October 2025 Adult Top 10 Picks

← Return to Archive Sign up for our mailing list
  1. The Black Wolf
    by Louise Penny Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Oct 28, 2025
    FICTION/Mystery & Detective/Traditional
    Hardback
    The Black Wolf
    by Louise Penny Canada
    Minotaur Books
    Oct 28, 2025
    FICTION/Mystery & Detective/Traditional
    Hardback

    The 20th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

    Somewhere out there, in the darkness, a black wolf is feeding.

    Several weeks ago, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team uncovered and stopped a domestic terrorist attack in Montréal, arresting the person behind it. A man they called the Black Wolf.

    But their relief is short-lived. In a sickening turn of events, Gamache has realized that plot, as horrific as it was, was just the beginning. Perhaps even a deliberate misdirection. One he fell into. Something deeper and darker, more damaging, is planned. Did he in fact arrest the Black Wolf, or are they still out there? Armand is appalled to think his mistake has allowed their conspiracy to grow, to gather supporters. To spread lies, manufacture enemies, and feed hatred and division.

    Still recovering from wounds received in stopping the first attack, Armand is confined to the village of Three Pines, leading a covert investigation from there. He must be careful not to let the Black Wolf know he has recognized his mistake. In a quiet church basement, he and his senior agents Beauvoir and Lacoste, pore over what little evidence they have. Two notebooks. A few mysterious numbers on a tattered map of Québec. And a phrase repeated by the person they had called the Grey Wolf. A warning…

    In a dry and parched land where there is no water.

    Gamache and his small team of supporters realize that for the Black Wolf to have gotten this far, they must have powerful allies, in law enforcement, in industry, in organized crime, in the halls of government.

    From the apparent peace of his little village, Gamache finds himself playing a lethal game of cat and mouse with an invisible foe who is gathering forces and preparing to strike.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. The Widow
    by John Grisham
    Doubleday
    Oct 21, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    The Widow
    by John Grisham
    Doubleday
    Oct 21, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acclaimed master of the legal thriller. Now, he’s back with his first-ever whodunit, even more suspenseful than his courtroom dramas, as a small-time lawyer accused of murder races to find the real killer to clear his name.

    “A classic, compulsive, taut and thrilling novel from one of the great storytellers of our time. The Widow is John Grisham at his irresistible, unforgettable best.”—Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark


    Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

    Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.

    Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer….
    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Gone Before Goodbye
    by Harlan Coben
    Grand Central Publishing
    Oct 14, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Medical
    Hardback
    Gone Before Goodbye
    by Harlan Coben
    Grand Central Publishing
    Oct 14, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Medical
    Hardback
    An unforgettable suspense novel that combines the storytelling talents of Academy Award-winning actor Reese Witherspoon and internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben. Gone Before Goodbye is the story of a woman trapped in a deadly conspiracy—where uncovering the truth could cost her everything.

    Maggie McCabe is teetering on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact. And it was all going to plan ... until it wasn’t.

    Upside down after a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion.

    Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is ... Gone Before Goodbye
    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. The Proving Ground
    by Michael Connelly
    Little, Brown and Company
    Oct 21, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Crime
    Hardback
    The Proving Ground
    by Michael Connelly
    Little, Brown and Company
    Oct 21, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Crime
    Hardback
    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, the Lincoln Lawyer is back with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a young girl.

    Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.

    Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.

    It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in 1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with a gambit called “the knight’s sacrifice.” Haller will take a similar gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. The Intruder
    by Freida McFadden
    Poisoned Pen Press
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Psychological
    Hardback
    The Intruder
    by Freida McFadden
    Poisoned Pen Press
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Psychological
    Hardback

    "A dark and stormy night. An isolated cabin in the woods. A runaway child with a mysterious past...Thriller fans, buckle up!" — Jason Rekulak, New York Times bestselling author of The Last One at the Wedding

    There's someone at your front door – should you let them in? Find out in a riveting new thriller from global sensation and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid, Freida McFadden!

    Who knows what the storm will blow in…

    Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.

    She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood.

    The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.

