The Best New Books of September

“For fans of procedurals, social thrillers, family drama, and completed trilogies!

Texas Ranger Darren Mathews would like to live a peaceful, retired life on his farm, hopefully with his girlfriend. But life has a funny way of coming for your plans: the past he can’t shake is looming over his head in the form of a potential indictment and the mother he hates drops a case in his lap. She cleans a sorority house and the only Black girl has disappeared. The other sorority girls swear she just moved out, but her belongings are out by the trash. Mathews doesn’t want to get roped into this, he’s not even technically allowed to investigate it, and he certainly doesn’t want anything to do with his mom. Yet here he is, once again, poking into a case—which is the equivalent of poking a beehive that starts to upend the peace he was aiming for.

You can start here and not be lost, but this is one of the best crime trilogies, so if you want all the goodness (and twists), start with Bluebird, Bluebird and have Heaven, My Home on standby!” — Jamie Canavés