Are you ready to talk about April book releases? When I talk about book releases a month ahead of time, I hope you realize I do that because library users can get their holds placed on books, and, if you buy your books, you can watch for the ones that interest you. Let me know which books you’re anticipating. And, let me know if I miss ones you’re waiting to read.

Here are the books I’m highlighting. Don’t forget to look at the titles below as well.

Samantha Jayne Allen’s debut mystery, Pay Dirt Road, was the winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize. Her character, Annie McIntyre is back in Hard Rain. Floodwaters decimate Garnett, Texas, and Bethany Richter credits an unknown man with her survival when others were killed. Annie’s now an apprentice P.I., and Bethany hires her for her first solo case. Find the man who rescued her before he was swept downstream. The case leads Annie into a web of drug dealers, preachers, and wayward drifters. (Release date is April 18.)

The legacy of the “Queen of Suspense” continues with the highly anticipated follow-up to Mary Higgins Clark’s iconic novel Where Are The Children?, featuring the children of Nancy Harmon, facing peril once again as adults. In Where Are the Children Now?, Clark and Alafair Burke set the book four decades later. Melissa and Mike are Nancy Harmon’s grown children. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse. (Release date is April 18.)

I loved Lucy Connelly’s first Scottish Isle mystery, An American in Scotland. Sea Isle was supposed to be the fresh start Dr. Emilia McRoy dreamed of. Far from the busy emergency room across the Atlantic in Seattle, she hoped to settle down and begin this new chapter as a small-town doctor to the quirky residents who immediately welcomed her. When she stumbles across a dead body, she starts to think that she may not be as Scot free of the drama and intrigue as she initially thought. Emilia soon learns she has bigger issues at hand. It starts with realizing she’ll work closely with the less than helpful local constable, Laird Ewan Campbell. Her luck continues when she discovers that part of her new responsibilities includes being the coroner for the very body she found. Finally, when the body goes missing before she can even begin the autopsy, Emilia must convince the townspeople that a crime did, in fact, occur. The deeper she digs into the picturesque town, the more suspicious she becomes. (Release date is April 4.)

Eli Cranor follows up the success of Don’t Know Tough with another standalone, Ozark Dogs. After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt. Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. (Release date is April 4.)

Vanessa Cuti’s debut is an unsettling thriller that asks just how far you should go to find love. Eager to get married, thirty-year-old Virginia Carey lands a job as an operator at a police tip line, where she thinks finding a husband will be easy. There’s Charlie Ford, a surprisingly sweet homicide detective, and charming police chief Declan “Deck” Brady. But just as Virginia’s plans begin to fall into place and she can almost picture a ring on her finger, she answers a call from Verona—a mysterious woman who provides a tip about four bodies on a remote local beach. Verona, a sex worker, also gives Virginia details on sordid and raucous parties attended by law enforcement officers, and on the strange fetishes of cops she has been involved with. Then comes an explosive tip: Verona thinks it’s a police officer who is responsible for the killings. (Release date is April 18.)

Alex Erickson’s latest cozy mystery is Death by Iced Coffee. Bookstore-café owner Krissy Hancock is stepping out from behind the counter to take part in the first annual Pine Hills, Ohio, marathon. But with a killer close by, she may soon be running for her life . . .
It’s a brutally hot day in Pine Hills, and Krissy Hancock would love to be sitting in a shady spot and sipping her favorite iced coffee. Instead, she’s lacing up her sneakers for a marathon—and swiftly regretting it. Especially when she finds one of the other runners lying motionless. At first Krissy suspects heatstroke, but the red marks around the man’s throat tell a more sinister story. (Release date is April 25.)

David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, brings us The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. It’s a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire. On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang. (Release date is April 18.)

You may have read Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls. In The Golden Doves, two former female spies, bound together by their past, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II. American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves, renowned across France and hunted by the Gestapo. Their courage will cost them everything. A decade later the Doves fall headlong into a dangerous dual mission: Josie is working for U.S. Army Intelligence and accepts an assignment to hunt down an infamous doctor, while a mysterious man tells Arlette he may have found her son. The Golden Doves embark on a quest across Europe and ultimately to French Guiana, discovering a web of terrible secrets, and must put themselves in grave danger to finally secure justice and protect the ones they love. (Release date is April 18.)

TV productions shut down due to Covid, and perhaps that’s why Dennis Lehane found time to write again. I’m grateful because Small Mercies is the best book I’ve read this year. “Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism.” In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business. (Release date is April 25.)

Eat, Drink and Drop Dead is Toni LoTempio’s first Tiffany Austin Food Blogger mystery. Food critic and blogger Tiffany Austin has the best job in the world: she gets to eat for a living. At least, she hopes she has a job. Her trial period at Southern Style magazine is up – and rumors are swirling that management are making a choice between Tiffany and a rival columnist: the ambitious Jenny Lee Plumm. Former chef Tiffany knows she has a battle on her hands . . . but she didn’t realize it was to the death! When her rival’s body is discovered after the two have a very public argument, Tiffany finds herself the prime suspect in a murder investigation. The lead detective might be very hot – but Tiffany’s definitely not ready to go down for a crime she didn’t commit. (Release date is April 4.)

Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen is a crime story with a speculative edge. Seven years ago, everyone in the world went blind in a matter of months. Technology helped people adjust to the new normal, creating a device that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people’s brains. But what happens when someone finds a way to hack it and change what people see?Homicide detective Mark Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding. When a scientist is murdered, and the only witness insists the killer was blacked out of her vision, Owens doesn’t believe her―until a similar murder happens in front of him. With suspects ranging from tech billionaires to anti-modernity cultists―and with the bodies piling up―Owens must conduct an investigation in which he can’t even trust his own eyes. (Release date is April 4.)

