Douglas Preston, author of Pendergast: The Beginning

It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand-new FBI agent --- A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended. Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. Thanks in large part to Pendergast’s brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer. That is when the true horror begins.

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Don Winslow, author of The Final Score

THE FINAL SCORE is a collection of six all-new short novels from Don Winslow. The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. And there are three more stories that are just as twisty: “The North Wing,” “The Lunch Break” and “Collision.”

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George Saunders, author of Vigil

Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion. She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it? Crowds of people and animals --- worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead --- arrive, clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room, and two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for his post-death future.

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Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

January 2026

I had the pleasure of meeting Belle Burden at a publisher event in November. After she told us her story, which is detailed in STRANGERS, I immediately requested a prerelease audio download. I love listening to memoirs on audio. After finishing it, I would share the book’s opening with friends, and they all said that it sounded like a really good novel. Then I would tell them that it’s a memoir.

So what did they react to?

In the first week of the pandemic, while Belle and her family were staying at their home on Martha’s Vineyard, life was going as well as it could be during those uncertain times. There were lovely fires in the fireplace, with wood that was carefully selected by Belle’s husband, and cocktails in the afternoon. Yes, there still was fear of COVID, but they felt safe where they were.

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Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

January 2026

I thought it would be tough for Ashley Elston to match her previous thriller, FIRST LIE WINS. But she certainly did that, and more, with ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI.

Small towns often have their own hierarchy with those in power who call the shots. They typically are not elected; rather, they wield power because of money or who they know. Many have secrets that go back decades, all linked to their own nefarious deeds. In ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI, Ashley puts those who have this unelected power on the hot seat, as their deeds from the past come back. And this time judgment is made.

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