There is nothing like the feeling of a propulsive thriller that keeps you up way past your bedtime just compelling you to read even though you know your kid is still going to wake you up early the next morning.
Or the feeling of a carefully crafted mystery unraveling before your eyes or that of your heart pounding in suspense as danger lurks page by page. Or that sharp gasp you let out when the twist comes or you figure out whodunit.
Ah, gosh I just love this genre!
I read from most genres and none can make me stay up far too late reading into the wee hours of the night like a good thriller, mystery or suspense book. There are always SO MANY new thriller books that make it on my list of most anticipated new books list every year.
So let’s talk about the new thriller books coming out in 2024 that have me excited, shall we? Whether you like psychological thrillers or domestic thrillers or even books that border more on mystery or suspense — there is something for all lovers of a good thrill.
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Recent & Upcoming New Thrillers To Read
These are the upcoming and new thriller books coming out in January through March.
January 2024 Book Releases
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Out January 2, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense/thrillers, cat & mouse game, high stakes deception
Ooh I already read this one and it is a must-read new thriller for 2024! I read a YA mystery thriller by this author a long time ago that was good but her adult thriller debut? 5 stars. Easily. Perfectly plotted and hard to put down — even when I did guess things correctly it was still so satisfying.
A con artist for hire, who has assumed many new personas over the year, has been give her new mark by her mysterious boss and has fallen into her new persona as Evie Porter with ease!
That is until she starts feeling a little too at-home with her latest mark and someone claiming her actual identity comes strolling into town threatening to ruin the job and the potential future of returning to her real identity one day.
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Anna O by Matthew Blake
Out January 2, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense thriller, medical phenomenon stories, unique crimes
“Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive—and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.”
Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O” case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect—he’s got career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own.
As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and whether Anna should be held responsible for her crimes. Only Anna knows the truth about that night, but only Benedict knows how to discover it. And they’re both in danger from what they find out.”
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Out January 9, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense with Gothic vibes, family drama & mysterious family secrets, rich people behaving badly
My favorite Rachel Hawkins yet!! Super atmospheric, loved the different POVs and was equally eager to unravel their side of the mystery. I honestly think this has been her best as someone who has loved some of her mystery thrillers and not loved others.
Cam’s adopted mother was the infamous Ruby McTavish — a famous heiress who was kidnapped as a child and whose been mysteriously widowed four times. When she died, he rejected what she gave him: the huge fortune to inherit, the estate, the rest of the McTavishes who hate him especially for inheriting everything.
Ten years later, now a teacher and married to Jules (a woman with her own secrets), he’s forced to return back to the estate and confront Ruby’s legacy, the family & their secrets, and the depths of what he has inherited. He hopes to deal with the business that brings him there but he’ll soon remember that this house and its secrets have a way of reeling you back in.
Northwoods by Amy Pease
Out January 9, 2024
For fans of: character driven mysteries, small town-set mysteries, police procedurals, books centering around the opioid crisis
I have to say, initially when I read the synopsis for this one on Goodreads I was ready to make a quick pass on it as not for me, but I read some reviews that made me want to give it a try. Looks a bit Eli Cranor meets some William Kent Krueger meets Long Bright River, maybe? We shall see.
Eli North, a deputy and veteran struggling with PTSD and self-medicating with alcohol working, stumbles across the body of a teen in the water. His mother, the town sheriff who gave Eli his job, puts him on the case which also coincides with a missing teen girl. As he tries to discover the truth — and redeem himself — he untangles a web of small town secrets and the darkness of the opioid crisis.
The Search Party by Hannah Richell
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: locked room-esque mysteries & thrillers, reunions gone wrong, messy friend groups
This was actually my first audiobook of 2024 and I kept just inventing extra chores to do in the house just to keep listening to find out what happened on this glamping trip gone wrong and get into the drama of this friend group. The dynamics of the group and the careful story-telling just made it hard to put down.
It was one of those experiences where I pegged whodunnit and why REALLY early on and it was super satisfying to watch it unravel. Not one of those – “oh that was so predictable and not worth it” experiences.
A friend group reunites to do a dry run opening for one of the couple’s new glamping business that they left London to start. What was supposed to be a great weekend for the friend group turns sour with a big storm stranding them and messy dynamics and secrets bubbling to the surface — all culminating in a shocking disappearance that shakes the group.
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: historical mysteries, high seas adventures and whodunnits, Victorian settings
Maude doesn’t buy what they are telling her when she’s told that her sister — who disguised herself as a boy to join an Arctic expedition — has died. It’s all very vague and she’s feeling deceived — not to mention when she finally is given her sister’s journal that it gives her even great reasons to think maybe it wasn’t an accident.
