The Searcher

Cal Hooper is looking for a quieter existence. After spending the past 25 years as a cop in Chicago, he decides to live out his retirement in a village in West Ireland. But his attempt at escape is interrupted when he learns that a local boy has gone missing. Cal begins looking into the mysterious disappearance, and, in doing so, discovers messy secrets about his new town. Best-selling crime writer Tana French slowly builds the suspense in her latest thriller.

Where the Wild Ladies Are

In her collection of interlinked stories, Aoko Matsuda reimagines traditional Japanese folktales and ghost stories with a twist, positioning women at the center of narratives that are simultaneously life-like and surreal. In one, a woman falls in love with the ghost of a skeleton she pulled out of a river on a fishing trip. In another, a woman is scolded by the ghost of her dead aunt when she gets her body hair removed after a bad break-up. Throughout Where the Wild Ladies Are, Matsuda makes witty and pointed observations about mortality, connection and freedom.

Memorial

Written by Bryan Washington, when Benson’s friend Mike leaves Houston to visit his estranged and dying father in Osaka, their friendship is already strained. The two have been together for a few years, but Benson, a Black daycare teacher, and Mike, a Japanese-American chef, don’t know if it’ll last. Then, just as Mike departs for Japan, his mother arrives in town for an unexpected visit – leaving Benson to host a woman he’s never met. As they spend time apart, they question everything they thought they knew about love, grief and family.