{"id":366742,"date":"2026-06-19T04:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366742\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T04:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:51:16","slug":"new-books-by-sacramento-authors-2026-summer-reading-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/366742\/","title":{"rendered":"New Books by Sacramento Authors: 2026 Summer Reading Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustration by Matt K. Shrugg<\/p>\n

Illusion Of Truth<\/p>\n

By James L\u2019etoile<\/p>\n

\"Illusion<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Oceanview Publishing<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Jan. 6<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in prison,\u201d author James L\u2019Etoile likes to say. The Cameron Park author\u2019s father was a correctional lieutenant, and as a boy raised in prison housing, L\u2019Etoile learned to shoot pool and play blues guitar from inmates whom he came to see as whole human beings. He went on to graduate from Sacramento State and spent nearly 30 years working in the prison system himself, as an associate warden, hostage negotiator, probation o\ufb03cer and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

L\u2019Etoile\u2019s 11th novel, Illusion of Truth, is the third in a series featuring Sacramento Police Department detective Emily Hunter. L\u2019Etoile knows the law enforcement landscape like the back of his hand, and it\u2019s a steady, even hand at that. He details the post-Stephon Clark tensions between cops, citizens and politicians in a way that feels as ripped from the headlines as any Law & Order\u00a0 episode (Emily Hunter gives serious Olivia Benson vibes) and fans of this kind of hard-boiled procedural will feel right at home in L\u2019Etoile\u2019s world. As a bonus for locals, you\u2019ll come away from this read feeling like you\u2019ve really had a peek \u201cunder the hood\u201d at Sacramento\u2019s finest. The novel opens just as the minefield of city politics surrounding the call to \u201cdefund the police\u201d becomes a literal minefield, with the emergence of a mystery bomber targeting cops. Hunter\u2019s love interest is among the injured, so the stakes are high as she investigates, and the tension crackles like a police radio. L\u2019Etoile\u2019s knowledge of what makes both cops and criminals tick, his sense of their humanity, and his masterful sense of pacing make this a gripping and harrowing book\u2014one you should definitely not crack open until you can afford an all-night binge read, lest you end up clocking in for work as tired as Emily Hunter is by the end of this ripping yarn. You\u2019ve been warned.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

This Hair Belongs<\/p>\n

By JaNay Brown-Wood<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Astra Books For Young Readers<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Jan. 13<\/p>\n

JaNay Brown-Wood\u2019s This Hair Belongs \u00a0has a beautiful message for children whose hair grows \u201cfrom curved follicles beneath deep layers of melanin-kissed skin.\u201d She exhorts readers (aged 4 to 8) to take pride in the regal texture and astonishing cultural history of Black hair. The jewel-toned illustrations by Erin K. Robinson glow off the page, but it\u2019s the spare, incandescent prose, brimming with triumph and pride, that makes the reader\u2019s heart swell. Brown-Wood\u2019s gentle repetitions have the incantatory power of an uplifting spiritual song: \u201cThis hair belongs under the sea, in outer space, in shires and realms and woods and kingdoms.\u201d Like Goodnight Moon, the words beg to be read aloud, over and over again, and no parent would mind reading them night after night.<\/p>\n

Brown-Wood, who lives in Fair Oaks, has developed her persuasive powers to educate and enlighten thanks to a master\u2019s in child development from Sacramento State and a doctorate in education from UC Davis. Today, she\u2019s the celebrated author of over 30 children\u2019s books. As Brown-Wood writes, \u201cThis hair is magic.\u201d And so is this book.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Astra Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Carnival Fant\u00e1stico<\/p>\n

By Angela Montoya<\/p>\n

\"Carnival<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Joy Revolution<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Feb. 3<\/p>\n

A young-adult \u201cromantasy\u201d sprinkled with Latin magical-realist fairy dust, Lincoln author Angela Montoya\u2019s third novel, Carnival Fant\u00e1stico, is a sparkly, surreal confection with an ooey-gooey center. The author, who grew up in Auburn, is the granddaughter of former Sacramento poet laureate Jos\u00e9 Montoya, so she wields her well-pedigreed pen with generational confidence.<\/p>\n

