Fresh New Books, April 8, 2026 | Kiss Your $ Goodbye
New Books Because You Deserve Them!
This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye.
This week didn't overly tempt me too much but I found a few I'd like to read.
HORROR, HORROR-adjacent & THRILLERS
The Counting Game by Sinéad Nolan
Into the woods.
Count to ten.
Only one of us comes home again.
When a teenager disappears from her small Irish town and a therapist is brought in to break the silence of the only witness, old wounds are opened in a search that becomes a race against time.
Southwestern Ireland, 1995: Two children go into the woods. Only one comes out.
When thirteen-year-old Saoirse Kellough goes missing, panic grips a rural Irish community. Saoirse is not the first girl to disappear in the forest, rumored by locals to be haunted, and the only witness—her troubled younger brother, Jack—refuses to speak. Saoirse went missing when they were playing the Counting Game, a ritual believed to ward off evil, and Jack has sworn to protect the forest’s secrets.
Freya Hemmings, a psychotherapist still healing from a loss of her own, is brought in to help investigators break Jack’s silence. As the race to find Saoirse alive accelerates, the search threatens to unravel a family facing the unthinkable. Everyone is a suspect, and the closer Freya and Jack become, the more danger they find themselves in.
Haunting and emotional, The Counting Game is a suspenseful debut from an unmissable new voice in crime fiction, perfect for fans of Tana French and Liz Moore.
Learn more at Goodreads
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
A PROPULSIVE DEBUT MYSTERY FROM EVELYN CLARKE, THE BRILLIANT AND DIABOLICAL CREATION OF CAT CLARKE AND V.E. SCHWAB
Six authors.
One private island.
Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.
Named one of the Most Anticipated Mysteries of 2026 by GoodReads, Marie Claire, and Page Six.
“In the running for the best mystery of 2026. With a trove of tropes that mystery lovers will love, it will remind you, in the best way, of Agatha Christie.”—Stephen King
Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.
Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus.
It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Mrs. Jekyll by Emma Glass
Her husband, Charlie—sweet but out of his depth—tries to be supportive. Her sister-in-law, Sally, is too distracted by her own problems to help. Her students, once a source of delight, are now a daily reminder of Rosy's mortality.
So, Rosy succumbs to anguish, allowing a force—murderous, sensual, feverish—to awaken and stir within her. An embodiment of her rage, a twisted joie de vivre, ripping recompense from the world around her.
A powerful feminist retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Gothic classic, Mrs. Jekyll is a brilliant, evocative, and lyrical story of one woman's refusal to yield her passion for life, even as her body betrays her.
Learn more at Goodreads.
One of You by Erin E. Adams
A mysterious outsider torments two Haitian American sisters, forcing them to confront dark secrets from their family’s past in this powerful psychological suspense novel from the acclaimed author of Jackal.
What would you sacrifice to become American?
Everything about the Beauclaire family seems normal—almost perfect, even. They immigrated to New York City from Haiti years ago, looking for their own piece of America’s promised riches. They go to church; they're good neighbors; and their two daughters, Judith and Beatrice, have typical sibling rivalries that keep things interesting. But beneath this polished exterior, something is just slightly off. There’s malice waiting . . . wanting to reveal itself.
When their mother unexpectedly dies, Judith and Bea are overwhelmed by a mob of relatives, friends, and church ladies. Amidst taking care of the funeral, they meet Libète, who claims to be a close friend of their mother’s. Bea welcomes her, but Judith is immediately suspicious—their mother never mentioned Libète, and yet she seems to know everything about them.
After a series of unsettling events—a disfigured doll appearing in their attic, childhood photos of Bea vanishing, and a mysterious illness suddenly afflicting their father—Judith and Bea are forced to dive into a hidden world of mythos and question Libète’s role in it all. What they learn could threaten the bedrock of the entire Beauclaire family . . . and reveal a rot that goes deeper than the roots they first made in this place.
Learn more at Goodreads.
Comments
Post a Comment