Cultural critic McLaughlin (Sinkhole) ruminates on cancel culture’s effect on art criticism in this concise and captivating treatise. Squaring off against what she dubs “liberal realism”—i.e., the classification of art as ethically acceptable based on whether it promotes liberal moral standards—she tracks how recent attempts to give art “a dubious moral glow-up” have led to a “surreal” alternate reality of art criticism. For instance, she notes, the “sadistic” artist Chaïm Soutine, whose works exude “violence and objectification,” was recently described in Frieze magazine as “bringing ‘dignity’ to those at the bottom of the social order.” Likewise, McLaughlin highlights how this moralizing lens has a quelling effect on contemporary artworks; she points to the widely reported “offense” caused by the 2022 movie Tár as an example. McLaughlin is lucid and sharp, and readers will find themselves impressed even when they disagree. (In her rundown of the heated public response to Dana Schutz’s 2017 painting of Emmett Till in his casket, McLauglin gives only the barest credence to the accusation that the piece is part of a lineage of white artists appropriating Black suffering. While she critiques the episode with deftness, it might be a bridge too far for some—after all, surely some art might actually be in poor taste.) The result is a enjoyably provocative challenge to the status quo. (May)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

A decade-old tragedy haunts two friends in Trench’s sure-footed debut. In 2009, Sofia Eliades died in a car accident that almost killed her Yale classmates Brooke Winters and Caroline Archer. Ten years later, a freshly engaged Brooke gets a threatening message from Sofia’s old Gmail account featuring a stolen photo of herself, Caroline, and Sofia on the fateful night. Then Caroline receives a similarly eyebrow-raising comment on her company’s Instagram account (“What’s dead and buried doesn’t stay dead and buried forever, does it, C?”). Panicked, the friends reconnect to figure out what to do. Before long, another one of their Yale classmates—the only other person familiar with the exact circumstances of Sofia’s death—turns up dead. Fearful that they’ll be killed or have their reputations ruined, Brooke and Caroline try to find out who’s taunting them before it’s too late. Trench makes the most of her I Know What You Did Last Summer–style setup, maintaining nerve-jangling suspense throughout and skillfully shading her traumatized leads. The result will satisfy fans of Lisa Unger. Agent: Tess Callero, Europa Content. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

New York Times culture reporter Piepenburg debuts with a nostalgic cross-country tour of the eateries that “nourished, changed, and continue to inspire” LGBTQ+ communities in the United States. Among the venues spotlighted are Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., which served as a haven for closeted gay men in the 1950s and ’60s; Pfaff’s Saloon in Manhattan, which opened in 1856 and was frequented by Walt Whitman (sometimes with his lover Fred Vaughan in tow); and mid-20th-century New York City’s Automats, which served food via vending machine and drew in gay patrons with their cafeteria-style seating and promise of relative anonymity (though diners could signal “their same-sex attraction to other customers” by wearing purple or lavender). The author’s joyously randy personal anecdotes about coming of age in the gay restaurant scene, combined with his discussions of such topics as drag culture and the AIDS epidemic, enliven this intimate ode to the intersections of queer and culinary culture. It’s a sweet and sincere celebration of what it means to be welcomed in body and spirit. (June)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

A pair of siblings see their vacation upended by a murder investigation in this solid nail-biter from Michallon (The Quiet Tenant). On her fourth night at Ara, an exclusive Utah resort, Frida Nilsen overhears a heated argument between tabloid owner William Brenner and his wife Sabrina. The next day, Sabrina is found dead with her skull split open. The tragedy brings up bad memories for Frida and her brother, Gabriel, who’s staying with her at the Ara as part of a strained attempt to reconnect. Nine years earlier, Gabriel’s wife, Annie, was killed after falling from a bridge in New Jersey. He was suspected of murdering her for a life insurance payout, though police never solved the case. Gabriel’s entanglement in Annie’s death leads the authorities to consider him a suspect in Sabrina’s murder. Additional flashbacks flesh out Frida and Gabriel’s childhoods in an Upstate New York cult and tease possible links to the contemporary crimes. Michallon nimbly balances pace, plot, and character, never skewing so literary that she alienates genre fans or so popcorn that the stakes feel flimsy. The result is a robust and memorable whodunit. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bromiley debuts with a remarkable portrait of a jobless single mother as she navigates an impending eviction, pregnancy, and the watchful gaze of child protection services. Over the course of three days, Jude Woods attempts to keep her sanity and shield her nine-year-old twins, Evan and Virginia, from the harshest realities of their poverty. When she goes into labor, she makes the painful decision to abandon the twins to fend for themselves in the trailer park where they live, fearing they will be taken from her by CPS if they accompany her to the hospital. Other characters in the family’s down-and-out world include a young man at the hospital who carried his girlfriend there after she overdosed on fentanyl, and who provides Jude with unexpected and much-needed companionship in the ER as she patiently waits to be admitted. In lyrical and pared-down prose, Bromiley toggles between the complex points of view of each family member, from Virginia’s innocence to Evan’s burgeoning sense of responsibility and Jude’s poignant reckoning with their precarity (“Through these thin walls trickle bedtime stories, lullabies, whisper-fights. The good smells of cooking.... All, all, all this to be taken”). It’s a knockout. Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Archaeological discoveries made in Jerusalem over the past several decades constitute “physical, tangible, proof that the Jewish people have been indigenous to the land for over thirty‑eight hundred years,” according to this ardent if one-sided debut treatise from Spielman, vice president of the City of David Foundation. Aiming to rebut claims by those seeking to “erase Jewish ancestry in Israel,” the author highlights such finds as a staircase and ritual pool used in Second Temple times, and an inscription that matched the Torah’s description of an event during the eighth century BCE reign of King Hezekiah. The significance of such finds, according to the author, has been undermined by Palestinian leaders looking to erase “all Jewish claims to the land.” He also cites other evidence that Israel was the Jewish homeland, including references in the Koran and that the word Jew derives from the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The architectural discoveries fascinate, but Spielman’s biases can sometimes distract, as when he ignores evidence that Arabs in Palestine were expelled by Israeli forces during the 1948 War of Independence. This is sure to stir debate. (May)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

The conservative activist William F. Buckley helped make the American right a respectable rival to liberalism in part by making peace with liberal doctrine, according to this searching biography. Journalist Tanenhaus (The Death of Conservatism) recaps Buckley’s career as founder of the National Review, host of the talk show Firing Line, author of splashy cultural critiques, and Republican Party kingmaker. Tanenhaus’s Buckley is a charming and good-humored man; a sharp debater and facile writer, though a shallow and often factually challenged thinker; and a loyal friend but a bad judge of character. (He once helped free a National Review reader jailed for murder who went on to attempt murder again.) A scion of oil wealth, Buckley built bridges between plutocratic conservatism and the populist New Right, a fusion that helped propel Ronald Reagan to the presidency. In Tanenhaus’s telling, Buckley embodies a gradual, grudging conservative accommodation with liberal fundamentals, moving from pre-WWII isolationism to support for anti-communist interventionism, from genteel apologias for Jim Crow to an acceptance of the civil rights revolution, and from denunciations of big government to tacit acknowledgment that big government was here to stay. Tanenhaus is clear-eyed about Buckley’s many failures but also does justice to his eccentric charisma, humanity, and wit. This elegant, capacious character study shows how Buckley’s spadework opened many of the fault lines that still fracture American politics. (June)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Holsinger (The Displacements) plumbs moral responsibility in the age of AI in this twisty family drama. Seventeen-year-old lacrosse star Charlie Cassidy-Shaw is behind the wheel of the family’s self-driving minivan, traveling with his parents and two younger sisters to a tournament, when they collide with another car, killing both passengers. Charlie and his family, however, sustain only minor injuries. In the aftermath, the family returns to a beach house on the Chesapeake Bay to recuperate. When the police hint that the car’s digital forensics might point to Charlie’s guilt, his lawyer father Noah retains a high-priced defense attorney, while his 13-year-old sister Alice texts with her AI-powered “friend” about a secret that would implicate Charlie in the crash, and the app pushes her to confess to their parents. The plot thickens when Charlie’s mother, Lorelei, a prominent AI ethicist, spends time with their tech billionaire neighbor, prompting Noah to worry that she’s having an affair (the truth turns out to be more nefarious). As each family member wrestles with their responsibility for the crash and how much trust they should put in AI, Holsinger grapples evocatively with the trade-offs of automated life. This timely tale leaves readers with much to chew on. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (July)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

In her memorable debut novel, Yin expertly weaves together the stories of three Chinese women seeking to survive the Japanese occupation during WWII. The Tang family flees Shanghai for Hong Kong in 1938. Among them are Wei, his concubine, his wife Mingzhu, her maid and lifelong companion Biyu, and Mingzhu’s daughter, Qiang. Though Mingzhu lives in a wealthy household, Wei is prone to anger and physically abuses her. She finds solace in the love of books instilled in her by her scholarly father and in seeking stolen moments of happiness with her daughter’s British tutor, Henry Beaumont. When the Japanese invade Hong Kong, Biyu and Qiang escape to the home of a family friend in the mountains and find work at a factory, while Mingzhu works as a personal secretary for a Japanese official. The three women each participate in resistance efforts: Qiang moves to a resistance camp and learns how to fight; Biyu puts hyacinth pollen in the clothing of Japanese soldiers, causing them to develop rashes and fall ill; and Mingzhu sends encrypted messages to the resistance. Yin expertly brings to life each character, highlighting their varied perspectives on how to survive the Japanese occupation and revealing their love for one another and hopes to reunite. This strikes a chord. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, PFD Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

In the affecting latest from Harmel (The Paris Daughter), an aging jewel thief searches for answers about the family she lost in WWII Paris. Colette Marceau, 89, volunteers at a Holocaust education center in 2018 Boston, which she secretly funded with proceeds from the millions of dollars in jewels she’s stolen. Colette follows the code handed down by her jewel-thief mother, Annabel, who insisted she steal only from those who are “cruel and unkind,” such as a dressmaker who collaborated with the Nazis. Memories of wartime Paris come flooding back when Colette learns that an upcoming museum exhibit will include a diamond-studded bracelet that Annabel recovered from a German officer who had stolen it from Annabel’s friend. Shortly after the episode, Annabel was arrested and Colette’s younger sister, Liliane, disappeared along with the bracelet. Convinced that finding the person who loaned the bracelet to the museum will help her find out what happened to Liliane, Colette seeks answers from the museum director about the bracelet’s provenance. As Harmel seamlessly interweaves the two timelines, she explores the danger Annabel and Colette put themselves in by thieving and the depravity of the Nazis. It’s a satisfying drama. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink