Spring is just around the corner, and while we wait for the weather to catch up with what is already in our hearts, we can begin to be excited for the spring season with highly anticipated new releases heading our way! So many new books, so little time, and that is definitely the case for this month. Many thrillers, both standalones and part of series, will be a treat for readers. Or maybe you want to read books for Women’s History Month? This month has that! Check out to see the amazing books you will want to have on your list:
Featured Book of the Month
The Shadow Carver by Nadine Matheson
Expected Publication Date: March 10
DI Henley faces her darkest challenge yet…
When a string of grisly murders begins painting the city in terror, DI Henley soon realise a vigilante killer is scalping their victims before leaving them for dead. Henley is thrust into a web of secrets, unravelling connections between the victims while battling demons from her own past. As the killer raises the stakes, the line between predator and prey begins to blur. With time slipping away and her own life in jeopardy, Henley must outwit a psychopath who views murder as an art form. Can she hunt them down before the final stroke of the scalpel closes the case forever? (Credit: Hanover Square Press)
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert
First in a series of emotional contemporary romances from the bestselling author of Get a Life, Chloe Brown.
She’s the town pariah. He doesn’t give a damn. In Ruth Kabbah’s world, silence is golden and human contact is a pesky distraction. She doesn’t like people, which works out just fine, because the people in this small town don’t like her. The exception to that rule? Evan Miller, her way-too-charming next-door neighbor…
Ex-military man Evan is all tattooed muscle on the outside—and a big, cuddly teddy bear beneath. He’s used to coaxing prickly people from their shells, but he’s never met a woman quite like Ruth. Blunt, sarcastic, and secretly sad, she’s his exact opposite. She’s also his deepest desire. Soon, Evan’s steady patience and smoldering smiles are melting Ruth’s reserve. But when small-town gossip from her past begins to poison her future, she’s forced to make a choice. Should she trust Evan completely? Or is her heart safest alone? (Credit: Sourcebooks Casablanca)
A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford
Glasgow, 1979: If it hadn’t been for her wee stupid dog, Sid Vicious, twelve-year-old Janey Devine might never have stumbled upon the corpse of Samantha Watson. And then maybe she’d still be able to sleep at night. And maybe her nana wouldn’t be so worried all the time. And maybe Billy “The Ghost” Watson, a notorious gangster, wouldn’t be on her tail—for it’s Billy’s daughter who was left for dead on those train tracks, and now Billy wants answers.
Fear and gossip have spread through the tight-knit community of Possilpark, and while Janey swears she can’t remember the details of that morning, the cops think she’s hiding something—and indeed, there’s something she knows that she’s not quite ready to tell anyone, not even her nana, who won’t rest until this whole thing is behind them.
Shot through with remarkable humor, Frances Crawford’s stunning debut is a coming-of-age whodunit, an intimate portrait of a working-class neighborhood that weaves Janey’s innocent candor and her nana’s hard-earned wisdom into a sweeping tale of grief and survival that marks the arrival of a major new voice in crime fiction. (Credit: Soho Crime)
Be Right Back by Bill Wood
One year after surviving the mystery that made them local legends, the Sanera gang has gone their separate ways. College, new lives, and distance have replaced late-night investigations —except for Cam, who can’t quite move on.
When Sanera’s Halloween festival reunites the group for a celebratory hometown event, nostalgia quickly turns to terror. Cam spots the Carrington Ghoul — a figure tied to their last case —and realizes their past isn’t done with them yet.
As the festival spirals into chaos, a new killer emerges, using Sanera’s local legends as inspiration for a string of gruesome murders. Each crime mirrors myths the gang once debunked, making it clear: someone is obsessed with their history — and is rewriting it in blood.
With the town exploiting its dark past for tourism and the gang’s fame painting a target on their backs, they must reunite to stop the killer before the legend claims one of their own. (Credit: Scholastic Press)
Turn Off The Light by Jacquie Walters
The Devil enters through doors left open…
On the isolated Eastern Shore of Virginia, Edith is a healer, a woman of knowledge–and a woman watched. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Whispers creep through the dark. Terrified she has opened her home to the Devil, Edith makes a desperate choice.
Claire doesn’t believe in ghosts–until she returns home to care for her dying father and finds her childhood house… listening. As one sleepless night bleeds into the next, she becomes convinced something is stirring beneath the floorboards. Something that has waited a long time to rise.
Is the house haunted? What compels this lurking darkness? As the danger mounts, Edith and Claire will discover they’ll need each other to survive. But they are separated by four hundred years. And time is running out for them both. (Credit: Mulholland Books)
The Star From Calcutta by Sujata Massey
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Bombay, has secured her biggest client yet: Champa Films, a movie studio run by director Subhas Ghoshal and his wife, Rochana, the biggest name in Indian cinema. In the public eye, Rochana is notorious for her beauty and her daring stunts—behind the scenes, she has recently left the studio in Calcutta that made her famous, and the studio owner is enraged by what he claims is a breach of contract. Rochana needs Perveen’s legal help to extricate Champa Films from the impending controversy.
To study Rochana’s glamorous world, Perveen attends a special screening and brings her film fanatic best friend, Alice Hobson-Jones. But in the aftermath of the event, one of the guests is found dead, and to make matters worse, Rochana has disappeared.
To protect her clients, Perveen begins to investigate the developing murder case, peeling back the glitz to reveal a salacious web of blackmail, deceit, and romantic affairs. For the first time in their friendship, Alice seems to be keeping a secret from Perveen. Is she hiding key information about the night of the murder? Will Perveen be able to detangle the truth from lies while protecting herself—and her closest friend? (Credit: Soho Crime)
Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas about Women by Sarah Ruden
The belief that granting women reproductive freedom poses a threat to “traditional” values is a dangerous myth that has long prospered in American politics, providing justification for increasing control over women’s bodies and lives. How did such damaging ideas arise?
In Reproductive Wrongs, acclaimed translator and cultural historian Sarah Ruden exposes how ideologies that oppress women and families in the service of power took hold. Ruden traces a sweeping history through her trenchant analysis of seven pieces of literature that, she argues, marked key inflection points across two thousand years. From propagandistic poetry written by Ovid in the early Roman Empire to the biography of an evangelical American “abortion survivor,” Ruden lays bare how doctrines of control over women were invented and propagated.
The New Testament’s Pastoral Epistles introduced near-totalitarian measures to force childbearing in the early days of Christianity. In the late fifteenth century, The Hammer of Witches outlined a program that demonized women’s fertility, justifying mass torture and killing. And Charles Dickens’s The Chimes glorified the virtues of large families among the very poor, playing into their suffering and exploitation in industrialized Victorian Britain. Scathing and vital, Reproductive Wrongs unearths the evolution of a right-wing radicalism that endures to this day, when half of the US population is once again threatened with the loss of basic human rights and totalitarian law. (Credit: Liveright)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life by Ellen Carol Dubois
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a singular leader, thinker, and organizer whose fight for women’s emancipation stretched from the 1840s to her death in 1902, a full fifth of America’s history. Yet her legacy has been marked by controversy. In this landmark biography, eminent historian Ellen Carol DuBois paints a fresh portrait of this complex crusader whose tireless work made contemporary feminism possible.
Born in 1815 into a family deeply marked by the tumult of the American Revolution and surging evangelicalism, Stanton was captivated by Enlightenment ideas about individual freedom and transformed by early experiences in what she called “the school of antislavery.” Though most remembered for her fight for the vote, she was also an early crusader for women’s reproductive autonomy and reforming the institution of marriage, and against Christianity’s subordination of women. Her rifts with Black reformers and embrace of nativist ideas tarnished her reputation, but her words still have the ability to move and agitate people today. (Credit: Basic Books)
The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh
1876, Victorian London’s West End
The feisty Minnie Ward is scraping a living as a scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall when the body of her best friend is found in a dingy riverside archway. The police write off the death as a suicide and declare the case closed, but Minnie is convinced that her friend was murdered. Determined to discover the truth and get justice for her friend, she teams up with the dashing private detective Albert Easterbrook.
Together, they navigate the streets of London, from high-class gentlemen’s clubs to shady drinking dens. While the pair investigate the murder of Minnie’s friend, a notorious serial killer is wreaking havoc across London. As the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they’re going to track down the killers. But the closer they get to the truth, the more Minnie suspects Albert of hiding something. And as their paths become more and more intertwined, Minnie fears that the truth may have devastating consequences… (Credit: Pushkin Vertigo)
The Story of Marceau Miller by Marceau Miller
In the beautiful and dangerous landscape of Lake Geneva, in the shadow of the Swiss Alps, renowned writer Marceau Miller is found dead. In the wake of the tragedy, his wife, Sarah, discovers a manuscript he’s left behind, entitled The Story of Marceau Miller.
With the support of close friends, Sarah struggles to hold herself together while caring for her two children and coping with the mounting questions surrounding her famous husband’s death. Was it an accident or part of some darker game?
Compelled to find the truth, Sarah unravels secrets that make her question everything–and everyone–around her. Who can she possibly trust? Her journey from grief to revelation captures the nuance of marriage to a man who remains an enigma. Who is Marceau Miller, really?
One of the year’s most addictive thrillers, The Story of Marceau Miller marks the debut of a gifted new author–Marceau Miller–who may or may not be the man at the center of the novel itself. (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)
Strange Buildings by Uketsu
A lonely hut in the woods.
A murder house.
A hidden chamber.
A mysterious shrine.
A home in flames.
A nightmarish prison.
