Goodbye, summer. Hello, fall!
If you thought summer was the best season for thrillers and mysteries, you’re in for a surprise when you see the full lineup of titles set to come out between mid-September and early December. Spoiler: There are a ton of great books set to be released.
Because this is our first major Reading Guide since the release of my own book, Lethal Range, back in August, I just want to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to grab a cop, read it, and leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It means a lot to me, and I am thrilled to see so many Book Spy followers embracing me as an author. So, thank you. I’m happy to report that, among the many titles featured below, one of them is my new, forthcoming novella, Redd Christmas, an e-book exclusive that serves as a prequel to my first two books, going back in time to show Matthew Redd as a young Marine, chronicling how he becomes the hardened, battle-tested operator we meet when the action kicks off in Fields of Fire. I’m really proud of the novella, and if you’re looking for any additional reasons to consider pre-ordering it, well, at the end of the story, there’s an excerpt for my third novel, Out For Blood, available in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook on June 4th, 2024. Enjoy!
From John Grisham to Michael Connelly to Stephen King and many, many more . . . browse every title set to come out his fall below, then make sure to leave us a comment or tag us on social media to let us know which books you’re most excited to get your hands on.
Happy Reading!
Featured Selections
Redd Christmas by Ryan Steck (From The Real Book Spy)
Release Date: November 7th
From The Real Book Spy Ryan Steck comes an exciting novella that goes back in time to show how Matthew Redd becomes the hardened, battle-tested operator that readers meet in Fields of Fire
I remember that promise to J. B. like it was yesterday.
After losing his mom at age ten, Matthew Redd found a new home in Montana with J. B. Thompson—a man who knew the value of hard work and simple living. J. B. didn’t have much reason to celebrate Christmas before becoming Redd’s dad but threw himself into building traditions, including a tree, a few practical gifts, and the essential holiday movies: A Christmas Story and Die Hard.
Eight years later, Redd realizes this is the last Christmas he’ll spend at the ranch with his dad before heading off to join the Marines. He impulsively promises J. B. that even if they can’t be together on Christmas Eve, he’ll call every year without fail.
It’s a promise Redd keeps until the year his squadron is called in to assist when a nearby Special Forces team comes under enemy fire. The Marines’ mission is to secure the scene and evacuate the wounded, but soon after their arrival, they realize the initial attack was only the first wave. Before long, Redd and his team are outmanned and outgunned. With the clock ticking down, he begins to wonder if this is the year he’ll have to break his promise . . . or if he’ll make it out alive.
- A Christmas story for men who love military thrillers
- Contemporary Christmas novella
- Prequel to full-length novels Fields of Fire & Lethal Range
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah
Release Date: October 24th
The world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot—legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile—puts his little grey cells to work solving a baffling Christmas mystery.
It’s December 19, 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are looking forward to a much-needed, restful Christmas holiday, when they are called upon to investigate the murder of a man in a Norfolk hospital ward. Cynthia Catchpool, Edward’s mother, insists that Poirot stay with her in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be together for the festive period while he solves the case.
As Poirot digs into the mystery, he discovers that the murdered man was a retired post office master, and by all accounts very well-liked. The local constabulary’s investigation failed to uncover how someone could have entered a hospital room and killed him under the noses of the staff. Cynthia’s friend Arnold is soon to be admitted to that same hospital, and his wife is convinced he will be the killer’s next victim, though she refuses to explain why.
With no obvious motive or suspect, Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, someone else—someone utterly ruthless—also has ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot.
Release Date: September 12th
Mitch Rapp returns to make a mortal enemy of Russia in this high-octane and up-to-the-minute installment in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from “one of the best thriller writers on the planet” (The Real Book Spy).
Mitch Rapp hates owing anyone a favor—especially when it’s the world’s most powerful crime lord. But when Damian Losa calls, Mitch is honor-bound to answer.
The Syrian government appears to have created a highly addictive new narcotic that it plans to distribute throughout Europe. It’s a major threat to Losa’s business and he’s determined to send someone to keep him on top by any means necessary.
Rapp is the perfect choice for the mission. Not only does he have extensive experience operating in the Middle East, but he’s also entirely expendable.
As he crosses into war-torn Syria, Rapp quickly discovers a shocking truth. The new drug isn’t being produced by Damascus to prop up the government’s collapsing finances. Instead, it was created by Russia’s asymmetrical warfare unit, not for profit but as a weapon against the West.
With far more than Damian Losa’s interests at stake, Rapp devises a desperate plan that forces him and his team onto a battlefield where the United States is virtually powerless and allegiances shift almost hourly. Further, if Russia uncovers their plot, it will set off a confrontation between the two countries that could change the course of human history.
Blood Lines by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille
Release Date: October 10th
From New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille, Blood Lines features the return of Special Agents Brodie and Taylor who are on the hunt for the cold-blooded murderer of one of their fellow agents.
Army Criminal Investigation Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor have been separated for five months following their last assignment, a dangerous mission in Venezuela to locate and detain an infamous Army deserter. Now, in Berlin, they are reunited and tasked with investigating the murder of one of their own: CID Special Agent Harry Vance of the 5th MP Battalion, an accomplished counterterrorism agent who had been stationed in western Germany, and whose body was discovered in a city park in the heart of Berlin’s Arab refugee community.
The authorities suspect this is an act of Islamic terrorism, but Brodie and Taylor soon believe there is more to this case. The reason for Vance’s presence in Berlin is unknown, and as Brodie and Taylor work to discover what the murder victim was doing in the days and weeks preceding his death, they become immersed in the many conflicts and contradictions of modern Germany—the Arab refugee crisis, the dark legacy of the Cold War and the Stasi secret police, and the imminent threats of a rising neo-Nazi movement. At the same time, they are butting heads with the authorities—both German and American—and facing a possible threat from American intelligence agents who fear that Brodie and Taylor might have learned too much about US clandestine operations during their mission in Venezuela.
Ultimately, Brodie and Taylor realize that the murder of Harry Vance was merely the prelude to a much more sinister future event—unless they can unravel the mystery in time to stop it.
The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Release Date: October 24th
The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child
1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy.
But office politics isn’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind . . . or his own kind?
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett
Release Date: October 24th
This immersive holiday caper from the “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) follows the hilarious Fairway Players theater group as they put on a Christmas play—and solve a murder that threatens their production.
The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.
Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production—for good.
All Releases
The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson
Release Date: September 5th
Walt Longmire faces one of his most challenging crime scenes as he tries to reckon with the revelations of his last case where he confronted the ghosts of his pasAt and questioned the very nature of justice and mercy in the hard country of the West.
Deep in the heart of the Wyoming countryside, Sheriff of Absaroka County, Walt Longmire, is called to a crime scene like few others that he has seen. This crime brings up issues that go back to Walt’s grandfather’s time in Wyoming, as the revelations he learns about his grandfather come back to offer clues and motives for Walt’s investigation. Filled with back-country action, and with the great cast of characters that readers have come to love with the Longmire series, this new book will be sure to satisfy both long-time readers and those new to the series.
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
Release Date: September 5th
In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling standalone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the “expansive, atmospheric American saga” (Entertainment Weekly) This Tender Land.
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.
Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
Both a complex, spellbinding mystery and a masterful portrait of midcentury American life from an author of novels “as big-hearted as they come” (Parade), The River We Remember is an unflinching look at the wounds left by the wars we fight abroad and at home, a moving exploration of the ways in which we seek to heal, and a testament to the enduring power of the stories we tell about the places we call home.
Tom Clancy Weapons Grade by Don Bentley
Release Date: September 5th
The aftermath of a shocking crime sends Jack Ryan, Jr., down a path that leads to international destruction in the latest entry in this #1 New York Times bestselling series.
The quiet of a Texas night is shattered by the sounds of screeching brakes, crumpling metal and, most shockingly, rapid gunfire. The auto accident Jack Ryan Jr thought he witnessed turned out to be a professional hit. Jack may be too late to save the victim, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to let the hitters escape justice.
He’s got just one lead—a meeting the victim was going to. When Jack shows up instead, he’s drawn into the seedy underbelly of a small, Texas town and the cold case of a college student who vanished from its streets.
Jack is left with nothing but questions. Who wants it to look like the victim was drunk? Why does someone want an innocent witness killed? And most of all, what’s a team of South African hitmen doing in the Lone Star State?
His quest for answers will take Jack from a quiet Texas road to the middle of an international conspiracy and may just cost him his life.
Release Date: September 5th
Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.
“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” —BILL HODGES
Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.
“I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr. Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.” —STEPHEN KING
Clive Cussler Condor’s Fury by Graham Brown
Release Date: September 5th
Kurt Austin faces mind-control technology and cutting-edge weaponry in the latest novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series created by the “grand master of adventure” Clive Cussler.
On a NUMA training mission in the Caribbean, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala catch a distress call from a nearby freighter. Leaping into action, they locate a damaged vessel and a dead captain clutching a shotgun.
While searching the freighter for clues, Kurt and Joe are ambushed by crew members who seem terrified and disoriented, almost brainwashed. The trawler they were hauling has vanished, taken—the men say—by baffling lights that circled the ship.
Kurt and Joe deduce that the men are suffering from Havana Syndrome, which deepens the mystery and raises the stakes. Soon, they’re confronting Cuban mercenaries who plan to use magnificent modern airships to hijack a nuclear submarine—culminating in a life-or-death showdown in the skies.
Facing the Enemy by DiAnn Mills
Release Date: September 5th
For the past five years, FBI Special Agent Risa Jacobs has worked in the violent crimes against children division of the Houston FBI. She’s never had reason to believe there’s a target on her back . . . until now.
When the long-awaited reunion between Risa and her brother, Trenton, ends in tragedy, Risa is riddled with guilt, unable to cope with the responsibility she feels over his death. On leave from the FBI, Risa returns to her former career as an English teacher at a local college, only to see her past and present collide when one of her students, Carson Mercury, turns in an assignment that reads like an eyewitness account of her brother’s murder, with details never revealed publicly.
Alarmed by Carson’s inside knowledge of Trenton’s death, Risa reaches out to her former partner at the FBI. Special Agent Gage Patterson has been working a string of baby kidnappings, but he agrees to help look into Carson’s background. Risa and Gage soon discover their cases might be connected as a string of high-value thefts have occurred at properties where security systems were installed by Carson’s stepfather and children have gone missing. There’s a far more sinister plot at play than they ever imagined, and innocent lives are in danger.
For fans of romantic suspense comes a heart-pounding thriller about loss, betrayal, and finding the strength to trust again.
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
Release Date: September 5th
Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.
A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Think: Gilmore Girls, but with murder.
“Mother-Daughter Murder Night is the perfect mix of family drama and murder mystery.” — Kellye Garrett, award-winning author of Like a Sister
High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of:her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.
Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.
With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.
It Ends with Night by Yasmin Angoe
Release Date: September 5th
In this thrilling conclusion of the Nena Knight series, the trained assassin will have to confront the ghosts of her past…before she becomes one herself.
Until his untimely death, Nena’s mentor was the backbone of the Tribe. With his leadership position unfilled and despite the Tribe’s newfound misgivings about her, Nena has stepped into a new role she never wanted.
Politics is an entirely new venture for her, and now one of the Tribe’s own has been kidnapped, forcing her back to her origins as an assassin. But the only person qualified for such a rescue mission is Nena Knight―and a new team whose trust in her continues to waver.
Determined to harness the power of her former role to succeed in her new one, Nena must also face what she left behind. Old fears, resentments, and anger threaten the precarious hold Nena has on her new life as she realizes that the past―and the people from it―are never far behind.
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves
Release Date: September 5th
Ann Cleeves―New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows―returns with The Raging Storm, the extraordinary third installment in the Matthew Venn series.
Fierce winds, dark secrets, deadly intentions.
When Jem Rosco―sailor, adventurer, and legend―blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.
This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded.
As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets.
“A friend of mine once joked that the work of Ann Cleeves is the closest the crime fiction genre comes to evoking ASMR―the euphoric, pleasant, spine-tingling sensation that’s all the rage on YouTube. The books never get too dark, never venture too far into dangerous territory, but aren’t outright cozy, either.”―The New York Time
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The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
Release Date: September 12th
A gripping standalone spy thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Slow Horses, with a riveting reveal about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin—an absolute must-read for Slough House fans.
New from the author of Slow Horses, now an Apple Original series from Apple TV+, starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating “historical over-reaching” by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so.
But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain.
Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.
The Secret Hours is a dazzling entry point into Mick Herron’s body of work, a standalone spy thriller that is at once unnerving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. It is also the breathtaking secret history that Slough House fans have been waiting for.
The Enchanters by James Ellroy
Release Date: September 12th
James Ellroy—Demon Dog of American Letters—goes straight to the tragic heart of 1962 Hollywood with a wild riff on the Marilyn Monroe death myth in an astonishing, behind-the-headlines crime epic.
Los Angeles, August 4, 1962. The city broils through a midsummer heat wave. Marilyn Monroe ODs. A B-movie starlet is kidnapped. The overhyped LAPD overreacts. Chief Bill Parker’s looking for some getback. The Monroe deal looks like a moneymaker. He calls in Freddy Otash.
The freewheeling Freddy O: tainted ex-cop, defrocked private eye, dope fiend, and freelance extortionist. A man who lives by the maxim “Opportunity is love.” Freddy gets to work. He dimly perceives Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapped starlet to be a poisonous riddle that only he has the guts and the brains to untangle. We are with him as he tears through all those who block his path to the truth. We are with him as he penetrates the faux-sunshine of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the shuck of Camelot. We are with him as he falters, and grasps for love beyond opportunity. We are with him as he tracks Marilyn Monroe’s horrific last charade through a nightmare L.A. that he served to create — and as he confronts his complicity and his own raging madness.
It’s the Summer of ’62, baby. Freddy O’s got a hot date with history. The savage Sixties are ready to pop. It’s just a shot away.
The Enchanters is a transcendent work of American popular fiction. It is James Ellroy at his most crazed, brilliant, provocative, profanely hilarious, and stop-your-heart tender. It is a luminous psychological drama and an unparalleled thrill ride. It is, resoundingly, the great American crime novel.
Gangsters Don’t Die by Tod Goldberg
Release Date: September, 12th
The “gloriously original” (The New York Times) and critically acclaimed crime series starring a Chicago hitman hiding out as a rabbi in the desert suburbs of Las Vegas comes to its thrilling conclusion
Mafia hit-man-turned-rabbi Sal Cupertine is ready to get out of the life. But it’s not going to be easy. His once-brilliant plan to pass himself off as Rabbi David Cohen is unraveling. Enemies on both sides of the law are hot on his trail. His wife and son are unreachable in witness protection and are probably in danger. In order to find his family, get out of the desert alive, and salvage his long-sought-after happy ending, Sal is going to have to confront some very bad people from his past.
Native American kingpin Peaches Pocotillo has wrested control of Chicago’s mob family while expanding his criminal empire in the west, and now seeks to settle an old score with Sal. These two antiheroes have a history that stretches back decades, and the blood feud between Peaches and Sal will lead them to a violent showdown deep in the heart of the low desert.
As complications cast old revelations in a new light, including one that stretches back to the long-ago death of Sal’s infamous gangster father Dark Billy Cupertine, Sal must team up with some unlikely allies—and confront the reality of who he has become—in this stunning conclusion to the popular and critically acclaimed Gangsterland trilogy.
Blessing of the Lost Girls by J.A. Jance
Release Date: September 19th
From J. A. Jance’s New York Times bestselling Brady and Walker novels, federal investigator Dan Pardee, Brandon Walker’s son-in-law, crosses paths with Sheriff Joanna Brady as he traces the bloody path of a merciless serial killer across the Southwest in this intense thriller.
Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. He chooses those he believes are the most vulnerable, wandering alone and distracted, before he strikes. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes—or their identities—behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement’s history of ignoring their disappearances.
A cold case has just been assigned to Dan Pardee, a field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force. Rosa Rios, a young woman of Apache descent and one-time rodeo star, vanished three years ago. Human remains, a homicide victim burned beyond recognition, were discovered in Cochise County around the time she went missing. They have finally been confirmed to be Rosa. With Sheriff Joanna Brady’s help, Dan is determined to reopen the case and bring long-awaited justice to Rosa’s family. As the orphaned son of a murdered indigenous woman, he feels an even greater, personal obligation to capture this killer.
Joanna’s daughter Jennifer is also taking a personal interest in this case, having known Rosa from her own amateur rodeo days. Now a criminal justice major, she’s unofficially joining the investigation. And as it becomes clear that Rosa was just one victim of a serial killer, both Jennifer and Dan know they’re running out of time to catch an elusive predator who’s proven capable of getting away with murder.
Release Date: September 19th
From Lou Berney, the acclaimed, multi award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone, comes a Dark Ride
Sometimes the person you least expect is just the hero you need
Twenty-one-year-old Hardy “Hardly” Reed—good-natured, easygoing, usually stoned—is drifting through life. A minimum-wage scare actor at an amusement park, he avoids unnecessary effort and unrealistic ambitions.
Then one day he notices two children, around six or seven, sitting all alone on a bench. Hardly checks if they’re okay and sees injuries on both children. Someone is hurting these kids.
He reports the incident to Child Protective Service.
That should be the end of it. After all, Hardly’s not even good at looking out for himself so the last thing he wants to do is look out for anyone else. But he’s haunted by the two kids, his heart breaking for them. And the more research he does the less he trusts that Child Protective Services —understaffed and overworked—will do anything about it.
That leaves…Hardly. He is probably the last person you’d ever want to count on. But those two kids have nobody else but him. Hardly has to do what’s right and help them.
For the first time in his life, Hardly decides to fight for something. This might be the one point in his entire life, he realizes, that is the entire point of his life. He will help those kids.
At first, trying to gather evidence that will force the proper authorities to intervene, Hardly is a total disaster. Gradually, with assistance from unexpected allies, he develops investigative skills and discovers he’s smarter and more capable than he ever imagined.
But Hardly also discovers that the situation is more dangerous than he ever expected. The abusive father who has been hurting these children isn’t just a lawyer—he also runs a violent drug-dealing operation. The mother claims she wants to escape with the kids—but Hardly isn’t sure he can trust her.
Faced with a different version of himself than he has ever known, Hardly refuses to give up. But his commitment to saving these kids from further harm might end up getting the kids, and Hardly himself, killed.
Call the Dark
by J. Todd Scott
Release Date: September 19th
From author J. Todd Scott comes a haunting thriller about a young plane crash survivor and a mysterious hiker who venture into the wilderness to escape a dark and vengeful force.
A small white plane hurtles from the sky, vanishing into the wilderness. Hiker Maggie Roby watches its final descent, certain that no one could have survived.
But to her shock, a fifteen-year-old girl emerges from the wreckage, wounded but miraculously, impossibly alive. Maggie approaches with trepidation; she has secrets of her own, a past she can’t escape. Saving the girl means risking her future, but she can’t just abandon her, can she?
With the young survivor, Maggie embarks on a dangerous trek through the remote Appalachian backcountry, joining up with two veterans from the local sheriff’s department who know the land better than anyone.
But even as Maggie charts their course through the mountains, she can sense someone―or something―else watching and waiting.
Their journey is about more than enduring the elements. It’s about escaping a sinister presence that makes a vast wilderness feel like it’s closing in.
Release Date: September 19th
British spy Emma Makepeace goes undercover on a Russian oligarch’s superyacht, where she’s one wrong move away from a watery grave, in this electrifying thriller from the author of Alias Emma.
“Emma Makepeace is a worthy heir to the James Bond mantle.”—James Patterson
An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one thing: Someone is sending a message.
As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man—whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and clear: Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?
To pick up where he left off without ending up in a suitcase of her own, Emma goes undercover on one of the oligarch’s million-dollar yachts, scheduled to set sail from the Côte d’Azur to Monaco. Under other circumstances, this would be a dream vacation. But if Emma’s real identity gets discovered, it’s a death sentence.
As Emma’s work reveals secrets she’d be safer not knowing, the danger ratchets up. The killer may be closer to home than any of them imagined, and Emma won’t be safe until he—or she—is caught.
12 Months to Live
by James Patterson and Mike Lupica
Release Date: September 26th
Patterson and Lupica make a great team” (Carl Hiaasen) who get “deep into the lives of strong women” (Louise Penny) and Jane Smith is their greatest creation—a badass lawyer with a year to live.
“Jane Smith is the best character we’ve ever created. Bar none.”
—James Patterson and Mike Lupica
Tough-as-nails criminal defense attorney Jane Smith is hip-deep in the murder trial of the century.
Actually, her charmless client might’ve committed several murders.
She’s also fallen in love with a wonderful guy. And an equally wonderful dog, a mutt.
But Jane doesn’t have much time. She’s just received a terminal diagnosis giving her twelve months.
Unless she’s murdered before her expiration date.
No Reserve by Felix Francis
Release Date: September 26th
The master of suspense and intrigue” (Country Life) is back with the next powerful installation in the Dick Francis series, perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Michael Connelly.
Theo Jennings, an auctioneer in Newmarket, England, has been climbing the ladder at the bloodstock sales company for the past three years. He’s planning on making his first ever multi-million sale with a yearling colt. When he finds the colt dead a few days after the auction, Theo is suspicious that there was foul play involved.
As Theo begins to investigate the death, he finds that answers aren’t coming readily from those who he questions. When a person’s body is discovered in the same stable a few days later, all fingers point to him. As his world turns upside down with the accusations, Theo decides to further his investigation.
The only way to clear Theo’s name is to find the real murderer, but it isn’t just the police who have their eye on him–the killer has a target on his back.
Traitor’s Gate by Jeffrey Archer
Release Date: September 26th
24 hours to stop the crime of the century
The race against time is about to begin…
THE TOWER OF LONDON…
Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, when the Queen attends the State Opening of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armory as they transport the Crown Jewels across London.
SCOTLAND YARD…
For decades, the elite squad at Scotland Yard have been in charge of the operation. And for decades, it’s run like clockwork.
THE HEIST…
But this year, everything is about to change. Because a master criminal has set his sights on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history―and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favor.
Unless the team can stop him before it’s too late…
An unputdownable new thriller from the master storyteller
The Rising Order
by Claire Isenthal
Release Date: October 3
Fynn faces an impossible choice―save her family and friends or save the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Flynn Zarytsky, recruiter for the Chicago mega-tech company Magnetic, comes face-to-face with true terror amid a horrific mass shooting by homegrown terrorist organization REDS. Wolf, a REDS soldier, has her in his sights, then decides to spare her life. But in doing so, he may have ensnared her in a fate worse than death.
REDS’ master plan is to make society pay for its greed and to establish a new order. Wolf sees manipulating Flynn in her role at Magnetic as the perfect way to infiltrate the tech company and use its reach to unleash catastrophic devastation on the city of Chicago and topple civilization. He never expected Flynn could chip away at his resolve and question REDS’ mission. And she never dreamed she’d be a pawn in a dangerous game that forces her to leave the citizens of Chicago vulnerable to slaughter so that her loved ones can live.
The Rising Order is a gripping read for fans of Homeland and the Divergent series looking for an adult take on the lead-up to a dystopian society.
The Last Exchange by Charles Martin
Release Date: October 3
“Here’s the catch—even if I make it out of here alive, I need a reason to breathe again.”
When MacThomas Pockets finished his last tour as part of the Scottish Special Forces, he was hired to consult for a film director to finesse some scenes that weren’t working. In a twist he never saw coming, he ended up moving to L.A. to work as the bodyguard for movie star Maybe Joe Sue.
It didn’t take long for Pockets to realize there were two Joe Sues: The Joe Sue the public saw with her perfect life and her Hollywood husband. And the private Joe Sue: the one with the traumatic youth that no amount of pills could cover up, who desperately wanted a child of her own.
Even after their paths diverged, he continued to track Joe Sue’s life. Only a few would notice when the bottom fell out. But he did. And that’s when he stepped in.
One man seeks to answer the question: How far would you go—really— to save someone you love? And in the masterful hands of New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin, finding the answer will take readers on an intense and heart-wrenching journey to the very end.
The Honeymoon Heist by Brad Taylor
Release Date: October 3
New York Times bestselling author and former Special Forces officer Brad Taylor’s thrilling new short story sets Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill on Italy’s beautiful Amalfi Coast for their long-delayed honeymoon with their daughter, Amena—where they encounter art thieves with ties to the underworld . . .
Between the delectable meals, the gorgeous Mediterranean seaside, and historical sites, Pike and Jennifer are enjoying their time with Amena in the Italian village of Positano, grateful for the reprieve from their day jobs—protecting U.S. interests from terrorist threats. But their relaxing vacation runs into trouble when Amena and Pike uncover what appears to be a priceless Renaissance painting hidden in a grotto and soon find themselves in the center of a black market art scheme.
A powerful Italian businessman and suspected crime lord had arranged to take possession of the rare, deeply significant Caravaggio artwork in the cave through less-than-legal means, and hadn’t counted on the trio of Americans interrupting his plot. He is determined to leave no witnesses . . . but when he dares to threaten Pike and his family, he learns how dangerous they truly are . . .
Judegemnt Prey by John Sandford
Release Date: October 3
Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers team up to crack an unsolvable case in this thrilling new novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.
Alex Sand was spending the evening at home playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there’s no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Sands, but the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Sand was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities, and with the money in limbo, eyes suddenly turn to his grieving widow, Margaret Cooper, to see what she might do with the money. Margaret, distraught over the death of her family, struggles to move forward, and can’t imagine how or why anyone would target her husband.
With public pressure mounting and both the local police force and FBI hitting dead end after dead end, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to do what others could not: find answers. With each potential lead flawed, Davenport and Flowers are determined to chase every theory until they figure out who killed the Sands. But when they find themselves being stonewalled by the most unlikely of forces, the two wonder if perhaps each misdirection could lead them closer to the truth.
The Night House by Jo NesboRelease Date: October 3
From the internationally best-selling author, a chilling fresh spin on the classic horror novel • When the voices call, don’t answer.
“In The Night House, the horror begins immediately. And it only keeps calling from there.”—Josh Malerman, New York Times best-selling author of Bird Box and Spin a Black Yarn
In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .
She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.
When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.
Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .
Moscow XRelease Date: October 3
A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?
CIA officers Sia and Max enter Russia under commercial cover to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London law firm that conceals the wealth of the superrich. Max’s family business in Mexico―a CIA front since the 1960s―is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple to target Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who―unbeknownst to CIA―is a Russian intelligence officer under deep cover at the bank. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s only hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. Careening between the horse ranch in northern Mexico, the corridors of Langley, and the dark opulence of Putin’s Russia, Moscow X is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a raw, unsparing commentary on the nature of truth, loyalty, and vengeance amid the shadow war between the United States and Russia.
Mrs Pargeter’s Patio by Simon Brett
Release Date: October 3
A bizarre discovery right under Mrs Pargeter’s patio turns a quiet and sunny June morning into a thrilling hunt for answers in this new instalment of the light-hearted and entertaining Mrs Pargeter mystery series.
When widow Mrs Pargeter decides to have her morning coffee on the patio of her mansion in Chigwell, her intention is to admire her beautiful garden in peace and quiet. Little does she expect one of the patio’s paving slabs to crack in two, depositing her on the ground – and revealing a human skull with a neat hole in the middle of its forehead!
Not wanting to bother the police just yet, Mrs Pargeter decides to save them some trouble and starts investigating the curious find herself. And who better to assist than her late husband’s ‘business associates’, private investigator Truffler Mason and chauffeur Gary?
The trio are soon certain that a murder has been committed and the body disposed of under some convenient building works. But who is the mysterious victim? And more importantly, who put the body under Mrs Pargeter’s patio?
Mrs Pargeter and her friends must find out the truth and soon, before the finger of suspicion points in an unthinkable direction: towards the late, great Mr Pargeter, whose business dealings Mrs P remains – naturally! – in blissful ignorance of . . .
Mrs Pargeter’s Patio is the ninth book in the series by CWA’s Diamond Dagger winner Simon Brett. Fans of cozy mysteries will enjoy this funny and exciting ride with unexpected twist and turns.
Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker
Release Date: October 3
When sixteen-year-old Sara Parcell goes missing, it’s an utter tragedy—and an entertaining national obsession—in this thoughtful and addictively readable novel that offers a fresh and provocative take on whodunits and true crime
Sara Parcell disappeared without a trace on a crisp April morning in Frederick, Maryland. Her tragic story was a national obsession and the centerpiece of a controversial television docuseries that followed her disappearance in real time. But is it possible that everyone missed the biggest secret of all?
Ten years after these events, the people who knew Sara best are finally ready to talk. In this genre-bending novel, Daniel Sweren-Becker fashions an oral history around the seemingly familiar crime of a teenage girl gone missing. Yet Kill Show, filled with diabolical twists and provocative social commentary, is no standard mystery. Through “interviews” with family members, neighbors, law enforcement, television executives, and a host of other compelling characters, Sweren-Becker constructs a riveting tale about one family’s tragedy—and Hollywood’s insatiable desire to exploit it.
By revealing the seedy underbelly of the true crime entertainment machine, Kill Show probes literary territory beyond the bounds of the standard whodunit; it’s a thoughtful exploration into America’s obsession with the mysteries, cold cases, and violent tales we turn to for comfort. Groundbreaking, fast-moving, and informed, this is a novel about who’s really responsible for the tragedies we love to consume.
Beirut StationRelease Date: October 3
A stunning new espionage novel by a master of the genre, Beirut Station follows a young female CIA officer whose mission to assassinate a high-level, Hezbollah terrorist reveals a dark truth that puts her life at risk.
Lebanon, 2006.
The Israel-Hezbollah war is tearing Beirut apart: bombs are raining down, residents are scrambling to evacuate, and the country is on the brink of chaos.
In the midst of this turmoil, the CIA and Mossad are targeting a reclusive Hezbollah terrorist, Najib Qassem. Najib is believed to be planning the assassination of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is coming to Beirut in ten days to broker a cease-fire. The spy agencies are running out of time to eliminate the threat.
They turn to a young Lebanese-American CIA agent. Analise comes up with the perfect plan: she has befriended Qassem’s grandson as his English tutor, and will use this friendship to locate the terrorist and take him out. As the plan is put into action, though, Analise begins to suspect that Mossad has a motive of its own: exploiting the war’s chaos to eliminate a generation of Lebanese political leaders.
She alerts the agency but their response is for her to drop it. Analise is now the target and there is no one she can trust: not the CIA, not Mossad, and not the Lebanese government. And the one person she might have to trust—a reporter for the New York Times—might not be who he says he is…
A tightly-wound international thriller, Beirut Station is Paul Vidich’s best novel to date.
Release Date: October 3
What happens when two serial killers begin to compete with each other?
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner comes a new high-octane thriller in the acclaimed UNSUB series.
FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix faces a case from nightmares.
In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders.
Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one, but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash to hunt down an unstoppable killer.
The Last Guardian by Simon Gervais
Release Date: October 10th
In this thrilling installment of the Clayton White series, the former Secret Service agent must sift through layers of deception to uncover the truth behind the FBI director’s assassination and avert a global catastrophe.
Fighting the fentanyl epidemic in the United States is a top priority for President Alexander Hammond, and there’s only one man he trusts―however begrudgingly―to lead the task force: former Secret Service agent and soon-to-be son-in-law Clayton White.
Once reckless in his line of work, White is now determined to keep his future in mind. He and his fiancée, Veronica, are expecting their first child, and there are some risks White is no longer willing to take. But when his investigation into the Red Dragon Triad drug cartel appears to lead to the assassination of the FBI director, White is forced to put his life on the line to find out who is behind the attack and what they’re planning next.
Amid a series of secret identities, betrayals, and terrorist plots, Clayton White must join forces with allies he’s not sure he can trust to save the country he’s sworn to protect and the family he’s vowed to love.
The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright
Release Date: October 10th
It promises beauty but steals life instead. Will the ghosts of Barlowe Theater entomb them all?
Barlowe Theater stole the life of Greta Mercy’s eldest brother during its construction. Now in 1915, the completed theater appears every bit as deadly. When Greta’s younger brother goes missing after breaking into the building, Greta engages the assistance of a local police officer to help her unveil the already ghostly secrets of the theater. But when help comes from an unlikely source, Greta decides that to save her family she must uncover the evil that haunts the theater and put its threat to rest.
Decades later, Kit Boyd’s best friend vanishes during a ghost walk at the Barlowe Theater, and old stories of mysterious disappearances and ghoulish happenings are revived. Then television ghost-hunting host and skeptic Evan Fisher joins Kit in the quest to identify the truth behind the theater’s history. Kit reluctantly agrees to work with him in hopes of finding her missing friend. As the theater’s curse unravels Kit’s life, she is determined to put an end to the evil that has marked the theater and their hometown for the last century.
Jaime Jo Wright’s Books Will Mesmerize You With . . .
“Intoxicating menace, eerie elegance, and satisfying suspense.”–Booklist starred review
“A twisting, fast-moving plot loaded with secrets.”–Publishers Weekly
“A delightfully creepy tale where nothing is quite as it seems.”–Library Journal
Obsession by Stuart Woods & Brett Battles
Release Date: October 10th
Teddy Fay must put all his skills to the test in this electrifying new adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.
While filming on location in scenic Santa Barbara, California, Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti look to expand Centurion Studios’ business by making a deal with a young Croatian tech billionaire. But when the magnate’s wife is kidnapped, Teddy Fay is brought in to assess the threat and recover the young woman.
As Teddy unravels the threads of her disappearance, he quickly comes to find an old vendetta seethes at the center, one that puts them all at risk. And danger is lurking even nearer to home as an obsessive fan with perilous intentions weasels his way onto the film set. It’s only Teddy who can stop him from getting too close for comfort.
GenevaRelease Date: October 10th
A bold and unpredictable debut thriller set in the biotech world (and deceptive beauty) of Switzerland, by acclaimed actor Richard Armitage.
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has taken a step back from work to spend more time with her family. Movie nights with her husband Daniel and their daughter Maddie are a welcome respite from the scrutiny of the world’s press. As much as it hurts, it’s good to be able to see her father more too. He’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and needs special care.
Sarah has started to show tell-tale signs of the disease too. She’s been experiencing blackouts and memory loss. It’s early days but she must face the possibility that she won’t be there to see her daughter grow up. Daniel, a neuroscientist himself, is doing his best to be supportive but she already knows that she will have to be the strong one. For all of them.
So when Sarah is invited to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference in Geneva she declines, wanting to stay out of the public eye—that is until Daniel shows her the kind of work that the enigmatic Mauritz Schiller has been developing.
Flown first class to the spectacular alpine city and housed in a luxury hotel, Sarah and Daniel are thrust back into the spotlight. As they try to shut out the noise of the public media storm, in private Sarah is struggling with her escalating symptoms. And the true extent of what Schiller has achieved is a revelation. This is technology that could change medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.
But technology so valuable attracts all kinds of interest. Wealthy investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and someone close to Schiller seems bent on taking advantage of the situation for themselves. Sarah feels threatened and does not know who to trust—including herself. Far from being her lifeline Schiller’s technology may be her undoing.
As events spiral out of control, Sarah and Daniel are faced with the ultimate question: how far would you go for someone you love?
The Defector by Chris Hadfield
Release Date: October 10th
From a New York Times bestselling author, astronaut, and fighter pilot comes a “full-throttle, adrenaline-laced espionage page-turner” (Jack Carr, New York Times bestselling author) and Cold War thriller perfect for fans of Top Gun and The Hunt for Red October.
Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviet MiG fighter plane plummets to an unexpected landing. NASA Flight Controller and former US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches from the ground—unaware that its arrival will pull him into a high-stakes game of spies, lies, and secrets that hold the key to Cold War air and space supremacy.
For within that plane is a Soviet pilot pleading to defect, offering a prize beyond value: the workings of the Soviets’ mythical “Foxbat” MiG-25, the fastest, highest-flying fighter plane in the world. But trusting him is risky, and Kaz must tread a careful line. As Kaz accompanies the defector into the United States, to the military’s most secret test site, he must hope that, with skill and cunning, the game plays out his way.
Rich with insider detail and political intrigue drawn from real events, The Defector is a propulsive thriller from a growing master of the genre, filled with the nerve-shredding rush of aerial combat as it could only be told by one of the world’s best fighter pilots.
“Wondering what to do until Top Gun 3 arrives? Don’t worry, Hadfield’s got it covered.” —Rowland White
“Brimming with detail and realism and full of pulse-pounding action.” —Mark Greaney
“Hadfield’s writing is superb. Fans of The Apollo Murders will seek out this one, but newcomers will also thoroughly enjoy it.” —Booklist
Release Date: October 17th
#1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham delivers high-flying international suspense in a stunning new legal thriller that marks the return of Mitch McDeere, the brilliant hero of The Firm.
What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of America’s favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications—and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhere to hide.
(NOTE: For big fans of Grisham, this book will also be published in a *signed* limited edition hardcover version with printed endpapers, foil stamping, a cloth slipcase, and a ribbon marker. You can pre-order that version here.)
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
Release Date: October 17th
New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson pens a spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.
But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?
Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons late.
Release Date: October 17th
“Astoundingly original, relentlessly paced, and purely authentic.” —Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
An elite secret society of killers has controlled the world’s treasures for hundreds of years…until one member tears himself free to salvage his soul and protect his daughter’s life in this electrifying and thrilling debut.
The single greatest work of art in the world is not in the Louvre or The Met, or in any private collection. In fact, its whereabouts are unknown.
