Optimism Drives Spring Reading Picks

President Joe Biden’s speech to a national television audience on Thursday night, during which he declared that all American adults will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines by May 1, and shared his wish that the United States can “mark our independence from this virus” by the Fourth of July, caused me to recall all that I’ve missed over this last year of the pandemic. I have deliberately tried to avoid such thoughts, while hunkering in against the spread of the contagion and trying to remain patient with the state of things.

Before this novel coronavirus struck, I used to enjoy public book events, including Seattle’s annual Independent Bookstore Day. I used to escape my quiet office on a regular basis in order to sit and read in coffee shops. I used to while away otherwise unclaimed hours in second-hand bookstores. I used to take regular walks around a local lake, a book held out in front of me as I trod the paved pathway. I used to go out to breakfast or lunch with friends, and discuss what books we were then tackling. I used to attend conventions such as Bouchercon and, less often, Left Coast Crime. Reading is generally a private enterprise, yet I’m reminded now of how publicly I once exercised my interest in books. The coronavirus has curtailed most such outings, and I am certainly poorer for that fact.

While I continue to wear face masks and maintain proper social distance, and am still waiting for my vaccine jabs, I’m starting to hope that all of these changes are truly temporary, that we can return to a sense of normality again soon. (Much will depend on whether COVID variants become pernicious, and whether premature decisions by states such as Texas and Mississippi to end their mask mandates and fully reopen businesses will again inflame the virus’ spread.) Way back in March of last year, I took advantage of a limited-time discount deal to register for 2021’s Bouchercon in New Orleans, and I continue to hope that the event will come off as planned. (Judging by the current list of attendees, I am not the only one harboring such optimism.) Seattle Independent Bookstore Day, usually held on the last Saturday in April, is unlikely to take place this year, but it’s cheering to know that it might return in 2022. And whenever coffee shops can throw open their doors again to guys who like to sit around and page through books while making their beverages last as long as possible, you can bet I’ll be standing in line for my triple-grande latte.

For the time being, all of us will just have to be satisfied with sequestered reading. Fortunately, there are ample works of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction to keep us occupied this spring. You can look forward to new fiction by Stephen King, Jacqueline Winspear, Peter May, Anne Perry, David Downing, C.L. Taylor, Simon Scarrow, E.S. Thomson, Martin Walker, Nicci French, Ragnar Jónasson, Linda L. Richards, William Shaw, and others, plus reprints of vintage works by the likes of Julian Symons, Dorothy B. Hughes, Tom Ardies, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Donald E. Westlake. Be on the lookout, too, for non-fiction releases of interest to crime-fiction fans, such as Kate Summerscale’s The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story and Shrabani Basu’s The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Case of the Foreigner in the English Village.

Over the last couple of month I’ve searched through multiple catalogues and Web sites of upcoming titles, and have compiled close to 400 works that I think deserve mention, and are being published on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean between now and the end of May. In the finished list—below—books marked with an asterisk (*) are non-fiction; the remainder are novels or short-story collections.

