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 are the best crime thriller books of all time? To answer that question and compile our list of recommendations, we must start at the beginning. The father of the modern crime thriller, Edgar Allan Poe, authored the short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841. In the story, Poe introduced many elements that would become hallmarks of crime fiction, like the brilliant […]
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The Bottom Line: Debut adult novelist Colin Krainin elevates contemporary noir with this gritty, hard-hitting thriller that will have readers anxiously awaiting a sequel. Highly recommended. Washington D.C. private detective Bronze Goldberg specializes in infidelity cases. Just after capturing photographic evidence on a suspected philanderer named Carolyn, Bronze finds that a man she had sex with – a congressman named Billy Kopes – has washed
Blood and Mascara, Hard-Hitting Contemporary Noir by Colin Krainin READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Impossible to put down, Brenham’s latest thriller piles layer-upon-layer of red herrings before revealing a shocker that few will see coming. Book 3 in Alan Brenham’s Claire Deveraux series begins in France, as the title character receives a potentially life-changing text: “You and your sister are two of a set of quadruplets.” The anonymous sender, AMZ, sends the same text to her identical twin sister,
Breaking Silence, an Electrifying New Crime Thriller by Alan Brenham READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A sophisticated, entertaining murder mystery that successfully fuses bitter academic infighting with an exploration of past life regression. An impressive debut for Ellenmorris Tiegerman. Caitlyn Morrys is a Freudian psychologist struggling to reconcile her training with flashbacks from past lives: witch burnings in papal Europe, Nazi death camps, and nightmarish wars and struggles from the distant past in the U.S., Israel and southeast
Past Lives Denied, a Sophisticated Murder Mystery by Ellenmorris Tiegerman READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A winning blend of mystery and magical realism. One of the most original PI novels in recent memory. Set in Tucson, Jackrabbit and the Beast opens as private investigator Jernimo Velasquez is marking the one-month anniversary of the funeral of his girlfriend, Laura. Vel, as friends call him, is working through his grief by making out with Laura’s girlfriend’s best friend, Shoua. Vel and Shoua both
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The Bottom Line: Parker delivers an extraordinary debut historical thriller that will stay with readers long after the final page. Set in the rural village of Lower Lynch in the early 1700s, eighteen-year-old Lacey Emerson lives with older sister, Bella, and her father, a baker who suffers from crippling arthritis. The three have been on their own in the years since Lacey’s mother was executed
Deception Bay, an Extraordinary Historical Thriller by N.N. Parker READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A groundbreaking fusion of LA Noir, satire and time travel that will enthrall readers from start to finish. The Sellout opens as penniless creative writing teacher Joe McElwee realizes every writers’ dream: to make the New York Times bestseller list. Joe’s blockbuster thriller is already making money, and his publisher assures him that this is just the beginning. He allows himself to dream of a better
The Sellout, a Groundbreaking LA Noir Novel by Andrew Diamond READ MORE >
The Bottom line: Everyone is a suspect in this perfectly paced, hard-hitting whodunnit. When we first met private detective Freddy Ferguson in BestThrillers.com Book of the Year pick Gate 76, Freddy was 34-years-old and still largely defined by his former career as a prize fighter. Now pushing 40, the veteran PI is wiser and more perceptive, but still just as tough. In 32 Minutes, Freddy is hired to
32 Minutes, a Perfectly Paced Whodunnit by Andrew Diamond READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A pacey and hilarious crime caper that will thrill fans of David Wong and Janet Evanovich. Hollywood movie star Goldie Saint Helen isn’t herself after an accident on the Pacific Coast Highway. Unable to remember her real identity, she believes she’s living in the 1960s as a hippie detective who must save a teenage girl from a wild CIA drug experiment (it’s
Far Out, a Hilarious Crime Caper by Khaled Talib READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: Winner, Best Mystery, The BestThrillers.com Book Awards. Highly recommended.. There’s no way to properly describe Death by Saxophone without first defining the object of its characters’ obsession: black market recordings called “bone records.” Also called “ribs,” bone records are bootlegged gramophone recordings first made from X-ray films as a way to smuggle banned music in and out of the Soviet Union. When smooth jazz
Death by Saxophone, The Year’s Best Mystery READ MORE >
