strange and random happenstance

A Botanist's Guide to Tradition and Treachery by Kate Khavari
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh has set sail on her first research expedition, but it's disrupted by accusations of murder when one of her fellow scientists is murdered in this daring fifth installment.

Saffron Everleigh is newly engaged and full of optimism as she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime for any scientist: a research expedition. She sails to newly formed Turkey with her fiancé, Alexander Ashton, and a bevy of fellow researchers under the watchful and reformed eye of Dr. Henry. With only two other women on board, Saffron soon finds she is right back in the same infuriatingly misogynistic environment that marked the earliest days of her career. Only this time, Saffron is determined to show everyone, including Alexander, that she can handle the trials of an expedition.

And trials she has in spades. Before the expedition team has even arrived, Saffron has managed to find an enemy in historian Joseph Clark, who frequently torments the assistant that Saffron has taken under her wing, Martin Neill. But when Martin unexpectedly dies, Saffron is targeted as the main suspect.

Falling ruins, venomous snakes, and mysteriously blocked passages are the least of Saffron's worries. With unexpected help from a familiar face, Alexander and Saffron have to work fast to prove not only that Saffron is innocent but that they both have nothing to do with a larger conspiracy at play among the expedition crew."

An expedition and murder!?! Be still my heart.

Feast by Catherine Kurtz
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In nineteenth-century France, a young woman with a magical sense of taste saves a duc from poison, and her new role as poison taster thrusts her into the world of the nobility, where secrets and danger lurk around every corner.

Minha is born on the backstreets of late nineteenth-century London, the daughter of an Indian spice merchant and an English prostitute. She has a remarkable gift: an incredible sense of taste. She can taste the earth in which potatoes were grown or the tree on which fruits have ripened. She can smell each ingredient - and identify a single false note. But Minha's gift and her mixed-race heritage provoke mistrust and rejection, even within her own family. Escaping alone to France, Minha chances upon work in the Château de Bellefalaise, where for the first time her strange abilities are lauded.

As official poison taster for Duc Nicolas, Minha must taste every morsel of food that will pass his lips. Others in the household are hostile to her, but when she discovers a man hiding in the stables, their unexpected meeting turns into the first true connection she's felt since arriving in France.

But mystery and paranoia continue to swirl around the château, with the Duc's poisoner unidentified and antagonism toward Minha growing. She knows it's only a matter of time before fingers begin pointing her way. Will she run again, or is this the time to stand and fight?

A thoroughly addictive novel about food, possession, race, love, and a young woman fighting to build a fulfilling life against all odds, this is a gorgeously written debut by author Catherine Kurtz."

I've always wondered about poison tasters. Because what if the poison is slow acting? Then everyone dies?

Letters from the Last Apothecary by Bita Behzadi
Published by: Hay House LLC
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Emily Wilde meets Divine Rivals in this debut cozy historical romantic fantasy about a grumpy apothecarist, the whirlwind woman who comes to save his shop, and the letters that secretly unite them. You've Got Mail with a magical twist!

Nestled between steel skyscrapers lies a small shop stocked with old magic and experimental elixirs. This cozy historical romantic fantasy debut is a tale of mistaken identity, reluctant partnership, and the quiet, transformative magic of being truly seen - on and off the page.

Josephine Pinova doesn't believe in fate. Yet, it must be fate when she walks into one of the last magical apothecaries in the city and they offer her a job after she's just been fired.

Struggling against a tide of anti-magic sentiment amidst the city's rapid industrialization, the shop is slated to close in six short months unless Josie can save it. Luckily, she's no stranger to impossible odds - she's applying to study magic at the local university, something women are typically excluded from - even as the shop's prickly apothecarist, Aufidius Reid, seems determined to dislike her.

Reid finds her unbearably insistent. She finds him infuriatingly uptight - nothing like the sensitive scholar Josie has been exchanging anonymous letters with as they study together for entrance to a graduate magic program. A scholar who just so happens to be Reid himself, unbeknownst to either of them.

Letter by letter, they fall in love. But at work, Josie and Reid clash constantly about the direction of the business. As pressure rises, they discover the threat to the shop is more dangerous than they could have ever imagined, and working together to save it might be their only chance at true purpose, and at each other."

I'd say more The Shop Around the Corner than You've Got Mail, even if one is a reimagining of the other.

The Sourdough Compendium by A.G. Slatter
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 688 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Award-winning stories from the world of All the Murmuring Bones and The Briar Book of the Dead, this is a compendium of fantastic tales from the dark gothic heart of the Sourdough universe. Witches, assassins and pirates are brought to life in immersive, sinister and magical prose.

Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on an old lover; the Little Sisters of St Florian devote their lives to knowledge good and bad; a dying forest god is reinvigorated; mermaids and seamstresses make dangerous bargains; changelings bring havoc. Saints slumber, hind-girls dance across the countryside, bears show their true colours, and the fate of the upper and lower worlds rests on the whim of a volatile plague maiden...

Comprised of three collections (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales) these award-winning storms form much of the foundational mythology for Slatter's dark fairy-tale gothic Sourdough novels. Exquisite, compelling and rich with unforgettable characters, these tales layer and intertwine in the dextrous hands of a master storyteller."

There's nothing a love more than big compendiums to get really stuck into the lore of a fantastical world.

Devils We Know by L.T. Thompson
Published by: Bloomsbury YA
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sequel to the Stonewall Honor winner Devils Like Us.

Three queer teens must bring Death out of hiding to save one of their own in book two of this YA historical fantasy duology that's Our Flag Means Death meets The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy.

We need to find Death.

Cas, Remy, and Finn are on the run from the Order of Lazarus, a secret society that wants to use Cas's prophetic powers to capture Death and ensure that only the "unworthy" and "immoral" will meet their ends. Which will not only upend nature's balance but also tear apart the only place the friends have ever felt safe to be themselves: Aboard the Mori, where Cas can live openly as a trans boy, and where Remy and Finn are beginning to fall for each other. No matter what, they can't let that happen.

To protect their found family of queer sailors, the three teens will need to find Death first and strike a bargain of their own. But the society is hot on their heels - and so is a demon who's determined to claim the soul he's owed."

Found family fighting Death? I mean, that's the purpose of our lives isn't it?

Black River by Ruby Jean Cottle
Published by: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"JUST ONE TASTE CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.

All seventeen-year-old Dusty wants is to escape into books and the Adirondack wilderness that surrounds her small town. But in the dead of night, strange things have been happening in Black River.

Animals are being ravaged by something unnatural. And Dusty wakes up one day with dirt on her feet, changed and starving. When new kid Will arrives, Dusty feels an attraction unlike anything she's felt before. She wants him...or she wants his blood. As Dusty realizes she's transforming into something she can't control, she reluctantly turns to the only person she somehow knows will understand: the annoyingly attractive Eli Blake.

Together, Dusty and Eli must uncover the mystery of their town and their new, insatiable desires. Have they become vampires or some other kind of monster?

Whatever they are, they're not the only ones.

An irresistible blend of suspense and romance, this paranormal small town mystery is perfect for fans of Stephanie Meyers and Tigest Girma."

What's the collective noun for a group of vampires? I want something cooler than coven or brood.... A Sanguine of Vampires? 

The Way It Haunted Him by Laura R. Samotin
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A terrifying and claustrophobic queer dark academia horror set in a demon-infested archive about trauma, grief and the lengths we will go to for love.

Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Tori Bovalino.

GUILT. GRIEF. OBSESSION.

Michael Stein arrives at the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies battered and broken, blaming himself for the tragic accident that took his boyfriend's life. He is haunted by his guilt and grief, but is determined to repent by completing his boyfriend's research into demonic entities.

But instead of being welcomed by the archivist, Michael is met by Jacob Schechter - the archivist's enigmatic, brooding grandson, who has inherited the Institute after his grandfather's death. As Michael explores the archive, delving into cryptic texts and whispered histories, shadows from the past begin to seep into the present. Tormented by demons both real and imagined, Michael's grief warps into something far darker - an intoxicating, yet increasingly toxic obsession with Jacob, whose own secrets threaten to destroy them both.

Now, Michael must confront the terrible truth behind his boyfriend's death - and his obsession with Jacob - before the darkness they awaken in each other claims more than just their love, and consumes them entirely."

If his boyfriend's death had anything to do with his research perhaps it's better for Michael to leave well enough alone?

The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Lex Croucher comes an extraordinary dark academia fantasy about dangerous privilege, corrupted power, and two former best friends caught on opposite sides of the secrets rotting at the heart of Britain's most prestigious boarding school.

For as long as they can remember, Briar Jones dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy. Behind its looming ornate gates, the elite boarding school - the place that has produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in British history - is whispered to be magical.

Briar's best friend, Sebastian Wolfe, never cared about Temple. He just wanted them to stay together forever.

When, at age eleven, Seb gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn't, their childhood friendship is shattered. Seb vanishes onto Temple's grounds and Briar resigns themself to a mundane life. But they can't completely forget their yearning for Temple, for the extraordinary, to be one of the chosen in the ivory tower.

Seven years later, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the junk in Temple's attics. And when Briar takes it, they discover that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become Bastian: a beautiful, arrogant villain feared by the entire school. And worse, the secrets Temple is hiding might not be so enchanting after all."

Oh, do we have some Neverending Story vibes?

The Making of a Witch by Judy Molland
Published by: She Writes Press
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by true events, this novel tells the tale of young Alice Molland, who must grapple with accusations of witchcraft and the persecution of women with mysterious gifts in turbulent seventeenth-century England.

In the tumultuous era of seventeenth-century Exeter, England, ten-year-old Alice Molland is forced to attend the brutal execution of her mentor in the healing arts, Goody Luscombe, who has been condemned to death for witchcraft.

In the years that follow, with her use of herbs such as mugwort, slippery elm, and comfrey, Alice becomes well known as a magical healer. But such gifts come accompanied by danger in the misogynistic age she lives in, and it's only a matter of time before a prominent Exeter merchant raises suspicion that she is a witch. When a love spell leads to an unexpected pregnancy, Alice becomes a target and must flee for her life."

It just didn't pay to be a smart woman on your own in the past. Even if you were actually a witch.

Kingdom of Devils by Katherine Grandjean
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The chilling true story of a brutal string of deaths on the post-Revolutionary frontier that reveal the violence at the heart of the young United States.

Kentucky, 1798: A harrowing series of murders begins. The first body, discovered by cattle drovers, lies bloody at the bottom of a ridge. Then another - a dead boy staring up from a sinkhole. Bodies turn up along roadsides, stuffed into brush. They float to the surface of muddy brooks. For nine terrifying months, over hundreds of miles of Kentucky and Tennessee countryside, the terror unfolds. The killers - two men with hazy backgrounds - are brothers, named Wiley and Micajah Harp.

The Harps killed dozens, but why they did it has eluded folklorists and historians for generations. Almost every story imagines that their motive was pure bloodlust, but for historian Katherine Grandjean, that's too simple. Instead, she uses the Harp murders to reveal the dark side of the young United States' independence. These were uncertain and dangerous years - a time when the fledgling federal government could do little to protect its citizens. And if the American Revolution was liberating, it was also deeply destabilizing, politically and socially. Even as it built up some men, it stacked the deck against others, punishing them with volatile markets, lost safety nets, and shattered aspirations. Unspooling the mystery of what sent the Harps reeling exposes the hidden, violent legacies of the revolutionary era.

Bristling with tense, page-turning storytelling - and driven by a historian's obsessive detective work - Kingdom of Devils recovers these long-forgotten murders as a haunting tale about the darkness at the heart of the American dream."

Long-forgotten indeed! How have I not heard of these serial killers?

Red Sheet by James Ellroy
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Turn to the first page. Disavow what you think you know about the so-called Red Scare. This is commie malfeasance and '60s L.A. as you've never read it before.

It's late October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis has just concluded. The Russkies blinked and pulled their ICBMs out of Cuba. Attorney General Robert Kennedy fears reprisals from seething commies. He orders a red probe and puts the LAPD on the job.

Freddy Otash is injudiciously named the lead investigating officer. He's a stone-cold criminal with police sanction and a harrowing dope habit. He homes in on a red-front trade union. There's a murder on Halloween night. It may link to ex-VP and current gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon and two commie snuffs from eight years back. Freddy's overworked and overamped. He's running the probe, and Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman - Tricky Dick Nixon's head goons - have hired him to keep Nixon away from the smear-minded press.

L.A. is coming unglued. Ex-cop/lawyer Tom Bradley is running for a city council seat and pushing the Rumford Fair Housing Act. Playboy kingpin Hugh Hefner is along for the ride, out to exploit racial tension and peddle untold copies of his smut rag.

Red Sheet is James Ellroy's most crazed kamikaze run and a daring, subversive work of fiction."

The truth about humanity is there is always corruption. Everywhere. It just happens that James Ellroy has made a successful career about telling these tales set in Tinseltown. 

The Man Who Led a Dream Life by David Handler
Published by: The Mysterious Press
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Stewart Hoag and his new bride dive into married life with the discovery of a murdered millionaire in this mystery from early in the crime-solving career of the author-sleuth.

January 1983: Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag is getting married to the love of his life Merilee at New York City Hall. Hoagy's college chum, Ezra Spooner, stands up for him. Merilee's lovely cousin, Phoebe, stands up for her. And their young basset hound Lulu stands up for both of them. After they say "I do" and pop open the Dom Perignon, Phoebe somberly announces that she and her husband, the legendary adventurer and old money multi-millionaire Junior Singleton, are now officially divorced.

Junior leads what most men would consider a dream life. He has climbed Mount Everest twice, captained his yacht to an America's Cup victory, raced Formula One Ferraris in Europe, surfed the most dangerous Maui waves, and slept with as many women as he chose to despite being married to sweet and gentle Phoebe, who works as a music teacher and plays violin in a chamber music quartet. The pair could not be more different, and most of their friends predicted the marriage wouldn't last. They were right. Phoebe is done putting up with Junior's constant absence and compulsive philandering. She's not even asking for much of his fortune in the divorce - just $1 million and their gorgeous townhouse in the East Sixties, which she intends to sell. In fact, she'd love to sell it to Hoagy and Merilee.

The newlyweds agree to tour the home and find that it's almost exactly what they're looking for: There's a fabulous gourmet kitchen, a paneled office where Hoagy can write, a garden where Lulu can romp, a luxurious master suite with his and hers dressing rooms. The only drawback - and it's a mighty big one - is that they find Junior dead on the floor of his dressing room with a rosewood handled Claude Dozorme steak knife plunged into his left eyeball.

Who would want to kill Junior Singleton? Plenty of people, as it turns out. Junior's autopsy reveals that he was HIV-positive, which means any of the women with whom he had unprotected sex have been exposed to the deadly AIDS virus - including the hot-shot realtor Siena Bing who was supposed to be helping them sell the house. And that's just the start of the suspect list. As the NYPD's top Homicide Lieutenant, Meyer Golden, pursues the case he finds it unfolding in several different directions, and Hoagy, who possesses not only amazing insights into the criminal mind but also a gifted short-legged partner, gets drawn deeper and deeper into the fascinating and utterly bizarre world of New York City's elite."

I'm just saying, if Junior knew then he deserved to die.

Heather by Caitlin Mullen
Published by: Celadon Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A small-town detective reopens an unsolved case, sending shock waves across generations of women in this gripping new mystery from the Edgar Award-winning author of Please See Us.

1990. In the myth-riddled woods of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, sixteen-year-old Annabelle Riley's twin sister, Sabrina, has been having an affair with a mysterious older man, and Annabelle is determined to uncover what's going on. Then, inexplicably, both sisters disappear.

In this same town years later, newly instated police chief Callie Hauser makes an arrest that unexpectedly resurrects details from a heartbreaking cold case. As she digs deeper, the past and the present collide, challenging everything Callie believes about right and wrong, who she is, and the town she's always called home.

A propulsive mystery as incisive as it is forgiving, Heather bears a visceral reminder that the truth of a woman's life is often complicated and unknowable - to those on the outside, and sometimes even to herself."

Introspection in the Pine Barrens might be a dangerous habit. 

Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Five years ago, Greer left her family's summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she'd never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp - and ended with Greer's friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer's been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer's mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread's Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends - one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over - and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend.

Greer and Margo didn't leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph's death in that horrific fire was an accident - and she's on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a choice: keep the Cove's secrets and her own, or finally face the truth about that summer."

You know your camp Dread's Cover, you HAVE to expect something bad to go down. Isn't it delicious?

Strangers Behind Closed Doors by Catherine Adel West
Published by: Park Row
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A twisty thriller about a woman who vanishes from a luxury hotel, and the detective who believes the case is tied to the unsolved disappearances of other Black women in the city.

Giovanni Mason worked hard to become the first Black head concierge at Chicago's exclusive and glamorous Ivory Hotel. It's a job that requires patience, perfection, and, above all, self-control. But when Giovanni reunites with her former best friend, makeup influencer Natalie Moore, things get heated as a mending of fences morphs into a public argument in the hotel restaurant, and Giovanni loses her cool. Hours later, Natalie is missing. Evidence piles against Giovanni - a ransacked, blood-spattered hotel room, fresh bruises on her body, and a troubling gap in her memory from the last twelve hours.

