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.

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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Arctic Fire, a Bruising Neo-Western Crime Thriller by Brian L. Reece

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The Bottom Line: A bruising neo-western crime thriller where greed, murder and frontier justice collide in rural Alaska. Perfect for fans of Taylor Sheridan and C.J. Box. Arctic Fire opens with Major Zoe Nichols standing between armed United States Marines and Afghan villagers after a weapons-cache discovery turns into a standoff. Ordered from afar to seize the weapons, Zoe instead removes her helmet and body

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GLORIA, a Tender and Terrifying Psychological Thriller by Howard Seaborne

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The Bottom Line: Small town noir that is as tender as it is terrifying, GLORIA mesmerizes while asking whether the greatest mysteries live not in the world, but in our minds. GLORIA begins in small-town Wisconsin as Henry Halder, a boy on the cusp of adolescence, loses both legs in a tragic accident. What exactly happened is elusive. While in and out of consciousness across many surgeries, he’s told

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Deranged, a Propulsive Detective Origin Story by John Netti

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The Bottom Line: A dark, propulsive origin story that pits a newly minted detective against the kind of evil that doesn’t stay buried. Maddy Reynolds is a heroine built to last. Set primarily in late-1970s upstate New York, Deranged introduces newly promoted detective Maddy Reynolds. Following in her father’s footsteps, who was fatally stabbed by an uncaught serial killer, Maddy investigates the disappearance of an

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All Guilty Anyway, a Highly Recommended New Legal Thriller by Russell W. Johnson

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The Bottom Line: Sharp, unsettling and deeply human, All Guilty Anyway introduces a series-worthy defense attorney as it exposes the human cost of institutional injustice. All Guilty Anyway opens as North Carolina attorney Ivy Collins arrives at the Wake County courthouse to defend a client accused of child abuse. Early in her career, and the daughter of a powerful litigator, Ivy finds herself up against a criminal justice system that appears

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Birds of Prey Don’t Sing, a Bold Assassination Thriller by Joe Cary

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The Bottom Line: A bold assassination thriller about a perfect kill that refuses to stay buried. Highly recommended. Birds of Prey Don’t Sing opens on the African savanna in 1988 with sixteen-year-old Michael Harrier lying prone on a ridge. As poachers rake an elephant with automatic fire, Michael calmly picks them off with a sniper’s rifle. Just as he muses about the seduction of self-righteousness, he swears the poachers’

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Redivivus, a Five-Star Abduction Thriller by J. Denison Reed

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The Bottom Line: A powerful abduction thriller where escalating danger and rare emotional depth create a dark page-turner that shouldn’t be missed.  Redivivus opens with an uneasy act of trust – Grace Pollard allows her ex-husband Raymond to take their daughter Hadley on an unsupervised trip to a Colorado lodge, only for their check-in to fail, Hadley’s phone location to stall just short of the destination, and

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Sayonara, My Sweet, a Sophisticated Crime Thriller by Lea O’Harra

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The Bottom Line:  A gritty, compact and emotionally sophisticated crime thriller that should win over plenty of Michael Pronko fans. Sayonara, My Sweet opens with a Nippon Daily evening-edition newspaper report announcing the mysterious death of twenty-three-year-old Kaori Hirakata in Murota after she collapses from poisoned chocolates. Set in a quiet town where violent crime is rare, author Lea O’ Harra’s framing is immediately effective.  The

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