Each month, our team of book-selling experts hand-selects a small group of titles for special editorial recognition. This rare distinction is designed to increase visibility for independently published books and advocate for their readership.
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The titles featured below are this month's IngramSpark Editorial Selections, spanning psychological thriller, suspense, police procedurals, detective tales, and more.
2026 indie editorial selections - MYSTERY/THRILLER
Her Silence
by S T Ashman
From bestselling author S. T. Ashman comes a thriller about a mother who refuses to let her mute daughter take the fall for a murder that doesn't make sense... even if the truth is worse than prison.
She survived the night. The truth didn't.
Nicole gets the call at 4 a.m. Her daughter Lacey was found in the woods beside her friend's dead husband. He was stabbed forty-four times. Lacey is barely alive. Covered in his blood. And completely mute.
She hasn't said a word since. Not to the police. Not to her husband. Not even to Nicole.
Nicole had Lacey at seventeen and swore her daughter would have a good life. Now Lacey is sitting in a cell, and Nicole's three grandchildren are left behind with a father who is losing it.
But Nicole knows her daughter. She isn't a cold-blooded murderer. Guilt didn't silence her. Fear did. Whatever happened in those woods scared Lacey more than prison.
So Nicole starts digging. But some secrets don't save people. They destroy them.
The Architect of Deception
by Debbie Baldwin
A cryptic invitation.
A secret society.
A billionaire's murder
Six years after his twin brother's death, Razz James is stuck. Once poised to become the prince of Manhattan society, he spends his days in a blur of gin and denial.
Then the mysterious invitation arrives.
An offer to join Scepter & Scythe, an exclusive secret society.
The initiation challenge is a task so daring few would attempt it: steal a memento from Apollo Peck, the infamous billionaire whose fantastical mansion sits atop New York City's poshest building. It's an impossible feat, but Razz has nothing to lose.
He thinks he's executed the perfect crime...
...then someone turns up dead.
What started as a distraction quickly spirals into a deadly plot with Razz in the crosshairs. In a world where power buys innocence, and the truth is subjective, Razz must unmask the mastermind before he becomes the next pawn sacrificed on the board.
The Quiet Kill
by Robert Bryndza
The start of a thrilling new crime series from Robert Bryndza, the multi-million bestselling author of the Detective Erika Foster and P.I. Kate Marshall series.
Winter, 1987. Detective Jamie Day arrives in London determined to prove himself. After years policing a quiet seaside town, his promotion to the Metropolitan Police feels like the opportunity he has been waiting for.
But the capital is a very different world.
On his first day in plain clothes, Jamie makes a grim discovery: the dismembered body of a young man, left in a dark corner of the city. What should have been a routine first shift quickly becomes the beginning of a major murder investigation.
Then another victim is found.
As winter deepens, young men are being killed late at night across London, their bodies discovered in eerily similar circumstances. The detectives soon realise they may be hunting a serial killer.
Working alongside a tough and experienced team, Jamie must prove he belongs while navigating the pressures of a high-profile investigation. But as the case grows darker, the killer's pattern begins to emerge. And if they don't stop him soon, another body will be waiting in the shadows.
The Mysterious Women of J Road
by Allison Cundiff
Some wounds never fully close.
After suspecting her husband has been hexed in Ozark hill country, Lillian Cedars goes deep into the backwoods to seek an antidote. What she finds is a world with a dark and malevolent past, where hill folk and their acolytes turn on anyone who dares enter their territory, and when Lillian encounters them, she learns not only their capacity for evil, but her own as well.
The Mysterious Women of J Road presents the collision of superstition and the supernatural in the remote and tangled mountains of southern Missouri. It is a world of secrets whispered between women for generations, women whose ways and whose burdens define who they are, what they stand for, and how far they'll wade into the murk of danger to protect their kin.
The Mentor
by Angela Douglas
The book was fiction. The pain was real. The consequences are deadly.
