• The Impossible Fortune, Richard Osman
• The Woman in White, Sarah Pekkanen
• Blind Date with the Werewolf, Patricia Briggs
• The Second Life of Nick Mason, Steve Hamilton
• A Judgement of Powers, Benedict Jacka
• Bad Moon, Jodi Taylor
• Take a Hike, Katie Ruggle
• Things We Never Got Over, Lucy Score
• Half-Witch, John Schoffstall
• Five Found Dead, Sulari Gentil
• Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests, KJ Whittle
• Ember Eternal, Chloe Neill
• We are All Guilty Here, Karin Slaughter
• Love You More, Lisa Gardner

I don’t know why I even summarize books by Richard Osman, Patricia Briggs, Benedict Jacka, Katie Ruggle, and Jodi Taylor. I am going to buy every book they write, and I am going to enjoy them immensely. But I should give a little bit of information, so you can position each book on your TBR list.

Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series is always a winner, and if you’ve seen the TV adaptation, you’ll know it was wonderful. We rejoin our favorite seniors in the newest installment of their lives: there is grief, renewal, and new puzzles to solve. Don’t miss The Impossible Fortune.

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Sarah Pekkanen’s The Women in White, which will be available in 2026. The plot, both taking place in the past and present, is based on Duke University’s famous parapsychology experiments from 1930 to 1965. Riley is hired to take care of Betty, a very picky 81-year-old. But Riley is also seizing the chance for her own purposes. Betty’s past intrigues Riley, and the stories of the two women gradually unfold and intertwine. Don’t miss this blend of history and thriller.

Patricia Briggs’ Blind Date with the Werewolf contains the account of Asil’s (an ancient Moorish werewolf) experiences with the blind dates he’s been set up with by an anonymous “friend.” There are conditions Asil must meet in these experiences, and he accepts the challenge. This is both suspenseful and funny, and the last date has an unexpected ending. Loved this.

The Second Life of Nick Mason begins with Nick five years into his sentence in a maximum security prison. He gets an offer he can’t refuse: freedom in exchange for his service as a hitman. The price of this freedom gets steeper and steeper.

Benedict Jacka came to my attention with his Alex Verus novels (I have them all). This second series, featuring Stephen Oakwood, whose parents have deserted him but left him aware that he has a family tradition of magical power, took more time to grow on me, but I’m all-in now. A Judgement in Powers is the third book: they really need to be read in order. The choices Stephen has to make are all hard, just like Alex Verus’s. But they’re intriguing, and we’re hoping right along with Stephen that he makes the right ones.

Bad Moon is Jodi Taylor’s fourth Elizabeth Cage novel. Please read these in order, too. Elizabeth is a quiet, conservative, woman whose idea of fun is very tame. But as she finds out who she really  is and what she can do, her world is altered dramatically.

Katie Ruggle’s adventurous romances are full of bright, vivid characters who charge into their lives with gusto and survive the consequences. Take a Hike, the third novel in Ruggle’s Beneath the Wild Sky series about the Pax sisters, whose mother has hidden a gem in their house and run away, is just as lively as the first two. Charlie Pax meets Kieran, a gruff firefighter, in the town Ruggle’s Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue series is set. Total fun.

I absolutely enjoyed Lucy Score’s Things We Never Got Over. Naomi arrives in Knockemout, Virginia, to meet her bad identical twin, Tina. Tina is a truly terrible person, and she proves it by leaving Naomi stranded in a town where almost everyone hates Tina, and saddling the childless Naomi with the daughter Naomi didn’t know she had. Meeting Knox, who can’t stand Tina and can’t tell the difference between the two, is another blow. Troubles abound, and Naomi has to struggle to build a life for herself and her niece.

Half-Witch is a truly amazing book I didn’t expect. I didn’t remember buying it, but there is was on my TBR bookcase. This is really a wonderful read. Lizbet Lenz has to find a way to get her conman father out of jail, and to do that she has to go on a quest across the dangerous mountains. Her only companion is a girl created by a witch, Strix, who is not used to being with a human or anyone at all. But on their journey, Strix and Lizbet come to rely on each other and, finally, trust each other. This novel is about the power of friendship, and it’s wonderful.

Five Found Dead is Sulari Gentil’s mystery set in the modern day but reflecting past novels taking place on the Orient Express. Brother and sister Joe and Meredith Penvale are taking the historic trip to celebrate Joe’s surviving cancer, and Meredith is hoping that the atmosphere will help Joe get back into his writing after the great success of his first novel. What neither of them suspect is that there will be five murders along the route.

Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests also has a classic plot reference. Seven people are invited to a mysterious dinner party. They all accept for difference reasons. The food is good, the servers don’t speak, and the décor is spooky. Seven cards in front of each diner are found to contain the age at which each one will die. Of course, no one believes that can be the case, until the diners start dying. Naturally, the murderer is one of the guests, and it’s up to you to pick out which one.

Chloe Neill and I have known each other not well, but for a long time. She is a generous and productive writer, and I was so glad to get my copy of Ember Eternal. I was not disappointed. Fox and her friend are apprenticed to an amoral woman who only values her own life and prosperity. They steal for her, and also so they can have a little they keep for themselves, so they can buy back their freedom.  Fox is concealing her magical ability, because that will make her more valuable to her employer and prolong her servitude. She can’t help but point out an assassin to the bodyguard of the new ruler, and that embroils her in a complicated plot and terrifying situations. But Fox is up to it.

I’ve also had the pleasure of knowing Karin Slaughter for a long time, and she’s experiencing an epic streak in her career. We Are All Guilty Here will show you why. Two teens disappear on a night of town celebration and fireworks, and Officer Emmy Clifton is determined to find out why. Emmy has her own demons to deal with. As she gets deeper and deeper into the lives of the two girls, she unearths more.

Love You More is a striptease of a book, layers upon layers being ripped back to reveal the heartrending truth of a crime. State Police trooper Tessa Leoni shoots Brian Darby in their kitchen. She is severely battered, so at first glance her narrative, that she was a battered wife defending herself, seems credible.  But their daughter is nowhere to be found. The story is told from the viewpoints of D.D. Warren, the detective charged with finding out the truth, and Tessa Leoni’s as does what she must to save what she can. This is a dynamite book.

Blog:

You will read this when Sarah, trusty assistant, has time to post it. I told her “whenever.” I hope you get some good reading ideas from the books I mention, and I hope you have a wonderful lot of books to read in the new year.

I met my personal goal for 2025: no surgery. I never make New Year’s Resolutions. But that was my heartfelt hope, let’s say. And I made it!

I also finished an as-yet untitled book, which both my editors (UK and USA) have on their desks. I turned it in on the due date in July, got comments after many months, then did deep revisions, and now I hope to get a pub date . . .  but it won’t be until 2027. I know, I’m disappointed, too. I’m pretty excited about this book, which is the longest one I’ve ever written, so I’m anxious for you all to see it.

The Christmas season will be passed soon. I hope it was merry for you, and that you got to see everyone you loved, and that you gave and got presents that made you happy. I hope you didn’t have to spend time with people who weren’t sympathetic or empathetic. I hope you have hope for 2026. I hope you are healthy and warm and have enough to eat and enough to read.

Thank you for listening to my irregular ramblings.

Charlaine Harris