January 2026 list by Nanette Alderman |
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The Award
by Matthew Pearl
David Trent is an aspiring novelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, trying to navigate his ambitions in a place that has writers around every corner. He lives in an apartment above a Very Famous Author named Silas Hale who is a bombastic, vindictive monster who refuses to allow his new neighbor even to make eye contact with him until young David wins a prestigious award for his new book. Suddenly Silas is interested, if intensely spiteful. But soon, the administrator of the award comes to David with alarming news, forcing the writer into a desperate set of choices.
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The Body in the Trees
by Jessica Fletcher
A quartet of friends from Florida have come to Maine to experience a colorful New England autumn, complete with hiking in the woods and fishing for haddock and crabs. When one of the tourists goes missing, the town rallies to find Wendy Lu Shaffer, who must simply be lost in the woods.
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Dark Sisters
by Kristi Demeester
Mary Shephard, a picture perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father's flock spirals into crisis. Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die.
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Daughter of Genoa
by Kat Devereaux
Anna's family fled to America years ago, to escape the Fascist regime, but Anna had stayed behind. Alone and terrified of discovery, Anna meets Father Vittorio, a Jesuit priest who takes her to shopkeepers Bernardo and Silvia, an older couple who offer shelter and safety without question. But when Anna discovers that this kind, quiet couple is part of a network of ordinary people daring to help Father Vittorio smuggle Jewish citizens, stripped of their status and rights, out of Italy, she is determined to help.
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Direct Action
by Jack Stewart
Charley Castillo, the original Presidential Agent is in Virginia Beach to visit his son when two gunmen appear. Charley is able to thwart a deadly mass shooting, but he is hit and badly injured. Meanwhile Pick McCoy is at the Naval Academy catching up with some old friends. When the news of the attack reaches him, he senses that this is no random event. While Charley clings to life, Pick searches for the men responsible and in the process uncovers a deadly plot that threatens to strike deep at the heart of American democracy.
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Everyone in the Group Chat Dies
by L. M. Chilton
Kirby Cornell needs a break from everything: her crumbling apartment, her dead-end job, her sleazy landlord, her messy roommates, and, most of all, the terrible thing they all did. Luckily, that hasn't caught up with her just yet. Until a new message on their old group chat pops up: Everyone in the group chat dies. It's the first text her ex-roommate Esme has sent for ages, but that's not the really weird thing. The really weird thing is, Esme died twelve months ago.
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A Grim Reaper's Guide to Cheating Death
by Maxie Dara
Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which might seem odd for someone as terrified of death as she is. But ever since her parents died in an accident when she was six, she's been obsessed with avoiding risk, and what better place to learn how to cheat death than the company that employs the nation's grim reapers? The work enables Nora to learn all about the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting...until one day, a file crosses her desk with a name she recognizes: her twin brother's.
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The Heir Apparent
by Rebecca Armitage
It's New Year's Day in Tasmania and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack--and she's about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack--when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother's right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne--a role she has publicly disavowed.
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Huguette
by Cara Black
Seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her-both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father's enemies, who want her dead.
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In Your Dreams
by Sarah Adams
Madison Walker left Rome, Kentucky, determined to make it in the culinary world. But after years of chasing success in New York, all she has to show for it is her shattered confidence and a desperate need for a fresh start. Coming home isn't part of the plan--until an unexpected job offer lands in her lap: the head chef position at a new farm-to-table restaurant in her hometown. The only catch? It comes from James Huxley.
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A Kiss of Hammer and Flame
by Amy de la Force
When young blacksmith Cahra is commissioned to forge a sword, she uses her imagination to design its crest. But this symbol unwittingly invokes an age-old prophecy and awakens Hael an immortal with the power to shape or shatter worlds.
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The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe
by James Patterson
In the months before her death, Marilyn polishes the script for her ultimately unfinished film, Something's Got to Give. In the weeks before her death, she drinks champagne on Santa Monica Beach with the last photographer to take her picture. In the days before her death, she's a guest of Frank Sinatra in the Celebrity Room at the Cal Neva Lodge. In the hours before her death, she argues with US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and his brother-in-law Peter Lawford. A fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's last days.
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The List of Suspicious Things
by Jennie Godfrey
When Miv's parents start discussing moving because of the local missing women, she and her best friend Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things on their street. People they know. People they don't. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighborhood, within their families-and between each other-than they ever thought possible.
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The Mating Game
by Lana Ferguson
Contractor Tess Covington is shocked to find out she's actually a late-presenting omega wolf shifter. She can't afford not to complete the renovation job she came to Denver for. And given that her newly emerged wolf is in danger of going into heat, she'll just have to do her best to keep away from alpha shifters. Alpha wolf Hunter Barrett stays clear of omegas after having one stomp on his heart. When Tess shows up, he must endure her presence because he needs her help turning his failing lodge around.
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May Contain Murder
by Orlando Murrin
While his flooded house undergoes repairs, chef-turned-writer Paul Delamare has been offered an accommodation upgrade--an all-expenses-paid trip aboard a private superyacht in the company of Xéra, one of his dearest friends. When Xéra's priceless new necklace goes missing, Paul falls under suspicion. But there's far worse in store, as one of the passengers is found dead in mysterious and grisly circumstances.
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A Most Worthy Husband
by Faye Delacour
Hannah Williams never wanted a marriage like her parents'. She'd be perfectly happy to spend her life as a spinster and support herself by helping to run her sister-in-law's gambling club. But no matter how many schemes Hannah hatches to repel suitors, her mother won't accept defeat. To wrest back control of her life once and for all, Hannah takes drastic measures. She'll ruin herself with a man so unsuitable that no one will force them to the altar, making her unmarriageable forever.
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The Rest of Our Lives
by Ben Markovits
When Tom Layward's wife had an affair twelve years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his promise to himself. He is also on the run from his own health issues and a forced leave from work. So, rather than returning to his wife in Westchester, Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past. He's moving towards a future he hasn't even envisioned yet while he considers his past and the choices he's made that have brought him to this particular present.
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Silent Bones
by Val McDermid
Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt--it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built eleven years prior. Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who'd been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he's reappeared, buried under the motorway.
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When the Fireflies Dance
by Aisha Hassan
On the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan, a large yellow moon hung low in the sky when the men came with dogs and guns and cricket bats. In front of his family's small hut on the edge of a looming brick kiln, Lalloo's brother was murdered. Unable to escape the memory of that horrible night, Lalloo's parents and sisters remain trapped, the kiln chimney churning black smoke into the sky as the family slave, brick by brick, to pay off their debts. To rescue them, Lalloo must free himself from his past and carve out his own destiny.
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Whispers at Painswick Court
by Julie Klassen
Surgeon's daughter Anne Loveday serves as sickroom nurse to a lady at a Cotswolds manor. While navigating the other residents--including potential suitors--a series of mishaps befalls her patient, and Anne realizes there may be a murderer in their midst. With her reputation and heart on the line, can she discover who's guilty before it's too late?
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White Wolf
by Eric Van Lustbader
Evan Ryder races against time in a landscape where secrets can no longer hide behind digital walls. Ilona Shokova, the elusive, deadly assassin White Wolf, holds the key to mastering this unhackable method. Two powerful, deadly women, one quest. Will either one of them survive?
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