May 2026 Books Read: 12
Believe - S M Govett
Return To Neverbury - Chris Lynch
The Summer Guests - Tess Gerritsen
A Murder In Eight Cocktails - Kelly Mullen
The Killer Question - Janice Hallett
She Didn't See It Coming - Shari Lapena
Oryx And Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Year Of The Flood - Margaret Atwood
MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
Death And Other Occupational Hazards - Veronika Dapunt
Vox - Christine Dalcher
White Rabbit, Red Wolf - Tom Pollock
April 2026 Books Read: 14
The Examiner - Janice Hallett
The Man In The Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
This Is Not A Game - Kelly Mullen
The Girlfriend - K L Slater
The Only Suspect - Louise Candlish
The Institute - Stephen King
Black Flowers - Alex North
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett
It Ends Here - Heidi Perks
Burn After Reading - Catherine Ryan Howard
10 Marchfield Square - Nicola Whyte
The Surf House - Lucy Clarke
The Hiding Season - A C Glass
March 2026 Books Read: 19
Spellbound - Georgia Leighton
Strange Houses - Uketsu
Message Deleted - K L Slater
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Two Rivers - T Greenwood
Oblivious - Neil Schiller
The Book Of Lost Hours - Hayley Gelfuso
Where There's Smoke - Jodi Picoult
The Goodbye Man - Jeffery Deaver
The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie
The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
The Murder On The Links - Agatha Christie
Poirot Investigates - Agatha Christie
Murder By The Book - M R G Davies
The Alpine Retreat - Sarah Goodwin
The Appeal - Janice Hallett
How To Kill A Crime Writer - Sarah Lotz
The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett
A Game Of Murder - M R G Davies
Currently Reading: The Man In The Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
February 2026 Books Read: 17
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
No Place To Hide - Rebecca Griffiths
Before I Go To Sleep - SJ Watson
The Motel - Nancy Savage
The Lucky Winners - K L Slater
Dust - Arthur Slade
Snowdrops - A D Miller
*Locker 19 - J Cronshaw
The Last Trip - Rowan Chambers
The Burning Stones - Antti Tuomainen
Containment - Christian Cantrell
A Neighbour's Guide To Murder - Louise Candlish
The Society Of Unknowable Objects - Gareth Brown
The Never Game - Jeffery Deaver
The Life Of Chuck - Stephen King
The Martian - Andy Weir
Reacher: Killing Floor - Lee Child
Did Not Finish:
Island Builder - Andrew Karevik
2084 - Mason Engel
*Locker 19 by J Cronshaw was the first book that I began to suspect was AI generated part way through, and read to the end to confirm my suspicions. Then I went back to scrutinise other books I'd read recently.
After realising that I had unintentionally read an AI-generated thriller on Wednesday, I spent yesterday reviewing the last 30-odd books that I've bought, to see if any of them are also AI-generated, and what red flags to look out for.
I checked:
Publication date
Publisher
Publisher's website
Author's website
Number of books written per year
So far I've come to the following conclusions about the "authors":
1. Has self-published 8 books in 2025, with virtually identical covers, via a "book publishing company" that's basically him and his wife. His website is awful, and he didn't bother editing a large part of the one book I read.
2. Has self-published 5 books in 2025, with very similar covers, and his website is flagged as suspicious. The two books I read had been edited well enough to read as human-created, and the plots were reasonable, but not altogether credible.
1/3
January 2026 Books Read: 23
Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
Bullet Train - Kotaro Isako
Mr Mercedes - Stephen King
*The Night Before Christmas - Maria Frankland
Finders Keepers - Stephen King
The Winter Visitor - B P Walter
*The Winter Retreat - Maria Frankland
The Woman In The Opposite Window - Rose Hard
Friend Request - Laura Marshall
Dead Of Winter - Keri Beevis
*The Life I Had - Aaron Quinn
End Of Watch - Stephen King
The Christmas Party - Kathryn Croft
Everyone Here Is Lying - Shari Lapena
Two Truths One Lie - Alex Sinclair
Wish - Alexandra Bullen
The Perfect Wife - Hannah Price
Little Siberia - Antti Tuomainen
*I Don't Like Mondays - Maria Frankland
Seven Bodies - V J Randle
You Are Fatally Invited - Ande Pliego
Run Away - Harlan Coben
Anxious People - Fredrik Backman
Currently Reading: Island Builder - Andrew Karevik
* Aaron Quinn and Maria Frankland appear to produce AI-generated human-edited books very frequently.
December 2025 Books Read: 13
2025 Books Read: 151
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
The Last Hour Between Worlds - Melissa Caruso
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Cold People - Tom Rob Smith
The Apocalypse Codex - Charles Stross
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
The Rhesus Chart - Charles Stross
About Time - Jodi Taylor
The Book Of Guilt - Catherine Chidgey
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North
The Christmas Guest - Aaron Quinn
The Other People - C B Everett
Currently Reading: Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
November 2025 Books Read: 12
Saving Time - Jodi Taylor
Something In The Walls - Daisy Pearce
The Thief On The Winged Horse - Kate Mascarenhas
Holy Terrors - Simon R Green
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
How To Survive Camping - Bonnie Quinn
Chalcot Crescent - Fay Weldon
Neverbury - Chris Lloyd
In The Library With A Knife - Martin Edwards
Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
12 Ways To Kill Your Family At Christmas - Natasha Bache
The Book Of Accidents - Chuck Wendig
Currently Reading: The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
October 2025 Books Read: 14
At Home - Bill Bryson
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi
The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
The Jennifer Morgue - Charles Stross
The Fuller Memorandum - Charles Stross
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Beartown - Fredrik Backman
Ascension - Nicholas Binge
Dr No - Percival Everett
We Live Here Now - Sarah Pinborough
Us Against You - Fredrik Backman
Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor
The Winners - Fredrik Backman
Currently Reading: Saving Time - Jodi Taylor
September 2025 Books Read: 14
The Troupe - Robert Jackson Bennett
Jerome And The Seraph - Robina Williams
In Other Worlds - Margaret Atwood
Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely
Planet Word - J P Davidson
Room - Emma Donoghue
The Gospel Of Loki - Joanne M Harris
The Testament Of Loki - Joanne M Harris
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Runemarks - Joanne M Harris
Runelight - Joanne M Harris
How To Stop Time - Matt Haig
Murder In The Dark - Margaret Atwood
This Perfect Day - Ira Levin
Currently Reading: At Home - Bill Bryson
Did Not Finish: Lucid - Michael S Milano
HollieK