Dark Angel is John Sandford’s second thriller featuring Letty Davenport. Letty Davenport’s days working a desk job at are behind her. Her previous actions at a gunfight in Texas—and her incredible skills with firearms—draw the attention of several branches of the US government, and make her a perfect fit for even more dangerous work. The Department of Homeland Security and the NSA have tasked her with infiltrating a hacker group, known only as Ordinary People, that is intent on wreaking havoc. Letty and her reluctant partner from the NSA pose as free-spirited programmers for hire and embark on a cross country road trip to the group’s California headquarters. While the two work to make inroads with Ordinary People and uncover their plans, they begin to suspect that the hackers are not their only enemy. Someone within their own circle may have betrayed them, and has ulterior motives that place their mission—and their lives—in grave danger. (Release date is April 11.)

The latest Scottish Bookshop mystery by Paige Shelton is Fateful Words. When Edwin, Delaney’s boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls―or is pushed―off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in her wake. In a race against the clock, Delaney sets out on the expedition of her life, following clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery. Exploring sights from Greyfriars Bobby to the Royal Mile to the Sir Walter Scott Monument, she’ll have to put the pieces together quickly, or the bookstore’s survival could be on the line…as well as her own. (Release date is April 4.)

Heart of the Nile is Will Thomas’ latest Barker & Llewelyn novel. Cyrus Barker, along with his former assistant and now partner Thomas Llewelyn, is the premier enquiry agent in all of 19th century London, and beyond. They’ve thwarted the designs of villains and crooks off all sorts, helped Scotland Yard crack their most challenging cases, and worked for the Her Majesty’s Government at the very highest levels. But nothing has been quite as challenging and dangerous as the latest case that comes to find them. In 1893, a volunteer at the British Museum makes a startling discovery. When examining a mummy in the museum’s collection, he discovers there is a giant ruby in the shape of a heart buried in the chest of the mummy. Even more startling, the mummy might well be Cleopatra. The following morning, the volunteer is found floating in the Thames and the ruby has gone missing. Hired by the victim’s wife to learn the truth behind his death, Barker and Llewelyn find themselves in the crosshairs – now they must avoid a violent street gang, a ruthless collector, and the British Museum itself in order to find the killer and safeguard the gem. (Release date is April 11.)

Alisa Lynn Valdes’ first Jodi Luna novel is Hollow Beasts. After a long stint in academia, Jodi Luna leaves Boston for the wilds of New Mexico to start a new life as a game warden. Jodi is no stranger to the wilderness; her family has lived here for generations. Determined to protect her homeland, she nabs a poacher in her first week on the job. But when he retaliates by stalking Jodi and her teenage daughter, a cat and mouse game leads Jodi to a white supremacist group deep in the mountains. She learns that new recruits are kidnapping women of color to prove their mettle to the organization’s leader. When the local sheriff refuses to assist, Jodi joins up with young deputy Ashley Romero. Together, they set out to take down a terrorist network that will test not just their skills as investigators but also their knowledge of the land and commitment to its people. (Release date is April 1.)

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I want to talk about a nonfiction book that is released in April. I don’t have a copy in my closet, but I’m looking forward to reading it, as ugly as the subject is.

I loved Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Times. Now, in A Fever in the Heartland, he takes on an ugly subject in Indiana. The book is subtitled “The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman who Stopped Them.” “With meticulous detective work, Timothy Egan shines a light on one of the most sinister chapters in American history—how a viciously racist movement, led by a murderous conman, rose to power in the early twentieth century. A Fever in the Heartland is compelling, powerful, and profoundly resonant today.” — David Grann, author of THE WAGER and KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan’s rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.

The Roaring Twenties–the Jazz Age–has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees. (Release date is April 4.)

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Check out these books as well.

Bose, Disha – Dirty Laundry (4/4)
Brashears, Monica – House of Cotton (4/4)
Castro, V. – The Haunting of Alejandra (4/18)
Chalsen, Becky – Kismet (4/18)
Elliott, Lauren – Dedication to Murder (4/25)
Esden, Trish – A Wealth of Deception (4/18)
Gray, Anissa – Life and Other Love Songs (4/11)
Graver, Elizabeth – Kantika (4/18)
Graves, Sarah – Death by Chocolate Marshmallow Pie (4/25)
Greenwald, Carlyn – Sizzle Reel (4/18)
Hart, Sarah – Once Upon a Prime (4/11)
Hays, Kim – Sons and Brothers (4/18)
Hendricks, T.R. – The Instructor (4/11)
Hyder, Liz – The Gifts (4/25)
Joseph, Paterson – The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho (4/11)
Kang, Han – Greek Lessons (4/18)
Kellogg, Camille – Just as You Are (4/25)
Lee, Julia – Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America (4/18)
Mackintosh, Sophie – Cursed Bread (4/4)
MacMillan, Cyndi – A Cruel Light (4/4)
McLaughlin, James A. – Panther Gap (4/4)
Meier, Leslie – Mother of the Bride Murder (4/25)
Parker, T. Jefferson – The Rescue (4/25)
Roper, Jane – The Society of Shame (4/4)
Rosen, Jonathan – The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions (4/18)
Rubin, Gretchen – Life in Five Senses (4/18)
Sternbergh, Adam – The Eden Test (4/25)
Stradal, J. Ryan – Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club (4/25)
Tesh, Emily – Some Desperate Glory (4/11)
Toon, Paige – Only Love Can Hurt Like This (4/25)
Wheeler, Genevieve – Adelaide (4/18)
Williams, Jen – Games for Dead Girls (4/18)
Williams, Lucinda – Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir (4/25)