The Serial Reader Recommendations
Winter Book Releases 2025-2026
Snow outside, suspense inside — that’s the Serial Reader’s ideal winter night. This season’s newest thrillers and mysteries are packed with dark secrets, shocking twists, and chilling characters you’ll love to hate. Clear your schedule — these are the books you won’t be able to put down.
february books:
How to Get Away with Murder
by Rebecca Philipson
"If you picked up this book because you truly want to get away with murder, you will not be disappointed. Simply turn the page and we'll get started."
This fresh debut thriller finds a Scotland Yard detective trying to find the author of a self-help book that promises quite literally to teach readers how to get away with murder, which seems to have inspired London's newest murderer.
Detective Inspector Samantha Hansen has been on leave for six months, recovering from a breakdown she suffered at work, but when a fourteen-year-old girl is murdered in a local park, Sam jumps at the chance to return to the job and prove that she's still got what it takes to be the Yard's most successful homicide detective. One of the case's only leads is a copy of a self-help book found in the victim's backpack called How To Get Away With Murder by a man named Denver Brady.
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
by Shailee Thompson
"A delightful celebration of rom-coms, slasher flicks, and the women who love them." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A humorous, swoony, and downright terrifying slasher rom-com in which a cinephile gets caught in the middle of a murder spree at a speed-dating event and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the romance and horror genres to make it as a real-life Final Girl.
When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn't expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime.
Missing Sam
by Thrity Umrigar
A tense and twisty story of a woman who goes missing on a morning run and her wife's determination to both find her and clear her own name--from the bestselling author of Honor.
One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head--and doesn't come back.
Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay, Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can't escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?
It's Not Her
by Mary Kubica
Two families at a secluded lake resort are at the center of a chilling crime in this twisty thriller from the bestselling author of Local Woman Missing
A scream shatters the silence...
Courtney Gray's peaceful vacation turns into a nightmare when she discovers her brother and sister-in-law dead in their lakeside cottage. Her niece Reese is missing. Her nephew Wyatt is asleep upstairs--unharmed.
A town full of secrets...
As police swarm the quiet resort, dark truths about Courtney's family--and the town itself--begin to surface. Is Reese a victim... or the killer?
A truth no one saw coming...
With everyone hiding something, Courtney races to uncover the terrible mystery. But the closer she gets, the harder it is to know who--or what--to trust.
Dear Debbie
by Freida McFadden
A brand new twisted thriller that will have you cheering "good for her!" from the #1 New York Times bestselling and global sensation Freida McFadden, author of The Housemaid!
Sometimes, enough is enough...
Debbie Mullen is losing it. For years, she has compiled all of her best advice into her column, Dear Debbie, where the wives of New England come for sympathy and neighborly advice. Through her work, Debbie has heard from countless women who are ignored, belittled, or even abused by their husbands. And Debbie does her best to guide them in the right direction.
Or at least, she did.
Good Intentions
by Marisa Walz
"A stunning debut with razor sharp tension and surprising twists." --Jeneva Rose
Even the best intentions can grow into obsession . . .
On the surface, Cady has the perfect life. She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man she's loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her most trusted confidante. But when Dana dies suddenly, before Cady can say goodbye, everything shatters.
Yet to her family's alarm, it isn't grief for Dana that consumes her. It's Morgan, a stranger Cady meets in the hospital waiting room that same day--a grieving mother whose tragedy mirrors her own. Cady doesn't believe in coincidences. She becomes convinced that helping Morgan is the key to facing her sister's death.
But is that really what she wants? Or is Cady drawn to Morgan for reasons far more complicated--and dangerous--than she's willing to admit?
When I Kill You
by B A Paris
The multimillion-copy and New York Times bestseller B. A. Paris returns with a triumphant, unsettling next suspense novel, When I Kill You.
Who is watching Nell Masters?
Nell Masters is certain someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. And Nell has a reason to be looking over her shoulder, because she has a secret that she's hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own.
One of Us
by Elizabeth Day
"Funny, sharp, sophisticated, this is Elizabeth Day's writing at its finest."