After receiving multiple tips from his devoted readership, a writer fascinated by the occult put together eleven case files, each featuring its very own strange building. Each of the eleven structures in this book has a floor plan that conceals a disturbing architectural quirk: from disappearing rooms to apartments with no means of escape. Each buildings tells its own chilling story. And each is part of a grander puzzle. Look closely . . . and you’ll see that everything is connected. All leading to a revelation so horrifying you won’t want to believe it. (Credit: HarperVia)
Speak of the Devil: A Witchy Graphic Novel by Sweeney Boo
Months after Abigail and her friends thwarted a dark magic ritual that threatened to destroy Younwity Hidden Institute of Witchcraft, new dangers and long-buried secrets bubble to the surface.
As autumn turns to winter, a mysterious rune-dotted fissure has appeared in the school grounds, and no one from the Coven is able to seal it—no matter how powerful their magic is. Even worse, it’s believed this fissure is the source of hazardous tremors that continue to rip through the grounds, threatening the institute’s very foundation. Abigail is certain this is all her fault and hatches a plan to seal the fissure herself, but when her ritual goes sideways, she awakens a long-dormant entity hellbent on revenge. To put things right, Abigail will need to unearth the true history of Younwity Institute and, just maybe, unravel the secrets of her own forgotten past along the way. (Credit: HarperAlley)
Sakura by Kanako Nishi
Sakura is the story of a family who is happy, until it isn’t. Skipping back and forth in time, it begins when the narrator, Kaoru, receives a letter from his estranged father announcing he will be home in Osaka for New Year’s. The letter spurs Kaoru to go back to his childhood home, and though he is apprehensive at returning, his spirits are unexpectedly lifted when he is greeted by Sakura, the family dog.
Growing up, the Hasegawas were the perfect family. Kaoru’s loving parents doted on their children. Kaoru’s baby sister, Miki, was cute and charismatic, and his older brother, Hajime—a natural leader, athlete, and charmer—was the superstar. The middle child, Kaoru was good at school, but not a star student, friendly with girls but never popular. He was content to exist in Hajime’s shadow, and occasionally bask in his light. Then Hajime was involved in a tragic accident that fractured the Hasegawas, with nothing to keep them together but memories and melancholy.
Returning home, Kaoru and his family must find the strength to reckon with the past and pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Luckily, there is Sakura, who somehow has managed to stay happy. What’s her secret? As the Hasegawas learn to let go, it is Sakura who holds the key to help them move forward. (Credit: HarperVia)
The Primrose Murder Society by Stacy Hackney
Lila Shaw stopped trusting anyone the minute her husband went to jail for white-collar crime, taking their country club lifestyle with him. Now Lila is broke, friendless, and losing her house—and to make things worse, her true-crime-obsessed daughter, Bea, was just expelled from fourth grade. Desperate for a fresh start, Lila agrees to temporarily move in and clean out an abandoned junk-filled apartment in Richmond’s palatial Primrose building. The luxurious Virginia landmark is filled with retirees who start their days early drinking bourbon and gossiping, in that order.
Soon after Lila’s arrival, the Primrose is thrown into chaos. The owner of the building’s splendid penthouse has died and in his final days he set up a two-million-dollar reward for any resident who helps to solve the 21-year-old murder of his granddaughter at the Primrose. A fan of all detective stories and true-crime podcasts, Bea is inspired to investigate. They really could use the reward money, so Lila reluctantly agrees, in a questionable attempt at family bonding. She’s certain the killer is long-gone after all these years anyway. That is, until another resident is murdered… and Lila becomes the prime suspect.
Now Lila needs to solve both murders to avoid jail, and even worse, losing her daughter to her snobby in-laws. To catch a killer and clear Lila’s name, she and Bea must rely on their elderly neighbors—Jasper, a shy former detective, and Evelyn, an opinionated socialite—along with Nate, a good-looking reporter who keeps appearing at the most inconvenient moments. As the amateur sleuths expose the truth about the Primrose, Lila hopes she can also unravel the trickiest parts of her own life and start fresh. (Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks)
King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore
Expected Publication Date: March 10
Anton Charles and his friends are the kings of the school, and they rule with an iron fist, intimidating classmates and maintaining a reputation built on fear.
But at home, Mum reigns supreme, and after one too many detentions, she cuts off Anton’s internet and decides it’s time for a serious change. She signs him up for the Happy Campers, a local activity group, and Anton’s worst nightmare becomes a reality: Matthew, the school’s biggest dork, is in it too.
Anton can’t imagine anything worse than spending weekends sewing and singing campfire songs with Matthew and his band of geeks–how will he ever keep his reputation intact if anyone finds out? But after Matthew unexpectedly saves Anton’s life, everything changes.
As the boys strike up an unlikely friendship, Anton finds himself questioning everything he thought was true. Maybe there’s more to life than what his friends think of him? Maybe it’s time to rethink what being a “man” really means?
And maybe there are some things more important than being king. (Credit: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford
Expected Publication Date: March 10
Following the acclaim of his previous novels Golden Hill and Cahokia Jazz, Francis Spufford delivers a masterpiece of literary fantasy, hailed by Joe Hill as “a book that scoops up all the wonder and hope and pleasure of the Narnia novels, and pours it into a story for grown-ups.”