MARCH (U.S.):
• Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World,
by Mark Aldridge (Morrow)*
• The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer, by Liza Rodman
and Jennifer Jordan (Atria)*
• Becoming Inspector Chen, by Qiu Xiaolong (Severn House)
• The Beirut Protocol, by Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale House)
• The Big Chill, by Doug Johnstone (Quercus)
• The Bounty, by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton (Atria)
• By Way of Sorrow, by Robyn Gigl (Kensington)
• Call Me Elizabeth Lark, by Melissa Colasanti (Crooked Lane)
• Castle in the Air, by Donald E. Westlake (Hard Case Crime)
• City of Fallen Angels, by Paul Buchanan (Legend Press)
• The Committed, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press)
• The Conductors, by Nicole Glover (John Joseph Adams/Mariner)
• The Consequences of Fear, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)
• The Cook of the Halcyon, by Andrea Camilleri (Penguin)
• The Darkest Glare: A True Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles, by Chip Jacobs (Rare Bird)*
• The Dark Heart of Florence, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)
• Darkness for Light, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Dark Sky, by C.J. Box (Putnam)
• Dead Space, by Kali Wallace (Berkley)
• Drown Her Sorrows, by Melinda Leigh (Montlake)
• The Eagle and the Viper, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)
• The Eighth Girl, by Maxine Mei-Fung Chun (Morrow)
• Every Last Fear, by Alex Finlay (Minotaur)
• Everything Is Mine, by Ruth Lillegraven (Amazon Crossing)
• Every Vow You Break, by Peter Swanson (Morrow)
• Fallen Angels, by Gunnar Staalesen (Orenda)
• Fatal Intent, by Tammy Euliano (Oceanview)
• A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome, by Emma Southon (Abrams Press)*
• The Foreign Girls, by Sergio Olguín (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Forget Me Not, by Alexandra Oliva (Ballantine)
• Fresh Brewed Murder, by Emmeline Duncan (Kensington)
• Gathering Dark, by Candice Fox (Forge)
• The Girls Are All So Nice Here, by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
(Simon & Schuster)
• Heartbreak Bay, by Rachel Caine (Thomas & Mercer)
• Her Dark Lies, by J.T. Ellison (Mira)
• The Hiding Place, by Paula Munier (Minotaur)
• The House Uptown, by Melissa Ginsburg (Flatiron)
• Infinite, by Brian Freeman (Thomas & Mercer)
• In the Shadow of the Fire, by Hervé Le Corre (Europa Editions)
• The Jigsaw Man, by Nadine Matheson (Hanover Square Press)
• Judas Horse, by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)
• Karolina and the Torn Curtain, by Maryla Szymiczkowa (Mariner)
• Killer Triggers, by Joe Kenda (Blackstone)*
• Kosygin Is Coming, by Tom Ardies (Brash)
• The Lamplighters, by Emma Stonex (Viking)
• Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York, by Elon Green (Celadon)*
• Last Nocturne, by M.J. Trow (Severn House)
• Later, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime)
• Lightseekers, by Femi Kayode (Mulholland)
• Live Fast, Spy Hard, by Max Allan Collins with Matthew V.
Clemens (Wolfpack)
• The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner (Park Row)
• The Lost Village, by Camilla Sten (Minotaur)
• The Lover / The Mistress / The Passionate, by Carter Brown
(Stark House Press)
• The Manhunt Companion, by Peter Enfantino and Jeff Vorzimmer
(Stark House Press)*
• Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer, by Harold Schechter (Little A)*
• A Matter of Life and Death, by Phillip Margolin (Minotaur)
• The Mystery of Central Park, by Nellie Bly (Sordelet Ink)
• Murder at Wedgefield Manor, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
• The Night Gate, by Peter May (Quercus)
• Northern Spy, by Flynn Berry (Viking)
• Not Dark Yet, by Peter Robinson (Morrow)
• On Harrow Hill, by John Verdon (Counterpoint)
