January 2026 list by Donalee Jacobs |
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The Birdwatcher
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
When she is convicted of a double murder, Felicity Wild, a brilliant grad student turned high-priced escort, declares, "I may not be innocent, but I'm innocent of this." Reenie Bigelow never doubted it. A jury may have given Felicity a life sentence, but Reenie knows that her childhood best friend is not capable of murder. And so Reenie, a journalist, decides to use her deep connections to Felicity's past to unravel the truth.
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The Bridesmaid
by Cate Quinn
When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted as an undercover replacement. Working to unpick the secrets of the Kensington family, glamour-averse Holly discovers a new worst enemy in bridezilla Adrianna. And beneath the veneer of sophistication, she realizes the Kensingtons have secrets worth killing for. As the wedding day gets closer, it seems clear that one of the five hand-picked bridesmaids has committed murder - and the destination wedding is a perfect place to strike again.
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Cape Fever
by Nadia Davids
From award-winning South African author Nadia Davids comes a gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s. As Soraya Matas settles into her role as the personal maid to Mrs Hattingh, she discovers the house is alive with spirits. While Mrs. Hattingh awaits her son's visit from London, she offers to write letters to Soraya's fiancé Nour on her behalf. So begins a weekly meeting where Soraya dictates and Mrs. Hattingh writes--a ritual that binds the two women to one another and eventually threatens the sanity of both. Soraya Matas is an unforgettable narrator, whose story of love and grief, is a chilling exploration of class and the long reach of history.
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Daughter of Genoa
by Kat Devereaux
The author of Escape to Florence returns with a thrilling adventure set in the war-torn 1940s and about a young woman who risks everything to help Jewish Italians flee the fascists, and falls in love with the brave aviator behind a daring secret rescue operation. Based on the true story of the DELASEM--the Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants, an organization of brave volunteers working tirelessly to save innocent lives from the concentration camps--Daughter of Genoa is a poignant look at those who loved and lost yet continued to risk everything to create a better world.
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Hope and Destiny
by Niklas Natt Och Dag
The author of the Wolf and the Watchman series presents a new series that explores one of medieval Sweden's most infamous murder mysteries. 1434: The kingdoms of northern Europe are struggling as a peasant rebellion, led by Engelbrekt Engelbrekts, erupts in the north. Magnus Bengtsson is sent by his family to find a foothold in the movement and win Engelbrekt's trust and favor no matter the cost. Back at Magnus's family castle, his mother, father, and sister wait for news of his success. One is lost in longing, another is forging his own plan for the throne and crown, and one is looking for the opportunity to rise from her brother's shadow.
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A Kiss of Hammer and Flame
by Amy de la Force
When blacksmith Cahra is commissioned to forge a sword, she designs a crest that invokes an age-old prophecy and awakens Hael – an immortal with the power to shape or shatter worlds – sealed away in the lost capital at the heart of a civil war between three kingdoms. Now hunted for the sword, Cahra flees with the stranger who commissioned it. But can she trust the handsome and charming noble, Terryl? On the run through the Wilds, she is drawn closer to Hael, who visits her in dreams. With tyrant kings vying to capture and wield him as a weapon, she alone stands between Hael and their deadly ambitions.
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The Library of Fates
by Margot Harrison
The Library of Fates was designed to show people who they are and who they could become. Its rarest book, The Book of Dark Nights, reveals a prediction for the future when you write an intimate confession on its pages. Eleanor has spent most of her life there as an apprentice to the librarian. But when her mentor dies and The Book of Dark Nights goes missing, Eleanor is pulled into a quest to locate it with the librarian's estranged son, Daniel, who Eleanor once loved. As they hunt down clues, Eleanor and Daniel grow closer again, regaining each other's trust. But little do they know that they're entangled in a much larger web. Someone else wants the book, and they'll go to dark lengths to get it.
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The Love Audit
by Lucy Eden
Jasmine Morgan and Derek Carter have a renowned rivalry, yet they've never revealed what turned their relationship sour. When they're thrown together on a revitalization project in Miller's Cove, Florida, they pretend to be on their honeymoon to get into an exclusive event and are forced to keep pretending when the news gets around town. They soon stumble across a hidden horticultural oasis planted by a Black inventor and must formulate a plan to protect the town from the corporate greed they didn't realize they played roles in. As they navigate obstacles and uncover hidden treasures, they rediscover old feelings and realize love might be the most valuable discovery of all.
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Love in Plane Sight
by Lauren Connolly
With her brother's grumpy best friend George Bunsen as Beth's flight instructor, her pilot lessons could be a plane disaster or their first-class ticket to forever. But when her first ride-along dives toward disaster, the George is forced to execute an emergency landing, and Beth is horrified to find herself with a crush on the pilot. She's even more shocked when George offers her discounted flight lessons. The more time they spend navigating the sky, the more the turbulence between George and Beth dissipates. But Beth has been keeping a secret that, once revealed, will send all her relationships into a tailspin. Can she really take a risk on romance when her pilot career isn't even off the ground?