It’s the summer of 1939, and the air in London is thick with the tension of impending war. Iris Hawkins, a fiery young financial secretary, has a chance encounter with Geoff, a genius engineer from the new technology of television. What was supposed to be one night of abandon draws her instead into a nightmare of otherworldly pursuit—into a reality where time bends, spirits can be summoned, and history hangs by a thread.
Soon there are Nazi planes droning overhead. In a time when death falls randomly from above each night, when the streets are darker than the wildest forest and all the men are away in uniform, the defense of the city is in the hands of its women. But Iris has more to contend with than just the terrors of the Blitz. Over the rooftops of burning London, in the twisted passages between past and present, through the vast night sky and across the tiny screens of early television, a fascist fanatic is travelling with a gun in her hand, and only Iris can stop her from altering the course of history forever. (Credit: Scribner)
Reading with Jane Austen by Elaine Bander
Expected Publication Date: March 10
Jane Austen has more readers today than at any time in history. Many of Austen’s legions of fans, however, came to her novels after first seeing films or other adaptations made for twenty-first-century audiences. Austen herself conversely spent her literary career undermining romantic clichés and rethinking novel conventions. Confident that she and her contemporaries shared a common reading culture, Austen deliberately constructed her novels to set readerly expectations, only to disrupt or confound those expectations by challenging her readers’ assumptions and values. In Reading with Jane Austen, Elaine Bander carefully rereads the great author’s novels–beginning with her late work of juvenilia, “Catharine, or The Bower,” and ending with her final fragment, “Sanditon”–against the rich context of late Georgian literary and intellectual culture. In doing so, Bander invites us into the transformative experience that Austen intentionally designed for her earliest readers, adding new layers of appreciation for those who love her work. (Credit: Bucknell University Press)
You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom by Vincent Tirado
Expected Publication Date: March 10
When Papi Ramon, the patriarch of the wealthy Abreu family dies, he gives the family one last message in the will: “One of you is el bacà, the demon that I made a deal with. Get rid of them or you will be damned.” Xiomara, the uncontested favorite of Papi Ramon (and therefore the least liked in the family), watches as everyone dismisses this as the joke of a senile old man and demands the lawyer obtain the previous will Papi wrote.
While the lawyer drives back to his office, a storm breaks out, forcing the entire family—Xiomara’s aunts and uncles and cousins—to remain in the house. And the words of Papi’s will hangs over their heads even heavier than the rain clouds. Over the course of the night, scandal after scandal is revealed to the public about the family. Suddenly a tense few hours of surviving her family turns into a vicious night of recrimination, violence, accusations…and murder.
Xiomara is faced with an impossible task: uproot a demon and somehow kill it or excise the ghosts that linger within her own family.
And the clock is ticking…(Credit: William Morrow)
Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett’s Bookshop by Jeannine A. Cook
Expected Publication Date: March 10
Jeannine Cook always thought she’d open a bookshop in her old age. Raised by a blind librarian, books were integral to her life, and she expected she would eventually write one as well. Instead, Jeannine found herself a burnt-out workaholic with three jobs and no time to read or write, feeling like she hadn’t fulfilled her purpose.
In her journal, Jeannine began an imaginary dialogue with Harriet Tubman, “Q&As” she dubbed Conversations with Harriett. Jeannine wondered how Harriet became a “wade through waist-high water in the winter: type of woman—and how she could become one too.
On February 1, 2020, Jeannine fulfilled her dream and opened a bookstore in Philadelphia which she named after her hero and inspiration, Harriet Tubman. Harriett’s Bookshop would be a place to celebrate women authors, artists, and activists. While the name was ironic—Harriet could neither read nor write—it was also fitting. The City of Brotherly love was one of Harriet’s first stops to freedom on the Underground Railroad. But in only six weeks, Jeannine would be forced to shut the shop’s doors when Covid turned the world upside down—not knowing whether her dream would survive.
Five years later, this small independent bookshop is thriving, with satellite stores in unconventional places, from movie theaters to horse trailers. Despite global death and destruction, book bans, the downward spiral in readership, the lack of physical customers, AI, and more, Jeannine’s shops have survived. Shut Up & Read is her story—the story of the little bookseller who could, and of the woman who has been the driving force behind it all. (Credit: Amistad)
The Pie & Mash Detective Agency by J.D. Brinkworth
Expected Publication Date: March 10
Jane Pye and Simon Mash are a millennial couple with a little extra time on their hands. Jane was recently let go from her position as a back-end programmer, having never been quite sure what that meant. And Simon’s career as a corporate collaboration consultant seems to be less collaborating and more scrolling the internet in search of matching velour tracksuits and well-balanced charcuterie boards. When they sign up for a private detective class on a whim, they quickly realize they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.