• Pieces of Eight, by Steve Goble (Seventh Street)
• The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The Progress of a Crime, by Julian Symons (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Red Widow, by Alma Katsu (Putnam)
• Ride the Pink Horse, by Dorothy B. Hughes (American
Mystery Classics)
• The Rose Code, by Kate Quinn (Morrow)
• Saving Grace, by Debbie Babitt (Scarlet)
• The Scapegoat, by Sara Davis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Search for Her, by Rick Mofina (Mira)
• She’s Too Pretty to Burn, by Wendy Heard (Henry Holt—YA)
• Someone to Watch Over Me, by Dan Bronson (BearMedia)
• A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better, by Benjamin Wood (Europa Editions)
• The Stone of Destiny, by Paul Doherty (Severn House)
• Stung, by William Deverell (ECW Press)
• Summer of Secrets, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)
• Tell No Lies, by Allison Brennan (Mira)
• 13 Days to Die, by Matt Miksa (Crooked Lane)
• Those Who Disappeared, by Kevin Wignall (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Three Mrs. Greys, by Shelly Ellis (Dafina)
• Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid: America’s Original Gangster Couple, by Glenn Stout (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)*
• Too Good to Be True, by Carola Lovering (St. Martin’s Press)
• To the Dark, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)
• Transient Desires, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Turncoat, by Anthony J. Quinn (No Exit Press)
• An Unexpected Peril, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
• The Vines, by Shelley Nolden (Freiling)
• The Water Rituals, by Eva García Sáenz (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Henry Holt)
• Wedding Station, by David Downing (Soho Crime)
• Where Have You Gone Without Me? by Peter Bonventre (Keylight)
• Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown)
• Win, by Harlan Coben (Grand Central)
• Windhall, by Ava Barry (Pegasus Crime)
• The Windsor Knot, by S.J. Bennett (Morrow)
• Winterkill, by Ragnar Jónasson (Orenda)
• You’ll Thank Me for This, by Nina Siegal (Mulholland)

MARCH (UK):
• All The Little Things, by Sarah Lawton (Canelo)
• American Sherlocks, edited by Nick Rennison (No Exit Press)
• The April Dead, by Alan Parks (Canongate)
• Before the Storm, by Alex Gray (Sphere)
• Blackout, by Simon Scarrow (Headline)
• Blood Runs Thicker, by Sarah Hawkswood (Allison & Busby)
• Blood Ties, by Brian McGilloway (Constable)
• Bound, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)
• The Castaways, by Lucy Clarke (HarperCollins)
• The Constant Man, by Peter Steiner (Severn House)
• The Cut, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Dare, by Lesley Kara (Bantam Press)
• The Dockland Murder, by Mike Hollow (Allison & Busby)
• Doom Creek, by Alan Carter (Fremantle Press)
• Edge of the Grave, by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)
• The Eighth Girl, by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Embalmer, by Alison Belsham (Trapeze)
• The Ex, by Diane Saxon (Boldwood)
• The Favour, by Laura Vaughan (Corvus)
• The Fine Art of Invisible Detection, by Robert Goddard (Bantam Press)
• A Fine Madness, by Alan Judd
(Simon & Schuster)
• Five Little Words, by Jackie Walsh
(Canelo Hera)
• The Fragile Ones, by Jennifer Chase (Bookouture)
• Future Perfect, by Felicia Yap (Wildfire)
• The Good Neighbour, by R.J. Parker
(One More Chapter)
• The Graves of Whitechapel, by Claire Evans (Sphere)
• Hardcastle’s Secret Agent, by Graham Ison (Severn House)
• The Hiding Place, by Jenny Quintana (Mantle)
• Hotel Cartagena, by Simone Buchholz (Orenda)
• Into Deadly Storms, by Judi Daykin (Joffe)
• The Lake, by Louise Sharland (Avon)
• The Last House on Needless Street, by Catriona Ward (Viper)
• Lie Beside Me, by Gytha Lodge (Michael Joseph)
• Mr. Campion’s Coven, by Mike Ripley (Severn House)