Once in a long while, a child is born possessing the rarest of gifts, the innate ability to feel impossible beauty, to recognize priceless works of art. When such a child is discovered, a 250-year-old secret organization called Our World trains them to acquire the greatest works of art through theft, bribery, forgery, and even murder. Once found, the masterpiece will disappear again without anyone ever knowing it surfaced and sold for billions of dollars of profit at a secret auction attended by only the wealthiest of the art world’s patrons.
One of Our World’s rare geniuses is Zhivago. He is also a psychopathic killer. On his trail is Hunter, a man who will stop at nothing to destroy the organization and save his daughter from suffering the same fate her mother did at its hands.
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
Release Date: October 24th
A SheReads “Most Anticipated” Thriller
Instead of presents this Christmas, a true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case…
Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would much rather forget. She’s the only surviving victim of Evan Handy, the man who was convicted of murdering her best friend Steph, and is suspected in the disappearance of two sisters, also good friends of Madeline’s, who have been missing for nearly a decade. It’s an investigation that has obsessed her father Sheriff James Martin right up until his stroke took his faculties.
Harley Granger has a gift for seeing things that others miss. He wasn’t much of a novelist, but his work as a true crime author and podcaster has earned him fame and wealth―and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Still, visiting Little Valley to be closer to his dying father has caused him to look into a case that many people think is closed―and some want reopened. And he has a lot of questions about the night Stephanie Cramer was killed, Ainsley and Sam Wallace disappeared, and Madeline Martin was left for dead, bleeding out on a riverbank.
Since Evan Handy went to jail, three other young women have gone missing, most recently a young college dropout named Lolly. Five young women missing in the same area in a decade. Are they connected? Was Evan Handy innocent after all? Or was there some else there that night? Someone who is still satisfying his dark appetites?
As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline and her childhood friend Badger return to a past they both hoped was dead―to find the missing Lolly and to answer questions that have haunted them both, discovering that the truth is more terrible and much closer to home than they think.
Coupling a picturesque, cozy setting with a deeply unsettling suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal novella that can be enjoyed all year long.
Testament
by Wilbur Smith (with Mark Chadbourn)
Release Date: October 24th
A brand-new Ancient Egyptian epic from the number 1 bestselling author.
Global bestselling author of River God and The New Kingdom, Wilbur Smith, returns with the next epic book in his brand-new Ancient Egyptian series.
IN THE RUINS OF BATTLE
A HERO MUST RISE
FOR THE FUTURE OF EGYPT
Years of Hyksos rule have seen the ruin and suffering of a once-mighty Egypt. Though Pharaoh is now restored to his rightful throne, his power fragile as some seek to take advantage of the ensuing chaos following the overthrowing of the Hyksos. Desperate to unite the two divided kingdoms of Egypt under Pharaoh’s rule, great mage Taita sends his protégé, Piay, to discover the answer to a millennia-old riddle which has the power to secure the fate of Egypt forever.
But in the chaos of war, a dark evil has thrived.
With the fate of Egypt at stake, Piay races across the desert chasing the clues from the riddle. Can he prevent their beloved land falling into the hands of those who would see its ruin?
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen
Release Date: November 1st
A retired CIA operative in small-town Maine tackles the ghosts of her past in this fresh take on the spy thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends―all retirees from the CIA―to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.
Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information―and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.
As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends―and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau―Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.
Dirty Thirty
by Janet Evanovich
Release Date: October 31
#1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich is in top form as she sends Stephanie Plum on the trail of a stolen cache of dirty diamonds.
Stephanie Plum, Trenton’s hardest working, most underappreciated bounty hunter, is offered a freelance assignment that seems simple enough. Local jeweler Martin Plover wants her to locate his former security guard, Andy Manley (a.k.a. Nutsy), who he is convinced stole a fortune in diamonds out of his safe. Stephanie is also looking for another troubled man, Duncan Dugan, a fugitive from justice arrested for robbing the same jewelry store on the same day.
With her boyfriend Morelli away in Miami on police business, Stephanie is taking care of Bob, Morelli’s giant orange dog who will devour anything, from Stephanie’s stray donuts to the upholstery in her car. Morelli’s absence also means the inscrutable, irresistible security expert Ranger is front and center in Stephanie’s life when things inevitably go sideways. And he seems determined to stay there.
To complicate matters, her best friend Lula is convinced she is being stalked by a mythological demon hell-bent on relieving her of her wardrobe. An overnight stakeout with Stephanie’s mother and Grandma Mazur reveals three generations of women with nerves of steel and driving skills worthy of NASCAR champions.
As the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won’t be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It’s a good thing Stephanie isn’t afraid of getting a little dirty, too.
Sons of Valor III: War Machine by Andrews & Wilson
Release Date: November 7th
In Sons of Valor III: War Machine, Chunk and Whitney are forced into a deadly match of wits with a terrorist mastermind and a terrifying weapon unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.
After a shootout in Dubai left Hamza al Saud dead and elevated brilliant aeronautical engineer Qasim Nadar to hero status in England, everyone assumes the terrorist threat from al Qadar has been eliminated. Everyone except JSOC counter-terrorism analyst Whitney Watts. But when she decides to help MI6 penetrate Nadar’s secret network, Watts she gets a little too close to the truth and finds herself in a deadly situation not even her teammates from Tier One can save her from.
As Lieutenant Commander Keith “Chunk” Redman and the rest of Tier One fan out across London in search of Watts, Nadar prepares to unleash his most dangerous weapon yet — an advanced drone with artificial intelligence and stealth technology. To stop a horrifying attack on London, Chunk and his Navy SEAL brethren must seek help from an unexpected ally and find a way to stop a war machine that was designed to be unstoppable.
BetrayalRelease Date: November 7th
In Phillip Margolin’s Betrayal, attorney Robin Lockwood finds herself defending her old nemesis in a multiple murder case with too many suspects, where success might cost her own life.
Robin Lockwood is now a prominent defense attorney in Portland, Oregon but a decade ago, she was a ranked and rising MMA fighter. Her career came to a quick end when she was knocked out and concussed in the first round by Mandy Kerrigan, a much more talented fighter.
Now the situation couldn’t be more different, with Kerrigan on her last legs, her career nearly over, arrested for the quadruple murder of the entire Finch family…and Kerrigan’s only possible friend is the attorney she beat so many years ago.
For Robin, it’s no simple case: Margaret Finch was a lawyer working for vicious Russian mobsters, and was in the cross-hairs of both the mobsters and the widower of a woman a client killed; her husband Nathan Finch was deeply in debt to a bookie who threatened his life; her son Ryan was the one who sold Kerrigan illegal performance enhancing drugs and was beaten severely by her when Kerrigan failed her drug test. To complicate matters further, the DA that Robin is facing is the man she’s just started dating, the first person she’s begun seeing seriously after her husband was killed.
In a case where the stakes are high and the truth is elusive, where each new fact twists the case in a new direction, there is seemingly no way to win or direction to turn that will leave Robin Lockwood unscathed.
The Twelve Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani
Release Date: November 7th
Eight friends created the exclusive Masquerade Murder Society while in college. The murders they solved were fictional—until their final masquerade, when one of the group disappeared. Twelve years later, the remaining members are invited to a reunion in the Scottish Highlands . . .
Twelve years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at university: The Masquerade Murder Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, and brilliantly staged, but they were always fictional—until their final Christmas Masquerade, when one of the group disappeared, never to be seen again.
Now our young, privileged cast of old university friends are summoned to the depths of Scotland for a Christmas-themed masquerade party. But all are hiding something deep below the surface that could make or break their careers. Charley is a struggling actress who has always been on the periphery of this high-flying group, but has decided to reunite with her frenemies on the promise of career help if she joins the old cast for one last weekend.
When they arrive each is assigned a new identity themed around the “Twelve Days of Christmas”—they become Lady Partridge or Mr. Gold; Lord Leapworth or Doctor Swan. The game begins, and it feels just like old times. Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging—dead—from a pear tree.
It quickly becomes clear that in this game the murder will be all too real, and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. Will Charley’s discerning eye and outsider status allow her to uncover the truth, or will she, too, fall prey to the murderer among them?
If the group hopes to win the game and survive until Christmas morning, they will need to face the truth about their history together and who they have become—and what really happened on that fateful night twelve years before.
CalicoRelease Date: November 7th
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller – with a mind-blowing twist.
There’s a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .
The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.
But it’s the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.
Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.
His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identity a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm.
Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past . . . and a past that’s not her own . . . until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.
The Beautiful and Wild by Peggy Townsend
Release Date: November 7th
The dangers of Alaska aren’t limited to storms, starvation, and grizzly bears. Sometimes the most dangerous thing is the person you love.
It’s summer in Alaska and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray. Around her is thick forest and jagged mountains. In front of her, across a clearing, is a low-slung cabin with a single window that spills a wash of yellow light onto bare ground. Illuminated in that light is the father of her child, a man she once loved. A man who is now her jailor. Liv vows to do anything to escape.
Carrying her own secrets and a fierce need to protect her young son, Liv must navigate a new world where extreme weather, starvation, and dangerous wildlife are not the only threats she faces. With winter’s arrival imminent, she knows she must reckon with her past and the choices that brought her to the unforgiving Alaskan landscape if she is ever going to make it out alive.
A story of survival in the wilds of Alaska, The Beautiful and the Wild explores the question of whether we can ever truly know the person we love—or ourselves.
Release Date: November 7th
In this epic standalone from David Swinson “one of the best dialogue hounds in the business” (NYTBR), Homicide Detective Alex Blum must answer a terrible question: ‘how far would you go to love the wrong woman?’