Detective Redding Stark is the only one unconvinced of Giovanni's guilt. She sees disturbing parallels to a series of disappearances targeting Black women and believes Natalie's case is part of something bigger. Together, she and Giovanni are pulled into a dangerous web of privilege, power, and betrayal inside - and far beyond - the walls of the Ivory Hotel.

Will Giovanni and Detective Stark find Natalie or join the missing?"

Murders in hotel are catnip to me. Elisa Lam for example....

Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A compelling novel about power, money and lies from the author of Anatomy of a Scandal.

All families have secrets. But it's the lies that can kill.

A lavish seventieth birthday party. A body found on a storm-lashed beach. And a secret that someone is dying to tell....

Famed children's author Dame Eleanor Kingman has summoned her family and friends to her exquisite manor house on the cliffs. They're celebrating her birthday - and her latest number one bestseller in her series of books based on a mother fox and her cubs.

But the night before the party, Eleanor receives an email that threatens to expose the lie she's kept up for over half a century.

Someone knows her secret. Is it her estranged literary agent? Is it her ex-husband, to whom she no longer speaks? Is it the nanny she fired all those years ago, who always did have a knack for storytelling? Or is it one of her three daughters, all of whom have a stake in the publishing empire she has built...

With a television crew arriving to film a documentary of her life, Eleanor needs to find out who sent the email - and preserve her legacy and multimillion-pound career.

But when push comes to shove, and it's time to tell the truth will anyone actually believe her?"

If you have deep dark secrets, perhaps a documentary on your life isn't the best idea.

Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills.

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a "serious" life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boarhunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa's extensive collection of art and antiques - although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose.

Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco's great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it's too late. Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we've always wanted to be."

I can totally see my grandmother fitting in at Coco's villa.

Contrapposto by Dave Eggers
Published by: Knopf
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sweeping novel about friendship, love, and the lifelong pursuit of art from Dave Eggers, the award-winning, bestselling author of The Circle, Hologram for the King, and The Eyes and the Impossible.

Cricket Dib, born on the American prairie, has no particular prospects or ambitions until, in grade school, he realizes he can draw. He soon meets a girl, Olympia Argyros, one year older, who is captivating and brilliant and far more worldly. Recognizing his talent, she convinces him to deface, with profound vulgarity, a popular playground. Under her direction, he does it willingly, already in love, and thus begins a sixty-five-year entwining between Cricket and Olympia, encompassing friendship, working partnership and love affair. Together they go to art school - an experience of dubious value - and then navigate the art world for the next fifty years, together and apart.

Contrapposto is a moving and very funny novel about allies and art, and what it means to be an artist. All through their lives, Cricket sees Olympia as his soulmate and destiny, and while she is always his champion, romantically her eyes are always seeking something - and someone - else. Their love changes over the decades, but their commitment to each other, and their search for meaning in the making of art, never wanes. The novel spans the globe, from New York to Thailand, Indiana to Paris, and follows Cricket and Olympia through sickness and health, war and death.

The novel is a wild and beautiful examination of the rules and market forces of the art world, but chiefly it's about two friends who believe they can change that world, and bring new meaning to it, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals, and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either."

No matter how dubious the value of art school, it is kind of necessary to learn the proper language to take the art world by storm... 

Sometime This Century by Samantha Silva
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A riotous rom-com meets a swoon-worthy Regency comedy of manners in this heartfelt time-travel story about sisters, love, identity - and how Jane Austen just might change your life.

Annabel Blake was born in the wrong century. An Austen-loving book nerd, she dreams of being a writer herself, with a just-penned Regency novel to prove it. Her hopes sink when her hot author crush rejects her: The novel reads like she's never been in love. Ouch.

Annabel sees a chance to rewrite it when her ex-pat boss sends her to England to sort out her family's "crumbling old pile" of a country house. Tempted by an invitation tucked in an antique writing desk and a "period" coachman at her door, Annabel's whisked away to a local Regency Society ball - cue candlelight, costumes, dancing - that might be just the inspiration she needs. There's even the achingly perfect - and wildly out of her league - Henry Leighton D'Evercy.

When Annabel's audacious influencer sister crashes the party with her super-chill ex-boyfriend, the unlikely trio wake to find themselves trapped in the actual Regency era. No Wi-Fi, lattes, cellphones - just a world where manners, money, and marriage rule.

As Annabel falls deeply for D'Evercy, she must decide: write her perfect love story...or live it."

While Jane Austen did indeed change my life, I have never once thought I'd want to live back then. The healthcare alone!

A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord by Shana Galen
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A down-on-her-luck shop girl and the son of an earl find they have more in common than they thought - including sexual chemistry they can't resist - in this fresh Regency romance by Shana Galen.

Tamsin Archer might just be having the worst year of her life. And that's saying something, considering her father is dead, her mother was maimed at work, and her family regularly sleeps under London's bridges. But when her younger siblings go missing, Tamsin decides it's time to step up and fight.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Tamsin's more than willing to take a few risks to reunite with her siblings. But while disguising herself to sneak into homes and steal from the rich, Tamsin is caught by Garret Kildare, the second son of an earl. Much to Tamsin's surprise, Garret doesn't want to turn her in. He wants to help her. Though Tamsin's wary - she's learned to never trust supposed "good luck" - the unlikely pair form an alliance, one that quickly muddles their class differences.

Garret knows he must be careful. Falling for a woman of a lower class could be the nail in the coffin for his family's tenuous social standing, and there are eyes everywhere. Ignoring their attraction proves impossible, though, and soon the lines they've drawn around their partnership begin to blur. As more focus lands on Tamsin and Garret, they wonder if their red-hot connection means giving up everything - and everyone - they've ever known."

So forget about the siblings and run off with the son of an earl? OK....

How to Not Marry a Lord by Emma Orchard
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: eBook, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Discover the BRAND NEW gorgeous, super spicy Regency romance from Emma Orchard.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune must not be in want of a husband...

After four weary years on the marriage mart, Cecilia longs for an appealing match - or maybe, shockingly, no match at all. So when she and her sisters discover they are unexpectedly heiresses to a substantial Suffolk estate, Cecilia dares to imagine a future shaped by her own choosing.

There is, however, one strict condition: to secure their inheritance, none of the sisters may become engaged for a full year.

Cecilia is confident she can manage - but that's before fortune hunters in the shape of handsome lords begin to circle, matchmakers sharpen their claws, and a taciturn Major proves far more difficult to ignore than any conventional proposal.

Can Cecilia protect her heart, her sisters, and the freedom she has only just discovered...or will desire cost her everything she stands to gain?"

Totally take the money and remain a spinster. It's a far safer prospect all around.

It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Peter Pan meets Stephen King's It in this twisted horror retelling of a classic childhood fairy tale set during WWI.

1914, Wendy Darling works by day as a school teacher, and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front. There is one mysterious patient who, despite all the care they've given him, is in a deep sleep, unable to wake up. One night, when he murmurs the words "Peter Pan," Wendy is thrown back to a darker time, one that she wishes she could forget.

When one of her students goes missing, it brings back memories of when children went missing and were later found murdered in London many years ago. Wendy is convinced that Peter Pan, the entity that she believes killed those children, is back. She and her brothers had a close encounter with Peter Pan, after all. But her brothers only remember Peter Pan and Neverland as a fantasy of childhood games.

When another child goes missing and signs start to point to Wendy, Scotland Yard digs into old reports, finding that Wendy knew the names of all the children who had been killed. As Wendy tries to prove her innocence, she also has to find a way to stop Peter Pan once and for all."

If the Sandman came in a warped our childhood memories.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White, Scott Peterson, Veronica Fish and Andy Fish
Published by: Ten Speed Graphic
Publication Date: June 9th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show - and discover the secret of its enigmatic host - in this stunningly illustrated graphic novel adaptation of the thrilling national bestseller Mister Magic.

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children's program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.

But with no surviving videos or scripts, no evidence of who directed or produced the show, and no records of who - or what - the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former circle of friends has. In Val's case, kidnapped by her father and in hiding ever since, she doesn't even have those.

A surprise encounter with Val's old castmates brings them all together for a reunion. Back to the remote desert filming compound that feels like it's been waiting for them all this time. Back among friends they haven't seen for years, but who somehow understand one another better than anyone has since.

After all, they're the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as Val reclaims parts of her past, she wonders: Are they there by choice, or have they been lured into a trap?

Because magic never forgets the taste of friendship....

Rendered in striking full-color art by beloved comic artists Veronica Fish and Andy Fish, this gripping graphic adaptation of Mister Magic fully immerses you in the psychological thriller that PopSugar, CrimeReads, and the Chicago Public Library named a best book of the year."

I love it when prose books get adapted into graphic novels. LOVE IT!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.G. Slatter, Andrew Sean Greer, Caitlin Mullen, Catherine Adel West, Cynthia Pelayo, Darby Bozeman, Dave Eggers, Emma Orchard, James Ellroy, Kate Khavari, Kiersten White, Lex Croucher, Samantha Silva, Sarah Vaughan, Shana Galen

Pollyanna isn't really used as a noun anymore. In fact when my dad recently used it I had totally forgotten that it used to be an insult against the eternally and blindly optimistic. Language fascinates me how words are always falling in and out of favor or use. When I hear a word used a certain way that I haven't in a while it can actually transport me in time and place to when I last heard it. Ironically I knew the definition of the word before I ever learned where it came from. The first time I actually took interest in the book was when NBC made a highly touted adaptation, Polly, starring two of the actors from The Cosby Show, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Phylicia Rashad, directed by Debbie Allen. I would have been eleven when it aired and never missed The Cosby Show and they targeted the hell out of that audience to turn into the musical, yes, it was apparently a musical, extravaganza. See, the fact that I didn't remember it was a musical shows how much I have blocked of this adaptation. All I actually remember is her falling out of the tree and losing the use of her legs. I wish I could forget watching this adaptation just as easily. Only time will tell. This transplants the story from New England to England and is just as winsome as you'd expect. In other words I wanted to see Pollyanna drown in the pond near the house. I'm a cynic, I can't take optimism like this. But then again it's better than what is to come... But that's jumping ahead of my tale. I watched this series for one reason and one reason only, Tom Ellis. I was severely missing my Luci and this was early enough in his career that I hadn't seen it and wanted to watch him in something pre-Miranda. It was also nice that Kate Ashfield was in it. The fact that the two of them hookup was just an added bonus. If this show had been about them I would have liked it far more. Even if I will reluctantly agree that Pollyanna is a pretty good matchmaker. Anyway, so Pollyanna, the character and the story, is basically all about finding the silver lining. Your life isn't as bad as it could be so suck it up. Hence the eternal and blind optimism. She's a darling and a ray of sunshine, until she's not. She's hit by a car and paralyzed. Which, yes, bit of a setback, but she was able to justify and accept the deaths of her parents and all other manner of horrible things, she'll once again look on the bright side of life. But oh no she doesn't. This takes a dark turn wherein she turns into the whiniest little bitch I have ever seen. She's just horrible. She treats everyone like shit. People who she brought out of the darkest deepest despair she's now telling them that what she is going through is so much worse than anything they have ever experienced that they will never be able to relate and they should just let her wallow. And really, they should have. She's a hypocrite. Pollyanna and her double standards shouldn't have just been hit by a car but backed over. I just couldn't with this kid. And honestly, I don't think her family could either. They ship her off for some radical therapy that does get her mobile but they carry on with their lives and are shocked when she shows up for her Aunt's wedding. I mean, if you really wanted her there you'd have invited her right? She was unwanted to start with and after her downward spiral, I definitely don't want her anywhere near me. Perky freakin' hypocrite.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Car Accident, Debbie Allen, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Hypocrite, Kate Ashfield, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Language, Lucifer, Matchmaking, Miranda, Musical, Paralysis, Phylicia Rashad, Polly, Pollyanna, The Cobsy Show, Tom Ellis

The British have such a love of their public schools that is equal parts nostalgia and trauma that they have immortalized it in print time and time again. Tom Brown's School Days is always the first that leaps to mind, but there are so many that I can name from those that embrace the genre, like Goodbye, Mr. Chips, to those that subvert the genre, particularly Ronald Searle with his St. Trinian's comics. You could even make a valid argument to include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie amongst their numbers even if Wikipedia doesn't. Mr. Chipping has been depicted several times on screen by the great luminaries of the day, from Robert Donant, who won an Oscar for his portrayal, to Peter O'Toole, who sang and danced as Mr. Chips, to Roy Marsden, the most famous of all Dalglieshes. So why did the 2002 adaptation land on Martin Clunes? You have to remember that at this time he wasn't the household name he is now for portraying Dr. Martin Ellingham. "Doc Martin" was still very much in its nascence. Martin Clunes had played Dr. Martin Bamford in the film Saving Grace and the character had been re-contextualized for two television movies, only one of which had aired at this time, and which, in my mind, have almost nothing to do with the series. Other than that his career was almost all one-off episodes where his character was invariably along the lines of his portrayal of Barmy on Jeeves and Wooster or Anna Massey's ill-fated son on Inspector Morse. In other words, big-hearted and bumbling. A golden retriever or Labrador of a person. He comes in smiling with that big mobile mouth and his outsized ears and is just a ray of sunshine. And I honestly believe, from years of watching him, that this is exactly who he is as a person. In other words, the exact opposite of a taciturn doctor in Cornwall who graced our screens for ten series. Which is why I think he was perfect for this role. He shows up at this school where the most formative years of a young boys life will also be the cruelest and he is horrified by what he sees. And you can see it there, all on his face. He doesn't believe in corporeal punishment he believes in kindness. Soon he finds a woman who believes the same as him and they are married and she helps him to see that love is what these children need. He isn't able to get much traction on his desired reforms and soon he loses the love of his life in childbirth, but his students love him. Students who are going to die in droves in the first World War. Is this supposed to be happy? What is the message? Look what one man with a heart of gold can do and fuck war? Wait, were all these books written to self sooth to be a balm on the wounds of how horrible British public schools were and that war was actually better than being bullied at school? Because this starts out so uplifting and ends in tears. Mr. Chips changes hearts and minds and then the bodies housing those hearts and minds die in the trenches. I really can't believe how much death is in this. Why couldn't he and his wife have had a happy ending? Why did his only children have to be the students? I mean, it's too bittersweet for me. Yes, the war had so much death and given the time period I expected that this would encompass the first World War, I was just hoping, maybe, I don't know, something more upbeat and not bleak. Well, if I had stopped it halfway through that would have been the case. So I heartily approve of watching this nice fifty minute movie. There are not another fifty minutes. There are only fifty. That is all. His wife says she is expecting, cue the credits.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Barmy, British, DEATH, Doc Martin, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Jeeves and Wooster, Martin Clunes, Mr. Chipping, Private School, St. Trinian's, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Tom Brown's School Days, WWI

The Children by Melissa Albert
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother's beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother's world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother's readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they've made their playland. As Edith Sharpe's books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame - until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith's series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere's childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother's fantasy world?

The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own."

Yes, what dark history is in this fantasy world!

Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
Published by: Tin House
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the celebrated author of Bitter Orange and Swimming Lessons comes an "atmospheric, psychologically vivid, and unputdownable" new novel of complicated friendship and the desperate need to belong (Alice Winn.)

1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job delivering mail at a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and some new friends, including wild-child Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at the Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can't resist this hodgepodge family. But as Sue's behavior and demands become more extreme, Ursula, who has always been hungry - for food, but more importantly for love and acceptance - carries out her friend's terrible dare. And, for this, Ursula finds herself literally haunted.

Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned but reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by a true-crime documentarian researching an unsolved disappearance. But the filmmaker is not the only one who has discovered Ursula's whereabouts, and as her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without - and if they will finally make her pay for her past mistakes.

Part gothic horror, part coming-of-age, and a with contemporary twist on the haunted-house story, Hunger and Thirst is a chilling tale of loneliness, of the dangerous line between wanting and needing, and of how far a person will go to truly belong."

I am here for any haunted house story! Set it in the art world and it's everything to me.

Muñeca by Cynthia Gómez
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.

Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta's caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why?

As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts - ones she hoped would stay gone forever.

Riveting and richly layered, Muñeca explores how far one will go to save the person they love - even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gómez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned."

It's sometimes hard to help working from a place of damnation. 

The Spiritualists by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb
Published by: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Witch Haven meets Divine Rivals in this magical, "high-stakes page-turner of a thriller" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of a young clairvoyant who gets dragged into a dangerous game of revenge alongside a mysterious thief in early 1900s New York City.

Stella Bohdan is never alone - never - and yet she is the loneliest person she knows, dead or alive. A gifted psychic who can hear the voices of spirits, all Stella wants is to con enough people to survive on the brutal New York City streets and find a way to deal with the tragic death of her sister.

