Books Preview: 44 of Spring’s Top Reads

Also of note:  

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritson (March 18): The second book in Gerritsen’s Martini Club Series (after The Spy Coast) again features her four martini-sipping ex-CIA operatives, now searching for a missing teenager.

One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman (April 15): A grumpy ex-actress wanted for murder teams up with her sobriety sponsor to search for the real killer.

The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs (May 6): This is a madcap story featuring, as the cover lines put it, “Three wives wanting a new life. Three husbands in their way.” Murder is afoot.

Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin (May 6): When widow Kausar Khan’s adult daughter is accused of murder, she goes in search of the actual killer with help from her granddaughter.

The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson (May 27): A motley group of British book clubbers try to suss out a thief and a possible murderer in their midst.

“Nobody’s Fool” by Harlan Coben, “Nightshade” by Michael Connelly, and “Never Flinch” by Stephen King are among the season's big-name thrillers.

(From left) Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster

Big-name mysteries/thrillers

The Human Scale by Lawrence Wright (March 11)

Wright, a New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer winner for 2006’s Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, writes a nuanced story about Malik, an Irish/Arab FBI agent who visits Palestine for a relative’s wedding. He’s swept up in a very political murder investigation after the Israeli police chief in Gaza is killed. The tale is informed by the many years Wright spent reporting in the region (he’s won three National Magazine Awards for his work).

Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben (March 25)

Detective Sami Kierce, a night school teacher in New York City, is forced to confront trauma from his past when he notices a woman at the back of his classroom who immediately runs from the room when their eyes meet. He’s sure it’s his long-ago girlfriend, Anna — but the last time he saw her was 22 years ago, when he’d woken up to find her covered in blood and a knife in his hand, and fled the scene. It’s another classic Coben-style (twisty) suspense tale, probably already on its way to a TV series remake like his novels The Woods, The Stranger, Safe and others.

The Doorman by Chris Pavone (May 20)

The author of the 2022 thriller Two Nights in Lisbon writes a fast-paced tale set in a high-end New York apartment building called the Bohemia, where doorman Chicky Diaz gets drawn into the drama of the wealthy residents he serves, a few harboring dark secrets. Meanwhile, news spreads that police have killed an unarmed Black man, and violence erupts in the streets. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “a lacerating, Tom Wolfe-worthy dissection of Manhattan society in the post-Covid era.”

Nightshade by Michael Connelly (May 20)

Connelly, a former crime reporter at the Los Angeles Times, is known for his books featuring detectives Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard, as well as his Lincoln Lawyer series starring defense attorney Mickey Haller. But his 40th novel introduces a new character, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell, who’s been transferred to the seemingly quiet Catalina Island from the homicide desk. Then, a body is found and reports surface of poaching in a nature reserve, and his beat grows a lot more complicated.

Also of note:

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci (April 15): This historical novel from the bestselling Baldacci is set in London in 1944 and centers on a bookshop owner, Ignatius Oliver, who’s mourning the loss of his wife and forms an unlikely bond with two parentless teenagers amid the destruction of World War II.

Never Flinch by Stephen King (May 27): The Master of Suspense’s new novel weaves together two storylines — one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission and another about a vigilante targeting a feminist celebrity speaker. It features the beloved Holly Gibney (Mr. Mercedes, Holly), joined by a new cast of characters.

Whistle by Linwood Barclay (May 20): Barclay dives into the supernatural-horror genre in this story about a widow with a young son who moves to an isolated little town to start over. Then she stumbles upon a forgotten train set in a shed on her new property, which turns her life into a nightmare.

Spring's intriguing new memoirs include “Matriarch” by Tina Knowles, “Notes to John” by Joan Didion, and “Free: My Search for Meaning” by Amanda Knox.

(From left) Penguin Random House, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group

Memoirs

Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox (March 25)

She’s only 37, but Knox, wrongfully accused of murdering her roommate while she was studying abroad in Italy in 2007, has wisdom beyond her years after being subjected to incredible injustice and suffering — imprisoned for four years and vilified across the globe for a crime she didn’t commit. Within days, Knox went from being a slightly goofy, outdoorsy, book-loving college student to international tabloid fodder known as Foxy Knoxy, while the real culprit, a known burglar named Rudy Guede, who’s now in jail, was ignored. But what makes this book most moving and worth a thoughtful read is Knox’s eloquent descriptions of how she learned to cope with the pain and, with remarkable inner strength, develop a perspective on suffering that has allowed her to forgive her main accuser. There are surely lessons for us all in her story.

Matriarch by Tina Knowles (April 22)

Tina Knowles, 71, is inevitably best known as the mother of superstar Beyonce, and she’s embracing that role in her memoir. Born Celestine Beyonce, she describes her Galveston, Texas, girlhood, career as a fashion designer, raising and supporting her remarkable family (including singer/dancer Solange), and the wisdom she’s gained through the decades. Her publisher, One World, calls the book “a page-turning chronicle of family love and heartbreak, of loss and perseverance, and of the kind of creativity, audacity and will it takes for a girl from Galveston to change the world.”

