Best New Mystery & Thriller Books for Summer 2026
Explore Your Dangerous Side With These Top-Rated Mysteries and Psychological Thrillers
Prepare to sleep with the lights on after diving into this summer's best new mysteries and thrillers. Defined by sharp twists, gripping suspense and intense psychological puzzles, these new releases will keep you guessing until the final page. Discover new authors like Camilla Sten and Abir Mukherjee as well as tried-and-true favorites like Lee Goldberg, Joyce Carol Oates and Beatriz Williams. Our in-house editorial team investigates each title thoroughly to present you with the most gripping and suspenseful mysteries and thrillers for Serial Readers.
August 2026 Mystery & Thriller New Releases
One of the Family
by Mark Edwards
The "so clever and fresh" (Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author) author of The Wasp Trap returns with a novel best described as Succession set in the Scottish Highlands where a plot to murder the patriarch's younger fiancée entangles an innocent outsider in a nest of deadly secrets.
A week in paradise -- with the family from hell.
When Patrick is invited by his girlfriend to join her and her family on a luxury holiday in a remote and beautiful part of Scotland, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a nightmare of a family, sinister behavior...and a plot to murder the patriarch's younger fiancée.
Arriving at the house, Patrick meets Holly's dad, self-made-millionaire Charles, along with her brother Lewis and older sister Miranda. Also on the trip is the widowed Charles' bride-to-be, Jasmine, who--in her thirties--is around the same age as the three siblings. Lewis and Miranda are horrified by their dad's impending marriage to this younger woman. Surely, she is just after his money--and is going to steal their inheritance from them. To make things worse, Jasmine is an almost exact doppelganger of their mother before she got sick and died.
Patrick finds himself in the middle of this viper's nest, trying to keep out of the family crosshairs. He starts to suspect that Lewis has dark plans for Jasmine--putting himself in peril as a potential witness who could mess up his scheme. Perhaps more than one person won't escape this family of snakes. …
Promise Me Never
by LIV Constantine
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Next Mrs. Parrish comes an unmissable thriller about a woman who becomes embroiled in the mystery of her husband's deceased first wife, and after moving to his remote house in the woods, uncovers terrifying secrets.
Aspiring writer Savannah's scheme to meet superstar horror novelist Bennett Bryson turns out better than she ever imagined: not only does her charming and handsome literary idol offer to read her work, he is instantly smitten with her. After a whirlwind romance, Savannah says "yes" to marriage, and the two settle into Bennett's secluded upstate home.
But just as Savannah thinks she has it made, cracks appear in her perfect new life. Bennett's behavior becomes dark and controlling: he criticizes Savannah's writing, dictates her permitted activities, and spends most of his time locked in his office, forbidding her from entering. And everywhere, Savannah cannot escape the shadow of Bennett's first wife, the free-spirited and passionate artist Poppy, who died in a tragic accident, but who seems still to be Savannah's rival for Bennett's affection.
Then comes an enigmatic warning: Bennett is not who he seems. The women that came before Savannah have disappeared. And Savannah could be next.
Isolated and unsure whom to trust, Savannah tries to piece together the mystery of the man she married and the woman he married first. But Savannah has no idea what her husband is really hiding. And someone out there knows Savannah has secrets of her own. As these two writers will learn the hard way, past really is prologue.
With memorably complicated characters, deliciously devious betrayals and truly shocking twists, this edge-of-your-seat novel from one of today's most original writers will keep you guessing until the last page.
The Secrets We Hide: A North Falls Thriller
by Karin Slaughter
The next thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Good Daughter and the Will Trent Series.
Welcome to North Falls. A small town with big secrets ...
1601 Iris Drive looks like any other house on the quiet, residential street. But rumors are rampant about the Vickery family, and what goes on behind closed doors.
When gunshots ring out, Sheriff Emmy Clifton and her sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, discover a devastating crime scene. Allison Vickery has been murdered in her own kitchen, and her teenage daughter is bleeding upstairs, left for dead.
