Summer is coming! And in some parts of the country, it’s already here. And that means that summer thriller season has arrived. We hope the following titles will provide comfort and distraction during this garbage fire of a year—whatever your taste, you’ll find something special. In particular, this summer brings a plethora of legal thrillers, books in which women cooperate to commit murder, and lots of crimes on trains. And unlike some other recent summer lists out there, all of these books are 100% real. Enjoy!
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JUNE
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Rob Hart, The Medusa Protocol
(Putnam)
Hart is back this summer in style with a new installment of the Assassins Anonymous series, the killers-in-recovery novels that bring a wild new energy to the world of highly-trained Bourne-like professionals. Hart delivers another high-octane story laced with regret and introspection. –DM
Riley Sager, With a Vengeance
(Dutton)
Riley Sager is back, this time with a classic Golden Era setup—a young woman has gathered her enemies on a train, determined to make them pay for the destruction of her family by forcing them to confess to their crimes. Her plan quickly hits a snag when the passengers begin dying before they have a chance to come clean. Is someone else seeking a separate vengeance? Or has one of the passengers decided to eliminate anyone who can testify against them? –MO
Douglas Lincoln and Preston Childs, Badlands
(Putnam)
In this new thriller from Lincoln and Childs, a woman dies of heatstroke and thirst deep in the desert, clutching a pair of mysterious artifacts. Soon enough, archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson are on the case, as the authors deliver another high-stakes mystery steeped in lore and legend.–DM
Laurie R. King, Knave of Diamonds
(Bantam)
I’ve been reading Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series for 20 years, and a new installment is always a treat. In King’s latest, her father’s black sheep brother reappears after decades to ask for her assistance, and to request she keep her husband Sherlock in the dark (of course she will do no such thing). There are crown jewels involved, and some nefarious plans from Mycroft Holmes, and many shenanigans. –MO
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
Danie Shokoohi, Glass Girls
(Zando – Gillian Flynn Books)
While I’ve read plenty of novels featuring spiritual mediums, this one hit me right in the ectoplasm. Danie Shokoohi’s haunting meditation on grief, motherhood, and fragility takes us into the terrifying childhood of two sisters tasked with using their inherited magic to keep their brother alive. The only problem? Every book born to a woman in the Glass family dies before the age of 20. Despite their traumatic upbringing, the sisters must reunite as adults and tap back into their mystical powers: this time not to save anyone from death, but to help an angered ghost pass on. A visceral, blood-soaked paean to the horrors and limits of love. –MO
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
Laura Lippman, Murder Takes a Vacation
(William Morrow)
Mrs. Blossom, former assistant to iconic PI Tess Monaghan, gets the spotlight in this latest novel from crime master Laura Lippman, whose fresh take on the traditional mystery sees our hero on a cruise through France with a rich cast of shady characters and some mysterious art to boot. This is a stellar, page-turner of a mystery. –DM
Erin Dunn, He’s to Die For
(Minotaur)
I’m about halfway through this one and I am shipping those leads. Billed as “Brooklyn-99 but make it queer romance”, He’s to Die For features a debonair detective who’s falling head over heels for a rock star—one who just happens to be suspected of murder. And if they don’t get together, I may be forced to *sigh* write some fan fiction. –MO
SA Cosby, King of Ashes
(Flatiron)
A Virginia crematorium and a family on the brink are at the center of the latest standout offering from crime fiction powerhouse S.A. Cosby. The Carruthers family is one readers won’t soon forget, and Cosby’s hero, Roman Carruthers, with his financial savvy and family debts, offers up a compelling portrait of duty and defiance. –DM
Ivy Pochoda, Ecstasy
(Putnam)
Ivy Pochoda’s new horror novel, Ecstasy, takes place at an exclusive new establishment that may also be home to an ancient Greek god. Pochoda’s protagonist arrives muted and depressed; a group of women engaged in strange rituals may just be the pick-me-up she needs to get out of her funk (and into the service of the aforementioned deity).–MO
James Lee Burke, Don’t Forget Me Little Bessie
(Atlantic Crime)
