Woodward’s top-notch latest Jack Ryan Jr. novel (after Tom Clancy: Shadow State) finds the Campus, a covert government organization, locked in a deadly contest between the Russians, corrupt foreign officials, and an international drug lord. Lead Campus operator Ryan is in Georgetown, Guyana, working undercover as the CEO of Athena Global Shipping Lines. Guyana has recently begun to exploit a massive new oil field that promises to be the largest previously untapped reserve in the world. Jack is lunching with Guyana’s minister of the interior and attorney general when he’s caught in sudden crossfire. He escapes, but the two officials are killed, setting in motion a multipronged plot that finds separate teams of Campus agents tasked with fighting a Russia-backed Guyanese coup and rescuing Campus operator Domingo “Ding” Chavez, who’s deep undercover with a drug gang. Woodward juggles each subplot with aplomb, and ushers the proceedings toward the exact sort of explosive climax Clancy readers expect (with bonus points for the inclusion of hydrogen-powered killer Jet Skis). It’s a standout entry in the series. Agent: Tracy Fisher, WME. (May)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Plot contrivances and purple prose mar Clarke’s latest standalone (after The Hike). While on a photo shoot in Marrakesh, frustrated fashion model Bea quits her job and rushes out of her hotel. She soon gets lost in Marrakesh’s mazelike alleyways, where two men rob and prepare to sexually assault her. At the last minute, she’s saved by a knife-wielding woman named Marnie, who helps Bea kill her attacker. The women flee the scene, and Bea accepts Marnie’s offer of refuge at her guesthouse on the Moroccan coast. Their respite is soon threatened by a blackmailer, who claims to have recovered the bloody knife from the murder scene and demands thousands of dollars the women don’t have to keep the weapon out of the hands of the police. Then a man named Seth Hart arrives at Marnie’s guesthouse, offering a reward for information about his sister, Savannah, who vanished from the area a year earlier. As Bea digs further into Savannah’s disappearance, Clarke reveals a flurry of secrets each character is hiding, which exhaust more often than they shock. Overwrought language (“they lose themselves in each other, while the stars spin above”) doesn’t help. This misses the mark. Agent: Grainne Fox, UTA. (May)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Cash-strapped women fall prey to a pyramid scheme in this nerve-shredding thriller from Edgar winner Abbott (Beware the Woman). Harper Bishop flees Grosse Pointe, Mich., in June 2008 to evade an increasingly persistent creditor, leaving behind her two older sisters, who are also deeply in debt—Debra due to her husband’s medical bills, Pam because of her divorce from a thieving deadbeat. When Harper returns home in October, she’s shocked to find Debra sporting “meticulous highlights” and Pam driving a Lexus. The duo attribute their windfalls to the Wheel, an all-female “circle of giving” that requires new members to contribute initial dues of five grand. Her siblings’ enthusiasm is so contagious that Harper sets aside her misgivings and signs on, unwittingly sealing all their fates. Though the tale unfolds from Harper’s POV, and her fraught relationships are its focus, the most fully realized cast member is Pam’s daughter, Vivian, a surly teen whose resentment of her mother animates the proceedings. Elsewhere, Abbott probes the minefield of sisterhood to harrowing effect, using staccato prose to amplify the inherent apprehension and anxiety of the siblings’ relationships. The result is a tense and twisty delight. Agent: Daniel Conaway, Writers House. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hussain debuts with an unconventional thriller that powerfully probes questions of family, death, and memory. Dash Hassan wants to forget everything. A reporter for California’s Monterey Coast News, he’s abusing a cornucopia of prescription pills in an effort to permanently erase his trauma-filled past. He’s also joined a wellness cult called the Liberty Subterraneans, which is led by Rocket, a pale, dreadlocked man who promises his followers that “God is a bomb and can detonate the past to liberate your future.” With layoffs at the newspaper looming, a desperate Dash pitches a series of stories about being stalked by an assailant he decides—somewhat dubiously—is the Coast Killer, a serial murderer who last struck in the late 2000s. His article incites the killer to come out of retirement and launch a new murder spree. Meanwhile, Dash learns the dark truth behind the Liberty Subterraneans’ mission and must confront his most traumatic memories before the drugs erase them—because doing so could hold the key to ending the Coast Killer’s bloodshed. Hussain effectively channels the surreal paranoia of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly and the dark absurdity of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice to craft a wholly original serial killer tale. It’s an auspicious first outing. (May)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Finkle (Keys to an Empty House) offers a whimsical take on the locked-room mystery in this entertaining supernatural whodunit. New Yorker Daniel Freund, a writer who collects rare editions of The Great Gatsby, is delighted to find one he doesn’t own in a pile on a brownstone stoop. He brings it back to his apartment, where the book starts displaying magical qualities: certain words begin to glow, and an invisible presence guides Freund’s hand to phrases that seem to allude to an unsolved murder. Wondering if the paranormal activity is a beyond the grave message from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Freund visits the brownstone where he found the edition. There, he learns that his new Gatsby belonged to septuagenarian venture capitalist Fulton Cutler, who recently shot himself inside his locked apartment. Convinced that Cutler was murdered, Freund investigates who might have wanted him dead, and tries to deduce how they committed the seemingly impossible crime. Eventually, he teams up with a pair of retired detectives to crack the case. Finkle effectively suspends disbelief en route to a clever solution. It’s a gleeful good time. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Murder aboard a luxury train gets a fresh spin in this ultratwisty historical thriller from Sager (Middle of the Night). Anna Matheson was 16 when one of her railroad tycoon father’s trains, which was transporting WWII troops, exploded and killed 37 people, including her brother, Tommy. A dozen years later, in 1954, Anna is the sole surviving member of her family and has managed to lure, under false pretenses, the six individuals she blames for the tragedy on an overnight train ride from Philadelphia to Chicago. She hopes that by confronting the dirty half-dozen with smoking guns she’s discovered during her investigation, she can elicit confessions before turning them over to the FBI at their destination. A few hours into the trip, just after Anna reveals herself and her agenda, one of her suspects keels over. Blindsided, Anna realizes she has effectively trapped herself with desperate people who want her dead—at least one of whom is ready to do the job. From there, Sager swiftly ratchets up the suspense through a Survivor-worthy series of alliances and betrayals as the body count mounts. A few of the final twists feel excessive, but for readers seeking a page-turner with a kick-ass female protagonist, this punches the ticket. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Pinborough’s wobbly latest standalone (after Insomnia) is an atmospheric if anticlimactic gothic thriller about a couple’s move to an eerie estate. Emily and Freddie Bennett have left London for the village of Dartmoor after a near-fatal fall induced a miscarriage in Emily. Following a lengthy hospitalization, she hopes for a fresh start, but her transition to their new home, Larkin Lodge, proves difficult. Apart from feeling unsettled by the surroundings (“Uneven ground and rough shrubs amid rocky outcrops”), Emily hears strange noises in the house, and an unseen presence seems to be tossing books around. Her fears that Larkin might be haunted are stoked by an interrupted session with a Ouija board, during which the planchette spells out the phrase “find it” multiple times. Both Emily and Freddie keep secrets from each other—including Emily’s affair with her boss, who might have been the father of her child—and Pinborough smartly externalizes their tensions with disquieting descriptions of the odd goings-on at Larkin. Less effective is the book’s final reveal, which undercuts the promising buildup. Here’s hoping Pinborough returns to form next time out. Agent: Grainne Fox, UTA. (May)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Actor Boneta’s sure-footed debut opens with the dynastic Velasco family mourning their 28-year-old son, Alejandro, who died in an apparent suicide while pursuing his MBA at UCLA. Shortly after Ale’s death, his handsome friend, Julián Villareal, arrives at the Velasco estate in Mexico. Julián, who found Ale’s body and believes his friend was murdered, has vowed to pursue the killer at all costs. To that end, he draws on his charm and “magazine cover smile” to ingratiate himself with Ale’s family, hoping to dig up clues. Soon, he’s living under the Velascos’ roof and enjoying their largesse, as well as the considerable charms of their beautiful, business-savvy daughter, Sofia. As Julián gets closer to Sofia, he uncovers a slew of shady business dealings and blackmail schemes undergirding her success, spurring a battle of wits between the two of them that quickly turns dangerous. The narrative culminates in a whiplash-inducing series of twists and double-crossings, which provide quick thrills even if they don’t always hold up to close inspection. Shrewd class observations (“Hours and hours of eating and drinking, and none of them had to lift a finger for themselves. He wondered what that did to the psyche; never having to clean up after yourself”) are a plus. Patricia Highsmith fans will enjoy this. (May)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sampson (Nosy Neighbors) delivers a genial and entertaining cozy centered on a ragtag ensemble of bookworms. Nova Davies has moved from London to the small Cornish village of St. Tredock to stay with her fiancé’s family while her overbearing mother-in-law plans their wedding. After starting her job at the local community center, Nova organizes a book club whose members range from studious teens to crotchety octogenarians. At first, she struggles to bridge the group’s cultural gaps. Then £10,000 earmarked for the community center’s roof repair vanishes, and Nova’s bosses blame her book club for the loss. When this incident is quickly followed by a murder in St. Tredock and the disappearance of a book club member, the group realizes they’re in real danger. Led by elderly Miss Marple fan Phyllis Hudson, the four remaining members launch an investigation, with each gumshoe’s quirks proving equal parts helpful and distracting to the cause. From there, Sampson hits a parade of familiar but satisfying beats: unexpected friendships blossom, books provide key clues, and well-placed red herrings keep the pace from flagging. It’s a bright and breezy treat. Agent: Hayley Steed, Janklow & Nestbit UK. (May)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink

Screenwriter Seales follows A Most Agreeable Murder with a jaunty sequel that finds Regency era sleuth Beatrice Steele swapping the provincial environs of Swampshire for London’s hustle and bustle. Though she still seeks a rich husband to supplement her family’s rapidly waning fortune, Beatrice has legitimized her detective work by forming a PI agency with Insp. Vivek Drake. The dashing Sir Lawrence Huxley reigns as London’s preeminent detective, however, and handles all the city’s most important cases, leaving Beatrice and Drake to deal mostly with clients who’ve lost cats, dogs, or eyeglasses. Everything changes on the night that Walter Shrewsbury, a prominent member of the Neighborhood Association of Gentlemen Sweetbriarians, is murdered at the Rose, an exclusive private club. Sir Huxley is convinced that opera star Percival Nash is the killer, but Nash, who maintains his innocence, hires Beatrice and Drake to find the real culprit. Seales doesn’t stray too far from what worked in the first book, probing the strict class and gender divides of Regency England while keeping the plot moving at a steady clip. This series deserves a long run. Agent: Rachel Kim, 3 Arts Entertainment. (June)

Reviewed on 03/21/2025 | Details & Permalink