Featuring: Cali Adeline, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Michael Connelly, John French, John Grisham, Matthew Kessel, David McCloskey, Caroline Palmer, Suzanne Palmer, Sam Smith & Phil Jackson, Sophie Wan

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Cali Adeline, PEOPLE WATCHING IN THE DESERT (Harper)

Sonny Magee has spent most of her life alone, finding comfort in quiet solitude and scribbling in the private pages of her notebook. She lost her loving but troubled mother in childhood and was raised by an indifferent, sometimes cruel grandmother who left her scarred and naïve about life. 

When Sonny mysteriously comes into a large sum of money, she finds herself in Arizona, at the luxury Sanctuary Resort & Spa. Out of her element and her comfort zone, she struggles with the spa’s doting staff and the unfamiliar wealth and constant small talk of her fellow guests.

Forced proximity introduces her to a cadre of eccentrics, and something akin to romance blossoms with a resort employee. Yet Sonny still feels most at peace when people watching from the margins, headphones on and scrawling in her notebook. But when a freak accident disturbs Sanctuary’s carefully curated tranquility, a shocking twist crumbles Sonny’s inner world, and she finds herself unexpectedly — and maybe even pleasantly — surprised by the people around her.

Thought this novel had an interesting premise, and promised perhaps something of a quieter read than what I usually gravitate towards: it is about “a lonely young woman who prefers to observe the world rather than participate in it, and the seismic repercussions that follow when she steps out of her own bubble.” People Watching in the Desert is due to be published by Harper in North America on July 14th, 2026.

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, PARKS AND REC (Dutton)

The definitive story of the creation and legacy of Parks and Recreation, with exclusive interview content from its cast, crew, and creators, as well as an introduction by Nick Offerman

More than fifteen years after Parks and Recreation premiered, it has become a streaming and pop culture staple. It’s beloved for its jokes, characters, and expressions — the show even created a now widely observed holiday, Galentine’s Day. How did it all happen and how did the show transform from a ratings disappointment into a cult classic? Readers will find out all this and more in the definitive history of the show, which is as full of humor, optimism, and heart as Parks and Recreation itself.

Through new and exclusive interviews, as well as deep insight and smart and entertaining pop culture analysis, Armstrong tells the story of how Parks and Recreation came to be: how it grew from The Office‘s success and Obama-inspired optimism, how producers assembled one of TV’s most lovable casts but barely survived a mediocre first season, how it found its voice by getting more political and more romantic, and how it became a cultural force despite middling ratings during its network run, going on to become a television savior of the Trump era and a modern classic.

Lovingly told and deeply researched, Parks and Rec is the ultimate history of the show that taught us what’s important in life: friends, waffles, and work.

I first started watching Parks & Recreation in 2014, I think, and it almost immediately became a favourite sitcom. We’ve watched it multiple times since (at least once a year) as one of our “wind-down” shows at the end of the day. So, naturally, I was really interested in reading this — and hopefully very soon. (I must get caught up, though, and also read Jim O’Heir’s Welcome to Pawnee.) Parks and Rec is due to be published by Dutton in North America and in the UK, on April 7th, 2026.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Michael Connelly, THE PROVING GROUND (Little, Brown)

The Lincoln Lawyer is back with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a young girl.

Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.

Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.

It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in 1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with a gambit called “the knight’s sacrifice.” Haller will take a similar gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.

The eighth Mickey Haller novel! I doubt I need to explain why this one is one of my most-anticipated novels of the year… Just in case: Connelly is one of my favourite authors, and certainly my favourite crime/mystery writer. Every one of his books is a must-read. Haller’s outings tend to be most stressful, though; whenever he’s presented with a choice, he invariably chooses the most reckless. It makes for quite stressful reading, but also gripping — I ended up finishing this at 3:30am, unable to put it down. Excellent. The Proving Ground is out now, published by Little, Brown in North America and Orion Books in the UK.

Also on CR: Reviews of The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, The Overlook, The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Two Kinds of Truth, Blood Work, A Darkness More than Night, The Narrows, The Late Show, Dark Sacred Night, Fair Warning, and The Law of Innocence

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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John French, DROPSITE MASSACRE (Black Library)

Horus has revealed his dark plans, but nobody is prepared for just how far he will go. The force sent to end the Warmaster’s rebellion doesn’t realise they are heading towards a slaughter unlike anything the galaxy has seen.

Horus has rebelled against the Emperor by purging his and his brother’s Legions, but what was supposed to be a secret act of murder has been revealed. In the Emperor’s name, Rogal Dorn and Malcador the Sigillite dispatch the largest force of legionaries and primarchs ever assembled to end Horus’ rebellion before it can begin.

But the loyalists, on their way to enact vengeance, do not know the depth of the betrayal they face. They will not be the perpetrators of a massacre, but its victims. The last hope of returning to the Great Crusade and the unity of the Imperium will die in the dust of Isstvan V, and those who survive will live in a new age of darkness.

The latest novel set in the Horus Heresy takes us back to the first overt action of the betrayal. Even though the events have been covered quite a bit in previous novels and short stories, I’m intrigued to see how this novel unfolds — French is one of the most consistently good authors writing for Black Library. Hope to read it very soon. Dropsite Massacre is out now, published by Black Library in North America and in the UK.

