Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski heads to Kansas in Sara Paretsky’s Pay Dirt, where she gets wrapped up in the case of a missing college student and runs afoul of both the FBI and the local opioid dealers.
Louisa Luna crafts a boldly, unapologetically unlikable protagonist in Tell Me Who You Are—but is Dr. Caroline Strange also unreliable?
Frankie Elkin is author Lisa Gardner’s most recent creation, but she’s already well on her way to joining the ranks of Gardner’s other beloved sleuths like D.D. Warren, Pierce Quincy and Kimberly Quincy. An empathetic loner who searches for long-missing people, Frankie embarks on her most challenging case yet when she tries to crack a 12-year-old cold case presented to her by serial killer Kaylee Pierson. Pierson is going to be executed for her crimes in three weeks, but before she dies, she wants Frankie to try and find out what happened to her sister, Leilani.
Ah, the allure of the prewar New York City apartment, an allure that has only grown stronger thanks to rage-inducing real estate prices. In Lisa Unger’s thriller, Rosie and Chad Lowen fall prey to a beautiful Big Apple building with murderous secrets beneath its floorboards, the latest of which is one of their neighbors mysteriously dying right after they move in.
Dervla McTiernan is the connoisseur’s pick for smart, suspenseful thrillers, and her next novel sounds like another surefire winner. When a young couple’s vacation goes horribly wrong and only one of them comes home, both sets of parents go to war against each other in the public sphere. Add in the internet’s toxic, conspiratorial twist on true crime, and things quickly get combustible.
There is a very specific type of historical mystery that goes like this: A female sleuth (often convention-defying in some way) teams up with a man (often more respectable, whether by birth or profession) to solve crimes and as the series progresses, they fall in love. The absolute queen of this subgenre—rivaled only by Sherry Thomas—is Deanna Raybourn, whose Veronica Speedwell mysteries are eagerly anticipated by her legion of fans. This time around, Veronica and her beau, Stoker, discover that a wax figure of a woman is actually an extremely well-preserved corpse, and they are soon on the trail of their most dangerous enemy yet.
Close to Death offers a supremely engrossing and expertly plotted whodunit that will challenge and delight even the most well-read mystery fans.
With an emphasis on psychological versus physical terror, Darling Girls is a one-sitting read full of twists and turns.
In Daughter of Mine, Megan Miranda commits to her flirtation with gothic elements, embracing all things creepy, unexplainable and unreliable.
Chris Bohjalian’s latest thriller, The Princess of Las Vegas is a thrilling symphony of run-down casinos, teenage hackers and royal impersonators with multiple mysteries at its core.
Kellye Garrett’s stark yet entertaining thriller Missing White Woman offers a Black woman’s perspective on the true crime industrial complex.
Amy Pease’s debut mystery introduces a new sleuth that readers will root for and a northern Wisconsin setting that’s anything but bucolic.
The fun, fast-paced Murder at the Book Festival hits all the right cozy notes with unerring precision.
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