All Features

Read it before (or after!) you see it

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Is the book always better than the movie or TV show? Better read these recent adaptations ASAP so you can decide.

Heartstopper

By Alice Oseman

October 3, 2024

The too-cute-for-words Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel recently returned for its third season, following darling teen couple Nick and Charlie as they confront the looming shadow of university and whether they’ll finally say “I love you”—in addition to staring heart-eyed at each other.

’Salem’s Lot

By Stephen King

October 3, 2024

Dracula is having a moment. Not only will there be a new take on Nosferatu this Christmas (ICYMI in . . . 1922, Nosferatu is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), but Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, widely seen as the Maine horror master’s take on the template-setting vampire tale, was adpated into a Max (HBO’s streaming service) original movie starring Lewis Pullman, Bill Camp and Alfre Woodard.

The Outrun

By Amy Liptrot

October 4, 2024

Based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, The Outrun follows the author (played by art house and Oscar darling Saoirse Ronan) as she returns home to the Orkney Islands in Scotland. There, she reestablishes her relationship with her parents, revels in the rugged landscape, and truly faces her alcoholism for the first time.

Disclaimer

By Renée Knight

October 11, 2024

This Apple TV+ adaptation of Renée Knight’s literary thriller stars the great Cate Blanchett and is helmed by Alfonso Caurón (Roma, Gravity, Y tu mamá también). The series will follow Blanchett as lauded documentary filmmaker Catherine, whose glamorous life may come tumbling down thanks to a mysterious book that not only seems to be inspired by a tragic incident in her past, but may be accusing her of something terrible.

Rivals

By Jilly Cooper

October 18, 2024

Jilly Cooper’s infamous 1988 “bonkbuster” (a truly superb ’70s and ’80s term for a blockbuster novel containing a whole lot of sex) has finally come to the small screen in a Hulu adaptation starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Katherine Parkinson. It sounds like exactly what the old money aesthetic needs: a shot of deliciously bad behavior.

Conclave

By Robert Harris

October 25, 2024

Every few years, there’s an Oscar-potential film that can basically be boiled down to “Great Actors in a Room or Rooms Arguing About Something.” Think Women Talking, The Post, Spotlight, etc. The starry adaptation of Robert Harris’ Vatican-set thriller (yes, you read that right) is yet another drama-filled, highly satisfying addition to this Acting with a Capital A-friendly subgenre. To wit: Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who has been tasked with overseeing the election of a new pope, with Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as some of the candidates and Isabella Rossellini as a nun lurking in the wings.

Book jacket image for The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

The Marlow Murder Club

By Robert Thorogood

October 27, 2024

Ever since Richard Osman released The Thursday Murder Club, readers have been inundated with similarly quirky, gentle mysteries starring older sleuths. It should surprise absolutely no one that the British absolutely rose to the occasion (unsurprising given their long history of producing lovable sleuths like Miss Marple, Aunt Dimity and Agatha Raisin), and have produced the greatest challengers to Osman’s throne. Robert Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club series is one of the chief contenders, and a TV adaptation of the books aired this fall as part of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery! slate. Read our review of Death Comes to Marlow, the second book in the series.

Like Water for Chocolate

By Laura Esquivel

November 3, 2024

Having already served as source material for the very successful 1992 film, Laura Esquivel’s magical realist classic about a downtrodden Mexican cook who can infuse her dishes with her own dreams and emotions was adapted to the small screen on Max.

Small Things Like These

By Claire Keegan

November 8, 2024

Apparently not content to rest on the laurels he gained for his towering work in Oppenheimer, actor Cillian Murphy has taken on another role that seems destined for awards and acclaim in Small Things Like These, the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel of the same name. Set in small-town Ireland in the 1980s, just before Christmas, the film follows Bill Furlong (Murphy) as he uncovers the abusive practices of a local convent, forcing him to make a choice between silent conformity and potentially ostracizing dissent. 

Say Nothing

By Patrick Radden Keefe

November 14, 2024

And speaking of Irish drama, Patrick Radden Keefe’s incredible true crime book-cum-history of the “troubles” has been transformed into a scripted miniseries on FX. The interesting choice paid off, with the parallel stories of Dolours Price, an IRA member, and Jean McConville, a woman who disappeared in 1972 after being accused of spying for the British, coming vividly to life.

Book jacket image for Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked

By Gregory Maguire

November 22, 2024

Seemingly in production ever since the original book was published, let alone the generation-defining musical, the Wicked film adaptation finally hit the big screen after years of casting rumors and false starts. Musicals are a tricky prospect for audiences these days: For every La La Land or Les Misérables, there’s a Dear Evan Hansen or, god forbid, a Cats. But Wicked assembled a truly impressive cast (Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey are perfect picks for Elphaba and Fiyero, and Ariana Grande as Glinda defied the naysayers with an inspired comic performance), and Jon M. Chu is one of the only directors in Hollywood who actually understands how to shoot musical numbers. So far, audiences have been utterly enchanted.

Nightbitch

By Rachel Yoder

December 6, 2024

Of the spate of recent novels dealing with motherhood and female rage, Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch is certainly one of the most distinctive: An unnamed narrator, overwhelmed with the demands of her toddler and mourning the loss of her art career, thinks she’s transforming into a dog. Adapting this novel for the big screen is certainly a huge swing, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Marielle Heller, the acclaimed director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and her star, the absurdly talented Amy Adams (who really should have won an Oscar by now).

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel García Márquez

December 11, 2024

And now for an even more challenging adaptation: Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece of magical realism, a multigenerational family saga that spans several decades and is generally considered one of the greatest books ever written. Márquez’s estate has been famously averse to any sort of screen version of the book: The author, rightfully, doubted a film could ever capture all the nuances of his work. It remains to be seen whether Netflix’s upcoming miniseries succeeds on this front, but the show is already notable for being shot on location in Columbia and being entirely in Spanish, which was Márquez’s hope for any adaptation.

The Nickel Boys

By Colson Whitehead

December 13, 2024

It seems risky to adapt Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, mainly due to the brutality of its subject matter (a heinous “reform school” in the Jim Crow South that abused and killed the Black children it was supposedly reforming). But advance reviews for Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ movie version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, are absolutely glowing, hailing documentarian Ross’ unique approach to the story. Filmed entirely from the point of views of two of the boys incarcerated at the school, Nickel Boys looks poised to be one of awards season’s biggest players.

