The CrimeReads staff recommends the best new psychological thrillers of the month.
Olivia Worley, So Happy Together
(Minotaur)
Olivia Worley has wowed me with her YA thrillers, and her new novel for adults is just as wickedly entertaining. In a novel twist on the trend of female obsession, Worley’s heroine isn’t ready to let her ex-boyfriend go, despite his obvious happiness with his new-found love. When she starts to investigate her replacement, she’s not prepared for what she uncovers, a dark secret that soon leads to a shocking (and satisfying) denouement. –MO
Peter Swanson, Kill Your Darlings
(William Morrow)
A married couple living a seemingly idyllic life is at the center of the masterful new mystery from Peter Swanson, Kill Your Darlings, but there’s a catch: the wife would very much like to murder her husband. Swanson tells the story in reverse, building back to the key moments that drove them to that fateful point. The novel is a marvel of structure and pacing and delivers some of the most satisfying turns in recent memory. –DM
Kristen L. Berry, We Don’t Talk About Carol
(Bantam)
Kristen L. Berry’s explosive debut tracks the long and buried history of missing young Black girls through a singular protagonist: one bent on finding out the truth behind her aunt’s long-ago disappearance. We Don’t Talk About Carol is sure to be one of the devastating—and necessary—stories published this year. –MO
Kaira Rouda, Jill Is Not Happy
(Scarlet)
Rouda’s new thriller is a perfect summer thriller: a husband and wife road trip that stirs up old secrets and pins the spouses against one another in a dangerous game. –DM
Lisa Jewell, Don’t Let Him In
(Atria)
Lisa Jewell has steadily proven herself one of the best writers of psychological thrillers today, and her upcoming novel, featuring a nasty Lonely Hearts confidence man, looks to be her most astute study of human nature yet. In Don’t Let Him In, one man connects several disparate families, each ruined (or about to be) by his financial scheming. The true villain of Don’t Let Him In is the patriarchy and double standards that allow a smooth, charming, older man to give wealthy widows the bare minimum of good treatment and still seem nicer than 99% of other dudes. Despite the length, I swear you’ll finish this one in a single weekend. –MO
Megan Abbott, El Dorado Drive
(Putnam)
In Megan Abbott’s provocative new thriller, a group of women committed to helping one another financially takes a dark turn and puts the lives of two sisters in jeopardy. Abbott is among the most gifted stylists at work in crime fiction today, and she brings a poetic appreciation for flawed humanity to her new novel, which is as atmospheric and compelling as any of her best books. –DM
Janelle Brown, What Kind of Paradise
(Random House)
Maybe it’s just Luigi Fever, but here’s yet another novel featuring a Kaczynski-inspired character (last year brought us the inimitable Old King by Maxim Loskutoff, a noir told from the perspective of Ted’s very unhappy neighbors). In What Kind of Paradise, a young woman flees from her idyllic upbringing in the Montana wilderness after she’s unwittingly roped into her technophobe father’s deadly schemes. She’s on the way to San Francisco, where her parents met, her mother died, and the seeds to her childhood traumas first took root. –MO
