12 Thrilling February Releases We’re Excited For

Alyssa Macallan is dumped by her wealthy, powerful husband, and with their divorce looming, she starts to suspect her manipulative ex is plotting to leave her alone and penniless. She really needs a friend with the FBI shows up at her door. Bree Lorrance, running from a dangerous relationship of her own, accepts Alyssa’s offer to stay in Alyssa’s guest house and the two become confidantes. Then, Bree makes her a tempting offer that shows Alyssa that maybe they can solve each other’s problems. But people aren’t what they appear. In this cat-and-mouse thriller, fates and fortunes can dramatically change making a shocking truth arise that karma has a funny way of coming back.

In this next installment of A Hamish Macbeth Mystery, Scotland’s most quick-witted but unambitious policeman is back. Kate Hibbert has only been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for only a year and already alienated one too many residents with her eager, not entirely well-intentioned, helping hand. A neighbor sees her lugging a heavy suitcase to a bus stop and hopes this will be the last he sees her. But two weeks later, news arrives that Kate has gone missing. Her cousin demands the local police to step in. Hamish’s investigation leads him down a storm of lies, intrigue, and scandal. Who really was Kate? As he goes deeper into the case, he suspects she may be more sinister than expected.

Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. As soon as she returns to Proofrock, her life takes a dangerous turn. Dark Mill South, convicted serial killer, escapes his prison transfer just outside of Proofrock and now seeks revenge for the thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862. Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12, 2019. On Friday the 13^th—twenty bodies later—it would be over.

In this enchanting spy thriller, it’s 1990, and Melvina Donleavy arrives in Soviet Belarus on her first undercover mission with the CIA alongside three fellow agents. No one knows she’s playing two roles. She’s merely a secretary to the KGB, but to the CIA, she’s the only one who can stop the flow of nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union to the Middle East. She’s a “super recognizer”, which means she’ll never forget a face. But no amount of training prepares her for the increasing disappearance of women. As she searches for answers, she also catches the attention of the petrifying “Black Wolf”, the head of the KGB. She’ll have to learn that the only person you could ever trust is yourself.

Related: Read an Excerpt of Kathleen Kent's Spy Thriller Black Wolf

King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure, eccentric to the point of madness towards the last years of his life. In those years, history tells us that he was in search for a new kingdom, a place he could retreat into and rule as he wished. Whether or not he was successful remains a mystery. Cotton Malone’s protégé, Luke Daniels, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany and gained the trust of the prince of Bavaria, determined to eliminate his brother and restore Wittelsbach monarchy. Everything now hinges on finding Ludwig’s success, legal title to lands Germany, China, and the United States all now want. In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden in Ludwig’s three fairytale castles, Malone and Daniels battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all trying to find the last kingdom.

James Michael Barrett lands a plea deal in his high-profile trial and leads law enforcement officers to the body of his last victim. At the alleged burial site, officers swing their shovels, hitting something metallic, setting off an explosion that instantly kills Barrett and most of the officers. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of this shocking case for FBI consultant Kendra Michaels. More heinous murders in Barrett’s style continue and it becomes clear he may have had an accomplice. Kendra reluctantly accepts help from Tricia Walton, a college student who was the only survivor of Barrett’s attacks. Together, they must try to understand the killer’s terrifying plan.

When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.

Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.
For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Like any enterprising woman, Bea knows what she’s worth and is determined to get all she deserves—it just so happens that what she deserves is to marry rich. Filthy rich. After years of forced instruction by her mother in the art of swindling men, a now-solo Bea wants nothing more than to close and lock the door on their sordid partnership so she can disappear safely into old-money domesticity, sealing the final phase of her escape.
When Bea chooses her ultimate target in the fully loaded, thoroughly dull and blue-blooded Collin Case, she’s ready to deploy all of her tricks one last time. The challenge isn’t getting the ring, but rather the approval of Collin’s family and everyone else in their 1 percent tax bracket, particularly his childhood best friend, Gale Wallace-Leicester.
Going toe-to-toe with Gale isn’t a threat to an expert like Bea, but what begins as an amusing cat-and-mouse game quickly develops into a dangerous pursuit of the grisly truth. Finding herself at a literal life-and-death crossroads with everything on the line, Bea must finally decide who she really wants to be. Like mother, like daughter?