Professor Karla Dobbs has everything: literary acclaim, a bestselling novel, and a film adaptation on the horizon. Until a former student accuses her of plagiarism.
Natalie Silva claims that the novel in question is based on a real tragedy and insists that the film be stopped, or there will be consequences. Certain that she has done nothing wrong, Karla dismisses her. At first.
But as the world slips into lockdown, the truth begins to unravel, and the people behind the real story emerge demanding answers. Threats and public scrutiny follow. And then come the submissions.
Through a desperate attempt to stay afloat, her online mentorship program, Karla receives work from an anonymous writer known only as The Protegé. Each excerpt is disturbingly personal. Intimate and predictive, with chilling precision.
Someone is watching her.
Someone is writing her.
And as people around her begin to die, Karla realizes the most dangerous story she's never told... may be her own.
When you steal someone else's trauma, it becomes yours.
A gripping psychological suspense novel about literary ambition, stolen trauma, obsession, and revenge that explores the stories we tell, the secrets we keep, and the price of turning someone else's tragedy into your own success.
The Spin
by Faith Gardner
In the Los Angeles suburbs, the Crawfords seem like the average American family. Leo is a rising star in advertising. His wife, Rose, is brilliant, restless, and pregnant with their second child. Their teenage daughter, Melinda, is already leaning toward rebellion.
Then Rose vanishes during a family vacation.
When she comes back, she's not the same.
As time goes by, Rose seems to readjust to everyday life-until a new color television triggers a complete breakdown. She claims voices are speaking to her through the screen. Doctors call it hysteria. Her family feels terrified. And Rose is locked inside an institution where women are silenced, drugged, and erased.
Desperate to help his wife, Leo uncovers evidence that Rose's breakdown might not be mental at all. Especially when he learns the truth about why she was institutionalized in the first place.
The deeper Leo digs, the more he realizes his entire family may be in danger.
Because what they did to Rose was only the beginning.
The Last to Drown
by Noelle W Ihli
Five days. Twenty strangers. No way out.
The rafting trip was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But Kaia's starting to think she made a mistake.
Because ever since the whispers about Camas Creek began, all she feels is dread.
Seven years earlier, a guide murdered a group of rafters on this same isolated stretch of water. The killer's body was recovered downstream-but the true-crime community has never stopped asking questions.
And for good reason.
The incidents start small-a flipped raft, missing supplies, and screams in the night-but the pattern is sickeningly familiar. And with eighty-four miles of whitewater until any sign of civilization, safety has never felt so far away.
Kaia suspects that one of the guides is lying. One of the guests knows more than she's saying. And somewhere on this river, someone is planning to finish what started at Camas Creek.
Syncope
by Judd Midlam
After a failed venture and personal crisis propel him from urban skyscrapers to the depths of the Amazon, Tom Glass - a pharmaceutical insider haunted by addiction, grief, and an unraveling career - chases the promise of AI-driven discoveries and nature's hidden cures.
From candlelit dinners to remote labs and encounters with indigenous knowledge keepers, Tom confronts ambition, morality, and the fragile limits of free will, ultimately forced to reckon with the patterns that have defined his life and what he is willing to risk to reclaim it. How far will he go to remake himself - and can redemption be found in the chaos?
Part psychological drama, part philosophical odyssey, Syncope is a layered, discussion-worthy novel exploring innovation, human longing, and the delicate boundary between science, memory, and conscience.
The Washashore: A Seaside Mystery Thriller
by Christopher Mirabile
A dead man. A quiet beach town. A truth nobody wants unearthed.
A fatal late-night hit-and-run shatters the quiet of Provincetown, drawing interim police chief Silas Lopez into a case that appears straightforward-until the cracks begin to show. In a town where secrets wash ashore with every tide, nothing is ever as it seems.
From windswept dunes and secretive cranberry farms to the gritty docks of New Bedford, Silas chases a trail of shifting lies-missing trucks, grainy night-vision photos, and a maze of half-truths-each step pulling him deeper into a game no one wants him to play. The deeper he digs, the more formidable the forces that rise to stop him.
