(May 2026)
#1 The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
London author Stuart Turton (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) specializes in high-concept murder mysteries spiked with narrative puzzles, sci-fi twists, and lateral thinking. His new book features the bizarre death of a scientist on an idyllic island with exactly 125 citizens. Well, 124. Meanwhile, the island’s glitchy security system is breaking down, letting in the deadly fog that’s killed off the rest of humanity. So, yeah, everybody’s pretty tense.
#2 The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
It’s an interesting problem to have: College student Anna Green’s fake marriage to Liam Weston helped her get discount housing at UCLA. After a quickie divorce at graduation, everyone was happy and went their separate ways. Now it’s five years later, and Anna’s ex has delivered some extremely surprising news: They’re still married, there’s a multimillion-dollar inheritance at stake, and Liam needs her help.
#3 If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
Crime writer Alex Finlay (The Night Shift) has earned a loyal readership with his densely plotted mysteries stitched from multiple interweaving threads. His latest puzzler features a five-year-old cold case that warms up again when two dead bodies are found in a submerged car. This causes complications for a law school student in Tuscany, a mob boss in Philadelphia, and a rookie sheriff’s deputy in Kansas. Everything pivots on a cryptic note that reads: If something happens to me…
#4 One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware’s carefully crafted mystery and thriller novels have been compared to those of Golden Age crime writers like Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, and Dorothy L. Sayers. In her new book, five couples competing in an island reality show run into trouble when a storm separates them from the rest of the production crew. Making matters rather worse, there’s a vicious killer on the loose, too. Ware, ever the explorer, brings psychological suspense to the islands of the Indian Ocean.
#5 You Like It Darker by Stephen King
The undisputed heavyweight champion of horror, Stephen King, made his bones in the publishing business as a novelist. But he’s a master of the short story form, too, and this latest collection features 12 tales said to be even darker than usual for Maine’s resident gentleman maniac. The new collection features an array of King’s usual concerns—psychotic killers, precognitive visions, planar breaches—plus the short story “Rattlesnakes,” said to be a kind of sequel to King’s 1981 canine freakout Cujo.