Legends of the Fall?

Over the last several weeks, as I was assembling The Rap Sheet’s catalogue of crime, mystery, and thriller titles due out (on both sides of the Atlantic) between now and the end of 2022, I frequently found myself wondering which among those books—if any—will remain popular five, 10, or 20 years hence. Even works that seem particularly popular at any given moment tend to fade inexorably from public attention as fresher releases eclipse their acclaim. Looking back over my lists of favorite reads since 2010, I cannot help but lament how many have disappeared from the shelves of even large bookstores.

This is really a modern problem, of course. In the late 19th century, say, when books were produced each year in far smaller quantities, and it was also considerably more difficult to procure copies, fewer of them became widely popular. And any that did draw favorable notice from national critics maintained longer-lasting regard, at least among the literate and folks who could afford the expense of new books (or had access to well-stocked public libraries). Nowadays, by contrast, 500,000 to one million different books go to press annually—and that number may rise by several million if you count self-published books. No wonder it’s hard for any individual title to stay in demand.

Whether this coming fall and winter will produce any new crime fiction with staying power—any “legends,” so to speak—is still to be seen. But there are certainly numerous releases from which to choose. My list below barely scratches the surface of what might provide entertainment for you this season, yet it runs to 400-plus titles!

We can look forward, for instance, to the latest offerings from authors as diverse as Laurie R. King, Håkan Nesser, Ann Cleeves, Craig Johnson, Wanda M. Morris, Robert Harris, Anne Perry, Robert Crais, Terry Shames, Michael Connelly, Lilja Sigurdardóttir, Jake Hinkson, and Leonora Nattrass. Be on the lookout, as well, for the following: Lawrence Block’s 12th Bernie Rhodenbarr caper, The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown; Martin Edwards’ third Rachel Savernake/Jacob Flint novel, a locked-room puzzler christened Blackstone Fell; Kim Sherwood’s first Double 0 agents thriller, Double or Nothing; a pair of Max Allan Collins premieres—a new Mike Hammer entry, Kill Me If You Can (delayed from August), plus his 18th Nate Heller outing, The Big Bundle; another installment in Ian Rankin’s John Rebus series, bearing this season’s best title, A Heart Full of Headstones; Queen High, the second post-World War II dystopian thriller from “C.J. Carey” (aka Jane Thynne), following Widowland; a posthumous collection of Reginald Hill’s fiction, Dalziel and Pascoe Hunt the Christmas Killer & Other Stories; Robert J. Lloyd’s The Poison Machine, a sequel to last year’s 17th-century mystery, The Bloodless Boy; Because I Could Not Sleep, introducing a new whodunit series starring Emily Dickinson, penned by Amanda Flower; a rollicking tale from Loren D. Estleman, Paperback Jack, that’s set amid America’s postwar production of scandalous softcover crime novels; The Sign of the Devil, Oscar de Muriel’s seventh and final case for Victorian sleuths “Nine-Nails” McGray and Ian Frey; the reissuing, by Blackstone, of Don Winslow’s Neal Carey mysteries; and speaking of reissues, Erle Stanley Gardner’s smashing first Bertha Cool/Donald Lam yarn, The Bigger They Come, is anticipated in October.

Additionally, the next 120 days will welcome various non-fiction works of special interest to Rap Sheet readers, among them Daniel Stashower’s American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, Lucy Worsley’s already much-applauded Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, and A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, edited by the author’s son Tim Cornwell.

As usual, my picks of this season cover plenty of ground—a little something for all tastes. The books marked below with an asterisk (*) are non-fiction, while the remainder are novels or collections of short stories. All are expected to debut in English, and most should be available in ample time for holiday gift-giving.