Their instructor, having a feeling his two worst students don’t have a chance of solving anything beyond finding the classroom, assigns them the case of Nellie Thorne, a woman recently reported missing. But she’s not the first Nellie Thorne to disappear. In fact, she’s the fifth in fifty years. Jane and Simon set out to solve the case, armed with just a few days of notes, matching trench coats, and a feeling they should have enrolled in a different class. The investigation leads the newly minted Pie and Mash Detective Agency to places they never thought they’d go, including haunted woods, mysterious archives, and, most terrifyingly for Jane, Simon’s mum’s house.
As clues emerge, more questions than answers begin to pile up. What links the missing Nellies? Why do locals think she’s a ghost? Is their teacher hiding something? So what if they’re heavy on heart but light on experience. Jane and Simon are determined to uncover the truth in time to pass the class and save the day. (Credit: Berkley)
Sweetbitter Song by Rosie Hewlett
Expected Publication Date: March 10
One summer night, within the palace of Sparta, a young slave girl stumbles across a grey-eyed princess. Despite living worlds apart, Melantho and Penelope are instantly drawn to one another, and a powerful friendship blossoms. But the Spartan royals do not approve of this bond, and soon Melantho and Penelope find themselves viciously torn apart, their trust irreparably shattered.
Years later, their paths cross once again upon the rocky shores of Ithaca, where Melantho is sent to serve Princess Penelope and her new husband, Prince Odysseus. Embittered by life as a slave, Melantho is determined to keep her distance. But, once again, the two women find themselves drawn to one other, pulled by the echo of their friendship, and something far stronger they are too afraid to name.
When war blazes across Greece, Odysseus and the men of Ithaca are driven to foreign lands. In their absence, Melantho finds a new world opening up before her – one where women rule, where family can be found, and where a forbidden love is finally given the space to bloom. Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)
The Daughters by Joanna Margaret
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Reeling from the dual deaths of her estranged father and ex-fiancé, Genevieve Tompkins has dropped out of her PhD program in New York City and is looking for a chance to start over in Wilton Springs, a faded Victorian spa town in upstate New York. Utilizing her background as an archivist, she is hired to catalogue the papers of the prominent Wilton family, who trace their lineage back to the founders of the town. But as she digs into their records, Genevieve discovers that the family’s pharmaceutical business and their personal lives have been fraught with a history of tragedy. She also uncovers a series of disturbing disappearances and suspicious deaths among the women of the town.
Three centuries earlier, Wilton Springs was the site of a brutal witch trial–a fact which someone has gone to extreme lengths to erase from historical record. As Genevieve explores the connections between the modern disappearances and the town’s ugly past, she becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy, where the line between superstition and reality begins to blur, and she fears she may become the next woman to go missing from Wilton Springs. . .
Blending elements of Gothic fiction and folk horror, The Daughters is a literary thriller that will keep readers guessing how the mysteries of the distant past may reverberate and resurface in the sinister and atmospheric present. (Credit: Mysterious Press)
Hooked by Asako Yuzuki
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Eriko’s life looks perfect—from her prestigious job at a Japanese trading firm to her spotless apartment and devoted parents. Her newest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile Perch into the Japanese market, is as ambitious as she is. But beneath her flawless surface lies a consuming loneliness. Eriko has never been able to hold on to a real friend.
Enter Shoko: a popular lifestyle blogger whose work Eriko follows obsessively. Shoko lives a life of controlled chaos—messy apartment, take-out dinners, a kind, easy-going husband. She writes about daily contentment, though her fractured relationship with her father gnaws at the edges of her happiness.
When Eriko orchestrates a “chance” meeting with Shoko, the two women strike up an unlikely connection. For a fleeting moment, Eriko believes she’s finally found what she’s always longed for. But as her fascination turns to fixation and Shoko’s carefully balanced life begins to dissolve, both women are pushed to breaking points neither of them saw coming. (Credit: Ecco)
My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi
Expected Publication Date: March 17
He’s not your average Grandpa.
As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s no surprise that schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday mysteries more often than your typical twenty-seven-year-old.
Solving them is another matter, though. For that, she turns to her beloved grandfather, who retains a keen sharpness of mind despite his dementia, and who was once a key member of The Waseda Mystery Club. From impossible locked room murders to confounding missing persons cases, the grandfather-granddaughter duo “weave stories” to get to the bottom of every mystery. But all the while, an insidious shadow from Kaede’s past slowly closes in on her . . . (Credit: G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Missing by E.A. Jackson
Expected Publication Date: March 17
In August 1990, London is suffering through an unprecedented heatwave when baby Bella Carpenter is snatched through the open window of her hotel room. Detective Inspector Martha Allen is assigned the high-profile case and, knowing that it could make or break her career, is determined to find Bella.
