Chambers, Diana R. The Secret War of Julia Child. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN 9781464219047.

Chambers invites readers on adventures in espionage and romance with Julia Child before she became a beloved TV chef. In 1944, 30-year-old Julia McWilliams works as an intelligence officer for the OSS (precursor to the CIA) in Asia. She convinces her boss to send her on increasingly risky missions, encountering danger, suspected counterspies, and the man who will later become her husband, Paul Child. A well-researched fictionalization of Child’s activities during World War II.

Fredericks, Mariah. The Wharton Plot. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. ISBN 9781250827425.

Gilded Age writer Edith Wharton is dissatisfied with her life in upper-crust New York. But when a muckraking journalist is murdered near Gramercy Park, and his sister asks Wharton for help getting his exposé published, she’s roused to action. Soon she is receiving threatening letters and on the trail of a killer, aided by famous friends such as Henry James and Mary Roberts Rinehart. Once again, Fredericks blends history and suspense in a compelling story.

Lynch, Christina. Pony Confidential. Berkley. ISBN 9780593640364.

After a brutal life of being passed from owner to owner, Pony the horse sets out across the country to reunite with Penny, the little girl who was forced to sell him years ago. He learns that Penny has been arrested for a murder Pony knows she didn’t commit. In alternating chapters, the wily Pony tells of his odyssey to find and clear the only owner he ever loved, while Penny relates the emotional story and mystery from her point of view.

Nee, John Shen Yen & SJ Rozan. The Murder of Mr. Ma. Soho Crime. ISBN 9781641295499.

In a classic set-up, a brilliant, addicted sleuth is accompanied by an admiring assistant in swashbuckling adventures in 1924 London. Lao She, a teacher, assists Judge Dee, who arrived in London to find the men he served with in the Chinese Labour Corps in France during World War I. The two investigate the deaths of Chinese Labour Corps members in this relentlessly paced tale of derring-do.

Notaro, Laurie. The Murderess. Little A. ISBN 9781662512209.

Notaro’s intense true crime–themed novel examines the case of Winnie Ruth Judd, accused of murdering and dismembering two of her closest friends in 1930s Phoenix. What made the demure, unassuming woman commit a heinous crime? Notaro presents a sympathetic portrait of Judd, a woman pushed to the brink by mistreatment and the social strictures of the time. Vivid writing, historical details, and multiple perspectives round out this chilling story of a troubled protagonist.

Quinn, Kate. The Briar Club. Morrow. ISBN 9780063244740.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1954, Briarwood House in Washington, DC, contains two bodies and 17 suspects. Quinn’s compelling novel about women’s friendship in a boardinghouse is set against the frightening backdrop of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. The residents, and the house itself, have the chance to relate a story of politics, espionage, and murder that leaves readers waiting with bated breath for the expected crisis.

Rendon, Marcie R. When They Last Saw Her. Bantam. ISBN 9780593496527.

When the tribal police on Red Pine Reservation in Minnesota fail to act on Quill’s report of a woman’s scream in the woods, she digs into a missing woman’s background. Quill is just one of the Indigenous women threatened by white men living in camps near the pipeline, and she’s determined to find answers about other missing and murdered local women in this troubling, provocative mystery.

St. James, Simone. Murder Road. Berkley. ISBN 9780593200384.

In this 1995-set chiller, newlyweds April and Eddie take a wrong turn on their honeymoon trip. They pick up a wounded hitchhiker and take her to a nearby hospital, where she dies. Now suspects as well as witnesses, the couple investigate and learn that the Atticus Line has been the site of multiple murders over the course of 20 years. St. James injects supernatural elements into a novel of long-buried secrets and revelations.

Trussoni, Danielle. The Puzzle Box. Random. ISBN 9780593595329.

Despite the unexpected death of his mentor, when neurodivergent puzzle master Mike Brink receives an invitation from the emperor of Japan to test his skills against the secret Dragon Box, he agrees. The Dragon Box was created centuries before, and every 12 years, a new expert is invited to solve the puzzle—and each of them has since died. With enemies closing in, Brink is pitted against the box’s long-ago creator in Trussoni’s mystical, ingenious thriller.

Turton, Stuart. The Last Murder at the End of the World. Sourcebooks Landmark. ISBN 9781728254654.

Decades after a fog wiped out Earth’s inhabitants, 122 people and three elders live on a protected island off the coast of Greece. Their lives are tightly controlled by an AI-like presence, and most do not question this. When an elder is murdered, the residents’ memories are wiped, and the island’s protective barrier is threatened, it’s up to Emory, a curious young woman, to solve the case. Turton bangs down the genre walls in a captivating, high-concept SF mystery.