The Return of the King

By J.R.R. Tolkien

December 13, 2024

Among certain circles of nerds, it is common to proclaim that more adaptations—especially those of sci-fi or fantasy classics—should be animated. This winter, we’ll be able to see that maxim put to the test with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime film depicting an epic story found in Tolkien’s appendices at the end of The Return of the King. (If you are not a Tolkien person, this may not seem like enough to base an entire movie on. If you are a Tolkien fan, you know exactly how long those appendices are and presumably already skipped this parenthetical.) The War of the Rohirrim will tell the tale of the magnificently named Helm Hammerhand, a legendary king of Rohan, and his daughter, Hèra, as they defend their people from an invasion.

Mickey7

By Edward Ashton

January 31, 2025

Before it was even published, Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7 was announced as director Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite. The adaptation, Mickey 17, added a digit but otherwise seems to have the same plot: Mickey is an Expendable, a person sent to a dangerous planet who is 3D-printed anew each time he dies. But when a new Mickey returns home to find an old Mickey somehow still breathing, shenanigans ensue.

Jilly Cooper's Rivals and Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing are the latest book-to-screen adaptations you won’t want to miss.
FictionLiterary FictionHistorical FictionFamily SagaFamily DramaDebut Fiction

Many voices, one story

Feature by Julie Hale

Headshot, Rita Bullwinkel’s powerful debut, focuses on eight teenage boxers—all women—who are contending for a title at Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada. Bullwinkel skillfully shifts points of view throughout this dramatic, often funny novel, developing a unique identity and personal history for each fighter, as she recounts their boxing bouts in wonderful detail. Against the backdrop of competitive sports, Bullwinkel probes the aspirations and inspirations of an unforgettable group of young women. Their differing motivations and struggles with self-determination will stimulate lively conversation among readers.

The Family Izquierdo by Rubén Degollado chronicles the lives of members of a close-knit Mexican American clan in McAllen, Texas. The novel follows the family across three generations as they contend with a curse they believe has caused the physical decline of Papa Tavo, the head of the family, and the marriage woes of Gonzalo, the eldest son. Narrated by different members of the Izquierdo clan, the novel examines family ties and traditions as well as life on the Texas-Mexico border. Degollado creates a rich chorus of voices in this moving, compassionate novel.

Intricate and enthralling, Megha Majumdar’s A Burning takes place in Kolkata, India, following a terrorist attack. Jivan, a Muslim woman, is implicated in the attack and jailed. Lovely, a trans actress, could clear Jivan’s name, but is reluctant to speak up. Jivan’s former gym teacher, PT Sir, who has been increasingly drawn toward right-wing politics, is also involved in the case. Each character provides a different take on the events at hand, and the result is a nuanced, multilayered tale. The tough questions it raises about justice make Majumdar’s novel a rewarding choice for book clubs.

In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange continues the mesmerizing family saga that started with his acclaimed novel There There (2018). He resumes the stories of Orvil Red Feather and Opal Viola Bear Shield in modern-day Oakland, California, while also detailing the lives of their forebears, including Jude Star, a survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. Told from the viewpoints of multiple characters, the book weaves together varied voices to create a complex narrative tapestry. Throughout the novel, Orange explores long-standing family conflicts and the enduring legacies of American Indigenous history.

Book clubs will have plenty to debate with these multiperspective and polyvocal novels.
Mystery & SuspenseSuspenseMysteryHistorical Mystery

A Victorian con artist embarks on her greatest scheme yet

Feature by Bruce Tierney

Loose Lips

I have sometimes thought that the most difficult thing for a writer to do well is to write a novel from the first-person perspective of a person with a different gender. A year ago, I reviewed Kemper Donovan’s The Busy Body, the first in his series about an anonymous female ghostwriter, narrated from her perspective. There was not a single clue suggesting that a male had penned the novel; it was that seamless. (Thankfully, I happened to read his bio before submitting the review, saving myself the embarrassment of erroneous assumptions.) That holds true as well for the second installment in the series, Loose Lips, in which our protagonist accepts a gig as a guest lecturer on a literary cruise. It is a quintessential setup for a locked-room mystery, as there is no escape route for the guilty party, save for a lengthy North Atlantic winter’s swim back to New York City. Moreover, while the admittedly amateur investigation into the murder of author and cruise organizer Payton Garrett proceeds, more bodies will join the first in the ship’s galley freezer, adjacent to the celebrity chef’s signature lobster thermidor. The murder weapon is straight out of Agatha Christie or perhaps the board game Clue, and the tone is tongue-in-cheek a la Knives Out—an observation I made in my review last year, and one that still holds true this time around.  

Dead in the Frame

Stephen Spotswood’s noir detective series starring Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean “Will” Parker hearkens back to Rex Stout’s iconic Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin series. A cerebral crime-solver ensconced in her New York City mansion, Lillian mirrors Wolfe. Will serves as her Archie Goodwin: irreverent chronicler of the stories, perpetrator of assorted quasi-illegal deeds in furtherance of the investigations and smart-alecky nemesis of New York’s Finest. The latest, Dead in the Frame, features a second narrator for the first time in the series, which up to now was related by Will. Lillian is keeping a journal in her jail cell, where she awaits trial for the murder of longtime foe Jessup Quincannon. Meanwhile, Will madly scrambles through 1947 New York City to unravel a seemingly airtight case against her friend/employer. Rounding out the cast are an up-and-coming evangelist whose wife is perhaps more mercenary than missionary, a lethal female security consultant and a corrupt cop who dangles the key to Lillian’s exoneration, albeit at a price. Lillian’s multiple sclerosis makes her stay in prison even more difficult, and the tone of her journal is somber and introspective; Will’s voice, by comparison, is sassy and no-nonsense, although punctuated with rueful humor throughout. Without giving away anything here, the murderer is just about the last person you would expect. Well, perhaps not as far back in the queue as Lillian Pentecost, but pretty darn close.

