By Carole Reedy

Autumn’s seasonal foods, weather shifts, and sports and cultural events are good reasons to look forward to the fall interval, but so too is the arrival of the new end-of-year books. Publishers traditionally present their most accomplished authors at this time, likely in anticipation of holiday gift buying.

This fall release list has some gems by current notable authors as well as some favorite popular fiction writers.

New Books from Current Notable Authors

Entitlement: A Novel, by Rumaan Alam (due September 17)
Many of us were frankly amazed by Alam’s last novel, Leave the World Behind: A Novel (2021), which addressed fears of an unknown future and the scientific/computer events that could throw our lives into chaos. Alam’s engaging novel was made into a popular Netflix movie starring Julia Roberts that was true to the book from which it came.

Alam’s newest is a novel that seems to be about money. It stars a young protagonist who needs a sense of purpose while making a difference in the world. She also wants to impress her mother, spend time with friends, and establish her independence. Securing a job assisting a billionaire gives her proximity to wealth, which moves us to the core of her transition.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Louise Erdrich writes that this novel “should come with an undertow warning … I was pulled under. Rumaan Alam has mastered that eerie moment when an ordinary gesture has the potential for disaster.”

Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson (due September 3)
Jackson Brodie fans, stand by! This is the next in Atkinson’s popular detective series. Not to worry if you haven’t read the others – you can enjoy each book individually.

This novel finds Brodie discontent in Yorkshire while investigating stolen paintings. He soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that leads him down a confusing path to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting murder mystery weekends.

Fair warning: new readers may become hooked on Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mystery series. If this describes you, we suggest you read Case Histories (2005), the first in the Jackson Brodie series, as well as Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel (1995), Atkinson’s debut novel and a Whitbread (now Costa) award winner. Atkinson has also written several other gems, among them the popular Life After Life: A Novel, winner of the 2014 Independent Bookseller’s Award, which gives us a window on the many lives we can possess.

The Drowned: A Novel, by John Banville (due October 1)
John Banville won the Booker Prize in 2005 for his novel The Sea, and is the bestselling author of 15 novels, a short story collection, and a mystery series written under the name Benjamin Black.

This latest is a mystery that takes place in rural Ireland in the 1950s. It concerns a missing woman whose husband thinks she may have taken her own life and the subsequent investigation. It is as much a mystery as an observation into our shrouded worlds. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is aided by his pathologist friend Quirke (the protagonist of preceding novels in the series) in discovering what happened to the missing wife.

Banville has been described in many reviews as “the heir to Proust, via Nabokov,” but he himself cites W.B. Yeats and Henry James as the two major influences on his work.

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, by Olga Tokarczuk (due September 24)
Move over Thomas Mann. Nobel Prize winner Tokarczuk’s new novel is set in 1913 in a sanatorium at a health resort in the village of Görbersdorf in the Silesian mountains in Poland. Sound familiar? Esoteric evening discussions among the sanatorium’s residents center around the great issues of the day, accompanied by an hallucinogenic drink.

I will leave the description at that while noting that subtitle – A Health Resort Horror Story. Who could resist? Many of us have read and admired Torcarczuk’s well-known Flights (2018) as well as Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel (2019).

New Books from Notable Popular Writers
The following books are authored by the crème de la crème of their genres. Each author possesses stature in the field and thousands, if not millions, of loyal followers.

Blood Ties, by Jo Nesbø (due November 2)
Jo Nesbø is one of the world’s best-selling crime writers. By 2021 he had sold 50 million copies of his novels worldwide in more than 50 languages. (Nesbø also is lead singer of the Norwegian rock band Di Derre.) In his latest crime novel, Nesbø reunites two brothers, Carl and Roy Opgard, from The Kingdom (2020), who return to their small town in crisis as they find themselves fighting for everything they have – ill-gotten as that might be.

We Solve Murders: A Novel, by Richard Osman (due September 17)
Known for the popular The Thursday Murder Club series, Osman started a career in television, where he wore many hats. His book series about retirement home sleuths was an immediate success, and now in We Solve Murders he has gifted us with a new detective duo, the retired investigator Steve Wheeler and his ambitious daughter-in-law Amy. Osman reassures us, though, that his astute elderly crew from the Thursday Murder Club will return in the future. In the meantime, enjoy the new series.

The Grey Wolf: A Novel, by Louise Penny (due October 29)
This is the bestselling writer’s 19th mystery set in Three Pines, the fictional Quebec village beloved by all Penny fans. In The Grey Wolf, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the engaging detective and hero of the series, receives a phone call on a quiet Sunday morning that triggers rage and upsets his wife deeply. But this is just the first of the strange events that will unfold.

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel, by Alexander McCall Smith (due October 15)
It is hard to fathom that this is book 25 in the well-regarded No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. All our favorite characters – including J.L.B. Matekoni and Mma Makutsi – return to assist the amiable, competent, and stubborn head detective Precious Ramotswe. McCall Smith writes four or five novels a year, so there is never a worry about exhausting his selections.

Identity Unknown, by Patricia Cornwell (due October 15)
Cornwell sold her first Kay Scarpetta novel, Postmortem, in 1990, and the rest of the story is a thrilling history. Her experience working at the office of the chief medical examiner in Richmond, Virginia, launched Cornwell’s writing career and that of her beloved fictional medical examiner. Postmortem won the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du roman d’aventures – the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year.

Cornwell’s newest brings the Kay Scarpetta series to 28 books. When summoned to an abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr. Scarpetta realizes the victim is an old lover of hers … and he has left her a clue.

Cornwell has also written the definitive book on Jack the Ripper’s identity, as well as several cookbooks and a children’s book.

It certainly appears that end-of-year reading promises hours of intellectual and emotional stimulation. Enjoy every precious moment!