Searching for something to read? Check out some of the new titles releasing the week of August 2 – 8, 2026. I hope a few of these books take you on a reading adventure!
AUGUST 3
Dog of Secrets by Neil S. Plakcy (Cozy Mystery)
When a wealthy couple dies in what appears to be a tragic car accident, Steve Levitan and his golden retriever Rochester are drawn into a mystery that reaches far beyond the quiet streets of Stewart’s Crossing. The victims’ twenty-year-old son, Daniel Farahani, seems more comfortable navigating a post-apocalyptic survival game than facing the devastating reality of his parents’ deaths. As Steve helps the young man through his grief, disturbing questions begin to emerge. Format: Digital
AUGUST 4
Probable Caws by Donna Andrews (Cozy Mystery)
Meg has finally found time to get some blacksmithing done when a call from her dad interrupts her–can she come out to Ragnar’s right away to help with the horses? Their friend Ragnar Ragnarsen, who is gradually turning the enormous house on his nearby estate into an authentic moated castle, has agreed to shelter nearly fifty horses for Hoof and Hearth, an equine rescue organization that has lost access to the farm where the horses have been living. The owner of the farm recently died without leaving a will, and while his older son Abel would be happy to let the horses stay, younger brother George wants to sell to a developer . . . and is suspected of sending a thug to harm the horses as part of his efforts to evict Hoof and Hearth. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
A Taste for Murder by Matt Baker (Police Procedural)
For murder detective Joe Mottram, a summer visit to his in-laws’ idyllic beachside restaurant on the beautiful Italian island of Capri is meant to offer refuge. After the death of his wife Sofia in a hit-and-run in London, Joe has taken a sabbatical, hoping to heal and reconnect with his teenage daughter, Angelica. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Killing Kenny by Jenna Bennett (Cozy Mystery)
Gina Beaufort Kelly has spent eighteen years wishing her stepson Kenny would disappear. So when someone starts trying to get rid of him — first a mysterious white powder in an envelope, then a near-miss on a dark street, followed by a bad case of “food poisoning” — she’s not exactly devastated. But Kenny’s uncle Daniel is family too, and Daniel’s worried, which means Gina’s business partner Rachel is worried, which means Gina is now a reluctant bodyguard to the one person on earth she’d happily un-invite from her life. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian (Psychological Thriller)
It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a golf ball from her tee toward the practice net near the clubhouse and caddy shack. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, traveling 150 miles per hour, and slams, with sickening force, into the temple of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, rupturing an artery and unleashing a torrent of blood. Kenny brings his hand to the side of his head, then topples onto his side. He’s dead before the ambulance even arrives. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Castle in the Glen by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery 1900s)
Australian writer Emma Callander has been recruited to complete the final historical mystery in a series by celebrated author Iris Blackburn. It’s 1965, and Iris’s memory is fading. She’s certain that only Emma can do justice to her novel about a murder on the Isle of Skye. When Emma ventures to Scotland for research, she discovers the story is not fiction at all but rather a true crime, unsolved for more than fifty years. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
A Murderer’s Guide to Mardi Gras by Ellen Byron (Cozy Mystery)
It’s carnival season in New Orleans, and Ricki James-Diaz and her friends from Bon Vee are dressing up for Mardi Gras. They’ve joined the notorious krewe of Chew to support Ricki’s chef boyfriend, Virgil, who is to be crowned this year’s king. It’s all fun, throws, and over-the-top outfits until the krewe’s captain is found strangled with his own medallion. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Five Things I See by Wendy Church (Hard-Boiled Mystery)
A serial killer terrorizes the citizens of Jacksonville, and the entire police force is focused on cracking the case—but will they be able to stop the murderer before more bodies are found? Homicide detective Grace Hartwell’s knack for reading people has never let her down—until now. Is the killer playing a clever game or is she losing touch with herself? Format: Digital, Print
Where There’s Smoke by E.J. Copperman (Paranormal Cozy Mystery)
Laura Meehan has her hands full with her paint store, but also with another case (that she will definitely leave to the police to solve)! The Sea Breeze Public Library is burning and it’s clear from the beginning that it must be arson. Who would want to burn a library down and why? Was it a group of moms protesting what they see as inappropriate book content? Maybe it was someone who didn’t like a title they lent? Or is there something more alarming going on? Format: Digital, Print
A Thief’s Folly by Jeanne M. Dams (Cozy Mystery)
Dorothy Martin is enjoying a conversation in the garden with her neighbour and best friend, Jane Langland, one perfect June afternoon, when Jane suddenly has a stroke. Dorothy is devastated when she visits her friend in hospital and discovers that she’s unable to speak yet desperate to tell her something, and is soon convinced there’s something valuable hidden in Jane’s house – but what is it? A thief targeting the house suggests they’ve found it first . . . Format: Digital, Print
Deception by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
