The CrimeReads editors make their choices for the best debut novels in crime, mystery, and thrillers.
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Sasha Vasilyuk, Your Presence Is Mandatory
(Bloomsbury)
Vasilyuk’s powerful debut tells the story of Yefim Shulman, moving between his death in Ukraine in 2007 and his experiences during World War II and its aftermath, when Shulman fought Germany for the USSR but soon ended up ensnared in the KGB plots, hiding his secrets from his family. Vasilyuk manages to capture both the story’s intimate drama and its epic qualities, telling the story of a double life and its reverberations across borders and generations. –DM
Sara Koffi, While We Were Burning
(Putnam)
In this well-plotted cat-and-mouse thriller, a surburban white woman still reeling from the death of her best friend hires a Black personal assistant to help her with day-to-day tasks. Little does she suspect that her new employee only took the gig so she can keep investigating the circumstances surrounding her son’s death, and figure out which “concerned citizen” was the person who called the cops and put her beloved child in their cross-hairs. The looming, inevitable confrontation between the two is forceful and stunning. Koffi has used the thriller genre with great effect for a prescient critique on the petty resentments and deliberate ignorance that underpin our racist power structure. –MO
K.T. Nguyen, You Know What You Did
(Dutton)
In this propulsive psychological thriller, artist Annie “Anh Le” Shaw is sent spiraling when her mother dies suddenly, and long-repressed memories begin to crowd their way to the surface to destabilize her further. When a local art patron disappears, and Annie finds herself waking up in a hotel room next to a dead body with no idea how she got there, things really get unhinged. Although this is Nguyen’s debut, her voice is already self-assured and powerful, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. –MO
L.K. Bowen, For Worse
(Blackstone)
In this twisty, suspenseful debut, a woman losing her sight grows determined to leave her abusive relationship, and turns to an online group for support, but soon discovers a more dangerous proposition on offer. Bowen raises the stakes with precision and takes readers on a journey through a complex moral maze. –DM
Matt Riordan, The North Line
(Hyperion Avenue)
In Riordan’s debut novel, a young man signs on to a season of fishing the dangerous waters around Alaska, then soon finds himself embroiled in a clash of bigger social forces. Riordan writes about both labor and the natural world with an equally keen eye, bringing out the inner torment of a complex character coming to terms with his place in the world. –DM
