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Mysteries, Thrillers, Horror, Oh My! May 2026 |
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26 Beauties: A Women's Murder Club Thriller
by James Patterson
From the world's #1 bestselling author, the Women's Murder Club goes searching for 26 Beauties--young women missing in San Francisco. SFPD's Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's best friend, Claire Washburn, is named medical examiner of the year. But an uninvited guest crashes the Women's Murder Club's party: a concerned father seeking investigative reporter Cindy Thomas's help in locating his missing daughter. And she's not the only one. Lindsay's been investigating the deaths of a Jane Doe washed up on a nearby beach, and a young woman found in Golden Gate Park. What if all these cases are connected? The answers lie with the 26 Beauties on the run and in the wind.
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Ironwood: A Catalina Novel
by Michael Connelly
Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in. Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated--by twenty-two miles of ocean--from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off. An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.
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The Last Mandarin
by Louise Penny
Alice Li, a first-generation Chinese American and former food blogger, has long lived in the shadow of her mother, Vivien Li-- a Tiananmen Square dissident turned world-renowned human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China. When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, Vivien and Alice are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can interpret the Chinese intentions. But why involve Alice? If China isn't behind the attack, Vivien warns, someone even more dangerous is pulling the strings. Mother and daughter must join together to overcome their estrangement if they have any hope of preventing global catastrophe.
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The Divorce
by Freida McFadden
What is a happily ever after really worth? Naomi was living the quintessential love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love, get married, buy a dream house, start a family...Then--he kicks her out, hires the city's best divorce lawyers, drains their accounts, and takes up with a 20-something.It's a brutal end to the story. Naomi should accept defeat: move into a dingy apartment, get back into the workforce, and piece together the shattered remains of her life. Except, why should she?Instead, Naomi fixates on her husband's new girlfriend. What begins as cynical curiosity soon twists into obsession--and then into something far darker. As Naomi uncovers secrets she never imagined, she realizes her own life may be in danger. But if it keeps her perfect family intact, isn't it worth it?
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The Anniversary: A Thriller
by Alex Finlay
Every May 1st, a serial killer stalks a small town. Every year he comes for them . . . On May 1, 1992, Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley hardly know each other. Jules is high school queen bee in a small Midwestern town when she survives a brutal attack by the elusive May Day Killer--a predator who strikes every May 1st and then vanishes without a trace. Quinn, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested the same night after trying to break up a fight and nearly killing someone. By morning, their lives are forever connected. A year later, Jules is haunted by trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was she spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to devastating news--the unsolved murder of his mother. Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year: May 1st. As the years pass, secrets surface, lies unravel, and the paths of Jules and Quinn draw closer together. Two mysteries edge toward the truth--what really happened the night Jules was attacked, and who murdered Quinn's mother? All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there. And the clock is racing toward another anniversary.
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The Final Target
by Nora Roberts
He showed up at Arden Bowie's debut author appearance with a copy of her novel and an eager smile. He showered her with compliments and got her autograph. Then he came to her next event. And the one after that. Dustin was just an aspiring writer who wanted advice, Arden reassured herself. But after giving in to one of his incessant invitations and chatting with him over coffee, she discovered that ignoring her inner alarm bell had been a terrible mistake... An introvert at heart, Arden had long craved solitude--but now, after a harrowing assault, she finds herself hiding behind locked doors and startling at every sound. And her relief at his imprisonment is tempered by anxiety when Dustin's wealthy mother helps to get him a paltry five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility. Arden decides to write a new story for herself, moving to a tiny Oregon town and befriending Gideon, an ex-LAPD detective. But while she learns to thrive, Dustin remains his delusional, twisted self, as fixated as ever and now seething with anger. He still believes Arden's purpose on earth is to serve and please him. And his job is to protect her. But who will protect her from him?
