Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2026 Adult Fiction

WHEN THE WOODS CALLED US HOME de Rachel Griffin

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Griffin comes an atmospheric and haunting adult debut in which a disappearance rattles a small town, forcing one woman to confront her fate and unravel the dark secrets of the past—perfect for fans of Once There Were Wolves and The Unmaking of June Farrow.

WHEN THE WOODS CALLED US HOME
by Rachel Griffin
Atria, February 2027
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

In the rural town of Bone Creek, Emma Pierce has devoted her life to caring for the wind-battered trees of the rugged Washington coast, feeling more grounded one hundred feet up than with both feet planted firmly on land.

When she’s climbing, Emma can almost convince herself that the curse claiming the Pierce women’s lives is nothing more than hollow gossip. When she’s climbing, the changes in her sister don’t seem so alarming.

But when her boyfriend Eli’s brother goes missing, not even the trees can calm the dread in Emma’s gut. Both Eli and her sister fall under the town’s suspicion, and Emma throws herself into the search for answers. Soon, she discovers that the town is holding onto secrets—and so too is her own family.

Forced to confront what the people she loves most are capable of, Emma must uncover her forgotten memories from the night her mother died. A generations-old feud has been simmering beneath the surface of Bone Creek…and it’s coming to a lethal boil in the very woods where Parker vanished.

Rachel Griffin writes novels inspired by the magic of the world around her. She is the #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of atmospheric, spellbinding books for teens and adults. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel has a deep love of nature, from the mountains to the ocean and all the towering evergreens in between. When she isn’t writing, you can find her wandering rain-soaked forests, reading by the fire, or drinking copious amounts of coffee and tea. She lives with her husband beneath the moody skies of western Washington.

MAKESHIFT de Peter Rock

An uncompromising act of good faith, a testament to devotion and allegiance rendered with the haunting grace of Rock’s precision prose.

MAKESHIFT
by Peter Rock
Soft Skull Press, August 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Abandoned on a remote island known as Makeshift, three sisters—Ari, Heiko, and CeCe—believe they’re the last humans on Earth.

These three, left alone after a band of foreigners slaughtered their entire community, must learn to fend for themselves. They fish and forage in the shallow waters of their protected cove, salvage useful treasures from the rusting hulks of ships that ran aground on its offshore reefs, and entertain themselves with half-remembered tales from their time before.

But when they stray beyond the island into a wider, broken world, they find that life may not be as they believed. And upon their return to the island, they face further revelations that strain their bonds, hint that secrets may be everywhere, and affirm their need for one another in the face of a perilous future.

MAKESHIFT is a singular novel of hope and survival set on a small rock-bound island in the coastal Pacific Northwest, and a testament to devotion and allegiance rendered with the haunting grace of Rock’s precision prose.

Peter Rock is the author of eleven previous works of fiction, including My Abandonment, which won the Alex Award and was adapted into the film Leave No Trace. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and John Dos Passos Prize, he lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two daughters.

SURVIVAL NOTES de Michelle Haines Thomas

What happens when an influencer couple, famous for their ‘free-range parenting’ let their nine-year-old son and his friend sleep overnight in the bush… and the boys don’t come back?

SURVIVAL NOTES
by Michelle Haines Thomas
Text Publishing, January 2027

When nine-year-old Freddie and his friend go missing in the bush, their parents scramble to blame each other. Why did they let the boys camp out alone? And why did the boys disappear? In the small hinterland town, the online backlash against the adults is brutal.

The terrifying threat of a bushfire accelerates the race to find the children. The editor of the local newspaper, single-mother Justine, has her own secrets to protect. Then her elder daughter goes missing, too. As everything implodes around Justine, her past comes back to haunt her. How far will she go to rescue the children?

Michelle Haines Thomas takes us into the hearts and minds of characters confronting their worst nightmare. SURVIVAL NOTES is a superlative heart-in-your-mouth literary thriller, with commercial overtones.

Michelle Haines Thomas has been writing novels most of her life, in between her work as a journalist and raising a family. She is the recipient of a residential writing fellowship at Varuna, has a MA in Writing from the University of Technology in Sydney, and has published or broadcast fiction and reviews in a range of publications. Michelle now works in marketing and lives with her family on the NSW Central Coast.

OUR FRIENDS IN GOOD HOUSES de Rahul Pandita

Renowned journalist Rahul Pandita’s first novel takes a precarious double journey, into the world and into the heart.

OUR FRIENDS IN GOOD HOUSES
by Rahul Pandita
HarperCollins India, October 2025

Neel is a journalist drawn to war zones. It’s in these spaces riven by conflict that his sense of dislocation, of not belonging anywhere, drops off him. At all other times, he’s in quest, seeking solid ground: a home. It is a pursuit that takes him halfway across the world to America and back to the urban dystopia of Delhi, headlong into fleeting relationships that glimmer with the promise of shelter

Is Neel—haunted by the past and exiled from the present—likely to find what he desires in ephemeral associations? Will he chance upon the quiet anchorage he seeks in short-term dwellings and the objects he gathers within them-coffee percolators and rugs, posters and penknives? Or is the home he so badly wants elsewhere? Not in the noise and blood and lust outside, but in some sanctuary within?

Vulnerable, provocative and astute, OUR FRIENDS IN GOOD HOUSES is one of the finest explorations yet of the long road to a place called home.

Rahul Pandita is a journalist who is known for his reporting from war-torn areas. He is the author of Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India’s Maoist Movement; Our Moon has Blood Clots: A Memoir of a Lost Home in Kashmir; The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked; and is the co-author of The Absent State: Insurgency as an Excuse for Misgovernance. He was awarded the International Red Cross Award for conflict reporting in 2010. He is a Yale World Fellow and also the recipient of the New India Foundation Fellowship. He lives in Delhi.

THE SWEET CHEAT de Martha Grimes

The New York Times bestselling and award-winning author returns with a beguiling mystery starring the brilliant, idiosyncratic young sleuth Emma Graham as she attempts to solve a murder, free a wrongfully convicted man—and write her own novel along the way.

THE SWEET CHEAT
An Emma Graham Novel
by Martha Grimes
Atlantic Crime, December 2027

Photo credit: Urban Zintel

Twelve-year-old Emma Graham can’t seem to stay out of trouble in the small town of Spirit Lake. But how can she when her small town is besieged by murder, a disappearance, and savage attacks? But nothing will stop her from asking questions and relentlessly pursuing the truth—even if the sheriff is less than enthused.

When two men are accused of murder, Emma dives headfirst into the case, convinced there is a third suspect, a missing piece of the puzzle. Along the way, Emma begins writing her own mystery, inspired by the case and populated by the colorful cast of local waitresses, lawyers, drifters, and kooky customers she encounters during her investigation.

In this original and lively novel, Martha Grimes weaves a propulsive mystery against the backdrop of a vibrant town. Strikingly intuitive, quirky and always curious, Emma Graham is the perfect young sleuth who always sees the best in people—while still uncovering their secrets along the way.

Martha Grimes is the bestselling author of more than thirty books, twenty-six of them featuring Richard Jury, and has sold more than 10 million copies in the US alone. The recipient of the 2012 Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, Grimes lives in Bethesda, Maryland.