Action ramps up this spring. Military thrillers, survival stories and gritty adventures dominate. From bestselling authors like Tom Clancy and James Patterson to graphic novels that you might see at Comic-Con, these book recommendations are perfect for readers who like fast pacing and cinematic action. Stakes are life or death. If you love adrenaline on the page, dive in.
Best Action & Thriller New Releases May 2026:
26 Beauties: A Women's Murder Club Thriller
by James Patterson
From the world's #1 bestselling author, the Women's Murder Club goes searching for 26 Beauties--young women missing in San Francisco.
SFPD's Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's best friend, Claire Washburn, is named medical examiner of the year. But an uninvited guest crashes the Women's Murder Club's party: a concerned father seeking investigative reporter Cindy Thomas's help in locating his missing daughter. And she's not the only one. Lindsay's been investigating the deaths of a Jane Doe washed up on a nearby beach, and a young woman found in Golden Gate Park.
What if all these cases are connected? The answers lie with the 26 Beauties on the run and in the wind.
The Brothers McKay: A Longmire Mystery
by Craig Johnson
A masterful new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series
When Pepper McKay, one of the most hated men in Absaroka County, is found murdered on his ranch in Crazy Woman Canyon, suspects aren't in short supply. But Sheriff Walt Longmire's attention is on those who had gathered for a family meeting that evening, McKay's very different sons: a smooth-talking charmer, a cosmopolitan journalist, a reclusive monk, and a half-Native ranch hand who keeps the place running. Each had a motive. Each claims he's innocent.
As Walt investigates what happened that night at the O-Kay Lodge, he's pulled into a tangle of old grudges and long-buried secrets. Then the case takes a sharp turn: a second body surfaces, and a wildfire tears through the canyon, trapping Walt and forcing him into a fight for his life as both the killer and the elements close in.
The twenty-second novel in the Longmire series, The Brothers McKay is a murder mystery and a survival thriller that tests the sheriff's hard-won sense of justice--all while paying sly homage to Dostoevsky's classic.
The Last Mandarin
by Louise Penny - Mellissa Fung
A gripping thriller about family and power co-written by Louise Penny, #1 bestselling author of the Gamache novels, and Mellissa Fung, an award-winning journalist.
A mother and a daughter race against time in this all-too-real thriller that reaches from Tiananmen Square all the way to the White House.
Alice Li, a first-generation Chinese American and former food blogger, has long lived in the shadow of her mother, Vivien Li-- a Tiananmen Square dissident turned world-renowned human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China.
When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, Vivien and Alice are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can interpret the Chinese intentions. But why involve Alice?
If China isn't behind the attack, Vivien warns, someone even more dangerous is pulling the strings. Mother and daughter must join together to overcome their estrangement if they have any hope of preventing global catastrophe. From DC to Ohio to Hong Kong, they work to prevent the next attack, along the way decoding an ancient legend and uncovering a secret language invented by women, for women.
The Last Mandarin is an electrifying study of absolute power and voracious greed, political terror and personal conviction. But it is also an intimate examination of choice, of sacrifice, of memory and myths, both cultural and personal. It is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down. In a world ruled by power, even family can be a weapon.
Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement
by Ward Larsen
When a member of his Cabinet is killed in a plane President Jack Ryan suspects that the "accident" is anything but in this latest shocking entry in this #1 New York Times bestselling series.
The White House is stunned when the Secretary of Commerce is killed in a plane crash in Turkey. President Jack Ryan isn't ready to write this off as a simple accident. Not only has he lost a good friend, but the Secretary was on an important mission: on the surface he was making an appearance at an economic conference, but the CIA was also using the flight as cover to extract an important asset from the Middle East.
Soon, Lt. Commander Katie Ryan and her team are working with the investigators to find the cause of the tragedy, but one shocking revelation changes everything. There were supposed to be 16 people on the plane, but there are only 15 bodies.
The quest for answers will lead the team deeper and deeper into a quagmire of lies and deception that will force President Ryan to face an unprincipled enemy with global ambitions.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Vol. 1 (Graphic Novel)
by Matt Dinniman - Aethon Aethon - Matt Dinniman - Laurel Pursuit Studios
The LitRPG fantasy smash hit phenomenon and New York Times bestseller, DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL, is now a graphic novel for the very first time!
