Crime fiction and speculative fiction go together like, well, crime and anything else, for crime writing is the perfect plot vehicle for exploring a beautifully built universe—and testing the bounds of its structure. Below, you’ll find fantasy, science fiction, alternative history, and sardonic thought experiments; other than a thread of violence and its consequences, these novels share one more thing in common: an abundance of imagination.
Mariana Enriquez, Our Share of Night
(Hogarth, February 7)
What a strange and luminous novel. Mariana Enriquez stunned with her collection The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, and Our Share of Night is just as fantastic (and fantastical). Beginning in Argentina in the years of the dictatorship, Our Share of Night follows a father and son on a grief-driven road trip as they mourn the loss of the woman who united them, her dangerous (and possibly immortal) family close in pursuit. A dark vampiric noir that heralds a new era in South American horror.
Paz Pardo, The Shamshine Blind
(Atria, February 14)
Paz Pardo’s The Shamshine Blind is one of the more exciting debuts to hit in early 2023, a heady mix of high-concept speculative fiction, alternative history, and hardboiled detective fiction. In an alternate 2009, a new chemical compound that can elicit targeted human emotions has been weaponized in war and made ubiquitous for recreational purposes, upending the global and social orders. Amidst the new chaos, a small city enforcement agent gets put on the trail of a new product, a trail that points in the direction of a much broader conspiracy. Pardo’s novel is full of wit and wild invention and is sure to leave readers wanting more. –DM
Shannon Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
(Harper Voyager, February 28)
Amina al-Sirafi is supposedly retired from her days captaining a pirate vessel, but her fearsome strength and formidable cunning are needed once again to rescue the kidnapped daughter of an old shipmate (and perhaps do penance for some of her larger sins). Playful, enchanting, and immersive, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is a perfectly charming fantasy novel set in the medieval Islamic world that will awaken a spirit of adventure in all ages.
Jacqueline Holland, The God of Endings
(Flatiron Books, March 7)
Collette, the heroine of The God of Endings, may be the most intriguing fictional immortal since Orlando. Collette was once saved from death by her grandfather, but in a way that cursed her to live forever. Now she’s living a quiet life teaching children, but the world has other plans, with disruptions aplenty in store.
Owen King, The Curator
(Scribner, March 7)
In Owen King’s delightful new fantasy, The Curator, a revolution has upended a fantastical city in which cats are gods, conjurers are criminals, and the aristocracy uses fiendish means to hold on to their place in society. Meanwhile, a young woman seeks answers in her brother’s demise, and may find them in the ruins of a museum dedicated to investigating the most esoteric secrets. King’s novel feels like the heir to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, particularly one of my favorites, Night Watch.
Jinwoo Chong, Flux
(Melville House, March 21)
Flux is full of surprises and difficult to describe. Three storylines slowly begin to converge into a tale of time-traveling corporate serial killers. Woven into all three stories is a connection to a 1980s detective show featuring a now-canceled star facing damning abuse allegations. If you like stories featuring neo-noir style, corporate corruption, and anything else that wouldn’t be out of place in a slightly more humorous version of the Blade Runner universe, then check this one out! Also notable as an exploration of queer and Asian-American identities.
Evie Green, The New One
(Berkley, March 28)
In Evie Green’s eerie psychological technothriller, a family suffers a devastating loss when their daughter slips into a coma, but are soon offered a way to get (some of) their daughter back. The experiments are successful, the family is happily reunited, and all the angry teenage tears seem to have been replaced by dutiful daughterhood. Then the unthinkable happens: the original daughter wakes up from her coma. And she’s not happy about being replaced…
Lily Meade, The Shadow Sister
(Sourcebooks Fire, June 27)
In Lily Meade’s intriguing speculative thriller, two sisters present warring narratives in dual timelines. Casey is not a fan of big sister Sutton, nor Sutton’s white boyfriend or his lack of money, and when Sutton disappears, it’s hard for her to miss her sister. Sutton returns changed, and flashbacks to Sutton’s perspective leading up to the disappearance provide clues into what happened, and why she seems so different now—and so happy to see the sibling she formerly reviled.
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre
(Gillian Flynn Books, July 11)
What would you do to be part of the most elite language academy ever established? And what would you be willing to keep secret? The Centre follows a struggling translator who learns of a place where people can go to become completely fluent in a new language in mere days of effort. She is determined to reap the rewards, but shocked when she begins to find out the dark secrets underpinning the secretive institution. A vicious and entertaining speculative satire of late-stage capitalism.
D. L. Soria, Thief Liar Lady
(Del Rey, July 11)
What if Cinderella was not, in fact, a dainty fan of the monarchy, but instead, a conniving revolutionary con artist fighting her way to the top of power in a divided kingdom warring over ancient magic? Also, what if her stepsisters and her stepmother were all really nice to her? And finally, what if the prince to whom she was engaged had a distractingly handsome and brooding foster brother with revolutionary potential of his own? D. L. Soria explores these possibilities and more in her delightfully fractured fairy tale.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Silver Nitrate
(Random House, July 18)
Both of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s parents worked in radio, so perhaps that’s part of the inspiration behind this bonkers ode to sound engineering and the (literal magical) power of the human voice. Silver Nitrate features a sound editor and a has-been actor as they befriend an elderly icon from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, only to find themselves drawn into a vast conspiracy to harness the magic of the silver screen and bring an occult-obsessed Nazi back from the dead. This book has everything, and I could not recommend it enough!
