Crime Fiction and Non-Fiction Books Coming This November
There’s a lot to look forward to in November, whether it’s overeating soul food, or falling asleep midafternoon watching The Godfather trilogy like me and my family’s traditions presume. Maybe you prefer to break with tradition and explore new crime (though no shade to The Godfather, not ever, especially after I watched The Offer about its creation). If you’re excited at the idea of new crime and horror content, November is going to be full of excitement for you—after all, what’s at the root of Thanksgiving but horror and crime?
A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.
First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission.
We’re starting out November strong with a new posthumous release from the cult icon and author of Geek Love, Katherine Dunn. Though her descendants say Toad is her grittiest, least hopeful book, I sure as hell enjoyed it. Following the reclusive Sally back into her memory of privileged students and townies of a liberal arts college, we learn of their myriad relationships, misadventures, and the death that ripped them all apart.
The truth is that Anthony has other things on his mind.
His new play, a thriller called Mindgame, is about to open at the Vaudeville Theater in London’s West End. Not surprisingly, Hawthorne declines a ticket to the opening night.
The play is panned by the critics. In particular, Sunday Times critic Margaret Throsby gives it a savage review, focusing particularly on the writing. The next day, Throsby is stabbed in the heart with an ornamental dagger which turns out to belong to Anthony, and has his fingerprints all over it.
Anthony is arrested by an old enemy . . . Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw. She still carries a grudge from her failure to solve the case described in the second Hawthorne adventure, The Sentence is Death, and blames Anthony. Now she’s out for revenge.
Thrown into prison and fearing for both his personal future and his writing career, Anthony is the prime suspect in Throsby’s murder and when a second theatre critic is found to have died in mysterious circumstances, the net closes in. Ever more desperate, he realizes that only one man can help him. But will Hawthorne take the call?
Related: Anthony Horowitz Creates a Lively, Clever TV Adaptation of His Novel Magpie Murders
Folk horror meets cozy mystery in this new mystery book: as a storm rises in the village of Peak District, bodies turn up. The first one is ruled an accident, but evidence suggests that he froze to death in the storm while hiding from a killer who ultimately watched him die. Constable Cheetham tracks the person (or thing) as they kill two families at the edge of town and tries to pin down the culprit.
This true crime book documents the suspenseful tale of the husband and daughter of Stella Nickell, the cyanide murderess. Olsen follows the story of the family from onset to destruction, illuminating the complexities of their relationships in attempt to pinpoint the breaking point.
In this reimagined history of Victorian fame, Thomas Edison invents the Spirit Phone Model PS-1. When a side-effect of using the Spirit Phone manifests as insanity and suicide, Aleister Crowley and Nikola Tesla combine forces to investigate the invention’s true origins, and why it inspires this outcome.
Dr. Alex Cross is back in the twenty-seventh installment of his saga of suspense books. In this plotline, Cross joins up with his longtime bestie Detective John Sampson for the final showdown with the psychotic predator who’s stalked his family for years…
I’m personally very excited for this true crime memoir—told from the point of view of the world’s most renowned art forger. The most interesting part to me is not how Tony Tetro convinced rich people to pay millions for his “originals,” which were actually high-quality replicas, but how Tetro convinced them not to rat him out. He says, “Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what’s he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy.” It’s genius, even if it is despicable, and I’m really pumped to learn more.
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend - the older brother - his perfect girlfriend - a secret crush - a classmate—and a killer.
When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead.
With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night. . . .
Related: 7 Horror Books for Young Readers
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Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.