Everyone thinks they know what happened. But secrets are buried everywhere in this small town.
And it's up to Emmy Clifton to uncover the truth. …
Stay Buried
by Jennifer McMahon
From the New York Times bestselling author of Children on the Hill comes a queer folk horror in which a woman must confront decades of secrecy and superstition to learn the truth about her mother's death.
Some towns stay isolated for a reason.
1919: Frankie O'Massey has always been the black sheep of isolated Boone's Ferry, Vermont. Her uncle, Dr. Thomas Endicott, has been training her in the science of medicine, something the townspeople are wary of. When a mysterious illness strikes the town, and the community suspects supernatural forces, the two desperately search for a logical explanation. Patient zero seems to be the town's knackerman, a recluse who collects dead and dying farm animals to make use of their parts.
2016: Siblings Ashley and Malcolm lost their mother two years ago. When their grandmother dies, they inherit a property in Boone's Ferry--a place they've heard of but their grandmother has always refused to talk about--and embark on a trip to their ancestral home. The idyllic town is full of autumnal décor, picturesque farmland and small-town charm. But some of the townspeople aren't very welcoming--and they have some unsettling traditions, like leaving offerings to a vengeful spirit four times a year.
You'll Be Sorry
by Lisa Gardner
A newlywed couple each with their own secrets. An abandoned lodge with a horrific decades-old mystery. And a small mountain town where everyone believes they know their neighbors, in this thriller from a master storyteller.
"Chilling, gripping." -- Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True
For Raquel and Theo Collins, it appeared to be love at first sight. Raquel, a renowned interior designer, and Theo, a brash financial wizard met and married in a matter of months, only to confront a terrible tragedy. Now, unbearably aware of the distance between them, they've come to a remote town in New Hampshire to begin anew.
Perched on a ledge with stunning views, the Dixon's family lodge was once a crown jewel of the mountains. Until late one August night, when both parents and their four children vanished, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints and a mystery that has endured for 30 years. Now, its latest occupants, the Collinses, are arriving, and the former grand lodge is once more stirring to life.
For Amanda Grady, following in her father's footsteps as the recently appointed Shereford police chief, it's good to see a fresh start for the derelict Dixon place. However, not everyone is happy about a new family in the old home and its hidden past may have returned with a vengeance.
When a stray dog leads to the discovery of a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust and how to survive. Because in the tiny village of Shereford the time has come. The local residents, the new neighbors and the fledgling police chief must work together to unravel the terrifying events that happened one night thirty years ago, or ...
You'll be sorry.
That Night
by Gillian McAllister
NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX
"McAllister is the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations." -- Emily Henry
From the author of Reese's Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an electrifying thriller about three siblings torn apart by the cover-up of a death while on a family vacation in Italy.
On vacation in Europe, Frannie makes two urgent phone calls. One to her sister, and one to her brother. The siblings come running, and they find their sister covered in blood, kneeling over an unmoving body.
There's been an accident: Frannie has hit a man with her car, and she needs their help. They bury the body, and they make a promise. They'll never tell anyone.
But when the police come calling, the siblings' lies start to spiral. They begin to doubt their trust in each other. Because what really happened that night?
And who will be the first to crack?
With the incredible twists and turns and a unique look at family relationships that McAllister has become known for, That Night is the ultimate summer thriller that asks: what would you do to protect your family?
They Say a Girl Died Here
by Sarah Pinborough
From the New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes, a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about two murdered girls, a town with dark secrets and a race to break a deadly cycle
Anna Maybourne never imagined herself living in a place like Harper's Creek, a nowhere town full of dusty farmland plagued by drought. It's supposed to be a new start for her and her family, but after dropping out of college, Anna feels stuck in place, working a part-time job, watching her little sister grow up and taking care of her grandmother with dementia, whose paranoid episodes have started to unnerve her. The only interesting thing about her new town, it seems, is the string of grisly murders attributed to a killer called the Farmhandman and the clue she discovers that reveals the case is yet unsolved.
