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.

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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Holler Whispers, an Emotionally-Charged Southern Legal Thriller

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The Bottom Line: An emotionally-charged Southern legal thriller where rumor runs wild and truth fights for air. As Holler Whispers opens, Carl Ledbetter, an autistic eighteen-year-old with a formal way of speaking and a mind calmed by Chicago Cubs statistics, is dreading another therapy session. Bright lights hurt, questions about feelings make little sense, and adults keep repeating his name as if that will make

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What Have You Done With My Son?: a Fully Believable Kidnapping Thriller

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The Bottom Line: Fully believable from its first shock to its final reckoning, Rosenberg has created the new standard for a modern kidnapping thriller. American couple Heather and John Ricci are in Hanoi with the baby they have fought years to bring home. After failed attempts at natural conception, multiple rounds of IVF, a miscarriage, and stalled adoption efforts in China and Nepal, the Chicago

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Red Mound, an Archeology Thriller With a Huge Payoff

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The Bottom Line: Red Mound digs up dread by inches, then delivers a shocking finale that readers won’t soon forget. B.D. Smith’s Red Mound opens with an archaeological mystery already sealed in dread. Centuries before the main action, a temple mound in the lower Mississippi Valley, in what is now eastern Arkansas, is ritually sealed, its central chamber protected by ceremony and clean white sand.

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