Readers’ Picks: Must-Read Mysteries and Thrillers

Karen Krupp is happy. But when Karen loses control of her car as she speeds through the worst part of town she’s left with a concussion and she can’t remember what happened. The cops are skeptical of her story. When Karen returns home, she realizes things have been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won’t stop asking questions. Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all. But one night, when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately lands on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of  deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

Frankie Elkin spends her life doing what no one else will—searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. In her new case, Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

Inspired by true events—Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”—American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.

When a young girl is found dead in a reservoir in a remote South Korean village, a security guard is convicted of murder and sent to prison. For seven years, his son, Sowon, lives in the shadow of his father’s crime. That is until he receives a package that promises to reveal the truth leaving Sowon to confront a present danger he never knew existed.

Detective Shana Merchant barely survived being abducted by a serial killer. Now, she receives a call about a man missing on a private island. There’s blood on the scene, and Shana is convinced there’s been a murder. Trapped on the island by a raging storm, Shana will have to trust the one person her abduction destroyed her faith in—herself. But time is ticking, because if Shana’s right, a killer is in their midst and as the pressure mounts, so do the odds that they’ll strike again.

A journalist uncovers the dark secrets of an abandoned boarding school for girls in this chilling suspense novel. When her obsession reveals a shocking discovery to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past—she sheds light on a voice that won’t be silenced…

Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in a terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an undocumented immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man. From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, “Which of these people should we save? …And who should we kill first?”

Years ago, Quincy Carpenter was the only survivor of a massacre. She became a member of a group known as the Final Girls; all lone survivors of horrific accidents. Now, she is attempting to put the nightmares behind her. That is until one of the other survivors is found dead. As details of her death come to light, Quincy’s life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and remember what really happened that night, before what was started years ago is finished.

A gripping thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court—where a young law clerk finds herself embroiled in a shocking mystery plotted by one of the most preeminent judges in America. While Justice Sleeps is a cunningly crafted, sophisticated novel, layered with myriad twists and a vibrant cast of characters.

She was one of the FBI’s top agents until she became the nation’s most-wanted fugitive. Now Jane Hawk may be all that stands between a free nation and its enslavement by a powerful secret society’s terrifying mind-control technology. She couldn’t save her husband, or the others whose lives have been destroyed, but equipped with superior tactical and survival skills—and the fury born of a broken heart and a hunger for justice—Jane has struck major blows against the insidious cabal.

A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver. Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival that takes us to places we’ve never dreamed of going.

At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.

A young Puritan woman plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive story. A twisting, tightly plotted novel of historical suspense from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying story of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.

When Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect “Marsh Girl” Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. She has survived for years alone. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens. Through Kya’s story, Owens reminds us that we are shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Phoebe Miller isn’t sure when the car started showing up in her cul-de-sac, or why its driver would be spying on her. What could be interesting about an unhappy housewife that barely leaves her house? When a new family moves in across the street, Phoebe finds her dull routine infused with the excitement she’s been missing. But with her head turned she’s no longer focused on the woman in the car. And she really should be…

True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe Goldberg cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him. This thriller is a compulsively readable trip into the deviant mind of the uniquely antisocial, Joe Goldberg.

Chengdu, China: The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when a shocking manifesto is released by an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides. It is a bold declaration of war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner. The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list. But Eumenides’s cunning game has only just begun.

Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When a girl goes missing in her hometown, Anna becomes obsessed with trying to save her. This propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives—and our faith in one another.

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. She is not the first woman lost to these dark waters, but her death disturbs the river, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely girl that now finds herself in the care of her mother’s sister, a stranger who has been dragged back to the place she ran from—and vowed never to return to. With the same acute understanding of human instincts that captivated readers in her debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Taut, symphonic, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning is an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies—and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artifacts, which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes–about himself, his faith, and the history of his world–will be tested to destruction.