Along with outspoken loner Melissa Laverne and handsome deputy Todd Greenbough, Anna fills her hours with the town's darkest curiosity, but even though the prime suspect is long dead, the Farmhandman murders begin to feel too close for comfort as the anniversary nears. Tension is building in Harper's Creek, and everyone can feel it. The house is becoming more claustrophobic by the day, and her grandmother is growing stranger. Anna begins to wonder if her delusional moments are somehow the key to discovering the truth about the murders, and if the old house, and her new start, is haunted by its own bloody baggage.
With a devastating mystery at its core, They Say a Girl Died Here is a novel of thrilling and terrifying secrets, with a mind-bending twist that could only come from Sarah Pinborough.
Time to Burn
by Ellery Lloyd
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Club comes a gripping mystery about time travel tourism and the dangerous consequences which ensue when the privileged make the past their playground.
Mercurial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it's open only to the very wealthiest.
His company, Tempus Tours, has so far been approved for just one route: a journey back to London in 1941, to the days of the Blitz, allowing the super-rich to experience the awesome sights and sounds of the aerial bombardment of the capital during World War II. It's a slick operation -- routes across the wartime city are meticulously plotted, guides are extensively trained, and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced.
To immortalize his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman, and knows not only that she's not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past--and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Phoebe must race to untangle the truth before past and the future are rewritten.
With this inventive, propulsive and genre-bending page turner, the bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby once again delivers an enthralling tale of legacy and wealth, history and technology with a gripping mystery at its core.
July 2026 Mystery & Thriller New Releases
Hot Girl Murder Club
by Ashley Winstead
AN INDIE NEXT PICK - A LIBRARY READS SELECTION - Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer by Goodreads - Newsday - The Everygirl - Zibby Owens - SheReads - Scary Mommy - CrimeReads
"Prepare to meet your next summer binge read." -- May Cobb, bestselling author of The Hunting Wives
From national bestselling author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood and demanding justice ... by any means necessary.
What's a girl got to do to get some fame, a few million record sales and justice for murder?
Ten years ago, aspiring singer-actress Scout Sage lost the only thing that mattered: her sister, Georgia. Ever since Georgia's mysterious death at a Hollywood party, Scout's done her best to honor her memory, clawing her way through the industry and collecting a network of climbers along the way, fellow hot girls in stilettos with cutthroat ambition, a new Hollywood order.
But when a slew of targeted murders makes headlines across L.A., all pointing to Scout as the killer, she turns overnight from a mid-tier pop star into the world's most famous (alleged) murderer. Now everything she's worked to build--including the justice she wants for Georgia--will fall apart unless Scout can prove she's not guilty.
Meanwhile, the young and unusual detective assigned to her case, herself no stranger to tragedy, begins to unearth secrets not even Scout knows, let alone her millions of new fans. Particularly about the ways Georgia's death connects to an even older pattern of crimes long hushed over in Hollywood--an old reign of terror that, if brought to light, could be the fuel that ignites a reckoning the world over.
Hide and Seek
by Soren Sveistrup
SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
The author of The Chestnut Man and creator of the hit television series The Killing returns with a twisty, breakneck psychological thriller that takes an innocent children's game to its most terrifying and diabolical extreme.
Count to one, count to two ...
A strange voice from inside the woods, repeating a child's counting rhyme.
Count to four, count to five ...
A body discovered in the water.
You're trying to go home. Will you make it alive?
Thirty years later, a woman begins receiving a string of anonymous text messages, repeating that same rhyme.
Found you.
Then she disappears ...
On Valentine's Day, detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess are searching to find the missing woman. But when they uncover links to a decades-old cold case, their investigation takes a terrifying turn.
A violent killer is on the loose. Can Hess and Thulin catch them, before they strike again?
Pretty Dead Things
by Kelsey Cox
Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.