• Murder at Beaulieu Abbey, by Cassandra Clark (Severn House)
• Murder-In-Law, by Veronica Heley (Severn House)
• Mystery by the Sea, by Verity Bright (Bookouture)
• The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Case of the Foreigner in the English Village, by
Shrabani Basu (Bloomsbury)*
• Out in the Cold, by Stuart Johnstone (Allison & Busby)
• A Place to Bury Strangers, by Mark Dawson (Independently published)
• Sleep Tight, by Cass Green (HarperCollins)
• Spy Game, by John Fullerton (Burning Chair)
• The Takers and Keepers, by Ivan Pope (Hookline)
• This Nowhere Place, by Natasha Bell (Michael Joseph)
• Trust Me, by T.M. Logan (Zaffre)
• Two Wrongs, by Mel McGrath (HQ)
• The Ullswater Undertaking, by Rebecca Tope (Allison & Busby)
• The Wedding, by Ruth Heald (Bookouture)
• When the Evil Waits, by M.J. Lee (Canelo Crime)
• The Winter Girls, by Roger Stelljes (Bookouture)
• The Woman in the Wood, by M.K. Hill (Head of Zeus)

APRIL (U.S.):
• All That Fall, by Kris Calvin (Crooked Lane)
• Animal Instinct, by David Rosenfelt (Minotaur)
• The Best Assassination in the Nation, by Joshua Cohen (Kasva Press)
• Bitterroot Lake, by Alicia Beckman (Crooked Lane)
• Bobby March Will Live Forever, by Alan Parks (World Noir)
• Brazilian Psycho, by Joe Thomas (Arcadia)
• Breakout, by Paul Herron (Grand Central)
• Dance with Death, by Will Thomas (Minotaur)
• A Deadly Influence, by Mike Omer (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Deadly Twist, by Jeffrey Siger (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Death of a Showman, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
• Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case,
by Caitlin Rother (Citadel)*
• Death with a Double Edge, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)
• Deceptions, by Anna Porter (ECW Press)
• Department of Death, by Lev Raphael (Perseverance Press)
• The Devil’s Hand, by Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Dial A for Aunties, by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley)
• Done Gone, by Marcia Talley (Severn House)
• Endings, by Linda L. Richards (Oceanview)
• The Flaming Man, by Kendell Foster Crossen (Steeger)
• A Gambling Man, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)
• The Garden of Angels, by David Hewson (Severn House)
• Girl, 11, by Amy Suiter Clarke
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Gone Missing in Harlem, by Karla F.C. Holloway (Triquarterly)
• Gone Too Far, by Debra Webb
(Thomas & Mercer)
• The Good Sister, by Sally Hepworth
(St. Martin’s Press)
• The Granite Coast Murders, by Jean-Luc Bannalec (Minotaur)
• The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story, by Kate Summerscale
(Penguin Press)*
• Heaven’s a Lie, by Wallace Stroby (Mulholland)
• Her Last Holiday, by C.L. Taylor (Avon)
• Her Three Lives, by Cate Holahan (Grand Central)
• House Standoff, by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King (Scribner)*
• In Her Tracks, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
• In the Company of Killers, by Bryan Christy (Putnam)
• The James Bond Lexicon: The Unauthorized Guide to the World of 007 in Novels, Movies, and Comics, by Alan J. Porter and Gillian J. Porter (Independently published)*
• Jungle Up, by Nick Pirog (Blackstone)
• Just My Luck, by Adele Parks (Mira)
• Lady Joker, Volume 1, by Kaoru Takamura (Soho Crime)
• Land Rites, by Andy Maslen (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Last Thing to Burn, by Will Dean (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• A Lethal Lesson, by Iona Whishaw (Touchwood Editions)
• Lies We Bury, by Elle Marr (Thomas & Mercer)
• Lies with Man, by Michael Nava (Amble Press)
• Little Bandaged Days, by Kyra Wilder (The Overlook Press)
• The Lost Gallows, by John Dickson Carr (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Manila Time, by Jack Trolley (Brash)
