A DATING-SERVICE DETECTIVE switches from checking out online matches to investigating a client’s sudden death. Brilliant thriller with wit and heart and a lot to say about our inescapably online society. A MINUS

THE VERIFIERS
Vintage
2022

THE ASTONISHING REACH OF “DIRTY MONEY” around the world, laid out in a thoroughly researched book that somehow manages to be as gripping as any spy thriller. Timely and terrifying. A MINUS

KLEPTOPIA
Harper Paperbacks
2021

STELLAR BIOGRAPHY OF CIVIL rights legend Constance Baker Motley highlights the life and achievements of this influential activist, lawyer, politician, and judge and deftly fills out the historical context. Wonderfully readable and informative. A MINUS

CIVIL RIGHTS QUEEN
Pantheon
2022

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING NOVEL drops us into the lives of a group of enslaved people as they build a close-knit community and dream of freedom. Unforgettable characters, powerful prose. A MINUS

YONDER
Simon & Schuster
2022

BEAUTIFUL, POETIC NOVEL based on the life of 12th century writer and nun Marie de France is both an evocation of a lost age and a powerful meditation on timeless themes like love, exile, joy, and despair. A MINUS

MATRIX
Riverhead Books
2021

THE GREAT CITY-STATES OF MESOPOTAMIA are the setting for a brilliant historical fantasy that mixes ancient history, technology, and magic. 600 BCE comes alive in this vividly detailed novel! A MINUS

THE KING’S AUTOMATA
Francis Morrow
2022

WHEN THE CONSPIRACY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX and the Internet panopticon collide, a cynical journalist needs all the help he can get, and more. Wild, satirical thriller with an abundance of twists is Nick Mamatas’s best book yet. A MINUS

THE SECOND SHOOTER
Solaris
2021

WILDLY INVENTIVE THRILLER follows a young, brilliant, much-loved and closely protected Black woman into a complex tangle of mysterious threats and others’ dangerous memories. Stunning in so many ways. A MINUS

THESE TOXIC THINGS
Thomas & Mercer
2021

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB IS BACK, and this time the senior citizen sleuths are sorting out a mess of diamonds, spies, and drug runners. High-octane cozy with humor and heart! A MINUS

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
Pamela Dorman Books
2021

TENSE THRILLER, BRILLIANT satire of publishing workplace politics, absolutely devastating parable of race and gender in the US today—what can’t this impeccably written novel do? Not to be missed. A MINUS

THE OTHER BLACK GIRL
Atria Books
2021