SEPTEMBER (U.S.):
• Act of Oblivion, by Robert Harris (Harper)
• An Affair of Spies, by Ronald H. Balson (St. Martin’s Press)
• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus)*
• All Dressed Up, by Jilly Gagnon (Bantam)
• All That’s Left Unsaid, by Tracey Lien (Morrow)
• Always the First to Die, by R.J. Jacobs (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)*
• Among Wolves, by Erica Blaque (Polis)
• Back to the Garden, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
• The Bad Angel Brothers, by Paul Theroux (Mariner)
• Bad Day Breaking, by John Galligan (Atria)
• Because I Could Not Sleep, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)
• A Bend of Light, by Joy Jordan-Lake (Lake Union)
• Beneath the Black Palms, by Nolan Knight (Down & Out)
• The Best Friend, by Jessica Fellowes (Minotaur)
• The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Sara Paretsky (Mysterious Press)
• Best Practices, by Gwen Florio (Severn House)
• Blood & Ink: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime, by Joe Pompeo (Morrow)
• Blood Honey, by Poppy Koval (BookBaby)
• Blowback, by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown)
• Broken Summer, by J.M. Lee (Amazon Crossing)
• The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• The Butcher and the Wren, by Alaina Urquhart (Zando)
• The Butcher of Belarus, by Brian Shea and Ty Hutchinson (Severn River)
• Christmas Scarf Murder, by Carlene O’Connor, Maddie Day, and Peggy Ehrhart (Kensington)
• The Color Storm, by Damian Dibben (Hanover Square Press)
• The Columbo Companion, 1968-78: Investigating Every Detail of All 45 ‘Classic Era’ Columbo Adventures, by The Columbophile (Bonaventure Press)*
• A Cool Breeze on the Underground, by Don Winslow (Blackstone)
• Cromwell’s Folly, by Ginny Fite (Open Road)
• The Cuckold’s Bride, by Leonard Tourney (Lume)
• Daphne, by Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
• A Dark Steel Death, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)
• The Dead Won’t Tell, by S.K. Waters (CamCat)
• Death in a Time of Spanish Flu, by Frances McNamara (Rudiyat Press)
• A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan (Berkley)
• The Deception, by Kim Taylor Blakemore (Lake Union)
• Demolition, by Nick Oldham (Severn House)
• The Enigma Affair, by Charlie Lovett (Blackstone)
• The Enigma of Room 622, by Joël Dicker (HarperVia)
• Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)
• The Eye of the Beholder, by Margie Orford (Canongate)
• Fall Guy, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur)
• Fallout, by Carrie Parks (Thomas Nelson)
• A Familiar Stranger, by A.R. Torre (Thomas & Mercer)
• Fields of Fire, by Ryan Steck (Tyndale House)
• Five Moves of Doom, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
• Forsaken Country, by Allen Eskens (Mulholland)
• From the Shadows, by James R. Benn (Soho Crime)
• The Furies, by John Connolly (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Gallows Hill, by Darcy Coates (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Ghost Slayers: Thrilling Tales of Occult Detection, edited by Mike Ashley (British Library)
• Gideon and the Young Toughs and Other Stories, by John Creasey writing as J.J. Marric (Crippen & Landru)
• The Girl from Guernica, by Karen Robards (Mira)
• The Glass Tree, by Michael J. Manz (Endicott Street Press)
• The Gone and the Forgotten, by Clare Whitfield (Head of Zeus)
• The Guest House, by Robin Morgan-Bentley (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Hell and Back, by Craig Johnson (Viking)
• Her Perfect Twin, by Sarah Bonner (Grand Central)
• A History of the World Through Body Parts: The Stories Behind the Organs, Appendages, Digits, and the Like Attached to (or Detached from) Famous Bodies, by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras (Chronicle)*
• Hit Me, by Christa Faust (Upshot)
• The Hostage, by A.F. Carter (Mysterious Press)
• The Hot Beat, by Robert Silverberg (Hard Case Crime)
• The House in the Orchard, by Elizabeth Brooks (Tin House)
• The House Party, by Rita Cameron (Morrow)
• Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
• Kill Me If You Can, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)
• Kingdom of Spies, by Bevan G. Roberts (Aussie Spook Press)
• Knight’s Gambit, by William Faulkner, edited by John N. Duvall (University Press of Mississippi)
• The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception, by Katherine Cowley (Tule)
• The Laguna Shores Research Club, by Laura Kelly Robb
(Touchpoint Press)
• Light on Bone, by Kathryn Lasky (Woodhall Press)
• Lost in Time, by A.G. Riddle (Head of Zeus)
• Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (Morrow)
• The Marsh Queen, by Virginia Hartman (Gallery)
• The Mobster’s Lament, by Ray Celestin (Macmillan)
• Mother Daughter Traitor Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
• Murder at the Serpentine Bridge, by Andrea Penrose (Kensington)
• Murder by the Book, edited by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Murder in the Cathedral, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)
• Murder on the Vine, by Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Crime)
• My Brother, by Karin Smirnoff (Pushkin Press)
• Mystic Wind, by James Barretto (Oceanview)
• Next in Line, by Jeffrey Archer (HarperCollins)
• The Only Child, by Kayte Nunn (Scarlet)
• The Other Side of Night, by Adam Hamdy (Atria)
• Read Bad Things, by Kelly J. Ford (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Red Widow: The Scandal That Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All, by Sarah Horowitz (Sourcebooks)*
• A Reluctant Saint, by Tricia Fields (Severn House)
• Rich Blood, by Robert Bailey (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Rising Tide, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)
• Robert B. Parker’s Fallout, by Mike Lupica (Putnam)
• Rules of Engagaement, by Stacey Abrams writing as Selena Montgomery (Berkley)
• The Shadow Murders, by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton)
• Sherlock Holmes: A Detective’s Life, edited by Martin Rosenstock (Titan)
• Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Hyde,
by Christian Klaver (Titan)
• Sherlock Holmes: The Defaced Man,
by Tim Major (Titan)
• Shrines of Gaiety, by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)
• Small Deaths, by Rijula Das
(Amazon Crossing)
• Someone’s Watching Me, by Zoe Rosi (Thomas & Mercer)
• Sometimes People Die, by Simon Stephenson (Hanover Square Press)
• A Song of Comfortable Chairs, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)
• South Central Noir, edited by Gary Phillips (Akashic)
• Suspect, by Scott Turow (Grand Central)
• Sweet Dreams, by Peter Leonard (Rare Bird)
• The Swill, by Michael Keenan Gutierrez (Leapfrog Press)
• There Are No Happy Loves, by Sergio Olguín (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Treasure State, by C.J. Box (Minotaur)
• The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, by William Alsup (NewSouth)
• A Truth to Lie For, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)
• Turning the Tables: The Short Stories of Helen Nielsen, by Helen Nielsen (Stark House Press)
• Undertones: Where Jazz Meets Crime, by Nancy Stephanie
Stone (Galileo)*
• The Vicious Circle, by Katherine St. John (Morrow)
• Wealth Management, by Edward Zuckerman (Arcade Crimewise)
• We Spread, by Iain Reid (Gallery/Scout Press)
• What’s Past Is Prologue, by Gail Bowen (ECW Press)
• The Wheel of Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Mulholland)
• When She Disappeared, by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry (Avon)
• Where Secrets Live, by S.C. Richards (Crooked Lane)