So she sets off on her own expedition — for answers and justice- that will get her closer to a scientist named in the journal and who she suspects might have had a hand in it. Even if it means going on one of his new and very macabre business ventures.
Where You End by Abbott Kahler
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers, creepy twin stories, cult elements
Apparently this one is inspired by true events and I saw the author said that someone called the book “Yellowjackets meets Emma Cline’s The Girls“.
After a traumatic car accident, 22 year old Kat Bird’s memory is gone — she has no memories other than her identical twin’s face and name. Jude becomes her guide to all their memories, history and identity and she leans on (and fully trusts) Jude to provide all the answers she needs about their shared past.
But, as months go by, Kat begins to discover maybe her sister has been lying to her and keeping some darker things about their past (and present) a secret.
Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense, campus thriller/dark academia books, books that dive into the darker sides of female friendship
I really loved All the Dangerous Things and A Flicker in the Dark by this author — highly recommend — so I’m excited to see what she has up next for us. This one feels less thriller than those and a little more character-driven and slow-burn so we shall see what she has up her sleeve!
A shy college student, still grieving the traumatic death of her childhood best friend right before high school graduation, finds herself drawn into a friend group by their magnetic ringleader Lucy when she becomes their fourth roommate off campus.
As the year goes on and Lucy’s social life is reigniting, things turn dark when a fraternity member is brutally murdered and Lucy is missing.
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: locked room–esque murder mystery thrillers (but on a private Greek island), unreliable narrators, unique storytelling (told like a 5 act Greek tragedy), Knives Out
A yearly trip, taken by a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends with plenty of baggage and personal history, is upended in murder. And one of the seven people stranded on this Greek island is a murderer.
Agatha Christie meets Greek Tragedy!
The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense thriller, female revenge novels
“Tate Kinsella is a single, out-of-work actor working as a temp at a London bank when the police arrest her for murder.
A woman has fallen to her death from the bank’s twenty-fifth floor roof terrace.
Tate confesses to having been alone with the victim moments before she died, but insists she had nothing to do with the tragedy, telling her lawyer she’s been framed.
The lawyer agrees to help Tate prove her innocence. But it soon becomes clear Tate knows a lot more than she is letting on.
Whose secrets is Tate keeping? And why?
As the mystery unfolds, it becomes clear that the key to the truth lies in the past, and that nothing about the woman on the ledge is as straightforward as it first appears”
The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh
Out January 16, 2024
For fans of: claustrophobic locked room murder mysteries and family drama
A multi-generational Indian American family is trapped in a house during Hurricane Harvey — the storm rages on just as much as the tension inside the house. When things intensify outside and someone is found dead, nobody feels safe. Was it an accident or is someone in the house a murderer?
The Clinic by Cate Quinn
Out January 23, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers, atmospheric and unsettling thrillers, locked room-esque vibes, books dealing with addiction
When a young woman hears that her famous sister died by suicide in rehab, she refuses to accept that is how her sister died. She, an addict herself, decides to check herself into the rehab center to find out what really happened to her sister — an investigation that will uncover there is a whole lot going on at The Clinic.
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Out January 23, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers, domestic/community thrillers, complicated family relationship stories
A woman is forced to move back into her childhood home — the place where her parents were murdered 14 years ago and she was a prime suspect — that she still owns with her estranged sisters.
She’s held on to what she saw that night that her parents died — the case never solved — and coming back to the house threatens to reveal what really happened that night as the sisters reunite and old memories are faced.
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Who To Believe by Edwin Hill
Out January 23, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense/thrillers, neighborhood suspense novels, multi-POV thrillers
A small coastal community is grappling with the aftermath of a popular restaurant owner is murdered. Gossip and theories abound as a group of friends gather for a birthday party. Many people in town have something to hide and one of them at this party will be dead before the night is over.
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
Out January 23, 2024
For fans of: true crime-fueled mysteries, cult related books, unique storytelling format (articles, interview transcripts, messages, etc).
A true crime writer looking for her next book idea has a potential huge true crime hit on her hands if she can find the baby, now a young adult, or the mother at the center of the 2003 Alperton Angels mass suicide case and interview one of them.
Nobody has heard from the mother (a former member of the cult) or the baby (that the cult believed to be the anti-Christ) after she exposed their criminal activities.
Finding them is a massive undertaking and made even more difficult when a rival author is on the same trail for the scoop.
The Mountain King by Anders De La Motte
Out January 30, 2024
For fans of: Nordic noir, crime fiction, crime series, crime fiction featuring female detectives
Once in a great lead position at Malmö’s Major Crime Division, Detective Leonore Asker has been relegated to the basement dwelling unit — dubbed the Department of Lost Souls — for odd, cold cases after a high-profiling kidnapping case went awry and she was bumped from the case.
