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.

The Woman in the Window, an Addictive Psychological Thriller by A.J. Finn

By

The Bottom Line: Rear Window meets Gone Girl. You’ll love it. The similarities between A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window and Hitchcock’s Rear Window are, shall we say, undeniable. But just because a novel is highly derivative of a master work doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In this case, it’s damn good, and in some ways, an elevation. Finn’s Anna Fox – a recluse […]

The Woman in the Window, an Addictive Psychological Thriller by A.J. Finn READ MORE >

The Immorality Clause, a First-Rate Sci-Fi Crime Thriller by Brian Parker

By

The Bottom Line: A first-rate crime thriller with plenty to say about the rise of artificial intelligence. Futurists predict that robots are coming for many of our jobs in the near future, but in Brian Parker’s New Orleans, that threat even extends to the sex trade. Easytown’s erotic robots are nearly always better than the real thing, but three neighborhood murders in three weeks have

The Immorality Clause, a First-Rate Sci-Fi Crime Thriller by Brian Parker READ MORE >

The Last Straw, a Hugely Satisfying Crime Novel by Ed Duncan

By

The Bottom Line: Another hugely satisfying dose of contemporary noir from budding auteur Ed Duncan. Among mobsters, nobody likes a rat, and teenage girl are no exception. So when sixteen-year-old Chicago native Sandra Yanders agrees to testify against a killer, her life is in immediate jeopardy. It doesn’t take long until an assassin finds her in his rifle scope. As fate would have it, he

The Last Straw, a Hugely Satisfying Crime Novel by Ed Duncan READ MORE >

Blood Fund, an Irresistable Financial Thriller by R.C. Westyn

By

The Bottom Line: The Wolf of Wall Street meets The Godfather. Gripping, salacious and irresistible. Aqua Capital may seem like just another Wall Street hedge fund, but the company at the core of R.C. Westyn’s new thriller is anything but ordinary. The men behind the fund represent a holy trinity of sleaze. Vincenzo Di Stefano, a small time Staten Island extortionist; Harold Grassler, a dirty

Blood Fund, an Irresistable Financial Thriller by R.C. Westyn READ MORE >

Give Place to Wrath, a Highly Recommended Crime Thriller by Steven C. Harms

By

The Bottom Line: A must-read crime thriller about revenge and race relations that is reminiscent of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. When a bomb kills golf pro Mary Hale and her caddie at the sixth hole Pine Creek Country Club, Milwaukee Detective Roger Viceroy, divisional head of the Midwest Region Special Crimes Unit, is tasked with finding the perpetrator. Was this an act of terror,

Give Place to Wrath, a Highly Recommended Crime Thriller by Steven C. Harms READ MORE >

The Night Trade, a new Livia Lone Thriller by Barry Eisler

By

The Bottom Line: Livia Lone proves why she’s Barry Eisler’s best protagonist yet. Like many longtime Barry Eisler fans, my entry point was A Clean Kill in Tokyo. To be honest, I never truly loved Eisler’s John Rain, whose dispassionate outlook on life added little narrative thrust. But Eisler’s insider knowledge of spycraft was blatantly obvious on every page, and together with his ingeniously drawn

The Night Trade, a new Livia Lone Thriller by Barry Eisler READ MORE >

In a Cottage In a Wood, a New Thriller by Cass Green

By

The Bottom Line: If you love big, never-saw-it-coming endings, this wintertime gem is for you. With the audiobook version weighing in at a brisk eight hours (compare that to The Goldfinch’s 32 hours), the payoff rests on a carefully-crafted crescendo, starting when a woman, Neve, meets troubled Isabelle on Waterloo Bridge late one night. Isabelle forces a parcel into Neve’s hands and jumps to her death

In a Cottage In a Wood, a New Thriller by Cass Green READ MORE >

One of Us, an Essential YA Whodunnit by Karen M. McManus

By

The Bottom Line: An essential whodunnit for both YA and adult crime fiction fans. Karen M. McManus’ teen murder mystery is the perfect antidote to Netflix’s Riverdale, the Twin Peaks-meets-Archies mashup that never really feels set in high school. By contrast, McManus artfully sets up a believable single-setting high school atmosphere that feels inspired by both Clue and the Breakfast Club. On Monday afternoon, five

One of Us, an Essential YA Whodunnit by Karen M. McManus READ MORE >

The Wife Between Us, a Crime Thriller by Greer Hendricks

By

The Bottom Line: Fans of Gone Girl will love Venessa Thompson, the book’s deliciously unreliable narrator. From the start, The Wife Between Us is a grand setup, a literary house of mirrors intended to invite expectations and then destroy them one by one. So yes, it’s contrived. But is it good? You betcha. This fast-paced story about a love triangle gone really wrong is driven

The Wife Between Us, a Crime Thriller by Greer Hendricks READ MORE >

Close to Home, an Addictive New Crime Thriller by Robert Dugoni

By

The Bottom Line: The latest Tracy Crosswhite novel proves the series can still deliver fireworks. Seattle, Washington. While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy, Robert Dugoni’s intrepid homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite makes a startling discovery: the suspect is an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base. After a key piece of case evidence goes missing, he is cleared of charges in a military

Close to Home, an Addictive New Crime Thriller by Robert Dugoni READ MORE >

Scroll to Top