Bestseller Quinn follows The Diamond Eye with a stellar historical mystery centered on a group of women living together in a Washington, D.C., boardinghouse. The action opens on Thanksgiving 1956 at Briarwood House, where a corpse lies bleeding in one of the attic apartments, the police have just arrived, and the tenants have gathered in the living room to await questioning. The narrative then rewinds four and a half years, to when widowed 30-something Grace March arrives at Briarwood. She meets Fliss, a harried new mother; Bea, a former pro baseball player; Claire, a file clerk for Sen. Margaret Chase Smith; Nora, an employee of the National Archives; and Arlene, a secretary for the House Un-American Activities Committee who’s fully embraced the hysterical rhetoric of her boss, Sen. Joseph McCarthy. As the women bond, clash, and pursue various romantic entanglements, they remain committed to holding weekly dinner parties in Grace’s room. As Quinn gradually steers the narrative back toward the violent opening scene, she elegantly explores issues of race, class, and gender, and brings the paranoid atmosphere of McCarthy-era Washington to vivid life. For Quinn’s fans, this is a must. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Allen (All or Nothing) takes readers inside the mind of a serial killer in this ambitious if ultimately disappointing thriller. The lead character, a Miami pizza delivery man who insists victims call him “Periwinkle” (he leaves the flowers at his crime scenes as a calling card) is introduced in the midst of slaughtering domestic abuser Eduardo Gomez in 2001. Like Dexter Morgan before him, Allen’s “hunter” operates under a strict moral code, only killing people he believes have violated the social contract—an adulterer, a crooked cop, a pedophile. As the hunter’s bodies pile up, police close in on him, but he continues to taunt them with phone calls. Meanwhile, he returns home after each murder to his children and argues with his pregnant wife about baby names, considering whether he might kill her, too. In flashbacks, Allen digs into the hunter’s difficult childhood, during which he was bullied for being overweight. Allen aims for something lyrical and elevated, and while he occasionally achieves a kind of hypnotic grace, the overall effect fails to make much of an impression. Ponderous prose (“Slow and joyless are the footfalls of Eduardo”) doesn’t help. Allen’s reach exceeds his grasp. Agent: Eleanor Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

British botanist Saffron Everleigh juggles research, romance, and murder in the diverting third installment of Khavari’s historical mystery series (after A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatalities). In 1923 London, Saffron has turned her back on the comforts of aristocratic life to work in a lab, where she’s routinely condescended to by her male colleagues. She harbors a crush on fellow scientist Alexander Ashton, whose brother, Adrian, has been named a suspect in the recent poisoning death of a Russian researcher. At Alexander’s urging, Saffron looks into the killing in hopes of clearing Adrian’s name. Meanwhile, she wards off the advances of Nick Hale, her best friend’s older brother who’s just arrived in the city. When one of the Russian scientist’s colleagues is also murdered, Saffron infiltrates the secretive lab where the pair worked and discovers that Alexander and Nick have been hiding crucial information from her all along. Though Khavari throws too many characters into the mix and the mystery’s momentum stalls in the middle, she brings everything together with a rewarding final act. It’s a solid entry in a dependable series. (June)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

A British war photographer travels to Cambodia seeking to escape a personal tragedy, only to become entangled in the region’s criminal underworld, in Herat’s ambitious debut. Joseph “Fearless” Nightingale, who is reeling from the death of his pregnant wife, heads out drinking with his longtime friend and travel companion, Alyosha, shortly after they arrive in Cambodia. Their night takes a perilous turn when Fearless is drugged by strangers, then left for dead. Song, an 18-year-old Cambodian woman enslaved at the apartment complex where Fearless is staying, discovers his limp body and nurses him back to health. Sensing that Fearless might help her and her twin sister, Sovanna, who is enslaved in a nearby villa, Song sneaks out of the complex and leaves behind a videotape for him, which offers evidence of a sex trafficking ring involving several international power brokers, including Alyosha. As Fearless figures out what to do next, Song frees Sovanna by setting her villa ablaze, triggering a violent retaliation that touches each of the novel’s main characters. Herat impresses on his first time out, with well-shaded characters and gripping suspense, though things start to feel overstuffed by the final act. Still, this is worth seeking out. (June)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Chavez (Before She Finds Me) blends simmering suspense and domestic drama in this slow-burning thriller. Sixteen years ago, when waitress Leyna Clarke was 12, her 16-year-old sister, Grace, disappeared from their home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. The mothers of the missing pair blamed one another, and soon launched into a feud that took over their lives. Leyna ditched that toxic atmosphere for Reno, while continuing to hold out hope that she’d eventually find Grace alive. One sweltering July afternoon, a woman who looks like Grace walks into the café where Leyna works. When a stunned Leyna starts asking her questions, the woman flees; a few days later, Adam’s brother, Dominic, calls Leyna to say a stranger has been poking around their old neighborhood, asking questions about Grace and Adam. Leyna returns home to investigate, reuniting with her mother, Meredith, and encountering Adam and Dominic’s mother, Olivia, who still blames Leyna’s family for the disappearance. As a dangerous forest fire crackles nearby, Leyna uncovers family secrets that shed new light on what happened to her sister. Chavez keeps the pace slack, building perhaps a touch too sluggishly to a resolution that nevertheless satisfies. Patient readers will be rewarded. Agent: Peter Steinberg, UTA. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Edgar winner Lansdale excels in his savagely funny 13th case for East Texas PIs Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (after The Elephant of Surprise). When Minnie Polson consults with Hap and his wife, Brett, about the blackmail she’s been subject to, the duo’s off-color jokes dissuade her from hiring them. Hap brushes off the encounter, but when Minnie dies in a suspicious house fire, he and Brett feel compelled to investigate. With Leonard’s help, they turn up evidence of a complicated insurance money scheme, with suspects including Minnie’s missing daughter, Alice, and Minnie’s estranged husband, Al, who left her for a gold-digging stripper named Earline. As the detectives tease out the motivations of each of Minnie’s relatives, they run afoul of a ruthless crime ring and have little choice but to employ the services of mercenaries Vanilla and Jim Bob. Blood-splattered action and a welcome spoonful of irreverent humor make this a surefire hit. It’s a high-water mark for the series. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