The Queen of Fives

Alex Hay’s The Queen of Fives derives its title from an age-old, five-step primer on setting up a con, briefly summarized thusly: 1) Identify the mark; 2) Intrude on the daily life of the mark; 3) Tempt the mark with an offer too good to be true; 4) Encircle the mark with new friends and gently sever ties with old friends; 5) Cement the payoff and make the getaway. Bonus points if you can pull off the entire scam in five days, which is precisely what seductive Quinn le Blanc, the titular Queen of Fives, intends to accomplish. Her target is a midlevel royal, the Duke of Kendal. The year is 1898; the setting, Victorian-era London. The basic plan is disarmingly simple: Lure one of England’s most eligible bachelors into marriage, then abscond with the family fortune. It will be the most ambitious score Quinn has ever embarked upon. If she can pull it off. And that is a big if. It can be argued that desperation is never a good companion when plotting out a con, and there certainly is an element of desperation at play here. Deep in debt, Quinn really needs a big score. It’s a recipe for things going awry, at the worst times, in the worst possible manners (and manors). P.S. Of all the books this month, The Queen of Fives is the one that just screams to be adapted into a TV series, one sure to appeal to period drama fans, particularly those who might enjoy a spot of larceny with their afternoon tea.

Open Season

Forensic psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis return for their 40th (!!!) adventure together in Jonathan Kellerman’s latest mystery, Open Season. The murder victim is a wannabe actor, funding the waiting period until her big break by serving as one of a bevy of glamorous attendees at various Tinseltown events. Her suspected killer is also a wannabe actor and occasional stuntman. But by the time suspicion falls on him, he has become a murder victim himself. They will not be the last victims, and as it will turn out, they are not the first either: Bullets from the rifle used to kill the stuntman match an earlier killing halfway across the country. What started out as a comparatively routine homicide investigation may be turning into a search for a serial killer, one who has stayed under the radar for years and who shows no signs of stopping any time soon. And then, as has happened often in the past, Dr. Delaware displays his gift for discerning patterns that nobody else has identified yet. Open Season is fast-paced, suspense-laden and boasts a true surprise ending, even for those who thought they had it figured out sooner. Like me.

Plus, the latest cases of crime-solving duos Parker & Pentecost and Delaware & Sturgis in this month’s whodunit column.
RomanceChildren's & YAYA FictionYAHistorical Romance

Our favorite romance tropes—and the books that best exemplify them

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Seize the Fire

An idealistic young woman puts her trust in a cynical rake. You probably think you know where a story with this opening might go. But Seize the Fire, the 1989 historical romance from the incomparable Laura Kinsale, is a unique and memorable twist on the trope. Sheltered and somewhat silly Princess Olympia St. Leger hires British naval hero Sheridan Drake to help her reclaim the throne of her home country. But Sheridan, a smooth-talking charmer, knows firsthand how concepts like liberty can be warped into violence for political gain. He’d be annoyed by Olympia’s lofty principles and permanently rose-colored glasses—if they didn’t make it so easy for him to take advantage of her. Yet Kinsale doesn’t set one of her leads above the other, instead taking a more realistic tack of highlighting the pitfalls of both viewpoints and setting up two very flawed characters. Olympia’s naivete is as dangerous, if not more, than Sheridan’s cynicism, and as necessary to change. As they wend their way through an absolutely unpredictable sequence of dramatic adventures—including pirates, a sultan’s harem, a shipwreck and a revolution—these total opposites are hewn into shapes that can only fit with each other.

—Trisha Ping, Publisher

Illuminae

Illuminae by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the first installment of the Illuminae Files trilogy, is a recounting of an intergalactic invasion on the planet Kerenza in 2575 through a series of files including news reports and video footage analysis. Kady Grant and Ezra Mason break up just hours before the invasion. In the ensuing chaos, they both end up on different refugee ships attempting to outrun the invaders. The remainder of this sci-fi second-chance romance follows tech genius Kady aboard Hypatia and Ezra on the Alexander dealing with its mostly uncooperative AI system, AIDAN (Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network). Amid coordinating a cross-galaxy journey for the three refugee ships, battling a plague and a rogue AIDAN, Kady and Ezra realize how miniscule the issues in their relationship were compared to the fight for survival—and that they are the only person the other can count on. The audiobook version is immaculate due to its full cast and sound effects, making the story utterly immersive. 

—Jena Groshek, Sales Coordinator

Any Old Diamonds

Morally grey hero this, morally grey hero that. Get you a guy that more than one character describes as “Mephistophelean.” KJ Charles loves an “upstanding gentleman meets an absolute reprobate”-type pairing, but Jerry Crozier of Any Old Diamonds is the king of reprobates—the reprobate all the other reprobates cross the street to avoid. A proudly amoral, single-minded jewel thief, Jerry arrives like an absolute wrecking ball into Alec Pyne’s life when the latter hires him to steal a set of diamonds from his father, a powerful duke. Charles has always been interested in how morality functions within immoral systems, and this theme finds its most extreme (and entertaining) expression in Jerry. Because he lives in 1895 Britain, Jerry’s talents for blackmail, theft, fraud and general intimidation are able to find a truly righteous outlet—robbing cruel, selfish aristocrats blind. His world is characterized by extreme wealth inequality and infuriating hypocrisy, which means that plenty of people deserve Jerry Crozier to “happen to them,” as he puts it. Actually, upon further reflection, I think Jerry would get along just fine in 2024.

—Savanna Walker, Managing Editor

Whitney, My Love

Tropes are the best part of the romance genre: You know what to expect, but skilled authors like Judith McNaught still find ways to reinvent them and make them exciting. Whitney, My Love, my favorite romance novel of all time, does just that, with McNaught employing a bevy of tropes at once: Fake relationship, check. Forced proximity, check. Arranged marriage, check. Hidden identity, check. This book’s many twists and turns make it a delightful read. Whitney Stone was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Paris after being deemed an unruly child. When she returns home to Regency-era England after a triumphant launch in Paris society, she unknowingly catches the eye of the arrogant and mysterious Duke of Claymore, Clayton. Hoping to impress her father and finally be deemed good enough to marry her childhood love, Whitney tries to be the picture of a demure, refined woman. Clayton, her handsome but bothersome neighbor, pledges to help her appeal to her childhood love, but Whitney soon discovers that not only has her father promised her in marriage to Clayton, but he’s also a duke. McNaught cleverly twists together beloved romance tropes to create a complex story around intriguing characters that is impossible to put down. The best part is that finding passion and love isn’t the end of Whitney and Clayton’s story: There is so much more to discover about these two in this 577-page tome.