• A Man in the Middle, by Kendell Foster Crossen (Steeger)
• Maxwell’s Demon, by Steven Hall (Grove Press)
• The Measure of Time, by Gianrico Carofiglio (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Mirrorland, by Carole Johnstone (Scribner)
• Mother May I, by Joshilyn Jackson (Morrow)
• Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West, by Blaine Harden (Viking)*
• Murder in the Cloister, by Tania Bayard (Severn House)
• Murder on Wall Street, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)
• The Night Always Comes, by Willy Vlautin (Harper)
• Northern Heist, by Richard O’Rawe (Melville House)
• No Sleep Till Wonderland, by Paul Tremblay (Morrow)
• Odor of Violets, by Baynard Kendrick (American Mystery Classics)
• On an Outgoing Tide, by Caro Ramsey (Severn House)
• One Got Away, by S.A. Lelchuk (Flatiron)
• The Others, by Sarah Blau (Mulholland)
• The Other Side of the Door, by Nicci French (Morrow)
• A Past That Breathes, by Noel Obiora (Rare Bird)
• The Perfect Daughter, by D.J. Palmer (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Perfect Marriage, by Adam Mitzner (Thomas & Mercer)
• Public Enemy #1, by Kiki Swinson (Dafina)
• Risk Factor, by Michael Brandman (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, by Robin Yocum (Arcade Crimewise)
• SAS: Red Notice, by Andy McNab (Welbeck)
• The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, by Katherine Cowley (Tule)
• The Secret Lives of Dentists, by W.A. Winter (Seventh Street)
• The Seven Doors, by Agnes Ravatn (Orenda)
• The Shadow Man, by Helen Fields (Avon)
• Shoot-Out at Sugar Creek, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan
Collins (Kensington)
• The Silent Bullet, by Arthur B. Reeve (Poisoned Pen Press)
• A Song of Isolation, by Michael J. Malone (Orenda)
• Sooley, by John Grisham (Doubleday)
• So Young, So Wicked, by Jonathan Craig (Stark House Press)
• Stargazer, by Anne Hillerman (Harper)
• Starr Sign, by C.S. O’Cinneide (Dundurn)
• The Three Locks, by Bonnie MacBird (Collins Crime Club)
• To Die in Tuscany, by David P. Wagner (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Tower of Babel, by Michael Sears (Soho Crime)
• Tragedy on the Branch Line, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)
• Turn a Blind Eye, by Jeffrey Archer (St. Martin’s Press)
• Two For the Money, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• Under the Wave at Waimea, by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The Unkindness of Ravens, by M.E.
Hilliard (Crooked Lane)
• The Vanishing Museum on the Rue Mistral, by M.L. Longworth (Penguin)
• The Venice Sketchbook, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)
• Whatever the Cost, by Michael Kurland (Severn House)
• What the Devil Knows, by C.S.
Harris (Berkley)
• What You Never Knew, by Jessica Hamilton (Crooked Lane)
• When a Stranger Comes to Town, edited by Michael Koryta
(Hanover Square Press)
• When the Stars Go Dark, by Paula McLain (Ballantine)
• Whisper Down the Lane, by Clay McLeod Chapman (Quirk)
• A Wicked Conceit, by Anna Lee Huber (Berkley)
• Wild Midnight Falls, by Kendell Foster Crossen (Steeger)
• You Love Me, by Caroline Kepnes (Random House)
• Young Blood, by Sifiso Mzobe (Catalyst Press)

APRIL (UK):
• Billion-Dollar Brain, by Len Deighton (Penguin Classics)
• Bullet Train, by Kotaro Isaka (Harvill Secker)
• A Comedy of Terrors, by Lindsey Davis (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Crocodile Hunter, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Darker Reality, by Anne Perry (Headline)
• Dark Memories, by Liz Mistry (HQ)
• The Deception of Harriet Fleet, by Helen Scarlett (Quercus)
• Don’t Let Him In, by Howard Linsky (Penguin)
• The Drowned City, by K.J. Maitland (Headline Review)
• Farewell My Herring, by L.C. Tyler (Allison & Busby)
• The Festival, by Sarah J. Naughton (Trapeze)
• Funeral in Berlin, by Len Deighton (Penguin Classics)