Burke, crime fiction’s foremost chronicler of the American experience, returns this year with a powerhouse novel following a woman’s saga from early twentieth century Texas to New York City, set against the backdrop of sweeping historical forces and environmental degradation. Burke novels are appointment reading for serious mystery readers around the world. –DM
Miranda Smith, Smile for the Cameras
(Ballantine)
I can’t get enough of thrillers centered on horror films (neither can our readers!), and with the final installment of the Final Destination series quickly approaching, I’m ready for a scary novel about the long-delayed reboot of a venerable franchise, filmed in the same gothic locale as the original movies, despite rumors of hauntings. Of course, things go awry immediately, and the disastrous events on-set seem to mimic the original film’s gory plot. Can Smith’s heroine prove she can survive as a final girl IRL? I can’t wait to find out! Also, for more horror-film-themed fiction, look out for The October Film Haunt, coming out later this year. –MO
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
Richard Van Camp, Beast
(Douglas & McIntyre)
This book looks so cool! Billed as the “Indigenous Stranger Things”, Richard Van Camp’s Beast follows the desperate efforts of a group of First Nations teenagers tasked with defeating an evil peace-treaty-devouring spirit before it can cause new destruction to their Northwest Territories communities. Since the novel is Canadian and set in the 1980s, expect many Degrassi references. –MO
Mailan Doquang, Ceylon Sapphires
(Mysterious Press)
Ceylon Sapphires picks up the adventures of Rune Sarasin, the ingenious young thief out of Bangkok, lately working the European circuit. The action bounces between European hot spots and unspools a gripping cat and mouse game between thief and smuggler. –DM
Dwyer Murphy, The House on Buzzards Bay
(Viking)
You can always count on CrimeReads Editor-in-Chief Dwyer Murphy for atmospheric, clever, and thoroughly engrossing novels, and I have no doubt that his latest…will be as good as I’ve come to expect. It concerns a group of middle-aged friends, brought back together for a reunion in the titular house on Buzzards Bay, all fun and games until one of them (the writer, of course) disappears. Then there are the mysterious break-ins in the town, the odd happenings in the house, the stranger at the door—yep, it’s a Dwyer Murphy novel, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. –Emily Temple, Lit Hub Managing Editor
Vaishnavi Patel, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion
(Ballantine)
In this epic alternative history of Indian independence, the movements of the 30s and 40s are brutally suppressed to the point of failure, and it is the next generation, in the 1960s, who must take up the mantle of revolution and overthrow their colonial masters. The book is arranged in ten chapters referencing incidents in the life of Vishnu, adding cultural depth to an already-compelling narrative.–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
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
Kate Khavari, A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge
(Crooked Lane)
Botannist Saffron Everleigh is back this summer with a new mystery involving a government agent posing as a doctor. Khavari’s mysteries are something of the most cleverly plotted and charmingly told books you’ll find anywhere. –DM
Nilima Rao, A Shipwreck in Fiji
(Soho)
In the second installment of her absurdly charming new series, Nilima Rao takes us to Ovalau, a neighboring island, where rumors of German soldiers doing reconnaissance abound, and a missing Fijian could throw the delicate colonialist politics of the nation into disarray. Rao once again blends history, humor, and heartfelt drama for what has quickly become my favorite historical series of the last ten years. –MO
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JULY
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Zoe B. Wallbrook, History Lessons
(Soho)
An ode to academic curiosity, in the form of a mystery novel! In History Lessons, a new professor gets mixed up in a murder case when her star professor colleague is murdered, just after sending her an enigmatic text that could be the key to cracking the case. She must solve the crime to free herself from suspicion, but mostly because she’s an academic, and they cannot leave an unsolved mystery alone. At a time when higher education is under siege, this novel will help you remember why we need (and love) the humanities. –MO
Joe Pan, Florida Palms
(Simon & Schuster)
In this debut novel, a group of friends in need of work move into the orbit of a biker gang and start running designer drugs up and down the East Coast. It’s a dark coming-of-age novel with ambitious scope and a compelling set of characters. –DM
Holly Jackson, Not Quite Dead
(Bantam)