SEPTEMBER (UK):
• All That’s Left Unsaid, by Tracey Lien (HQ)
• All the Wicked Games, by Lauren North (Penguin)
• Amongst Our Weapons, by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz)
• Ashes in the Snow, by Oriana Ramunno (HarperCollins)
• The Axe Woman, by Håkan Nesser (Mantle)
• Black Hearts, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• Black Lake Manor, by Guy Morpuss (Viper)
• Blackstone Fell, by Martin Edwards (Head of Zeus)
• The Blame Game, by Sandie Jones (Macmillan)
• The Bleeding, by Johana Gustawsson (Orenda)
• Bleeding Heart Yard, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Body in the Stairwell, by Nick Louth (Canelo)
• Caged Little Birds, by Lucy Banks (Sandstone Press)
• A Death in Helmand, by Alison Belsham and Nick Higgins (Canelo)
• Death on the Downbeat, by Sebastian Farr (British Library)
• Die Around Sundown, by Mark Pryor (Minotaur)
• Double or Nothing, by Kim Sherwood (HarperCollins)
• Femicide, by Pascal Engman (Legend Press)
• Final Acts: Theatrical Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (British Library)
• The Fourth Enemy,
by Anne Perry (Headline)
• Friends Don’t Lie, by Nell Pattison (Avon)
• The Girls Who Disappeared, by Claire Douglas (Penguin)
• A Grave Mistake,
by Rachel Amphlett (Saxon)
• Hands Down,
by Felix Francis (Simon & Schuster)
• Harm, by Sólveig Pálsdóttir (Corylus)
• An Honourable Thief, by Douglas Skelton (Canelo)
• The Inheritance, by Howard Linskey (Penguin)
• The Last Girl to Die, by Helen Fields (Avon)
• Long Gone, by Joanna Schaffhausen (Minotaur)
• Murder in a Mill Town, by Helen Cox (Quercus)
• Murder Memoir Murder, by Anthony J. Quinn (Dalzell Press)
• My Darling Daughter, by J.P. Delaney (Quercus)
• My Husband’s Secret, by L.G. Davis (Bookouture)
• The Nanny, by Ruth Heald (Bookouture)
• One of Our Ministers Is Missing, by Alan Johnson (Wildfire)
• Payday, by Celia Walden (Sphere)
• Picture You Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)
• Safe Word, by Charlotte Barnes (Bloodhound)
• The Skeleton Key, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Sliver of Darkness, by C.J. Tudor (Michael Joseph)
• The Summer Birdcage, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)
• Sweet Dreams, by Anders Roslund (Harvill Secker)
• These Darkening Days, by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
• Turning Blue, by Benjamin Myers (Bloomsbury)
• Vengeance, by R.C. Bridgestock (Canelo)
• What She Left Behind, by Emily Freud (Quercus)
• A Woman in the Library, by Sulari
Gentill (Ultimo Press)
• You Can Stay, by Elle Connel (Wildfire)
• Your Word or Mine, by Lia
Middleton (Penguin)

