Upcoming: TRUST NO ONE by James Rollins (William Morrow)

Early next year, William Morrow will publish Trust No One, a new stand-alone thriller by James Rollins — author of the internationally-bestselling Sigma Force series, among others. As a long-time fan of the author’s work (since the second Sigma novel: 2005’s Map of Bones), I’m always looking forward to a new book from him — even though I have, unfortunately, fallen a bit behind!

In this latest thriller, which follows a group of university students on a treacherous race across Europe after they are falsely accused of murder. Here’s the full synopsis:

Knowledge can be magic — until it falls into the wrong hands.

The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of suspects: his own students. All are enrolled in a postgraduate program covering the history of witchcraft, folklore, and spiritualism.

All evidence points to Sharyn Karr — an American student. Prior to the professor’s death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. It appears to be the handwritten and encrypted diary of an eighteenth-century mystic and occultist, the Comte de Saint-Germain. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning.

Trust no one.

Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell, a fellow postgrad and the sixteenth in line to the British Crown. Already, Duncan has proven himself a savant with encryptions. Unfortunately, the pair clash at every level, but they both need one another. Especially when they discover the book’s opening words:  Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare.

As dark forces close upon the pair, she and her friends are forced to flee, pursued by law enforcement and hunted by a powerful cabal. In an explosive chase across Europe — from the Tower of London to Parisian chateaus to a fortress in the Italian Alps — Sharyn must learn the true secret hidden in Saint-Germain’s text. It will send her and the others across history and deep into the heart of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a secret buried at the roots of Western Civilization, a discovery that could topple empires and change humanity forever.

For what lies at the end of Saint-Germain’s diary is as shocking as its opening words.

James Rollins’s Trust No One is due to be published by William Morrow in North America and in the UK, on February 24th, 2026.

Also on CR: Reviews of The Judas Strain, The Last Oracle, The Doomsday Key, The Devil Colony, and The 6th Extinction

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Upcoming: NO MAN’S LAND by Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey / Gollancz)

Next year, readers will finally be able to read No Man’s Land, a new novel from Richard (K.) Morgan — the author of, among others, Altered Carbon. I’ve been a fan of the author’s work ever since Altered Carbon appeared on the shelf in my local bookstore in 2002 (probably the Waterstones in Durham or Cambridge).

Thus far, I’ve very much enjoyed his science fiction novels (the Takeshi Kovacs series and stand-alones) more than his fantasy work (A Land Fit for Heroes series). This new novel looks like it’ll offer something a little different; and, despite the fact that it features the fae (which I’ve found uninteresting in pretty every iteration I’ve read), I find myself very intrigued by the premise and setting:

The Great War was supposed to be the war to end all wars — and maybe it would have been, had an even greater, otherworldly foe not risen to extinguish the conflict. Overnight, as guns blazed in France and Flanders, village after village in the quiet British countryside was swallowed by the Forest. And within the Forest lurk the Huldu — an ancient fae race, monstrous in their inhumanity, who have decided that mankind’s ascendency over the world can endure no longer.

Enter Duncan Silver. Scarred by the war, fueled by a rage deeper than the trenches in which he once fought, Duncan is determined to show the Huldu that the world is not theirs for the taking. Armed with a deadly iron knife and a cut-down trench gun filled with iron shot, Duncan will stop at nothing to return the children the Huldu have stolen to the arms of their families. No matter how many Huldu he may have to slaughter along the way.

But when he is hired by a mother to return her four-year-old daughter, Miriam — taken by the Huldu six months past and replaced with a changeling — all hell breaks loose. Miriam is a pawn in a much bigger game for dominance than Duncan ever expected, and several long-buried secrets from his past are about to be violently resurrected.

Richard K. Morgan’s No Man’s Land is due to be published by Del Rey in North America and Gollancz in the UK, on March 24th.

Follow the Author: Website, GoodreadsBlueSky

Upcoming: THE AGE OF EXTRACTION by Tim Wu (Knopf)

The other day, I finished Cory Doctorow’s highly recommended Enshittification, in which Tim Wu’s work is mentioned — and, consequently, I was reminded to check to see if he had a new book coming out. In November, Knopf are due to publish The Age of Extraction, which looks highly relevant to my interests and maybe a good companion book to Doctorow’s; certainly it looks like a book that will be of interest to anyone who observes today’s tech/online ecosystem with wariness, suspicion, frustration, and maybe contempt. Here’s the synopsis for The Age of Extraction:

Tim Wu explores how today’s dominant platforms manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality — urging us to recognize their influence and reclaim control to create a balanced economy that works for all.

Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us, and also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better life for everyone? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too far gone?

Tim Wu — the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase “net neutrality” — explores the rise of platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. The Age of Extraction tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s, only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead.  Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history — from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements — and envisions a future where technological advances can serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for taking back control in order to achieve a better economic balance and prosperity for all.

I was first introduced to Wu’s work via his 2016 book, The Attention Merchants, which I would also recommend.

Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction is due to be published by Knopf in North America (November 4th) and Bodley Head in the UK (November 13th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky

Upcoming: GODFALL by Van Jensen (Grand Central / Bantam)

In January 2026, readers will be able to read Godfall, the latest novel (and first in a series) by Van Jensen. Actually, readers will be able to read it in a new edition. After a buzzy Hollywood bidding-war (won by Ron Howard), the novel is getting re-published. In a weird coincidence, I stumbled across both of the new editions on the same day. Both of the covers are certainly eye-catching, and they led me to the book’s synopsis, which ultimately made me put this on my To-Read shelf. (The option news also helped pique my interest.) Jensen also wrote some of the DC New 52 series that I read, back when they all kicked off (The Flash and Green Lantern Corps).

Really looking forward to it. Here’s what it’s about:

When a massive asteroid hurtles toward Earth, humanity braces for annihilation — but the end doesn’t come. In fact, it isn’t an asteroid but a three-mile-tall alien that drops down, seemingly dead, outside Little Springs, Nebraska. Dubbed “the giant,” its arrival transforms the red-state farm town into a top-secret government research site and major metropolitan area, flooded with soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists — and a murderer.

As the sheriff of Little Springs, David Blunt thought he’d be keeping the peace among the same people he’d known all his life, not breaking up chanting crowds of conspiracy theorists in tiger masks or struggling to control a town hall meeting about the construction of a mosque. As a series of brutal, bizarre murders strikes close to home, Blunt throws himself into the hunt for a killer who seems connected to the Giant. With bodies piling up and tensions in Little Springs mounting, he realizes that in order to find the answers he needs, he must first reconcile his old worldview with the town he now lives in — before it’s too late.

Van Jensen’s Godfall is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (January 13th, 2026) and Bantam in the UK (January 8th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Upcoming: A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE by Jordan Harper (Mulholland)

Next year, Mulholland Books will publish the latest novel from Jordan Harper! I haven’t read nearly as many of his novels as I would like to have (so many books, so little time…), but thus far everything of his that I have read has been superb — most recently, Everybody Knows and The Last King of California — and this is an instant pre-order/buy. A Violent Masterpiece looks like it’ll be another gripping, gritty crime novel set in Tinseltown. Can’t wait. Here’s the synopsis:

A story of Los Angeles power brokers and those at the edge, and a single shattering incident that threatens to bring it all crashing down.

Los Angeles, right now. America with its back up against the wall. This Frankenstein’s monster of crimes and lurid dreams sewn together into something like a city. 

A city ready to explode: A Hollywood pedophile is arrested, and is ready to tear down the city to get his freedom. A young woman goes missing — and men in black rubber gloves who look like cops clean out her apartment in the middle of the night. And the serial killer known as the LA Ripper is on the loose, leaving tragic/graphic/brutal crime scenes in his wake. Three people trying to keep their heads above the dirty water will find themselves coming together to unite these strands into one enormous, unspeakable crime…

JAKE DEAL is a gonzo live-streaming nightcrawler, beaming the city’s chaos straight to his audience of blood-hungry subscribers, giving them the view from the top of the mushroom cloud — until a job he can’t refuse drags him back into his old life of Hollywood glamour, drugs, sex and sleaze. Armed with cameras and hidden mics, he’ll infiltrate private clubs, gather high-class dirt — and stumble onto a conspiracy woven into the center of LA’s most powerful men, who call themselves “The Kids in the Candy Store.”

DOUG GIBSON is a street lawyer, who fights for his clients against the army of cops, prosecutors and judges – he is the knife they bring to the gunfight. But when he’s hired by a Hollywood pedophile ready to sell out his friends for a chance for freedom, he’ll take on a fight bigger than he could have imagined. And when his client “commits suicide” in prison, Gibson will have to stop being a weapon – and become a warrior.

