British playwright Pennant debuts with a lively cozy centered on the indomitable Miss Hortense, a Jamaican nurse who’s been living in Birmingham’s Bigglesweigh neighborhood since 1960. In the decades since Miss Hortense emigrated from Jamaica, she and her friends and neighbors have started an unofficial investigative service to look into local crimes. One case that has remained unsolved is that of “the Brute,” a man who, in 1970, brutally attacked a series of women in Bigglesweigh and left them for dead. Now, in 2000, Miss Hortense’s nemesis, Constance Brown, has turned up dead. Authorities believe she died of a heart attack, but Hortense fears murder. Then the body of a mysterious stranger is placed inside Constance’s house with a Bible verse taped to it, and Miss Hortense becomes convinced that the Beast has returned. Pennant populates Bigglesweigh with colorful, well-drawn characters and strikes an appealing tone halfway between sweet and melancholy. It’s a promising start. Agent: Nelle Andrews, Rachel Mills Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

The death of an influencer shakes up a small Australian town in this mesmerizing whodunit from McCausland (The Beautiful Words). When popular Instagrammer Paige White is found floating face-up in the lake by her rural home, the rumor mill starts turning. Though Paige made a fortune cataloging her picture-perfect life with her photographer husband, Andy, and their daughter, Viv, might there have been darkness lurking just beneath the surface? Or could an unstable follower have tracked Paige down and killed her? Paige’s childhood friend, Jane Masters—now a successful Sydney journalist—reluctantly returns home for the funeral, then accepts an assignment from her editor to dig up whatever dirt she can. Staying in the shabby family home she fled years earlier, Jane is visited by unwelcome memories of her and Paige’s high school friend, Audrey, who died by suicide after relentless bullying from their peers. The pace starts at a crawl, but McCausland gradually layers sizzling tensions and revelations into Jane’s investigation, which cast foreboding shadows on the sun-drenched setting. When the truth finally comes out, it’s a gut punch. This works equally well as a mystery and a warning cry against the dangers of social media. Agent: Tare Wynne, Curtis Brown Australia. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

O’Connor (The Captive) debuts with an enthralling dual-timeline mystery that links two tragedies, 20 years apart. In 2003, a teacher in the seaside English town of Saltburn, North Yorkshire, asks his sixth-form students to write letters to their future selves after 17-year-old Ben Spellman dies accidentally on a class trip to the Lake District. Twenty years later, the students receive their old letters. The same day, Miranda Breivart is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. The police believe her death is a suicide, but her close friend Audrey—whose dreams of attending Cambridge fell through and who now works as a house cleaner for some of her wealthy former classmates—suspects foul play. Realizing only she cares enough to learn the truth, Audrey launches an investigation that soon casts doubt both on Ben’s long-ago death and the peaceful facade of a town she thought she knew. Early on, O’Connor writes that aspirations can be “a weight around your neck from which you can never wriggle free,” and she explores that idea to its fullest, with Audrey’s quest taking on a poignant, tragic quality from its first moments. Themes of moral relativism and class difference are equally well developed. This is a winner. Agent: Rachel Yeoh, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Lippman (Prom Mom) triumphs with this charming mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a Baltimore widow—and former assistant to PI Tess Monaghan, star of another Lippman series—who finds an $8 million lottery ticket abandoned in a parking lot. In the decade since Muriel’s husband died, she’s carved out a pleasant but bland existence with her daughter’s family. After she hits the jackpot, she makes arrangements for a cruise in France with her best friend, Elinor. On the flight over, Muriel meets the charming Allan, who takes her to dinner after they land in Paris. When Allan suspiciously dies the next day, the police question Muriel, since she was in one of the most recent photos on Allan’s phone. Enter American stranger Danny Johnson, who ingratiates himself with Muriel and warns her she might be in danger. After her and Elinor’s ship leaves port, Muriel’s stateroom is ransacked, a man attempts to mug her, and she learns Danny is lying about his identity. Lippman fans will be delighted by the appearance of Tess, who enlivens the plot after Muriel calls her for advice. By the time the clever conclusion rolls around, readers will be sad to see this trip come to an end. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

During the waning years of the Cold War, the CIA—in the person of blonde, bodacious junior agent Amanda Price—gets into bed with an up-and-coming L.A. metal band as part of a covert op to foment pro-democracy rebellion behind the Iron Curtain, in Kennedy’s bold if uneven debut. Undercover as Tawny Spice, staffer for a nonexistent music magazine, Amanda targets Rikki Thunder, a talented but emotionally starved drummer. Within weeks of their first hookup, Amanda manages to squeeze Rikki into the lineup of buzzy band Whyte Python. While Amanda and Rikki’s faux-romance blossoms, behind the scenes there’s a dead-serious CIA team toiling on every aspect of an operation designed to catapult Whyte Python to the top of the charts and send them on an arena tour of the eastern bloc. Newcomer Kennedy nimbly heightens suspense via numerous twists, including the apparent presence of a mole close to the band, without neglecting the story’s ample comic possibilities. Still, the tone aims for something like the gonzo heights of Tim O’Brien’s America Fantastica and comes up short. A diverting dive into the paranoid past, this picaresque rolls merrily along without ever really rocking. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, YRG Partners. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

