Author Jakob Kerr’s Silicon Valley background lends a glamorous, galling and sometimes humorous authenticity to his debut mystery, Dead Money.
Midcentury sleuth Lillian Pentecost has been framed for murder, and only her assistant, Will Parker, can save her in Stephen Spotswood’s latest noir.
Jeffery Deaver’s Colter Shaw series—which also now serves as the source material for Tracker, a hit TV show on CBS—follows the titular character as he searches for missing people and, inevitably, stumbles upon a crime he must put right. For his fifth adventure, Colter travels to Northern California to find a family that’s lost in the rising floodwaters as a nearby levee fails.
Harlan Coben’s extensive backlist has proved fertile ground for Netflix in recent years, with adaptations of the thriller master’s effortlessly engaging novels frequently becoming the most watched shows on the platform. Fool Me Once, based on Coben’s novel of the same name, was an enormous hit, and so the ever-savvy Coben has penned a sequel of sorts: Nobody’s Fool, which follows former detective Sami Kierce of Fool Me Once as he investigates a mystery from his past.
Andrea Bartz’s thrillers are marvelous marriages of ripped-from-the-headlines plots and nuanced character work, the perfect read to while away a day by the pool or on a blanket in a park. So The Last Ferry Out had a near-guaranteed spot on our summer reading list, even before we heard its juicy premise: A woman travels to the island paradise where her fiancée died to find closure, and befriends a charming group of expats. But then one of the expats vanishes—right after saying he knows the truth about what happened to her fiancée.
We loved both of Julie Clark’s two previous novels, The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell, both of which were international bestsellers. So we can’t wait to get our hands on The Ghostwriter, which follows Olivia, the titular character, as she prepares for her most challenging job yet: writing her father’s last book. A legendary horror writer who was suspected of killing his siblings, Olivia’s father is finally ready to reveal the truth.
The mad genius who penned Behind Her Eyes, a book whose twists will go down as some of the most go-for-broke and shocking reveals in suspense history, returns with a gothic, haunted house thriller that sounds right up her alley. After nearly dying in an accident, Londoner Emily moves with her husband to a beautiful, remote estate in Dartmoor. Things start to go wrong immediately—fires going out, books falling from the shelves, a terrible presence in one of the rooms—but only when Emily is alone.
We adored Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age and cannot wait to be reunited with Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie, four accomplished assassins in their 60s. Having settled their beef with the secret organization that employs them, the Museum, the women are called into action to stop a mole within the Museum’s ranks who seems to have teamed up with an Eastern European gangster.
Chris Pavone’s classy, insightful thrillers are as interested in the inner workings of their characters as they are in feats of derring-do, and his next book is rightfully being called his “most ambitious book yet.” A one-day-in-the-city type of story, The Doorman hinges upon Chicky Diaz, the titular guardian of New York City’s Bohemia apartment building, but broadens its scope to encompass all the citizens of the Bohemia, from the penthouse inhabitants to the other staff members. As racial tensions erupt in the city after the police kill an unarmed Black man, all of them will be affected—and not all of them will survive.
The queen of “thrillers you can also discuss with your book club” is back with this high-stakes suspense novel about a game of hide-and-seek that turns murderous. Single mother Adele is participating in an extreme version of the childhood classic on an island as part of a mass social media stunt. But a storm is brewing, someone seems to be stalking the contestants and Adele will have to fight her way through layers of intrigue and hidden motives to make it out alive.
After two entries in his new Detective Miller series, Mark Billingham returns to his acclaimed Tom Thorne series with What the Night Brings, which will see the detective inspector trying to solve the murder of four police officers, who seem to have been targeted as payback for some unknown transgression.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse Q. Sutanto’s charming cozy mystery and one of our Best Mysteries of 2023, will be getting a sequel! For her next case, Vera will be looking into influencer Xander Lin, whose background is just as mysterious as his death: When Xander’s body is discovered, the police can’t find anyone to officially identify him, as all of his contacts deny knowing him.
Another beloved cozy mystery sleuth will return in 2025: Molly Gray, Nita Prose’s adored hotel maid-turned-detective. When an antiques show films at the hotel, one of Molly’s family heirlooms turns out to be worth millions. But then, of course, the heirloom is stolen. As Molly investigates, she uncovers some shocking secrets about her own family.
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