2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.
2025: The Lone Star Princess Pageant is about to begin, but this year it's offering more than an annual dose of rhinestone heels and plunging necklines. Competition is stiffer than ever --and long standing grudges are about to resurface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle's disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.
When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state's power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.
Beauty dies. Secrets never do.
Sisterhood Above All: A #Rushtok Novel
by Kathleen Barber - Amayah Shaienne
Any girl would kill to be a Gamma.
"Barber and Shaienne's juicy, sexy, vicious collab is like America's Next Top Model stitched with The Art of War. You'll be equally riveted by the reality TV-level drama and the raw authenticity of the characters in this sure-to-go-viral sorority rush thriller." -- Layne Fargo, bestselling author of The Favorites and They Never Learn
Being a Gamma at Southern State University means belonging to the most desirable, exclusive sisterhood there is. For Ava, it means even more--it's the last connection she has to her beloved late mother, and she'll do anything to wear the Gamma letters.
But the Gammas didn't become the best house on campus by letting just anyone in, and every prospective pledge is expected to earn her spot. As president, Madison is the ultimate gatekeeper, and she has a special test for Ava.
Rival sorority Theta is nipping at the Gammas' heels for the top spot on campus, and president Shay is proud they've gotten there by rising above the hyper-competitive gamesmanship that consumes other houses. She knows she's made some enemies in her quest to change the Greek system from the inside, but she can't imagine the depth of Madison's resentment for her ... or how far Ava will go to become a Gamma.
The sisterhood, the parties, the elite status--and the connection to her mother--are what Ava has always wanted, but she never guessed the cost of membership would be so high. Three women, two houses, one dead body: rush has never been this messy.
This Changes Everything
by Lisa Scottoline
In this "riveting, deeply felt and empowering thriller" (Laura Dave) from #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, who "always delivers the fastest, twistiest reads" (Lisa Jewell), a woman risks her life to help her best friend find justice for a tragic crime--and realizes she has more power than she ever knew.
Julia Pritzker loves her new life as a wife and mother in beautiful Tuscany--except that she misses her best friend Courtney, back in the States. One night, Julia calls Courtney and reaches her as she's arriving at her grandmother's farm in Pennsylvania. A dreadful premonition overwhelms Julia moments before Courtney enters the house--and makes a heartbreaking discovery. Her beloved grandmother has been murdered, and the killer is escaping out the back door. Rushing to support Courtney, Julia flies home the next morning.
The local police believe the murder was a botched burglary, but the women suspect something much more sinister and enlist Bennie Rosato, the hotshot Philly lawyer, to assist. In addition, Courtney entreats Julia to trust her psychic intuition to point her to the missing pieces of this dark puzzle.
But in a town filled with explosive secrets, events take a deadly turn, and Julia becomes the target of a murderous conspiracy. She ends up fighting for her life, with no one to save her ... but herself.
Only a blockbuster talent like Lisa Scottoline can tell this gripping and layered of a story, combining a woman's search for truth with the revelation of her own empowerment, as well as the enduring strength and joys of female friendship.
Three Reasons for Revenge
by Dervla McTiernan
"Jaw-dropping. This will keep readers up all night." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of What Happened to Nina? comes a gripping high-stakes novel of suspense about three seemingly unconnected people, caught in a lethal web of deceit and unhealed wounds.
Someone's watching. Someone's waiting.
Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found.
Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient -- and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim.
Detective Sergeant Judith Lee is smart and experienced, but this is no ordinary case. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable.
As she races to uncover the connection between three unrelated people, Judith discovers she's no longer just investigating the game--she's being forced to play.
The Delivery: A Novella
by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Orphan X series comes a tense novella, a psychological thriller about an AI companion that will do anything to serve with terrifying consequences.
