Archives de catégorie : Crime & Thrillers

NOBODY DESERVES THIS d’Andy Callahan

Written for fans of Liz Moore and Dennis Lehane, Andy Callahan’s debut has loads of insight about fathers and sons, and about the various privileges of the wealthy; but most of all, NOBODY DESERVES THIS is an expertly plotted thriller with twists that will leave you breathless.

NOBODY DESERVES THIS
by Andy Callahan
Celadon Books, Summer 2026 or Early 2027
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Set in Philadelphia’s elite Main Line suburbs, 21-year-old screw-up Sean Mulcahy is careening toward rock bottom ever since his sister has gone missing and the cops seem unable to crack the case. He’s been thrown out of Brown University, his father has disowned him, and a private equity magnate still blames him for his sister’s disappearance. When another young woman suddenly disappears, Sean decides to follow his nose and investigate on his own, but he will need to reconcile with his father first and enlist his help.

*Pre-empted in the US

Andy Callahan graduated from Yale in 1997 and the Warner Bros. TV Writers’ Workshop in 2014. He has written for several network crime shows including Person of Interest, Lethal Weapon, Taken, and FBI. He has also written several produced features and his inspirational drama Searching For Obama is currently in production. Andy grew up in in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania and attended one of the elite high schools on the Main Line on a partial scholarship to play basketball for them, a memory he cherishes and which has inspired his book, both the good and the ugly.

HARD TIMES de Jeff Boyd

Set in Chicago the novel follows the ripple effects of a tragic shooting throughout the community, focusing especially the teachers, police officers and students. With a cinematic sense of place and scene along with a wide cast of richly-drawn characters, this novel provides equal parts heartbreak, suspense, and action.

HARD TIMES
by Jeff Boyd
Flatiron/SMPG, March 2026

Buddy Mack has been caught in the middle of two worlds at war. As an English teacher at a South Side Chicago high school lauded for their football team but at risk in every other way, he tries to instill a love of literature, and is especially concerned with a trio of boys who test him to no end but are full of promise and heart. There’s Zeke, the football star; Truth, the sweet-talking charmer; and Dontell, Buddy’s most promising student.

At home, his wife, Chrissy, a successful corporate lawyer, is ready to upgrade to a big house on the North Side and start a family. He’s torn over all the implications. And the closest person he has in his life to talk to about the pressure he’s feeling is Chrissy’s little brother, Curtis, a corrupt Chicago cop.

The push-and-pull of the two worlds collide in a shocking moment that requires Buddy to choose a side and fight for all that he holds dear. HARD TIMES takes stock of what it means to be there for your people whether you want to or not and unflinchingly confronts the American dream—a moving, engrossing, and necessary read.

Like S.A. Cosby, Jeff Boyd has written a crime novel that sits on a shelf with literary fiction and digs deep into the social aspect of crime. This book explores rich and complicated family dynamics, the vulnerability of the students, and the tension between a community and law enforcement. And it all comes together in a really extraordinary, page-turning read.

Jeff Boyd is the author of The Weight (Simon & Schuster, 2023). A former public school teacher from Chicago, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is currently a Visiting Instructor of Creative Writing at Pratt Institute and lives in Brooklyn with his partner and child.

A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER de Claire Andrews

Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper, this historical murder mystery follows the cunning Irene Adler as she teams up with the mysterious Sherlock Holmes to discover who is murdering Oxford’s elite students in the All Souls class.

A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER
by Claire Andrews
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, August 2025
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Irene Adler is no ordinary young lady. She’s at the top of the ranks in the All Souls cohort, a competitive preparatory class reserved for Oxford’s brightest minds. But her peers and professors don’t know she’s a lady at all. To them, she is Isaac Holland.

Keeping up her disguise gets trickier when All Souls students start dying, one by one. Determined to find out who’s responsible for the deaths, Irene—as Isaac—teams up with fellow classmate and roommate Sherlock Holmes to track down clues. Their mission grows more dangerous by the day as someone tries to frame Isaac for the murders, and Irene’s own father, Dean Moriarty, begins to threaten her seat in school.

Readers will love following these classic and beloved characters through the twists and turns in the dark halls of Oxford, and discovering what secret lies behind the glitz and glamor of the elite.

Claire M. Andrews was raised in both Alaska and Scotland, but currently lives in Vermont. When not writing, she can usually be found outside swimming, skiing, or hiking across the state’s famous green mountains. She is the author of the Daughter of Sparta series and can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @cmandrewslit.

THE TRESPASSERS de Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

A house party turns deadly in this tightly wound thriller set against an icy Alaskan winter.

THE TRESPASSERS
by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Delacorte, October 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Finley, Mya, River, and Eli were inseparable as kids, running wild on Alaska’s vast wide-open spaces. Then tragedy struck, and Finley moved to the lower 48. But now it’s Senior year, and Finley’s back in Anchorage. When Mya throws a house party on a snowy Valentine’s Day night, it’s supposed to be a chance for the friends to heal old wounds. But an encounter with a mysterious stranger quickly turns the evening into a nightmare.

As the group scrambles to cover up what they’ve done, the fault lines they’ve grown so good at ignoring begin to crack as the police investigate and the media hounds them. Are they the most vicious teens in America, or deeply misunderstood? Everyone wants to know—even the teens themselves.

Fast-paced and thrillingly tense, THE TRESPASSERS explores guilt, loyalty, and the complex nature of friendship.

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez earned her BA in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and went into finance, of all things before she accomplished her childhood dream of becoming an author. Jennifer grew up in Alaska and now divides her time between Northern California and Middle Tennessee with her husband, kids, and more than her fair share of pets. THE TRESPASSERS is her 11th novel.

MISCHIEF GIRLS d’Aashna Avachat

Every school has its secrets—but at the exclusive Ellison College, the past might prove deadly—in this twisty puzzlebox mystery perfect for fans of Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series.

MISCHIEF GIRLS
by Aashna Avachat
Delacorte Press, September 2026
(via KT Literary)

THIRTY YEARS AGO: three students walked into the woods surrounding Ellison College, and only one came out. They became known as the Mischief Girls, and their case was never solved.

HALLOWEEN WEEK, MODERN DAY: Ellison freshman Raina isn’t interested in digging into the past. To combat her personal demons, she volunteers at Night Walk, a campus program dedicated to helping students get home safely. Until one night, Raina escorts a fellow freshman to her dorm…only to learn that the girl disappeared before she ever made it through the door.

NOW: With the help of the missing girl’s stepbrother, Raina begins to investigate. But when the pair of them discover that she’d been looking into the Mischief Girls murders prior to her vanishing, the case suddenly becomes much more complicated.

From professors’ offices to state penitentiaries, Raina relentlessly hunts down the truth. But if she wants to find it, she’ll have to accept that maybe what happened to the missing girl didn’t begin the night she disappeared.

Maybe it all started thirty years ago, in the woods.

Aashna Avachat is a writer, reader, and lawyer from California. She studied English and Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and law at Harvard Law School. She is also the author of Love Craves Cardamom. When she’s not working, she’s probably reading on a sunny patch of grass, going on long walks to grocery stores, or being cozy with one of her many foster cats. Visit her online at aashnaavachat.com.