But Silas isn't one to back down. A fifteenth-generation ranch hand turned plain-spoken cop, he's fueled by grit, instinct, and a stubborn streak that won't quit. With a young department still finding its footing and a growing bond with fiery social worker Wren Bradford, Silas presses on as the tide of danger rises around them.
What begins as a tragic accident investigation unravels into something far darker and more dangerous, forcing Silas to confront a threat that could cost him everything he holds dear.
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly, Archer Mayor, and William Kent Krueger, this first Silas Lopez Mystery blends small-town intrigue, windswept coast beauty, criminal noir, and relentless suspense into a gripping debut that will keep fans of mystery series turning pages long into the night.
People Like Us
by Kiersten Modglin
In the intoxicating circle of influence and celebrity surrounding her ultra-rich in-laws, Astrid is an outsider. When she and her husband, Simon, return to the Morning family's lavish estate for his sister's wedding, she seizes the opportunity to finally prove she belongs.
As the family members set to work preparing for the ceremony, Astrid's efforts lead to her uncovering an old radio hidden in the back of a closet. Curious, she turns it on.
Then, the nightmare begins.
Across the static-filled line, a young girl calls for help.
But is the threat real? The Mornings have dealt with cruel pranks before, and they're certain someone is trying to trick Astrid into revealing the wedding location, or worse.
If she doesn't heed their warnings, she might just tumble headfirst into a meticulously laid trap. But as the wedding day draws nearer and tensions escalate, she can't shake the feeling they're wrong. And when she crosses a line in her search for answers, even Simon can't hide the doubt lingering in his gaze.
She must make a choice; if the girl is actually in danger, Astrid is running out of time.
In the grand, sun-soaked halls of Morning House, Astrid fears the secrets looming in the shadows. The cracks have begun to show, and in choosing between her own intuition and her new family, the very ground she walks on will crumble.
From the moment she married Simon, all Astrid wanted was the family she's always dreamed of, but as terrifying truths are unearthed, it becomes undeniable: if she digs too deep into the Mornings' world, she might find herself buried instead.
Perfect for fans of The Family Secret, Don't Go Down There, and Bitter House, Modglin returns with a dark, utterly propulsive locked-room thriller, crackling with tension and dripping with wealth, whispers, and unbridled power.
Rose Dhu
by Mark Murphy
A highly regarded surgeon has gone missing. Will the search for her whereabouts tear a community apart?
Dr. Janie O'Connor's disappearance from her Savannah estate, Rose Dhu, has shocked the town to its core. Her former fiancé, Phillip Carruthers-once the most eligible bachelor in coastal Georgia and the playboy son of Savannah's most powerful billionaire family-is the prime suspect.
Phillip maintains his innocence and seems to have an airtight alibi, and the case has local police stumped. But Detective Frank Winger, who has his own personal connection to Janie's family, is determined to discover what happened . . . as long as false witnesses, evidence tampering, and ghosts from his past don't get in the way.
When back-door dealings and long-forgotten enemies reveal themselves, will Frank be able to distinguish fact from fiction to figure out what happened to Janie? Or will her whereabouts stay shrouded in the shadows of Savannah's live oaks?
Don't Ask Why: A Thriller
by Steph A Nelson
She hoped this girls' trip would help her heal. Instead, it just might kill her.
Still reeling from her husband's death, Courtney joins her three best friends on a secluded island in the Florida Keys. But the getaway meant to bring peace quickly spirals into chaos.
First comes a rumor about a woman who was recently killed on the island. Then the property manager is nowhere to be found. When a stranger shows up at the vacation rental and one of the friends goes missing, Courtney starts to wonder if they'll make it home at all.
There's no Wi-Fi. No cell service. No way off the island for four days.
But four days is too long to wait for help.
If Courtney wants to survive, she'll have to fight for her life.
The Dead Girls Book Club
by Zia Rayyan
Amelia knows her marriage isn't normal.