A murder at a crime writers’ conference. The method is entirely literary, the motive seems obvious—but can the detective who was first on the scene puzzle out what needs reading between the lines? A brilliant sleuth, obsessed with Sherlock Holmes’s mysteries, turns his attention to a serial killer stalking the streets of New York City. But as his deductions bring him closer to his prey, he starts to wonder who is really doing the hunting. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Bookkeeper by Jeffery Deaver (Crime Fiction Short Story)
When the Institute for the Freedom of Journalism gets word that a professional killer has come to America from Brussels to kill a reporter investigating an authoritarian regime, reward seeker Colter Shaw is called upon to investigate what the police have not: who and where is the victim and what valuable information do they have? In running the job, Shaw finds himself up against one of the toughest adversaries of his career. The assassin, nicknamed the Bookkeeper, plots his murders as coldly and methodically as he audits accounts. Format: Digital
The Deadliest Sense by Jeffery Deaver (Crime Fiction Short Story)
A serial killer is on the loose…but the string of murders fails to reveal a clear motive. Each victim—all women—received the same treatment: death by asphyxiation. But the reason is neither sexual nor financial. Which deviates from what is usually the case among sociopaths. As Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs examine the evidence left behind, they stumble upon what might be the most bizarre incentive for murder they’ve encountered yet. But will they be able to identify the perp and stop him before his strange urges mean more deaths across all of New York City? Format: Digital
Murder at University Park by Cheryl Miller Dellasega (Psychological Thriller)
Dr. Lacey Redd is on the verge of tenure—and under the thumb of her department chair, the arrogant and celebrated Dr. Geoffrey Hart. When Lacey begins to suspect Hart of falsifying his research, she quietly teams up with a tech-savvy colleague to uncover the truth. But before they can break the case, her partner turns up dead in the campus library. As Lacey digs deeper, she uncovers something even darker: Hart has been preying on female graduate students for years. Format: Digital, Print
Ales & Alibis by Tobi Doyle
When the mayor turns up dead and a violent ghost haunts her basement, pub owner Wanda Atkins must solve a murder on one leg—literally. Spirits, secrets, and small-town scandal are all on tap in Ales and Alibis. Wanda Atkins owns and works at her family pub, Pour Decisions, even after inheriting millions from the Prohibition Booze they discovered. Things should be easier now that she’s started her counseling practice, but money can’t stop whatever malevolent entity is in her basement. Format: Digital, Print
One of the Family by Mark Edwards
When Patrick is invited by his girlfriend to join her and her family on a luxury holiday in a remote and beautiful part of Scotland, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a nightmare of a family, sinister behavior…and a plot to murder the patriarch’s younger fiancée. Arriving at the house, Patrick meets Holly’s dad, self-made-millionaire Charles, along with her brother Lewis and older sister Miranda. Also on the trip is the widowed Charles’ bride-to-be, Jasmine, who—in her thirties—is around the same age as the three siblings. Lewis and Miranda are horrified by their dad’s impending marriage to this younger woman. Format: Digital, Print
You’ll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner (Police Procedural)
For Raquel and Theo Collins, it appeared to be love at first sight. Raquel, a renowned interior designer, and Theo, a brash financial wizard met and married in a matter of months, only to confront a terrible tragedy. Now, unbearably aware of the distance between them, they’ve come to a remote town in New Hampshire to begin anew. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
All We Hide by Robyn Gigl (Police Procedural)
When Lieutenant Lauren Kelly is exiled to the Homicide Cold Case Unit at the DA’s office, she knows her superiors are sticking her there as punishment until she can quietly retire. That way, no one can claim they discriminated against the only trans detective in Donn County. Even though Lauren has enough on her plate already—a teenage daughter struggling with Lauren’s recent transition, an ex-wife Lauren hasn’t gotten over, a former detective father with Alzheimer’s—she starts looking into the murder of Sherry Darling, a trans sex worker and Lauren’s former high school classmate. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Death on the Books by Victoria Gilbert (Cozy Mystery)
When a stranger falls over dead in the Taylorsford Public Library, clutching a crumpled piece of paper inscribed only with the words hen and sapphire, Library Director Amy Muir must once again investigate. She soon learns that the man is the personal assistant to Warren Sanderson, an art collector and dealer who just so happens to be visiting Kurt Kendrick, the godfather of Amy’s twins. Format: Digital, Print
Of Devotion and Death by Anastasia Hastings (Historical Mystery)
Violet Manville knows everything about manners—and murder. Violet is looking forward to taking some time away from the advice column she writes under the nom de plume Miss Hermione. She can’t wait to head off to Venice to spend some time with Eli Marsh, a mysterious, annoying, and extremely attractive American. Format: Digital, Print
Ghost in the Night by Tiffany D. Jackson (Young Adult)