--Dolly Alderton, New York Times bestselling author of Good Material
"The thinking person's thriller. A Trojan horse of a book--part Highsmith, part Waugh--that hides within its superbly gripping plot a gimlet-eyed interrogation of class, privilege and power."
--Lucy Foley
When Fliss, the eccentric grown daughter of the powerful Fitzmaurice clan, is found dead on beach in Bali, what seems like a tragic accident stirs more suspicion than closure for those who've traded favors with--and within--her family for decades.
There is Ben, Fliss's brother, eager to minimize his sister's passing, since it's suddenly clear he's next in line to be Prime Minister. And Martin--Ben's erstwhile best friend--who is just happy that Fliss's memorial gives him the chance to re-enter the Fitzmaurice orbit, seeking revenge and acceptance. He can't help but notice that Ben's wife, Serena, seems to have discovered in middle age that her privileged existence is more like a gilded cage. Or that Ben and Serena's daughter Cosima has become an environmental activist fighting against everything her parents seem to stand for--a pivot her late aunt would've applauded.
january books:
No One Would Do What the Lamberts Have Done
by Sophie Hannah
The twistiest murder mystery you are ever likely to read? A story about a family that does the unthinkable?
Both? Or something else altogether?
You think it will never happen to you.
The doorbell. The policeman. The words that turn your world inside out: I'm afraid there's been an incident...
For Sally Lambert, those words mean only one thing--danger. Not just for her family, but for Champ, their loyal and beloved dog. A single accusation, a neighbor's grudge, and suddenly the Lamberts are trapped in a nightmare with no escape.
Unless they make one.
The Bookbinder's Secret
by A D Bell
Every book tells a story. This one tells a secret.
A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder.
Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father's failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man's profession. But when she's given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.
All the Little Houses
by May Cobb
"May Cobb's most explosive book yet. And trust me, that's saying a lot." -- Jeneva Rose
"Nobody does explosive and twisted like May Cobb does it." --Lisa Jewell
Adults can behave badly too...
It's the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can't get for herself... well, that's what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she'd so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh's entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble.
Who will be left standing when the dust settles?
What Boys Learn
by Andromeda Romano-Lax
A twisty, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that unravels a mother's worst nightmare--that her child is capable of terrible violence--when her teenage son becomes a suspect in the murder of two classmates, from the author of The Deepest Lake.
"Timely and terrifyingly real, What Boys Learn is not to be missed."--Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of It's Not Her
Over one terrible weekend, two teenage girls are found dead in a wealthy Chicago suburb. As the community mourns, Abby Rosso, the girls' high school counselor, begins to suspect that her son was secretly involved in their lives--and possibly, their deaths.
Woman Down
by Colleen Hoover
In this twisty thriller from New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a frustrated author looks for her muse in a remote hideaway, but what she finds defies all expectations...and reality.
Her words used to set the page on fire. But a viral backlash over her latest film adaptation forced Petra Rose to take a hiatus, resulting in missed deadlines and an overdue mortgage. Branded a fraud and fame-hungry opportunist, she learned the hard way what happens when the internet turns on you. And she's been uninspired to write ever since.
Now, with her next suspense novel outlined and savings nearly gone, she retreats to a secluded lakeside cabin, hoping to find inspiration. It's Petra's last-ditch attempt to save her career--and herself.
Then he shows up.
The Storm
by Rachel Hawkins
HURRICANE SEASON CAN BE MURDER - A January 2026 Indie Next Pick - "Sexy and full of surprises, The Storm is an ideal curl-up-by-the-fire read." --Real Simple
St. Medard's Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that's survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.
A Box Full of Darkness
by Simone St James
"From the book's chillingly creepy setting, which previously appeared in The Sun Down Motel (2020), to a nerve-jangling plot that effectively borrows from a mix of genres to the writing itself, which shimmers with a dazzlingly sharp sense of wit, everything about St. James' latest is done to perfection."-Booklist (starred review)
Simone St. James, the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel, returns with her scariest, most shocking novel yet in this pulse-pounding story about siblings who return to the house they fled 18 years before, called back by the ghost of their long-missing brother and his haunting request: Come home.
Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town's roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings--Violet, Vail, and Dodie--the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to ten while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother--he was gone and the ongoing search efforts turned up no clues.