Also on CR: Reviews of Praetorian of Dorn, Tallarn: Executioner, Slaves to Darkness, The Solar War, Ahriman: Exile, Exodus, Sorcerer, and Unchanged

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Beverly Gage, THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND (Simon & Schuster)

The ultimate road trip into the American past.

Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn — and fight — about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon — or live up to — those ideals. This Land Is Your Land is for everyone who wants to find that history—to experience it and confront it, to celebrate it and condemn it—in the places where it happened.

In our fraught moment for American patriotism, Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country. Toss the book in the back seat — or listen on audio with the windows down — and join the journey.

The latest book by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning G-Man (which I also have, but haven’t quite had the time to get to). This is less weighty than the author’s previous door-stopper, and I’m very much looking forward to reading both of the author’s books. (Maybe this one first…) This Land is Your Land is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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John Grisham, THE WIDOW (Doubleday)

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer…

It has been a long time since I last read a Grisham novel — no idea why, though. I remember when I was in high school and blitzed through a bunch of his novels and very much enjoyed them. (The Brethren was also the first novel I read on Kindle, as it happens…) The Widow is out now, published by Doubleday in North America and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Matthew Kessel, THE RAINSEEKERS (TorDotCom)

Burned out and looking to put her past behind her, a former addict and recovering influencer interviews her fellow travelers en route to witness the first rain on Mars.

Sakunja Salazar had it all. Money, toys, women, and all the drugs money could buy. A breakout Holo influencer, seemingly overnight she lifted her family out of their tiny Mexico City apartment and into the world of the rich and famous. That all changed when she hopped on a rocket and blasted into the cosmos, never to hawk lavender moisturizer again.

What goes up must come down, and when Sakunja finally crashed back down on Mars an alcoholic, addict, and has-been she thought her life was pretty much over. That is, until a magazine editor discovered her photography and offered her a job. Now, she’s the resident documentarian on a barebones expedition seeking to be the first humans to witness rain on Mars. For the first time in her life, Sakunja is turning the spotlight on someone else-interviewing her fellow travelers about what brought them to join this incredibly foolhardy crew of souls adrift in a world of danger and awe. And what they discover, both in their stories and their journey, will be more incredible than they could have ever imagined.

Thought this sounded interesting. The Rainseekers is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on February 17th, 2026.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received from publisher

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David McCloskey, THE PERSIAN (W. W. Norton)

Kamran Esfahani, a dentist living out a dreary existence in Stockholm, agrees to spy for the Mossad after he’s recruited by Arik Glitzman, the chief of a clandestine unit tasked with running targeted assassinations and sabotage inside Iran. At Glitzman’s direction, Kam returns to his native Tehran and opens a dental practice there, using it as a cover for the Israeli intelligence agency. Kam proves to be a skillful asset, quietly earning money helping Glitzman smuggle weapons, run surveillance, and conduct kidnappings. But when Kam tries to recruit an Iranian widow seeking to avenge the death of her husband at the hands of the Mossad, the operation goes terribly wrong, landing him in prison under the watchful eye of a sadistic officer whom he knows only as the “General.”

And now, after enduring three years of torture in captivity, Kamran Esfahani sits in an interrogation room across from the General, preparing to write his final confession.

Kam knows it is too late to save himself. But he has managed to keep one secret — only one — and he just might be able to save that. In this haunting thriller, careening between Tehran and Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Stockholm, David McCloskey delivers an intricate story of vengeance, deceit, and the power of love and forgiveness in a world of lies.

I still haven’t managed to get around to reading McCloskey’s first three novels (I have them all)! There are so many great books coming out at the moment, that it’s a little difficult to keep up with them all (not that I’ll stop trying…) — especially given our current New Golden Age of Espionage books, both fiction and non-fiction. Really looking forward to getting caught up as soon as I can. The Persian is out now in North America, published by W. W. Norton; and it’s due out January 29th in the UK, to be published by Swift Press.

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Frank Miller, PUSH THE WALL (Saga Press)

From the all-time bestselling mind behind Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, 300, and Sin City, Push the Wall is part memoir, part master class for budding artists and writers by one of the greatest living creators whose work has influenced pop culture for decades.

Frank Miller is our greatest living comic book writer and artist.

Frank Miller shares his life, and through, his artistic process. Miller’s artistic influence is evident in so very much of our popular culture, perhaps most notably with Batman — every film adaptation from the past forty years has been influenced by Miller’s work with the dark knight.

Simply, Frank Miller has transformed the way comics are told.

Here, Frank’s mix of autobiographical lessons evokes Patti Smith’s Just Kids as it weaves his struggles as a seventeen-year-old kid fresh from Vermont into a seedy 1970s New York City with his eventual success on reimagining Daredevil and Wolverine. From there to Miller’s rescue and revitalization of Batman, to his time in Hollywood, the Sin City comics and film adaptations he would codirect, and the retelling of the Spartans’ last stand in 300. Miller, by constantly challenging himself as an artist and writer on his terms, built an iconoclastic career.

