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.

What’s Left of Me is Yours, a Romantic Suspense Novel by Stephanie Scott

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The Bottom Line: The best book yet about Japan’s relationship break-up industry. Japan’s “wakaresaseya” (literally “breaker-upper”) industry is hardly new, but few in the west are familiar with the service, which typically involves an agency hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. In Stephanie Scott’s immaculately research novel, unhappy husband Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya […]

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Devoted, a Brilliant New Novel by Dean Koontz

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. Following up on his brilliant Nameless story collection, Koontz once again proves that age continues to make his work even more spellbinding and potent. Devoted is a towering achievement that is both suspenseful and full-bodied in terms of character development. Of all the characters Koontz has created in his storied career, canine Kipp is top five. Woody

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Heirs Apparent, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. Fans of Matthew FitzSimmons will love Thorson’s meticulous, deliberate style. Heirs Apparent begins in Chicago as an assassin enters his target’s 18th-floor apartment, only to find that his intended victim has just been executed by someone else. A quick look around the apartment indicates that it was a professional hit by someone who knew the victim.

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The Secret Brokers, a High-Stakes Page Turner by Alexandrea Weis

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The Bottom Line: The Secret Brokers is a fresh, fast-paced espionage thriller with a generous dose of romantic suspense. Alexandrea Weis’ first Secret Brokers series novel proves that spies are a lot more fun when they don’t work for the government. Former FBI agent Dallas August runs a private firm that offers elite spies for hire. Unlike the FBI, they have no limits. Headquartered in

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The Glass Hotel, a Riveting Financial Thriller by Emily St. John Mandel

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The Bottom Line: A challenging, riveting and heavily textured psychological thriller. In a five-star hotel on Vancouver Island, Jonathan Alkaitis writes a terrifying messaging on the lobby’s glass wall: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” Jonathan is running an international Ponzi scheme. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. A female bartender named Vincent has been posing as Jonathan’s wife. Years later, a

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The Dead Girl’s Stilettos, a Stylish, Sexy and Smart Crime Thriller by Quinn Avery

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The Bottom Line: A stylish, sexy and smart crime thriller with an amateur sleuth that readers will fall in love with. Bexley Squires has made a name for herself as a top investigative journalist, but her critical success hasn’t yet translated into a cash windfall. Living in a Brooklyn loft, she finds herself brilliant and beautiful, but also broke. The pitiful state of her bank

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Camino Winds, a New Island Murder Mystery by John Grisham

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The Bottom Line: Only Grisham fans hoping for a new legal thriller will be disappointed. For everyone else, Camino Winds is paradise. In John Grisham’s latest, a hurricane devastates Camino Island. As hurricanes go, they don’t get much worse than this. Homes, hotels and stores are ruined. The tiny island suffers its fair share of death, too. Among the dead is Nelson Kerr, a thriller

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Blues of Autumn, a Hilarious Small Town Mystery by Richard Adamson

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The Bottom Line: Janet Evanovich fans should flock to this hilarious small town mystery. Set in the mountains of upstate New York, Blues of Autumn is the story of Police Chief Norris Tanager, who moved to tiny Glen Echo to avoid the headaches of big city crime fighting. When not moonlighting as a bar band bass player, he keeps busy curbing jay-walkers, graffiti taggers and

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The Newton Code, an Irresistible Religious Conspiracy Thriller by Liam Fialkov

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The Bottom Line: A must-read for fans of Dan Brown and Steve Berry. While Sir Isaac Newton’s scientific legacy is well-established, novelist Liam Fialkov uses Newton’s lesser known obsessions with Christianity and metaphysics as the core of a spellbinding religious conspiracy thriller. As The Newton Code opens, computers around the world are held captive. For 13 minutes, frustrated users are met with a cryptic message and an

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Payback, a Highly Entertaining Murder Mystery by Ronald S. Barak

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The Bottom Line: A deftly-plotted, highly entertaining island murder mystery that is sure to broaden author Ronald S. Barak’s burgeoning fan base. Eloise Brooks, the wife of retired Superior Court Judge Cyrus Brooks, surprises her husband with an island adventure to celebrate their 55th anniversary. Her intentions, however, are far from romantic. In Cyrus Brooks’ quest for justice, he often finds himself in life-threatening situations,

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