Summer Reads 2026 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Broken Truths

Alessandro Robecchi, trans. from the Italian by Gregory Conti (Other Press)

This one’s for the armchair travelers. Robecchi’s trenchant whodunit focuses on an aging Italian film legend who’s preparing to make his first movie in 30 years: a true story about the unsolved murder of an anti-fascist crime novelist. Then the director’s neighbor is killed, pulling him into a secondary investigation. The resulting tale is witty, politically pointed, and dusted with Italian glamor.

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The Fine Art of Lying

Alexandra Andrews (Harper)

Andrews proves her delicious debut, Who Is Maud Dixon?, was no fluke with this serpentine sophomore thriller about a New York City art historian accused of killing the man she’s having an affair with. Come for the chic uptown atmosphere, stay for the jaw-dropping plot twists. It’s a rare instance in which judging a book by its cover is perfectly appropriate: this has all the sting and style of an ice-cold martini.

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Indie Darling

Lauren Nossett (Flatiron)

A Nashville PI who only takes on female clients gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to help a famous singer-songwriter fend off a stalker. The already sensitive case becomes an emergency when the musician is shot onstage during a concert and disappears en route to the hospital. Propulsive, empowering, and bursting with pop music ephemera, Nossett’s winding ride through Music City plays all the right notes.

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Killer Vibes

Jack Friday (Minotaur)

This breezy series launch follows a bisexual Texas PI who inherits a property from an uncle he hardly knew, opening the door to a slew of family secrets. Though the mystery is airtight, the hangout atmosphere is the real draw here: Friday’s characters are endearingly messy and colorful, making them well worth taking on a trip to the beach or the pool.

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My Name Was Gerry Sass

Tiffany Hanssen (Atlantic Crime)

Country music and crises of faith collide in WNYC host Hanssen’s delightfully audacious debut. Gerry Sass is a genteel hit man who launders money through his Iowa radio station. When he’s killed, it ignites a moral dilemma for his Catholic priest friend and makes his adult daughter thirsty for revenge. All that, and it’s funny! Hanssen proves remarkably adept at blending influences, from the Coen brothers to A Prairie Home Companion.

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Night Objects

Eli Raphael (Grand Central)

Summer may mean school’s out, but it’s always the right season for a good campus mystery. This one revolves around a working-class teen who gets into a patrician private school in the Pacific Northwest. Years later, as an adult, she reflects on all that went wrong there, including the death of a classmate. It’s moody and immersive in all the right ways.

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The One Day You Were My Husband

Rosie Walsh (Viking/Dorman)

Sometimes the best way to avoid being reckless on vacation is to read about other people who’ve been just that. This simmering romantic thriller follows a woman who blows up her life after running into an old flame overseas. And not just any old flame—the man she married a decade earlier, before Thai authorities hauled him away on the day of their wedding. Spoiler alert: little is as it seems.

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We Will See You Bleed

Ron Currie (Putnam)

Fans of Currie’s 2025 crime epic The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne will be thrilled to know that this prequel is every bit as brutal and satisfying as its predecessor. Centered on a labor strike in 1980s Maine, it explains how Babs became the bloodthirsty French American mafiosa Currie introduced in the previous book.

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