Think Water for Elephants \u00a0meets Like Water for Chocolate, with a plot twist worthy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Esmerelda is a scrappy thief and con artist with a wounded past, working as a fraudulent fortune-teller for a traveling circus\u2014the Carnival Fant\u00e1stico\u2014where nothing is quite as it seems. Approaching her 19th birthday, she is in hiding from the law and separated from her former beloved, Ignacio, whose malevolent warlord father imprisoned her and sent Ignacio off to war after discovering their forbidden romance. Inevitably reunited, the pair have wounds to salve, sparks to rekindle, and a magical mystery to solve, all while dodging the warlord\u2019s henchmen, a charismatic ringmaster and a hall of mirrors occupied by a soul-devouring Aztec-inspired god. There is enough earnest yearning here to sate the eager fans of Montoya\u2019s previous romantansies, which involved pirates and witches (Sinner\u2019s Isle) and Latinx vampires (A Cruel Thirst). In real life, Montoya, who lives on a farm in the foothills with a partner, two children and a menagerie of pets, is the spitting image of the raven-haired Esmerelda, and lives what sounds like an enchanted happily-ever-after of her own.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Trust No One<\/p>\n

By James Rollins<\/p>\n

\"Trust<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of James Rollins and William Morrow<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Feb. 24<\/p>\n

New York Times\u00a0 best-selling author James Rollins\u2019 latest novel, Trust No One, is an ecclesiastical thriller destined to enthrall fans of Dan Brown\u2019s The Da Vinci Code. Rollins\u2019 heavily researched tomes have the same mystical aura as Brown\u2019s, but there\u2019s an extra dash of John le Carr\u00e9-style spycraft and Indiana Jones-esque derring-do thrown in. Rollins delights in creating a sense of plausibility, and most of his novels have endnotes delineating the scientific basis for the supernatural phenomena he details.<\/p>\n

In this stand-alone novel, a secret alchemical text by Comte de Saint-Germain (an actual 18th-century figure) said to contain the formula for eternal life is passed urgently into the hands of Sharyn Karr, a grad student of Magic and Occult Sciences at the University of Exeter (a real major at a real school), by a professor who is promptly murdered. Sharyn and a colorful cast of sidekicks are soon on the run, one action sequence after another unfolding in settings like the Tower of London and the Italian Alps. Rollins, a longtime Sacramentan who now lives near Lake Tahoe, comes by his scientific background in a most unusual way: Let\u2019s just say that if you took your pup to a Sacramento veterinarian named James Paul Czajkowski in the 1990s, the good doctor was writing novels in his spare time under the pen name James Rollins. Meanwhile, Rollins\u2019 loyal congregation of fans is eagerly anticipating the television adaptation of his best-selling Sigma Force series (18 titles and counting), in development by Amazon MGM Studios and Leo DiCaprio\u2019s production company.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Robbie Mcneil\u2019s Hit List<\/p>\n

By Brianna Heath<\/p>\n

\"Robbie<\/a><\/p>\n

Design by Matt Roeser, hand lettering by Erin Fitzsimmons, courtesy of Sourcebooks<\/p>\n

Publication Date: March 24<\/p>\n

Brianna Heath\u2019s debut novel evokes pulp fiction master Lawrence Block, whose twinkly, lighthearted Burglar series made crime fun\u2014his Burglar in the Closet\u00a0 was made into a 1987 comedy with Whoopi Goldberg. Robbie McNeil\u2019s Hit List \u00a0is a murder mystery from the perspective of a contract killer unlike any other you\u2019ve read about. The title character is an aromantic, neurodivergent lesbian millennial combat veteran who lives with her queer, platonic soulmate, Dee, above their struggling karaoke bar, which they fund by carrying out contract killings\u2014when they aren\u2019t also feverishly putting on a musical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heath describes herself as queer and neurodivergent, although that may be where her resemblance to her heroine ends; by day Heath, who lives in Rosemont, is a program manager at UC Davis\u2019 MIND Institute, working on projects related to teens and autism. Heath\u2019s writing has that slightly jaded touch of noir cynicism, leavened with a sly sense of humor, with some laugh-out-loud moments, like the one where Robbie catches herself fussing over littering while she\u2019s lying in wait to kill someone. As for Robbie\u2019s musical \u201chit list\u201d? It\u2019s actually on Spotify<\/a> (just search for \u201cRobbie\u2019s Killer Karaoke Hits\u201d) featuring some of the songs mentioned in the book. And it\u2019s killer.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Meet Me In Italy<\/p>\n

