Archives de catégorie : Fiction

THE HALTER de Darby McDevitt

Combining the inventive worldbuilding of Philip K. Dick and the elegiac longing of Raymond Chandler and for fans of Ready Player One and Rabbits, THE HALTER by Darby McDevitt (lead writer for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag) is a debut sci-fi novel that fuses cyber-noir, psychological suspense, and high-concept speculation in a breakneck search for truth inside a utopian metaverse on the verge of collapse.

THE HALTER
by Darby McDevitt
Diversion Books, February 2026
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

In a world where virtual addiction kills, Kennedy Stark is paid to pull the plug. A professional halter—part detective, part counselor—he trawls the world’s darkest surrogate-reality feeds in search of the lost. When he isn’t working, he’s dreaming of a one-way ticket to Mars, where a new colony has been established as a hopeful alternative to an Earth in the early stages of climate collapse.

One evening, after a botched rescue attempt, a mysterious client offers Kennedy a tantalizing new case: brilliant software engineer Delia Walsh, who Kennedy fell in love with years ago, has disappeared inside a surrogate reality project called The Forum. Entering under an assumed identity, Kennedy finds a simulation unlike any other. The Forum bills itself as a tool for cutting-edge scientific research and radical philosophical investigations, but the signs of its corruption are everywhere. As Kennedy investigates, he learns Delia had been working on a new simulation that could upend The Forum’s primary purpose, and that even in this prurient playground for the super wealthy, the dangers are very real.

Brimming with black humor, hardboiled attitude, and a cast of endearing misfits lost in brittle fantasies, The Halter introduces a charismatic detective and heralds a unique and assured new voice in sci-fi crime.

Darby McDevitt is a writer and game developer best known for his work on the Assassin’s Creed series of video games. He served as lead writer for Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and as narrative director for the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe. His short fiction has appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Jeopardy, Griffel, and In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing. McDevitt is a dual citizen of the US and Canada and lives in Montreal.

HEATHER de Caitlin Mullen

For readers of Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, 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.

HEATHER
by Caitlin Mullen
Celadon Books, June 2026
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

Photograph by Sylvie Rosokoff

1994. 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, about who she is, and about 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.

Caitlin Mullen is the author of Please See Us, which won the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was named a New York Times best crime novel in 2020. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and children.

HOME FOR THE HOMICIDES d’Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey

Co-authored by New York Times Bestseller Elle Cosimano (Finlay Donovan series) and USA Today Bestseller Hannah Morrissey (Black Harbor series), a light-hearted murder mystery with a dash of lust and merriment, for fans of Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.

What if the perfect romcom heroine didn’t get her happy ending…because she got murdered instead? In this will-they-or-won’t-they holiday mystery, Special Agents Holly and Mark are on the case, on each other’s nerves, and on fire for each other.

HOME FOR THE HOMICIDES:
A Holly and Mark Mystery
by Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey
Minotaur, Fall 2026
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

When big-city Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd report to the idyllic small town of Christmas to investigate a very less than idyllic murder, they’re in for more than the average whodunnit.

This podunk assignment three hundred miles north is their punishment, and it has nothing to do with them getting naughty in the janitor’s closet at last year’s holiday party. Rather, Holly and Mark are both on thin ice after messing up on the job—Mark licked a frozen pole on a dare and Holly accidentally scarfed down a tray of pot brownies. Their lapses in judgment were caught on camera, embarrassing their department, and a rural, remote location like Christmas is the perfect place to lay low.

As much as this assignment is a punishment, it’s also their shot at redemption. Whoever outperforms the other will either get to stay in Major Crimes, or kick the other one out.

Regrets of last year’s holiday hookup riding shotgun between them, each agent has their reasons for wanting to wrap up this romcom gone wrong as soon as possible. Mark left Christmas for a reason—one that looks an awful lot like a quiet, cookiecutter life with an ex-fiancée who’s way too friendly with his mom, the mayor. And Holly, a Scrooge when it comes to all things Christmas, would prefer to avoid any reminders of the holiday that stole her parents in a tragic car accident when she was young. This kitschy town and her new partner are getting on her last nerve.

With just twelve days until the festival, the countdown is on.

Elle Cosimano is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, an International Thriller Writers Award winner, and an Edgar Award nominee. Elle’s debut novel for adults, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, kicked off a witty, fast-paced contemporary mystery series, which was a People magazine pick and was named one of New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2021. The third book in the series, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, was an instant New York Times bestseller.

Hannah Morrissey studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her first novel, Hello, Transcriber, was inspired by her experience as a police transcriber. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two pugs.

THE IVORY CITY d’Emily Bain Murphy

The Devil in the White City meets Pride and Prejudice in this romantic historical murder mystery set at the 1904 World’s Fair.

THE IVORY CITY by Emily Bain Murphy
Union Square & Co., November 2025
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

The St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904: A miniature city of palaces and pavilions that becomes a backdrop for romance, betrayal—and murder.

Cousins Grace and Lillie have been best friends since birth, despite Grace’s vastly inferior social status ever since her mother married for love instead of wealth. When Lillie invites Grace to the biggest event of the century—the legendary World’s Fair, also known as “The Ivory City”—Grace hopes her fortunes might be about to change.

But when a member of their party is brutally killed at the fair, and suspicion falls on Lillie’s brother Oliver, Grace must prove Oliver’s innocence before her beloved cousins’ family is ruined forever. Along the way, she’ll discover that the city’s wealthy elite—including Oliver’s handsome but irritable friend Theodore—aren’t quite who they appear to be. And amidst the glitz, glamor, and magic of the Ivory City lurks a danger that just may claim her life.

« Murphy’s intense research helps to immerse readers in the lush setting…A good pick for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Andrea Penrose. »―Library Journal, STARRED Review

Emily Bain Murphy is the author of two critically acclaimed young adult novels—The Disappearances, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and Splinters of Scarlet—as well as the popular historical mystery novel Enchanted Hill. Murphy lives in St. Louis with her husband, three children, and a rescue bunny, where she’s always on the lookout for beautiful old mansions hiding new stories.

SEASON OF STEEL de Maia Kane

Bridgerton meets Pacific Rim in this sapphic crossover romantasy set in a glittering alternate Regency in which the London Season is more cutthroat than ever…literally.

SEASON OF STEEL
by Maia Kane
PRH/Dutton, Spring 2027
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

In an alternate Regency England where marriage to eligible noblewomen is decided by deadly mecha dueling tournaments, half-Chamorro bluestocking Lady Wilhelmina Applewhite will choose her own destiny, thank you very much. But when her father’s sudden death leaves Willa as his sole heir, her hand in marriage—and the enormous ducal estate she stands to inherit—becomes the upcoming Season’s grand prize. Determined to seize her fate—and protect her little sisters’ freedom—Willa shocks the ton by declaring her intention to hire a Bloodsworn fighter to compete for her own hand.

Except, the only one mad enough to even consider it is rakish, brooding Thomasin Drake, the first and last woman to have ever fought in a Season…until her final duel ended in defeat and disgrace. Thomasin is more interested in drowning her sorrows in whiskey than risking her life fighting for a fussy spitfire like Willa—and she swore never to return to high society after her loss. But when she discovers that the man who beat her is competing with her own old mech, she agrees to enter on one condition: if she wins, the rig belongs to her.

Together, the two women must navigate both the Season’s high society balls and dangerous duels, or Willa risks losing her family, her estate, and her freedom to fortune hunters. But if she isn’t careful, she might lose her most valuable possession—her heart—to Thomasin before the Season is over.

And in a world where marriage is a matter of life and death, falling in love is the last thing she can afford.

Maia Kane is a hapa CHamoru writer, Shudokan black belt, and media studies graduate student who completed her education in London. When not writing books or academic essays, she enjoys playing video games, reading comics, and backpacking around the world.