OCTOBER (U.S.):
• The Angels of Venice,
by Philip Gwynne Jones (Constable)
• Antiques Liquidation,
by Barbara Allan (Severn House)
• Anywhere You Run,
by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)
• Beasts of the Earth, by James Wade (Blackstone)
• Believers and Hustlers, by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo (Iskanchi Press)
• The Bequest, by Joanna Margaret (Scarlet)
• The Bigger They Come, by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A.A. Fair (American Mystery Classics)
• Black Is the Night, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan)
• Blackmail and Bibingka, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)
• Blind Faith, by Alicia Beckman (Crooked Lane)
• Body of Evidence, by Irene Hannon (Revell)
• Bones of Holly, by Carolyn Haines (Minotaur)
• The Boys from Biloxi, by John Grisham (Doubleday)
• The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown, by Lawrence Block
(LB Productions)
• City Dark, by Roger A. Canaff (Thomas & Mercer)
• Concrete Evidence, by Diann Mills (Tyndale House)
• The Confessions of Matthew Strong, by Ousmane K.
Power-Greene (Other Press)
• The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations, by David Geherin (McFarland)*
• Cruz, by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Crime)
• The Dark Room, by Lisa Gray (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Dark Waves of Winter, edited by David M. Olsen (Kelp)
• Dashing Through the Snowbirds, by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
• Death at Paradise Palms, by Steph Broadribb (Thomas & Mercer)
• Death at the Savoy, by Ron Base and Prudence Emery
(Douglas & McIntyre)
• Disaster at the Vendome Theater, by M.L. Longworth (Penguin)
• Dissection, by Dr. Cristina LePort (Bancroft Press)
• Double Exposure, by Ava Barry (Pegasus Crime)
• The Family Game, by Catherine Steadman (Ballantine)
• The Favor, by Nicci French (Morrow)
• .45-Caliber Perfume, by Leo W. Banks (Brash)
• A Fox in the Fold, by Candace Robb (Severn House)
• Funeral Train, by Laurie Loewenstein (Kaylie Jones)
• The Girl in the Mist, by Vinaya Bhagat (Agora)
• The Glass Pearls, by Imre József Pressburger (Faber and Faber)
• The Godfather (Deluxe Edition), by Mario Puzo (Putnam)
• A Grain of Truth, by Christian Unge (Quercus)
• Hangman: The True Story of Canada's First Official Executioner, by Julie Burtinshaw (Tidewater Press)*
• A Heart Full of Headstones,
by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
• The Hike, by Susi Holliday
(Thomas & Mercer)
• In the Vanishing Hour, by Sarah Beth Martin (Encircle)
• It’s News to Me, by R.G. Belsky (Oceanview)
• Jackal, by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)
• Lady Joker, Volume Two, by Kaoru Takamura (Soho Crime)
• Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)
• Long Shadows, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)
• Look Both Ways, by Linwood Barclay (Morrow)
• The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way, by Raymond Benson (Beaufort)
• The Maze, by Nelson DeMille (Scribner)
• The Medici Murders, by David Hewson (Severn House)
• The Merchant Murders, by Michael Jecks (Severn House)
• Mr. Campion’s Mosaic, by Mike Ripley (Severn House)
• Ms. Tree: Deadline, by Max Allan Collins (Titan Comics)
• Murder at the Jubilee Rally, by Terry Shames (Severn House)
• A Murder at Balmoral, by Chris McGeorge (Putnam)
• Murder on the Spanish Seas, by Wendy Church (Polis)
• The Mushroom Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)
• Must Read Well, by Ellen Pall (Bancroft Press)
• The New Annotated Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, edited by Leslie S. Klinger (Mysterious Press)
• The New House, by Tess Stimson (Avon)
• 1989, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Noonday Dark, by Charles Demers (Douglas & McIntyre)
• No Plan B, by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press)
• No Strangers Here, by Carlene O’Connor (Kensington)
• One Woman’s War: A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny, by Christine Wells (Morrow)
• The Plot and the Pendulum, by Jenn McKinlay (Berkley)
• The Poison Machine, by Robert J. Lloyd (Melville House)
• Random, by Penn Jillette (Akashic)
• Realm of Darkness, by Paul Doherty (Headline)
• River Woman, River Demon, by Jennifer Givhan (Blackstone)
• Room to Swing, by Ed Lacy (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Santa’s Little Yelpers, by David Rosenfelt (Minotaur)
• Secret Lives, by Mark de Castrique (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Secrets of the Nile, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)
• Shadow Sister, by Lindsay Marcott (Thomas & Mercer)
• Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Thefts of Christmas,
by Tim Major (Titan)
• Sign Here, by Claudia Lux (Berkley)
• Sinister Graves, by Marcie R. Rendon (Soho Crime)
• The Socialite’s Guide to Murder, by S.K. Golden (Crooked Lane)
• The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• Station Eternity, by Mur Lafferty (Ace)
• A Strange Habit of Mind, by Andrew Klavan (Mysterious Press)
• The Storyteller’s Death, by Ann Dávila Cardinal
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Swann’s War, by Michael Oren (Dzanc)
• The Tattoo Murder, by Akimitsu Takagi (Pushkin Vertigo)
• That Summer in Berlin, by Lecia Cornwall (Berkley)
• A Trace of Poison, by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington)
• Treachery on Tenth Street, by Kate Belli (Crooked Lane)
• A Twist of Murder, by Heather Redmond (Kensington)
• Under a Veiled Moon, by
Karen Odden (Crooked Lane)
• Vanishing Hour, by Laura Griffin (Berkley)
• The Witch in the Well, by
Camilla Bruce (Tor)

OCTOBER (UK):
• Agatha Beaton and the Devil’s Delight, by M.C. Beaton (Constable)
• Blue Water, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
• Breaking, by Amanda Cassidy (Canelo)
• The Brutal Tide, by Kate Rhodes
(Simon & Schuster)
• A Christmas Murder of Crows, by D.M. Austin (Whitefox)
• A Conflict of Interests, by Claire Gradidge (Zaffre)
• The Conjuror’s Apprentice, by G.J. Williams (RedDoor Press)
• A Cornish Recipe for Murder, by Fiona Leitch (One More Chapter)
• Dalziel and Pascoe Hunt the Christmas Killer & Other Stories, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins)
• Death and Papa Noël, by Ian Moore (Farrago)
• Deeds of Autumn, by Anders de la Motte (Zaffre)
• If We Were Villains: Fifth Anniversary Edition, by M.L. Rio (Titan)
• Inspector French: Golden Ashes, by Freeman Wills Crofts
(Collins Crime Club)
• A Mansion for Murder, by Frances Brody (Piatkus)
• The Moose Paradox, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
• Murder at Crime Manor, by Fergus Craig (Sphere)
• Murder at the Theatre Royale, by Ada Moncrieff (Vintage)
• Mystery in Provence, by Vivian Conroy (One More Chapter)
• The Neighbour Upstairs, by Kathryn Croft (Canelo)
• Queen High, by C.J. Carey (Quercus)
• The Railway Detective’s Christmas Case, by Edward Marston
(Allison & Busby)
• Red as Blood, by Lilja Sigurdardóttir (Orenda)
• The Rediscovered Annals of Sherlock Holmes, by Terry Golledge, edited by David Marcum (MX)
• Shame the Devil, by Graeme Hampton (Hera)
• 6 Ripley Avenue, by Noelle Holten (One More Chapter)
• Skelton’s Guide to Blazing Corpses, by David Stafford
(Allison & Busby)
• Unfinished Business, by Leye Adenle (Cassava Republic Press)
• The White Priory Murders, by Carter Dickson (British Library)
• The Winter Garden, by Nicola Cornick (HQ)
• The Winter Killer, by Alex Pine (Avon)
• Wolf Pack, by Will Dean (Point Blank)