By Brenda Novak<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Brenda Novak and Mira Books<\/p>\n

Publication Date: April 7<\/p>\n

Auburn author Brenda Novak\u2019s breezy love stories are as easy to quaff as the limoncello spritzes her characters keep ordering up in her newest book\u2014a sun-drenched idyll titled Meet Me in Italy, set on the Amalfi Coast. Charlotte is a \u201csports romance\u201d novelist whose NBA star husband of four years suddenly asks for a divorce, sending her reeling, perhaps into the arms of her childhood best friend\u2019s twin brother. The will-they-or-won\u2019t-they plot is of course half the fun, but there are many other cliff hangers in store in this sunny, funny beach read. This is a romance novel, so there are twins, orphans, family secrets, fateful misunderstandings, and paparazzi moments galore. Come for the travelogue of picturesque settings, but stay for the wildly lovable characters\u2014an ensemble that would make any fan of Ted Lasso\u00a0 smile.<\/p>\n

Novak wrote this book, her 83rd, after falling for the Amalfi Coast during her daughter\u2019s 2024 destination wedding in the region, and her a\ufb03nity for this special place suff uses every page with a loving glow. You could read Meet Me in Italy\u00a0 on the beach at Folsom Lake or by your backyard pool and let the words on the page whisk you away to the Mediterranean seashore, no passport required.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Love Language \u2013 Brenda Novak in the run-up to the release of her landmark 75th book<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

What Came West<\/p>\n

By Josh Weil<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Doubleday<\/p>\n

Publication Date: June 2<\/p>\n

Life in the Sierra at the start of the Gold Rush really was one battle after another. Silas Hall, the protagonist of Josh Weil\u2019s second novel and fourth work of fiction, What Came West, survives a neurodivergent childhood at the mercy of bullies, only to father a child in his one and only sexual encounter\u2014an episode recounted with as much kaleidoscopic anxiety and terror as the violence between men to come. Unable to sustain fatherhood, Silas flees west from Pennsylvania, becoming a hermit in the Sierra, until the discovery of gold brings men and trouble to his fragile world.<\/p>\n

The landscape in this novel is as vivid a character as any of the humans, and Silas\u2019 love for this land is so palpably tender that the reader feels his anguish when the terrain is cruelly ravished by the greedy newcomers. Still, for all the blood and guts, this is a sensitive, literary Western, more Cormac McCarthy than Taylor Sheridan. Weil, who lives in Nevada City, won the 2018 California Book Award for his story collection, The Age of Perpetual Light. Here\u2019s hoping it will be one novel after another from this promising author.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Whisper Creek<\/p>\n

By Allison Brennan<\/p>\n

\"Whisper<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Minotaur Books<\/p>\n

Publication Date: June 23<\/p>\n

With more than 50 novels in print and a dozen series ranging from romantic suspense to forensics-heavy, serial-killer procedurals featuring Clarice Starling-style FBI profilers, New York Times \u00a0best-selling author Allison Brennan has covered it all. After moving to Elk Grove from the Bay Area in 1989, this prolific author worked as a legislative consultant at the State Capitol before turning to full-time writing in 2005.<\/p>\n

Her latest outing, Whisper Creek, is a stand-alone thriller in which widowed Texas ranch owner Ellen, her four children and her salty, shotgun-toting grandmother-in-law Penny are thrown into double jeopardy\u2014fighting both a looming weather event and Verdacorp, a villainous agribusiness using harsh tactics to pressure local landowners like her to sell. By setting her mystery\/thriller in the midst of a Texas storm (and remember, everything\u2019s bigger in Texas\u2014especially storms), Brennan keeps the atmosphere as dramatic as the action. She\u2019s putting her own spin on cli-fi, or climate fiction, with a knack for squeezing drama out of the elements. Brennan\u2019s prose is so cleanly cinematic that the book in your hand dissolves, much like the writing of her favorite author, master of the California thriller Robert Crais.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Burnside<\/p>\n

