Nigerian-British novelist Oyinkan Braithwaite burst onto the literary scene in 2018 with her propulsive debut thriller My Sister, the Serial Killer. Ayoola, the book’s title character, is beautiful and charming but impulsive and ruthless – as evidenced by a string of murdered boyfriends. Dutiful older sibling Korede is an expert at cleaning up Ayoola’s messes – until both set their sights on the same handsome young doctor. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called My Sister, the Serial Killer “bitingly funny and brilliantly executed, with not a single word out of place.” It garnered Braithwaite the 2019 Anthony Award for Best First Novel and a coveted spot on TIME’s 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time, among other high honors. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Braithwaite’s highly anticipated follow-up, family saga Cursed Daughters, hits shelves November 4. Seemingly fated for tragedy from birth, Eniiyi is encumbered by both a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin.

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Historical fiction heavyweight Marjan Kamali is a leading figure within the flourishing Iranian-American literary tradition. Her novels spotlight the lives and irrepressible spirit of Iranian women across generations, both in their native country and the global diaspora. Kamali’s maiden novel, Together Tea, follows a mismatched mother and daughter pair who emigrate to America but, despite their contrasting natures, each feels drawn back to Iran. Her follow-up, international bestseller The Stationery Shop, is a saga of love and loss set against the backdrop of the 1953 coup d’etat that overthrew Iran’s democratic government. Kamali returns to that tumultuous period in her latest book, The Lion Women of Tehran. Inseparable as children, friends Ellie and Homa are pulled apart by political upheaval and personal betrayal. Later in life, a haunted Ellie seeks out her childhood companion to confront and atone for her checkered past. Bookreporter calls The Lion Women of Tehran “a beautifully crafted and subtle exploration of love, family, friendship, ambition, betrayal, and redemption in a socio-political powder keg.”

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Elle Cosimano is the pen behind the chart-topping Finlay Donovan series, madcap mysteries unlike any other. Cosimano first introduced her domestic antihero, a single parent and strung-out thriller novelist, in Finlay Donovan is Killing It (2021). In this debut outing, described by reviewers as “part screwball comedy, part morality tale,” a wronged wife mistakes Finlay for a contract killer after overhearing her outline the plot of her latest book to a literary agent. Readers have enjoyed the further adventures of Cosimano’s writer-turned-sleuth at the steady pace of a book a year. Her latest, out in March, is Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave. When a dead body turns up in their elderly neighbor’s backyard, Finlay and her best friend Vero must unravel neighborhood secrets to stay ahead of a police investigation that soon zeroes in on Finlay’s own ex-husband, Steven. Shelf Awareness praises the book – and the series as a whole – as “a celebration of female friendship and a comical exploration of what happens when life keeps imitating art.”

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