NOVEMBER (U.S.):
• An Act of Foul Play, by T.E. Kinsey (Thomas & Mercer)
• All the Blood We Share, by Camilla
Bruce (Berkley)
• And Justice for Mall, by E.J.
Copperman (Severn House)
• Before You Knew My Name, by
Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• The Best American Mystery and Suspense, 2022, edited by Jess Walter (Mariner)
• The Bingo Hall Detectives, by Jonathan Whitelaw (HarperNorth)
• Blackwater Falls, by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur)
• Bleeding Heart Yard, by Elly Griffiths (Mariner)
• Blue Like Me, by Aaron Philip Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Body Falls, by Andrea Carter (Oceanview)
• The Bone Records, by Rich Zahradnik (1000 Words a Day Press)
• A Burning Obsession, by Mike Omer (Thomas & Mercer)
• Case Study, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Biblioasis)
• A Christmas Deliverance, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)
• The Cloisters, by Katy Hays (Atria)
• The Collector, by Anne Mette Hancock (Crooked Lane)
• The Couple at the Table, by Sophie Hannah (Morrow)
• Dark of Night, by Barbara Nickless (Thomas & Mercer)
• Dark Waters Rising, by Cassandra Clark (Severn House)
• Deadly Spirits, by Mary Miley (Severn House)
• A Deadly Web, by Jeanne M. Dams (Severn House)
• Death at the Falls, by Rosemary Simpson (Kensington)
• Death on a Winter Stroll, by Francine Mathews (Soho Crime)
• Desert Star, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• The Devil’s Blaze, by Robert J. Harris (Pegasus)
• Dr. No, by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press)
• Doomed Legacy, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
• The Double Agent, by William Christie (Minotaur)
• The Events Concerning, by Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean Press)
• Find Him, by Jake Hinkson (Polis)
• Flight Risk, by Cherie Priest (Atria)
• G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,
by Beverly Gage (Viking)*
• A Ghost of Caribou, by Alice Henderson (Morrow)
• Ghosts from the Library: Lost Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Tony Medawar (Collins Crime Club)
• Going Rogue, by Janet Evanovich (Atria)
• Hands Down, by Felix Francis (Crooked Lane)
• A History of Fear, by Luke Dumas (Atria)
• Holmes Coming, by Kenneth Johnson (Blackstone)
• How to Survive Everything, by Ewan Morrison (Harper Perennial)
• Hunting Time, by Jeffery Deaver (Putman)
• I Know Where You Live, by Gregg Olsen (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Inconvenient German, by Peter Steiner (Severn House)
• The Innocent One, by Lisa Ballantyne (Pegasus Crime)
• The Last Party, by Clare Mackintosh (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Last to Disappear, by Jo Spain (Quercus)
• The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
• Murder at Black Oaks, by Phillip Margolin (Minotaur)
• Never Name the Dead,
by D.M. Rowell (Crooked Lane)
• Paperback Jack,
by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)
• The Perfect Crime, edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski (HarperCollins)
• Peril in Paris, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
• Picture You Dead,
by Peter James (Macmillan)
• The Prisoner, by B.A. Paris
(St. Martin’s Press)
• Punishment of a Hunter, by Yulia Yakovleva (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Quiet Teacher, by Adam Oyebanji (Severn House)
• Racing the Light, by Robert Crais (Putnam)
• The Railway Murders, by J.R. Ellis (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Rattle of Bones, by Douglas Skelton (Arcade Crimewise)
• The Resemblance, by Lauren Nossett (Flatiron)
• Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)
• Seventeen: Last Man Standing, by John Brownlow (Hanover
Square Press)
• A Sliver of Darkness, by C.J. Tudor (Ballantine)
• Small Game, by Blair Braverman (Ecco)
• The Spanish Cape Mystery, by Ellery Queen (American
Mystery Classics)
• Standing by the Wall, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• Theft of an Idol, by Dana Stabenow (Head of Zeus)
• These Names Make Clues, by E.C.R. Lorac (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Twist of a Knife, by Anthony Horowitz (Harper)
• Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man, by Emily Edwards (Crooked Lane)
• Welcome to the Game, by Craig Henderson (Grove Press)
• What Child Is This? by Bonnie MacBird (Collins Crime Club)
• Witnesses for the Dead, edited by Gary Phillips and Gar Anthony Haywood (Soho Crime)
• A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Zero Night, by Brian Freeman (Blackstone)

NOVEMBER (UK):
• Argyle House, by Alex Scarrow (Independently published)
• Blood on the Siberian Snow, by C.J. Farrington (Constable)
• Breaking Point, by Olivier Norek (MacLehose Press)
• The Coming Darkness, by Greg Mosse (Moonflower)
• Conspiracy of Blood, by Katarzyna Bonda (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Cocoon, by Zhang Yueran (World Editions)
• Dead Find, by T.F. Muir (Constable)
• Deceit, by Jónína Leósdóttir (Corylus)
• Dying Breath, by Liz Mistry (HQ)
• Hidden Scars, by Angela Marsons (Bookouture)
• If They Knew, by Sophie Flynn (Hera)
• Lifesign, by Carl Goodman (Hera)
• The Locked Attic, by B.P. Walter (One More Chapter)
• The Mitford Secret, by Jessica Fellowes (Sphere)
• Mrs. Hudson and the Christmas Canary, by Martin Davies (Canelo)
• Murder at Aldwych Station,
by Jim Eldridge (Allison & Busby)
• Murder Most Royal,
by S.J. Bennett (Zaffre)
• Murder on the Christmas Express, by Alexandra Benedict (Simon & Schuster)
• My Husband’s Killer,
by Laura Marshall (Sphere)
• The Mysterious Mr. Badman,
by W.F. Harvey (British Library)
• The Night Man, by Jørn Lier Horst
(Michael Joseph)
• Open Season, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)
• The Poisoned Pawn, by Richard T. Ryan (MX)
• Red Mist, by Ant Middleton (Sphere)
• Remember My Name, by Sam Blake (Corvus)
• Safe with You, by R.M. Ward (HQ)
• Seen to Be Believed, by Louisa Scarr (Canelo)
• The Silent Child, by M.J. White (Hera)
• The Silent Dead, by Marnie Riches (Bookouture)
• Silent Victim, by Michael Wood (One More Chapter)
• Sudden Death, by Rachel Lynch (Canelo)
• Suicide Thursday, by Will Carver (Orenda)
• Traitor, by Tom Wood (Sphere)
• Urgent Matters, by Paula Rodríguez (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Web of Lies, by Barbara Nadel (Allison & Busby)
• You Are Next, by Arne Dahl (Harvill Secker)
• You Can Hide, by Rebecca Zanetti (Zebra)

