[00:00:00] ANNE BOGEL: Hey readers, I’m Anne Bogel and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that’s dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next? We don’t get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read.

Today we’re sharing an excerpt from our Spring Book Preview which is out and available now. Every year I’m a little surprised when our Spring Book Preview rolls around in January because this time of year feels early and decidedly not like spring in my corner of the world.

Especially so this year as my street has been covered in ice and snow for a couple of weeks now. We could really call it winter preview, that would be fair because we’re talking books published between January and the beginning of April, but around here we err on the side of optimism and we’re calling it spring.

[00:01:05] And look, I know I’ve often said that summer reading season is the most wonderful time of the year, but this spring the titles we’re talking about today make a strong case for being the best book time, at least as far as new releases are concerned.

If you love historical fiction, stories of new beginnings, and books often described as book club books, you are in luck. Publishers lists are perennially heavy with such titles between January and mid-April. If you gravitate toward these sorts of books, there is lots for you to enjoy.

But that’s not all the spring has to offer. We’ve also got heaps of mysteries and thrillers, love stories, literary fiction, and great nonfiction selections, plus so many books this time that defy easy genre categorization, including some of my personal favorites for early 2025.

Our full Spring Book Preview includes our 12-page digital booklet and 90-minute unboxing video. In today’s short episode, we’re giving you a taste of what’s in our Spring Book Preview, especially as the unboxing is concerned. You’ll hear about three titles today, but there are 35 in our full preview, plus bonus features with bonus titles in our digital booklet to help you get more from your reading life in this season.

[00:02:13] To get your full Spring Book Preview access, visit modernmrsdarcy.com/sbp for Spring Book Preview at any time.

Now to tell you a little more about what you are about to hear. We are sharing the first three books from the mystery, thriller, and crime fiction category. These are the first titles we talk about in the unboxing video.

The full preview also includes our welcome, my take on 2025 publishing trends, and our 20-minute Q&A. It also includes 32 more titles. And for those, the additional categories are science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, love stories, historical and mythological fiction, literary and contemporary fiction, and memoir and nonfiction.

Let’s get started with that clip of the first three books in the mystery, thriller, and crime fiction category. Here it is.

[00:03:02] We’re just diving right into a crimey crime novel, Saint of the Narrows Street by William Boyle. This one is out from Soho Crime on February 4th. I will tell you the publisher with every book I share, it’s also in your preview, and that’s because publishers have their own personalities. And we would really encourage you to pay attention to who is publishing the books you really enjoy, because you can learn something about yourself and about the literary world. So, Saint of the Narrows Street.

If Shakespeare wrote a grand tragedy and set it in contemporary Brooklyn, this might be it. In fact, Boyle said in pre-release interviews something that really rang true based on my experience reading his book. He said, “Look, it’s dark. It is dark, dark, darkness. I tried to add some light to this story, that’s what I wanted, it didn’t work. The story wouldn’t have it.”

This book is not heavy on plot or really on mystery, but it is very much about a crime. If it is in fact a crime, here’s what happens.

[00:04:01] Early in the book, a young mother takes drastic action to defend herself and her infant son against her drunk and violent husband. Look, it’s not even that drastic, but it has unexpected consequences: He dies. It’s an accident, but he’s dead. So, the book’s focus is on what happens next, the decisions made immediately, and then for the next two decades to cover up what happened.

They think they’re protecting her infant son from the truth, but it gets complicated. So many unforeseen circumstances, so many things that need to be explained. And then there’s so much guilt the survivors feel, and we see what it drives them to do and the terrible choices they’re forced to make.

This story is about fate and chance and consequences, and there are boatloads of secrets and lies and betrayals and violence. This is a story of organized crime. If you need likable characters, threads of hope, or the promise of redemption, this book is not for you.

[00:04:59] It was off my beaten path. I thought it was incredibly well done. I’m glad I read. I’ve never read William Boyle before. He’s so respected. I’m so glad I read it, but also, whoo. This one is not for the faint of heart. That was Saint of the Narrows Street.

Next we have a mystery mystery that so many of you said you wanted, Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister, William Morrow on February 25th. Will finished this last night. I love Gillian McAllister. I have been pouncing on her latest ever since I read Wrong Place Wrong Time several years back.

