Summer books: Mysteries, biographies, romance, literature - there's something for everyone in the next three months
Most folks' summers will feature SPF 50 and thunderstorm warnings. But, if you read the upcoming books, yours could also include murderous crocodiles, Vincent van Gogh intrigue and a shocking Jamaican crime.
That crime is in the "The Disappearers," former St. Paul resident Marlon James' first novel in four years, and he's not the only big name on the way to bookshelves. Read below to learn what's on the way from Colson Whitehead, William Kent Krueger, Tea Obreht and many more.
Rasputin Swims the Potomac
Ben Fountain
With his latest novel, the author of "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" returns to political satire, and makes use of echoes of the career of former Minnesota politician Jesse Ventura. It's about a world-champion wrestler who comes to the assistance of a president who, ahem, has designs on a third term. But, as the wrestler's popularity grows, he starts to think maybe he'd like to be in the Oval Office. He has some extra help since he has access to something more useful than the Electoral College: possible supernatural powers. June 9
Remember the Main
Meg Gorzycki
Nope, that title does not refer to the Spanish-American War. Gorzycki, who lives in Plymouth, chronicles the late, lamented Superior, Wis., gay bar that was a community hub for the Twin Ports. Both oral history and biography, "Remember the Main" will be published by Minnesota Historical Society Press. It profiles Bob Jansen, who used a legal settlement to buy the bar in 1983, a crucial time in the history of gay rights and gay health. June 9
The Pinnacle
Abir Mukherjee
Stop me if you've heard this one (or if you've read/seen "The Flight Attendant"): Someone wakes up after an all-night bender to discover they're in bed next to a bloody corpse. But in "A Rising Man" and his other novels, Mukherjee has shown an ability to find something fresh in familiar situations. There are glimpses of India's movie scene in "Pinnacle," since the victim was a rising Bollywood star, and maybe a touch of "A Star Is Born," since the man who found her is both her husband and a washed-up Hollywood actor. June 16
Fear the Reaper
David Housewright
Former St. Paul detective Rushmore McKenzie is vacationing in northern Wisconsin with pals when they narrowly avert disaster at a winery, where a mystery man with a gun is on the verge of a violent act. But was disaster averted? Or has the man become a ticking time bomb, about to go off? Housewright, who grew up in St. Paul, is an Edgar Award winner who has written 23 McKenzie mysteries. June 23
The Shampoo Effect
Jenny Jackson
"Pineapple Street" author Jackson returns with the story of a nepo baby and her wild summer at a New England beach town. Jackson switches between multiple narrators as she tells the tale of Caroline, who falls in love with a hippie and isn't sure how to react when another woman in their friend group announces that she's pregnant with his baby. "Pineapple" showed how good Jackson is at creating impossible comic situations and finding something real in them. June 30
Astronaut!
Oana Aristides
Best book cover of the summer? Maybe, and that image is more immediately understandable than the title of this debut, which is set in Romania during Nicolae Ceausescu's reign of terror. "Astronaut!" is about the unlikely friendship between a little girl and a detective who is investigating a series of murders that are believed to have been committed by - here's where that cover begins to come into focus - a bear. To find out what space travel has to do with this, we'll all have to read the book. July 14
The Parisian Heist
Jo Piazza
Paris' Musee d'Orsay is one of the world's prettiest art museums but it's also where American artist Jessica gets snared in a mystery tied to the work of one of the artists showcased there: Vincent van Gogh. Jessica's present-day acquaintance with wealthy collectors who buy and, possibly, steal priceless masterworks leads her to a deep dive into the 19th century life of the great Impressionist. She also learns about his sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh, who championed the work of the master who died virtually unknown. July 14
Unreliable Narrator
Araminta Hall
The twist seems to be spelled out right there in the title but there's bound to be more in the latest from the devious writer of "One of the Good Guys." There are echoes of "The Great Gatsby" in the premise, with Hope as Hall's Nick Carraway, an outsider who falls under the spell of wealthy, amoral socialites. In Hope's case, the socialites are a glittering author and his friends, who bring Hope into contact with romance and murder. All seems to be forgotten until a decade later, when the author's new book spills the beans on every bad thing Hope did. July 14
Cool Machine
Colson Whitehead
Don't be sad that Whitehead's rollicking Harlem trilogy is ending. Be happy that it exists and will remain endlessly re-readable as long as novels are around. The finale to the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner's (for "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys") series that includes "Harlem Shuffle" and "Crook Manifesto" hooks us back up with low-level scammer Ray Carney for the always doomed "one last job." In an odd case of life imitating art, Whitehead's website warns that he's currently the unwilling focus of a literary scam. July 21
Married With Benefits
Ellie Palmer
The first of two marriage-of-convenience-that-becomes-a-real-romance books of the summer is the Burnsville writer's rom-com. The emphasis on romance and property has a Jane Austen-y sound to it, but Palmer's book is set firmly in the present (and in Wisconsin). It's about a woman who owns a house and a man who owns the land on which the house is sitting. A happy ending would involve both of them owning everything together, so bet money on that happening in Palmer's follow-up to "Anywhere With You." July 21
I Have This Thing for Flowers
Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn
Memoirist and gardening fan Sawchyn, dumped by her fiancé, staged a fake wedding with a pal in order to secure health insurance. It turned out she also secured a new love, as the marriage of convenience evolved into one of passion. Essay collection "I Have This Thing for Flowers" uses the plants in Sawchyn's garden as metaphors for the relationships in her life. And, presumably, weeds as a metaphor for former fiancés. Aug. 4
One of the Family
Mark Edwards
Early readers are raving about all the twists in this thriller/horror, in which a man's introduction to his future in-laws goes about as wrong as it could possibly go. Patrick accompanies his girlfriend Holly to her family's Scottish estate, where they encounter: news that Holly's dad has a much younger fiancé, awareness that the fiancé looks just like Holly's late mom and Holly's siblings' plot to get rid of their potential stepmom, violently and permanently. Aug. 4
Sunlight Finds You
Laura Moriarty
The writer of "The Chaperone" has crafted another period romance. This time, it's set in the 1940s in St. Petersburg, Fla., where teenager Nora falls in love with a wealthy boy whose parents object to the class differences between the two. "Sunlight Finds You" is narrated by an older, wiser Nora, who reflects upon the events of her youth and evaluates how they affected the choices she subsequently made. Aug. 4
Sunrise
Téa Obreht
The title refers to a town in Wyoming that has a magical "Brigadoon" quality. The new novel by the author of bestselling "The Tiger's Wife" is set in multiple time frames (as was "Tiger's Wife"): 2024, 2003 and 1902. In each, characters struggle to get at the truth about what's going on in the western town. Eventually, the stories converge and Obreht reveals the ghosts that haunt Sunrise. Aug. 11
The Crying Killer
Jess Lourey
It's the prolific Minneapolis writer's third book of the year, but who's counting? Following gothic "The Blackthorn Women" and dystopian "The Verdant Cage" (a New York Times bestseller) is this true-crime-inspired thriller about a St. Paul woman who becomes convinced that the serial killer who murdered her sister is now stalking her and her daughter. Aug. 18
God's Country
William Kent Krueger
St. Paul's Krueger, who has a stand-alone novel coming next year, has cooked up his 22nd novel featuring Cork O'Connor. And it's personal (it almost always is with O'Connor, who knows just about everyone in the North Woods of Minnesota, whether murderer or potential victim). His pal, Cordell Bishop, has gone missing and the only way O'Connor can find him is by dealing with some unsavory types who seem to have a psychic hold on their community. Krueger is Mr. Book Tour, so look for him at a store near you. Aug. 18
Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher
Timothy Tyson and Mary D. Williams
The collaboration between Tyson, author of "The Blood of Emmett Till," and singer Williams positions Jackson as not just a gospel great ("Moving On Up a Little Higher" is one of her best-known songs) but also a civil rights pioneer. A Forrest Gump-like presence who was a key figure at many landmark events - from the concerts depicted in Oscar-winning "Summer of Soul" to the 1963 March on Washington, where she urged Martin Luther King to "tell ‘em about the dream" - was an icon whose music and activism continue to resonate more than five decades after her death. Aug. 18
Crocodilopolis
John Manuel Arias
A book that combines the goofiness of a telenovela, the brother-against-brother mythos of the Bible and the bonkers mayhem of death by crocodile? Bring it on. Arias' novel is about wealthy coffee heirs from Costa Rica whose lives went in different directions. Now, the less successful brother wants to throw his sibling into a river that is famously full of man-eating crocs. Arias, whose "Where There Was Fire" was about family drama on a banana plantation, knows this territory well. Aug. 25
Dey
Edwidge Danticat
The MacArthur "genius" grant winner, who also has earned just about every literary award there is, zeroes in on a Haitian American woman who survives a mass shooting at a mall. In the aftermath, she re-evaluates her relationships with her mother, daughter and partner. Danticat, a guest of Talking Volumes last year, has been a book club fave since her first novel three decades ago, Oprah's Book Club selection "Breath, Eyes, Memory." Aug. 25
The Disappearers
Marlon James
The former Macalester professor (and Booker Prize winner for "A Brief History of Seven Killings") sets his latest novel in his native Jamaica, where sexual acts between members of the same sex remain illegal today. The novel is set in 1988, when eight gay men are rehearsing a play in Kingston, an already loaded situation that turns deadly when the men are attacked and one of them dies. Each man responds to the tragedy differently. Word is James will be back in Minnesota later this year to discuss and sign copies of "Disappearers." Sept. 1
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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 1:08 AM.