December Picks:
All of Us Murderers
by KJ Charles
"Wildly inventive, twisty tour de force"--BookPage
The lush Gothic drama of Crimson Peak meets the murderous intrigue of Knives Out with an LGBTQIA+ love story to die for from award-winning author KJ Charles.
WHO WILL SURVIVE LACKADAY HOUSE?
When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative's remote Gothic manor, he is horrified to find all the people he least wants to see in the world: his estranged brother, his sneering cousin, and his bitter ex-lover Gideon Grey. Things couldn't possibly get worse.
The Birdwatcher
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025!
From New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning drama that explores the beauty of female friendship; the relationship between money, power, and sex; and the very human desire to protect the ones we love most.
When she is convicted of a double murder, Felicity Wild, a brilliant grad student turned high-priced escort, declares, "I may not be innocent, but I'm innocent of this."
Reenie Bigelow never doubted it. A jury may have given Felicity a life sentence, but Reenie knows that her childhood best friend is not capable of murder. And so Reenie, a journalist, decides to use her deep connections to Felicity's past to unravel the truth.
The Living and the Dead: A Novel about a Crime
by Christoffer Carlsson - Rachel Willson-Broyles
THE AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
One town. Two crimes. Twenty years of silence.
WINNER OF THE BEST NORDIC CRIME NOVEL (THE GLASS KEY AWARD) - WINNER OF THE BEST SWEDISH CRIME NOVEL AWARD - WINNER OF DENMARK'S PALLE ROSENKRANTZ PRIZE FOR BEST TRANSLATED CRIME NOVEL
Small towns sometimes have a voice of their own.
On a snowy winter night in 1999, Sander and Killian leave a house party together outside a small town in rural Sweden. The very best of friends, the two seventeen-year-olds imagine they will remain so forever. But by the next morning, a corpse is found in the trunk of a car, and each boy is a suspect in the murder. Each has something they want to conceal from the police. And from the other.
The hunt for the killer will take more than twenty years. It will see the lead detective leave the force forever. And it won't end until a second body turns up in similar circumstances, and the tight-knit community's secrets are finally brought to light.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
by Ace Atkins
Elmore Leonard meets Robert Ludlum in a rollicking comedic thriller set in 1985 from acclaimed author Ace Atkins, in which a suburban teen suspects his mom's new boyfriend is the ultimate bad guy--a KGB agent.
It's 1985, what will soon become known as "The Year of the Spy," and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom's new boyfriend is a Russian agent. "Gary" isn't in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He's just a kid into BMX and MTV.
But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies--a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.
Silent Bones
by Val McDermid
"Powerful, moving and wise - Val McDermid's books are always enthralling."--Harlan Coben
"A beautifully structured, witty and twisty novel."--Ann Cleeves
The new installment in the "relentlessly engrossing series" (Wall Street Journal) finds Karen Pirie and her team investigating the murder of a journalist paved under a motorway--but was it his work or his private life that put him there?
Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain causes a landslide on a motorway, it dislodges more than mud and asphalt - it reveals a skeleton, concealed when the road was built eleven years prior.
Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who'd been poking his nose into the murky politics of the Scottish independence referendum, had become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his girlfriend when he vanished. Now he's reappeared, buried under the motorway. It's the perfect cold case for DCI Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland's Historic Cases Unit. What was Nimmo investigating that was worth killing over? Or was it revenge for murdering his girlfriend?
The Wicked
by Rebecca Johnpee
Rebecca Johnpee bursts onto the dark romance scene with The Wicked―where a mafia and heist romance collide in a scorchingly intense and unforgettable tale.
Elio
They call me "The Wicked."
I've earned that name with blood, silence, and the weight of every secret I carry.
As head of the Marino Family, nothing slips past me. Not lies. Not weakness. Not fear.
But when she enters my world...everything tilts.
Zahra
I'm dangerous--and I've had to be.
I grew up with men who treated bullets like sugar cubes.
I've risen from the streets to create the most notorious gang of thieves in the country. But after a job goes wrong, my crew and I are held captive by The Wicked, and I'll do just about anything to take advantage of it. Even if it means working with The Wicked and pulling off the biggest heist I've ever dreamed of.