I love looking at all the wonderful books that are coming out in the next few months and here I’ve selected a few that I’m particularly excited about from 2026 Q4.
Covers and publication dates are correct at time of writing.
Victorious by V. E. Schwab
(Titan Books, 6 October)
I love this series and can’t wait to see how it ends!
The ExtraOrdinary of Merit City, a secret group of individuals gifted with a power connected to their manner of near-death experience, have been keeping a low profile, avoiding the ever-watchful eye of EON in the wake of the showdown with Marcella, Eli, and Serena.
But when EON – and its relationship to the ExtraOrdinaries – begins to change under the leadership of a new director with a terrifying agenda, the time for hiding is over. The path to the truth of what happened to EON leads Victor, Sydney, Mitch and the rest into the enemy’s lair at EON headquarters, where they encounter unexpected allies, shocking new abilities, and the ultimate confrontation.
Against all the years, the betrayals, and the odds – the arch rivals and their allies will meet for a final time, on a chess board laid out by a rival they didn’t expect.
Sleepers in the Snow by Joanne Harris
(Gollancz, 8 October)
This sounds like the perfect read as the nights draw in…
Out on the moor, in the snow, a house stands beneath a pylon.
It is a house full of memories, and full of old things. And, in the dark, when the pylon sings in the wind, it is a house full of ghosts and fading memories…
The house, Kirkhill, has a new occupant – just moved in, fresh from a bitter divorce and looking for a fresh start. The moor is the perfect place for it: isolated, beautiful in the changing seasons, peaceful, and with just enough of the previous owners belongings that it’s a perfectly self-contained and cosy home.
Only as nights start to draw in, and the weather takes a turn, so does the house. The cosy isolation becomes menacing, animals begin acting strangely, and it seems someone could be watching the house. Soon, the diaries of the previous owners begin to reveal a terrible tragedy which befell Kirkhill – one which its new occupant may be unable to escape…
Dark Reading Matter by Jasper Fforde
(Hodder & Stoughton, 15 October)
It’s been a while since I read the Thursday Next novels, so next year might require a reread of the series…
The final novel in the highly acclaimed and beloved Thursday Next series. Will Thursday find her happy ending?
Swindon-based Literary Detective Thursday Next is embarking on her eighth and final adventure: ‘Dark Reading Matter’ and she is well aware of the fact. The problem is, others are too. Old foes and new are plotting a terrible revenge: To disrupt the narrative and make Dark Reading Matter not just unreadable but unpublishable. Thursday can’t let that happen and needs to use all her guile and narrative trickery to unmask the antagonists and guide the series to a satisfactory conclusion.
It won’t be easy. The Martians have broken out of their HG Wells novel and threaten both the real world and the Bookworld. Agents from a higher reality want unfettered access to the Dark Reading Matter, the realm where deleted books and unrealised literary ideas end up. A Gateway to Hell has opened up at Wantage’s Shakesmania, the nation’s second to worst Shakespeare theme park and the cosy world of Enid Blyton has been hi-jacked by Ultra Right Wing Nationalists. With Reality Field Distortion experiments going haywire, a partially redacted donkey, a Bookworld on the brink of losing its imaginative energy to Big Tech and a murderous stamp collector with Philaticide on their mind, Thursday has to navigate a tightrope of borderline unusable narrative devices to bring the series to a satisfactory conclusion.
It’s a tall order, but Thursday has a secret weapon: Her own adaptability, her husband Landen, a host of stalwart friends and ultimately the most loyal compatriots she can call upon: Her readers.
Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult
(Michael Joseph, 6 November)
I saw Jodi Picoult when she toured for her previous novel, By Any Other Name, and was immediately grabbed by the inspiration behind this novel.
I reach up and unravel my braid. When my hair is loose and whipping around my face, I take the red ribbon I’ve woven through it and press it just beneath my mother’s etched name, underlining. She was here. She was mine.
When Molly Fitzgerald was two months old, her mother went to a morning appointment in downtown New York.
Like so many who left their homes on September 11th, 2001, Molly’s mother never came home. Now Molly saves lives for a living, running a department for when disasters strike.
Molly and her husband Jesse – a police polygraph expert with his own fractured family – have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world.
But then Molly’s whole world is turned on its head. She’s spent her life preparing for catastrophe. But nothing could prepare her when a disaster strikes too close to home.
In this powerful novel, Jodi Picoult tells an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.
The Collateral Heart by Jeffery Deaver
(Harper Collins, 19 November)
A new Lincoln Rhyme / Amelia Sachs outing?! Yes please!
A terrible arson in Manhattan burns an old building to the ground. Amelia Sachs – criminalist Lincoln Rhyme’s wife and crime scene investigator extraordinaire–manages to save a victim from a fiery death. And in doing so she makes an eerie discovery. The arsonist has left a package of clues that might hint as to their motive and where they will strike next.
As the perp prepares for another attack, and Rhyme and Sachs work feverishly to unravel the mystery, they cross paths with a detective from Long Island. Desdemona Vale is a sharp and unstoppable officer – balancing her fervent search for the killer of a young woman from her neighborhood, with the arduous task of caring for her two young granddaughters.
The searches for their respective villains lead Rhyme, Sachs and Vale improbably to another member of the cast: James Harper, a famed historian and the host of one of the most popular history podcasts in the country, a man who may, or may not, be able to shed light on the perp’s motive and identity.
As always in a Jeffery Deaver novel, the multiple, interweaving plots race along nonstop adhering to the template of a one-sitting read; nothing is quite what it seems to be; and the novel features three surprise endings!
More shockingly yet, as the layers of the plots are pulled back, Lincoln Rhyme learns to his dismay that he has a new nemesis – a worthy and terrifying successor to the Watchmaker. Can he stop the carnage in time? The answer is found on the very last page.
These are just a few of the wonderful books coming out in the next few months that I’m really excited about. Anything here take your fancy? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!