Performing seances in parlor rooms and tarot readings by candlelight, Stella is barely holding on. Until she meets Pax, a mysterious young man who offers Stella an invitation and a promise: Join a secret group of talented mystics who explore the darker realms of spiritualism, and together they will get revenge on her sister's killer.

But how can Stella admit she is the reason her sister is dead?

In the hope of righting past wrongs, Stella joins Pax and his team of mystics. It's soon clear there is more behind their partnership than just vengeance.

They must tread carefully though, because in the world of spiritualism, not everything is what it seems - especially when communing with the unknown."

I literally want to read every single book in existence that is about mediums and spiritualism. 

The Witch's Stone by Kirsty Ferry
Published by: Boldwood Books Ltd
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 266 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A BRAND-NEW haunting and chilling gothic historical mystery, perfect for fans of C.J. Cooke and Laura Purcell.

Some legends never die - they wait for you to come home.

When Jess Morgan arrives in Northumberland to research the history of a crumbling chapel, she's drawn to the legend of the Brinkburn Witch - a woman said to appear when blood is spilled near an ancient standing stone. But the longer Jess stays, the stranger things become. Whispers echo through empty corridors, shadows move where none should, and the boundary between dreams and memory begins to blur.

Over a century earlier, Eliza Stratford turned to the witch for help after a violent betrayal - and sealed her fate with a terrible bargain. Now her story, and the secrets she died to protect, are surfacing again.

As Jess unearths the truth behind the legend, she begins to suspect her own connection to the past runs deeper than she ever imagined - and that some ghosts will do anything to be remembered...

Atmospheric, haunting and rich with dark folklore, The Witch's Stone is a spellbinding gothic timeslip mystery where the past refuses to stay buried."

I really hope she doesn't, you know, go an spill some blood near that standing stone...

Harried Witch by J.B. Pinheiro
Published by: J.B.Pinheiro
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 540 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Harried Witch, the Beauty and the Beast-inspired romantasy duology reaches its searing conclusion, following the debut novel Wretched Mage. Told from dual POVs, it brings higher stakes, a richer view of the mageborn world, and longing that will haunt readers long after the final page. It's for fans of Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley and Silvercloak by L.K. Steven.

Jane is forced to face a daunting truth. Torn between her family, looming consequences, and the weight of a role she has been chosen for as Lady of Mountheim, she must outwit every obstacle to secure the future she desires.

Reagan has barely completed his sentence when fresh threats and expectations surge around him. Determined to expose the conspirators who targeted him and his estate, he refuses to wait for danger to strike again.

But the conspiracy runs deeper than either imagined, revealing the sinister reach of enemies far more dangerous than they anticipated. As alliances form and their love is tested, Jane and Reagan must summon every ounce of strength to protect those they care for, even if it means letting go of each other."

Damn, I love a good duology. 

Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous by Autumn K. England
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Stardew Valley meets Studio Ghibli in a charming cozy fantasy about healing, redemption, and the subtle magic of simple living. Perfect for fans of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and The Spellshop. Welcome home, weary traveler.

When Oaklin Nettlewood accidentally joined an evil world-ending cult, mind control magic forced them to do unspeakable things. Years later, the realm's heroes have finally saved the day, defeated the villain, and shattered the last remnants of the spell...leaving destruction in their wake. And so, with a spell-damaged memory and whole bushel of trauma, Oaklin escapes to a small farm on the edge of Mossley's Rest and swears an oath: After all the things they were forced to do with their magic, they will never use it again. Ever.

The no-nonsense ghost granny who lives in Oaklin's house has other ideas. As she coaxes Oaklin out of their shell and back into the world, they find companionship (a grumpy horse and a very good dog), friendship (a local bard and magical baker who should just kiss already), and tentative romance (a paladin-librarian who makes Oaklin's heart come alive for the first time in ages.) Magic even seems possible again - though strictly for foraging magical mushrooms and protecting the farm from bugs.

Healing comes in gentle waves, and Oaklin doesn't have to do it alone. So what does it mean when an inquisitor comes to town to hunt former cultists just as Oaklin begins to think that maybe, just maybe, they deserve a happy ending after all?"

Can I go live in this world? There's a baker and a library, I really think that's all I need.

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In a desperate gamble to save her throne, a young monarch conceals a secret marriage in the shadows of an enchanted forest - and unknowingly alters the fate of her world - in this dazzling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is a young woman, sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands, and her body forever in the hands of her enemies.

But Anne refuses to be the last duchess of Brittany.

Her only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so Anne arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France's greatest rival. But secrets are hard to keep in a world where rival courts spy on each other with diviners.

The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Brocéliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn and one critical quirk: This ancient forest is completely hostile to divination.

While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. A bit of pointless pageantry. A diversion so she can wed in secret.

Or so she thinks.

In this rich and epic novel, the author of the acclaimed Winternight trilogy turns the real history of a remarkable woman into an unforgettable tale of mystery, enchantment, and the price of power."

I be more than a little obsessed with Anne of Brittany since Robin LaFevers's His Fair Assassin series. 

The Hyacinth Labyrinth by Jamie Pacton
Published by: Peachtree Teen
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A whimsical adventure full of magic, fantastical road trips, and a sapphic slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance - for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

All magic begins in stories. That's what Fae princess Hyacinth has always been told. As the unmagical daughter of Queen Mab, Hyacinth has never fit in at her mother's court. She hopes that if she learns about her father, who disappeared fifteen years ago, she can finally learn more about herself.

When Hyacinth and her friend Chloe - a human stablehand trapped in Fae - sneak off to a riverside night market, Hyacinth learns that her father was last seen heading to a library at the heart of a treacherous labyrinth. The problem: The labyrinth was built long ago by three goddesses, and no one has ever returned from it.

Still, Hyacinth has to try.

With the help of Chloe and a tiny dragon named Coffee, she defies Queen Mab and sets off into the wilds of the Moonshadow Kingdom. Along the way they face bandits, magical creatures, a centuries-old human who hosts an Endless Ball, and Hyacinth and Chloe's growing feelings for each other. Meanwhile, an ancient power lies in wait at the center of the labyrinth, and it is eager to write the girls' ending.

A lush, fairycore, sapphic YA fantasy that returns readers to the Fae world introduced in Jamie Pacton's bestselling novel The Absinthe Underground!

Perfect for readers who love Sapphic Slow-Burn, Friends-to-Lovers, Grumpy/Sunshine, Princess/Lady Knight, Bodyguard Romance, Fae/Human Relationships, Only One Bed, and Stories Are Magic!"

I would totally risk a labyrinth for a good library.

The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham
Published by: Kokila
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lush and immersive queer "Sleeping Beauty" retelling about escapism, grief, and dreaming of a better world, as imagined by YouTube star Cindy Pham.

One hundred years have passed since the last heir of Gyldan fell into eternal slumber and doomed the once-mighty kingdom to poverty and invasion. At least, that's what the fairy tales claim.

Corin is a jaded thief who doesn't believe in fables, even when she searches Gyldan's underground tunnels to find her younger sister, Elly, who ran away to find the sleeping princess in hopes of a better life. Corin's conviction is challenged when she discovers the ruins of the ancient castle, maintained by beings from the kingdom's golden age, who protect a hidden portal into Princess Amelia's subconscious. Following Elly's voice, Corin jumps in the portal and seals the entry behind her.

Inside the lush world of Amelia's dreams, the sisters reunite for a new adventure as they meet Briar Rose, Amelia's whimsical alter ego, and Malicine, a sharp-tongued demon with a gift for magic. But as they explore ice castles, sunflower mazes, and star-filled oceans, Corin suspects Briar Rose is hiding darker secrets behind her "perfect" paradise - and that there are some things her subconscious can't bury forever."

For someone who has been obsessed with Sleeping Beauty most of her life, this is fabulous. 

The League of Dangerous Young Ladies by J.A. Morgenstein
Published by: Stonefruit Studio
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Enola Holmes meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this thrilling YA fantasy adventure from debut author J.A. Morgenstein, perfect for fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Philip Pullman.

It's 1909 and Rose Moriarty - teenage daughter of Sherlock Holmes' greatest enemy - has made a name for herself fighting monsters and solving crimes. But that was before Rose met the one mystery she couldn't solve: the disappearance of her headmistress. Now, her school has shut down, her classmates have scattered, and Rose is on her own.

On the very day Rose receives word that an old friend is dying, the shadowy Count Christoph and his ward Clara show up at her door. Rose has already figured out why they're here (to hire her) and what's in their bag (an ancient orb with incredible powers), but questions remain: Can Rose convince these strangers to help save her friend's life? What are the grotesque, bug-shaped stalkers that plague their every step? And how can Rose pursue this adventure while avoiding a particular boy from her childhood? The only thing certain is that Rose is no longer alone, because danger forges strange alliances...

...and Professor Moriarty wasn't the only famous villain to have a daughter.

Unexpected friendships, supernatural mystery, high-stakes heists, and budding romance billow together in this thrilling fantasy adventure, which introduces a motley crew of daredevil heroines who hunt monsters...in all their forms."

Descendants doing cosmic horror.

An Artful Dodge by Karen Odden
Published by: Soho Crime
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Victorian London comes to vivid life in this riveting heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman's heroic plan to escape a life of crime, from the USA Today bestselling author of Down a Dark River.

She's stolen gems, purses, and hearts - but can she steal her life back from the ring of thieves that's claimed it?

London, 1879: Twenty-year-old Kit Jimeson has fingers so nimble she can nick a necklace off a lady in a crowded theater without raising alarm. Kit and her dodge partner, Mary, are the highest earners in the notorious all-women thieving ring in South London's Elephant and Castle district.

Kit, whose mother had been a thief before her, dreams of a different life, one where she's not constantly on the lookout for constables and plainclothes detectives, and where a mistake or pure bad luck won't land her in the hangman's noose. She has been saving her earnings so her younger sister, a maid for a wealthy Mayfair family, might have a shot at respectability.

Kit is very close to leaving the life entirely when the legendary former thief Maggie O'Connell brings her plans to a halt. Beautiful, charismatic Maggie has returned to reclaim leadership of the ring after twenty years in a brutal Australian penal colony. But Maggie desires more than mere wealth or power: She longs for revenge against those who sent her away. Kit, with her quick mind and dangerously clever hands, is Maggie's best weapon. If Kit wants to walk away with her life, she must carry out a heist that will demand every skill she possesses."

A Thousand Blows meets Charles Dickens.

The Laboratory Assistant by Natalia Loya
Published by: Apprentice House
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 392 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In a city on the brink of revolution, science and passion offer their own strains of violence.

Petrograd, 1916 After her aristocratic family's fall from fortune, Mariya is desperate to survive - and to support her widowed mother and sisters. Matters alleviate when she finds work as an assistant to Dr. Nikolas Rodin, a reclusive scientist. Though the job makes ends meet, she is soon pulled into his strange and secretive world: a world of flickering gaslights, whispered experiments, and a man whose brilliance is as alluring as it is unstable.

Tuberculosis and revolution both ravage Russia. And as political unrest swells and illness creeps closer, Mariya finds herself torn between a future of safety and a love that threatens to unravel everything. But in the dark corridors of the laboratory, nothing is as it seems - and the line between devotion and danger disappears entirely.

Darkly romantic and steeped in suspense, The Laboratory Assistant explores the perilous chemistry of desire, madness, and the choices that haunt us."

Russian and Gothic? What's not to love?

Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A collectible hardcover edition of the beloved novel about a New York City girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women's literature, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun.

One of The New York Times Magazine's 25 Most Significant New York City Novels from the Last 100 Years.

A Penguin Vitae Edition.

Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s New York as the daughter of two immigrants from Barbados: a free-spirited father she adores and who dreams of returning to his Caribbean island home, and a disciplined, hardworking mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their Brooklyn brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, Selina is torn between his nostalgia for the past and her mother's ambition for the future, all while negotiating racism, sexuality, Depression-era poverty, and the competing values of African Americans and her West Indian immigrant community.

First published in 1959, Brown Girl, Brownstones opened a window into the rich inner life of Black women and today ranks with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as one of the great New York City novels. With her autobiographical debut, Paule Marshall paved the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Maya Angelou - and took her place in the American literary canon.

Penguin Vitae - loosely translated as "Penguin of one's life" - is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality."

A book that is a true classic. 

The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sheltered young woman living at the Chateau Marmont falls under the spell of a scandalous, secretive man as all of Hollywood's glamour swirls around her - a stunning feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre from the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress.

In 1957, newly orphaned Aria Jones is sent to live with her aunt, a fading star who hides away in Hollywood's infamous Chateau Marmont. There, two aspiring actresses, Calliope and Flitter, take the grieving Aria under their wing.

But the Marmont isn't meant for small girls with big hearts, and Aria's first few nights reveal an insidious secret that continues to haunt her as she grows up in the hotel's halls, where the bright lights of Hollywood cast even darker shadows. If Aria can just stay invisible and invite no trouble as she saves money, then she can leave the Marmont and live life on her own terms - alone but free.

Her carefully laid plans fall apart when the hotel is bought by Theo Winchester, a reclusive rock star turned unexpected caretaker of his daughter, Adele, and unlike any man Aria has met before. To earn the last bit of money she needs to escape, Aria becomes Adele's tutor, which brings Aria closer to Theo and ignites a passion she never expected.

Suddenly, Aria finds herself wondering if she still wants to remain invisible - and if inviting trouble is a risk she's willing to take to pursue what she truly desires."

Two things I love coming together in one package, like peanut butter and chocolate, it's Jane Eyre and old Hollywood!

Crescendo by Jane Healey
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A piano virtuoso and his twin sister become rivals for a new spotlight - the adoration of a mysterious French patron - during the hot Parisian summer of 1957.

Twins Natasha and Max Kitson have lived their lives on the road, together building Max's career as a world-renowned pianist, famous for bringing even the most stalwart audience members to tears. But when, at age 20, the former prodigy begins making uncharacteristic mistakes, he abruptly cancels his remaining concerts and moves himself and his sister into the home of an enigmatic French patron, never realizing that Henri has been his sister's lover.

In Paris, over the course of one summer, Natasha's long-simmering resentments and Max's deep insecurities drive the siblings apart as each vie for Henri's attentions. But neither twin can have their host entirely to themselves, because while, during the day, Henri woos Natasha with lavish gifts and trips to the ballet, it's Max's music that draws Henri from bed each night.

One part delicious family drama, and one part twisted love triangle, Crescendo is an altogether un-put-downable escape to the concert halls, ballet theaters, and bedrooms of 1950s France."

A true escape for your summer vacation, or staycation as the case may be.

A Ghost Hunter's Guide to Catching a Killer by F.H. Petford
Published by: Hodder and Stoughton
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: eBook, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Don't miss the next instalment in the Alma Timperley Mystery Series, available to pre-order now!

A hotel full of ghosts. A haunting murder. A most unusual investigation...

August 1915: Alma Timperley is fully settled in the bustling coastal town of Falmouth with her fiancé Alan. In her new role as owner of the extraordinary Timperley Spiritualist Hotel, Alma offers residents the chance to contact the dead - and since the start of the war, the hotel has never been busier.

But when a guest is found dead in their bed, talking to ghosts is suddenly the least of Alma's worries. The police are quick to suspect foul play, which can only mean one thing: there is a killer lurking in the hotel's shadows.

Time is of the essence, so Alma is recruited by the police to help with their investigation. Can she crack the case, before she finds herself in grave danger?"

Just saying, as the war going on, she will have even more and more guests... Both alive and dead.

The Girl in the Lake by Lauren Oliver
Published by: Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 319 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young girl who claims to remember a past life draws a psychologist into a decades-old mystery in a haunting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver.

Kate Willis, consultant for the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, is tasked with interviewing six-year-old Henley Haskell about the girl's alleged past-life recollections. The evaluation also marks a return for Kate to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and to troubling recollections of her own.

Here, twenty-four years ago, Kate's friend Becca McGuire vanished from her bunk at a now-shuttered summer camp and was never seen again - presumably drowned in Lake Sauquamet. But the mystery of her disappearance is only deepening. Because Henley's memories of her "other life" are ones that could only belong to Becca.

For Kate, Henley's recurring, suffocating nightmares, and her disturbing illustrations of places she has never been, seem to spell out the unbelievable. Somewhere, somehow, the truth about what really happened to Becca is locked inside this little girl. As Henley's uncanny memories surface, so do old secrets - each one drawing Kate inexorably back to that terrible long-ago summer by the lake."

I do find it fascinating how many instances their are of young children remembering other lives.

She Walks at Night by Seishi Yokomizo
Published by: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"FROM JAPAN'S GREATEST CRIME WRITER: Yokomizo's iconic detective Kosuke Kindaichi returns in this stand-alone murder mystery featuring a luxurious family estate beset by madness, scandal, and a terrifying curse.

In this mind-bending new addition to Seishi Yokomizo's bestselling Kosuke Kindaichi Mysteries - translated into English for the first time - scruffy sleuth Kindaichi is called to the home of the aristocratic Furugami family, where in the midst of the Musashino countryside and enclosed on all sides by a long earthen wall, a gruesome scandal is brewing.

