King's seal of approval

Stephen King's book recommendations have become a coveted endorsement. He reads as voraciously as he writes, praising everything from horror to mysteries.

A family's deadly secrets

Linwood Barclay's Not a Word follows Reece, who finds his parents dead in an apparent murder-suicide. But the crime scene tells a different story.

“This book is in the can't-put-down category. You're gonna love it.”

Small town nightmare returns

Richard Chizmar concludes his Boogeyman trilogy with another horror in Edgewood, Maryland. It blurs the line between true crime and fiction.

“A small-town nightmare straight out of Ray Bradbury country…with a dark dash of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs.”

Best crime in 20 years

Don Winslow's The Final Score collects six novellas about criminals and cops. The title story features an imprisoned robber planning one last casino heist.

“The best crime fiction I've read in twenty years.”

Six writers, one unfinished book

The Ending Writes Itself traps six authors on a Scottish island to complete a dead novelist's manuscript in 72 hours. Secrets and rivalries complicate things.

“In the running for the best mystery of 2026.”

Ordinary people, extraordinary horrors

Nat Cassidy's short story collection features 13 tales of everyday darkness. King wrote a six-page introduction for the book.

“These stories are f*cking great. They rule. So read them.”

Reality scarier than fiction

The Oracle's Daughter investigates a paramilitary religious cult in the New Mexico desert. It's the only nonfiction on King's list.

“Terrifying, gripping, all true. I couldn't put it down.”

When pilots refuse to fly

Scott Carson's Departure 37 imagines hundreds of pilots grounding flights on the same day. The mystery connects to a deadly 1962 discovery in Indiana.

“If you loved The Twilight Zone, this is for you. It's a mind-blower.”