Notes to John by Joan Didion (April 22)

Yes, you read that right: a book by Joan Didion, the brilliant writer (the National Book Award-winner The Year of Magical Thinking, for one) who passed away in 2021. This isn’t a traditional memoir, however, but a journal “discovered in a portable filing cabinet next to Didion’s desk after her death,” according to her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. It contains descriptions of her sessions with her psychiatrist, beginning in 1999, that are addressed to her husband, John Gregory Dunne. “Everything we revere about Joan Didion is instantly apparent in these pages — the precision, the fierce intelligence, the piercing insights, the withering interrogation of her own motives,” comments Jordan Pavlin, Knopf’s publisher and editor-in-chief, in a press statement. The journal’s publication has been approved by the trustees of her estate.

Also of note:

Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses (March 11) by Peter Wolf: The J. Geils Band frontman, 78, offers his life story, including his brief marriage to actress Faye Dunaway, 84.

Uptown Girl by Christie Brinkley (April 29): Brinkley, 71, unspools details from her supermodel years, breakup with Billy Joel and more. Her publisher (Harper Influence) says it’s “at times tender, bubbling over with gob-smacking intimacy, and illustrated with the author’s artwork.”

Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry (May 13): The hugely popular (and Pulitzer-winning) humor writer and syndicated columnist, 77, offers a funny and self-deprecating take on his life.

“Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow, “Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service,” edited by Michael Lewis, and “The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys” by Lise Olsen are just a few examples of fascinating upcoming non-fiction.

(From left) Penguin Random House, Penguin Random House, Penguin Random House

Nonfiction (history, culture, biography)

Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by Michael Lewis (March 18)

The author behind books like Moneyball and The Big Short (both turned into films) now helms this project that explores the seemingly mundane and now-shrinking world of government workers, including profiles of under-the-radar people such as a former coal miner who does lifesaving work to improve mine safety and “an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller.” There are multiple writers in the book, including Geraldine Brooks and Dave Eggers, who details the experiences of workers at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they study robotic space exploration.

The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys by Lise Olsen (April 1)

This gripping true-crime tale — by the journalist behind AARP The Magazine’s award-winning 2022 Texas elder murders feature — centers on the remarkable forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick, who pieced together the identities of a group of teenage boys who were murdered in the 1970s by the Houston serial killer Dean Corll, a.k.a. The Candy Man, a candy shop owner who lured young people to parties where they met their deaths. Their disappearances were first written off by police as runaways or draft dodgers. After years of effort, Derrick was able to bring closure to scores of victims’ families.

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (May 13)

The Pulitzer winner (for Alexander Hamilton, inspiration for the Broadway musical) now deftly tackles the iconic 19th-century humorist. No light read at 1,200 pages, it’s a fascinating portrait of this complicated, irreverent man who grew so famous, writes Chernow, he “fairly invented our celebrity culture,” despite his dark view of society and human nature (he had “some mysterious anger, some pervasive melancholy” behind his humor). Lin-Manuel Miranda, you up for this one? 

Also of note:

Yoko by David Sheff (March 25): The author of the bestselling memoir Beautiful Boy interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono not long before Lennon’s murder. In the aftermath, Sheff grew close with Ono, allowing him an insider’s view of her life. He details that here, from her early years in Tokyo to the modern day.

Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Change the World Without Breaking Some Eggs by José Andrés, with Richard Wolfe (April 22): The famous chef and humanitarian offers some life lessons from his years in the kitchen and, through his nonprofit World Central Kitchen, feeding people after natural and human-made disasters.

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780 by Rick Atkinson (April 29): This second book in the Pulitzer winner’s epic history of the American Revolution focuses on the fight’s middle years.

Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read (May 6): Read, a New York Magazine writer, dives into multilevel marketing, famous for its be-your-own-boss promises and the need to rope in ever more sellers to feed the moneymaking beast.

Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story by Rich Cohen (May 20): Cohen, author of The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones, among other nonfiction works, explores the strange case of Jennifer Dulos, a wealthy Connecticut woman who dropped her kids off at school and was never seen again.

Standout health books for 2025 include“Secrets of the Icewomen: Cold and Breathwork to Balance Hormones, Bolster Health, and Unlock Inner Potential” by Isabelle and Laura Hof, and “Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer’s Families and the Search for a Cure” by Jennie Erin Smith.

(From left) Harper Collins, Penguin Random House

Health

Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer’s Families and the Search for a Cure by Jennie Erin Smith (April 1)

The author tells the dramatic story of a remote community in Colombia that for centuries was known to have an unusually high percentage of people with early-onset memory loss (in more recent years, they were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s). In the 1980s, this mysterious phenomenon spurred a neurologist, Francisco Lopera, to investigate, studying why so many residents experienced memory issues when they hit middle age and often died in their 50s. Smith describes the challenges Lopera faced during the 40 years he devoted to his research and how it’s helped scientists solve some puzzles about the disease.

Secrets of the Icewomen: Cold and Breathwork to Balance Hormones, Bolster Health, and Unlock Inner Potential by Isabelle and Laura Hof (April 29)

Just thinking about this one is enough to give you the shivers. The daughters of Wim Hof, creator of the famed Wim Hof Method — centered on using cold-water therapy to supercharge one’s health — look at the practice from a female perspective. They argue that the practice centered on breathing, cold therapy and mindset can boost your immune system and improve your sleep, among other benefits.

Also of note:

The Ageless Brain: How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime by Dale Bredesen (March 25): The neurodegenerative researcher and author of The End of Alzheimer’s (2017) details his science-backed advice for staving off cognitive decline.

The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession With Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker by Suzanne O’Sullivan (March 18): An Irish neurologist working in Britain, O’Sullivan argues that seeking answers is not always great for our health.