DECEMBER (U.S.):
• The Album, by Mary Roberts Rinehart (American Mystery Classics)
• American Afterlife, by Pedro Hoffmeister (Crooked Lane)
• Amok, by Barry Eisler (Thomas & Mercer)
• Being Bond: A Daniel Craig Retrospective, by Mark Salisbury (Titan)
• The Best of Manhunt 3, edited by Jeff Vorzimmer (Stark House Press)
• The Best of Manhunt 4: The Jack Ritchie Stories, by Jack Ritchie (Stark House Press)
• The Big Bundle, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• Blackstone Fell, by Martin Edwards (Head of Zeus)
• Blown by the Same Wind, by John Straley (Soho Crime)
• Bombay Monsoon, by James W. Ziskin (Oceanview)
• Cry Scandal / Root of His Evil, by William Ard (Stark House Press)
• A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley (Knopf)
• A Death in Tokyo, by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur)
• Dogtown, by Howard Owen (Permanent Press)
• Exit Interview, by Dana Cameron (DCLE Publishing)
• Fake Money, Blue Smoke, by Josh Haven (Mysterious Press)
• Hidden in Snow, by Viveca Sten (Amazon Crossing)
• The Kind to Kill, by Tessa Wegert (Severn House)
• The Last House on the Cliff, by Anne Wyn Clark (Avon)
• The Lipstick Bureau, by Michelle Gable (Graydon House)
• The Missing Man, by Anna Karolina (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Mother Would Know, by Amber Garza (Mira)
• Murder by Definition, by Con Lehane (Severn House)
• Murder in the Basement, by Anthony Berkeley (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Other Sister, by Peter Mohlin and Peter Nyström (Overlook Press)
• A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, edited by
Tim Cornwell (Viking)*
• Secrets Typed in Blood, by Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday)
• Showstopper, by Peter Lovesey (Soho Crime)
• The Sign of the Devil, by Oscar de Muriel (Orion)
• Simenon: The Man, the Books, the Films, by Barry Forshaw (Oldcastle)*
• Someone Had to Do It, by Amber and Danielle Brown (Graydon House)
• Three-Edged Sword, by Jeff Lindsay (Dutton)
• The Widowmaker, by Hannah Morrissey (Minotaur)
• Winter’s End, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)

DECEMBER (UK):
• The Adventure of the Second Wife, by Andrew Finkel (Cornucopia)
• The Camden Murder, by Mike Hollow (Allison & Busby)
• Chase Her Shadow, by D.K. Hood (Bookouture)
• Dashboard Elvis Is Dead, by David F. Ross (Orenda)
• Death at Beresford Hall, by Emma Davies (Bookouture)
• Inspector French: Fear Comes to Chalfont, by Freeman Wills Crofts (Collins Crime)
• Murder at the Debutante Ball, by C.J. Archer (C.J. Archer)
• Murder by Mistake, by Lesley Cookman (Headline Accent)
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Painted Edition), by Agatha Christie (Harper Muse)
• The Night Watch, by Neil Lancaster (HQ)
• Port Lands, by Tod Molloy (Debtford Press)
• Rolling the Dice, by Stephanie Harte (Head of Zeus)
• The Secrets of Rochester Place, by Iris Costello (Penguin)
• Unity, by Maria Casey (Austin Macauley)
• Waste of a Life, by Simon Brett (Severn House)
• The Wheel of Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Whispering Dead, by David Mark (Severn House)

There you have it, four months of reading pleasure ahead of you—crime and suspense novels, mysteries, thrillers, and even a couple of science-fiction/crime crossovers. Obviously, though, more is to come. The December selections are a bit paltry; I imagine there are additional titles in the pipeline that simply haven’t been properly publicized yet. So I’ll update this list as we near New Year’s Day, 2023. Meanwhile, if you know of any promising works not mentioned here, and that you believe should be included, please drop a note into the Comments section at the end of this post. Legend has it that I’m receptive to such suggestions.