The Penguin Hotline Recommends: Gifts for the Mystery and Thriller Enthusiast

Lee Child and his creation Jack Reacher continue to lead the pack when it comes to thrillers. He delivers amazing stories year after year and this year’s series entry, Blue Moon, is no exception. Reacher stops to help a stranger and ends up neck deep in trouble. It’s a classic Reacher premise and just as classic are the bad guys who wish they’d never met the big dude.

One of the best debuts of 2018 was The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger, but this year’s book may be even better. In Girls Like Us, FBI agent Nell Flynn looks into a pair of murders. Solving crimes is her bread and butter but this investigation is drawing her inevitably to one unexpected suspect, her father.

If you’ve watched the terrific Jack Ryan show on Amazon TV, you might want to catch up on the original character. While sadly we lost the Tom Clancy in 2013, Marc Cameron has done a phenomenal job of keeping the series going. Unlike the TV Ryan, the book character is President of the United States and in Tom Clancy Code of Honor, the power of the office thwarts his from helping an old friend in need.

Ace Atkins continues to rock the thriller genre with tales of corrupt Tibbehah County, Mississippi and Sheriff Quinn Colson, ex-Army Ranger and one man justice brigade. In The Shameless, Colson is asked to look into a cold case, a twenty-year old suicide that seemed open and shut at the time. Would you be surprised to hear that there’s more to it than that?

No one does historical thrillers better than Robert Harris. His new one, The Second Sleep, takes us to 15th Century Britain. A young priest arrives in a remote village to say the funeral mass for his predecessor but what he finds there will challenge everything he knows. If you haven’t read Harris before, get started!

If you know a reader who likes military fiction, you need to pick up Red Metal. Mark Greaney and LtCol Rip Rawlings, USMC, collaborated on this amazing thriller that reads like the best of Tom Clancy. Russian troops invade Eastern Europe and all that stands against them is an undermanned collection of American and NATO troops. It’s an electric thriller that moves like a freight train headed downhill.

I love New Orleans and Laura Childs captures the essence of the Big Easy in her New Orleans Scrapbooking mystery series. In Mumbo Gumbo Murder she and her co-writer Terrie Farley Moran tell a tale of murder that starts at Jazz Fest and makes you crave gumbo for dinner.

A lot of characters are compared to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, but Nick Petrie’s protagonist Peter Ash is the real deal. You don’t have to believe me. That was an actual quote from Lee Child and I agree wholeheartedly. If you’re buying for a reader who likes the Reacher series, you should pick up the most recent Ash book, Tear It Down. You’ll learn as much about building a house as you will about demolishing the bad guys.

Lisa Scottoline has been writing captivating thrillers for years, but Someone Knows is exceptional even by her standards. A crime two decades in the past will lead to deadly repercussions in the present. It’s a deeply emotional examination of family, marriage, and the true nature of justice. If you haven’t read her before, this is a great place to start.

Elvis Cole and Joe Pike may be the best team in thrillers today. Elvis brings the witty banter. Joe brings the tough action, and they both bring the brains. A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais starts with an ordinary trip to the bank for Joe, but nothing in his life is ever ordinary. Once the action kicks off you won’t stop reading until you run out of pages.

You know C.J. Tudor’s The Chalk Man is going to be creepy as soon as you hear that title. You know it’s good when you hear that it was named the best first novel of the year by the International Thriller Writers. If you’re looking for an intriguing suspense story that will keep you up at night with all the lights on, this is it.

When it comes to sophisticated thrillers you can’t do better than Chris Pavone. If travelling to Paris to sip a café au lait along the Champs-Elysees isn’t on your budget, read The Paris Diversion and you’ll feel like you’re there. Oh, you’ll also have to worry about thwarting a deadly terrorist attack, but that’s what makes it thrilling.

Do you love books? Of course you do, why else would you be here? Then what’s better than a mystery set in a town full of books? The fictional town of Stoneham, NH has revitalized it’s sagging fortunes thanks to an influx of used bookstores. Tricia Miles, the owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, solves crimes in this New York Times bestselling series from Lorna Barrett. A Killer Edition is the most recent entry in the series.

C. J. Box is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, but I still think more people need to discover this amazing writer. His Joe Pickett series the best outdoor thriller series on the shelves. Reading one book will make you feel like you spent a week in the high country. This year’s novel is Wolf Pack. Don’t wait, buy it now!

How could you resist a book called Love and Death Among the Cheetahs especially when you hear it’s part of Rhys Bowen’s charming Royal Spyness series? Lady Georgie, thirty-fourth in line to the British throne, is newly married and on her honeymoon in Kenya when a murder sends her on the trail of a killer. What’s not to love about that?

My family came to New York in the 1890’s. I grew up hearing stories about the great city at the turn of the century from my grandmother, but as good as grandma was at story-telling, Victoria Thompson is better. Her Gaslight series follows a midwife through the dark alleys and Gilded Age parlors at turn of the 20th century. Crime is a given but plucky Sarah Brandt is more than up to the challenge. The most recent book is Murder on Trinity Place.

If you’re looking to discover a brand new talent, take a look at My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. It’s the insanely fun story of a couple who fight the boredom of a long time marriage by taking up a mutual hobby…murder.

If you’re buying for someone who like Lisa Gardner or Tami Hoag, you should check out Karen Rose. She is the master of romantic suspense, and this year’s book, Say You’re Sorry really delivers. Daisy Dawson escaped from the clutches of a serial killer, but the murderer is still determined to get her.