Holly Jackson’s adult debut is a countdown thriller with teeth. After a lackadaisical and somewhat lazy law school dropout gets hit on the head by a mysterious antagonist, she’s got seven days to solve her own murder before an aneurism finishes what her attacker started. What would you do if you had only seven days to live? I would personally just give up, but then again, I’m not a heroine in a detective novel. –MO
Dan Fesperman, Pariah
(Knopf)
Fesperman writes some of the best modern-day espionage around, and his latest novel takes some wild turns that will keep readers enthralled. A comic / politician is enlisted for a complicated mission to Eastern Europe, where one of his biggest fans happens to be the dictator whose inner circle US intel wants penetrated. –DM
Craig DiLouie, My Ex, The Antichrist
(Run for It)
This book is one of several this year to feature things getting hot and heavy with the lords of the underworld. Craig DiLouie’s new novel is a particularly fun take on the rise of religious horror. Metal band The Shivers, self-described as a “demon disco” ensemble, find out their lead guitarist is the antichrist after a series of violent riots break out at their live shows. When the guitarist leaves to form another band, the Shivers must pivot to the only musical style capable of preventing the apocalypse: pop punk. Honestly, makes sense! –MO
Gabriel Urza, The Silver State
(Algonquin)
In Urza’s new novel, a public defender receives a letter from a client on death row and the world subsequently drops out from beneath him, as he’s forced to reexamine an old case, a disappearance, and his own role in the case. Urza is a supremely talented storyteller with a subversive take on the classic legal thriller, turning the form on its head while still maintaining all the propulsive suspense these novels have to offer, and shocking readers with what they’ll find. –DM
Ruth Ware, The Woman in Suite 11
(Gallery/Scout)
I’m very much looking forward to reading The Woman in Suite 11, Ruth Ware’s highly anticipated sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10. Lo Blacklock, the unlucky heroine of Ware’s cruise ship thriller, is back to work as a journalist after half a decade spent raising her young children. She’s been invited to a very special hotel opening in Geneva, Switzerland, which will, we assume, go disastrously wrong. –MO
Harini Nagendra, Into the Leopard’s Den
(Pegasus)
Nagendra returns with a new installment of the Bangalore Detectives Club. In the new novel, Kaveri Murthy is resting at home while pregnant when a Bangalore woman dies holding a photograph of her. The case leads her around the city and ultimately toward a reunion with her husband in Coorg, where the mysteries only deepen. Nagendra’s series is a thoughtful crowd-pleaser and satisfyingly steeped in history. –DM
Michelle Brandon, Rush Week
(Avon)
Four estranged friends reunite for their five year sorority reunion at the University of Alabama, but each has a secret agenda for attending the celebration, and each will seek their own vengeance for college wrongs. Through flashbacks, Brandon takes readers inside the cutthroat world of sorority selection, for a fascinating window into a world steeped in traditions, whether charming or deeply problematic. –MO
Megan Miranda, You Belong Here
(Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci)
A woman is forced to reckon with the dark secrets of her college days in Megan Miranda’s new thriller, You Belong Here. Miranda is a master of atmospheric thrills, and an elite university in the mountains of Virginia gives her a rich setting to work with. –DM
Se-Ah Jang, A Twist of Fate
Translated by S.L. Park
(Bantam)
Two women meet on a train and swap lives (and in the process make me deeply jealous of a nation with fast enough trains to bother using—by the time AmTrak reaches its destination, everyone would have given up on ever changing their fates). –MO
Polly Stewart, The Felons Ball
(Harper)
In this follow-up to Stewart’s acclaimed debut, The Good Ones, tension boils over at an annual birthday summit where a pair of old friends recount past misdeeds for a raucous and appreciative gathering. In The Felons Ball, Stewart paints a lively portrait of small-town secrets and generational entanglements. Stewart is proving herself a master of suspense. –DM
Paul Bradley Carr, The Confessions
(Atria)
While I’d rather live in world without AI, the rapid progression of world-destructive technology certainly is leading writers into fascinating speculative territory. The Confessions is a more moral grappling with technology than most: when a supercomputer goes offline, everyone’s darkest secrets go offline too—and into mailboxes across the globe, accompanied by a command: “We must confess.” –MO
Nicci Cloke, Her Many Faces
(William Morrow)
