Searching for something to read? Check out some of the new titles releasing the week of May 18 – 24, 2025 with two debut series. I hope a few of these books take you on a reading adventure!
MAY 20
Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong (Historical Mystery)
After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she’s developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Peril in Piccadilly by Jenna Bennett (Historical Mystery 1920s)
Someone is out to get Pippa Darling. Or perhaps not. The tumble down the stairs into the underground involved a lot of people, all of whom said someone pushed them, and all of whom, no doubt, had wronged someone, somehow, at some point. And the Hackney cab that jumped the pavement and tried to run Pippa and her flat-mate Christopher down on their way home… well, it might have been after Christopher, mightn’t it? Format: Print, Digital
Marguerite By The Lake by Mary Dixie Carter (Domestic Thriller)
Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, her taste, legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray family: Marguerite and her husband Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite’s brand. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Nightshade by Michael Connelly (Police Procedural)
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Kaua’i Storm by Tori Eldridge (Traditional Mystery) *first book in a new series*
After ten years as a national park ranger in Oregon, Makalani Pahukula is back on Kaua‘i for her grandmother’s birthday. Having been gone for so long, Makalani finds the disconnect with her people and her struggles have never been more profound. Neither has her need to reacquaint herself with everything she left behind. When she reaches the homestead, she finds a bickering family and the disconcerting news that her cousins—a failed college football player and a rebellious teenage girl—have gone missing. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Murder at the Cabaret by Dana Gricken (Historical Mystery 1920s) *first book in a new series*
By day, Penny Fox runs The Sly Fox detective agency, helping women escape dangerous marriages and catching philandering husbands in the act. By night, Penny manages The Primrose, the glittering cabaret and speakeasy she inherited after her father’s sudden death—a venue that exists at the mercy of mob boss Sonny Hargrave. Format: Print, Audio
Their Double Lives by Jaime Lynn Hendricks (Domestic Thriller)
A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then her luck seems to change when a mysterious figure identifying themself only as The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink and, when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Contemplation of a Crime by Susan Juby (Traditional Mystery)
Butler Helen Thorpe is not one to judge, but the participants in Close Encounters for Global Healing are astonishingly unpleasant. The five-day program brings together people from across the political spectrum with the goal of helping them bridge their ideological and personal differences. Helen and her employer, Mr. Levine, have come to Side Island to assist David, his youngest son, who is facilitating the course. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
The Doorman by Chris Pavone (Traditional Mystery)
Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite. Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she’d quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave him. Yet. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
The Pharaoh’s Tomb by LynDee Walker and Bruce Robert Coffin (Action and Adventure Mystery)
When an artifact with the potential to destabilize the Middle East disappears, experts Avery Turner and Carter Mosley are summoned to retrieve it. Their destination: Egypt. Their target: a centuries-old relic—a small pin of solid gold, shaped like an ancient goddess. Needle, meet giant haystack. Format: Print, Digital, Audio
MAY 21
Death by Dreidel by Susie Black (Cozy Mystery)
Mermaid Swimwear President Holly Schlivnik attends an industry Hanukkah party to honor Rapido Swimwear CEO Leni Waxman as the Mount Cedars Hospital Woman of the Year. The guest of honor collapses and dies in the middle of the event. An autopsy confirms that industry bully Leni expired as a result of poisoning by coming in contact with a purposely contaminated dreidel. Format: Print, Digital
MAY 22
Secrets in St Ives by Deborah Fowler (Cozy Mystery)
As St Ives moves into the summer season, Chief Inspector Louis Peppiatt is handed the coldest of cold cases – a local farmer’s disappearance many years ago. Merrin McKenzie, who crossed Peppiatt’s path in a case the winter before, is related to the troubled family and among his first ports of call. The question is, who has something to hide decades later? Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Murder in Oxford by Christina Koning (Historical Mystery 1940s)
When Frederick Rowlands arrives in the city in answer to an urgent summons, he finds that the effects of war have not bypassed Oxford, which feels more like a military camp than a university town. His old friend and fellow war veteran, Major Ian Fraser, has been told that there is a spy at large in the university and at nearby Blenheim Palace, the heart of British Intelligence. Rowlands swiftly becomes embroiled in matters involving MI5 and enemy agents, but not before a vicious killer strikes. Format: Print, Digital
MAY 23
Murder at the English Manor by Helena Dixon (Historical Mystery)
At home in Devon, Kitty is attending a ball at the very grand Markham Hall. With celebrations in full swing and everyone kitted out in their glad rags, Kitty and Matt enjoy the champagne. But the next morning, the party feels well and truly over when Kitty stumbles across a body while out walking her dog, Bertie. The maid, Agnes, is dead, and everyone at Markham Hall is a suspect… Format: Print, Digital, Audio
MAY 24
The Trouble with Speed by Katrina Kyle (Traditional Mystery)
Managing a young, rich Formula One driver is like herding cats at 200 mph, but Hale Seton has it under control—until a French socialite vanishes after a wild night out, and her powerful family accuses Hale’s client, Javier Pova, of foul play. With the Monaco Grand Prix looming and the media circus kicking into full clown-show mode, Hale has one weekend to find the missing woman, clear Javier’s name, and keep her own career from crashing and burning. Format: Print, Digital
Note: in some cases, print releases for digital titles will be forthcoming.