The CrimeReads editors pick the month’s best new books out in paperback.
*
Camilla Lackberg, The Golden Cage (Vintage)
“A sexy, deliciously dark journey.” —Los Angeles Times
Ruth Ware, One by One (Gallery/Scout Press)
“Not only do Ware’s novels wink at Christie in a saucy way, but Ware herself is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime.” —Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
Sara Sligar, Take Me Apart (Picador)
“My favorite debut crime novel of 2020 . . . just spot on about transforming life into art and who gets sacrificed—particularly women—as a result.” —Sarah Weinman, The Crime Lady
Deepa Anappara, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Random House Trade)
“Warning: If you begin reading the book in the morning, don’t expect to get anything done the rest of the day. . . . In Jai, Anappara has created a boy vivid in his humanity, one whose voice somersaults on the page. . . . Her storytelling genius, it might be assumed, must be rooted in her reporter’s eye for detail. But that handy formula misses the heat and mystery of what Anappara creates.” —The New York Times Book Review
Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
“Squeeze Me is funny, but as with Hiaasen’s best work, it’s grounded in genuine outrage over the corruption that increasingly defines American political and cultural life. And it turns out there’s no better place to invoke that outrage than the wealthy swamps of Florida.” —Alex Shephard, The New Republic
Jennifer Hillier, Little Secrets (Minotaur)
“[A] diabolically plotted psychological thriller of lust, obsession, greed, and betrayal…a captivating double helix of duplicity.” —Publishers Weekly
Graham Moore, The Holdout (Random House Trade)
“One of the best legal thrillers … as elegant and gripping as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent“—Daily Mail
Josh Malerman, Malorie (Del Rey)
“Malorie is even more of a psychological thriller than Bird Box, and all the scarier for it.”—The Wall Street Journal
Donna Leon, Beastly Things (Atlantic Monthly)
“As if Brunetti weren’t already steaming about the mindless, atavistic greed. . . . motivating everything from the shabby practices of the banking industry to the irresponsible dredging of the Grand Canal, Leon hits him with a crime that really tries his soul . . . So he takes his pleasures where he can—at home with his family, in his favorite coffee bars and on long walks around Venice—but after this case, the city he loves will never be quite the same for him.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
Elisabeth Thomas, Catherine House (Custom House)
“A luxurious tale of an ivory-tower institution with sinister secrets, Catherine House is pure Gothic suspense for the 21st century.”—Harper’s Bazaar
Linda Castillo, Outsider (Minotaur Books)
“[A] fast-paced, suspense-building ride, showing the character development and sensitivity to the Amish culture that mark Castillo’s masterful crime fiction.” —Booklist (starred)
Grady Hendrix, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (Quirk Books)
“Ghosts of the past have also inspired one of the most rollicking, addictive novels I’ve read in years: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, a tale of housewives battling vampires that is sweetly painful, like hard candy that breaks a tooth.”—Danielle Trussoni for The New York Times Book Review
Alexis Schaitkin, Saint X (Celadon)
“‘Saint X’ is hypnotic. Schaitkin’s characters…are so intelligent and distinctive it feels not just easy, but necessary, to follow them. I devoured [it] in a day.” —Oyinkan Braithwaite, New York Times Book Review
Julie Clark, The Last Flight (Sourcebooks Landmark)
“A delicious thrill ride of a read…a suspenseful, timely tale about smart, strong women who support one another in their determination to not just survive, but also thrive, uncertainty and risk be damned.” —BookPage