When a young waitress is accused of murdering four wealthy members of a private club, the nation is riveted, but what spectators see in the story may be more about projection than insight. Her Many Faces follows the tale from the perspectives of five men in the accused killer’s life, each with their own take on her guilt or innocence, and some with their own dark agendas for seeing her convicted. An excellent exploration of a central question: how well can we ever truly know a person? –MO
Clémence Michallon, The Last Resort
(Knopf)
A luxury resort in the Utah desert is the backdrop for Michallon’s sophomore thriller, a close and careful study of relations strained to the breaking point and the weight of old secrets. Michallon is an expert with pacing and delivers readers a thoughtful and compelling mystery. –DM
Giano Cromley, American Mythology
(Doubleday)
Is Bigfoot real? And do we even care when the fictional presumption of his existence is so delightful? In this hilarious send off of conspiracy culture, Crowley takes readers on a romp through the world of American legends and the people who love them. –MO
Tasha Coryell, Matchmaking for Psychopaths
(Berkley)
Tasha Coryell’s debut was one of the highlights of last year, and her new book looks to fully live up to expectations. The protagonist of Matchmaking for Psychopaths is a jilted fiance who works as a…you guessed it…personalized matchmaker for psychopaths looking for love. And after she’s unceremoniously dumped, she starts to spiral, with the help of a handsome new lover with far too many similarities to her clients.–MO
David Gordon, Behind Sunset
(Mysterious Press)
Nobody writes a mystery quite like David Gordon. In his newest, a down on his luck writer goes on a dark odyssey through the pornography and celebrity wellness scenes in 1990s Los Angeles. Behind Sunset is an atmospheric neo-noir with flashes of dark wit. –DM
Cherie Priest, It Was Her House First
(Poisoned Pen Press)
Gotta love a ghost with opinions, especially when too many strangers have already tried to renovate her home, and NOT to her specifications. Cherie Priest’s delightful haunted house novel takes us into a fixer upper filled with fractious ghosts, none of whom are particularly pleased with the new owner’s renovations. I’m hoping everyone starts to work together and the house ends up as a preservationist’s dream. –MO
Shari Lapena, She Didn’t See It Coming
(Pamela Dorman/Viking)
In this new novel from Lapena, a luxury condo building plays host to a locked-room mystery when a wife and mother disappears without a trace. Lapena is a master of psychological suspense, and here she proves a meticulous and compelling plotter, too, as the mystery unfolds just as the walls close in. –DM
Alex Pavesi, Ink Ribbon Red
(Henry Holt)
A group of old friends gather for a birthday party at a manor house owned by the birthday boy, despite the recent death of the manor’s patrician guardian. By the end of the weekend, some guests will predictably end up dead—but which ones? And how shall this locked room spectacle ensue? I can’t wait to find out! –MO
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Bewitching
(Del Rey)
In Moreno-Garcia’s chilling new novel, a graduate student researching a horror novelist delves into a life-altering mystery and the strange forces surrounding a certain manuscript that ties it all together. Witchcraft and the power of narrative intersect to yield this evocative, powerful tale. –DM
Markus Redmond, Blood Slaves
(Dafina)
Another alternative history! Markus Redmond has crafted a truly epic reimagining of the 19th century, in which an ancient vampire enslaved on a plantation becomes the catalyst for a widespread slave rebellion and violent reckoning with injustice. It’s clear throughout the narrative that the true monsters are not the vampires, who need blood to survive, but the slave-owners, who require human suffering in the name of profit. Redmond’s novel should be one of the most satisfying of the year, and perhaps of the decade. –MO
Tess Sharpe, No Body, No Crime
(MCD)
Tess Sharpe’s latest is exactly what you’d think, based on that Taylor Swift title—women, working together, can cover up achieve anything. In No Body, No Crime, two star-crossed lovers reunite after nearly a decade apart to deal with the fallout from the crime that first brought them together (and drove them apart). –MO
Lucas Schaefer, The Slip
(Simon & Schuster)
“For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill comes a haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.” Intrigued? Of course you are, and you should be. Lucas Schaefer’s big, bold, raunchy, tender, comic, philosophical, Austin-set boxing novel is also an unflinching examination of race and sex in America. It’s absolutely bursting with memorable characters and outrageous scenes, and the sentence level writing is nothing short of superb. Truly one of the most impressive debuts I’ve read in years, The Slip is a knockout. –Dan Sheehan, BookMarks Editor-in-Chief
Gregory Galloway, All We Trust