When a young woman named Nell Beatty walks into the police station with a baby who appears to be Bella, and whom Nell claims she found on a bench, it seems that the mystery is solved. Her family, the police, and the press are overjoyed at her return. But DI Allen isn’t convinced, something about Nell’s story doesn’t ring true. As much as she wants to continue, however, now that the baby is safe, she’s ordered to close the investigation.
Thirty years later, Nell Beatty is found dead. Now a superintendent, Allen has never really gotten over her doubts about the Carpenter case and can’t resist doing a little digging on her own time, eager to find out what happened to Nell, and her involvement in the baby’s disappearance all those years ago. But will her efforts uncover something darker than she could have ever imagined? And what is she risking as she tries once and for all to reveal the truth? (Credit: Atria/Emily Bestler Books)
Mission Microraptor by Philip Kavvadias
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Finn is more of a video games and pizza guy than a hiking guy. So when his class takes a field trip to the Alps, he and his assigned partner Milo take a shortcut back to the hotel. On the way, they stumble upon an egg buried in ice and decide to take it with them.
Later that night, the egg hatches and a baby Microraptor is brought back from extinction. Finn quickly bonds with the hatchling—who he names Arty—but he’s not the only one interested in the paleontological anomaly. From agents of the British Museum of Natural History to corporate goons for hire, everyone wants to get their hands on the discovery of the century.
Before they know it, Finn and Milo are on the run to protect both their lives and Arty’s, seeking refuge in the woods. It seems like hiking is in their future after all… (Credit: Aladdin)
Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief by Benjamin Stevenson
Expected Publication Date: March 17
I’ve spent the last few years solving murders. But a bank heist is a new one, even for me. I’ve never been a hostage before.
The doors are chained shut. No one in or out. Which means that when someone in the bank is murdered, everyone is a suspect.
THE BANK ROBBER
THE MANAGER
THE SECURITY GUARD
THE KID
THE FILM PRODUCER
THE PRIEST
THE RECEPTIONIST
THE PATIENT
THE CAREGIVER
ME
Turns out, more than one person planned to rob the bank today. You can steal more from a bank than just money.
Who is stealing what? Are they willing to kill for it? And can I solve the crime before the police kick down the door and rescue us? (Credit: Mariner Books)
Sisters In Yellow by Mieko Kawakami
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Hana has nothing – she’s fifteen years old and living in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar. They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears.
Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana’s dark world. Together they set up Lemon, a bar that, despite its shabby setting and seedy clientele, becomes a haven for Hana. Suddenly Hana has a job she loves, friends to share her days with, and the glittering promise of money. She feels like a normal girl. She feels invincible.
But in the narrow alleys of Sangenjaya, nothing is as it seems. Soon all of Hana’s hope, her optimism, and her drive will be pushed to the limit . . .
A story of enduring friendship and deep betrayal, Sisters in Yellow is a masterpiece of teenage dreams and adult cruelties that confirms Mieko Kawakami as one of the great writers of her generation. (Credit: Knopf)
How To Hold Someone In Your Heart by Mizuki Tsujimura
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain. Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten sixteenth-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love. (Credit: Scribner)
Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters across the globe—in Oslo, Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have expressed some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change.
The term was coined in 2011 by a French novelist who argued that Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” the White population. From there, politicians and theorists in the United States and elsewhere repackaged it as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and promoting diversity to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded those under threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India, all targeted with the message that they are facing an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent. (Credit: One World)
The Antique Hunter’s Murder at the Castle by C.L. Miller
Expected Publication Date: March 17
Hot on the heels of an art forger, a member of the Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency disappears while investigating an isolated castle deep in Scottish countryside. Freya and Aunt Carole race to her last known location and arrive in the wintry, snow-covered Scottish Borders.
At the castle, they discover that a murdered laird in the vegetable garden and his priceless collection of silverware has been stolen. Local police believe Freya’s missing team member was involved with the robbery and murder…but where is she now?
As a snowstorm descends on the castle, Freya and Carole call in back-up to help uncover what happened that fateful night. As each question is met with more mystery, the clock is ticking to find their friend and the murderer before they are cut off from the outside world. (Credit: Atria Books)
Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui
Expected Publication Date: March 24
The Portuguese empire has planted its flag across Morocco, ruling with an iron fist. But eventually, all empires must fall.
Aicha, the daughter of a Moroccan freedom-fighter, was born for battle. She has witnessed the death of her people, their starvation and torture at the hands of the occupiers, and it has awakened an anger within her. An anger that burns hot and bright and that speaks to Aicha’s soul.
Only Aicha’s secret lover, Rachid, a rebellion leader, knows how to soothe her. But as the fight for Morocco’s freedom reaches its violent climax, the creature that simmers beneath Aicha’s skin begs to be unleashed. It hungers for the screams of those who have caused her pain, and it will not be ignored. (Credit: Orbit)
Seven Sisters: Captives and Rebels in Revolutionary Europe’s First Family by Veronica Buckley
Expected Publication Date: March 24
“Others make war; you, happy Austria, marry.”