It's always been more than just her and Ken. Her detective husband is married to his cases, and more often than not, Amelia ends up sleeping alone.
When an exclusive book club extends her an invitation, Amelia finally finds the connection she's been craving.
But this isn't a normal book club. As her husband's investigation escalates, Amelia is beginning to see unsettling parallels between the women she's growing close to and the murders he can't seem to solve.
But these murders aren't random.
And neither was her invitation to the Dead Girls Book Club.
A fast-paced, twisty domestic psychological thriller for fans of Freida McFadden, Shari Lapena, and Daniel Hurst.
Between The Sun and Rain
by Leighton Kirby Richards
Winner of the 2026 IndieReader Discovery Award - Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Fiction
Finalist - 2026 American Fiction Awards - Best New Fiction
One summer night in 1985, twelve-year-old Julia Pemberton disappears without a trace from a friend's backyard birthday party. Everyone in the sleepy town of Chatham, North Carolina, believes she was taken while hiding in the woods during a game of kick the can-but the truth is much closer to home.
In the days following Julia's disappearance, the small town's residents grapple with the new circumstances, so disparate from the slow-paced Southern tranquility they'd grown accustomed to. Dell Jenkins, Julia's lifelong best friend, has to start sixth grade without her, and as the months go by, she feels like everyone is moving on with their lives too easily. The only person that seems to feel Julia's absence as keenly is Tommy, Julia's father. But after weeks of searching, Tommy begins to lose faith that his daughter will ever come home alive, shutting himself up-and the rest of the world out-in his woodshop. Meanwhile, Betsy Glass, the hostess of the party, worries the whole town feels she is responsible for Julia's disappearance. But just as her guilt begins to dissipate, she uncovers evidence of her husband's infidelity, unknowingly setting all three characters on a path to discovering the truth.
Where No One Can Find You
by J E Rowney
Maggie Matheson does not exist.
No school records. No medical records. No friends.
No one looking for her.
For as long as she can remember, Maggie has lived wherever her father takes her. He says the world is dangerous. He says he is keeping her safe.
And Maggie believes him.
Until he starts taking her to the woods.
All she has to do is stand on the path and look lost. Kind women always stop for a frightened girl.
At first, Maggie is too young to understand what happens next.
Then she understands enough to know she has to run.
But Maggie knows nothing about the world.
And the world knows nothing about Maggie.
A dark, devastating psychological thriller about captivity, survival, and the lies we have to believe before we can face the truth.
The Last Seat
by Jenifer Ruff
The spotlight is dangerous when everyone has something to hide.
When ER nurse Haley James saves a stranger's life on a routine train ride, her heroic actions go viral. The video draws relentless media attention, with reporters digging into her past and threatening to expose her secrets, including the truth behind her sudden separation from her husband.
Amidst the chaos, a shocking revelation from her mother shatters everything Haley thought she understood about her family, leaving her questioning who else has been lying and why.
With her life unraveling and danger closing in, Haley doesn't know who she can lean on: the detectives working the case, the ex who may still be hiding something, or the charming lawyer who seems too good to be true.
In this pulse-pounding psychological thriller, trust is a luxury Haley can't afford, and the most shocking secrets are the ones she has yet to uncover.
Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Mary Kubica, and Shari Lapena, THE LAST SEAT by USA TODAY bestselling author Jenifer Ruff is a rollercoaster of suspense that will keep you questioning every relationship and every motive until the final, jaw-dropping twist.
Ascendants
by Don Schechter
It's not the life you lead; it's the blood you bleed.
By 2060, society has been divided into two classes by a groundbreaking discovery: An afterlife exists, but only for the genetic few. Ascendants are genetically destined to experience what comes after. Biomasses are condemned to oblivion.
This new era of Ascension is controlled by The Jacobs Institute, a powerful research organization challenging the limits of consciousness and morality. Ascendants follows three characters caught up in The Institute's web of secrets-the visionary scientist who started it all, a grieving husband beholden to his belief, and a fierce young woman grappling with what society has become. What will it cost them to unravel the science that fuels The Institute's power?