—Meagan Vanderhill, Brand & Production Designer

Because as we all know, execution is everything.
RomanceRomantic SuspenseParanormal RomanceContemporary Romance

The 5 best romance novels to read this Valentine’s Day

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ Yin Yang Love Song

Lauren Kung Jessen offers a thoughtful and unique contemporary romance with Yin Yang Love Song. Set on Washington’s Whidbey Island, the book centers on Chrysanthemum Hua Williams, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and a self-proclaimed “heartbreak herbalist.” After meeting Vin and Leo Chao, a pair of famous rock cellists, Chryssy invites them to her family’s healing retreat to help Leo overcome a bad break-up. Cue rabid fans of the Chao Brothers assuming Vin and Chryssy are in a relationship, which the pair not-so-reluctantly embraces in order to promote their individual work. Faux quickly feels real, even though neither believes themself capable of lasting love—but it’s clear that Vin and Chryssy are romantics at heart. Chryssy’s large family (many of whom believe they are cursed to never find love) and fascinating glimpses of TCM fill out this story, which begs to be read with a cup of relaxing herbal tea. Jessen’s evocative descriptions of flowers, acupuncture and music weave their way through the narrative, adding even more to enjoy.

The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall

Romance struggles to overcome horror in J. Ann Thomas’ creepy, shiver-inducing The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall. Elegy Thorne has resigned herself to the dictates of her father: wearing historical clothing, agreeing to an arranged engagement and being bound to her ancestral home and its 14 resident ghosts. That is, until handsome Atticus Hart arrives to work on some much-needed repairs. Their immediate spark of attraction makes Elegy wonder what could be . . . but her daily encounters with the sometimes-genial and sometimes-malevolent spirits remind her why she must stay at Thorne Hall to keep them under control. Atticus soon learns the truth of her predicament, and with him and other friends at hand, Elegy decides to break the chains of old promises, even though it puts her life and the lives of those she loves at risk. Unforeseen secrets and gruesome spookiness abound.

Strike and Burn

The compelling opening scene of Taylor Hutton’s Strike and Burn is the opposite of a meet-cute: Standing beside the corpse of her dead sister in the local morgue, Honor Stone encounters undeniably sexy Strike Madden. They spar, they quip, they kiss. Purely due to the highly emotional situation, Honor tells herself afterward. But when Strike finds her at her boutique, the part-time artist can’t dismiss him, even as palpable threats hover over the burgeoning relationship. Strike is rich but mysterious, emotionally available yet secretive. Then there’s the terrifying presence of her sister’s former boyfriend—likely her murderer—who now wants Honor for his own. Hutton’s burning-hot sex scenes torch the pages, and the hallmark of the best dark romances emerges from the smoke: morally ambiguous characters whom readers will root for despite their deep flaws and violent tendencies. Strike and Burn is a can’t-look-away read.

Out of the Woods

In Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young, Sarah and Caleb Linwood seek to rejuvenate their marriage at a couples wilderness retreat. Told in Sarah’s first-person point of view, with flashbacks to give context to the present, this romance delves into a 17-year relationship that hasn’t grown as the characters—who married as teens—matured. The camping and hiking is a frame for the exploration of the marriage, and also adds humor for the outdoor-averse pair. Bonam-Young writes with an upbeat and irreverent contemporary voice that keeps the pace moving and the sex scenes sizzling as the two persevere to find new happiness. Grief and loss are at the center of this romance, which will surely touch readers’ hearts (as will glimpses of the Happily Ever After of characters from Bonam-Young’s previous novel, Out on a Limb).

Zoe Brennan, First Crush

A small, family-owned winery in Georgia is the stage for Zoe Brennan, First Crush by Laura Piper Lee. Lonely and stressed, the titular character and narrator participates in a blindfolded but otherwise little-left-to-the-imagination threesome with two other women. The unexpected and explosive passion turns to near-panic when Zoe discovers she’s just had an incredibly hot hookup with her ex-BFF’s big sister and her own teenage crush, Laine Woods. The awkwardness only escalates when she finds out that Laine has been hired as the vintner at Zoe’s floundering vineyard. Cue scenes of struggling to keep things professional, of longing looks and lustful thoughts interspersed with glimpses of the grape-growing and wine-making process. Zoe’s romantic history is dismal and she’s protected her heart since the loss of her mother, but Laine could maybe change all that. A big event that will mean success or failure for the winery, as well as for Laine’s reputation, ups the stakes as these two fall in bed and then in love. There’s a Tolkienesque wedding and a cast of raucous friends to add hijinks to this lovely—and libidinous—romance.

Happily Ever After is always possible, whether you’re spending time in nature or facing down 14 ghosts.
NonfictionSelf-HelpFamily & Relationships

4 self-help books to tackle the timeless topic of romance with your book club

Feature by Julie Hale

Emily Nagoski’s frank, thoughtful Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections shows couples how to develop and nurture a sense of intimacy for the long term. A firm believer that sexual chemistry doesn’t have to wane as the years go by, Nagoski shares easy ways to initiate talks about sex and tips for deciphering a partner’s emotions and moods. She also presents pointers for shutting out self-doubt, anxiety and tension. Backed by research and filled with Nagoski’s expert insights, Come Together is an essential title for committed couples.

All too often, a romantic partnership can breed codependency and doubt. Readers faced with this dispiriting scenario will welcome Jessica Baum’s Anxiously Attached: Becoming More Secure in Life and Love. In this wise, compassionate book, Baum provides the tools for building strong, fulfilling connections, minus the anxiety. Drawing on her background as a couples therapist, she uses what she calls the Self-Full Method to help individuals form a healthy sense of identity and create interdependence within a relationship. Relatable talking points like self-esteem, communication and trust make this a terrific book club pick.

Logan Ury’s How Not to Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love is required reading for anyone who’s met too many dead ends on the road to romance. Ury spotlights the key decisions that can make or break a relationship and offers invaluable advice on how to identify the traits that are important in a partner. A behavioral scientist and experienced dating coach, she weaves in solid research, engaging anecdotes and constructive exercises. This congenial guide will inspire singletons to pursue lasting connection with a renewed sense of purpose.