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Love Letters for Other People
by Shaylin Gandhi
When Aubrey MacLean's career implodes, she has no choice but to return to her rural Indiana hometown. Nick Thacker's life is routine: long shifts at the steel mill, plus a side business writing love letters for other people. It's enough to numb his regrets--until his first love returns, stirring up a past he thought he'd buried. Aubrey is focused on rebuilding her career, until she falls for a man whose love letters feel familiar. The similarities must be a coincidence, right? Because if not, Aubrey may have to choose between the life she's built and the love she left behind.
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The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum
by Valerie Wilson Wesley
At the darkly glamorous height of the Roaring 20s, an independent Black intellectual and her bi-racial foster child are immersed in the vibrant world of the Harlem Renaissance - and a shocking murder on Striver's Row - in this thrilling Jazz Age mystery for reader of Nekesia Afia, Jacqueline Winspear, and Avery Cunningham.
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No One Aboard
by Emy McGuire
At the start of summer, billionaire couple Francis and Lila Cameron set off on their private sailboat to celebrate the high school graduation of their two beloved children. Three weeks later, the Cameron's have not been heard from, the captain hasn't responded to radio calls, and the sailboat is found floating off the coast of Florida. Empty. Where are the Cameron's? What happened on their trip? And what secrets does the beautiful boat hold? Set over the course of their vacation and in the aftermath of the sailboat's discovery, No One Aboard asks who is more dangerous to a family: a stormy ocean or each other?
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Ranch and Red Herrings
by Tonya Kappes
When Georgia Cussy Hollingsworth's uncle dies, she's pulled back to the last place she wanted to be -- a horse and cattle ranch -- facing a murder she can't ignore. Cussy finds herself tangled in long-held grudges, whispered secrets, and neighbors who remember everything -- except who had a reason to kill. Now she's balancing farm chores with fact-finding, dodging shady locals, and stumbling across more questions than answers. And with someone clearly trying to scare her off, Cussy has to decide: walk away, or dig in her heels and uncover the truth -- before the killer makes her the next loose end to tie up.
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The Red Scare Murders
by Con Lehane
July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York's sweaty Hell's Kitchen. Last year, cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. Harold Williams, an African American Communist Party member, was arrested, tried, found guilty, and given a death sentence, despite scant evidence. Labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. No one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold Williams, and some of Irwin's former associates are happy to take on anyone asking awkward questions. Yet Mick can't abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?
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The Rest of Our Lives
by Ben Markovits
When Tom Layward's wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his daughter to college, he remembers his promise. So Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past--an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son--en route, maybe, to California. He's moving towards the future while he considers how his choices have brought him to this particular present. Pitch-perfect, tender, and keenly observed, The Rest of Our Lives is a story about what to do when the rest of your life is only just the beginning of your story. Finalist for the 2025 Booker Prize.
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Silent Bones
by Val McDermid
When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built eleven years prior. Sam Nimmo, a journalist who'd been poking his nose into the politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he's reappeared, buried under the motorway. It's the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland's Historic Cases Unit. But when an allegation of murder surfaces over the supposedly accidental death of a hotel manager, it unearths a series of interlinked puzzles that will test Karen and her team unlike ever before.
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Song of Ancient Lovers
by Laura Restrepo
Award-winning Colombian author Laura Restrepo weaves contemporary themes and ancient myth in this story of star-crossed lovers in a world on the brink of collapse.
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Sunset at Zero Point
by Simon Stålenhag
Beginning in 2024, yet set largely during the early 2000s, Sunset at Zero Point unfolds on a secluded Swedish island, home to a secret weapon lab that has been off-limits for years. The story spans decades following two young men, stuck in the past and each other's orbit, as fleeting moments become defining memories as they set out to explore the forbidden zone together. Set against the backdrop of Stålenhag's native Sweden and based on the alternate version of Mälaröarna outside of Stockholm, Sunset at Zero Point juxtaposes giant futuristic machines with the inner turmoil of its characters facing a social dystopia, crafting a narrative that is both visually stunning and emotionally resonant.
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Unquiet Guests
by Dan Coxon
A house is more than just a place to lay your head at night. Sometimes, the walls remember. Gathering ten modern masters of the strange and unsettling, Unquiet Guests sets fire to the blueprints and reimagines the haunted house from the foundations up. From dreamlike visions of an abandoned future mansion to a sentient building grown tired of its owners, these rooms echo with whispers of the disenfranchised and the lost. Featuring stories by Chuck Palahniuk, Grady Hendrix, Kirsty Logan, Will Maclean, Irenosen Okojie, Alison Moore, Matthew Holness, Claire Fuller, Clay McLeod Chapman, and Ally Wilkes.
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What Darkness Does
by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush
Called in to investigate the body of a young mother found floating in a small Michigan lake, Freeport coroner Dr. Emily Hartford determines that Savannah Browdey was murdered. In addition, Savannah's infant daughter, Brooklyn is missing. Working with police detective Ishkode Aditson, Emily tries to find the missing baby. At the same time, Emily's boyfriend Nick Larsen has returned after a year and the FBI agent is also determined to catch the killer. To catch this monster, Nick must battle his own demons, while Emily puzzles together the mystery of Brooklyn's whereabouts, in hopes of giving a grieving family a happy ending.
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