A gripping techno-thriller, Ascendants is both a warning against the weaponization of science and belief, and a vision for the survival of humanity.
The Hoa
by Tanya Smith
Vellamar Estates is the kind of neighborhood where the lawns are always perfect and the neighbors always wave. The kind of place where you pay a little extra for peace of mind, for safety, for the comfort of knowing that someone is looking out for you.
But someone is also looking in.
Behind the gates, four families are keeping secrets-the kind that could destroy careers, marriages, and lives.
A woman living a double life to keep her daughter fed.
A former athlete bleeding money to the wrong people.
A landscaper laundering cash to save the grandmother who raised him.
A couple who just want to exist without apology.
They came to Vellamar to build something. To protect what matters. To finally breathe.
But there are cameras where no one thinks to look. Files on every resident since the day they moved in. And an understanding that the best leverage isn't money-it's shame.
Now the families of Vellamar must decide what they're willing to lose to protect what they've hidden-without knowing who's watching, who's listening, or who among them can still be trusted.
Some neighborhoods have rules. Vellamar has leverage.
And once you're inside, getting out costs more than getting in.
For the paranoid, you were right.
The Guilty Ones: A Psychological Thriller
by Kyla Stone
Perfect mothers. Perfect daughters. Perfect lies.
After her husband's death, Dahlia Kincaid and her 14-year-old daughter Mia move to the exclusive lakefront community of Blackthorn Shores, Michigan, hoping for a fresh start.
It feels like a miracle: lakefront views, immaculate homes, and a coveted spot in the elite circle of neighborhood mothers. Even Mia is welcomed by the popular girls. For the first time, Dahlia dares to believe they've finally found belonging.
But after a neighborhood slumber party, one of the girls is found dead.
The police suspect murder. The evidence points to Mia. Blood stains her clothes, fresh scratches mark her arms, and her story keeps changing. Every lie Mia tells makes Dahlia wonder what else her daughter is hiding.
As rumors swirl and suspicion mounts, the mothers who once embraced Dahlia turn wary and cold. And Mia withdraws, shutting Dahlia out completely. Desperate to protect her daughter, Dahlia begins her own hunt for the truth, digging into the secrets buried beneath the community's polished façade. But every answer she uncovers brings her closer to losing both her child and the life she's fought to build.
One thing is certain: someone in Blackthorn Shores is a killer. But as Dahlia closes in on the truth, her worst fear isn't that the killer will escape-it's that she already knows who it is.
Ruin Me Softly
by A L Wilder
Eden Whitmore was the perfect wife.
Polished. Composed. Silent.
From the outside, her life beside one of the most powerful men in the country looked untouchable-private planes, donor galas, admiration that followed them into every room. Behind closed doors, it was something else entirely. Control disguised as devotion. Violence hidden beneath tailored suits and carefully curated smiles. A marriage that functioned as a cage.
So Eden did the unthinkable.
She ran.
In a small town where no one knew her name-or her past-she rebuilt herself as Eliza Moore. She found work, community, and something she thought she'd lost forever: the right to exist without permission. She learned what it felt like to be seen without being owned. To be loved without conditions.
But monsters don't release what they believe belongs to them.
When the man she escaped finally finds her, Eliza makes a choice that will change everything. Instead of running again, she walks back into the heart of his world-armed with the truth, a meticulously kept record of his crimes, and a plan that could bring down a powerful trafficking ring built on silence and fear.
What follows is a reckoning.
A violent, devastating collision between survival and justice. Between love that protects and power that destroys. Between who she was forced to be-and who she chose to become.
Ruin Me Softly is a harrowing, emotionally charged novel about coercive control, resilience, and the cost of telling the truth. It is a story of a woman who refuses to disappear quietly-and the people willing to stand beside her, even when the price is everything.
Because sometimes survival isn't the end of the story.
Sometimes it's just the beginning.