Auckland, New Zealand: Māori police detective Hana Westerman juggles job pressure, her teen activist daughter, and an imminent divorce from her cop husband (though they've been separated for years).

 

The past is prologue: Hana connects two new murders with the 1863 execution of a Māori chief by British colonizers and realizes there's a serial killer at work.

 

Author buzz: New Zealander Michael Bennett is an acclaimed Māori writer and filmmaker, and Better the Blood is his riveting, thoughtful debut crime novel and the 1st in a planned series.

What it's about: Jules Hart's life will never be the same since the car accident that killed her son Gabe, especially because Gabe's best friend Isaac made it out of the same wreck alive. When Isaac later goes missing, the boy's mother blames Jules for the disappearance until an even more disturbing possibility comes to light -- a serial killer.

 

Read it for: the quick, intricate plotting and surprising yet plausible twists.

 

For fans of: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell; What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan.

Starring: mentally and financially struggling Katrina Kim, who increasingly relies on maladaptive coping mechanisms to deal with her isolation and soul-sucking job.

 

What happens: Katrina discovers that she and Kurt (a more successful colleague that she's barely spoken to) seem to have a lot in common, and she begins to fixate on him in unhealthy ways. Then a shocking, disturbing event leaves Katrina questioning wondering if Kurt might have been watching her as intently as she was watching him.

 

Read it for: the flawed yet ultimately sympathetic character portrait of an unreliable narrator navigating a mental health crisis.

1981 Argentina: Newly widowed medium Juan travels to his late wife's ancestral home with his young son, Gaspar, in tow.

 

But then...When Gaspar begins exhibiting his father's paranormal abilities, Juan must fight to protect him from the clutches of his in-laws' immortality-seeking cult.

 

Book buzz: This creepy latest from Booker Prize-shortlisted author Mariana Enriquez is the first of her novels to be translated in English and has earned raves from The New York Times, Elle, LitHub, and more.

What it's about: Four years after surviving the Indian Lake massacre, final girl Jade Daniels returns to her Idaho hometown to square off against escaped serial killer Dark Mill South.

 

Series alert: Don't Fear the Reaper is the 2nd pulse-pounding novel in Stephen Graham Jones' Indian Lake trilogy, following the Bram Stoker Award-winning My Heart Is a Chainsaw.

 

Why you might like it: Unlike its predecessor, Don't Fear the Reaper is told from multiple perspectives -- including Dark Mill South's.

Bake week: At the Vermont estate of "America's Grandmother" Betsy Martin (a cookbook author who's maybe not as sweet as she appears), a 10th annual televised baking contest begins, complete with white tent, six contestants, and a young new male co-host.

 

Sabotage and more: Someone substitutes ingredients, leaves a fridge door open, etc., and then adds murder to the menu.

 

Is it for you? If a traditional country house mystery mixed with The Great British Bake Off makes you salivate, you'll love this fun concoction.

 

What it's about: After losing her job, L.A. single mom Paige Lancaster returns to her small Connecticut hometown to move in with her mother. Soon Paige is under enormous pressure to get involved with the demanding Parent Booster Association at her daughter's school, led by her high school boyfriend's intense, overachieving wife.

 

Read it for: the compelling, witty writing and deliciously messy private drama hiding just under the surface of a seemingly idyllic suburban town.

 

For fans of: Liane Moriarty, the Real Housewives franchise, and Mean Girls.

What it's about: Renowned marine archeologist Mensun Bound set out to find the remains of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance. Interwoven with the details of his search, including his successful 2022 expedition, is the story of the Endurance's sinking in 1915.

 

Reviewers say: "exciting, dramatic" (Kirkus Reviews); "Bound is a terrific storyteller... this is simply wonderful" (Booklist).

 

For fans of: Hampton Sides' In the Kingdom of Ice, Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers, or Robert Ballard's Into the Deep: An Explorer's Life.

What it's about: After publishing a story about China's oppression of the Uyghur people, Uyghur journalist Gulchehra Hoja fled her home in East Turkestan to the United States, while her family back in China were put into interment camps.

 

Read it for: a moving firsthand account of China's ongoing persecution of the Uyghur community.

 

Further reading: How I Survived a Chinese "Reeducation" Camp by Gulbahar Haitiwaji; No Escape by Nury Turkel.

Starring: French archaeologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, who launched campaigns in the 1950s and '60s to rescue a dozen Egyptian temples from flooding caused by the Aswan Dam reservoir.

 

Author alert: Historian Lynne Olson is the bestselling author of Madame Fourcade's Secret War.

 

Reviewers say: "a captivating account of a pathbreaking woman" (Publishers Weekly).

What it is: a lively and gossipy behind-the-scenes history of the Oscars, Hollywood's most prestigious award ceremony.

 

Want a taste? "The Oscars are a battlefield where cultural forces collide and where the victors aren’t always as clear as the names drawn from the envelope."

 

Further reading: The Academy and the Award by Bruce Davis.

What it's about: how laws and government policies protect United States police officers who abuse their power.

 

Author alert: UCLA law professor and Civil Procedure co-author Joanna Schwartz is a leading expert on police misconduct litigation.

 

Try this next: Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away with It by Elie Honig.

No wrong answers: The titular questions in this whimsical, thought-provoking volume are open-ended, working with the mixed-media illustrations to fire the imagination.

 

For example: "What kind of beast lives in this bathtub?" "How did that cow get all the way up there?" "Which of these fellows has a better singing voice?"

 

Re-readable: Because the answers could change every time and prompt stories of their own, kids may want to revisit this book again and again.

What it's about: For her 12th birthday, Nic Blake wants nothing more than to begin using her inherited supernatural Gift as a Manifestor. Instead, she gets a risky magical quest and some some big surprises about her dad.

 

For fans of: Kwame Mbalia's Tristan Strong series and its funny, fast-paced blend of African folklore and Black American history.

 

Book buzz: This is the first kids' book by Angie Thomas, author of the popular YA book The Hate U Give.

Meet: Jade Nguyen, who's in Vietnam helping her father restore a French colonial home in exchange for college tuition.

 

Her worst nightmares: Jade's unsettling experiences inspire her to fake a haunting with a local named Florence, hoping it'll scare off her family. But Florence and Jade's budding romance is real, and Jade's father might withhold his money if he finds out.

 

What sets it apart: This satisfying novel weaves true horrors from Vietnamese history into an eerie haunted house tale.