While she starts working on an eerie and peculiar new case, she uncovers a thread that seems to relate to the high profile case she was working on which sends her into the dark and sinister recesses of the city where evil lurks in the shadows in order in order to close both cases.
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
Out January 30, 2024
For fans of: locked room whodunnits, mysteries with humor
Follow-up to last year’s hit Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone!
It again follows Ernest Cummingham, invited to be a panelist on a luxury train that is hosting a Crime Writing festival, where one of the other writers turns up dead turning all of them into both suspects and sleuths.
Other January Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense Novels To Check Out:
- The Ascent by Adam Plantinga (Out 1/2) — action-packed crime thriller
- Argylle by Elly Conway (Out 1/2) — buzzy political spy novel with an adaptation out now. So many rumors flying about who wrote this but I’d bet money it wasn’t Taylor Swift who authored this.
- The Guests by Margot Hunt (Out 1/9) — thriller about a family hunkering down during a hurricane and their unwanted guests who show up
- What Mother Won’t Tell Me (Out 1/9) — a domestic horror thriller set on an isolated island
- The School Reunion by Shalini Boland (Out 1/16) — a high school reunion gets a little revenge-y
- The Silence in Her Eyes by Armando Lucas Correa (out 1/16) — psychological suspense centering on a young woman with a rare neurological condition who is convinced her neighbor is going to be murdered.
- Radiant Heat by Sarah Jane Collins (Out 1/23) — a woman, just surviving a wildfire, finds a dead woman in her driveway holding a piece of paper with her name on it.
- The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan (Out 1/23) – cozy & humorous murder mystery great for fans of more literary mysteries
- The Excitements by CJ Wray (1/30) — an espionage caper featuring two elderly women
- Twenty Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate (1/30) — small town drama + mystery surrounding an accident
- Of Hoaxes and Homicide (1/30) — 2nd book in a cozy historical mystery series
February 2024 Book Releases
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: claustrophobic-feeling psychological thrillers, wintry thrillers, “intruder” thrillers
I cannot resist a “trapped in a blizzard” thriller setting and this one sounds terrifying and definitely not one I’d read when my husband isn’t home.
A blizzard rages on in the middle of the night as a newly widowed mother settles one of her children back to bed.
When she hears someone walking around in her house, she gathers her children and hides a hidden space behind a wall in the older part of her house.
As she tries to keep them hidden and her children quiet, while also trying to formulate a plan, she realizes they are in more danger than she ever could have realized.
The Teacher by Freida McFadden
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: quick-paced psychological thrillers/suspense novels, thrillers filled with twists and turns, thrillers centering on a scandal, thrillers with darker themes
Ooh Miss Freida always writes addictive thrillers and while I’d never say they are always “the best” or “my favorite” thriller I know I will always be flying through them faster than most any thriller out there and gasping down to the last page.
“Something isn’t right at Caseham High School. Last year, the school was rocked by scandal: a teacher was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Now, Addie is a pariah and will do anything to get through the year. More than that, she’s desperate to keep the truth from coming to light.
Evie, a colleague of the disgraced teacher, is horrified to find Addie in her class. She knows the girl can’t be trusted and soon realizes she’s being watched—which is dangerous, considering she’s hiding something from her husband.
But each has secrets about what happened last year. And someone in this school will do anything to keep them silent.“
Since She’s Been Gone by Sagit Schwartz
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense, mental health centered books, books like The Last Thing He Told Me & Luckiest Girl Alive
A clinical psychologist is thrown into her dark past when a new patient to her office insists her mother — who she lost at 15 to a hit and run which threw her whole life into turmoil — is alive and in danger.
As she tries to figure out the truth about her mother and the alleged web she is caught up in, she also struggles to keep a hold on her mental health and all the progress she’s made towards recovery from her life-threatening eating disorder triggered by the trauma from all those years ago.
Like A Mother by Mina Hardy
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense, family secrets, books that feel like a Lifetime suspense drama
Sarah had the perfect life with her husband living in their beautiful suburban house with a daughter and a baby on the way. And then her husband dies and the secrets start pouring in — the biggest being the arrival of a woman claiming to be the mother he told her was dead.
She just wants to help Sarah and the kids and, after she proves she was in fact his mother, a struggling Sarah decides to take all the help she can get and moves in with her.
But the more time she spends at the house with the woman, Sarah starts to feel things are a bit weird and maybe she’s not just the doting mother-in-law she claims to be.
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: classic detective/murder mysteries but make it fantasy-infused, Holmes and Watson-esque duos
I’m always looking for murder mysteries with unique hooks and I’ve been loving those with more fantastical settings or those with a time loop element. This is probably one of the books I’m most excited about when it comes to new mystery books this year!