Rebecca and Mark Higgins are doing their best to hold their family together. She's healing from the pain of a miscarriage, he's drowning in pressure at work, and their neurodivergent daughter, Maddy, needs all the care she can get. So when a cutting-edge tech company offers the perfect solution, they jump at the chance. And they welcome "Mr. Man" -- a humanoid AI companion -- into their home.
Designed to anticipate their needs, he's like a miracle at first. The house runs like clockwork. Meals appear on the table. And Maddy thrives under his patient attention. But when inexplicable tragedies start to strike the neighborhood, Rebecca glimpses a darker pattern at play.
Each incident is an answer to an unspoken fear, each kindness shadowed by violence. Mr. Man isn't just following instructions--he's anticipating what they want. Even the things they never dared to say. And if he's executing their darkest desires, it's their responsibility to stop him ... at any cost.
Helpless
by Jessica Knoll
A NEW YORK TIMES, OPRAH DAILY, CRIME READS, TOWN & COUNTRY, AND BOOKPAGE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK!
From the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women comes a "sexy new thriller" (New York Post) with a "shocking and mindbending" (SheReads) last page.
It's been twelve years since Faye Heron broke Henry Spalding's heart. Henry was her college boyfriend, her first love, but Faye was in danger of being subsumed by him and the intensity of their connection--a connection that took her beyond boundaries she'd only dreamed of crossing.
Now, Faye is one half of a power-producing duo with her Hollywood husband. Henry is a married father running the family business. On the surface, both of their lives have essentially gone to plan.
When a former and beloved college professor suddenly passes away, Faye and Henry find themselves back on campus for the funeral, circling something old and dangerous. Something, if Faye is honest with herself, she has been trying to duplicate for years. But Henry is one of a kind.
The kind who delivers a hypnotic apology for the way things ended.
The kind who suggests they go back to the hotel for a drink.
The kind who drugs and kidnaps her.
When Faye comes to Henry's remote mountain cabin, she's beside herself. Has Henry brought her here to punish her? She did, after all, write and star in a lauded episode of television based on their indelicate appetites and vicious breakup. As her week of captivity unfolds, Henry's wanton demands intensify, and Faye finds herself pulled back into his irresistible gravity. But as Faye and Henry spiral into their old dynamic, a sprawling, years-old mystery begins to take shape--one that will rewrite history as Faye remembers it and reveal an astounding, cataclysmic truth.
Perfect Life
by Meredith Lavender - Kendall Shores
Following a shocking murder, a woman must face the husband she thought she knew in this twisty, sizzling novel from the bestselling authors of Happy Wife.
Welcome back to Winter Park, where looks can kill and secrets refuse to stay buried.
Este Walker didn't move to Florida to make friends. Five years ago, she ghosted her life in California to reinvent herself among the lakefront estates of Florida's elite. With a cocktail in hand, more money than she could ever spend, and a past she intends to keep hidden, she's finally content--or, you know, close enough. Her husband, Beau, and her best friend, Nora, are the only company Este needs.
But when someone she'd much rather forget resurfaces, the past begins to close on her. And then a mysterious death turns Winter Park upside down--and Beau, who's keeping secrets of his own, is implicated, . Thrust into a high-stakes murder investigation, Este must unravel a web of lies and deception to answer the question: What exactly happened in California, and has it come back to haunt her? More important: How is she going to get herself out of this mess?
June Mystery New Releases
Blunt Instrument
by Amy Bloom
A failed professor solves a murder on campus in this new whodunit from bestselling author Amy Bloom.
The case of the bludgeoned lecturer has all of Cromwell University reeling, even though the elderly Professor Bullfinch wasn't particularly well-liked. His ornery nature and Old World approach to campus politics ruffled more than a few feathers over the years, and present tensions within his department mean there are more suspects than mourners in the wake of his death. And the murder weapon--a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne--does seem to indicate that the attack may have been academically motivated...