KARA DELGADO works for an underground private concierge company – a make-a-wish foundation for the terminally rich. She scores drugs, makes connections, and plans multi-million dollar sex parties.She has learned the secret truth of this world: there are no rules, only prices. Her best friend Phoebe has gone missing, and Kara’s the only person who knows that Phoebe’s place was wiped clean of evidence by men in black rubber gloves. But when she begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to Phoebe, and its connection to the killer known as the LA Ripper, it will drag her into the dark heart of the city.

As Jake, Doug and Kara all investigate these crimes, they’ll encounter ketamine-addled sitcom stars, bloody riots, homeless gangsters, a killer cop on death row, secret vaults in Beverly Hills, tech-bro orgies, medical cannibals, true crime junkies, private security wet-work teams, reality shows, street takeovers, car chases, coyotes, a sadistic Tarzan, and a three day, fifty million dollar wedding, before everything is revealed and they must each make their choice about how to fight back in this violent world before the bloody, blazing conclusion.

Jordan Harper’s A Violent Masterpiece is due to be published by Mulholland Books in North America, on April 28th, 2026.

Also on CR: Review of Everybody Knows

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Upcoming: FROM THE DUST by David Swinson (Mulholland)

Next year, Mulholland Books are due to publish From the Dust — the next novel from David Swinson, the author of the excellent Frank Marr novels (which I highly recommend). A “soulful, rural noir story about belief”, here’s the synopsis:

When a murder occurs in a small town in Upstate New York, retired police detective Graham Sanderson, is drawn back into a vortex of violence, deception, and a series of murders which get dangerously personal.

Graham Sanderson thought he’d left it all behind. His years as a Washington, DC, homicide detective, his tragically dead wife, pain, violence. Taking over his father’s house in the remote Finger Lakes region of rural New York, and looking after his shut-in brother, Tommy, seemed like a respite. That is, until the first body is found.

The chief of the town’s small police jurisdiction, who is also a family friend, asks for Graham’s assistance. Graham’s instincts immediately kick in and he soon discovers there’s more to the area — the people, its brutally quiet, sophisticated hierarchies — than he or his family ever knew.

David Swinson’s From the Dust is due to be published by Mulholland Books in North America and in the UK, on March 31st, 2026.

Also on CR: Reviews of The Second Girl, Crime Song, and Trigger; Excerpt from Sweet Thing

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Upcoming: THE EDGE OF DARKNESS by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)

Next year, Hodder & Stoughton are due to publish the sixth novel in Vaseem Khan‘s superb Malabar House series: The Edge of Darkness. I’ve been a fan of the series since the first book, 2020’s Midnight At Malabar House, and have eagerly anticipated each new book. Anyone who likes mid-20th Century mysteries (and mysteries in general) should check it out. Here’s the synopsis for the latest instalment:

India, 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders from her superiors, Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective, has been exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous state of Nagaland. As India’s first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Victoria Hotel, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in ruins.

But when a prominent local politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria Hotel, his head missing — a case appears quite literally on her doorstep. As the political situation threatens to explode into all-out havoc, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness…

Vaseem Khan’s The Edge of Darkness is due to be published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, on January 15th, 2026.

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Upcoming: THE BURNING GROUNDS by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker/Pegasus)

I’ve long been a fan of Abir Mukherjee‘s Wyndham & Banerjee series of historical crime novels, set in early 20th Century India. I was relatively late to this series, but it fast became one of my must-read crime series. I finished the fifth novel in the series, The Shadows of Man, a couple of days ago, and it ended with one of the main character’s situations in limbo, so I am particularly eager to read this next volume.

This November, fans of the series will be able to get their hands on the highly-anticipated sixth novel in the series: The Burning Grounds!

In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear.

The body is that of a popular patron of the arts, a man who was, by all accounts, beloved by all: so what was the motive for his murder? Despite being out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of Indian cinema.

Meanwhile, Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years spent running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a missing photographer; a trailblazing woman at the forefront of the profession. When Suren discovers that the vanished woman is linked to Sam’s murder investigation, the two men find themselves working together once again – but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?

