The Hard Line – The Unseen Library

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday participants have a Thanksgiving freebie which I am going to use to look at some upcoming books. This is because today is the last Tuesday before Summer 2025/26, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to do my quarterly post about the best upcoming books I am looking forward to reading in Summer (Winter for folks in the Northern Hemisphere). This is a regular post I do at the start of each season, and I always love to highlight some of the most impressive sounding novels coming out in the next three months.

For this list, I have come up with ten books coming out between 1 December 2025 and 28 February 2026 that I am most excited for. There are quite a few amazing novels set for release in the next few months, so it took me a while to finalise my final top ten list, including my usual honourable mentions section. I have primarily used the Australian publication dates to reflect when I will be able to get these awesome novels, and these might be somewhat different to the rest of the world. I have previously discussed a number of these books before in prior Waiting on Wednesday articles, and I think all of them will turn out to be incredible reads. I am extremely excited for these next three months and I feel that quite a few of these upcoming reads have the potential to be some of my favourite books of both 2025 and 2026.

Honourable Mentions:

The Right to Remain by James Grippando – 6 January 2026

An awesome upcoming legal thriller from the very impressive James Grippando (Goodbye Girl and Grave Danger), with the lawyer protagonist forced to defend a client who literally won’t utter a word in his own defence.

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Dark Desert Road by Tim Ayliffe – 6 January 2026

An intriguing and topical Australian thriller from a very talented author.

City of Others by Jared Poon – 13 January 2026

An exciting fantasy debut that I think has a lot of potential.

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The Devil’s Bible by Steve Berry – 17 February 2026

The next intriguing entry in the long-running Cotton Malone spy thriller series. I am a big fan of this series, although I still need to read the 2025 entry first.

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Top Ten List:

Warhammer 40,000: Demolisher by Andy Clark – 12 December 2025

The first summer release I want to highlight is the soon-to-be released Warhammer 40,000 novel Demolisher by Andy Clark. The sequel to Clark’s previous novel Steel Tread, Demolisher will once again follow a misfit tank crew as they attempt to survive in the grimdark future. Steel Tread was an impressive and exciting read, and I am excited to see how this sequel turns out.

Usagi Yojimbo: Ten Thousand Plums by Stan Sakai – 23 December 2025

The next Usagi Yojimbo volume looks set to be an outstanding Christmas present for me in a few weeks’ time. Featuring a deadly conspiracy in a cool seasonal location, Ten Thousand Plums sounds like another outstanding entry in one of my favourite comic series. Sakai has already had one amazing volume of this series out this year with The Crow, and I’m sure this next volume is going to be even better.

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Twelve Months by Jim Butcher – 20 January 2026

One of the books I’m most excited to read in the next three months is the long-awaited new Dresden Files novel by the legendary Jim Butcher, Twelve Months. Following on from the chaotic events of Battle Ground, Twelve Months looks set to continue the series in epic fashion with dark new enemies, a compelling mystery, shocking revelations and some moving character moments. I have been desperately waiting for this novel since 2020, having read the entire Dresden Files series in the intervening time, and I cannot wait to see how this new book turns out. Sure to be one of the very best books of 2026!

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30Seven by Jeremy Robinson – 20 January 2026

Next, we have the intriguing and unique new science fiction novel, 30Seven by the always entertaining Jeremy Robinson. Featuring a gripping and no-doubt terrifying alien abduction narrative with some cool twists, including the protagonist being trapped onboard the alien ship with the serial killer that murdered his wife, 30Seven has so much potential, and I’m planning to power through this book the second I get it.

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Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K. J. Parker – 27 January 2026

I already know that one of the more hilarious releases of the next three months is going to be the awesome fantasy novel Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead from K. J. Parker. The start of a fantastic new series following a murderous nun who serves as the fixer for her corrupt church, Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead looks set to be an amazing read. I love the sound of this upcoming novel, and I already know I’m going to laugh myself silly while reading it.

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Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman – 3 February 2026

The always reliable Jonathan Kellerman will continue his long-running Alex Delaware series in early 2026 with the intriguing new novel Jigsaw. Featuring two seemingly unrelated murder cases with a unique and clever twists behind it, Jigsaw is sure to be a real highlight of the next few months, and I cannot wait to check it out.

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Antihero by Gregg Hurwitz – 10 February 2026

Few thriller series have been as consistently impressive and emotionally charged in recent years as Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series, which follows a former assassin turned vigilante as he attempts to make the world a better place, one desperate person at a time. This series has been extremely incredible, and it reached its height earlier this year with the highly moving and powerful 10^th entry Nemesis. While I may never forgive Hurwitz for breaking my heart at the end of Nemesis, there is no way I will not be continuing the series in 2026 with Antihero. Featuring a great new narrative that will be loaded with grief from the events of the previous book, Antihero looks set to be a particularly intense and memorable entry in the series and I cannot wait to read it.

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Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman – 10 February 2026

Readers of this blog will be well aware that I became a little obsessed with author Matt Dinniman this year, especially as I rapidly absorbed his entire Dungeon Crawler Carl series, with books like Dungeon Crawler Carl, The Butcher’s Masquerade and The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, and more, all proving to be outstanding reads. As such, I will be eagerly reading anything that Dinniman release in the future going forward, and that includes his February 2026 release, Operation Bounce House. A fun and no doubt bloody science fiction novel, Operation Bounce House will see desperate human settlers defend their planet from a greedy corporation using weaponised farming drones. I have no doubt this is going to be a particularly hilarious and over-the-top read and I cannot wait to get more of Dinniman’s insane creativity in the new year.

