May 2025 list by Holly Whistler |
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The Queens of Crime
by Marie Benedict
In 1930 London, the Queens of Crime, a secret society of renowned women writers led by Dorothy L. Sayers investigates the murder of nurse May Daniels, found strangled in a park, and must navigate a web of intrigue and danger as they challenge societal norms.
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The Medici Return
by Steve Berry
The search for a 16th-century Vatican debt known as the Pledge of Christ leads Cotton Malone into a high-stakes quest involving the lost Medici lineage, while the future of Italy's prime minister and the papacy hang in the balance, all depending on the Medici's possible return.
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The Paris Express
by Emma Donoghue
Set on a fateful 1895 train journey to Paris, a diverse group of passengers, including politicians, a medical student, an inventor, and an anarchist, navigate personal ambitions and hidden motives, culminating in a disaster that forever changes their lives.
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Isola
by Allegra Goodman
Inspired by a real 16th-century heroine, an orphaned and betrayed young woman, Marguerite, is marooned on a desolate island with her lover, where she must confront nature's harshness and her own strength in a desperate fight for survival.
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We Do Not Part
by Kang Han
As Kyungha braves a treacherous snowstorm on Jeju Island to save her injured friend's pet, she unwittingly embarks on a journey that blurs reality and memory, uncovering a hidden chapter of Korean history and the enduring power of friendship amidst forgotten violence.
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The Story She Left Behind
by Patti Callahan Henry
In 1952, illustrator Clara Harrington travels to London with her daughter Wynnie to investigate a discovery linked to her vanished mother, a famed author, uncovering long-buried truths amid the chaos of the Great Smog and a remote Lake District retreat.
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People of Means
by Nancy Johnson
From the acclaimed author of The Kindest Lie, a propulsive novel about a mother and daughter, Freda and Tulip, each seeking justice and following their dreams during moments of social reckoning—1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago.
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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
by Stephen Graham Jones
A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow.
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The Dressmakers of London
by Julia Kelly
After their mother's unexpected death, Isabelle Shelton and her estranged sister Sylvia inherit the family dressmaking shop, prompting Izzie to reluctantly seek Sylvia's help to save it while aiming to buy her out, leading to letters that explore old wounds and the possibility of reconciliation within their shared legacy
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The Boxcar Librarian
by Brianna Labuskes
During the Great Depression, Works Progress Administration editor Millie Lang is sent to Montana to investigate sabotage at her project and uncovers a mystery surrounding Alice Monroe, her Boxcar Library, and the disappearance of librarian Colette Durand years earlier.
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The Umbrella Maker's Son: A Novel of WWII
by Tod S. Lending
Seventeen-year-old Reuven, from a middle-class Polish Jewish family, witnesses his life crumble under Nazi occupation as they lose their business and home; after Zelda, his love, disappears, he narrowly escapes a brutal labor camp, embarking on a dangerous journey through Poland to find her in the Kraków ghetto. .
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A Map to Paradise
by Susan Meissner
Blacklisted actress Melanie Cole and her maid, Eva, form an unlikely alliance to uncover the mystery surrounding their agoraphobic neighbor's disappearance, leading them to a surprising discovery about themselves and their shared past.
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Waiting for the Long Night Moon : Stories
by Amanda Peters
Stories of Indigenous experiences across time, from early European contact to modern water-rights activism, depicting resilience through characters like a residential school survivor, a water protector, and a young dancer, all revealing strength and dignity amid systemic hardships
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