(Melville)
Small town money launderers get in over their heads and ignite an international fight among angry crooks in Galloway’s new standout noir. –DM
Melanie Arnold, How to Survive a Horror Story
(Poisoned Pen Press)
A disparate group of authors gather at a famous horror writer’s house for the reading of his will, only to discover the house wants to consume them. Forget smart houses—I want a murder house. –MO
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AUGUST
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Melissa Pace, The Once and Future Me
(Henry Holt)
This book will blow your mind!!!! It kind of felt like a Marvel movie, but like, one that’s actually good! Pace’s amnesiac heroine, locked up in a mental institution and subjected to strange experimental procedures, must escape her padded prison and find out what exactly she’s forgotten, and what role her husband has played in all this, well, madness. I cannot tell you more without spoilers, but even as someone who reads 150+ books a year, I was genuinely surprised. –MO
Alexis Soloski, Flashout
(Flatiron)
Soloski’s sophomore novel is a stylish, compulsively-readable dual timeline narrative charting a young woman’s journey through the 1970s experimental theater scene, one that starts pretty quickly to look like a cult, and a theater teacher’s efforts in the late 1990s to keep her past hidden. Soloski’s pacing is impeccable and the story is long on atmospherics, with a surprisingly moving coming-of-age story emerging out of the suspense. –DM
Cleyvis Natera, The Grand Paloma Resort
(Ballantine)
Cleyvis Natera blew me away with her debut Neruda in the Park and her sophomore novel is truly the perfect follow-up from White Lotus. Set in a ritzy Dominican resort ostensibly located in a historic community of freedmen from the United States, The Grand Paloma follows staff and guests undergoing a variety of crises as a deadly hurricane approaches, and as characters steadily realize their moral compromises are no longer enough to hold off the twinned destruction of late-stage capitalism and its accompanying environmental collapse.
I have feelings about the ending. Mainly I liked it a lot, was completely surprised by it, and need to talk to folks about the book so you all need to read it, finish it, then talk to me about it in like 6 months. Okay? –MO
Jo Morey, Lime Juice Money
(Harper)
In this thrilling, atmospheric debut, a woman trapped in a dangerous relationship finds herself isolated in the Belizean jungle and caught up in a complex orchid smuggling effort linked to decades-old family sins. The title comes from a recurring phrase in the book: “champagne dreams with lime juice money”, eventually discovered to be lyrics to a song played during a significant, and long-forgotten, memory. That contrast—dreams vs. reality—forms the central axis of each character’s development, negotiated well by some and disastrously by others. –MO
Thomas R. Weaver, Artificial Wisdom
(Del Rey)
A grieving journalist is tasked with unraveling a high-profile murder with enormous implications in this disturbingly plausible speculative thriller. The victim? A scientist credited with designing the first AI politician to be elected. The consequences? Who knows! And the secrets that shall be revealed? Dark indeed… I can’t wait to finish this far-reaching vision from a tech insider. –MO
Yasuhiko Nishizawa, The Man Who Died Seven Times
Translated by Jesse Kirkwood
(Pushkin Vertigo)
In a murder mystery take on Groundhog Day, a high schooler has seven chances to save his grandfather’s life. Nishizawa’s young hero has always possessed a strange talent: some days are repeated, up to nine times, and whatever happens on the last iteration of the repeating day becomes the new reality. The Man Who Died Seven Times is a metaphysical masterpiece that never hesitates to show both humor and heart. –MO
Danielle Valentine, The Dead Husband Cookbook
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
In this delectable culinary thriller, disgraced editor Thea Woods gets one last chance to restore her reputation when a celebrity chef shows up at her small publisher ready to write a memoir and asking for Thea by name. Thea, a lifelong fan of Maria Capello’s, has never believed those awful rumors about Maria’s husband and his untimely demise, but she may change her mind after a few weeks at Maria’s farm editing the single copy of her manuscript. This book made me so hungry… –MO
Amran Gowani, Leverage
(Atria)
In this masterpiece of late-stage capitalism and its discontents, Amran Gowani uses the crime genre to eviscerate the world of finance and the psychopaths at their center. In Leverage, a successful trader is backed into a corner by his menacing boss after a shocking loss, and forced to embrace deeply unethical practices to make up for his perceived error. All is not as it seems, but even as additional challenges mount, Gowani’s scrappy hero might just be clever enough to carve out a win. This book was so ridiculously good. –MO