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Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky – 12 February 2026

The always imaginative Adrian Tchaikovsky will continue his epic Tyrant Philosophers series in early 2026 with Pretenders to the Throne of God. Following on from his previous three exceptional novels, City of Last Chances, House of Open Wounds and Days of Shattered Faith, Pretenders to the Throne of God will continue to follow the expansion of the perfection seeking Palleseen as they find themselves besieging a magical city. Sure to feature a great story based around complex characters, all wrapped up with Thaikovsky’s wry humour, Pretenders to the Throne of God is going to be something special, and I will try to read it is as soon as possible.

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The Hard Line by Mark Greaney – 24 February 2026

The final book I want to highlight in this post is the awesome upcoming spy thriller The Hard Line by Mark Greaney. The next book in Greaney’s iconic Gray Man series, The Hard Line will continue the intense action and clever spy craft this series is known for when the protagonist, feared assassin and covert agent Court Gentry faces off against another legendary killer, determined to get revenge on everyone Gentry loves. I have no doubt The Hard Line is going to be one of the more clever and exciting novels of the next few months, and I look forward to getting my hands on it.

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Well, that is the end of my Top Ten list. I think it turned out pretty well and it does a good job of capturing all my most anticipated books for the next three months. There are some really impressive books coming out in this part of 2025 and 2026, and I cannot wait to read each of them soon. Let me know which of the above you are most excited for and stay tuned for reviews of them in the next few months. In the meantime, it looks like I have quite a bit of reading to do in the near future.

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight one of the top spy thrillers of 2026 with The Hard Line by Mark Greaney.

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Few thriller series have had me consistently enthralled these last few years as the Gray Man books by acclaimed author Mark Greaney. Following protagonist Court Gentry, an elite assassin, fugitive and occasional government agent known as the Gray Man, the Gray Man novels are one of the absolute best current spy thriller series, and I have had an absolute blast getting through some impressive entries from Greaney. This includes The Gray Man, Mission Critical, One Minute Out (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2020), Relentless (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021), Sierra Six (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022), Burner (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), The Chaos Agent (one of my favourite books of 2024) and this year’s entry, Midnight Black (one of my favourite books and audiobooks from the first half of 2025). All these great books were quite exceptional, and I have had such an incredible time getting drawn into this series.

Due to how much fun I have had with the previous Gray Man books, I always keep an eye out for Greaney’s upcoming releases, and I was very excited to find out some details for the author’s next novel, The Hard Line. Set to be 15^th book in the Gray Man series, The Hard Line is coming out in February 2026 and is sure to be a major highlight of next year’s reading schedule. Featuring an intriguing plot that sees the protagonist and his comrade’s families come under threat, The Hard Line sounds extremely awesome, and I am very excited to see how it pans out.

Plot Synopsis:

The Gray Man, the world’s deadliest assassin and apex predator, discovers he’s really the prey in the most shocking entry of this #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Family means different things to different people, but in the Gray Man’s world, family is defined by blood—the blood you share with some and the blood you shed with others.

Court Gentry’s current family operates out of an office park in Norfolk, Virginia. The Ghost Town is an off-the-books direct action team run by Matt Hanley, former CIA Deputy Director. They take on the jobs the Agency needs handled “discretely,” and those jobs are rolling in.

Somewhere at the top of the US Intelligence apparatus, security experts and intelligence operations worldwide are threatened.

It starts with a blown safe house in Tunis. Then Court himself barely escapes from an ambush in the jungles of Nicaragua. Now key members of the U.S. counterintelligence community are being assassinated in their own neighborhoods. With the feds compromised, it’s up to Court and his team to stop the hit squads.

But eliminating professional kill teams may be the least of the Gray Man’s worries when he finds himself targeted by the legendary assassin codenamed Whetstone—a man driven out of retirement by a very personal quest to rain down hellfire on Court and everyone he’s ever loved, starting with the father he hasn’t seen in twenty years.

Ok, so it sounds like this next Gray Man novel is going to be a compelling and interesting character-focused entry in the series that should be an excellent follow-up to the bleak prison-break/war focussed previous entry, Midnight Black. Returning to familiar ground with the protagonist working covert operations for the CIA, The Hard Line looks set to be an action-packed novel of revenge, old secrets, and complicated families, as the Gentry goes to war on multiple fronts. I love the cool mixture of potential conspiracy elements in this novel, as well as a deadly assassin coming out of retirement specifically to kill the protagonist and everything he loves. I’m sure that Greaney will do an exceptional job of showcasing the resulting carnage, and I have no doubt that this will be a particularly intense and continuously exciting read.

While The Hard Line will no doubt feature lots of intrigue, excitement and firefights, the part of the synopsis that has really caught my attention is the focus on family and its associated complexities. Having the protagonist trying to save his estranged father, a figure who hasn’t appeared too much in the series up to this point, is going to make this a particularly powerful novel, and I am intrigued to see what compelling backstory around the protagonist comes to light. At the same time, an alternate plot synopsis suggests that beloved secondary character, Zach Hightower is also going to have some family issues, when his daughter is threatened, and Gentry is dragged into save her. Both these family-focused storylines are sure to add some extra emotional heft to the plot, and I cannot wait to see how Greaney combines it with the more action and intrigue focussed parts of the book.

Due to the outstanding time I have had with all the previous Gray Man books from Mark Greaney, The Hard Line is already a must-read book of 2026 for me. The excellent plot synopsis above sounds particularly impressive, and I am extremely curious to see how everything comes together. Likely to be one of the top spy thrillers of next year, The Hard Line has so much potential, and I know I’m going to love it.