A dangerous con man meets his match in this nasty thriller from bestseller Jewell (Breaking the Dark). For the past 30 years, Nick Radcliffe has assumed an array of identities to seduce, marry, and occasionally murder women of independent means across London. Now in his mid-50s, Nick has sunk his hooks into the recently widowed Nina Swann, who’s inherited a successful restaurant chain. The only problem? Nina’s daughter, Ash, doesn’t trust Nick as far as she can throw him. Nick tries to dial up the charm in hopes that, by swindling Nina, he can secure a fortune for the one woman he truly loves: his current wife, Martha. Ash, however, is prepared to bring Nick’s long con toppling down—even if it means finding his old victims herself. Jewell effortlessly toggles back and forth in time, illuminating the awful scope of Nick’s deceptions while setting up a wicked and satisfying cat and mouse game between him and Ash. Readers who like their psychological suspense on the dark side will be delighted with the results. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown UK. (June)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

A daring breakout attempt at a prison for political dissidents forms the backbone of Merchant’s formulaic debut. Leading the action is Irfan Mirza, a mercenary from Pakistan who has agreed to rescue his former colleague Renata Bardales, who’s being held at a medieval fortress in the fictional country of Aldatan after speaking out against the despotic King Nimir. Mirza, “a human version of a baseball bat wrapped with barbed wire,” assembles a small posse and sneaks into the fortress by hiding on a supply truck. Inside, he will eventually have to square off against Atlas Boss, a Nimir crony and sexual sadist who runs the prison with a sinister blend of perversion and pain that he inflicts on the mostly female inmates. While Merchant ably captures the grim elements of his heightened setting, the plot never strays from clichéd rescue mission tropes, and Mirza comes across as a dull cipher: a man of few words and little personality possessed by the brute ferocity of a comic book hero. This misses the mark. Agent: Melisssa Edwards, Stonesong Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 04/11/2025 | Details & Permalink

Suits producer Cowan debuts with a terrifically tense legal thriller. Forty-something L.A. attorney Jake West has hit rock bottom: he’s an alcoholic; he’s estranged from his wife, Cara; and he’s just been censured at work for an ethical breach. After West gets into the passenger seat of his friend and colleague Rich Kaplan’s car one afternoon, someone knocks on the window and shoots Kaplan in the head. The killer leaves their .44 Magnum at the scene, and West picks it up just as the cops arrive. Those circumstances alone make West a suspect; when it comes out that Kaplan and Cara had been sleeping together, the optics worsen. Hoping to clear his name and avoid arrest, West digs into the last case Kaplan was handling. Despite having no experience in criminal law, he’d been defending Tiana Walker, who was accused of setting a fire that killed two of her three children. West decides to take over the case, and soon discovers that Kaplan’s bizarre handling of it raises more questions than answers. Cowan manages to make his deadbeat lead easy to root for, and pairs nuanced characterizations with a deliciously serpentine plot. Readers will hope this is the start of a long-running series. Agents: Emma Kapson and Liz Parker, Verve Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

A Canadian police officer tackles a complicated kidnapping case in Crosbie’s taut second mystery featuring RCMP corporal John Drake (after The Dead List). In 2004, Drake, who’s working for the General Investigative Service in British Columbia, is assigned the case of five-year-old Hailey Logan, who’s disappeared from her bedroom. Hours after the abduction, someone claiming to have Hailey calls the RCMP and in an electronically disguised voice asks for Drake and one of his colleagues to be present when they call back at 12:01 a.m. Drake is on hand when the next call comes through, and he soon realizes the case cuts close to home: in flashbacks that alternate between Northern Ireland in 1969 and British Columbia in the ’70s and ’80s, Crosbie gradually reveals why Hailey’s father, Bill—a farm supervisor with an Irish background—may have cooperated with the kidnappers, and how buried secrets from Drake’s past may come to light if he wants to bring the girl home safely. Crosbie throws a lot of balls in the air, but he juggles them with ease and brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a sly and suspenseful winner. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Holtom debuts with an enthralling Golden Age–style whodunit set in 1929 England. Selby Bigge is a gay bank clerk who spends his nights discreetly touring London’s underground queer bars. One evening in Hampstead Heath, he spots Patrick Duker, a handsome old acquaintance from Oxford. The two reconnect, and Bigge gladly accepts an invitation to join Patrick at what promises to be an awkward family dinner with Patrick’s millionaire father, Sir Lionel, and Lionel’s second, much younger wife, Lucinda. Patrick hopes Bigge will help him dig up some dirt on Lucinda that might convince his father to divorce her. The dinner goes so well that Patrick invites Bigge back for a second get-together, which takes a disastrous turn when a member of the household is found strangled in the billiard room. Bigge leaps into the role of detective, tasked with finding the killer—and keeping his sexuality hidden—if he wants to keep his new place among London’s upper crust. Holtom enhances the whip-smart plot with a keen sense of humor, best displayed in scenes where Bigge fakes familiarity with the work of an Agatha Christie–like author who’s a guest of the Dukers. Fair-play mystery fans will be eager for the sequel. (June)

Reviewed on 04/04/2025 | Details & Permalink