A look at the week’s best new releases in crime fiction, nonfiction, mystery, and thrillers.
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Abir Mukherjee, Hunted
(Mulholland)
“A pretty much flawless thriller, Hunted works on every level imaginable. Terrific characters are subtly and mercilessly pushed along by a plot as propulsive as it is constantly surprising.”
–Lee Child
John Connolly, The Instruments of Darkness
(Atria/Emily Bestler)
“Connolly is a first-rate storyteller, and the Parker novels have always been excellent, but there’s something different about this one. The darkness that permeates the series feels darker here, as though Connolly is conjuring up an evil we’ve not seen before. This one will leave readers breathless and shaken—which is, after all, just what the author’s fans expect.”
– Booklist
Mailan Doquang, Blood Rubies
(Mysterious Press)
“An intricate plan in a far-off city to snatch some priceless gems. What could possibly go wrong?…A crisp caper whose detailed setting is its biggest attraction.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Marjorie McCown, Star Struck
(Crooked Lane)
“Sorry, Sherlock. Detective work has nothing on the perils of costume design.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Andromeda Romano-Lax, The Deepest Lake
(Soho)
“All who enjoy writer-focused thrillers will be enthralled by Romano-Lax’s morally and intellectually intricate tale, while her fans will marvel at her versatility as she shifts from complexly imagined literary fiction like Annie and the Wolves (2021), to this psychologically and culturally spiky work of suspense.”
–Booklist
Sarina Bowen, The Five Year Lie
(Harper Paperbacks)
“Bowen . . . takes a confident step into the thriller genre with this engaging debut, which combines a fast pace and an intriguing plot with pointed commentary on the way useful technology can easily create a dangerous privacy nightmare. . . . An engaging and fast-paced thriller about the abuse of technology.”
Debbie Babitt, The Man on the Train
(Scarlet)
“A mysterious woman on the train, a disappearing husband, and secrets from the past come together in this pulse-quickening ride. Babitt masterfully creates a narrative that explores the fragility of trust and poses the question of how well we really know those closest to us. THE MAN ON THE TRAIN will keep readers guessing until the final, shocking reveal.”
–Liv Constantine
Elise Juska, Reunion
(Harper)
“A pitch-perfect depiction of New England campus culture, COVID-era child-rearing and how the complexities of adulthood accumulate.”
–People
Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black
(Simon and Schuster)
“Like Jessica Knoll, whose crime novels also revolve around missing girls, Jean focuses less on sensationalizing predators and more on the tragedy of a ‘frenzy of missing girls. They do not give answers. They do not speak of what has come to pass. They whisper: Find us. Please.’ Jean has written an impressive crime novel here…. An unexpected ending and a cadre of heroic female characters make Jean a crime writer to watch.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Jacob Kushner, Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants
(Grand Central)
“This fascinating book tells two stories: first, how a gang of East German thugs turned neo-Nazi ‘bomb tinkerers’ grew into a network of domestic terrorists, and second, how German authorities let them get away with murder. Jacob Kushner tells the story with cautious condemnation and intimate detail.”
–Michael Scott Moore
