller works due for publication later in this leap year. There are so many more new books in the pipeline you’ll want to know about, by authors ranging from Anthony Horowitz, S.J. Rozan, Peter May, Bonnie MacBird, Peter Lovesey, and Ruth Ware to Eli Cranor, Shelley Burr, Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane, Anna Lee Huber, and Garry Disher. There will be plenty to say about those as time goes on—provided I don’t lose the relevant computer files beforehand.
fairly hefty titles (notably World’s End, the 1940 opening installment in Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd series, weighing in at 740 pages). But I also started a large number of books that, for one reason or another, I did not finish—something I almost never do. On the plus side, almost half of the books I completed were composed by women.
• E.A. Aymar (No Home for Killers)
that reiterates how feminist struggles, hateful misogynists, and puritanical hypocrites are nothing new in the world. These 10 fact-based titles all rewarded my attention:
