October 13, 2026
This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this fall. Read more about it, and enter our Fall Reading Contest by Wednesday, October 14th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of THE BLUFF by Wade Rouse, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!
Which of the following fiction titles releasing in October have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
October 9, 2026, 525 voters
Editorial Content for The Witch
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I had to smile when Freida McFadden wrote in her Acknowledgements at the end of her latest novel, “As many of you know, I am a prolific writer.” She noted that THE WITCH is her fourth release this year, and she talked about her two grandmothers as this essentially is a story about grandmas. Read More
Teaser
When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear. Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her. Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41am. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door. As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet.
Promo
When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear. Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her. Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41am. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door. As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet.
About the Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes THE WITCH, a chilling, twist-filled thriller about secrets --- those we inherit, those we bury, and those people will burn to keep silent.
Some secrets don't die --- they wait.
When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear.
Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her.
Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41 a.m. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door.
As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. When decades of family lies begin to surface, Julia must confront a terrifying truth: Pemberton may be haunted by women whose voices refuse to stay silent.
Audiobook available, read by Saskia Maarleveld and Marin Ireland
Editorial Content for One Split Second
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I got something Buzz will want to hear.
These are the words that send outgoing Sheriff Jenny Almond racing to a disturbed veteran’s home one dark, stormy night. Jenny would like nothing more than to tuck in with her husband and children. But that call from Anthony Alvarez came to her home phone. She knows Alvarez to be a war veteran with PTSD, a man her father --- once the sheriff himself --- tried desperately to help. Read More
Teaser
Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community. More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers.
Promo
Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community. More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers.
About the Book
A girl’s unsolved disappearance. A tragic shooting. Two crimes, 45 years apart, with a blood-chilling connection in a gripping new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community.
More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers. Digging deeper into both the past and the present, she discovers a complex web of sinister motives and long-buried secrets, unearthing them one by one.
As a decades-old mystery casts its dark shadow on a small town, only the truth will finally set the innocent free.
Audiobook available, read by Emily Sutton-Smith
Editorial Content for Ply
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Hernan Diaz’s third novel wields post-apocalyptic fantasy as a prescient weapon of forewarning and a torch of hope in the human collective. If it had been published in years past, it would be on the growing lists of banned books that endanger prejudiced systems of power. Read More
Teaser
Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.
Promo
Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.
About the Book
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of TRUST turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination.
Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.
After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, PLY questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama and scientific thriller, PLY poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.
Audiobook available, read by Imani Jade Powers