For three centuries, the astute positioning of their many princesses and princes had kept the Habsburgs at the peak of European power. By 1764, after a generation of costly war, confronted by shaken alliances, immense debts, and restive subjects, the Empress Maria Theresia was seeking once again to assert the dynasty’s power through strategic marriages. Her arsenal was full: her seven daughters were to serve as her pawns in the ruthless game of eighteenth-century dynastic politicking.
Delivered to the grandest or dingiest courts in Europe, they made their difficult and even dangerous ways: Marianna the seeker; the grande dame Marie Christine; Elisabeth, the malicious, disfigured beauty; fractious and wayward Amalie of Parma; the tragic bride Josepha; Carolina of Naples, Napoleon’s relentless enemy; and Antonia, youngest of the seven, sacrificial offering to the gods of revolution, better known to history as Marie Antoinette.
Meticulously researched and animated by the sisters’ own diaries and the almost daily letters traversing the continent, Seven Sisters reveals the drama, tragedy and comedy of these exceptional yet all too human lives. It is a vivid portrait of a brilliant world collapsing in a fearful time. (Credit: Viking)
Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Expected Publication Date: March 24
Erica and Laure meet on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, 1978. Erica is a student, relishing her first summer abroad before beginning university at home in England. Laure is studying for her PhD at the Sorbonne, drinking and smoking far too much, and sleeping with a married woman. The moment the two women meet, the spark is undeniable, but their encounter turns into far more than a summer of love. It is the beginning of a relationship that will define their lives and every decision they have yet to make…
Erica and Laure’s love story spans decades, marriage, children, secret trysts, and the agonizing changes—both personal and political—that might mean they can be together, after all. But when life brings them within touching distance again, will they be brave enough to seize a future together? (Credit: S&S/Summit Books)
Society Women by Adriane Leigh
Expected Publication Date: March 24
Some invitations are meant to be declined. . . .
Ellie works as an accountant at her father’s successful investment company in New York City. She enjoys all the comforts her privileged lifestyle affords—a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park, a generous trust fund, and a devastatingly attractive if often absent husband who works long hours for her father as well. Yet the introverted young woman who wants for nothing feels aimless and untethered. Ellie lost her mother at a young age and still has nightmares about her death. She sometimes sleepwalks at night and finds herself stumbling through the days.
But Ellie’s life takes a turn when she receives an anonymous invitation in the mail, asking her to join an elite women’s club known only as “The Society.” Intrigued, she begins to attend their lavish gatherings where she meets her new close companion, Aubrey, and enjoys the benefits of belonging to the group—friendship, sisterhood, and support from other successful and glamorous women. Then Ellie makes a horrifying discovery about the society and its “philanthropic work.” The women of The Society harbor dark, dangerous secrets—secrets that may implicate Ellie’s own family. (Credit: Harper Perennial)
Robbie McNeil’s Hit List by Brianna Heath
Expected Publication Date: March 24
For this hitwoman, curiosity may be killer.
Contract killer Robbie McNeil never asks questions. Her mission is simple. Do the job. Get paid. Get back to running the karaoke bar she co-owns with her queerplatonic partner and fellow contract killer, Dee. And it works… Until their ambitious new theatrical venture breaks the bank.
When a mysterious new client hires Robbie for a hit, she takes the job, even though it’s sketchy as hell he won’t tell her anything but the target’s name. But hey, she didn’t build her reputation by being curious, and she desperately needs the cash.
Except something about this new target doesn’t add up. When he disappears with no record he ever existed, she chucks her no-questions-asked policy out the window, determined to figure out who this target really is. But the price for asking questions is high and might just cost Robbie everything she holds dear. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)
Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh
Expected Publication Date: March 24
One offers a helping hand. The other is your worst nightmare…
Social media influencer, Elly Parker, had the perfect life, that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend.
But as hurt, betrayed, unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. Even strangers.
When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him.
Just as he planned.
This small act of kindness sets off a change of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine.
To survive, Elly will need to convince the world what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead. (Credit: Atria Books)
How to Survive the End of the World: A Graphic Exploration of How to (Maybe) Avoid Extinction by Katy Doughty
Expected Publication Date: March 31
Since 99.9 percent of all species that have lived are extinct, it’s bound to be our turn eventually, right? So what’s most likely to kill us? A well-timed asteroid? Some new robot overlords? With wit and dry humor, debut graphic novelist Katy Doughty blends science and history to explore our chances of surviving disasters such as plagues, global warming, and alien invasion. Drawing on interviews with experts in fields like infectious diseases, AI, and interplanetary exploration, she combines cutting-edge research with compelling visuals: mugshots of the deadliest microbes, graphs of the winners and losers of mass extinction events, and a whole lot of dinosaur drawings. For apocalypse aficionados, the morbidly curious, and the just plain curious, this is your antidote to existential dread—a timely, imaginative, and ultimately hopeful take on humankind’s ability to survive the odds. (Credit: MITeen Press)
News from the Fallout by Chris Condon and illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love
Expected Publication Date: March 31
Interrupting your regularly scheduled broadcast to deliver a terrifying sci-fi story that takes place in Nevada in 1962 after a nuclear bomb test goes horribly awry.