Sulari Gentill, Five Found Dead
(Poisoned Pen Press)
In Gentill’s new mystery, Joe Penvale boards the Orient Express in Paris, accompanied by his sister, hoping to find inspiration aboard the train, and inspiration sure comes in quickly, as a series of brutal murders sweeps over the train. Gentill is working in a distinct Christie register, and doing it in high style, in this consistently enjoyable mystery. –DM
Amanda Chapman, Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library
(Berkley)
Agatha Christie appears from the great beyond to help a library conservationist solve a murder that is yet to happen. I believe that’s all I need to say. –MO
Karin Slaughter, We Are All Guilty Here
(William Morrow)
Thriller stalwart Slaughter is back this summer with a fresh series, focusing on a small town, North Falls, and its many mysteries, beginning with the disappearance of two teenager girls. –DM
Samantha Downing, Too Old for This
(Berkley)
Samantha Downing has been crafting excellent psychological thrillers from the get go, and her latest looks to continue her dominance. Too Old for This has the best set-up: a retired serial killer must go out and kill one last time to avoid discovery. While every year features at least a few older sleuths or slayers, this year really seems to have brought the narrative of elders in crime fiction to its proper…maturity (see what I did there?). I love the idea of an elderly, crotchety killer—think how clever she’d have to be to be able to retire at all! –MO
Morgan Richter, The Understudy
(Knopf)
Richter’s new slow-burn thriller centers on opera singer who has finally secured her place in the upper echelons of the New York scene and the understudy who proves herself to be more than merely a young rival, but something far more dangerous. Richter’s novel is tautly drawn but still full of wonderful detail from the life cycle of a big operatic production, this one an adaptation of the cult classic Barbarella. Readers will find themselves fully immersed in this thoughtful page turner. –DM
Katie Collom, Peter Miles Has to Die
(Del Rey)
Three friends vow to kill the man responsible for their best friend’s death in this dark, feminist noir. I’m not too far into it yet, but the set up alone makes this one worth a read. And it’s part of a whole trend of women working together to commit murder. I love to see cooperation in a thriller! –MO
Laura Shepherd-Robinson, The Art of a Lie
(Atria)
This book has a notably perfect ending. In Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s new historical mystery, a con artist targets the newly wealthy widow of a pastry shop owner in a Lonely Hearts scheme, not knowing that his mark is responsible for her husband’s untimely demise. A flirtatious cat-and-mouse game ensues, with heart-rending results. –MO
Victor Suthammanont, Hollow Spaces
(Counterpoint)
It’s an excellent year for legal thrillers, but Hollow Spaces is something else: a psychological thriller about lawyers, in which the adult children of an acquitted murderer are spurred to reinvestigate the case that once tore their family apart. Interspersed are moments from 30 years before, told from their father’s perspective, as he navigates the tightrope of working as the only Asian-American partner in a high-powered corporate firm, while having a passionate affair with the soon-to-be murder victim. A delicate and devastating portrait of the limits of the American dream, deeply resonant in today’s landscape. –MO
Christina Dotson, Love You To Death
(Ballantine)
Two childhood friends go on the run after a heist at a wedding goes south (to be fair, the wedding was at a plantation, so the newly married couple deserved all their cash stolen). Trials and tribulations ensue! And while it’s got Thelma and Louise vibes, don’t let that make you think you can predict the ending. This book will have you seriously questioning what you’d be willing to do for your best friend… –MO
Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz
(Berkley)
In mid-18th century New Spain, a plague in Zacatecas sends a young woman and her family to her fiancés remote silver mine, where an ancient evil awaits. Isabel Canas has quickly become a superstar of historical fiction, and this one looks like the best yet! –MO
Ania Ahlborn, The Unseen
(Gallery)
This book is scary af. A family in Colorado takes in a feral child, only to immediately experience a variety of strange and violent happenings. Is their new family member at fault? Or is there something worse hiding in the woods around them? Ahlborn’s take on the classic changeling narrative should have readers talking for years to come. –MO
Lindsay King-Miller, This Is My Body
(Quirk)