• The Girl on the Platform, by Bryony Pearce (Avon)
• Greenwich Park, by Katherine Faulkner (Raven)
• The Heretic’s Mark, by S.W. Perry (Corvus)
• The Hit List, by Holly Seddon (Trapeze)
• Horse Under Water, by Len Deighton (Penguin Classics)
• Hyde, by Craig Russell (Constable)
• Into the Woods, by David Mark (Head of Zeus)
• The Khan, by Saima Mir (Point Blank)
• Kiss Me, Kill Me, by Louise Mullins (Aria)
• Kiss the Detective, by Élmer Mendoza (MacLehose Press)
• Look What You Made Me Do, by Nikki Smith (Orion)
• The Lost Hours, by Susan Lewis (HarperCollins)
• A Man Named Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Missing Pieces, by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph)
• Murder: The Biography, by Kate Morgan (Mudlark)*
• Nightshade, by E.S. Thomson (Constable)
• The Old Enemy, by Henry Porter (Quercus)
• The Others, by Sarah Blau (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Plague Letters, by V.L. Valentine (Viper)
• The Rapunzel Act, by Abi Silver (Lightning)
• Rites of Spring, by Anders de la
Motte (Zaffre)
• The Royal Secret, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)
• The Silent Suspect, by Nell Pattison (Avon)
• Sixteen Horses, by Greg Buchanan (Mantle)
• Skelton’s Guide to Suitcase Murders, by David Stafford (Allison & Busby)
• Someone Who Isn’t Me, by Danuta Kot (Simon & Schuster)
• The Source, by Sarah Sultoon (Orenda)
• Tall Bones, by Anna Bailey (Doubleday)
• The Therapist, by B.A. Paris (HQ)
• Trafficked, by M.A. Hunter (One More Chapter)
• The Untameable, by Guillermo Arriaga (MacLehose Press)
• The Venetian Legacy, by Philip Gwynne Jones (Constable)
• Watch Her Fall, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day, by Ivana Bodrožić
(Seven Stories Press)
• When I Was Ten, by Fiona Cummins (Macmillan)
• The Whispers, by Heidi Perks (Century)
• The Whole Truth, by Cara Hunter (Penguin)
• The Wild Girls, by Phoebe Morgan (HQ)
• A Witch Hunt in Whitby, by Helen Cox (Quercus)

MAY (U.S.):
• Above the Rain, by Víctor del Árbol (Other Press)
• Against the Law, by David Gordon (Mysterious Press)
• Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)
• Auntie Poldi and the Lost Madonna, by Mario Giordano
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Basil’s War, by Stephen Hunter (Mysterious Press)
• The Bath Conspiracy, by Jeanne M. Dams (Severn House)
• Beyond the Headlines, by R.G. Belsky (Oceanview)
• The Body in the Back Seat, by Dick Lochte (Brash)
• The Chill Factor, by Richard Falkirk (Collins Crime Club)
• City of Dark Corners, by Jon Talton (Poisoned Pen Press)
• City on the Edge, by David Swinson (Mulholland)
• The Coldest Case, by Martin Walker (Knopf)
• Collectibles, edited by Lawrence Block (Subterranean)
• Dead of Winter, by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Crime)
• Deadly Revenge, by Leigh Russell (No Exit)
• The Devil May Dance, by Jake Tapper (Little, Brown)
• The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, by Joël Dicker
(MacLehose Press)
• Family Law, by Gin Phillips (Viking)
• The Final Twist, by Jeffery Deaver (Putnam)
• Find You First, by Linwood Barclay (Morrow)
• Finding Tessa, by Jaime Lynn Hendricks (Scarlet)
• The First Day of Spring, by Nancy Tucker (Riverhead)
• Friend of the Devil, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image Comics)
• The Girl Who Died, by Ragnar Jónasson (Minotaur)
• Goblin: A Novel in Six Novellas, by Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
• A Hostile State, by Adrian Magson (Severn House)
• Hour of the Witch, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday)
• How Lucky, by Will Leitch (Harper)
• How to Betray Your Country, by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press)
• The Hunting Wives, by May Cobb (Berkley)
• Independent Bones, by Carolyn Haines (Minotaur)
• The Lady Has a Past, by Amanda Quick (Berkley)