In a red brick house on a tree-lined street, DC homicide detective Alex Blum stares at the bullet-pocked body of Chris Doyle. As he roots around for evidence, he finds an old polaroid: the decedent, arm in arm with Arthur Holland, Blum’s informant from years ago when he worked at the Narcotics branch.
But Arthur has been missing for days. Blum’s only source: Arthur’s girl, Celeste—beautiful, seductive, and tragic—whom he can’t get out of his head. Blum is drawn to her and feels compelled to save her from Arthur’s underworld. As the investigation ticks on and dead bodies domino, Blum, unearths clues with damning implications for Celeste. Swallowed by desire, Blum’s single misstep sends him tunnelling down a rabbit hole of transgression. He may soon find the only way out is down below.
Set in 1999, Swinson, a former DC cop, offers a look back at a rougher, grittier, bygone DC replete with seedy strip clubs, pagers beeping, and Y2K anxiety. It’s here we’re taken inside sting operations, fluorescent-tinged interrogation chambers, and rooms that have seen irreversible mistakes. At once authentic, gritty, tragic, and profound, SWEET THING asks how far can you fall when the world teeters on the edge?
The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan
Release Date: November 7th
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny and What She Knew comes the terrifying story of what can happen after all your dreams come true
Be careful what you wish for…
Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom are a normal, loving couple—until a massive lottery win changes their lives overnight.
Soon they’ve moved into a custom-built state-of-the-art Glass Barn on the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. They have fancy cars, expensive hobbies, and an exclusive lifestyle they never could have imagined.
But this dream world quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool. Was Tom’s death a tragic accident, or was it something worse?
Nicole is devastated. Tom was her rock. And their beautiful barn —with all its smart features that never seem to work for her—is beginning to feel very lonely. But she’s not entirely by herself out there in the country. There’s a nice young couple who live in the Manor itself along with their middle-aged housekeeper who has the Coach House. And an old friend of Tom’s from school has turned up to help her get through her grief.
But big money can bring big problems and big threats. And is Nicole’s life in danger as well?
Nicole’s beginning to feel like a little fish in a big glass bowl.
Surrounded by piranhas.
Release Date: November 7th
Veteran agent Lachlan Kite―“a spy for the 21st century” (Daily Mail)―reckons with the fallout from a mission in Senegal carried out early in his career.
1995: In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, 24-year-old spy Lachlan Kite and his girlfriend, Martha Raine, are sent to Senegal on the trail of a hunted war criminal. The mission threatens to spiral out of control, forcing Kite to make choices which will have devastating consequences not only for his career at top-secret intelligence agency BOX 88, but also for his relationship with Martha.
2023: Eric Appiah, an old friend from Kite’s days at school and an off-the-record BOX 88 asset, makes contact with explosive information about what happened all those years ago in West Africa. When tragedy strikes, Kite must use all the resources at his disposal to protect Martha from a criminal network with links to international terror.
Charles Cumming once again straddles two timelines to create a high-tension thriller in this latest Lachlan Kite novel.
Clive Cussler The Corsican Shadow by Dirk Cussler
Release Date: November 7th
Intrepid adventurer Dirk Pitt must unravel an enduring historical mystery in the latest novel in the beloved New York Times best-selling series created by the “grand master of adventure” Clive Cussler.
In May 1940, as the German army blitzes Europe and Parisians flee their city, the chief curator of the Musee de l’Armee is ordered to get a mysterious piece of cargo out of the country. When he arrives at the port of Le Havre and learns that his intended ship has been sunk, he places the object on a decrepit steamer that sails out under German fire.
In the present day, National Underwater and Marine Agency Director Dirk Pitt is on a diving expedition in the English Channel when he discovers a cache of uncut diamonds on a shipwreck. When the diamonds are stolen, Pitt and the NUMA agency find themselves up against a murderous cabal that soon reveals far more destructive plans than mere theft. Vital water treatment facilities around the globe are being targeted—placing the world’s population in grave peril.
From the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to the depths of the Irish Sea to the islands of the Caribbean, only Dirk Pitt and his children, Summer and Dirk Jr., can locate the treasure that will preserve the soul of a nation…and save the world from catastrophe.
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly
Release Date: November 7th
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly: Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller enlists the help of his half-brother, Harry Bosch, to prove the innocence of a woman convicted of killing her husband.
Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. After getting a wrongfully convicted man out of prison, he is inundated with pleas from incarcerated people claiming innocence. He enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, to weed through the letters, knowing most claims will be false.
Bosch pulls a needle from the haystack: a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, but who still maintains her innocence. Bosch reviews the case and sees elements that don’t add up, and a sheriff’s department intent on bringing quick justice in the killing of one of its own.
Now Haller has an uphill battle in court, a David fighting Goliaths to vindicate his client. The path for both lawyer and investigator is fraught with danger from those who don’t want the case reopened and will stop at nothing to keep the Haller-Bosch dream team from finding the truth. Packed with intrigue and courtroom drama, Resurrection Walk shows once again that Michael Connelly is “the most consistently superior living crime fiction author” (South Florida Sun Sentinel).
Perfect Shot by Steve Urszenyi
Release Date: November 14th
A former Army sniper must fall back on her Special Ops skills when a friend’s death uncovers a global nuclear threat, in Steve Urszenyi’s Perfect Shot, the first in an electrifying new series featuring Special Agent Alexandra Martel.
Special Agent Alexandra Martel has put her days on the battlefield behind her. Charming and disarming, relentless and lethal, she earned a reputation as one of the most renowned and decorated Army snipers in the service before stepping away. But when Alex, now an FBI special agent on loan to Interpol, learns that an old friend, an MI5 officer, has been killed under mysterious circumstances, she’s pulled back into the dangerous world she left behind: a world where some people fear her, some want to recruit her, and everyone seems to want her dead.
Following a trail of clues left behind by the dead woman, Alex pieces together a terrifying conspiracy that only escalates when a nuclear warhead goes missing. Dodging death at every turn, she reluctantly joins forces with a CIA officer, but he has plans of his own for her―and will stop at nothing to achieve them.
Chasing the truth through the streets of London and bustling Turkish markets to the underbelly of Paris, Alex is unrelenting in her pursuit of justice. But as the clock ticks down and the world edges closer to doom, she must fall back on her Special Ops skills to stop the unthinkable. She thought her life as a sniper was over―but with stakes this high, she must use whatever means necessary to render the world safe.
Devil’s Own Day by Joe Goldberg
Release Date: November 14th
DEVIL’S OWN DAY
Bridger and the Spy Devils have only one mission after the murder of his mentor and an attack that nearly killed them all—wreaking havoc on their enemies.
Finally free from the control of May, his mother and now retired CIA handler, Bridger and the Spy Devils, are on a mission of vengeance. But Bridger’s problem is determining who deserves their wrath.
Is it the Mexican cartel leader furious over billions in lost sales?
Is it the CIA that wants to control the Spy Devils?
Is it the Chinese double agent who needs to protect his secret?
Is it the Chinese drug lord whose life Bridger destroyed?
One thing is certain—all options lead to Li Chu, the former Chinese assassin and Spy Devil nemesis. Li Chu has a revenge mission of his own—killing Bridger and the Spy Devils, and he doesn’t care who or what gets destroyed in the process.
Friends become enemies—and vice versa. Deals are made and broken. During it all, Bridger realizes his quest stands in the way of a future with Lena. Can he give up what he was born to do—espionage?
Bridger is forced to choose between loyalties, retribution, and his future. Every decision will determine who will live and who will die.
Release Date: November 14th
Brain disease worsening, Rick Cahill risks everything—even his life—to provide for his fractured family’s future
San Diego private investigator Rick Cahill’s past comes back to haunt him when he’s at his most vulnerable. His wife, Leah, has fled with their daughter, Krista, to her parents’ home in Santa Barbara. She fears Rick’s violent outbursts brought on by his potentially fatal brain disorder, CTE—and she doesn’t trust that he’ll ever be able to tame his manic desire to bring his own brand of justice to an unjust world.
Rick desperately wants to reunite his family and help provide for Krista’s future—one he fears he won’t be alive to see. A jumpstart toward that future appears in the form of Peter Stone, Rick’s longtime enemy. Stone offers Rick $50,000 to find a woman he claims can save his life with a kidney transplant. Rick can’t pass up the chance to buttress Krista’s future.
When what seems like a simple missing person case spirals out of control into cryptocurrency machinations, dead bodies, and an outgunned faceoff, Rick is forced to battle evil from his past. Can he stay alive long enough to see his family one last time?
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.
Murder Beyond the Pale by Wendy Church
Release Date: November 14th
The new Jesse O’Hara mystery, from the author of the acclaimed debut MURDER ON THE SPANISH SEAS, perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Janet Evanovich!
Jesse O’Hara is unemployed. “A million dollar brain and a ten-cent personality,” her last employer said. With nothing better to do, Jesse accepts a request to go to Ireland to help a relative find his missing daughter. She expects to find the young woman quickly, and is looking forward to spending her trip touring and drinking, not necessarily in that order.
Once in Ireland, it’s clear to Jesse that the missing woman has met with foul play. In the course of her investigation she goes to greater and greater lengths to get to the truth, causing her to antagonize Ireland’s most dangerous drug kingpin, not to mention the IRA and the local gardai.
Aided by her near-photographic memory and dogged perseverance, Jesse is close to uncovering the truth, even as other people start to turn up dead. But she’s warned away from the investigation, and when she doesn’t back off, she’s threatened, attacked, and kidnapped. And when she is accused of murder, Jesse must use every ounce of wit and brainpower she has (left) to find a killer and not end up six feet under.