In The Love Prescription: Seven Days to More Intimacy, Connection, and Joy, John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman present an easy-to-follow plan for couples who are looking to deepen and enrich their partnerships. Noted relationship experts, Gottman and Gottman draw upon their extensive research on the subjects of love and marriage in this companionable volume. With an emphasis on communication and openness, their blueprint for renewed intimacy includes concrete steps (designate a date night; demonstrate affection) designed to bring couples closer together in a week’s time. Themes of honesty and vulnerability will kick-start meaningful book club conversations.

Whether you’re dating, in the throes of passion or in it for the long haul, these fresh takes on love and sex are sure to enlighten.
Science Fiction & FantasyFictionSpeculative FictionShort StoriesLiterary FictionHistorical FantasyFantasy

Start the year with stories for your book club

Feature by Julie Hale

In Old Crimes and Other Stories, Jill McCorkle’s characters face moments of reckoning and work to make sense of the past. A father has trouble connecting with his daughter and adjusting to the digital era in “The Lineman.” In “Confessional,” a husband and wife buy an antique confessional for their house—a purchase that leads to surprising discoveries. “Commandments” features a trio of women dumped by the same man who meet to share stories about him. Wistful and wise, McCorkle’s fifth collection is the work of a writer at the top of her game.

Louise Kennedy explores the lives of contemporary Irish women in her bleakly beautiful collection, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac. Kennedy’s protagonists—rendered with authenticity and compassion—contend with fraught or dangerous relationships, motherhood issues and economic woes. Sarah, the main character of the title story, pays an ugly price for her husband’s poor business decisions, while the main character in “In Silhouette” is tormented by her brother’s participation in IRA activity. Kennedy’s moving stories offer numerous discussion topics for book clubs, including female fulfillment and the human need for connection.

Salt Slow finds Julia Armfield leaning in to science fiction and the supernatural in stories that examine urban life and women’s experiences. “Mantis” focuses on the turmoil of adolescence, as a young girl’s body mutates in startling fashion. In “Formerly Feral,” two stepsisters form an extraordinary bond with a wolf. Whether she’s writing about giant bugs or a zombie ex-girlfriend, Armfield is clearly at home with the odd and the uncanny, and the end result is a captivating group of stories. Themes of sexuality, spirituality and loss will get book clubs talking.

GennaRose Nethercott’s Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories is sure to delight—and disquiet—readers. Ominous, imaginative and intriguing, Nethercott’s stories probe the tension between the wild and the tame as they exist in our daily lives. In “Homebody,” a young woman undergoes a strange physical transformation after moving into a new house with her partner. “Sundown at the Eternal Staircase” chronicles the goings-on at an eerie tourist attraction. Thanks to Nethercott’s remarkable narrative skills, the impossible becomes plausible. Inspired by folklore and fairy tales, she reinvigorates the short story form.

Round up your reading group and ring in 2025 with one of these fabulous short story collections.
Mystery & SuspenseThrillerMystery

Our mystery columnist has a new favorite Nordic noir—and it’s written by an American

Feature by Bruce Tierney

The Big Empty

Classic detective novels don’t need to be set in Los Angeles. The protagonist does not have to drive a vintage Corvette convertible, and they don’t necessarily require a loyal and lethal sidekick. It is not imperative that the narrative be spun in the first person. That said, it is a formula that has worked for the better part of 40 years for author Robert Crais, demonstrated ably in his latest installment in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, The Big Empty. When the antique Mickey Mouse phone rings on the desk of private investigator Elvis (self-described as “the world’s greatest detective”), he picks up and finds himself in a conversation with the somewhat harried assistant of Traci Beller, a hugely popular social media influencer. Traci is too busy to meet Cole at his office, but if he comes to her, she will give him $1,000 whether he accepts the case or not. It turns out that she wants to hire him to find out what happened to her father, who disappeared 10 years ago: “He called my mom after lunch, told her he was running late, and we never heard from him again. So it was like, poof, he vanished.” Cases don’t get much colder, but Cole agrees to look into it, cautioning Traci not to expect miracles. But before long, Cole can use a miracle or two of his own, as he is savagely beaten by a gang of criminals intent on derailing his investigation at any cost. Oh, and the big finish? It was such a shock and surprise that I went back and read it again.

The Note

Alafair Burke’s latest, The Note, follows three women: May, Lauren and Kelsey, who have been lifelong friends since attending the same summer camp ages ago. They decide to do a girls trip together, a few relaxing days in an Airbnb in the Hamptons. They need it—they have been embroiled in three separate and very public scandals, and they think a seaside vacation will be both fun and cathartic. They are so wrong. As they arrive at a local lunch spot, they discover that parking is at a premium. They patiently await a person exiting a space, only to have it snagged by a driver coming from the other direction. They are annoyed to the point where one of them leaves a note on the car’s windshield that says, “He’s cheating. He always does.” It certainly seems as if it might sow a bit of disharmony between the male driver and his attractive female passenger, some minor naughty payback for the stolen parking spot. It is all fun and games, as they say, until someone turns up dead: in this case, the driver. When the police discover the existence of the note, bit by bit the investigation leads them toward the three women. As their mutual trust begins to break down, alliances shift and reshift. One character is a murderer. Good luck figuring out which one.

Invisible Helix

Keigo Higashino’s beloved character Professor Galileo (aka Manabu Yukawa) returns in Invisible Helix, the latest from Japan’s preeminent suspense author. This book relies less on Yukawa’s detecting skills than some of the previous installments in the series, but is nonetheless a compelling read loaded with Japanese scenery and culture, with a storyline chock-full of secrets past and present. It starts with a baby being left on the doorstep of an orphanage by a young mother devoid of options. By means of a very twisty path, it winds forward two generations to the present, in which people are still shaped by, and acting on, events that happened in their parents’ and grandparents’ day. Professor Galileo gets involved after a murder takes place—no surprise there—and his longtime friend Chief Inspector Kusanagi summons him to assist. Invisible Helix is a very different book than I expected given its predecessors in the series, but I quite liked it all the same. (A brief aside: I lived in Tokyo when the first Professor Galileo book, The Devotion of Suspect X, was released in English. Oddly, as I was reading, I found myself predicting what would happen next at every turn. Some time later, I realized that I had actually seen the Japanese movie based on the book, well before the book’s translation into English.)

