Welcome to the Geek Vibes Nation book round-up for January 2026, where we take a look at the latest and greatest book and audiobook releases. This month sees a new cozy murder mystery from Ross Montgomery, a sci-fi thriller from Jeff Rake and Rob Hart, an enthralling new 13th Doctor audio adventure from Big Finish Productions, Jenette McCurdy’s adult fiction debut, and an immensely silly fantasy novella from T. Kingfisher. So, without further ado, let’s jump into some books!
The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
Knives Out meets Downton Abbey in Ross Montgomery’s raucous page turner, The Murder at World’s End. Tithe Hall’s newest under-butler, Stephen Pike, finds himself way out of his depth when he arrives at the remote Cornish manor on the eve of the return of Halley’s Comet in 1910. But things take a turn for the macabre when the manor’s patriarch is found dead the following morning, gruesomely murdered in the most impossible of ways. And naturally, all eyes turn to Stephen. Armed only with his wit and the aid of the family’s eighty-year-old matriarch, Miss Decima, Stephen must weave through the secrets of this thorny family and solve a seemingly impossible murder lest he find himself back behind bars once more. Put simply, Ross Montgomery’s The Murder at World’s End is a page-turner of the highest regard; an absolute thrill ride from start to finish that keeps you gripped to the edge of your seat, desperate to turn the next page.
Similar to Richard Osman’s beloved Thursday Murder Club series, The Murder at World’s End is yet another entry in the long-running canon of cozy mysteries. But what makes this one stand out against the crowd is how well Montgomery dives into Stephen and Decima’s relationship with each other and with the rest of the inhabitants of Tithe Hall. Theirs is, initially, a partnership borne out of necessity rather than genuine desire, a dynamic that offers a prickly side to their relationship. And that pricklyness goes a long way toward making them feel like fully realized characters rather than thinly sketched caricatures—a feat which proves all the more important given how most of the supporting cast comes across as a collection of stock characters rather than real threats. But cozy mysteries are rarely about the mystery itself, and that’s certainly the case here. It’s about the journey, about Stephen and Decima’s path towards actual partnership through these chaotic surroundings. It really is quite similar to Knives Out in the sense that the fun is not in whodunnit but in how they did it and how the characters uncover the truth.
And in that regard, The Murder at World’s End is a smashing success. Rip-roaringly fun, often quite hilarious, and unerringly thrilling. It makes for a nice, cozy read on a warm winter’s day and is well worth a gander if you’re looking for a new mystery. (8/10, Reviewed by Michael Cook)
Note: A review copy of The Murder at World’s End was provided by the publisher.
Available January 6 from William Morrow/HarperCollins in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Doctor Who: Ride or Die by Rochana Patel
The Thirteenth Doctor’s audio adventures continue in Rochana Patel’s Doctor Who: Ride or Die, a nail-biting descent into the depths of war. When the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Yaz (Mandip Gill) receive a list of coordinates where people have disappeared into thin air, the trail leads straight to a war-torn planet in a desolate corner of space. But what’s brought all of these missing people to this planet, and why are they in a centuries-long war with the mysterious Banshee? It’s a race against time as the Doctor tries to put an end to the conflict before the tides of war consume her closest friend. Rochana Patel’s Ride or Die is equal parts gritty war story and immensely captivating character drama. It’s the kind of story the Thirteenth Doctor’s televised era desperately needed; one that really pushes the Doctor and Yaz’s relationship out of their comfort zone and into uncharted waters.
Doctor Who has a long tradition of mining the Doctor’s aversion to war for drama, but rarely has that aversion been explored quite as effectively as it is here. And that’s mostly because this isn’t really a story about the Doctor’s aversion to war, but one where she has to try her very hardest to stop Yaz from falling prey to the temptations of war’s twisted sense of justice. And the drama that comes out of that push and pull gives Whittaker and Gill some truly meaty scenes to sink their teeth into as the Doctor and Yaz navigate these uncharted murky waters. On the whole, Ride or Die proves to be a thorny little story that’s quite reminiscent of a recent Fifteenth Doctor episode, “Boom”, in ways that are far too spoilery to go into but are immediately obvious as the story plays out. And like “Boom”, Ride or Die really luxuriates in the world it creates, with Patel confidently steering events to a deeply satisfying climax that pushes the Doctor and Yaz into a new chapter of their relationship.
Doctor Who: Ride or Die offers everything you could hope for from a Thirteenth Doctor adventure—a rip-roaring plot kept grounded by some nice, quiet character beats. And for longtime listeners, there’s even a hint of an ongoing arc to thrust us into March’s adventure, The Violent Hour. Until then, Ride or Die is a must-listen for all Thirteenth Doctor fans—and even some of her skeptics. (9/10, Reviewed by Michael Cook)
Note: A review copy of Doctor Who: Ride or Die was provided by the publisher.
Available January 2026 from Big Finish Productions.
Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart
Jeff Rake, the creator of TV’s Manifest, teams up with best-selling author, Rob Hart, in a deliciously thrilling sci-fi mind-bender that explores the strangest, most dangerous possibilities of space travel. When the crew of an experimental reconnaissance mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan, embarks on their journey, they expect to be lauded as heroes. But when they return to Earth after a two-year journey, they find a home that feels just a few degrees different from the one they left, as if each one of their lives had zigged instead of zagging sometime in the past. With the walls closing in on them, it’s up to the crew of the Starblazer to figure out what went wrong as they passed Titan and how they can fix it before it’s too late. Jeff Rake and Rob Hart’s Detour offers up a thrill ride of cosmic proportions—one part sci-fi adventure, one part political thriller, and wholly enjoyable from start to finish.