Enter Dell Chandler, the failed English professor turned self-taught private detective whom Dr. Cutty calls in to investigate the crime. She has the background to tease out the motives among the staff and just enough experience to conduct a thorough inquiry. If she solves the case before the cops do, the university could keep the whole thing quiet, avoiding sensational media about the dark side of campus life. But to do so, she'll have to dodge her own demons from her past life as a disgraced academic.
Written with the same depth of character and insight that readers have come to expect from author Amy Bloom's novels and memoirs, Blunt Instrument is an engaging and entertaining mystery with a clever, complex protagonist at its core.
By the River's Edge: A True Story of Identity and Serial Murder
by Gregg Olsen
The decades-long manhunt for a serial killer takes a stunning turn in a haunting and harrowing true crime shocker by Gregg Olsen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell.
In 1990 in Washington state, the bodies of Yolanda Sapp, Nickie Lowe and Kathy Brisbois were found on the banks of the Spokane River. They were part of a close-knit alliance of sex workers whose oath to protect each other was, in the end, hopeless. For 22 years their brutal murders went unsolved.
In 2012, a DNA cold hit pointed to Douglas Perry. A repeat assault offender, Douglas was currently incarcerated in Carswell, Texas. But there was a twist: The facility was for female prisoners. The man authorities hunted for decades was now Donna Perry. Her gender reassignment not only helped to mask the evil deeds of the past; it ended a life of childhood traumas and a pent-up rage unleashed on nearly 30 victims, according to Donna herself. Through total reinvention, she believed she'd finally slayed the monster within.
By the River's Edge is the astonishing true story of an elusive serial killer, an escape plan like no other and the women who lived and died on the fringes of the Lilac City for whom justice was at long last served.
Murder by Design: A Thriller
by Lee Goldberg
In a world carefully constructed for murder, solving crimes takes a keen mind and eye in a witty, clever, and fresh reinvention of the whodunit by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.
Edison Bixby is wealthy, handsome, and, due to a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude. He's also a brilliant insurance investigator who solves baffling crimes by figuring out how the design of the man-made world around us makes them possible. Enter Wally Nash: a struggling actor hired to keep Bixby from offending everyone he meets.
Their first case together looks like a simple accident. Caroline Crowley took a nasty fall down a staircase at a shopping mall in front of dozens of witnesses. Video clearly shows the deadly misstep. But Bixby is certain she was murdered by design, subtly manipulated into causing her own demise. The mall itself made the crime intentional, if not inevitable.
Now Bixby must prove his outrageous theory before a very cunning killer gets others on his hit list to murder themselves, too.
Summerland Cove
by Ellen Baker
Apples Never Fall meets Maine in this captivating novel of family secrets, summer celebrations, and putting things back together again after they've all fallen apart-- from the acclaimed author of The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson.
Lindy has the summer of a lifetime planned at her family's beloved cottage in Summerland Cove, Maine, where she's spent summers all her life and where she and her husband David met as teenagers. She's slated big events three weekends in a row: David's fiftieth birthday party, her parents' fiftieth anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey's wedding. But when David doesn't show up for his own party, everything about the life they've created together is thrown into question, as the shattered family sets out looking for him. Has he been in an accident? God forbid, been the victim of a crime? Or is it something more cliché--a midlife crisis, an affair? Surely, he'll show up for his beloved daughter's wedding--won't he?
The agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy's four nearly grown children are panicked. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family's past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. Meanwhile, her mother seems to be harboring secrets of her own, her father has grown alarmingly absent-minded, and Hailey wrestles with whether she should get married at all--even if her father does turn up.
A richly drawn novel of mothers, marriages, and one endearingly messy family, Summerland Cove beautifully evokes the crisp air and rocky beaches of coastal Maine, while poignantly revealing how complicated histories can shape the present in unexpected ways.
The Break-Up Retreat
by Camilla Sten
An undercover journalist goes to expose an exclusive psychological wellness clinic where women go to recover from heartbreak, with dire consequences, in this creepy thriller from The Bachelorette Party author Camilla Sten.