★ The Lost House

It’s no secret among BookPage mystery and suspense readers that I am a devotee of Nordic noir, as I often wax poetic about the subgenre. But who would have thought that a superb Nordic noir novel would emanate from the pen (or more likely, keyboard) of an American writer? Melissa Larsen’s The Lost House is that book. On the 40th anniversary of a double murder that rocked Iceland, Agnes, the American granddaughter of the presumed—but not convicted—killer, goes to the small town of Bifröst to participate in a podcast about the homicide. She has always believed her grandfather to be innocent, but she is in the distinct minority. Now, after her grandfather’s slow decline and death, Agnes has decided to visit her ancestral homeland for the first time in an attempt to get some closure. Then, as if in response to the grim anniversary, a local girl goes missing in the harsh Icelandic wilderness. Suspicions of foul play abound, and the buzz around the town is that it is at least peripherally connected to the 40-year-old cold case. The characters are all conflicted and vividly drawn, the milieu is pitch-perfect and the resolution is by turns heartbreaking and strangely uplifting. The Lost House is the first must-read thriller of 2025.

Melissa Larsen’s debut thriller is a chilly masterpiece, plus new cases for Elvis Cole and Professor Galileo in this month’s Whodunit.
RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

A 49-year-old Regency widow gets a second chance with her first love

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ Remember When

Mary Balogh offers a Regency-era, quietly enchanting story of second-chance love in Remember When. Nearing her 50th birthday, widow Clarissa Ware, the Dowager Countess of Stratton, returns to her family’s country estate alone, intent on contemplating the next phase of her life. With her children launched into society, she is seeking new meaning and begins by rekindling a friendship with Matthew Taylor, the village carpenter she loved when she was 17. No great drama ensues, but Balogh is a master at drawing readers in without it; the engrossing story unfolds through depth of emotion and long passages of introspection. Clarissa and Matthew are seasoned people with failings and successes behind them, yet they realize there is more ahead—a breadth of love that is a pleasure to discover through their eyes.

Into the Woods

A stay at a summer camp gives a dance teacher and a rock star a new start in Jenny Holiday’s Into the Woods. After years of bad dates and approaching 40, dance teacher Gretchen Miller decides to embrace her impending crone status by giving up men and focusing on her dance studio. But while filling in as a mentor at a camp for artistic teens, she meets rocker Teddy Knight, a lauded songwriter whose band recently broke up. Sparks fly, so maybe Teddy can be her last—blazing—sexual hurrah? Teddy is all for it, since he’s flailing professionally and new songs aren’t yet coming. These two bicker at first and banter throughout, yet in the end are understanding and kind to each other, just what they both needed all along. A story of two modern, authentic and endearing characters at a crossroads, Into the Woods is funny, emotional and even a bit inspirational as Gretchen and Teddy grapple with issues both personal and social.

Stuck in the Country With You

Zuri Day takes readers on an entertaining, emotional roller-coaster ride in Stuck in the Country With You. Genesis Washington is surprised when she inherits her great-uncle’s Tennessee farm, but surprise turns to chagrin when she learns her next-door neighbor is her one-time hookup, former pro football player Jaxson King. Though their night together stirred up trouble in her family that Genesis doesn’t want to repeat, she can’t avoid the sexy Jaxson, who steps in to help her again and again. Despite the fire between them, which singes the sheets in love scenes hotter than Jaxson’s chili, trust between the pair is hard-won. However, both find time for self-reflection on the way to their Happily Ever After, and Day shows how they grow as individuals before they completely commit as a couple. Stalwart friends and neighbors round out a cast of likable characters that adds to the satisfying fun.

Mary Balogh’s latest is utterly enchanting, plus new releases from Jenny Holiday and Zuri Day in this month’s romance column.
Science Fiction & FantasyNonfictionFictionLiterary FictionHorrorHistoryEssays

Want a short, sharp blast of literary excellence? Try one of these 4 novellas

Feature by the editors of BookPage

The Turn of the Screw

For every reader, there are things that will make them politely but firmly close a book and never open it again. For me, it’s always been what I deem perverse ambiguity. “Who’s to say what really happened! People are unknowable!” a book will proclaim, and I will grip it by its metaphorical lapels and demand to speak to its author. However, for some books, the ambiguity is the point, and there is no better example of this than Henry James’ eerie novella, The Turn of the Screw. The tale of a governess in Victorian England who becomes convinced that the children she cares for are being haunted by the spirit of her predecessor, The Turn of the Screw is horrifying because of its inscrutability. It could be a traditional ghost story, but tilt it just a few degrees, and it’s a tale of a woman trying so hard to suppress her sexuality that it becomes a paranoid obsession. Is her quest to protect the children a noble one, or does something heinous lurk within her need to safeguard their “purity”? A novel might not have been able to sustain such ill-defined anxiety, but as a novella, it’s an undiluted sliver of dread. 

—Savanna Walker, Managing Editor

Foster

In rural Ireland sometime in the past, a shy observant child has left home for the first time. Her long-suffering mother will soon have another child, so the girl will be looked after by the Kinsellas, a kind couple from her mother’s side of the family who own a small dairy farm. Though we don’t learn the girl’s name or specific details of her life at her home, it’s clear within two pages that her family is very poor, and her father is a layabout who would happily see her left on the side of a road, as long as another man didn’t put him to shame by helping her. And because the girl is telling the story, we know that she knows all this too. In the Kinsellas’ house, the missus tells her, there are no secrets and no shame, and the days the girl spends with the couple are filled with order and delight, as well as a mounting understanding that the Kinsellas are not entirely happy. Foster is filled with moments of ease, heartbreak and joy. Despite author Claire Keegan’s bucolic setting, the story never pretends that life is easy. Keegan’s writing is spare but never austere, and the hour spent in Foster’s quiet world will change you.

—Erica Ciccarone, Associate Editor

A Small Place

OK, this isn’t a novella. But if you’re looking for powerful literature that you can read the whole of in a single dedicated burst, this 80-page essay by the great novelist Jamaica Kincaid fits the bill perfectly. Kincaid grew up on Antigua, an island in the Caribbean that was colonized by the British in the 1600s and became the independent country Antigua and Barbuda in 1981. In A Small Place, written just seven years after independence, Kincaid addresses the North American and European tourists who vacation on the 9-by-12-mile island, picking apart a tourist’s mentality to reveal its willful ignorance, and drawing connections between centuries of slavery under British colonialism and the corruption of Antigua and Barbuda’s government. There’s so much here—careful tracing of how history becomes cultural narrative, evocative descriptions of the island’s “unreal” beauty, anecdotes about Kincaid’s love of her childhood library. Everyone living in our so-called “post” colonial world, especially anyone who’s ever been a tourist, should read A Small Place.

—Phoebe Farrell-Sherman, Associate Editor

Train Dreams

Inside the worlds of Denis Johnson’s fiction, the mundane evokes great sadness, terror or joy. Simple acts are magnified in subtle yet staggering ways. Along with his straightforward, limpid prose, this aspect of his writing makes the National Book Award-winner (Tree of Smoke) exceptionally suited for the novella format, as proven by Train Dreams, which tells the story of Robert Grainier, an itinerant laborer in the American West during the turn of the 20th century. Johnson gracefully doles out disjointed portions of Grainier’s life as it unfolds in an era suffused with ordinary tragedy. All around Grainier, people die from dangers both natural and human-made. But just as a ravaged forest returns after a massive fire, “green against the dark of the burn,” so does the humanity that stubbornly persists in this rapidly changing landscape. Despite—or as a result of—its short length, Train Dreams showcases Johnson’s impressive capacity for creating memorable characters, whether it’s a dying vagrant, or a man shot by his own dog. It’s truly a wonder that a book can fit so much engrossing vibrancy within so few pages.  

—Yi Jiang, Associate Editor

Our favorite quick reads pack an enormous punch in a slim package.
Nonfiction

The best books to gift in 2024

Feature by the editors of BookPage

FOR POP-CULTURE AFICIONADOS

5 books to get the biggest movie & TV fans in your life

These books are just the thing for screen buffs who want to revel in their favorite stories and auteurs, with deeply knowledgeable experts as their enthusiastic guides.

Read More

 

 

FOR ART LOVERS

4 gift-worthy art books bound to inspire

Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.

FOR THE LITERARY CROWD

5 gifts that will shoot to the top of any reader’s TBR

Got a serious bibliophile on your list? Tick that box with one of these titles.

 

 

FOR FANS OF WILD THINGS

4 gift books for nature lovers

Looking for a holiday gift for a birder, tree-hugger or civilian scientist? We’ve got just the thing.

Read More

 

 

FOR MUSIC LOVERS

A trio of tuneful gifts

Three loving tributes to the history of the makers and the shakers, the undersung and the unseen.

Read More

FOR INSPIRATION-SEEKERS

4 modern takes on the eternal quest for self-improvement

Humans have been trying to improve themselves since they discovered they had selves that needed improving. As the search for spiritual, mental and physical health continues ever on, four new books are here to help.


FOR GARDENERS

4 gardening books for plant enthusiasts in your life

These titles make perfect gifts to help anyone get ready for the planting season.

Read More

 

 

 

FOR ANY HOST WITH THE MOST

4 books to help you ace your next (or first!) dinner party

Whether you’re an accomplished or aspiring dinner party host, these books brim with ideas that will add sizzle to your soirees.

Read More

 

Welcome to our list of books to give as gifts this holiday season! Divided by subject, discover our suggestions for music lovers, gardeners, art aficionados, literature mavens, hosts with the most and many more.
NonfictionPop CultureLGBTQ+Film

5 books to get the biggest movie & TV fans in your life

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

★ Believe         

Fans of beloved hit television series Ted Lasso will delightedly embrace Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts.

Part oral history, part cultural analysis, Believe is an entertaining and insightful behind-the-scenes tour in which New York Times television editor Jeremy Egner offers a wealth of interviews with key players as he reflects on Ted Lasso’s origins as a 2013 commercial; standout influences and episodes (e.g., the divisively trippy “Beard After Hours”); and its rocket-like ascension to national-treasure status.

Like Ted Lasso, Believe brims with enthusiasm, sports-talk and fun. As Egner writes, “It’s a story, appropriately enough, of teamwork, of hidden talent, of a group of friends looking around at the world’s increasingly nasty discourse and deciding that, as corny as it sounds, maybe simple decency and a few laughs still had the power to bring people together.” Believe is a winning read about a stellar show.   

★ Steven Spielberg     

Steven Spielberg: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work is an upbeat, photo-packed tribute to the famous filmmaker, written with wit and warmth by British film critic Ian Nathan.

Nathan believes Spielberg is “the medium’s defining artist. Indeed, the embodiment of the Hollywood ideal: the commercial potential of film married to its creative possibilities. Art and commerce.” He proves his point as he traces the filmmaker’s development as director, producer and writer over his 50-plus year career, from his earliest films (1971’s Duel, his first feature-length film) to his most personal work to date, 2022’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. 

Analysis of the auteur’s favorite collaborators and common themes offers illuminating context, and reveals a bounty of nitty-gritty details about Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hook, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Lincoln and more. Photos and movie posters amp up the fun, and even Nathan’s captions offer fresh insight. Steven Spielberg will absolutely intrigue and enchant fans of “the man with the universal touch.”

Box Office Poison       

There’s always high drama on movie sets, thanks to the studio politics, budget-busting sets and creative intensity that swirls around them. Sometimes a hit is born, but other times, as film critic Tim Robey writes in Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops, one must wonder, “What the hell were they thinking?”

Robey spotlights 26 cinematic “weirdos, outcasts, misfits, [and] freaks” via well-informed, gleefully snarky takes on what went wrong and what we might learn from flops. Intolerance (1916) exemplifies the “giant folly of trying to be a one-man film studio”; Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) was waterlogged; and Cats (2019) suffered from “the buttholes” and endless production problems.

Robey notes that many flops become cult classics or are eventually recognized as misunderstood, and due to streaming, it’s become difficult to quantify losses and thereby designate a new ultimate bomb. But on the upside, our cord-cutting world has also made it easier than ever for cinephiles riding high on the spirited Box Office Poison to experience the movies Robey deems “turkeys.” 

★ Hollywood Pride

In his wonderfully wide-ranging encyclopedia of 130 years of movie history, Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film, film critic Alonso Duralde “hope[s] to pay tribute to artists whose contributions on both sides of the camera have been essential to cinema history while also spotlighting films that have told queer stories and/or had special resonance with queer audiences.” 

