Crime Thriller Books

The best crime thriller book reviews. “Crime thriller” is a catch-all term for thriller subgenres that feature a struggle for dominance between criminals and law enforcement, such as mafia thriller, police procedural, detective fiction, true crime, serial killer fiction and others.

Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, a Breathtaking Financial Thriller

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The Bottom Line: A breathtaking financial thriller about globalization’s winners, losers and casualties, bound together by money and fate. Merry-Go-Round Broke Down may be the smartest novel you read all year. Merry-Go-Round Broke Down opens in the fall of 2008 at the Waldorf Astoria New York, where two armed men storm the hotel’s famed bar and take its occupants hostage. Among those trapped are an […]

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Rico Stays, a Masterclass in Antihero Crime Fiction by Ed Duncan

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The Bottom Line: A riveting, unsentimental crime thriller about the kind of man decent people should avoid, right up until they need him. A masterclass in antihero crime fiction. Rico Stays opens with the kind of ordinary Chicago afternoon that is too calm to last. Rico, a seasoned enforcer with a long criminal history, is watching baseball when his girlfriend, Jean, asks him to pick

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Under Cover of Chaos, a High-Stakes International Crime Thriller

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The Bottom Line: Under Cover of Chaos turns a UN field mission into a vivid, high-stakes hunt for a serial killer in a setting readers won’t soon forget. As 32-year-old United Nations employee Stella Fairmont arrives in the Central African Republic for her first field mission, she encounters a corpse on the road from the airport. She soon learns that the victim is connected to

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A Tempest Dropping Fire, an Urban Police Thriller by Edward J. Leahy

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The Bottom Line: NYPD detectives are the target of a terrifying killer in this taut urban cop thriller. Kim Brady’s refusal to accept the easy answer makes for a thoroughly entertaining police procedural with some satisfying surprises. As Edward J. Leahy’s fifth Kim Brady series book opens, the NYPD homicide detective is finishing her first half-marathon in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Just as she begins to

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Rough, Rough Country, a Neo-Western Thriller by Josh Jensen

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The Bottom Line: A neo-Western thriller as rugged as its terrain and as haunted as the men who cross it. Highly recommended for fans of Craig Johnson and Cormac McCarthy.  As Rough, Rough Country opens, a cartel-hired assassin known as The Texan is watching his mark in Las Vegas. The killing that follows is cold, controlled, and staged to mislead. Cut to Payson, Utah, where

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A Conspiracy of Data: Fail Safe – Not Safe, by S.A. Lonky

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The Bottom Line: A winning medical conspiracy thriller for the AI age, complete with murder, medical realism and the possibility that a fail-safe is anything but safe. Los Angeles critical care physician Dr. Alexander Korman is semi-famous, sardonic, self-protective and generally candid about the compromises in his life. Alex still practices medicine, but his reputation now rests as much on books, podcasts and media commentary

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Silver or Lead, a Darkly Comic Crime Thriller by James Cox

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The Bottom Line: A darkly comic blast of crime fiction where every old wound has a motive and every revelation feels fresh. Lucy Foley fans will adore Silver or Lead.  As Silver or Lead opens, struggling actor Ben Rooker is sitting with his best friend, Teddy Dabrowski, at their regular Pasadena bookstore café. As tension builds between Teddy and a woman seated nearby, the café

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The Boy on the Deck, a Deliciously Eerie Domestic Thriller by A.J. McCarthy

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The Bottom Line: Deliciously eerie, The Boy on the Dock is about the danger only one woman can see, and the doubt that may destroy her. Highly recommended.  As The Boy on the Dock opens, bereaved mother Julie Hampton is alone at a rented lake cottage on Vancouver Island, trying to keep herself sane through a morning routine that consists of coffee, work and kayaking.

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Swamp Justice, a Stellar Swamp-Country Legal Thriller by Neil Turner

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The Bottom Line: A stellar swamp-country legal thriller that turns one man’s murder into a reckoning with generations of injustice As Swamp Justice opens, Chicago-area attorney Tony Valenti is shocked by the news that the father of one of his investigators has been killed in what local authorities are calling a hit-and-run. But as Valenti gradually learns, the official story is almost too tidy to

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Red Sky, a Must-Read Medical Thriller by A.B. Acharya

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The Bottom Line: A must-read medical thriller about the thin line between innovation and exploitation. Perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and Michael Crichton. Red Sky opens with pharmacology researcher Narin Roy writing a confession in a St. Louis police interrogation room. Author A.B. Acharya withholds the precise nature of the crime, but, tantalizingly, casts him as an unreliable narrator by revealing that the confession

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