It’s a banner year for religious-inspired horror, running the gamut from campy and satirical to truly terrifying, and I’m particularly excited for all the queer entries into this rarified category. In This Is My Body, a queer woman who fled her evangelical family after a horrifying childhood, only to return to the fold for an exorcism when her teenage daughter starts showing signs of demonic possession. Feminist horror, body horror, religious horror —this one has it all. –MO
Hailey Piper, A Game in Yellow
(Saga)
The King In Yellow is the seed of inspiration for Hailey Piper’s batshit erotic horror thriller, in which a lesbian couple looking to spice things up goes down a hellish rabbit-hole when they discover a disturbing masterpiece that gives dark pleasures in small doses, and delivers death to those who ask for a bigger slice. –MO
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SEPTEMBER AND BEYOND
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L.S. Stratton, In Deadly Company
(Union Square)
L.S. Stratton has crafted some of the best, and most serious, thrillers of recent years, and I’m delighted to see her writing take a turn towards something a bit more fun—Stratton truly can do it all, when it comes mysteries! The satirical In Deadly Company follows a put-upon executive assistant tasked with planning a birthday extravaganza for her ne’er-do-well boss, who’s recently been put in charge of the family company after his mother’s shocking death in a car accident. After the party ends in a massacre, Stratton’s quick-witted protagonist is heralded as an innocent survivor, but as she relates her story to the actress playing her in a biopic, her heroism starts to look far more ambiguous. –MO
Hank Phillippi Ryan, All This Could Be Yours
(Minotaur)
A debut author with a breakout novel is at the center of Hank Phillippi Ryan’s new spine-tingling thriller. Out on tour celebrating her big success, new author Tessa Calloway realizes she’s being stalked, and that she may be forced to reckon with some dark secrets from her past. All This Could Be Yours is a supremely accomplished book from a master of suspense. –DM
William Kent Krueger, Apostle’s Cove
(Atria)
In the new Cork O’Connor novel, Cork is informed by his son that back in his days as a new sheriff, he helped put away an innocent Ojibwe man. Cork returns to the case to try to sort out guilt and innocence and how it all got so confused. Krueger is, as ever, a skilled and moving storyteller. –DM
Lacy N. Dunham, The Belles
(Atria)
Dunham explores the stifling world of mid-century women’s colleges in this folk-horror-infused take on dark academia. In The Belles, a close-knit group of friends engage in secretive, wicked, and eventually deadly games in violation of the rules of their carefully controlled campus. Flash-forward sequences take us to their 50 year reunion, a gathering that may finally play host to the long-concealed truths of both characters and setting. –MO
Kit Burgoyne, The Captive
(Hell’s Hundred)
Rosemary’s Baby, but make it Patty Hearst! In The Captive, a group of ecoterrorists kidnaps the heiress to a family fortune built on the violent exploitation of labor and the land, only to find out that their victim is pregnant with the devil’s baby, and has no intention of returning to her family. Come for the set-up, stay for the garden party. You’ll know it when you see it. –MO
Eli Cranor, Mississippi Blue 42
(Soho)
Cranor’s new novel channels Elmore Leonard through the world of dark money college football, as a newly minted FBI agent is assigned to track down a shadowy cabal in central Mississippi pouring dirty money into a football-obsessed community. Cranor’s prose has never been sharper and he knows this world inside and out. This is quite likely the most fun you’ll have with a crime book all year. –DM
Alexandra Bell, The White Octopus Hotel
(Del Rey)
I may have cried while reading this in public. But that’s just proof of how good it is! In The White Octopus Hotel, an art appraiser finds her way to a mysterious and magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, traveling through time to arrive at the luxurious building in its 1930s heyday, where she forms an intense connection to a shell-shocked composer. The two lovers seek to learn the building’s secrets and avert the terrible events of the future, but the hotel’s magic is capricious, unpredictable, and possessed of its own inscrutable agenda. –MO
Walter Mosley, Gray Dawn
(Mulholland)
For crime readers, a new Easy Rawlins novel is one of the big events of late summer / early fall. In the new installment, Easy is at the head of his own detective agency and thriving in 1970s LA. Mosley has more than earned his reputation as the ultimate craftsman – his language is precise, evocative, and poetic, and his stories challenge and satisfy in equal measure. –DM
