My new novel comes out this spring. It’s set in Brooklyn. The first scene takes maybe ten minutes. In those ten minutes, a decision gets made that the man making it doesn’t even recognize as a decision. The book works its way through a single question: what do we do when we notice something is off — and can’t point to a single piece of evidence for it.
Before I say more, I want to show the opening.
Excerpt: The first meeting of Hank and Beth
The theater smelled of wet jackets, beer, and dusty velvet.
There were too many people in the lobby for the space, and everyone acted like that was the point. Someone brushed past a stranger’s shoulder with an elbow, someone else laughed too loud, a couple stopped in the doorway even though the next people were already waiting behind them. Over all of it lay that thin heat you get when winter air trades places with body warmth.
Hank stood against the wall, beer in hand, and looked around. Not obviously. Not searching. More the way some people walk down a street and automatically clock traffic lights, exits, narrow spots.
Behind the book table, a woman was arranging programs into small, clean stacks. Beige linen shirt, sleeves down to the wrist, a silver watch, nothing else. Next to the programs lay books no one was picking up. She didn’t push them forward. She let them sit there, like she’d made up her mind about them a long time ago.
Someone bumped Hank from behind. Not hard. Just enough to knock his elbow forward. A dark stain spread across beige linen.
The woman looked at the stain first. Then at him. Hank lifted his glass a little, as if it could speak for him.
“Bad timing,” he said.
She took the program she’d been holding, set it on the stack, and studied the stain for another second. “It’s fine.”
She didn’t smile. Neither did he.
The second bell rang. Someone called her name from the direction of the coat check. She reached for a pen, wrote a number on the back of a program, and pushed it across the table. “In case the city turns out smaller than you thought.”
Hank picked up the program, read the digits once, then took his phone out of his jacket pocket. She watched him type them in.
“You don’t have to right now —” she said.
He’d already tapped call.
Why this opening
Because it’s a promise the rest of the book has to keep. From the very first minutes, these two people are reading each other — and what they find, or don’t find, sets the whole novel in motion. The new book isn’t a thriller. There’s no body, no detective, no plot twist halfway through that turns everything inside out. What there is: a man who watches too closely, and a woman who knows more than she says. Between them sits a city that proves nothing and implies everything. If you like watching characters slowly arrange their own unhappiness, you’re in the right place.
The rest of that first scene — and what Hank does later that night, even though he ought to know better — is in the finished book.
Release and what comes next
The manuscript is finished. Cover and release date will be announced here on glenn-harrow.com first. Readers who don’t want to miss it can sign up for the newsletter once and then hear from me only when there’s actually something to say — no more than that.
Frequently asked questions
What is the new novel about? It follows Hank, a man in Brooklyn who meets Beth at a small theater event. The book tracks what happens between them across a relationship in which a great deal is sensed and very little is said out loud.
Who is Glenn Harrow? Glenn Harrow is the pen name behind psychologically grounded contemporary novels set in New York. More on the author and the work on the About page.
When will the book be released? The exact date will be announced on glenn-harrow.com and through the newsletter. The release is expected in spring 2026.
Where is the novel set? In New York, mostly in Brooklyn — Carroll Gardens, Williamsburg, Atlantic Avenue. The city isn’t a backdrop here, it’s a sounding board.
Is the new novel a thriller? No. It’s a contemporary novel about trust, self-deception, and how much knowing a relationship can stand. There’s tension, but it grows between two people, not out of a crime.
Is there an excerpt? The opening scene is above. A longer excerpt will follow when the release date is announced.