• The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave (Simon & Schuster)
• Local Woman Missing, by Mary Kubica (Park Row)
• Madam, by Phoebe Wynne (St. Martin’s Press)
• Make My Bed in Hell, by John Sanford (Brash)
• Murder on Mustique, by Anne Glenconner (Quercus)
• The Murders That Made Us: How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers, and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area, by Bob Calhoun (ECW Press)*
• The Next Wife, by Kaira Rouda (Thomas & Mercer)
• No Going Back,
by T.R. Ragan (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Old Man’s Place,
by John Sanford (Brash)
• The Paris Labyrinth,
by Gilles Legardinier (Flammarion)
• A Peculiar Combination,
by Ashley Weaver (Minotaur)
• People of Abandoned Character, by Clare Whitfield (Head of Zeus)
• The Photographer, by Mary Dixie
Carter (Minotaur)
• The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon)
• The Quiet Boy, by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland)
• Robert B. Parker’s Payback, by Mike Lupica (Putnam)
• The Savage Instinct, by Marjorie DeLuca (Inkshares)
• Scorpion, by Christian Cantrell (Random House)
• Secret Mischief, by Robin Blake (Severn House)
• The Secret Talker, by Yan Geling (HarperVia)
• The Siren, by Katherine St. John (Grand Central)
• Six Weeks to Live, by Catherine McKenzie (Atria)
• The Souls of Clayhatchee, by Anthony Todd Carlisle (Hidden Shelf)
• Steal Big / The Big Caper, by Lionel White (Stark House Press)
• Stolen Thoughts, by Tim Tigner (Independently published)
• Thief of Souls, by Brian Klingborg (Minotaur)
• The Vanishing Point, by Elizabeth Brundage (Little, Brown)
• Unsettled Ground, by Claire Fuller (Tin House)
• Version Zero, by David Yoon (Putnam)
• The Wall, by Mary Roberts Rinehart (American Mystery Classics)
• While Justice Sleeps, by Stacey Abrams (Doubleday)

MAY (UK):
• The Assistant, by Kjell Ola Dahl (Orenda)
• Both of You, by Adele Parks (HQ)
• The Cold North Sea, by Jeff Dawson (Canelo)
• The Distant Dead, by Lesley Thomson (Head of Zeus)
• Face of Evil, by George Morris De’Ath (Aria)
• The Final Round, by Bernard O’Keeffe (Muswell Press)
• Forfeit, by Barbara Nadel (Headline)
• The Ghost of Frederic Chopin, by Éric Faye (Pushkin Press)
• Grey Stones, by Joss Stirling (One More Chapter)
• The House of Whispers, by Anna Kent (HQ)
• Island Reich, by Jack Grimwood (Michael Joseph)
• The Killing Kind, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)
• Leave the Lights On, by Egan Hughes (Sphere)
• Left You Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)
• Loaded, by Niki Mackay (Orion)
• The Man Who Vanished and the Dog Who Waited, by Kate
High (Constable)
• Murder Takes a Holiday: Classic Crime Stories for Summer,
edited by Cecily Gayford (Profile)
• Mystery at the World’s Edge, by Alanna Knight (Allison & Busby)
• One Half Truth, by Eve Dolan (Raven)
• Outbreak, by Frank Gardner (Bantam Press)
• The Pact, by Sharon Bolton (Trapeze)
• The Players, by Darren O’Sullivan (HQ)
• A Quiet Man, by Tom Wood (Sphere)
• Resistance, by Val McDermid (Wellcome Collection)
• Sawbones, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• Seat 7a, by Sebastian Fitzek (Head of Zeus)
• The Serial Killer’s Wife, by Alice Hunter (Avon)
• Silenced, by Sólveig Pálsdóttir (Corylus)
• Time Is Running Out, by Michael Wood (One More Chapter)
• The Trawlerman, by William Shaw (Riverrun)
• Triple Cross, by Tom Bradby (Bantam Press)
• The Waiter, by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker)
• When They Find Her, by Lia Middleton (Michael Joseph)
• The Widower, by Christobel Kent (Sphere)
• The Year of the Locust, by Terry Hayes (Bantam Press)
• You Had It Coming, by B.M. Carroll (Viper)

As usual, if you know of other works meriting special recognition, please alert us to their existence in the Comments section at the end of this post. These seasonal lists are often updated.