Not bad. Some original to me ideas.

The Sleepwalker is a 2017 psychological thriller novel by Chris Bohjalian.

The story explores the mysterious world of parasomnia, blending a missing-person investigation with deep family secrets.

Annalee Ahlberg is a wife and mother who suffers from severe, sometimes dangerous sleepwalking episodes. One night, while her husband is away on a business trip, Annalee disappears from her bed

When a torn piece of her nightshirt is discovered hanging from a tree branch near a dangerous local river, the police and her family fear she may have drowned during an episode.

Her eldest daughter, Lianna, leaves college to care for her broken family.

As the investigation continues, Lianna becomes romantically drawn to Gavin Rikert, the lead detective on the case. However, she quickly begins to realize that Gavin knows far more about her mother’s private life than a detective should, sparking a web of suspicion, lies, and buried desires.

Paige is Lianna’s 12-year-old younger sister. She is described as a highly athletic and gifted ski racer who struggles deeply with her mother’s sudden disappearance, even taking to swimming the local river to search for clues herself.

Mary Kubica’s 2026 psychological thriller — It’s Not Her — is excellent.

Plenty of twists & turns. Try to guess the killer.

The Crime: Courtney Gray’s peaceful vacation turns into a nightmare when she discovers her brother and sister-in-law brutally murdered in their lakeside cottage. 

The Disappearance: Her teenage niece, Reese, is completely missing from the scene, while her young nephew, Wyatt, is found sleeping upstairs entirely unharmed. 

The Investigation: As local police swarm the remote resort town, dark family secrets and local town history surface.

John Scalzi is an entertaining writer. Past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. 

He is best known for his Old Man’s War series.

This book is not nearly as engaging for me as Old Man.

The Collapsing Empire is a 2017 space opera novel, the opening book of The Interdependency trilogy, a sci-fi series focused on political intrigue, economic monopolies, and a looming climate-like cosmic crisis.

Travel between distant star systems is exclusively possible via “The Flow,” a naturally occurring extra-dimensional field that acts like an interstellar highway.

Unfortunately, The Flow is shifting away from its current entry and exit points (called “Shoals”) near the planets of the Interdependency. Each will become isolated.

Interesting main characters:

• Cardenia Wu-Patrick: The newly crowned Emperox (empress) of the Interdependency who is thrust into power following her father’s death and her brother’s racing accident.
• Marce Larson: A dedicated scientist who travels across space to bring definitive, terrifying data about the collapse of the Flow directly to the Emperox.
• Kiva Lagos: A fiercely independent, profane, and fiercely sharp starship captain and scion of a major Merchant House who stumbles onto a dangerous political conspiracy

Restless in the Grave is 19th in the series. Kate Shugak, Alaska private investigator.

Alaska aviation entrepreneur Finn Grant died in the fiery crash of his Piper Super Cub. Someone sabotaged his engine, and virtually everyone in southwestern Alaska has a motive, including his betrayed wife, his bullied children, and Liam’s wife, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard.

Working undercover as—of all things—a waitress at Bill’s Bar and Grill, Kate learns over beer and burgers that Grant’s business had expanded meteorically over the last two years.

After buying the closed Air Force base south of town from the federal government at a bargain-basement price, he became a fixed-base operator running his fishing, hunting, and flight-seeing business, servicing planes flying through the area, and most interestingly and lucratively, getting into the air freight business.

But what kind of freight was he moving, and where?

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the greats of early Science Fiction. I became a fan after reading The Left Hand of Darkness in my youth.

She mocked contemporaries like Robert Heinlein for publishing  “white man conquers the universe” stories. 😀

A Wizard of Earthsea is a seminal 1968 high fantasy novel.

As the foundational first entry in the acclaimed Earthsea Cycle, it is widely regarded as a classic of children’s and fantasy literature that pioneered major genre tropes, including the concept of a wizard school.

A reckless young village boy goes by the name Sparrowhawk.

Recognizing his immense innate magical talent, the master wizard Ogion takes him in before sending him to the renowned school of wizardry on the island of Roke.

Themes

The Magic of True Names: Magic in Earthsea relies on the “Old Speech.” Knowing the true name of a person or object grants absolute power over them. 

Cosmic Balance (Equilibrium): Strongly influenced by Taoist philosophy, the story emphasizes that magic must not be used recklessly, as altering one part of the world disrupts the ultimate balance of nature. 

Confronting the Self: The shadow serves as a psychological manifestation of Ged’s own pride, fear, and capacity for evil

There was an animated adaptation. And a TV mini series or two.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.