Mission accomplished: This chronological compendium examines filmic LGBTQ+ representation in key eras like the years after World War II, when “gay men were among the biggest stars in Hollywood, even if almost no one outside the industry knew it”; and the “opening of the floodgates” after 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. There are vivid photos and sidebars galore, and lists of notable films and artists, too. 

Hollywood Pride is a well-written, visually appealing cultural history: a book to learn from, gaze at and celebrate that “as long as there is a cinema . . . we will continue to exist and to thrive and to create.”

The Worlds of George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin fans—especially those who wish they lived in Westeros—will clamor for Tom Huddleston’s The Worlds of George R.R. Martin: The Inspirations Behind Game of Thrones, which illuminates the creative process of the much-loved author of the Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.

Huddleston ponders “What sources—historical, literary and personal—did [Martin] draw upon in the writing, and what inspiration did they give him?” He notes that Martin’s writing has a “sprawling, breathtaking sense of scale” that draws readers in, and certainly echoes that scope and intensity here as he delves into the creation of the hugely popular series, considers how it was translated into TV shows Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and assesses its place in pop culture.

Fans who want to spend even more time in Martin’s medieval-esque world will treasure The Worlds of George R.R. Martin: It’s a well-researched, engagingly written and visually immersive experience.

These books are just the thing for screen buffs who want to revel in their favorite stories and auteurs, with deeply knowledgeable experts as their enthusiastic guides.
Mystery & SuspenseThrillerSuspenseMystery

An 81-year-old woman versus a little boy: It sounds wholesome, but just wait till the bodies start to pile up

Feature by Bruce Tierney

You Better Watch Out

In the checkout line of an upstate New York convenience store, opportunistic small-time thief Eddie Parker spots a purse overflowing with cash. As the elderly owner finishes her transaction, Eddie maneuvers himself into position to relieve her of her stash. It does not go according to plan; within arm’s reach of his prize, Eddie feels a sharp scratch on his neck and, moments later, his world goes black. He wakes up in a small deserted town that looks like a movie set: buildings with false fronts, shops filled with empty containers, no food or water in sight and Christmastime temperatures dropping below freezing. The title of this thriller by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth is almost prophetic: You Better Watch Out. Eddie soon discovers that a handful of other folks have met a similar fate. And although they don’t entirely trust one another, they know that their lives depend on getting out of this place, and the best means to that end is teamwork. But, in true Agatha Christie fashion, one by one they meet their untimely demise, and most graphically. Here is the funny part, though (to me, at least): Fairly early in the book, I thought I had figured out who the villain was. Turns out, I was right—but I had no inkling whatsoever of the diabolical twist that would reveal itself in the final pages. 

Havoc

In Christopher Bollen’s Havoc, octogenarian and self-confessed do-gooder Maggie Burkhardt narrates a tale of obsession, deceit and worse at a riverside hotel in Luxor, Egypt, during the height of COVID-19 restrictions. Following the death of her husband, Maggie is far afield from her Wisconsin homeland. Egypt was not her first choice for her retirement, but it is one of the few places welcoming tourists, and she has grown acclimated to the heat and the easy pace of life in the Royal Karnak, a hotel that exemplifies the term “faded glory.” Over time, she has become something of a fixture there, reveling in her role as “doyenne of all she surveys.” And then Otto shows up with his mother, and quickly establishes himself as Chief Nemesis to Maggie and all she holds dear. His childish pranks escalate to blackmail after he surprises Maggie doing something she clearly should not have been doing, and his demands seem to have no end in sight. That said, Maggie is rather duplicitous herself, both in her interactions with other characters and with the reader, as she tries to play the virtuous victim. The narrative is by turns creepy, snarky, humorous and every bit as atmospheric as you would expect from a story set somewhere like the Valley of the Kings. Oh, and there are a couple of murders: nothing too graphic, but quite definitely an affectionate nod to the sweeping, international mysteries of the 1940s.  

Robert B. Parker’s Hot Property

After a popular series writer passes away, they often leave legions of fans clamoring for more adventures of their fictional heroes. Ian Fleming’s James Bond and Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander jump to mind. Other writers often take up the challenge, albeit with decidedly mixed results. But when Mike Lupica took over Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, it was a seamless transition. It’s as if he channels Parker from beyond the grave: setting, prose, dialogue—the works. In the latest installment, Robert B. Parker’s Hot Property, an attempted murder hits close to home. Ace criminal defense attorney Rita Fiore has been shot and is clinging to life but tenuously. She had been romantically involved with a young up-and-coming politician until his recent accidental (?) death, and now it appears that he may have been involved in some property shenanigans with mob overtones. For Spenser, Rita Fiore is family, as surely as if they had been related by blood, and he will leave no stone unturned in bringing her assailant to justice. Speaking of stones, another Parker protagonist, Police Chief Jesse Stone, makes a cameo appearance, and the two play off each other exceptionally well. Hot Property is a must for longtime Spenser fans and a terrific entry point for newcomers as well.

The Collaborators

If you are in the mood for a high-stakes global espionage novel, with secret agents jet-setting all over the world, you have come to the right place. Michael Idov’s The Collaborators doesn’t waste any time setting up locations or easing into the narrative. In the first sentence, a Russian MiG-29 fighter jet pulls up alongside an Antalya Airlines commercial flight from Istanbul to Riga, Latvia. They are in Belarusian airspace, and the MiG pilot clearly plans to force the Antalya 737 down or shoot it down. On board are a dissident blogger, a pair of fugitives in disguise and heaven only knows what other manner of dodgy characters. Meanwhile, in Riga, CIA agent Aria Falk waits anxiously for the blogger, initially unaware of the flight’s unplanned stop in Minsk. In other news, a financier who has been laundering Russian money for years has apparently killed himself by leaping off a yacht in the open sea, and the multibillion dollar fund he managed seems to have vanished along with him. The connection point for all these disparate events is Falk. Soon enough, he will become involved with Maya Chou, the daughter of the missing (and presumed dead) financier, and things will get very convoluted indeed. The Collaborators devotes little space to pyrotechnics, chase scenes and the like, but cleverness and subterfuge abound, followed by a believable, real-world sort of denouement. PS: Idov is a screenwriter in addition to being a novelist, and this book has silver screen written all over it.

Plus, a wicked holiday delight and a ripped-from-the-headlines espionage thriller in this month’s Whodunit column.

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