Abir Mukherjee’s The Burning Grounds is due to be published by Harvill Secker in the UK (November 13th) and Pegasus Crime in North America (November 4th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Upcoming: THE FUTURE SAINTS by Ashley Winstead (Atria)

In January 2026, Atria Books are due to publish The Future Saints, the next book by Ashley Winstead — author of the acclaimed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and This Book Will Bury Me, among others. Pitched as “perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six and In Five Years“, the synopsis caught my attention, and also made me think of a few other music-related novels of recent years (a sub-genre that I am very happy is getting larger), such as The Lightning Bottles. I haven’t read any of Winstead’s previous novels, but I have picked up the two I mention above. Really looking forward to this new book — shame it’s five months away… Here’s the synopsis:

A transportive new novel about a music executive desperately trying to bring a rock band back from the brink…

This is a love story, but not the one you’re expecting.

When record executive Theo meets the Future Saints, they’re bombing at a dive bar in their hometown. Since the tragic death of their manager, the band has been in a downward spiral and Theo has been dispatched to coax a new — and successful — album out of them, or else let them go.

Immediately, Theo is struck by Hannah, the group’s impetuous lead singer, who’s gone off script by debuting a whole new sound, replacing their California pop with gut-wrenching rock. When this new music goes viral, striking an unexpected chord with fans, Theo puts his career on the line to give the Saints one last shot at success with a new tour, new record, and new start.

But Hannah’s grief has larger consequences for the group, and her increasingly destructive antics become a distraction as she and her sister Ginny — her lifelong partner in crime — undermine Theo at every turn. Hannah isn’t ready to move on or prepared for the fame she’s been chasing, and the weight of her problems jeopardize the band, her growing closeness with Theo, and, worst of all, her relationship with her sister — all while the world watches closely. The Future Saints’s big break is here — if only they can survive it.

Ashley Winstead’s The Future Saints is due to be published by Atria Books in North America and Aria in the UK, on January 20th, 2026.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

Upcoming: FADE IN by Kyle Mills (Authors Equity)

I’ve been a big fan of Kyle Mills‘s novels since I stumbled across his Mark Beamon series in, I think, 2002 (I’ve decided to re-read these over the summer, too). At the time, I lived in the UK and his books were strangely difficult to find in stores — I still preferred buying from stores, rather than online, and because I was splitting my time between Cambridge and Durham, I had so very many bookshops to choose from, all within a 10-30 minute walks. I think the events of 9/11 briefly increased British readers’ interest in US political thrillers and, as a result, Mills’s and some others’ books became a little more widely available (e.g., Vince Flynn, Brad Thor). The Beamon novels were gripping, so whenever I popped over the Atlantic to the US, I’d pick up any new novel(s) he’d written.

In 2005, this included the excellent Fade, which introduced readers to Salam al-Fayed (a.k.a. “Fade”), a former Navy SEAL and intelligence asset. It was, I believe, planned as a stand-alone, but in a couple of weeks (July 29th), the author will publish a long-awaited sequel: Fade In. I, for one, can’t wait to read it. Here’s the synopsis:

When ex-navy SEAL Salam al-Fayed–Fade to his friends–steps in front of a sniper’s bullet, he assumes all his problems are solved. Having already been declared clinically dead twice in his career, he’s hoping the third time will be the charm.

Instead, he wakes in a hospital having gone from being one of the deadliest operatives in US history to a man incapable of even standing without assistance. Alone and wanted by authorities, he’s destined to spend the rest of his life lying in a prison infirmary.

So, when a shadowy organization offers him a new identity and next-generation medical care, he has no choice but to agree. Nothing’s free, though. After a gruelling rehabilitation, he’s drafted into an elite paramilitary unit. But who’s in charge?

When a dire threat explodes out of China, his question is quickly A select group of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people has decided that governments are no longer capable of controlling the chaos erupting around the globe. It’s a power vacuum that poses a mortal danger to all humanity and one they intend to fill.

With panic rising, the leaders of both democracies and dictatorships prove equally willing to destroy anything and anyone to save themselves. Forced into action before he’s fully ready, Fade finds himself at the sharp end of a mission to stop a menace unlike any faced before. If he fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. But what if he succeeds?

No one elected the people he’s working for. And God sure as hell didn’t ordain them. Has he signed on to save the human race or to help quietly enslave it?

Kyle Mills’s Fade In is due to be published by Authors Equity in North America and in the UK, on July 29th.

Also on CR: Reviews of Darkness Falls, The Survivor, Order to Kill, Enemy of the State, and Lethal Agent

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