The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak
Release Date: November 14th
IT’S THE CASE OF AMANDA’S LIFETIME, BUT SOLVING IT WILL REQUIRE HER TO BETRAY ANOTHER SPY—WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE HER FATHER.
SPYING IS THE FAMILY BUSINESS. Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. It takes grit to succeed in this male-dominated world—but one hot summer day, when a Russian defector walks into her post, Amanda is given the ultimate chance to prove herself.
The defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just the beginning.
Corporate blackmail, covert manipulation, corrupt oligarchs: the Kremlin has found a dangerous new way to wage war. Teaming up with Kath Frost, a fearless older woman and legendary spy, Amanda races from Rome to London, from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, unraveling the international conspiracy. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, a central question haunts her: Why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes? What does Charlie Cole really know about the Kremlin plot?
The Helsinki Affair is a riveting, globe-trotting spy thriller—but this time, with a refreshing female-centric twist. Perfect for fans of John le Carré and Daniel Silva, this book introduces Pitoniak as a singular new talent in the world of spy fiction.
Release Date: November 14th
The 6:20 Man is back, dropped by his handlers into a small coastal town in Maine to solve the murder of a CIA agent who knew America’s dirtiest secrets—can Travis Devine uncover the truth before his time runs out?
When CIA operative Jenny Silkwell is murdered in rural Maine, government officials have immediate concerns over national security. Her laptop and phone were full of state secrets that, in the wrong hands, endanger the lives of countless operatives. In need of someone who can solve the murder quickly and retrieve the missing information, the U.S. government knows just the chameleon they can call on.
Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine spent his time in the military preparing to take on any scenario, followed by his short-lived business career chasing shadows in the deepest halls of power, so his analytical mind makes him particularly well-suited for complex, high-stakes tasks. Taking down the world’s largest financial conspiracy proved his value, and in comparison, this case looks straightforward. Except small towns hold secrets and Devine finds himself an outsider again.
Devine must ingratiate himself with locals who have trusted each other their whole lives, and who distrust outsiders just as much. Dak, Jenny’s brother, who’s working to revitalize the town. Earl, the retired lobsterman who found Jenny’s body. And Alex, Jenny’s sister with a dark past of her own. As Devine gets to know the residents of Putnam, Maine, answers seem to appear and then transform into more questions. There’s a long history of secrets and those who will stop at nothing to keep them from being exposed. Leaving Devine with no idea who he can trust… and who wants him dead.
Alex Cross Must Die by James Patterson
Release Date: November 2oth
Detective Alex Cross is in the sights of the Dead Hours Killer, a serial murderer on a ruthless mission.
An airport killer targeting pilots expands his scope. Alex Cross Must Die.
“Drop whatever you’re doing, Detective Cross, and head to Reagan Airport,” DC Metro Police dispatch says. “A jet just crashed and exploded on the runway. The chief and the FBI want you and John Sampson there pronto.”
Cross and Sampson race to the crash site. The plane didn’t fail—it was shot down by a stolen Vietnam War–era machine gun.
The list of experts who can operate the weapon is short. And time before another lethal strike runs even shorter. Especially for Detective Cross.
Alex Cross Must Die.
Release Date: November 21st
After a Navy pilot inexplicably loses control of his stealth fighter, he stumbles upon a global conspiracy, and embarks on a thrilling chase filled with espionage and betrayal.
TOP GUN instructor Colt Bancroft has just catapulted off the USS Abraham Lincoln, his F-35C Joint Strike Fighter trailing blue and yellow flame as he climbs into the night sky off the California coast.
When he is sent to investigate a series of mysterious lights floating dangerously close to his aircraft carrier, disaster strikes. His jet becomes unresponsive as it rolls inverted and enters a nosedive aimed right at the aircraft carrier’s unsuspecting escort cruiser.
What follows is a tale of heroism and betrayal, spycraft and suspense, and aerial combat against an unexpected adversary.
To clear his name and unmask a traitor, Colt must survive a dangerous game of spy-vs-spy, where trusting the wrong person could cost him his life. To stop the enemy from hitting their ultimate target, Colt must use every ounce of his skill and training.and uncover the identity of the UNKNOWN RIDER.
From author Jack Stewart, a former US Navy Top Gun instructor pilot, comes an exhilarating military thriller that’s packed with high-octane action and puts the reader behind the controls of a modern jet fighter. Perfect for fans of Tom Clancy and Dale Brown.
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh
Release Date: November 21st
In this chilling thriller from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh, a remote estate in New Zealand’s Southern Alps hosts a reunion no one will ever forget.
Seven friends.
One last weekend.
A mansion half in ruins.
No room for lies.
Someone is going to confess.
Because there should have been eight. . . .
They met when they were teenagers. Now they’re adults, and time has been kind to some and unkind to others—none more so than to Bea, the one they lost nine long years ago.
They’ve gathered to reminisce at Bea’s family’s estate, a once-glorious mansion straight out of a gothic novel. Best friends, old flames, secret enemies, and new lovers are all under one roof. But when the weather turns and they’re snowed in at the edge of eternity, there’s nowhere left to hide from their shared history.
As the walls close in, the pretense of normality gives way to long-buried grief, bitterness, and rage. Underneath it all, there’s the nagging feeling that Bea’s shocking death wasn’t what it was claimed to be. And before the weekend is through, the truth will be unleashed—no matter the cost.
Tom Clancy Command and Control by Marc Cameron
Release Date: November 21st
Russian plot to seize the Panama Canal plunges President Jack Ryan into a desperate fight for his life in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.
For a century, the Panama Canal has served as the path between the seas. Control of this vital waterway is the difference between free trade and chaos in world markets.
So when Panamanian President Rafael Botero asks for a show of support against the socialist opposition, his old friend President Jack Ryan can’t turn down an invitation to visit the country, but what seems like an ordinary opportunity to preach the values of democracy quickly turns into a nightmare when a full-blown coup d’état erupts.
President Ryan and his Secret Service team are cut off and out of communication. In Washington, the Vice President is coordinating a military response, but there’s still one more obstacle.
One of the main forces behind the coup is the ruthless criminal organization known as the Camarilla. They’ve had their tentacles deep inside the plot to overthrow the government. All of their hard work has just presented them with an unexpected opportunity they can’t resist—the chance to kill President Jack Ryan
For a century, the Panama Canal has served as the path between the seas. Control of this vital waterway is the difference between free trade and chaos in world markets.
So when Panamanian President Rafael Botero asks for a show of support against the socialist opposition, his old friend President Jack Ryan can’t turn down an invitation to visit the country, but what seems like an ordinary opportunity to preach the values of democracy quickly turns into a nightmare when a full-blown coup d’état erupts.
President Ryan and his Secret Service team are cut off and out of communication. In Washington, the Vice President is coordinating a military response, but there’s still one more obstacle.
One of the main forces behind the coup is the ruthless criminal organization known as the Camarilla. They’ve had their tentacles deep inside the plot to overthrow the government. All of their hard work has just presented them with an unexpected opportunity they can’t resist—the chance to kill President Jack Ryan.
Enemies Among Us by Jeffrey Stephens
Release Date: November 21st
As Nick Reagan hunts down the terrorist mastermind, The Handler, he uncovers corruption at the highest levels of government—perhaps even within his own CIA.
Nick Reagan and his team of talented CIA operatives have managed to prevent three horrific attacks planned by the ruthless terrorist known worldwide as The Handler. Cunning and resourceful, The Handler has eluded capture, and now Reagan is determined to track him down.
As he assembles clues to the possible whereabouts of his prey, Reagan’s superiors in the CIA inexplicably order him to stand down. Accustomed to flouting authority, Reagan ignores the directive while seeking to identify the source of this obstruction. As he probes, it becomes increasingly evident that the evil he faces is corruption from within.
His suspicions growing, Reagan expands his efforts beyond the dangerous hunt for The Handler to an active investigation of both his own government and those who possess the real influence in Washington. Collectively, these are the most formidable adversaries Reagan has ever faced: the rich and powerful who control our energy resources, including oil and lithium; Big Pharma; the media; and the funding of politicians for their personal beliefs and gains.
Charting an unfamiliar course amidst the pervasive treachery and deadly secrets inside the nation’s capital, Reagan is not sure who he can trust as he works to expose the worst of America’s elite—those who believe in a New World Order.
Violent confrontations intensify with each new act of treason he unearths, leaving Reagan to rely on his patriotic instincts as he and his team risk their lives to bring down these traitors and restore safety and freedom.
Release Date: November 21st
Inheritance is the first in The Lost Bride Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts―a tale of tragedies, loves found and lost, and a family haunted for generations.
1806: Astrid Poole sits in her bridal clothes, overwhelmed with happiness. But before her marriage can be consummated, she is murdered, and the circle of gold torn from her finger. Her last words are a promise to Collin never to leave him…
Graphic designer Sonya MacTavish is stunned to learn that her late father had a twin he never knew about―and that her newly discovered uncle, Collin Poole, has left her almost everything he owned, including a majestic Victorian house on the Maine coast, which the will stipulates she must live in it for at least three years. Her engagement recently broken, she sets off to find out why the boys were separated at birth―and why it was all kept secret until a genealogy website brought it to light.
Trey, the young lawyer who greets her at the sprawling clifftop manor, notes Sonya’s unease―and acknowledges that yes, the place is haunted…but just a little. Sure enough, Sonya finds objects moved and music playing out of nowhere. She sees a painting by her father inexplicably hanging in her deceased uncle’s office, and a portrait of a woman named Astrid, whom the lawyer refers to as “the first lost bride.” It’s becoming clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse, and a puzzle to be solved if there is any hope of breaking it . . .
Unnatural Death by Patricia Cornwell
Release Date: November 28th
Two mauled bodies in the woods. Top secret autopsies. The most chilling cases of Scarpetta’s career.
In this thrilling new installment of Patricia Cornwell’s #1 bestselling Scarpetta series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement.
The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint.
After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Release Date: November 28th
A new mess. A new mystery. It’s up to Molly the maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty, in this standalone novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid, a Good Morning America Book Club pick.
“A page-turning delight from start to finish . . . Once I checked into the Regency Grand, I never wanted to leave.”—Jenny Jackson, author of Pineapple Street
“Polished to perfection!”—Shari Lapena, author of Everyone Here Is Lying
Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tearoom floor.
When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?
As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.
The Watchmaker’s Hand by Jeffrey Deaver
Release Date: November 28th
The “most clever plotter on the planet”(Publishers Weekly) Jeffery Deaver returns in this twisty new thriller, as forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and detective Amelia Sachs track a criminal with a bizarre and catastrophic m.o.—toppling the construction cranes in New York City.
When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and injury, Rhyme and Sachs are on the case. A political group claims responsibility for the sabotage and threatens another attack in twenty-four hours, unless its demands are met. The clock is ticking.
Then a clue reveals to Rhyme that his nemesis, known as the Watchmaker, has come to town to fulfill his promise of murdering the criminalist. Now Rhyme and Sachs have to dodge his brilliant scheme to destroy them both, while racing against time to stop the construction site terrorists.
With New York in a panic, Rhyme and his team must unravel a handful of plots as tightly wound as a timepiece—before more cranes fall, raining down death and destruction from above.
Assassin’s Mark by Ward Larsen
Release Date: November 28th
USA Today bestselling author Ward Larsen’s globe-trotting, hard-hitting assassin, David Slaton, returns for another breathless adventure, Assassin’s Mark.
With the help of CIA operative David Slaton, America has shaken off a series of high-tech attacks. Then, just as the threat seems to have receded, the most brazen strike of all: Marine One is brought down in the heart of the capital. The president survives the crash, but is clinging to life by a thread.
Once again, Slaton gets the call. With limitless backing from the CIA, the agency’s most lethal assassin is dispatched halfway around the world. But as his mission nears completion, he finds himself targeted by a talented adversary, a ruthless young assassin who moves like a ghost, and whose motives are unclear.
What is clear is that Trident is not yet finished, and that there is a high-level traitor in the U.S. government. And the only way forward is to topple a conspiracy in the uppermost echelons of Washington.
The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor
Release Date: November 28th
From USA Today-bestselling Jillian Cantor, The Fiction Writer follows a writer hired by a handsome billionaire to write about his family history with Daphne du Maurier and finds herself drawn into a tangled web of obsession, marital secrets, and stolen manuscripts.
The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel—a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca—was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA.
At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems. The more Olivia digs into his grandmother’s past, the more questions she has—and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.
With as many twists and turns as the California coast, The Fiction Writer is a page-turner that explores the boundaries of creative freedom and whose stories we have the right to tell.
Release Date: December 5th
In this new fast-paced medical mystery-thriller from the New York Times bestselling author Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie must determine the manner of death after a pathology resident’s suspicious suicide.
Due to Jack Stapleton’s ongoing recovery from his near-death confrontation with a serial killer, his wife Laurie Montgomery, the NYC chief medical examiner, is carrying the load both at work and at home. When she insists an underperforming pathology resident named Ryan Sullivan assist her on a suicide autopsy, Laurie unknowingly provokes an emotional storm in the trainee.
So, when Ryan himself appears on the medical examiner’s table days later, an apparent death by suicide, Laurie’s guilt compels her to try to understand why. Jack’s autopsy on the resident opens the disturbing possibility that the manner of death wasn’t suicide but instead a staged homicide. But staged by whom?
Laurie ignores her own professional rules and responsibilities to investigate personally who might want Ryan dead…and for what reason. Thus begins a dangerous inquiry into a fraudulent but highly lucrative cancer diagnostics company, which might just cost Laurie her life.
Scratch One by Michael Crichton
Release Date: December 5th
From the creator of Jurassic Park and ER
A pulp-fiction thrill ride through a deadly case of mistaken identity
Playboy Roger Carr is handsome, wealthy, and connected. As an occasional lawyer, he’s the right man to send to the French Riviera to secure a villa for an important client. It’s the perfect assignment, complete with fast cars and fast women, until strange things begin to happen and Roger realizes that someone is trying to kill him.
A ruthless terrorist organization called the Associates is carrying out assassinations from Egypt to Denmark. To stop them, the CIA orders their own super assassin — a man who bears a striking resemblance to Roger Carr — to intercept the Associates in France. The CIA assassin never shows up, but the clueless counselor does, and now he finds himself on the run from some of the world’s deadliest terrorists.
With a new introduction by Sherri Crichton
Release Date: December 5th
DCI Harry Taylor has no respect for red tape or political reputations – but he’s great at catching criminals.
And all his unorthodox skills will be needed as an extraordinary situation unfolds on his doorstep: a metal box of radioactive material is found at a dump in Stepney, East London, but before the police can arrive it is stolen in a violent raid.
With security agencies across the world on red alert, it’s Harry and his unconventional team from the Met who must hit the streets in search of a lead. They soon have two wildly different suspects, aristocratic art dealer Julian Smythe in London and oligarch Vladimir Voldrev in Barbados. But the pressure is on. How much time does Harry have, and how many more players will join the action, before the missing uranium is lighting up the sky?
Deadly Game is a compelling, fast-paced novel of international intrigue and twisting suspense from a legendary actor and British icon, who now proves himself to be a first-rate thriller writer.
The Fourth Rule by Jeff Lindsay
Release Date: December 5th
THE BIGGEST HEIST.
THE MOST DANGEROUS ADVERSARY.
FROM THE MASTER OF THE GENRE.
OH, AND EXPLOSIONS.
Impossible doesn’t belong in Riley Wolfe’s vocabulary. He’s a master of heists and disguises, whose life’s work is swindling the rich out of their undeserved treasures.
Now rumors surrounding a dangerous new figure of international crime are spreading through the underworld. And this ruthless collector, the Cobra, has a personal vendetta against Riley . . .
No matter—with the aid of his new partner, Caitlin, Riley prepares to take on the most powerful cultural institution in the world and bring home the supposedly unstealable Rosetta Stone. With the Cobra waiting for the right moment to strike, Riley is put to the ultimate test as he faces this most venomous villain—and tries to make it out alive.
Packed with Jeff Lindsay’s trademark style of intricately plotted twists, stunning global settings, and thrilling action, The Fourth Rule is a relentlessly suspenseful and delicious escapist thriller that will leave you shocked, breathless, and endlessly entertained.
The New Detective by Peter Steiner
Release Date: December 5th
Willi Geismeier thought he’d faced the worst of humanity on the battlefield in World War I, but when he returns to Munich he is drawn into an investigation that proves to be just as chilling.
Munich, 1913. Nineteen-year-old Willi Geismeier is showing great promise as a rookie detective in the Munich police department when he is sent to fight in World War I. After narrowly surviving the horrors of the conflict, Willi returns home, where the challenges he faces are just as grave.
The Spanish flu rips through Munich with devastating consequences. Willi, now back in the police force, finds himself investigating an insurance scam, missing drugs and the mysterious death of a prisoner. Chilling links emerge between all three, and Willi finds himself facing a ‘scientific’ killer and the rising fascists determined to stop him in his tracks . . .
Dissolved by Sara Blaedel and Mads Peder Nordno
Release Date: December 5th
For fans of Jo NesbØ and Lars Kepler comes the newest crime novel from Denmark’s bestselling suspense giants Sara Blædel and Mads Peder Nordbo.
Everything is peaceful in Tommerup, Denmark, until a young mother disappears in the middle of an idyllic summer day. There’s no trace of the missing woman when Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called to investigate. The small town is on edge, rumors begin to fly, and blame is cast on Charlotte’s husband, who was the last to see her. When another person goes missing and Liam and Dea find a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime, they suspect the disappearances may be the work of a serial killer.
As the investigation continues, dark secrets about the victims from the past are revealed. Is someone targeting them because of this? As more people vanish, it’s a race against time for Liam and Dea, who find themselves face-to-face with horrifying footage that reveals what is happening to the victims—and what will happen to future targets if they can’t stop the killer.
In this pulse-pounding thriller, Sara Blædel and Mads Peder Nordbo ratchet up the tension in a cat-and-mouse game where the killer is always one step ahead.
Release Date: December 12th
With high ethical stakes and a suspenseful past-and-present narrative, The Academy is David Poyer’s capstone novel in the Dan Lenson series.
In his final tour of duty after a remarkable career at sea, Dan Lenson is appointed Superintendent of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. He begins at a difficult time: Congress is cutting military budgets in the wake of the devastating world war with China, calls for radical reform are upending traditions, and Dan himself faces legal jeopardy for his actions during the war. And when a Category 5 hurricane threatens to overwhelm the coast, Dan must fight to rescue the Academy itself.
Parallel to this narrative runs the dramatic story of Dan’s years as a first class midshipman, 40 years ago. An Academy classmate commits suicide, and Dan is drawn into the investigation. The decisions he makes will affect his entire career and shape how he comes to lead troops in battle and at peace.
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and is building a growing community on Twitch. His debut thriller, FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” is now available. His second novel, LETHAL RANGE, comes out on August 8th. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. And to take part in free, exclusive BOOK CLUBS each month, join The Real Book Spy on Discord.