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.
The Bottom Line: A funny, vibrant, high-tech detective novel. One of the year’s best thrillers. Set nearly a decade in the future, Bionic Bug begins as struggling private investigator Lara Kingsley and her partner and best friend, Sully, are hanging out at their favorite local haunt. Lara notices something odd about his appearance, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. Days later, the pair […]
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The Bottom Line: A believable thriller about the lengths to which parents will go to protect their children. You’d never know by looking at her, but drug addict Paige Green is the daughter of a Wall Street financial adviser and a pediatrician. When her father, Simon, spots her playing guitar and panhandling in Central Park, he tries to help. But all hell breaks loose as
Run Away, One of Harlan Coben’s Best Crime Thrillers READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Big Little Lies meets The Big Chill. A thoroughly engaging whodunnit. Ah, reunions. They are always filled with both anticipation and dread. But in Claire McGowan’s new novel, the 20th anniversary get together of six college friends is also a deadly one. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted: a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with
What You Did, an Engaging Psychological Thriller by Claire McGowan READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Elloy’s most challenging work yet, This Storm is strictly for fans of LA Noir and James Ellroy completionists. With This Storm, the author of classics like LA Confidential and Black Dahlia has entered yet another novel in the canon of crime thrillers set in the city of angels. As torrential rain hits LA in 1942, a body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops
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The Bottom Line: Solving Cadence Moore is the quintessential mystery for the podcast era. Highly recommended. In the age of hit true crime podcasts like Serial, Criminal and My Favorite Murder, debut novelist Gregory Sterner has delivered the first work of fiction to effectively capture the contemporary media zeitgeist. Prepare to be hooked on page one, and stay tuned for the jaw-dropping final chapter. Radio
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The Bottom Line: A wonderfully claustrophobic murder mystery with a razor-sharp amateur sleuth. As long as there have been artists, there have been long-suffering personal assistants. But author Laura Stewart Schmidt, author of the deftly-written Until Proven Innocent, manages to deliver plenty of surprises in Don’t Fear, My Darling. In 1987, twenty-two-year-old Louisa Berry is desperate for a job, leading her to apply for a
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The Bottom Line: A masterfully crafted murder mystery that spins a small town’s dark secrets about family, faith and racial tensions into pure gold. Within a week of returning to her hometown to care for her father, struggling actress Brooklyn Anderson finds herself at the epicenter of two brutal crimes. Just hours before her arrival, an unknown assailant shoots A-list actor and Eden native Darius
Desperate Paths, a First-Rate Crime Thriller by E.C. Diskin READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: First-time novelist Jennifer Graeser Dornbush is one of the most exciting new voices in the crime thriller genre. Emily Hartford wasn’t exactly your typical small-town teenager. In high school, she not only hung out with her Dad a lot, but she did so in the morgue, where he worked as a medical examiner. The experience was the genesis of her surgical career,
The Coroner, a Near-Perfect Beach Read by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A lush gaslamp thriller that seems destined for a second life on television. Blackwell is the story of a rivalry that descends into a battle for the ages. In 1886, wealthy Harvard student Magnus Blackwell befriends fellow freshman Jacob O’ Connor. Unlike Magnus, whose family is as close to royalty as they came in New England, Jacob hails from working class stock.
Blackwell, a Wondrous Gaslamp Thriller by Alexandrea Weis with Lucas Astor READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: An ebullient historical thriller that solves one of World War II’s most perplexing mysteries in highly entertaining fashion. Perfect for readers waiting for the next Indiana Jones novel. In Robert Walton’s third Harry Thursday series novel, the intrepid archeologist attempts to right a wrong perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II: the theft of the legendary Russian Amber Room and a
Wish to Die, a Superb Historical Thriller by Robert Walton READ MORE >