This was one of those books I picked up when I was ready to read for entertainment and escape. I was on a trip. I wanted a good read that would suck me right in, and wow, it did. I fell straight into this world and read it in just a couple of days.

[00:05:46] The protagonist in Famous Last Words is a literary agent, which offers some fun glimpses into book world. Her husband in the story is a ghostwriter, and he mostly does celebrity memoirs, so that was fun to hear them talk about too.

The story starts when the literary agent gets a call one morning at work. The authorities are very sad to tell her that her husband is involved in a hostage crisis. She goes… like she’s stunned. “Oh my gosh, is he okay? What’s happening? Is he all right?” And they’re like, “Ma’am, ma’am, no, he’s not a hostage. He’s holding the hostages.” And she’s like, “What? My husband who writes celebrity memoir, ghostwriting works, my fun-loving, lighthearted, never did a bad thing husband, what in the world? It doesn’t make any sense.” But she’s going to get to the bottom of it, but not for a couple hundred pages.

[00:06:39] The story’s second perspective comes from the hostage negotiator on the scene. His name is Niall. And while reading this, I kept thinking of the Never Split the Difference book by Chris Voss, who was an ex-CIA hostage crisis negotiator, and he wrote about his experience and negotiation in that book that would make an excellent pairing. I don’t give a lot of flight picks tonight, but that one had to be said out loud.

So with Famous Last Words, the literary setting is extra fun for book lovers. There are twists and turns galore. This is a relationally driven thriller. Will finished this, and he was like, “You know, it really feels like Laura Dave, doesn’t it?” The last thing he told me. And I didn’t stop to think about that, but it really does. Like it’s a plotty mystery, but also it’s the emotions of important relationships driving the story.

Next, we have Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy out from Flatiron on March 4th. This is set on a remote and perilous island. It’s called Shearwater Island, which McConaghy based closely on a real sub-Antarctic island halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica.

[00:07:47] To write this book, she visited it and she said, it’s impossibly beautiful and also it feels deeply haunted. The island is a character in its own right in this story. Human-wise, it’s the story of Dominic Salt and his three children. His job on the island is to tend the world’s largest seabank that’s been right there on the island for ages.

Once, a whole team lived and worked there on the island for the seabank, but now it’s just Dominic because everybody else has evacuated as rising sea levels have made it unsafe. And Dominic’s not supposed to be there much longer.

The story begins when a woman almost drowns trying to reach the island by boat, but Dominic’s teenage daughter rescues her and drags her ashore. This woman slowly gets to know Dominic and his family and gain some insight into the many secrets they’re clearly keeping.

The woman has many secrets of her own, including the reason she’s on the island. She has a secret mission she does not want them to know about, but we find out before Dominic and his family do. And whew, it’s tense.

[00:08:45] This is a book of love stories on so many levels. This is another big genre bender. We have romantic love, the bond between siblings, love for wild creatures and places, the love a parent feels for a child. And this also is very much a story about raising the next generation, not just biological children, but everyone’s children in a world that feels imperiled. This is character-driven, but it also features exciting action. I think of it as a brooding sort of page-turner.

All right. I hope this gives you a taste of what to expect from our Spring Book Preview and inspires you to check out the entire thing. To all of you who are already members of our Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club or Patreon community, or you joined us as an a la carte ticket holder, I hope you enjoyed our gathering and Spring Book Preview.

The unboxing video and digital booklet are waiting for you in your community and your inbox. If you are not in one of these groups, it’s easy to join either of our communities today and get immediate access to the Spring Book Preview. We do these events for our communities.

[00:09:49] Our paid community members also get access to thousands of hours of bookish delight, like weekly Patreon bonus episodes, book club author talks, and other seasonal previews and guides. I know I said there’s still ice on the ground here from a recent storm, but Summer Reading Guide season is just around the corner. My team and I are working on it right now.

And when you join one of these communities, you are making a very real difference by providing financial support for our show and our team of readers. Events like Spring Book Preview are just one of the ways we like to say thank you.

We will be back next week. Until then, thank you so much for listening. As Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” Until next time, happy reading, everyone.