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.

Psychopathic, a Highly Recommended Psychological Thriller

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The Bottom Line: Melby reinvigorates the psychological thriller with a peerless heroine, masterclass pacing and a judicious sense of foreboding throughout.  Psychiatrist Faith Galloway is the epitome of resilience. The blind physician, accompanied by a German Shepherd named Zeus, seems to have a heightened sense of awareness, moving easily through city streets and train stations. She enjoys a strong professional reputation for treating especially troubled patients, […]

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Black Yéʼii, a Must-Read Small Town Crime Thriller by Joseph Lewis

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The Bottom Line: A must-read small town crime thriller that will please new and old fans. Black Yéʼii opens in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as Carmen Benevides finds three terrifying strangers on her doorstep. The trio is searching for her teenage son, Angel, and they won’t take no for an answer. Minutes later, Angel receives a text message from his mother’s phone: I need you to come home right away. It’s

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The Girl Goes Home, an Edge-of-Your-Seat Murder Mystery by Dorian Box

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The Bottom Line: The Girl Goes Home delivers an edge-of-your-seat murder mystery years in the making, along with explosive courtroom drama and a compelling emotional arc for the series’ favorite duo. For fans who have followed Emily Calby’s plight after the brutal murder of her mother and sister in the series’ first installment, the book’s opening feels like a triumph in itself. This, the fourth book in Dorian Box’s Emily Calby series, finds our heroine

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Manic Edge, a Riveting Mafia Thriller by C.J. Simone

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The Bottom Line: Music stardom meets mafia meddling in this riveting continuation of the Children of the Mob series.  The second installment in C.J. Simone’s Children of the Mob series continues the story of Gabe Giordano, Savannah Fletcher and their up-and-coming band, Shine. In Manic Mission, Gabe, an Italian-American heartthrob, was determined to break from his abusive environment and make a living in the music business. As Manic Edge opens, Shine has a song climbing

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Double Threat by Patrick Weil

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The Bottom Line: Best Action Thriller in the 2024 BestThrillers.com Book Awards. How do you make a contemporary police procedural truly fresh? One way is to render your police detectives harbor police, so the jurisdiction, and all the ensuing action, spans both surf and turf. And for good measure, start your book with a gripping chapter told from the POV of a dog. The third book in Patrick Weill’s

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Come And Get Me by Marisa Rae Dondlinger

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The Bottom Line: Winner, Best Psychological Thriller, 2024 BestThrillers.com Book Awards Successfully telling a story from three or more points of view requires an exceptionally deep understanding of each character’s unique fears, desires and triggers. Marisa Rae Dondlinger’s winning novel does that and more, delivering a rare multi-dimensional narrative that feels intimate and unique at every turn. When Vanessa kidnaps her ex-lover’s newborn baby, some

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Spy Thriller of the Year: The Spy Who Hated Me by Haris Orkin

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The Bottom Line: Voted the year’s best spy thriller in the 2024 BestThrillers.com Book Awards. Since the debut of the wildly funny You Only Live Once, the first book in Haris Orkin’s James Bond satire series, Orkin has been far more prolific than the material that originally inspired him. The latest installment in Orkin’s James Flynn Escapade series, The Spy Who Hated Me, is Orkin’s fifth since the

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NIGHTMARE BEFORE MARDI GRAS, an Unflinching Police Thriller by Robert Sterling Hecker

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The Bottom Line: A fast-paced, unflinching police procedural about a detective’s personal mission to solve a heinous child sex crime. In Robert Sterling Hecker’s debut novel, The Accidental Vigilante, detective Jeremy Porter quickly transformed from a rookie in New Orlean’s Child Abuse Section into an unstoppable force for justice. Hecker’s second novel featuring Porter, who is now the squad supervisor for the New Orleans Police Department’s Child

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The Year’s Best Mystery, a Chain of Pearls by Raemi A. Ray

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The year’s best mystery combines incredible atmosphere, a world-weary detective, a powerful politican and an amateur sleuth that everyone can easily relate to. When the body of a celebrated journalist is fished from the Edgartown Harbor, the official report rules his death accidental. But why was he alone on a senator’s yacht during a nor’easter? That’s only the first question London-based lawyer Kyra Gibson has

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Last Call, a Brilliantly Told Crime Thriller by Travis Tougaw

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The Bottom Line: Brilliantly told, this nail-biter about the effort to free a convicted killer will make you question everything you know about our legal system. Highly recommended.  Last Call opens in a hole-in-the-wall bar in Denver, Colorado. It’s 2004, and bartender Paul Humphries is worried about a boisterous troublemaker sitting at a corner table named Dennis. After Dennis starts aggressively hitting on three much younger women,

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