We have a lot of May book releases to get to, so we’ll dive right in.


In John Hart’s latest thriller, Redemption Road, North Carolina police detective Elizabeth Black faces possible criminal charges after she gunned down two men who were sexually abusing 18-year-old Channing Shore. Since Elizabeth, a white cop, shot the two men, when were black, 18 times, there’s major media attention. But, she doesn’t seem to care. She’s more concerned than Adrian Wall, a former fellow cop, is being released from prison after 13 years for murdering a woman, a crime she still thinks he didn’t commit. And, after almost being gunned down, he’s once again a murder suspect. (Release date is May 3.)


Noah Hawley brings us another thriller, Before the Fall. On a foggy summer night, eleven people take off from Martha’s Vineyard head for New York. Ten are privileged, one a down-on-his-luck painter. Sixteen minutes later, the plane goes down into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs, the painter, and a four-year-old-boy. Amidst the escalating storm of media outrage and accusations, the fragile relationship between Scott and the young boy are at the heart of the story. (Release date is May 31.)

Don’t You Cry is Mary Kubica’s novel of deceit and obsession. A young woman named Esther Vaughn disappears from her Chicago apartment. A haunting letter makes her friend Quinn Collins wonder if she ever knew Esther. In a small town, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where Alex Gallo works. He’s drawn to her, but his innocent crush spirals into something dark and sinister. Kubica takes readers on a twisted thrill ride. (Release date is May 17.)

In a translation from the Swedish, David Lagercrantz, author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web, now brings us a story set during a witch-hunt in England in 1954. Fall of Man in Wilmslow follows after the death of a mathematician named Alan Turing is found dead. As the witch-hunt for homosexuals rages, it’s assumed he committed suicide. But, Detective Sergeant Leonard Corell suspects greater forces are involved. He begins to assemble pieces of a puzzle that leads him to Bletchley Park and the operation to crack the Enigma code. And, he’s soon being pursued as a threat to national security. (Release date is May 3.)


Harvard historian Jill Lepore tells the story of her own search for a long-lost book in Joe Gould’s Teeth. Gould, a madman, believed he was the most brilliant historian in the twentieth century, and some of his friends, such as John Dos Passos and Ezra Pound, agreed. He professed to be writing the longest book ever written, The Oral History of Our Time. But when he died in 1957 in a mental hospital, no manuscript was found. Lenore uncovers evidence that the manuscript did once exist. (Release date is May 17.)

Every thriller this month purports to be “the next Gone Girl” or “the next Girl on a Train“. An international bestseller, Clare Mackintosh’s I Let You Go, is the latest. Jenna Gray’s life is shattered when her son slips from her grip and runs into the street. She moves to the remote Welsh coast, trying to leave the tragedy behind. At the same time, a pair of Bristol police investigators chase down one hopeless lead after another in the hit-and-run in a twist-filled case. (Release date is May 3.)

Three people are tied together in a story of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, C.E. Morgan’s The Sport of Kings. One of Kentucky’s oldest dynasties is headed by Henry Forge, a man who has partnered with his daughter, Henrietta, obsessed with breeding the next superiors. But when Allmon Shaughnessy, an ambitious young black man, comes to work on their farm after a stint in prison, the three tie their dreams of glory to the speed and grace of a horse named Hellsmouth. (Release date is May 3.)

In Lisa Owens’ humorous debut novel, Not Working, a twenty-some-year-old tries the patience of everyone around her when she quits her job to search for a job she’s more passionate about. (Release date is May 3.)












The Assistants is Camille Perri’s debut novel. It’s the story of an executive assistant in Manhattan whose embezzlement scam turns her into an unlikely advocate for all the overeducated and underpaid assistants across the city. (Release date is May 3.)








Ashley Ream’s novel, The 100 Year Miracle, asks the question, what will people do to save themselves. Once a century, for only six days, the bay around a small Washington island glows like a water-bound aurora. Dr. Rachel Bell, a scientist studying the 100-Year Miracle, knows the rare green water may contain a power that could save Rachel’s own life, and change the world. (Release date is May 24.)


Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo returns to North Bath, New York, and the characters from Nobody’s Fool in his latest novel, Everybody’s Fool. It’s filled with humor, heart, hard times, and people you’ll love. (Release date is May 3.)










Two US Navy veterans join up to write under the name Alex Ryan. In Beijing Red, an ex-Navy SEAL combine forces with a brilliant, beautiful scientist when a team of charity workers in rural China suddenly succumbs to a mysterious illness. Together they unveil the outbreak’s ties to the Chinese government, and a conspiracy greater than either could have imagined. (Release date is May 10.)

Detective Macy Greeley returns in Karin Salvalaggio’s Walleye Junction. She investigates the murder of a notorious radio personality who was kidnapped, only to be murdered during his escape attempt. When the two kidnappers are found dead, the authorities hope it’s an open and shut case. But, Macy finds too many discrepancies. (Release date is May 10.)








Swedish crime fiction author has five books in her Emma Skold series, but Killer Deal is the first to be published in English. The morning after an open house in a posh neighborhood, a young girl finds her father dead in the villa for sale. With the murder weapon one of the family’s own kitchen knives, Detective Emma Skold suspects the wife. But, when another murder occurs, tied to a different open house, Emma has to reexamine her theory. (Release date is May 10.)


Emma Straub, author of The Vacationers, now brings us Modern Lovers. It’s the story of three friends and college bandmates who grow up, marry, live in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn. But, one summer as they near fifty, their lives start to unravel, and their secrets and revelations can never be recaptured. (Release date is May 31.)

See Also Deception is Larry D. Sweazy’s second mystery to feature Marjorie Trumaine, farm wife and indexer. In October 1964, just months after she helped solve a series of murders in Dickinson, North Dakota, she’s faced with another death that pulls her into an investigation when the local librarian is found dead at work. Everyone considers it suicide, except Marjorie. But, no one will believe her, so she sets out to uncover the truth. (Release date is May 10.)


The Bricks That Build the Houses is Kate Tempest’s debut novel. Becky, Harry, and Leon are leaving London in a fourth-hand Ford with a suitcase full of stolen money, in a mess of tangled loyalties and impulses. But can they truly leave the city that’s in their bones? (Release date is May 3.)

Rising journalism star Kitty Weeks is the featured character in Radha Vatsal’s new series, beginning with A Front Page Affair. It’s New York City in 1915, with war news and stories of a scandalous shooting. Kitty would love to report on the news, but she’s stuck writing about fashion and society gossip on the Ladies’ Page, until a man is murdered at a high society picnic on her beat. Determined to prove herself as a real journalist, she finds herself caught up in a wartime conspiracy. (Release date is May 3.)

Dan Vyleta’s Smoke has been called a combination of thriller, fantasy, and historical fiction. It’s England, about a century ago. People who are wicked in thought or deed are marked by the Smoke that pours forth from their bodies, a sign of their fallen state. The aristocracy do not smoke, proof of their virtue and right to rule, while the lower classes are drenched in sin and soot. There are warring political factions. A love triangle. A desperate chase. Murder. Rich versus poor. Right versus wrong, though which is which isn’t clear. (Release date is May 24.)


Historian Alison Weir introduces the first in a series of six historical novels, each centered on the life of one of Henry VIII’s wives. The first book is Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen. (Release date is May 31.)










And, one last book because it was on the wrong pile so I missed it alphabetically. Maggie McConnon introduces Belfast McGrath in Wedding Bel Blues. There’s cake, killers, and Celtic culture. Bel lost her job and her reputation as head chef in a famed restaurant, and broke off her engagement. She returns to her hometown and her Irish family just in time for her cousin’s wedding. But, when her cousin’s former lover ends up dead during the wedding reception, Bel joins forces with her high school sweetheart, now a police detective, to solve the case. (Release date is May 31.)


So, two days of forthcoming books. Lots of titles here. Anything that jumps out at you?