With over a dozen illustrations of Miller’s art, Push the Wall is the work of his career — it is a masterclass as it encapsulates his life in sixteen lessons for the aspiring creative reader.

I haven’t read as many of Frank Miller’s comics/graphic novels as one might expect. Nevertheless, I am interested in reading this memoir. I just have to decided on whether I want to read this before the comics or vice versa? I can certainly fit in some of them with plenty of time to read and review this before it arrives on shelves. Push the Wall is due to be published by S&S/Saga Press in North America (July 14th, 2026) and Canongate in the UK (July 16th)

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Caroline Palmer, THE WORKHORSE (Flatiron)

A richly drawn, unsettling, and wickedly funny story of envy and ambition set against the glamor and privilege of media and high society in New York City at its height.

At the turn of the millennium, Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system — or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.

In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners — and who are we if we share her desires?

Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a brilliant page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty, and influence, and the outrageous sacrifices women must make for the sake of success.

There seem to be a few books about publishing on the horizon (another is Erin van der Meer’s forthcoming The Scoop, which I have already read), and as someone who has worked a little bit in publishing they sound interesting. Look forward to reading this soon-ish. The Workhorse is out now in North America, published by Flatiron Books; it’s due to be published by Fourth Estate in the UK, on January 15th, 2026.

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Suzanne Palmer, ODE TO THE HALF-BROKEN (DAW)

In the abandoned New York Botanical Gardens, forty years after the world nearly ended, a worn-out robot is attacked, and realizes old evils are stirring

Forty years ago, the world nearly ended.

Be is an old robot who was there, and doesn’t want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens, disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there, though, has not forgotten about them, and when they are attacked, their person vandalized, and one of their legs stolen, they set out to find the thief accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic.

The world has changed, but the recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible.

This is a story about coming to terms with your past, with who you’ve become and who you still want to be…

Great premise. I haven’t read much of Palmer’s work, yet, but the synopsis really caught my attention, and I’m very much looking forward to reading this. Ode to the Half-Broken is due to be published by DAW Books in North America on April 28th, 2026.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Sam Smith & Phil Jackson, MASTERS OF THE GAME (Penguin Press)

The legendary sportswriter and the Hall of Fame, eleven-time NBA champion coach separate the music from the noise in the stories of the greatest who ever played and their impact on the game

Sam Smith and Phil Jackson grew to know and respect each other in the late 1980s, when Smith was a Chicago Tribune sportswriter and Jackson was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls. Forty years later, the two remain close friends. In 2021, Smith helped the NBA arrive at a list of the seventy-five greatest players of all time in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary. Phil Jackson was asked to participate too, but he’s not a big fan of ranking greatness. They’ve been enjoying the argument ever since.

In Masters of the Game, Smith and Jackson chop it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. In a conversation full of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip, we meet the stars of long-ago eras of basketball and see the mark race left on players and the business of the game — and we get a master class on character and the alchemy of a good team. And of course, inevitably, these two old heads get into the GOAT debate.

There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit — sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious — and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students.

The greatest NBA coach (and former player) and the journalist who covered Michael Jordan’s incredible Bulls run get together to write about the game they love and have been working in/on for decades. I took a look at the table of contents and there are quite a few names that I don’t know, so I’m definitely looking forward to reading these chapter to fill in some gaps in my NBA history. I’m also very much looking forward to the chapters about players I am familiar with, too, of course. I’ll start this probably later today or tomorrow. Masters of the Game is out on November 4th, published by Penguin Press in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received from publisher

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Sophie Wan, THE SOCIAL CIRCLE (Park Row)

When Maggie Tang arrives as a transfer-student at UC Berkeley in 2005, she has no idea how her life is about to change. In the hallway of her dingy apartment building, she meets Adam, Charles, and Hari, the friends with whom she’ll create Circle, the world’s first major social media platform. But navigating her ambitions alongside love and friendship isn’t so simple, and when they inevitably collide, Maggie exits Circle in dramatic fashion.

A decade later, Maggie is struggling with a new professional venture when she receives an invitation to celebrate Circle’s 10th anniversary on a private island in Norway, with the three people she has tried hardest to forget. While she’s still bitter about how things ended, her company desperately needs the publicity, and deep down, Maggie can’t resist the handwritten plea at the bottom — Come, please.

Between boat rides and adventurous hikes, bit by bit the reunion begins to feel like old times. But the journalist writing a retrospective on Circle is eager for a scoop, which means they can’t tiptoe around the past forever. And when a new truth is revealed about their fall-out all those years ago, Maggie will have to decide whether to run again or fight for a second chance with the people she once loved most.

The pitch for this novel caught my attention: “The Social Network meets Daisy Jones & The Six” in a “dual-narrative novel about a group of college friends who found a social media company in the early days of the internet, their scandalous falling out, and the 10-year anniversary exposé that forces them back together again.” Really looking forward to reading this soon (although I’ll hold off for a bit on publishing the review). The Social Circle is due to be published by Park Row in North America, on March 3rd, 2026.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss