Mystery Book Reviews

The best mystery book reviews. Mysteries are typically crime stories in which readers follows a detective or amateur sleuth attempting to solve a criminal puzzle. Compared with “crime thrillers,” mysteries often feature less graphic violence and shocking subject matter.

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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Avalon Moon, a Compelling New Murder Mystery by Michael Amos Cody

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The Bottom Line: With wolves across the river and murder in the high meadow, Avalon Moon knows exactly how to raise the hair on your neck. Move it to the top of your book queue. Gabriel Tanner, editor of a weekly newspaper in the North Carolina mountain town of Runion, expects little excitement from an early March county meeting. Instead, local Spellman Anderson IV explains his controversial plan

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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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The Lightning People Play, a Big-Hearted YA Novel by Tim Cummings

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The Bottom Line: A big-hearted YA novel that transforms fear and family fracture into something thrilling, strange and beautiful.  Kirby Daniel Renton’s family has been destabilized by the departure of one of his fathers, who he calls Pop. Kirby is convinced that his younger brother Baxter’s seizures are the result of Pop’s disappearance, reading the illness through the raw logic of grief rather than medicine. Curiously, during his seizures, Baxter claims to see mysterious

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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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Final Transaction, a Fast-Moving Murder Mystery by Diane Dickinson

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The Bottom Line: A sultry, fast-moving murder mystery where sex, power and real estate lead to a jaw-dropping finale.  As Final Transaction opens, thirty-something Houston realtor Lara Maxwell co-hosts an open house with her broker, Todd Drake, whose charm and vanity fill every room he enters. But after leaving when the open house is over to retrieve directional signs, she returns, calls Todd’s name, and finds him in

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11-22-63 by stephen king book cover

The Best Stephen King Audiobooks Ranked In Order (Updated for 2026!)

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Newly updated to include King’s newest story collection, Never Flinch! The reigning master of suspense is the author of more than 60 books and audiobooks, all of which have been international bestsellers, and many have been translated to the screen. The names are instantly recognizable:  It. Pet Cemetery. Misery. Thinner. All instant classics, and yet King’s craft seems to sweeten with age, with King still churning

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Prior Futures, a Hardboiled Sci-Fi Thriller by Dan Kopcow

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The Bottom Line: A hardboiled sci-fi thriller set in a world where evolution is for sale. As Prior Futures opens, Jeremiah Prior stands knee-deep in the turquoise waters of Antigua, staring at the wreckage of his stilted hut after another violent storm. The former New York detective is now an Authentician, a specialist in verifying rare artifacts. Prior has fled a world divided between the

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Bloody Deeds novel

Bloody Deeds, a Tense and Twisty Murder Mystery by Stephen Kronwith, M.D.

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The Bottom Line: A tense, twisty murder mystery built on false evidence, fierce loyalties and a heroine worth following anywhere. As Bloody Deeds opens, Nassau County homicide detective sergeant Jane Rieger-Franklin is at home with her wife, Anna, talking about artificial insemination and the future shape of their family. Then the phone rings, and the novel swerves hard into crisis. CPA Jeremy Summers, husband of Detective Vivian Summers,

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