    The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

    In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. Twice
    by Mitch Albom
    Harper
    Oct 07, 2025
    Hardback
    Twice
    by Mitch Albom
    Harper
    Oct 07, 2025
    Hardback

    A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

    What if you got to do everything in your life —twice? The heart of Mitch Albom’s newest novel—charmingly narrated by Mitch himself—is a stunning love story that dares to explore how our unchecked desires might mean losing what we’ve had all along.

    When he is eight years old, Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try—for better or worse.

    He grows up correcting his mistakes and saving himself from adolescent embarrassments. He even takes foolishly dangerous risks, just to see what it’s like to come close to death, before tapping back to safety.

    Eventually, Alfie turns his gift to his love life, studying his crushes and going back to make himself more appealing. In time, he falls deeply in love with Gianna, the woman he believes is the one. He seems to find contentment.

    But as the years pass, Alfie’s eye begins to wander. Which is when he learns a lone caveat to his power: once he undoes a love, that person can never fall in love with him again. Knowing if he gives into to temptation, he will risk losing what he has with Gianna, Alfie makes a choice that changes his life forever.

    The book begins many years later, after an ailing Alfie is arrested for allegedly cheating and winning millions at a casino roulette wheel. As a curious detective interrogates him, he slowly uncovers Alfie’s incredible story, and its most unlikely conclusion.

    In Twice, America’s favorite storyteller, Mitch Albom, is at the top of his powers. A love story that is enchanting, probing, and clairvoyant in matters of the heart, Twice will make you think, weep, and overflow with love from beginning to end. And what better way to experience this story than through the delightful audiobook, narrated by Mitch himself.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Remain
    by Nicholas Sparks
    Doubleday Canada
    Oct 14, 2025
    FICTION/Romance/Paranormal/General
    Hardback
    Remain
    by Nicholas Sparks
    Doubleday Canada
    Oct 14, 2025
    FICTION/Romance/Paranormal/General
    Hardback
    A haunting love story from the minds of two brilliant storytellers: the bestselling author of The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks, and the blockbuster filmmaker of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan.

    When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, Tate is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic former bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.

    Tate and Wren forge an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the idyllic surface of Wren’s small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening.

    A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?
    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. Final Orbit
    by Chris Hadfield Canada
    Random House Canada
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Action & Adventure
    Hardback
    Final Orbit
    by Chris Hadfield Canada
    Random House Canada
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Action & Adventure
    Hardback
    From the #1 bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield, an edge-of-your-seat thriller set about China's secret role in the 1970s Space Race between the US and the USSR.

    Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, a deadly accident changes everything.

    Meanwhile, from a remote location in East Asia, the first Chinese spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China’s first astronaut, Fang Guojun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo crew. As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance…

    Full of intrigue and real history—including the fascinating story of Professor Tsien Hsue-shen, the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” and founder of China’s space program—Final Orbit accelerates to a thrilling conclusion that captures the beauty and terror of survival 270 miles above Earth, as could only be written by one of the most experienced astronauts alive.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. Mate
    by Ali Hazelwood
    Berkley
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Romance/Paranormal/Shifters
    Hardback
    Mate
    by Ali Hazelwood
    Berkley
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Romance/Paranormal/Shifters
    Hardback
    A Human hybrid and an Alpha Were claw against the bonds of fate in the highly anticipated companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Bride.

    Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

    As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

    But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…
    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Sharp Force
    by Patricia Cornwell
    Grand Central Publishing
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    Sharp Force
    by Patricia Cornwell
    Grand Central Publishing
    Oct 07, 2025
    FICTION/Thrillers/Suspense
    Hardback
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell “at the very top of her game,” a serial killer wreaks havoc on Northern Virginia, appearing as a ghostly apparition before striking—and Scarpetta must avoid becoming their next victim, with SCARPETTA soon to be a streaming series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis. (David Baldacci)

    NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER

    NOT EVEN SCARPETTA…

    During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again.

    The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds.

    Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta’s past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next…
    View this title on BNC CataList

Sign up for our mailing list!

Sign up for the latest top 10 lists and other news about Loan Stars. You can unsubscribe at any time.


Sign up!