By Devyn Defoe<\/p>\n

\"Burnside<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Devyn Defoe and Astra House<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Aug. 4<\/p>\n

Devyn Defoe\u2019s debut novel, Burnside, has been described by its publisher as Lynchian for its dark absurdity, but literary Sacramentans will recognize it as an exercise in Vollmannia\u2014because Defoe\u2019s prose is as sumptuous as the early work of another author in our summer reading guide, William T. Vollmann. After her roommate is attacked and injured by an unhoused chaos agent named Burnside, Defoe\u2019s unnamed narrator (a young woman who works at a used bookshop, like Defoe herself), enters into an underbellied Sacramento inhabited by anguished drifters and lost souls. This is the Sacramento of Dorothea Puente, the grandmotherly serial killer who buried bodies in the backyard of her boardinghouse on F Street, and descendants of the Donner Party cannibals. It\u2019s a place where your friends\u2019 bodies wash up on the trash-strewn bank of the American River, and hungover hostesses vomit in alleys behind farm-to-fork restaurants.<\/p>\n

The world Defoe describes is vanishingly dark, yet the luminosity of her voice bathes every scene in an incandescent glow so intense it becomes elegiac, cathartic even. And while her first novel won\u2019t be published until August, Defoe already has some serious literary world cred. She was a Wallace Stegner fellow in Stanford\u2019s creative writing program (recently, the program attracted nearly 1,400 applicants for 10 spots), and Pulitzer finalist Chang-Rae Lee blurbed Burnside\u00a0 as \u201cthe coolest weird fever dream you\u2019ll ever have while awake\u201d that \u201cmay well prove a signature chronicle of our American end times.\u201d If you want an autographed copy, you should go buy it at Southside Park\u2019s Beers Books, because Defoe still works there.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

A Table For Fortune<\/p>\n

By William T. Vollmann<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Arcade Publishing<\/p>\n

Publication Date: Aug. 25<\/p>\n

Sacramentan William T. Vollmann won the National Book Award in 2005 for Europe Central, a dazzlingly broad 832-page historical novel. But that book has nothing on A Table for Fortune, the four-volume, 3,400-page novel that is set to be published on Aug. 25 and makes Tolstoy\u2019s War and Peace \u00a0look like a short story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nominally a family saga spanning the 1960s to just before the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, it concerns a shadowy CIA operative, Elliot, and his estranged son, Matthew, who is repulsed by his father\u2019s involvement in torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Matthew is an accidental wise man much like the protagonist of Dostoevsky\u2019s The Idiot, and longs to spiritually balance the history books, so to speak, by ritualistically and symbolically unliving his father\u2019s life\u2014striving to live \u201cwithout government\u201d by dwelling in our society\u2019s ungoverned interstitial spaces, whether that be under a bridge or on an island in the Delta. It\u2019s a piercing portrait of our current moment and how we got here, a rare artifact that could easily be loved by readers on both sides of the political aisle. Vollmann combines Tom Clancy\u2019s exhaustive, compulsively fascinating research into the minutiae of how government works with the rip-roaring readability of James Michener, all without sacrificing his prize-winning literary dignity.<\/p>\n

For Sacramento readers especially, Matthew\u2019s adventures bring many familiar local beats, like when Matthew hops off a freight train near the Blue Diamond almond factory or beds down with the unhoused along the banks of the American River\u2014all things Vollmann himself has done (and written about) in his day. Don\u2019t let the length put you off; this is an entertaining read. If you had the attention span to binge all six seasons of Better Call Saul, you got this.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: The Curious Case of William T. Vollmann<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration by Matt K. Shrugg Illusion Of Truth By James L\u2019etoile Courtesy of Oceanview Publishing Publication Date: Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-366742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}