The Apocalypse WILL be televised! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat. Join Carl and Princess Donut as they try to survive the end of the world -- or just get to the next level of a trap-filled fantasy dungeon.
With vibrant art done by Laurel Pursuit to bring action-packed battles to life, join as Carl fights his way through the dungeon in heart-speckled underwear.
And of course, the grizzly scenes are only balanced with the incredibly fluffy, wide-eyed stare of its main character, Princess Donut.
A ton of heart and effort was poured in creating a series with a script and style that would both appeal to WEBTOON readers and also lovers of DCC, all while consulting author Matt Dinniman the entire way about character designs, story, - EVERYTHING!
We couldn't resist taking the apocalyptic awesomeness of the DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL WEBTOON and adapting it into the FIRST EVER graphic novel series!
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.
This volume collects episodes 1-13 of the WEBTOON edition.
Praise for DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL (eBook/Print):
"Fresh. Creative. Hilarious. I'm obsessed...Princess Donut is my queen." - Actor, producer and New York Times bestselling author Felicia Day
"[A] comically cosmic adventure series...often laugh-out-loud funny...Grind your way to dungeon mastery alongside Carl and Princess Donut." - The Wall Street Journal
"One of the most bananapants, funny, inventive books I have read in a while." - Book Riot
"Dungeon Crawler Carl is the best start to a series I've read this year. I wish I'd tried it sooner." - Will Wight, author of the Cradle series
"Dinniman's Douglas-Adams-but-playing-D&D romp was so much fun that I immediately went out and got the next two books...genuinely joyful." - LitHub.com
April Books:
Japanese Gothic: A Gothic Dual-Timeline Novel of Ghosts, Hauntings and Redemption (Original)
by Kylie Lee Baker
New York Times Most Anticipated Book for 2026
USA TODAY Most Anticipated Books of 2026
Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026
Book Riot "Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026"
In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds.
October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls.
October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window.
One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie.
Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it.
For readers who love:
- Grady Hendrix and Stephen King
- Japanese mythology
- Friendship and family themes
- Terrifying, gory stories
- Horror with heart
- A new take on the classic haunted house trope
Nothing Tastes as Good
by Luke Dumas
He finally got the body he wanted. Now he's hungry for something worse.
The nationally bestselling author of The Paleontologist and A History of Fear returns with a spine-tingling new thriller about a weight loss treatment with terrifying side effects.
Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck--in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.
Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.
Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he's human?
Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines the body horror and social commentary of The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.
The Caretaker
by Marcus Kliewer
Follow the Rites...
Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake.
From Marcus Kliewer, a new "titan of the macabre and unsettling" (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater--and more dangerous--than she ever could have imagined.
EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.
Macy Mullins can't say why the job posting grabbed her attention--it had the pull of a fisherman's lure, barbed hook and all--vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she's not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for.
Besides, it's only three days' work...
Three days, cooped up in a stranger's house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness.
What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property--and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.
Follow the Rites...
Follow the Rites...
Follow the Rites...
..--- / ..... / ---..
Hope Rises
by David Baldacci
Walter Nash began a journey down a dark path of seemingly no return, and now he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in this thrilling sequel to Nash Falls from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he'd be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.
In order to succeed, he's going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those she trusts completely into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he's ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.
Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could've imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable.
So, will the truth set Nash free?
Or end him?
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth
by Patrick Radden Keefe
From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their nineteen-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London's glittering surface
In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain's spy agency, captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of Riverwalk, a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river.
In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son. Zac had told her that he had gone to stay with a friend, but then he did not come home. Days later, a police car pulled up and two officers relayed the dreadful news: her son was dead.
In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. He had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. As they would soon discover, however, there was a lot they did not know about their son. Only after his death did they learn that he had adopted a fictitious alter-ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac had become entangled with a slippery London businessman named Akbar Shamji, and a murderous gangster known as "Indian Dave." As the Brettlers set about investigating their son's death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they'd always known, and came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac's life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seemed unable--or unwilling--to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In a bravura feat of reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers' quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing the seedy truths behind the glamorous London of posh mansions and private nightclubs, a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption. London Falling is a mesmerizing investigation of an inexplicable death and a powerful narrative driven by suspense and staggering revelations. But it is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today, a portrait of a family trying to solve the riddle not just of how their son died, but of who he really was in life.