Savannah, Georgia, with its mossy trees and ornate old homes, is a place rich in history…and ghosts. Ghosts are what pique Harmony Roundtree’s interest. Still reeling from her losses back home, Harmony wants to believe in ghost stories…but isn’t sure what’s real. When she goes on one of the many ghost tours around town, she takes a photo of what might be a ghost. Or is it a hoax? Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd (Thriller)
Mercurial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it’s open only to the very wealthiest. His company, Tempus Tours, has so far been approved for just one route: a journey back to London in 1941, to the days of the Blitz, allowing the super-rich to experience the awesome sights and sounds of the aerial bombardment of the capital during World War II. It’s a slick operation—routes across the wartime city are meticulously plotted, guides are extensively trained, and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Shadows Tomorrow by Noelle Michel (Speculative Thriller)
A clan of humans—they hunt and gather, they have lovers and rivals, their own society. They pass on the legends of their ancestors and celebrate festival nights. Their world is the forest which feeds them, and, aside from the fierce cold and illness, the only thing they have to fear is the Beast who prowls the impassable Bounds. They do not know that beyond it an entirely different world exists: our world. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Murder Bites by Mimi Montgomery (Traditional Mystery)
Margot Cartwright is not exactly blending in with the residents of Glenville, South Carolina. An unwilling transplant from Washington, D.C., Margot feels like a fish out of water among the Lululemon-wearing, tiny-dog-owning, non-New Yorker-reading locals who are clamoring to have their fur babies star on Pawsh, a reality TV show about couture canines. (Sure, Margot loves her dog, but Sid Vicious is far too cool of a mutt for a show like that!) She even feels like an outcast amongst her family, and after she’s caught channeling her inner “Robin Hood” by stealing her neighbors’ pro-Pawsh signs, further cementing her title as the neighborhood pariah, she thinks things can’t possibly get any worse, right? Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Women in White by Sarah Pekkanen (Historical Mystery 1960s)
four remarkable young women at a prestigious university became the subjects of parapsychology experiments by a visionary scientist. On the cusp of a historic breakthrough, the women mysteriously vanished and the program was erased from history. Decades later, Riley Bell, newly divorced and desperate for a fresh start, accepts a caretaker job for an elderly widow named Betty. Riley steps into a home that is frozen in another era – no microwave, television, or cell phones, and Betty has never heard of the internet. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Unknown by Riley Sager (Historical Mystery 1920s)
Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot. Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
Killer Art by Jon St. Denis (Traditional Mystery)
When art professor Vika Chen discovers the strangled body of Professor McGuire in a campus art studio, she becomes the prime suspect in a murder connected to an exhibition exposing AI-generated art. Since local law enforcement fails to find any optional leads, Vika and her partner, journalism professor Sam Worthing, take the investigation into their own hands. Vika, who until recently worked as a curator at MoMA, and Sam, a former crime reporter for the New York Times, find themselves uniquely suited for the job. Format: Digital, Print
Take Hart by Jaime Parker Stickle (Thriller)
Between her LAPD consulting gig, fledgling indie news blog, and postpartum panic disorder, former TV journalist Corey Tracey-Lieberman is barely keeping it together. Then a mother named Sonja Hart vanishes in her Highland Park neighborhood, and the case is all but ignored. Sparked by maternal fury, Corey’s investigative instincts come roaring back to life. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
The Postmistress of Puddlington by Laura Jensen Walker (Historical Mystery 1930s)
Dorset. Nothing gives postmistress Hester Smith greater joy than cycling through the idyllic village of Puddlington, delivering the mail to her neighbours. Bookish Hester has always felt privileged to witness the highs and lows a single letter can bring. But when war comes to Puddlington’s shores five years later, Hester suddenly finds herself in the devastating position of delivering news that no one should hear. As the community is directly impacted by tragedy on the battlefield and a shocking death occurs in the village, Hester’s spirit and resolve are tested like never before. Format: Digital, Print
AUGUST 5
Murder at Christmas by T.A. Williams (Cozy Mystery)
Private investigator Dan Armstrong, accompanied by his wife and his canine sidekick, Oscar, are spending the days before Christmas in a luxurious Alpine chalet tucked away in a hidden valley. It should be the perfect escape, except the owner is in fear for his life. Amid perfect winter wonderland scenery, the more Dan discovers about his host and the other guests, he realises that all is not as it seems. What should be a happy family party is riddled with rancour, mistrust and hatred. Format: Digital, Print, Audio
AUGUST 6
Hell Hath No Fury by Annette Dashofy (Private Investigator Mystery)
Crime-beat photographer Emma Anderson is barely recovered from the gunshot wound that nearly took her life, when her circumstances go from bad to worse. Now, her recovering addict sister is missing, the developer trying to steal her family’s land from under her turns up dead, and her best friend Eric is in the frame for the murder. Format: Digital, Print
Note: in some cases, print releases for digital titles will be forthcoming.
Publication date subject to change