An aspiring novelist rebounds from a bad breakup by becoming the assistant to a Hollywood it-couple in Cobb’s deliciously twisty if flawed latest (after A Likeable Woman). When Cassidy Foster’s film producer best friend offers her a job working for director Nate Sterling and his supermodel-turned-actor wife, Marisol Torres, it sounds too good to be true: she’ll make a handsome salary and be in proximity to some of L.A.’s brightest stars. But Cassidy soon discovers that in the privacy of their Malibu mansion, Nate and Marisol’s relationship is far more tempestuous than it appears in the tabloids. In spite of herself, Cassidy falls for Nate, and agrees when he asks her to tail Marisol and find out if she’s cheating on him. Four weeks later, in flash-forward chapters sprinkled throughout the narrative, homicide detectives come knocking at Cassidy’s door with news that one of her employers has been killed, and Cassidy waffles over whether to come forward with crucial information related to the case. As in her previous novels, Cobb maximizes suspense by intersplicing timelines and withholding crucial bits of information. Unfortunately, this time out, the late reveals spin a once-credible narrative into absurdity. This has its glossy charms, but it fails to stick the landing. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Jade’s inventive if implausible debut, five privileged New Yorkers join a weekend-long astrology retreat in a Victorian mansion on Long Island’s North Fork. Each guest is seeking wisdom from the stars: Aimee is looking to rekindle her spark with her writer husband, Adam, who’s been brought along by his attorney sister, Margot; obstetrician Farah is reconsidering both her marriage to local politician Joe and her friendship with Aimee. None of the guests know that Rini, the astrologer, plans to bring each of their overlapping conflicts to a head, for reasons that gradually click into focus. As the weekend progresses, Rini manipulates her clients to ensure their latent resentments—familial and professional—escalate in predictable fashions until things take a turn for the dangerous. Rini’s Machiavellian moves, ostensibly rooted in her sincere consultations with the stars, are too transparent, and Jade fails to convince readers that her characters wouldn’t see right through them. Those willing to suspend their disbelief may be charmed by the novel premise, but seasoned genre fans are likely to be disappointed. Here’s hoping Jade’s sophomore effort is an improvement. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

The plot reversals come fast and furious in this unconvincing legal thriller from Edgar winner Ellis (Look Closer). Illinois attorney Leo Balanoff, a diagnosed pathological liar, is back in trouble after successfully fighting to have his law license reinstated. Leo’s DNA has been found on the shirtsleeve of murdered human trafficker Cyrus Balik, making him the prime suspect in the slaying. Though Leo maintains his innocence, his alleged motive is clear-cut: he represented Bonnie Tressler in a lawsuit against Balik for hooking her on narcotics and raping her when she was 14 years old. Bonnie overdosed before she could be called to the stand in that case, and Leo and the cops suspected Balik of having her killed. The FBI cuts Leo a deal: they’ll keep him out of prison if he helps take down Balik’s syndicate. That mission puts him back in touch with his ex-girlfriend, a former cop who’s now working for a company developing a mysterious cure for cancer. The overstuffed plot also includes flashbacks to Leo’s long history of deceit that continually recast the present-day action in a new light. Ellis’s storytelling gets too tangled, and his characters are too implausible, for this to cohere. Here’s hoping Ellis’s next outing marks a return to form. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

King proves he’s still a master of short fiction in his sterling seventh collection (after The Bazaar of Bad Dreams). Standouts from the five previously unpublished entries include “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” in which the title character has a psychic vision and then accidentally incriminates himself in a murder he didn’t commit, and the eerie yet touching “Two Talented Bastids,” in which a young man discovers the dirty secret that helped his famous father and successful best friend develop their artistic prowess. Among the notable entries previously published elsewhere are “The Fifth Step,” about a recovering alcoholic making amends for his more sinister impulses, and “On Slide Inn Road,” which traces a family’s wrong turn en route to a family reunion in Maine. Themes of fate, morality, and heartache crop up again and again in these tightly coiled tales, and King expertly utilizes them to make every twist of the knife all the more terrifying. This remarkably assured collection will thrill the author’s fans. Agent: Liza Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill. (May)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink