New Mystery & Thriller Books To Read in Fall 2026

Jack Reacher is hard to find. And he likes it that way. But General Susan Turner, based deep inside the Pentagon, has the means and the motive. She needs his help. A member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can’t trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside. Someone who solves problems and disappears without a trace … The heart-pounding new Jack Reacher thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child.

At sunrise, high in the Italian hills, a body is found on the steps of a beautiful private villa. On the body is a threatening note, signed by a mystery man. Can the team catch an elusive killer who knows EXACTLY where to hide? #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Osman’s globe-trotting series We Solve Murders returns with a thrilling new mystery!

The world’s most celebrated thriller writer and author of The Da Vinci Code returns with his most stunning novel yet — a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do. In The Secret of Secrets, Robert Langdon is plunged into the dual worlds of futuristic science and historical lore — navigating a labyrinth of codes and symbols … and finally uncovering a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind. Now in paperback!

A forgotten civilization. A lost Biblical artifact. A criminal enterprise lurking beneath the seas. What links them with a potential cataclysmic event that threatens all of humanity? That’s the question facing Dirk Pitt in this latest electrifying novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling series created by the grand master of adventure Clive Cussler.

In this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi volunteer for an important case up north involving an elephant sanctuary, leaving assistant detective Charlie to manage a complicated and potentially risky new one back home.

A Russian plan to open a strategic passage above the Arctic Circle poses a direct threat to the United States and to President Jack Ryan in the latest electrifying entry in this #1 New York Times bestselling series.

New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver returns with a propulsive new thriller featuring forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and detective Amelia Sachs (from The Bone Collector) as they investigate a series of arsons in New York City.

Subjects of the hit Netflix show, The Hunting Wives, share more than target practice, martinis, and bad behavior in this novel of obsession, seduction, and murder.

When Sophie O’Neill moves to a small Texas town in order to settle down with her family, she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie is drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. But when the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spirals out of control.

The debut novel by one of the bestselling Never Whistle at Night’s most memorable contributors, in which, after a young Anishinaabe woman vanishes, her sister tries to pick up the pieces of her broken family, even as her investigations put her at risk of suffering a similar fate.

“All those moments in life that mark a before, and an after. Before the death of me, and after. Before they knew the truth of what happened, and after.”

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Push, a bold, unputdownable story of motherhood, desire, betrayal, and loss told by a mother after her own death. Exploring the performative identities of womanhood, the cost of being good, and what we owe ourselves and each other in the face of desire, Ashley Audrain’s daring, thought-provoking novel asks: Will you find out who you really are, before you die?

Enter the library of an enigmatic collector, where occult books are guarded and researched at a fatal cost, with this uncanny eldritch horror novel from Nebula Award-winning author Premee Mohamed and The Magnus Archives’ Jonathan Sims.

Stephen King’s legendary debut, the bestselling smash hit that put him on the map as one of America’s favorite writers. In a world where bullies rule, one girl holds a secret power. Unpopular and tormented, Carrie White’s life takes a terrifying turn when her hidden abilities become a weapon of horror.

It’s the picture-perfect wedding weekend: The venue is dreamy, the weather is beautiful, love is in the air — and Willa Sullivan is having a bad time. A masked killer is terrorizing the reception and Willa has to fight to save the ones she loves and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. A final girl Willa is not. Or is she? She wakes up and it’s the morning of the wedding. After some uncanny coincidences, Willa comes to understand that she’s stuck in a loop of carnage and terror that she must learn how to escape or else suffer a fate worse than death — being an eternal wedding guest.

In this Appalachian horror novel, two estranged siblings become trapped in a convenience store under attack by a monster from the mountains who feasts on guilty hearts.

Welcome to the dark. It has very sharp teeth.

Based on the internationally bestselling comic series, with millions of copies in print, the first full-length novel from the terrifying world of Something Is Killing the Children — a stunning collaboration between Eisner-winning co-creator James Tynion IV and #1 New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Public Access Afterworld is the profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a novel by the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Spenser fights to prove the innocence of a friend in this latest installment of the Robert B. Parker’s beloved series. There has never been a more admired figure in the history of the Boston Police Department than Martin Quirk, Spenser’s friend. Now an unknown adversary has devised an elaborate plan to ruin his reputation — and his life. His bosses believe the lie. So does the whole city. The BPD won’t allow Quirk to defend himself, and clear his name. That’s Spenser’s job.

From the “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times) Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie return in a gripping new novel of greed, corruption, and the lethal cost of private equity in healthcare.

In this clever and surprising thriller about the perils of modern dating and the female rage it sometimes inspires, a board game designer starts playing by her own rules, and losers won’t be tolerated.

In 1970s Mississippi, a Black detective and his temporary partner are assigned to a case that shifts from murder to paranormal conspiracy with life-altering repercussions. With shades of The X-Files and S. A. Cosby, There Used to Be People Here deftly explores race, queerness, and existing as other in a society that demonizes everything different.

When two husbands are brutally murdered by their seemingly loving wives, DS Mumtaz “Moomy” Ali and DCI Sarah Heaton of the Met police have to solve a complex case and expose a dark conspiracy involving some very powerful — and wealthy — players, putting their own lives on the line.

The bestselling Indigenous dark fiction anthology returns with a new selection of even more daring and sinister stories. Featuring stories of unspeakable yet satisfying terror, from twisted psychological tales to gore-filled monster hunts, this new selection of sinister stories will sate your darkest appetites and leave you slavering for more.

After fearing it all her life, a young woman embraces her ability to see ghosts after a murder occurs that appears dangerously linked to her past.

Charlotte Holmes — aka Sherlock Holmes — becomes entangled in a puzzling missing person case that hits close to home for her beloved Mrs. Watson in this Victorian-set mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of A Ruse of Shadows.

A mother and son travel to a dilapidated cabin in the woods that haunts more than just her memories in this new unnerving horror from the author of The Whistler and Sisters of the Lost Nation.

Dartrine Beaumont believes her mother’s sudden death has left her alone in the world — until she learns of long-lost wealthy relatives living in Florida. Confused but delighted by the possibility of extended family, Dart travels to her grandmother’s stately Gilded Age mansion just in time to stake a claim on an unusual inheritance: An alligator farming empire. But as Dart uncovers the truth about her violent birthright, she faces a terrible choice: Accept her place in her family’s grim legacy or forge a new path by slaying a different beast entirely.

Haven Powers has spent years trying to disappear. Once a loud, troublemaking girl who defied every expectation in her small town, now she’s learned to hide her fire behind a quiet smile. It’s safer that way. But under the suffocating pressure of the town and her family who believe obedience is next to godliness, Haven soon finds herself on a path to revenge. She’ll show them what happens when the girl they called too much, too loud, too everything, finally lets her demons loose.

A chilling international debut following a vampire who targets men who have harmed women — in the present, past, and future — and the woman-led task force entrusted with solving the murders. A brisk, lacerating exploration of power, privilege, and the pursuit of justice — and a foray into the dark underbelly of gender-based violence in Korea — Mothersucker reveals just how far a woman will go to avenge the ones she loves.

Caught between her family back in Harlem and her glamorous new life, Louise Lloyd finds that her knack for solving crimes translates when she’s called to investigate un meurtre (a murder) in Paris.

There’s something in the water, and Tribal Marshal Starr fears that a gruesome death in the lake is only a symptom of a greater danger in this mystery from USA Today bestselling author Laurie L. Dove.

For 43 days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world — until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated. Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in on him, he begins his own investigation into the fire — and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined …

A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil — a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover’s isolated family home, and a family’s deal with the devil goes terribly wrong.