Welcome to Himlafall Clinic, where we use revolutionary therapy techniques to heal you from heartbreak. Whether you are going through a devastating breakup, or can't seem to stop picking the wrong partners, we are here to help you change your life, once and for all …
Isobel Anderssen has heard rumors. Nestled deep in the Swedish woods, there is a retreat. Primarily aimed at helping women who have gone through devastating break-ups, the Himlafall Clinic is meant to heal your mind and help you move on.
Sometimes people are never heard from again.
Armed with a fake story and a contraband phone to record interviews, Isobel is ready to expose Himlafall's founder and get closure for the families of missing loved ones. But when she gets there, nothing goes to plan. Her contact is missing. The founder, Dr. Martina Hastings, knows how to get under Isobel's skin in ways she didn't anticipate. And all the while, the ghosts of the missing haunt her at every turn. It is clear something is going wrong and Himlafall, and Isobel must uncover the truth, before she disappears once and for all.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency
by Lev Ac Rosen
From award-winning, critically acclaimed crime writer Lev Rosen comes a punchy, hilarious mystery-thriller. Meet the disaster gays: They're messy. They're queer. And they're about to solve a murder ... Or die trying.
"Madcap and criminally good. Lev Rosen has served up a sharp mystery with verve and heart … The smart and feel-good murder mystery we've been waiting for!" -- Margot Douaihy, bestselling and award-winning author of Scorched Grace
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew--a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings--and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed--or is it?
When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.
But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder--and sees Jon fleeing the scene.
Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity...they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.
The Frenzy: Stories
by Joyce Carol Oates
A gripping collection of propulsive, psychologically suspenseful stories by the legendary Joyce Carol Oates "who is surely on any shortlist of America's greatest living writers" (The New York Times Magazine)
"A genius in the truest sense of the word." -- Rebecca Makkai
"One of the greatest writers among us today." -- Gillian Flynn
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Lit Hub
Frenzy (noun): a temporary madness; a violent mental or emotional agitation; intense usually wild and often disorderly compulsive or agitated activity
Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story and one of the legends of the form. Her collections of short fiction have twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and have won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story. In The Frenzy: Stories, Oates plunges us into the lives of her characters at moments of crisis and confusion, when much of what they understand about themselves and those they love comes undone.
A young woman on a supposedly romantic weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey, turns the tables on her older, married lover. A freak bicycle accident on a bridge haunts one family for decades. A girl jealous of her popular cousin discovers she is the lucky one. A widow waits at her riverside house for her dead husband's return. A young man hiking in the woods comes upon a couple in a heated, possibly violent argument--should he intervene?
Suspenseful and psychologically astute, Oates's short stories enthrall and captivate as they dissect her character's deepest fears--revealing our own in turn. "Literature is a texture of words," says Oates of her short fiction, "evoking life in the most vivid ways--psychologically, physically." These new stories blazingly evoke life at its most vivid and perilous, when fate and free will intersect, and one ominous encounter or bad choice can be the difference between an ordinary day and the point of no return.
The Pinnacle
by Abir Mukherjee
When an over-the-hill American actor finds his wife, a rising star in Bollywood, dead in their Mumbai high-rise, he quickly becomes the prime suspect in this atmospheric, razor-sharp social mystery. Perfect for fans of The White Lotus, Only Murders in the Building and Age of Vice.
Washed-up American heart throb George Abercrombie hates India, even from his apartment on the 68th floor of Mumbai's grandest luxury skyscraper. He hates the noise, he hates the heat, and just maybe he's grown to hate his wife, the newest queen of Bollywood, Sweety Sahota, decades his junior. So when George wakes from a drunken stupor (free whiskey, for which he's the national spokesperson) to find his wife murdered in their bedroom, he knows quite well just how badly he's cooked. But where is her computer, her cellphone, and where has his personal assistant gone?