March picks:
Westward Women
by Alice Martin
For fans of Emma Cline and Emily St. John Mandel, Westward Women is a hypnotic and hopeful debut--part fever dream, part dystopian road trip that claws its way towards a jaw-dropping finale.
"An audacious first novel to set beside Margaret Atwood." - Joyce Carol Oates
It starts with an itch.
In homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down.
Tired. Blank. Restless.
Drawn to the Pacific Ocean like it's calling them home. They abandon their lives.
Mother Is Watching
by Karma Brown
The chilling horror debut from a #1 international bestselling author--an art conservator's obsession with a mysterious painting spirals into a nightmarish descent, where the line between reality and the supernatural shatters, threatening both her sanity and her life
Mathilde "Tilly" Crewson, a thirty-nine-year-old mother and art conservator, is tasked with restoring The Mother. The painting, believed to be the work of a female surgeon-turned-artist after a personal tragedy, is the rumored fourth piece in a collection of only three known works. But this newly discovered painting, scarred by fire, holds more than meets the eye.
Soon after receiving the painting, Tilly discovers she's unexpectedly pregnant, and strange, inexplicable occurrences begin: terrifying insect swarms, eerie visits from her long-deceased mother, and sinister whispers that invade her mind. As these malevolent forces intensify, Tilly comes to a harrowing realization: the only way to sever the perilous bond she shares with the painting is to destroy it. But The Mother has plans of her own--and they're darker than Tilly could ever imagine. . . .
Wolf Worm
by T Kingfisher
Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher
This gorgeous hardcover edition features endpapers illustrated by the author and a foil case stamp.
"I saw the devil in these woods."
Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator--but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father's reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects, or hope.
So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use.
Judge Stone
by James Patterson - Viola Davis
Academy Award winning actress Viola Davis and the world's #1 bestselling author James Patterson's Judge Stone "delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma. Tense, readable, and relevant." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
"Talk about a power combo! ... With Davis's razor-sharp emotional insight and Patterson's mastery of rocket-fuel pacing, this is the dream team to deliver an up-all-night read that will keep the group chat buzzing." --Oprah Daily
"Wonderfully satisfying ... This legal thriller from [a] superstar duo ... demands attention from its opening pages and never lets go." --Booklist, starred review
All rise... for Judge Stone.
The most respected citizen in Union Springs, Alabama (population 3,314), is Judge Mary Stone. She holds two responsibilities sacred: running her family farm and presiding over her courtroom. It's there she draws the most controversial case in the history of the South.
Criminally, it's open-and-shut.
Ethically, there is no middle ground. Essentially, it's a choice between life and death.
No judge can satisfy everyone. It would be dangerous to try. But Judge Stone is willing to fight to bring justice to the people and place she loves.
Two Kinds of Stranger
by Steve Cavanagh
Elly Parker helped a perfect stranger. She didn't know he was the perfect killer...in another "unguessable and unputdownable" (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) psychological thriller from the author of Witness 8.
One offers a helping hand. The other is your worst nightmare...
Social media influencer, Elly Parker, had the perfect life, that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend.
But as hurt, betrayed, unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. Even strangers.
When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can't help but feel sorry for him.
Just as he planned.
This small act of kindness sets off a change of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine.
To survive, Elly will need to convince the world what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.
Cave Mountain: A Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks
by Benjamin Hale
"The damndest mixing of true crime, memoir, and maybe (?) ghost story I've ever read. The original Harper's article gave me the shivers, and this deeper dive is going to have me looking over my shoulder on every hike. Unputdownable." -- Patton Oswalt
With the immediacy and extraordinary feeling for people and place of Under the Banner of Heaven and Say Nothing, a compelling true crime story about two young girls who went missing in the same Arkansas woods twenty-three years apart and the strange circumstances connecting them.
This story begins in 2001 on top of Cave Mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks. A six-year-old girl named Haley--Benjamin Hale's cousin--got lost on a mountain trail, prompting what was at the time the largest search and rescue mission in the state's history. Her disappearance--and her account, after she was found, of the "imaginary friend" she met in the woods--would eventually become connected to another story that took place in the same wilderness more than twenty years earlier: a dark and bizarre story of a cult, brainwashing, murder, and the apocalyptic visions of a teenage prophet.
Related: Find more bestsellers in our book picks for Trendsetters, or explore nonfiction recommendations for Mavericks.