If you’ve ever seen Manifest or read Rob Hart’s previous sci-fi thriller, The Paradox Hotel, then you’ve already got a great idea of what to expect here. It’s a sprawling epic that feels both timely and timeless, large-scale and hauntingly intimate. Rake’s television experience can be felt all throughout Detour—from its simultaneously taut yet drawn-out pacing to its sizable cast of characters. And like the pilot of a television series, Detour suffers a bit from “first book in a series” syndrome in the sense that it takes about 2/3 of the book for things to really get going, only for the novel to end right as things reach a crescendo, with merely the promise of a sequel on the horizon.
As such, it’s hard to really take Detour in as its own thing. It’s certainly an immensely captivating read from start to finish, packed with a cast of characters you desperately want to spend time with. But it’s also a wholly incomplete story, the first chapter in a larger tale. As a first chapter, it does everything it needs to and leaves you frantically wanting more. But as a book that could stand on its own, it suffers. Still, the world Rake and Hart create are so enthralling that a sequel can’t come fast enough. (8/10, Reviewed by Michael Cook)
Note: A review copy of Detour was provided by the publisher.
Available January 13 from Random House Worlds in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Half His Age by Jenette McCurdy
In Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy makes her fiction debut with an immensely dark and heartbreaking exploration of generational trauma, teenage self-destruction, and horrific imbalances of power. The life of a teenager is filled with wants of all kinds—friendship, romance, sex, you name it. And what Waldo wants most of all is her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgi. But what is it about Mr. Korgi that entices her so? Is it his passion, the way it feels like he really sees her, or is it the forbidden aspect of a romance with him? Whatever the case, Waldo knows exactly what she wants and precisely how far she’s willing to go to get it—consequences be damned. Put simply, Half His Age plays out like a tragedy in slow motion. It’s a train wreck you desperately want to stop but are forced to helplessly witness. It’s equal parts darkly witty and heartbreakingly vulnerable in a way that anyone who’s read McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died will find quite familiar.
And in a way, it makes a lot of sense that McCurdy’s gone from writing a memoir of her teenage and young adult years to writing something like Half His Age. It reads a lot like a memoir in the sense that there’s a lot of telling and not showing. Despite being narrated by Waldo in the present tense, there’s a sort of distance between the telling of the story and the events of the story itself that’s often found in memoirs and other nonfiction books. In fairness, this distance might be intentional as Waldo herself comes across as quite detached from her own feelings. So, in that regard, it makes sense that her narration would feel similarly detached. But unfortunately, that detachment makes it a bit difficult to fully lose yourself in the book. Still, McCurdy creates such a viscerally real character in Waldo, and the book itself is so engrossing that it’s absolutely gripping from start to finish.
Equal parts heartbreaking, horrific, and darkly humorous, Half His Age is a confident and timely debut from McCurdy. It’s a bold, vulnerable, and provocative look at the intersection of trauma, teenage self-destruction, and massive power imbalances that sticks with you long after the final page. (8/10, Reviewed by Michael Cook)
Note: a review copy of Half His Age was provided by the publisher.
Available January 20 from Ballantine Books in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief by T. Kingfisher
T. Kingfisher invites readers into a world of magic, warfare, and immense hijinks in Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief. Goblin Sergeant Nessilka and her squadron of troops are sick and tired of fighting in the Goblin War. But when a fight with an enemy wizard sends the goblin troop far beyond enemy lines, deep into a strange and mysterious forest, Nessilka finds herself at her wits’ end trying to hold her crew together. Dozens of miles from home, Nessilka and the rest of her troop must venture through a forest filled with elves, trolls, monsters, and enemy humans to get to safety. If you ask Nessilka and the rest of her troop, this might just be the battle of their lives. T. Kingfisher’s Nine Goblins is a rollickingly fun read in the same vein as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. It’s witty, it’s silly, and it’s full of heart.
At first, Nine Goblins feels a bit too lackadaisical for its own good, really taking its time laying out all of the pieces of the Goblin War before getting readers to the real meat and potatoes of the action. But that lackadaisical pacing also ends up being the novella’s biggest strength, allowing Kingfisher to really stretch her humorous muscles in a way she can’t in some of her darker, more horror-tinged work. And what Nine Goblins lacks in thrilling action scenes, it more than makes up for with delightfully silly hijinks and immensely endearing characters. This crew of goblins is exactly as gross and monstrous as you might expect, but they’re also deceptively and wholly human on the inside. Just don’t ever tell them that. That being said, the delightful characters only go so far as Nine Goblins really does take its time to go much of anywhere, and even when it starts inching towards an enthralling plot, it kind of stalls out in favor of more shenanigans. Which isn’t inherently an issue as long as you know what you’re in for.
And that’s really the case for Nine Goblins as a whole. Its subtitle really paints the perfect picture: this is a low stakes tale of high mischief. Don’t come into it expecting an epic worthy of Tolkien. Instead, come into it the same way you’d approach a Discworld novel, and you’ll be rewarded with a charming, heartfelt, and deeply funny tale of a troop of goblins just trying their very best to survive a war. And what could be more human than that? (7.5/10, Reviewed by Michael Cook)
Note: A review copy of Nine Goblins was provided by the publisher.
Available January 20 from Tordotcom/Macmillan in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Part-time writer, part-time theatre nerd, full-time dork.
