Here are ten of my favourite books of 2026 Part Three, excluding audiobooks, of which there are loads so far. As usual a disparate selection, with a fair bit of superstition thrown in, and my usual Gothic, plus Iceland, Ireland and politics.

Where Are The Kings by Donal Ryan

What a remarkable book this is. Ryan deals with suicide and mental health in such a sympathetic way. The writing is sublime and all the characters from fourteen-year-old Jack (he’s twelve at the beginning of the book), to his uncles Theo and Haulie, uncle JJ (who is only two years older than Jack but has learning difficulties), his grandparents and his Auntie Rose. Jack fantasises about Rose, but then she’s beautiful and he’s a hormonal teenager. She is still his Mam’s sister however.

I felt really sorry for Jack’s father, Tom. I thought that there was a tiny bit of blame placed on him just because he’s an immigrant. Almost as if no-one is surprised he went a bit doolally. After all, he’s from Czechoslovakia. I know, because my parents emigrated from Eastern Europe during the war. Maybe that’s why Where Are The Kings resonated with me more than Heart Be At Peace. It’s also unusual for the father to be institutionalised for mental illness, rather than the mother. Women were usually the ones treated for their ‘nerves’.

For my full review click here

The Kill Switch by Robert Peston

I cannot get over how much I loved this book. I read the first one ages ago and thought it was pretty good, but The Kill Switch is in a league of its own. There are so many shocks, but one of them had me gasping in disbelief.

It’s a mixture of politics, murder – the Prime Minister is killed right near the beginning (just what I like in a book, start off with a bang) – and discussions about AI and whether it is a force for good or bad. How far can we go with it and will it become more powerful and knowledgeable than those who created it?

For my full review click here

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

When my kids were at school, they weren’t very good at team sports (like me). Other mums would boast about how wonderful their kids were, so much better than mine. Then along came the grandson of a famous cricket commentator and everyone else paled in comparison.

And so it is with this book. There are average writers, there are good writers, and then along comes Catherine Ryan Howard, and the rest pale in comparison. OK, I exaggerate. There are lots of great writers, but you get my drift.

Buyer Beware could have been longer, but it wasn’t. That’s part of what I loved. The suspense, the action and the tension never let up. No waffling. No unnecessary musings on life.

For my full review click here

The Cartography Of What Remains by Eva Schep

I usually read crime, serial killer thrillers, and modern contemporary Gothic. I write crime, dark humour and magical realism. The Cartography of What Remains is not my usual genre, but I know I need to broaden my horizons (so long as it’s not sci-fi, high fantasy or horror).

Lena is widowed (though they weren’t actually married). She’s still young. Tomas died young. Every day she goes back and relives that last day, the chipped cup. the coffee, the bread, the forms that needed signing. Did she do something wrong? I can feel the guilt washing off her like the rain outside on her coat. It’s impossible for her to move forward until she can let go of the past.

For my full review click here

Day Of Wrath by Otho Eskin

Day of Wrath is going straight to the top of my favourite books of 2026 Part Three. Maybe even make my favourite books of the year. I adored it. I read it in two days. I love that it’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, filled with dark humour in Zorn’s musings and conversations, and entertaining. The relationship between homicide detective Marko Zorn and potty-mouthed partner Saoirse, who no-one wants to work with, is brilliant.

While Day of Wrath may not win any prizes for its poetic beauty, it packs the kind of punch that could knock you off your feet. First of all we have Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Vincent Holmes, lying dead in the Cathedral, a Tarot card in his hand. There were two witnesses, a soppy nun-novitiate and a homeless man with a facial scar. What did they see?

For my full review click here

They Can’t Burn Us All by Cathryn Kemp

There is a horrifying chapter in this book that will probably haunt me forever, and it’s mentioned at least three times. But setting that aside, I thought They Can’t Burn Us All was amazing, wonderfully written and immaculately researched. I’ve read a lot of novels set in Iceland from modern Scandi noir to a book about Scottish women in the 1800s sent there to repent their sins.

But this is set 200 years earlier, during the sweeping witch hunts that took place all over Europe, except in Iceland it was different. Elsewhere, witches were almost all women, with almost 60,000 being put to death for witchcraft. In Iceland, they were all men. Women were not educated, most couldn’t read or write, so were deemed incapable of being witches and casting spells and curses.

For my full review click here

You’ll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner

Thirty years ago, an entire family the Dixons – mum, dad and their four young children – vanished without a trace. The house was left as if they’d just gone for a walk, with no clues apart from three sets of bloody footprints. Police Chief Grady was obsessed with finding out what happened that night, and never gave up until the day he died.

Now his daughter, Amanda Grady, newly appointed police chief of small town Shereford, has taken up her father’s mantle, because finally the house has been purchased by Theo and Raquel Collins, who intend to ‘do it up’ maybe turning it into a guest house. Though who would want to stay there is anyone’s guess.

For my full review click here

The Hidden Library by Sharon Gosling

Until I’d finished this book, I didn’t realise that this isn’t the first time I’ve read this author. I read The Forgotten Garden two years ago. In fact I was on the blog tour and it was one of my favourite books of the year.

The Hidden Library is probably a bit too ‘romancy’ for me and I would have liked a more sinister, Gothic element. Maybe hidden skeletons buried in the walls (you’ll know where I mean when you get to it), whispering galleries and warnings written in condensation on the mirror. But I still read it in two sittings and couldn’t wait to turn the pages. If I was on holiday I’d probably have read it in one go.

For my full review click here

The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir 

I think of all the books I’ve read by this author – six including The Last Tenant – this is my favourite (just overtaking The Creak On The Stairs). I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just the idea of the unknown woman and the baby buried where no-one would find them – till now. It was very sad, even more so when we discover who they are.

Single mother Karitas and her four-year old son Bessi have just moved to Akranes and taken a basement flat in the home of a strange elderly man called Baldvin. She finds him unnerving and creepy, but her son seems to really like him. He tells her that she is one of three ‘suns’ in his life, one of which is his daughter. It’s in their names.

For my full review click here

Confessions Of A Crime Writer by Louise Mangos

I once told someone I’d only just met that I was writing a book about a female serial killer and it was ‘dark humour’. He looked at me a bit weird. How can a book where someone gets murdered be funny? Think Killing Eve I suggested. OK, that’s a bit extreme, but crime fiction can be funny so long as you don’t go in for really gruesome details. And Confessions of a Crime Writer IS hilarious.

Budding crime writer Nigel Inchcock may believe he is talented, debonair and handsome, but in reality he is awful, be it in an almost lovable way. Well his mum loves him. Jennifer Primrose at the Library thinks he’s stalking her. When he gets a job there, she leaves, saying she is being stalked. Nigel questions who it could possibly be. Yes, he’s that dense.

For my full review click here