In 1962 Nevada’s “Atomic Alley,” a nuclear bomb test goes horribly awry at the secretive Gaines Army Base and unleashes a contaminate into the atmosphere that turns people rotten. Otis Fallows, a private in the U.S. Army who is present for the test and is the only known survivor, flees the secret army base in search of a safe haven—but does such a place exist?
Written by Chris Condon, (THAT TEXAS BLOOD, Ultimate Wolverine), and drawn by the visionary artist Jeffrey Alan Love (The Last Battle at the End of the World, The Thousand Demon Tree), fans of 60s sci-fi films and TV shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and the works of authors Stephen King and Richard Matheson will love this eery graphic novel. (Credit: Image Comics)
Killing Me Softly by Sandie Jones
Expected Publication Date: March 31
THE PERFECT COUPLE
Charlie and Freya used to be the picture-perfect couple. Happy and in love, Freya enjoyed a rewarding job heading up a charity’s fundraising efforts, and Charlie was fast becoming one-to-watch on the London culinary scene—if you couldn’t be them, you wanted to be with them.
A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
They had it all . . . until one night a devastating accident tears their lives apart, and they’re awoken by police at their door, asking whether they are aware that their car had been involved in a hit and run.
A BITTER FEUD
Torn apart by accusations and guilt, the trust that Freya and Charlie once shared is shattered as they turn on each other, looking for someone to blame for the fallout. Told from both Freya and Charlie’s perspectives, a cat and mouse game ensues, both of them desperate to have someone to point the finger at. But is it more important to be right, or to win? Can Freya stay one step ahead of the man who knows her best? Or will Charlie’s stoic conviction to get what he wants be the death of her? (Credit: Minotaur Books)
The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris by Mark Pryor
Expected Publication Date: March 31
Hugo has led an exciting life as an FBI profiler and the US embassy’s head of security, but now he’s ready to embrace a quieter existence as a bookseller in the Marais district of Paris. His former employer, however, has other plans for him. A prominent American citizen is the COO of a boutique chocolate emporium in Paris, where they’ve received a mysterious and threatening note. A blackmailer who goes by the name The Shadow wants half a million euros or else their “darkest secret will be revealed.”
Eclat de Chocolat is housed in a chateau dating back to the 1700s. The building, which served as a convent in the first half of the twentieth century, where the angelic Sister Evangeline and her order of nuns helped countless orphans during World War II, has been beautifully converted into a chocolate factory. So what dark secrets could a chocolatier be hiding? The COO has no idea.
Involving his friend, Lieutenant Camille Lerens, Hugo begins to investigate. But soon a second note appears on the premises, canceling the blackmail threat. The same day, the body of an employee is found in an old graveyard behind the chocolatier. Now Hugo and Lerens have a murder on their hands, but is it connected to the blackmail attempt? As they dig for secrets and motives, it becomes clear The Shadow’s grave work has just begun . . .(Credit: Kensington)
The Keeper by Tana French
Expected Publication Date: March 31
Secrets in the flames. Answers in the ashes.
On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.
In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line. (Credit: Viking)
Mother Mercy by Chandra Arthur
Expected Publication Date: March 31
She loves her day job—and makes a killing at it.
Abby doesn’t know much about her family, and the memories she does have aren’t great. She spends most of her time killing abusers to save their victims. By night, researches her own history.
It hasn’t led anywhere till recently.
What she discovers is a sad tale of heartbreak and murder.
She tries not to let the new lead get in the way of her work, but when work and personal life cross paths, it’s never a good thing. But maybe this time can be different. (Credit: Inimitable Books)
The Bridge Back to You by Riss M. Neilson
Expected Publication Date: March 31
Olivia owes everything to Celia’s Place. It’s where she learned how to be a great chef. It’s also where she first fell in love. But at nineteen, Olivia had a wanderlust she couldn’t deny. And Carmello, whose mother owned the restaurant, couldn’t leave Celia’s Place behind any more than he could force Olivia to stay.
Now, ten years later, Olivia is a successful personal chef. Her job allows her to travel the world, and she has never stayed in the same place for too long. When Carmello learns that his mother left shares of her beloved restaurant to both him and Olivia, he plans to buy her portion of the shares back quickly and painlessly.
That is until Olivia shows up at the restaurant, ready to help run it. Carmello sees an opportunity: drive Olivia away from his restaurant so that she will want to sign over her shares. But Olivia sees things a bit differently. She finally has the chance to stay in one place and build a home after years on the move, and perhaps now is the right time to explore whether that home can be with the one who got away.
Soon enough, sparks begin to fly, but can Olivia and Carmello avoid the mistakes of the past? (Credit: Berkley)
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