When one of the four members of a true-crime book club is found murdered during the group’s weekend getaway at an isolated island cabin, the three surviving frenemies have to make some quick decisions. Doling out suspense, red herrings and messy secrets, Canadian debut author Emma White puts a fun vicarious spin on toxic friendships. Told from multiple perspectives (and with fodder from the transcripts of a podcast), it’s a breezy and fast-paced cottage-country thriller – and just creepy enough you’ll want to securely lock the back door at bedtime. (June 2)

With warmth and sensitivity, this former Slate advice columnist weaves a story about aging and the pain of losing close friendships. After her ninth friend breakup, Barbara – an observant but embittered and somewhat unlikable 58-year-old – takes stock: resolving to be a better person and find a new best friend. Considering Barbara works at a gourmet deli and loves cooking, her journey involves strong connections between food and friendship with the publisher calling it a tribute to Nora Ephron’s Heartburn by way of Grace and Frankie). Added bonus: the audiobook is wonderfully performed by Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden. (June 2)

In her hotly anticipated followup to Hamnet, the Northern Irish author turns her attention from Shakespeare’s tragic family loss to the aftermath of The Great Hunger, which killed more than a million and spurred waves of emigration that would alter the country and reshape generations. But the story here is intimate: a single family and the ghosts of the departed. On the west coast of Ireland, 1865, a father who has lost nearly all members of his family to the famine works for the brutal British army on their ordnance survey, mapping the area with his young son in tow. The emotional journey that unfolds is intense and atmospheric, tied to the land and boasts incredible descriptions of the natural world. (June 2)

Anticipation is high for this debut novel from the creator of the iconic TV series Girlfriends – the show that launched Tracee Ellis Ross’s career and was one of the first to centre on a group of successful, diverse Black women. As Dionne is visited by an ex-boyfriend bearing potentially life-changing news, the page-turner about resilience, deep friendship and complicated forgiveness captures the Black experience with candour, heart and humour. According to actor/producer Lena Waithe – the first Black woman to win an Emmy for TV writing (Master of None) – this is “a propulsive, poignant and emotionally enthralling novel.” (June 30)

Steven was once a literary phenomenon with a much-praised debut novel but is now languishing after the flop of its follow-up. (Unlike author Wayne, who’s been putting out hit after hit since his 2010 debut Kapitoil, including the 2024 fave The Winner.) Meanwhile, his wife Lucy’s corporate career is thriving. When the couple hire a 24-year-old au pair / aspiring novelist, who is admiring and supportive of Steven, it disrupts the family balance making for a domestic thriller that satirizes the self-delusion of the male ego. It’s already been optioned for film, natch. (June 30)

For his engrossing debut, the composer and musician (of 1980s band David + David, who has collaborated with Joni Mitchell and Baz Luhrmann) draws on the complicated life of his grandfather Ernst. Born into Jewish aristocracy, Ernst was a linguist and scientist recruited by German chemical cartel IG Farben as an industrial spy. Torn by competing loyalties across three continents, two world wars and the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, Ernst’s sprawling story encompasses much of the 20th century – a vast canvas (more than 600 pages!) delivered in digestible sections. The political atmosphere and the economic and cultural detail during his cover as a business fixer in Tokyo are particularly fascinating. (June 2)

In his first novel for adults, this bestselling YA author conjures 80-year-old loner Poppy, a plucky heroine more interesting (and entertainingly acerbic) than most of the protagonists in this growing elderly sleuth sub-genre. As Poppy and her new friend Ginny face down bullying at Xanadu – their retirement community – and senior-dating-site scammers, the adventures in this cozy caper keep you entertained, with a sarcastic running commentary and the main character’s sharp wit. (June 9)

For the first time, Eggers’s background as an art school graduate and artist informs his fiction (and features his own drawings and sketches) – and it’s a rare novel that explores the deep and abiding friendship between a man and a woman while also interrogating the nature of art. Talented but obstinate Cricket and his supportive worldly confidante Olympia meet in childhood and their lives enmesh over a 65-year friendship. The globe-trotting book, conceived over the course of 20 years, is broken into seven sections, each leaping ahead in years, charting the friendship with nuance as they age – like the shifting weights and dynamics in the art term of the title. (June 9)

Raised steeped in her Chinese-American heritage, the bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan returns, weaving human drama with little-known 19th-century Los Angeles history – specifically the 1871 Chinese Massacre in which white mob riots in Chinatown resulted in mass racial violence. In Daughters of The Sun and Moon, three sisters leave China for America in 1870. Dove, Petal and Moon are three very different women with separate dreams and hardships. Told through their shifting points of view while conjuring incredible and raw historical detail, the friendship they share helps them persevere through the “Night of Horrors” and navigate the anti-Chinese sentiment of the period. (June 9)