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Dissection of a Murder
by Jo Murray
TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SECOND SEASON OF APPLE TV+'S PRESUMED INNOCENT, STARRING EMMY AWARD-WINNER RACHEL BROSNAHAN
When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she's shocked by the victim: a well-known, well-respected judge, whose death sent shockwaves through the legal community. She's also incredulous--she's nowhere near experienced enough to handle such a high-profile assignment--but the defendant is insistent: he wants her, and only her, to represent him. Except he's refusing to talk. And if that wasn't complicated enough, Leila soon learns her opponent is the most ruthless prosecutor she's ever known: her husband. It's an impossible situation, yet Leila is determined to sway the jury--until she's blindsided once again by a shadowy figure from her past. Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only for her client and marriage, but also to keep her own secrets buried. And if she has to rewrite the rules to win, so be it.
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Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement
by Ward Larsen
Coordinated terrorist attacks around the world challenge President Jack Ryan in the latest shocking entry in this #1 New York Times bestselling series. The western world is stunned when coordinated terrorist attacks blaze up around the globe. While President Jack Ryan works from the Oval Office to organize international response to this threat, John Clark and the Campus team follow a lead to the malignant presence who has orchestrated this strike. But the deeper they dig, the higher the threat level becomes. This isn't just a series of atrocities, it's a designed battle plan that could lead to the destruction of Jack Ryan's presidency.
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The Kindness of Strangers
by Emma Garman
A wildly entertaining debut and homage to the classic murder mystery set in post-WWII London where a stranger's arrival at a boarding house sets a deadly chain of events in motion--perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Agatha Christie, and Richard Osman.London, 1953. Jimmy Sullivan lies dying on the drawing room floor while his housemates look on, their lives about to change forever. One foggy night in the dead of February, a young man arrives unannounced at 42 Tregunter Road in Chelsea. Self-styled Bohemian Mrs. Honor Wilson--who runs a minor literary journal and lodgings from this timeworn Victorian house--introduces him to her dear house guests Robbie, the writer; Mina, the teenage sleuth; George, the debutante; and Saul, the haunted refugee. Jimmy Sullivan is a family friend, Honor says--yet clearly, something is not right. Despite everyone's misgivings, she lets the stranger move into the attic. As they each try to disprove Jimmy's dubious account of himself, secrets, jealousies, and disturbing schemes come to light, fracturing the household's delicate allegiances and setting in motion, unstoppably, a tale of perilous self-invention, complicated love, and murderous revenge. In a house built on lies, the truth will get you killed.
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The Tuxedo Society
by Paul Rudnick
If Guy Ritchie directed a James Bond caper starring a queer 007, it might look something like this hilarious and action-packed spy thriller by Paul Rudnick, acclaimed screenwriter and author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, that blends espionage and social commentary, with an elite, gay secret society. They are fierce patriots. They are licensed to kill. And they are really, really gay. Welcome to democracy's secret weapon, the Tuxedo Society. When Andrew Birnbaum, a struggling actor making ends meet by working in a candle shop, gets invited to have dinner with the exclusive Tuxedo Society by his best friend, Brock, his life takes an unexpected turn. What seems like a group of wealthy socialites gathering for gossip and cocktails quickly spirals into a world of espionage, danger, and hilarity. Andrew soon meets Reggie O'Malley, a Navy SEAL with a penchant for black tie, who recruits Andrew to join the society's covert mission to protect national security. Armed with gadgets like an inflatable life raft backpack, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle, and, of course, an AMEX Black Card, Andrew quickly finds himself tackling spies, thwarting assassinations, and facing a host of unexpected threats in settings from the White House to the Vatican to the Summer Olympic Games.
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I Know a Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours
by Nat Cassidy
There are locations in this world where the light doesn't seem to reach. Where, no matter how illuminated the place might be, shadows creep in too strongly to fight back. A suspiciously empty gas station rest stop in the middle of the night, littered with googly eyes... A doctor's office, where a bottle of booze and a tear-stained folder wait on the desk... A tech millionaire's haunted kitchen... A Bible-quoting ventriloquist's dingy apartment... A yoga retreat in the middle of the desert, silent except for the screaming... These locations and more are your destination and bestselling author Nat Cassidy will be your guide. Featuring the Bram Stoker Award-nominated, critically acclaimed novella Rest Stop (one of Esquire's Best Horror Books of 2024), along with a number of other original short stories, some which have never been published before, I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours is a travelogue down twisting side streets and through alleyways where the darkness has eyes... and teeth. Let's hope you make it home in one piece.
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