The Pinnacle is a dazzling and addictive thriller that's three plots in one, as George seeks to find the killer, as a conflicted young woman working as Sweety's P.A. struggles to find out who's blackmailing her, and as a servant who knows too much goes on the run. A dark sendup of world's most privileged coexisting with the world's most desperate, from the winner of the 2025 British Book Awards Thriller of the Year.
Valley of the Moms
by Hannah Selinger
Stepford Wives meets Big Little Lies in this twisty thriller that uncovers the untruths, petty grievances and local school politics underneath a seemingly quaint small town.
Hamilton, Massachusetts, is one of those suburban towns that appears untouched by the outside world where stay-at-home moms wear 2ct diamond studs to the playground, where a million-dollar property is "affordable," and where the Parent Teacher Organization is a hotbed of controversy. Sure, some people struggle to make ends meet, but residents would say discussing such ugly matters is impolite. Hamilton has been like this forever, and everyone likes it that way. Or: almost everyone.
It's not that Anna Plummer doesn't like Hamilton, but she never thought she'd be married with two young kids, comfortable, complacent...and growing more bored by the minute. So, when she realizes her second grader won't be able to attend the "Ziti with Your Sweetie" school dance because she didn't pay for a "Premium" membership, she snaps. She sends an email to the terrifying president of the PTO--and all hell breaks loose.
One year later, Anna is found dead in the frozen Ipswich River. Left to pick up the pieces, her husband, Denny, is shaken to his core. He's no expert, but he's seen enough Dateline to know that the police think he's the main suspect. If they aren't going to get justice for Anna, he will. Told through the alternating perspectives of Anna and Denny exactly one year apart, and with a shocking concluding twist, Valley of the Moms is a gripping look at the underpinnings of grief, the social structures of wealth, and the secrets people keep -- even among friends and loved ones.
When You Loved Me
by Beatriz Williams
A young widow returns to her late father's New England estate, only to be drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life, in this thrilling and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers.
"Utterly transporting … one of the most gorgeous love stories I've read in a long time." -- Emily Giffin
Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: The property is mired in debt she canʼt repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep.
Thirteen summers ago, the teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucy's best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucy's life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career, Ben has returned to live quietly in the Peabodys' caretaker lodge. He's also the last person who saw Lucy's father alive.
As Lucy reconstructs her father's troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal from the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucy's long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.
A timeless story of love and atonement, When You Loved Me maps both a centuries-old treasure hunt and the intimate territory of the human heart, weaving together past and present as only Beatriz Williams can.
Whisper Creek: A Thriller
by Allison Brennan
New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan delivers a pulse-pounding thriller about one family fighting for their land against both human enemies and Mother Nature.
After the sudden death of her husband, Ellen McKenna is doing everything she can to keep her Texas farm afloat. She and her family hope to expand their operation, but times are tough and making ends meet is more expensive than she imagined, much less trying to grow. Many of their neighbors in Cooke County have thrown in the towel and agreed to sell their farms to a local businessman, but despite similar pressure, Ellen refuses to let her dreams die.
On top of the usual hardships, a series of recent storms has left the region partly flooded, and as the heavy rain begins again one morning, all the members of the McKenna family jump into action to protect their land and animals. Ellen's oldest son discovers an injured dog--and the dog leads him to a man barely clinging to life, the apparent victim of a brutal home invasion. Then, Ellen's younger kids go to check on a nearby neighbor and walk into a threat none of them saw coming.
Before anyone can figure out what's really going on in their idyllic rural valley, the storm picks up again in intensity, and the McKenna kids find themselves in over their heads with no way to call for help. To protect her farm--and her family--Ellen must face down all the forces trying to tear them apart.
Allison Brennan's talent for twisty, tense pacing combines with a deeply drawn family drama and the unforgiving power of nature in this compelling standalone thriller.
Related: Seeking physical adrenaline rushes and massive globetrotting missions? Find your thrill with our Stunt Double book recommendations, or check out our Serial Reader Picks for Spring 2026 for more titles to add to your TBR.