Most Anticipated Crime Fiction Coming in Early 2023

The Wolfs, the most powerful family in California, have a new head–thirty-six-year-old former high school teacher Jenny Wolf. 
That means Jenny now runs the prestigious San Francisco Tribune.
She also controls the legendary pro football team, the Wolves.
And she has a murdered father to avenge—if she can survive the killers all around her.
An unforgettable family drama by two writers at the top of their craft.

Every Man a King is another must-read novel from bestselling mystery author Walter Mosley. In this second novel following former NYPD investigator Joe King Oliver, Joe is approached by a friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris with a tough assignment. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and selling sensitive information to the Russians. But Ferris believes Quiller was set up, and he wants Joe to investigate the charges. As Joe gets closer to uncovering the truth, he finds himself and everyone he loves directly in the line of danger.

Looking for a crime thriller filled with killer twists? You won’t want to miss David Baldacci’s Simply Lies, which follows Mickey Gibson, a former New Jersey detective and single mother of two. Now, Mickey works for ProEye, a global investigation company that tracks down the assets of the wealthy who have tried to avoid creditors. When Mickey’s colleague asks her to visit the home of a notorious arms dealer, Mickey is shocked to discover the body of a man hidden in a secret room within the arms dealer’s mansion. But things only get stranger from there: it turns out the arms dealer never existed, and no one at ProEye has heard of the colleague who sent Mickey to the house in the first place.

Five years ago, David and Cheryl Burroughs were living a dream life when tragedy struck. Now, Cheryl is remarried, and David is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison for the brutal murder of their son. But when David receives evidence from Cheryl’s sister, Rachel, that his son might not actually be dead, everything changes. Now, David must break out of jail to clear his own name and uncover what really happened to his son.

Charlie Garner’s ex-wife Meg was last seen working at a local donut shop run by an evangelist cult known to most people as “the Saucer People.” Most people think Meg is running away from debt collectors, but after she’s been missing for over a week, Charlie begins to suspect something more sinister. With the help of his brother Felix and journalist Amelia “Scrappy” Moon, Charlie is determined to uncover the truth behind this strange cult and find out what really happened to Meg.

In The 23^rd Midnight, the third installment in James Patterson and Maxine Paetro’s Women’s Murder Club series, serial killer Evan Burke is behind bars, but the violence doesn’t stop there. Now, an obsessed copycat killer is recreating the murders of the famous killer from the Women’s Murder Club’s past. Only he’s adding his own gruesome twists to the murders. Now, Detective Lindsay Boxer must track down the killer or the entire Murder Club will be in danger.

In Fixit, the sixth installment in Joe Ide’s critically acclaimed IQ series, Isaiah Quintabe’s must rescue his first love, Grace, who has been kidnapped by Skip Hanson, a professional hitman and IQ’s sworn enemy. Skip is hellbent on revenge, determined to get back at Isaiah for sending him to prison and destroying his life. Now Isaiah and his sometimes partner, ex-hustler Juanell Dodson, must track clues throughout L.A. to save Grace before it’s too late.

In Death of a Traitor, the latest mystery in M.C. Beaton’s bestselling series, Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is back to investigate the disappearance of local woman Kate Hibbert. Kate has only been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for a year, but already she’s ruffled quite a few feathers. So when her neighbors see Kate lugging her suitcase to the bus stop, they can’t help but hope she’ll be leaving for good. But two weeks later, Kate’s cousin arrives in town claiming Kate has gone missing. And when Hamish Macbeth shows up on the scene to investigate the mystery, he starts to suspect Kate might not be quite who she appeared.

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng is the latest exciting addition to Preston and Child’s Aloysius Pendergast series. In this book, FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene face their most complicated case yet. As Constance sets off on a quest in the past to prevent the deaths of her brother and sister, Pendergast remains in contemporary New York, desperately searching for a way to reconnect with Constance. Will he be able to find her before the infamous serial killer, Dr. Enoch Leng, gets to her first?

Is Israel Pike a killer? That’s what everyone believes after he finds seven men murdered aboard their yacht–including two Senate rivals. Meanwhile, on the same island, 12-year-old Lyman Rankin is looking for shelter from his alcoholic father when he runs into an abandoned house. Only, he’s not alone. He’s greeted by a mysterious woman with a hatchet who threatens to kill him if he makes a noise. As Michael Koryta’s suspenseful crime novel propels forward, Lyman and Israel’s stories collide in surprising ways.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure who was deposed in 1886, mysteriously drowning three days later.  Eccentric to the point of madness, history tells us that in the years before he died Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom, one separate, apart, and in lieu of Bavaria.  A place he could retreat into and rule as he wished.  But a question remains:  did he succeed? 
Enter Cotton Malone.  After many months, Malone’s protégé, Luke Daniels, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany.  Daniels has also managed to gain the trust of the prince of Bavaria, a frustrated second son intent on eliminating his brother, the duke, and restoring the Wittelsbach monarchy, only now with him as king.  Everything hinges on a 19th century deed which proves that Ludwig’s long-rumored search bore fruit–legal title to lands that Germany, China, and the United States all now want, only for vastly different reasons.  
In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden in Ludwig’s three fairytale castles–Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee–Malone and Daniels battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all intent on finding the last kingdom.

Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody whispers.” As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary. 
After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.