At the centre of the estate is the family patriarch: the drunken, sword-wielding father Tetsunoshin. His mistress, the icy, alluring Lady Oryu, is also housed in the estate along with their illegitimate daughter Yachiyo - beautiful and unstable - and the drink-ravaged Furugami heir, Naoki Sengoku. With each family member holding onto their own dark secrets, tensions between them ride high.

But this family feud turns bloody when the mutilated, headless body of Yachiyo's fiancé is discovered in the Furugami estate. To solve the case, Kindaichi will need to pick apart the threads of the family's carefully-woven story. But can he find the killer before the family is torn apart by its own secrets?

Perfect for fans of Knives Out and Lucy Foley, this thrilling mystery from Japan's greatest and best-loved crime writer is rife with family drama and shocking twists that will captivate readers old and new."

Oh, I love a murder in a big country house. Doesn't matter the country, just the family in it and the mystery. 

The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
Published by: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A deviously clever, locked room puzzle mystery from the celebrated Japanese author of The Decagon House Murders that's perfect for fans of Uketsu's Strange Houses.

Brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi must save a team of paranormal investigators, trapped in an abandoned house, as they are picked off one-by-one!

Rumor has it that the mysterious Clock House - a remote mansion built by notorious architect Nakamura Seiji for a long-dead clock enthusiast - is haunted by the ghost of a young girl, who died there 10 years earlier. No one is more intrigued by this than the investigating team from the paranormal magazine CHAOS. They decide to visit the mansion, along with a psychic medium, in an attempt to make contact with the spirit.

The plan is for the group of investigators to spend three days locked in the house, but their stay has barely begun when a gruesome murder is committed. And then the survivors find that they are trapped in the house, with no possibility of escape...

Meanwhile, the brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi is investigating the enigma of The Clock House from the outside, eager to unravel the mystery of another of Nakamura Seiji's twisted architectural creations.

But as his investigation proceeds, the team inside the house are being slaughtered one-by-one. Will Shimada crack the puzzle of The Clock House before all of them are dead?

The latest installment in Yukito Ayatsuji's thrilling Bizarre House Mysteries series, this stand-alone puzzle mystery is par-excellence by a master of the form, packed with twists and culminating in a jaw-dropping, unforgettable solution."

I have always been intrigued by a house that is on a timer. Throw in a medium, and well, I HAVE to have this book!

Marion by Leah Rowan
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"NORMAN WAS HER FIRST.

Marion is in deep. She's stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. It's late at night, and the only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She pays for a room in cash, and ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's handsome, charming and a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower, scrubbing off the late-summer heat, when the curtain is pulled back...

Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him in the balls, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now, she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run - not just a thief, but a killer, too. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

In Psycho, Hitchcock shocked audiences when he killed off his protagonist. But what if the leading lady had fought back? Marion offers an alternate history of the most famous dead blonde to ever grace the silver screen. Only this time, the knife is in her hands - and she's no victim."

In fairness to the OG Marion, she didn't really have time to fight back...

The Heirs by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the award-winning New York Times and Indie bestselling author of Ace of Spades comes a mystery about five teen geniuses, their billionaire father, and the aftermath of his murder - perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games, The Umbrella Academy, and Knives Out!

Five prodigies, one dead father, a mansion full of suspects...

Octavius the Maestro.
Fola the Brain.
Bilal the Olympian.
Perdita the Artist.
Romeo the Failure.

These are the five heirs of the illustrious billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and viciously trained with their father's infamous "Button Method" to prove his hypothesis for creating prodigies - child geniuses - the Button siblings have had no choice but to be brilliant according to their father's impossibly high standards.

Until he is murdered at his annual Prodigy Ball.

Now, all who attended the ball are required to stay in the Button Manor while the police investigate. But the officers have their work cut out for them - each of the Button siblings has something to hide, but The Heirs aren't the only ones with secrets. After all, Leontes Button was especially good at making enemies..."

Please say there's a monkey butler. I MISS POGO!

While We Were Silent by Alex Myers
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Devastating secrets shroud the campus of Green Dell Academy, secrets that some think are worth killing for...From Lambda Literary Award finalist Alex Myers comes a provocative dark academia novel.

There are rules and then there's reality...

Autumn, 2015. Green Dell Academy is a prestigious co-ed prep school tucked away in a quiet corner of Connecticut. And although it has its first female head of school, it's still very much a boys' club - a club with longstanding "traditions" that involve gross misconduct - and now murder.

A woman has been killed, right on campus, a woman who has been deeply involved in fighting sexual violence, a woman who had no shortage of enemies.

The murder case, coupled with an investigation into allegations of sexual assault, threatens to bring dark, deep-rooted secrets to the surface, the kind of secrets that go back decades - and some people seem to value the old ways more than human life...

For fans of Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions For You and Ashley Winstead's In My Dreams I Hold a Knife. Written by the current teacher at an American school academy, Alex Myers brings to life a thought-provoking and deeply relevant story."

Personally I'd be OK burning all the prep school that indoctrinate boys to the ground.

Blunt Instrument by Amy Bloom
Published by: The Mysterious Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A failed professor solves a murder on campus in this new whodunit from bestselling author Amy Bloom.

The case of the bludgeoned lecturer has all of Cromwell University reeling, even though the elderly Professor Bullfinch wasn't particularly well-liked. His ornery nature and Old World approach to campus politics ruffled more than a few feathers over the years, and present tensions within his department mean there are more suspects than mourners in the wake of his death. And the murder weapon - a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne - does seem to indicate that the attack may have been academically motivated...

Enter Dell Chandler, the failed English professor turned self-taught private detective whom Dr. Cutty calls in to investigate the crime. She has the background to tease out the motives among the staff and just enough experience to conduct a thorough inquiry. If she solves the case before the cops do, the university could keep the whole thing quiet, avoiding sensational media about the dark side of campus life. But to do so, she'll have to dodge her own demons from her past life as a disgraced academic.

Written with the same depth of character and insight that readers have come to expect from author Amy Bloom's novels and memoirs, Blunt Instrument is an engaging and entertaining mystery with a clever, complex protagonist at its core."

Personally, I think a bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne, given the setting, might be a murder weapon of convenience... 

The Final Chapter by C.B. Everett
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A missing bestselling author. A final manuscript encoded with clues to his fate. And a best friend racing to get to the final chapter...

From the author of the "blackly funny" (John Connolly, New York Times bestselling author) The Other People, a gripping book-within-a-book thriller that is perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Janice Hallett.

Ten years ago, a bestselling, critically acclaimed literary author disappeared without a trace…and without a final novel. In recent days, that missing manuscript has surfaced, but strangely enough, it's not another genius work of literary fiction, but an espionage novel full of all-too-stereotypical spycraft and James Bond-like twists.

His former publisher has asked the author's best friend - and fellow author named C.B. Everett - to annotate the novel with details from real life to give the strange novel context within his larger oeuvre. But as C.B. reads, he finds the espionage thriller is filled with references to events and people who feel a little too familiar, and soon he's wondering if the novel might in fact be a key to his missing friend's disappearance. There's text and subtext aplenty, and C.B. is determined to learn once and for all what happened to his friend through solving the mystery woven into the pages. But the final chapter may hold secrets darker and more threatening than anyone anticipated.

An unputdownable, twisty thriller, The Final Chapter asks us: how well do we really know our closest friends? And how well do we know ourselves?"

Well, if it's anything like Anthony Horowitz then the killer is whomever had access to the manuscript... 

Man of My Dreams by Olivia Worley
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A romance author is shocked when one of her characters-in-progress seemingly comes to life…but is he too good to be true, in this dramatic and twisty thriller perfect for fans of Ashley Winstead and Kate Alice Marshall, where the truth really is stranger than fiction.

Read this if you like:

*Meet cutes gone wrong (like, really, really wrong).

*Your boyfriends as unreliable as your narrators.

*Bringing him to meet your family, Murder Edition.

Bestselling romance author Ivy Harcourt has been as unlucky in love as she's been successful in writing - as her sad relationship track attests, there are no good dating options left in New York...Until she rescues an escaped dog in the park, and runs into Liam. Charming, British, hot architect Liam. The exact description of the love interest in her next book.

When an instant connection leads to a whirlwind relationship, Ivy is convinced she's found the dream man. Except he may be too perfect. He may be hiding something.

And Ivy may have secrets of her own."

Personally, if it was me, I'd think is was being setup. And not for a date...

Played to Death by Mike Ripley
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's curtains down for one actor when preparations for a new murder mystery play at the local theatre take a chillingly real twist...

The Librarian
Retirement was beckoning until local lawyer Adam Cunningham - aka the Hopewell Players' pantomime dame - requested my professional opinion on the script of their next play that he's been given.

The Lawyer
The script is terrible! And it rips off a number of Golden Age mysteries. With Roly's knowledge of crime fiction, I might be able to get the whole thing cancelled.

The Producer
I couldn't believe it when I learned that my late father had written a play of all things! And now the players will perform his work - until one of them is found dead...

The Inspector
A body on the stage of the local playhouse doesn't happen often round here. Was it a pre-rehearsal accident, suicide...or is the spotlight about to fall on a murderer?

Told from the point of view of four unreliable narrators, most of whom can't be trusted - The Librarian, The Lawyer, The Producer and The Inspector - this cunningly inventive novel is a refreshingly fun, subversive take on the crime fiction genre."

I love a good murder while treading the boards.

The French Market Murder by Greg Mosse
Published by: Hodder and Stoughton
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: eBook, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Want to know what mystery Zoe Pascal has to solve next? Don't miss The French Market Murder, the next book in the French Village Mystery series, available to pre-order now!

Sacré bleu! As the local village market is in full swing, get ready to stock up on the best products the south of France has to offer, from mouth-watering pastries, to fragrant lavender soap, and second-hand books...and another mystery for amateur sleuth Zoe Pascal to solve!

The delightful town of Sainte-Catherine, nestled in the heart of Provence, is preparing for the May bank holiday. The cobbled village square will be packed with stalls of the French market, selling wines, cheese, and other local products. Zoe Pascal, who runs the bookshop, is ready for a busy weekend recommending books to tourists and locals alike.

But the festivities have barely begun before Zoe and her loyal companion, Russell the dog, discover a body in an abandoned house behind her bookshop.

The police are quick to decide that they're investigating a murder. And as they're unable to identify the body, they recruit Zoe to help solve the case.

Is there a killer lurking in the bustling streets of Sainte-Catherine? Who in the village is hiding something? It's up to Zoe to find out, before time runs out..."

If she really cared about the town she's wait to report the murder until after the holiday... But then, the killer might just get away with murder...

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev AC Rosen
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From award-winning, critically acclaimed crime writer Lev Rosen comes a punchy, hilarious mystery-thriller. Meet the disaster gays: They're messy. They're queer. And they're about to solve a murder...Or die trying.

Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew - a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings - and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed - or is it?

When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.

But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder - and sees Jon fleeing the scene.

Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity...they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs."

I mean, messy crime solving is always the most entertaining right?

Death on the Lanai by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
Published by: Hyperion Avenue
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling series that began with Murder by Cheesecake continues with an all-new Golden Girls cozy mystery!

When the Girls accept a very strange invitation to a lavish party on a remote island estate, they find that murder has a way of ruining even the most glamorous of evenings.

The invite delivered to 6151 Richmond Street was short on details, only promising to celebrate "the greatest artist of the century" and accompanied by a jewel-encrusted brooch - the whole package a brand of mysterious opulence that another Saturday night of gin rummy just can't match.

Blanche Devereaux's passionate dalliances are as plentiful as hot Southern nights, and surely one can't be expected to remember all of one's suitors. But when the Girls disembark the party's ferry at a small Biscayne Bay island and meet their secretive host, the memories come flooding back: she a Radio City Rockette in her twenties, he the poor artist who could offer her nothing but his love. Fate drove them apart, but Declan, now a famous artist El Toro, professes that Blanche has always been his muse.

Featured prominently in his artworks and central to El Toro's return to the apex of the art world, Blanche is thrilled to have been such an inspiring figure to this man. But looking around at a party filled with those who have made their livings off the artist's fame - his assistant, his art dealer, his greatest critic, and more - Dorothy isn't so sure they're welcome on the island after all.

When a tropical storm knocks power out across the island, an optimistic Blanche proclaims that everyone looks better by candlelight anyway. But when Declan is found dead the next morning, all eyes are on her, his supposed muse of thirty-plus years. Trapped at the estate with the other guests - suspects all - the Girls must band together to find the true killer and get back to pleasant evenings of card games and cheesecake."

Eighties comedies really loved to emphasis how good women looked in candlelight... 

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A marine biologist makes the discovery of a lifetime when called to rescue the inhabitants of a small Maine island being menaced by a giant, glowing jellyfish in this richly imagined, wholly original debut.

Dr. Jo Ness prefers jellyfish to people. Her best friend, Aldo, was the exception, but he died seven months ago. So she spends her days hidden away at an underfunded aquarium with her specimens and a draft of the jellyfish guide she and Aldo had been working on together. His voice is alive in the notes in the margins, and it's enough. Almost.

Until she receives a call from Nadia, one of the few other humans she's loved but whom she hasn't heard from in years, asking for her help. Nadia tells her a grand tale of a giant jellyfish terrorizing her tiny island off the coast of Maine and sends a grainy video of the creature. Frankly, the footage looks fake, but Jo drops everything to fly across the country to see Nadia again, and to find this supposed sea beast. She couldn't save Aldo, but perhaps she can help Nadia.

But when Jo arrives on Shattering Point, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and the islanders she meets each have something different to say about the creature they've dubbed Clementine...a jellyfish who changes all who see it.

At turns an ode to classic sea monster stories and a vibrant tale of human connection, The Jellyfish Problem is an unforgettable debut that announces a new talent."

I'd say Lovecraftian... 

Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Doppelgängers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you'd sacrifice for a different life from award-winning author Isabel J. Kim.

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn't know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn't make?"

Very Severance. Very. And I know we all need something to hold us off until season three. Whenever that might be.

Valet by J.P. Lacrampe
Published by: S and S/Saga Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Kevin Wilson and Andrew Sean Greer, a helper robot and his 35-year-old ward embark on a mad-cap adventure to save the fate of the family company in this whimsically speculative ode to Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster.

Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But that's easier said than done when he's tasked with helping his owner's 35-year-old son "get out of his funk." Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn't inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn't have a master's degree, and he just can't seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. He'd rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time.

When Grayson learns of Charlotte's plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It's not just the family business at stake, it's all the technology - like Cy - their dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would do: he steals the flash drive with his father's most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant.

To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Grayson's first real date - and her dog - keeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust.

A hilarious, mad-cap adventure that is as tender as it is insightful, Valet asks not just what it means to be human, but what it means to be family."

I'd say more The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than Jeeves and Wooster, but each to their own Stephen Fry.

Puck by Samantha Allen
Published by: Zando
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this A Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired romcom, Puck is a reality show producer and agent of chaos with a talent for bringing people together...and tearing them apart.

Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell - with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex's best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia's news leaves her friend group reeling - and Puck's mind whirling.

When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia's marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples - without anyone finding out. But as Puck comes up against a type-A maid of honor hell-bent on making this wedding happen, it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the greatest stunt of their career. If only they can take their eyes off the bridesmaid. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth...

Written with Samantha Allen's signature charm, wit, and an irresistible dose of Shakespearian mischief, Puck is the ultimate romcom for our chaotic era, and a celebration of the friendships that carry us through it all."

And that sometimes we just don't see who's right for us the first time around.

Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A girl with a mission. A god with a deal. A story that could change everything.

When 17-year-old Akoma Addo stumbles into a world of ancient gods and modern magic, she'll have to choose between saving her father…or staying true to everything she's ever believed.

Akoma Addo has one rule: don't get too close to the supernatural.

Ever since a blazing orb of light left her father in a coma, she's buried herself in her secret job investigating magical crimes in San Francisco's AfricaTown - just enough to keep her grief at bay. But when a body turns up in a pool of molten gold and ash, Akoma's pulled into something much bigger - and far more dangerous. At the center of it all is Anansi, the trickster god of stories, who makes her an impossible offer: help him catch a killer and awaken the ancestral magic buried deep in her blood...and in return, he'll give her a chance to bring her father back. To take the deal, Akoma will have to lie to everyone she loves and embrace the very power she's spent years trying to deny. And as her connection grows with Xander, the new guy in town with secrets of his own, Akoma must decide who she can trust - especially when she's no longer sure she can even trust herself. Rooted in Ghanaian mythology and packed with mystery, danger, and slow-burning romance, Goldenborn is a gripping fantasy about legacy, lies, and what it really means to rewrite your story."

Personally, don't trust anyone who is actually a trickster god. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ama Ofosua Lieb, Amy Bloom, C.B. Everett, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Greg Mosse, Jamie Pacton, Jane Healey, Katherine Arden, Lauren Oliver, Lev AC Rosen, Melissa Albert, Olivia Worley, Rachel Ekstrom Courage, Samantha Allen