Broke and between cases, Arlo Abbas has run out of reasons to get off the couch. The former Metropolitan detective works as a private investigator now, but lately it’s odd jobs and his fridge is still empty. Things take a turn when £10,000 hits his bank account from sources unknown and a note lands in his PO Box with only three words: Find Sophie Banik.
Problem is Sophie Banik is dead—murdered months ago. No suspects, or family, or leads, a forgotten cold case. Why is someone paying Arlo to find her?
Going underground through London’s tunnels Abbas ends up in the orbit of a shadowy organization experimenting with the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness, and life and death. He learns Sophie’s death wasn’t an end … it was a beginning. Whoever’s paying Abbas doesn’t just want Sophie found, they want him to know everything.
Now Arlo’s starting to suspect Sophie Banik might not be as dead as everyone thinks.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Genre blending is all the rage in 2026, and Nicholas Binge’s latest is another set to break on through. Binge is the author of Professor Everywhere, Ascension, Dissolution, and Abyss among others. Binge’s crime writing pseudonym, Nick Brucker, is set release his debut White Smoke in 2027. With his latest, Binge combines science-fiction, fantasy, and horror in this philosophical fringe-science nightmare. Booklist says: “A mystery slowly unravels for the reader, involving the nebulous spaces between waking and dreaming, life and death … Fans of twisty SF thrillers in the vein of Blake Crouch and Philip K. Dick will find much to appreciate.” and Publishers Weekly in a Starred review calls Exhumantion “[A] tense and richly imagined supernatural mystery … Binge weaves these seemingly disparate strands together masterfully, ratcheting up the tension while making suspending disbelief easy through impressively nuanced characterization. It’s hard to put this one down.”
Releasing from Riverhead Books 1 December 2026, Exhumation by Nicholas Binge is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA