See the Cover of Patrick Cottrell’s ‘Afternoon Hours of a Hermit’ (Exclusive)

Patrick Cottrell is back with another moving story about grief, loss and identity — cut with a little twisty mystery.

Seven years after his popular debut, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, Cottrell announced his new novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit. Set to debut in April 2026, the new novel follows a trans writer and educator as he’s unexpectedly thrust back into the questions surrounding his late brother’s death.

Afternoon Hours of a Hermit introduces readers to Dan Moran, a professor teaching fiction in Brooklyn, when he receives an envelope — addressed to the wrong name — containing a childhood photo of his dead brother. The odd photo pushes Dan to return home as his relatives gather for his brother’s memorial dinner, but Dan’s not looking for a family reunion.

“He drives around in his brother’s Honda Accord, believing he is a detective,” the book’s synopsis reads. “He searches for a constellation of unidentified women who may have been involved with his brother, all while being mistaken for another man.”

It continues, “He hopes his investigation will reveal exactly who he was to his brother, but in a series of unsettling and destabilizing encounters, what he discovers is the irrevocable distance between who we are and how we are perceived.”

Rita Bullwinkel, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Headshot, called Cottrell’s new novel a “hilarious and heart-wrenching” whodunnit.

Cottrell tells PEOPLE his new novel is largely about navigating the past alongside the reality of the present, particularly the internal confusion the trans protagonist experiences when returning home. It’s also about who we are on the outside — who we are to others, Cottrell says — told through a mysterious yet humorous lens.

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“This book is meant to have the haunting and suspenseful atmosphere of a mystery and a psychological thriller, but turned on its side and tilted toward absurdity and humor,” Cottrell explains. “It’s about mistaken identity, performance, speech and seeking answers in all the wrong places.”

Cottrell’s 2018 novel, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, follows thirty-something Helen Moran, who similarly learns of her adoptive brother’s death and returns to her childhood home to pick up the pieces. She launches a “serious investigation” into the reason behind her brother’s suicide, while stumbling on truths about herself and the meaning of life.

Afternoon Hours of a Hermit hits shelves on April 21, 2026 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.