July favorites - more summer recommendations!

The Heirs  by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Feiwel & Friends, 2 June 2026).

This teen mystery/thriller will probably be one of my favorite books this year!

It's difficult to describe without giving too much away, so I'm going to use the publisher's blurb.

Octavius the Maestro.
Fola the Brain.
Bilal the Olympian.        

Perdita the Artist.
Romeo the Failure.

These are the five heirs of the illustrious billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and viciously trained with their father’s infamous “Button Method” to prove his hypothesis for creating prodigies—child geniuses—the Button siblings have had no choice but to be brilliant according to their father's impossibly high standards.

Until he is murdered at his annual Prodigy Ball.

Now, all who attended the ball are required to stay in the Button Manor while the police investigate. But the officers have their work cut out for them—each of the Button siblings has something to hide, but The Heirs aren't the only ones with secrets. After all, Leontes Button was especially good at making enemies. . .

*****

Probable Caws  (Meg Langslow #39) by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books, 4 August 2026).

I've been reading (and enjoying!) this series since the first one. Murder with Peacocks, was published in 1999. Yes, Meg been solving mysteries all those years.

In this installment, Meg's family friend, Ragnar Ragnarsen, who is gradually turning the enormous house on his nearby estate into an authentic moated castle, has agreed to shelter nearly fifty horses for Hoof and Hearth, an equine rescue organization that has lost access to the farm where the horses have been living. The owner of the farm recently died without leaving a will, and while his older son Abel would be happy to let the horses stay, younger brother George wants to sell to a developer . . . and is suspected of sending a thug to harm the horses as part of his efforts to evict Hoof and Hearth.

That night, while Meg and her family are camping at one of Ragnar’s barns, to keep an eye on the horses, they discover that the thug has been murdered. Unfortunately George is alibied . . . but his horse-loving brother Abel is not. Neither are the hot-tempered founder of Hoof and Hearth or the passionately protective ex-jockey who serves as its stablemaster. Meg juggles helping keep the horses safe and doing what she can to help the chief solve the thug’s murder . . . all the while hoping that the killer won’t turn out to be one of the dedicated horse rescuers she has come to like and respect.

(Many thanks to Edelweiss for the digital ARC of this book!)

*****

A Zoom With a View by Jess Cannon (Dutton Books, 5 May 2026).

I had a really hard time putting this book down once I began.  It's exciting and gripping and funny, and filled with twists and turns. 

Our heroine, Leonora (Leo) has moved back to her hometown of Blue Oak, Texas, after being unable to find work as a professor of literature.  She's having trouble adjusting to the small town, especially due to her strained relationship with her overly hair-sprayed mother, Karina. But at least she’s able to work as a photographer for her godmother’s real estate business. And her best friend, Emily, is around to help her navigate through the mess—and maybe force her to reconnect with her old high school boyfriend, Mack.

But, while photographing one of her grandmother's listings,  Leo makes a grisly discovery: the dead body of rival real estate agent and social media influencer Chaz. Even worse, Leo and Emily have been secretly running a snarky Reddit page making fun of Chaz’s cringe-inducing advice and duck-faced selfies. When someone she loves is accused of the murder, Leo finds herself flung headfirst into a dangerous investigation, teaming up with a local detective who is a lot more attractive than she remembered when they were both teenagers. 

Meanwhile, her mother is acting stranger and stranger...

This book appears to be the first in a series, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with Leo!

*****

The Spy and the Snake (Mrs. Spy #2) by M.J. Robotham.  

The prequel to this book, Mrs. Spy, was one of my January favorites, and I highly recommend reading it first!

This book takes place in the 1960s, during the Cold War and the height of Beatle-mania.

Maggie, still employed by MI5, is now desk-bound.  She appreciates the relative safety of her new position, but with her daughter off at University, her life is beginning to feel ... ordinary.

So when the opportunity arises to get back in the field, Maggie jumps at it.  

The assignment: fly to Budapest  and pose as the wife of a notorious British defector in order to smuggle him back to the UK. It should be a straightforward operation. But Maggie Flynn has never done straightforward - and what's waiting in Budapest is anything but routine.

As Cold War tensions simmer and shadows linger on every corner, Maggie finds herself navigating a city steeped in secrets-and drawn to a mysterious stranger who may endanger the mission… or steal her heart.

Cross-posted to my Substack.