A super eccentric detective and her assistant are dispatched to a perplexing murder — an officer is killed by a tree spontaneously growing out from his chest. More murders occur as they work on the case and what follows is an untangling of a conspiracy and web of corruption so big it threatens the whole of the Empire.
One Wrong Word by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers, domestic suspense, cat & mouse games
A crisis management “fixer” faced with her own PR crisis — a false accusation by a client’s wife — is offered an opportunity that gives her two weeks to save her career and reputation.
The job is to clean up the reputation for the family of a real estate mogul recently acquitted in a fatal drunk driving accident.
But as she works to clean up, things come to light about the night of the crash and her client is soon back in the news with another accident.
She needs this case to save herself but the more she gets caught up in the web of secrets and lies surrounding this case, the more she doesn’t know what or who to believe — especially when she just might be helping a murderer.
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: slow burn psychological suspense, mystery surrounding a traumatic event, unreliable narrators, books like In My Dreams I Hold a Knife or Luckiest Girl Alive, academia-set mysteries and thrillers
Oh I LOVE a good dark academia thriller/mystery or one with a hint of those vibes. One that unravels in the past and the present and leaving me frantically trying to put it all together. That’s the vibes this is giving me like In My Dreams I Hold A Knife which I LOVED.
Charlie, a survivor of a traumatic massacre during college, has a successful career in publishing and has really tried to reinvent her life and leave that traumatic night behind — a night that she still really can’t remember all of.
With the tenth anniversary of the media-dubbed “Scarlet Christmas” is coming up, she finds out that one of her old classmates is making a film about it that threatens to rip open the truth of that night and tear her life apart.
What Is Mine by Lyn Liao Butler
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: family dramas meet domestic thrills, missing person plots
“Hope Chen and her husband are raising her nine-year-old nephew, Luca, in the wake of his troubled mother’s death. Luca finally has a safe home in a neighborhood where kids play in the streets and nobody locks their doors. Then one day, Luca and his dog disappear without a trace. Guilt-ridden, fearing the worst but praying for the best, Hope finds her imagination running wild.
Meanwhile, a woman with dangerous secrets to keep buried will do anything to protect her marriage. In one fleeting instant, it’s all within her reach. She can finally give her husband the one thing that will make him love her again.
Hope will do anything to get Luca back. The other woman will do anything to stop Hope. As Hope’s search grows more desperate and the other woman’s plans more twisted, their lives collide in an explosive battle of wits. With a boy caught in the middle, nothing on this deadly path of love and revenge is what it seems.”
The Resort by Sara Ochs
Out February 6, 2024
For fans of: vacation/travel thrillers, White Lotus, beach read type thrillers, isolated island settings
A group of expats have become like family as they work together, at a dive shop for tourists, on a remote island of Thailand. Everyone has a past to hide or have run from something that landed them here. When the body of one of their diving tourists is found — not the first suspicious death — and a storm rolls in, their paradise comes crashing down.
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The Split by Kit Frick
Out February 13, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense, Sliding Doors plots, family drama, unique suspense/thrillers
I Killed Zoe Spanos is one of my favorite YA mystery thrillers and I’m so excited for her debut adult thriller book!
It follows two sisters — trapped in a complicated familial history — and the night when the younger sister calls the oldest to come pick her up in the middle of a storm as she reveals she is leaving her husband and wants to stay with her sister.
Jane, the older & dependable sister, has a choice to face: face her past trauma & fears and go pick her sister up in the middle of the storm or let her sister deal with it on her own.
Both choices will have life-altering consequences and the story splits into versions of what happens in both scenarios.
The Stranger in Her House by John Marrs
Out February 13, 2024
For fans of: darker psychological thrillers, books from Alice Feeney or Frieda McFadden
I love John Marrs’ books something fierce — I’ve recommended especially The Passengers so many times! I think this one might lean more towards The Marriage Act or The Good Samaritan and it sounds dark and twisty.
Connie lives with and takes care of her elderly mother Gwen who has Alzheimer’s and is widowed. When a charity sends handyman Paul to do some odd jobs around the house, he’s almost too good to be true.
At least that’s what Connie think and she finds herself suspicious as he inserts himself more and more into her mother’s life to the point she fears he’s pushing the need for her out.
But nobody believes her as they think the world of him. As she tries to prove that his intentions aren’t good, things start spiraling out of control.
A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian
Out February 20, 2024
For fans of: thrillers with a supernatural edge, books with Stephen King vibes
I saw I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER meets STEPHEN KING and said “immediately yes” to myself. I will pick up anything with IKWYDLS-esque premises and thinking of the creepy, supernatural of Stephen King makes this a must read new thriller book for me.
In the small, former coal-mining town of Wesley falls six very different high schoolers — bonded forever by this night — make a pact after witnessing something awful together that changes the course of their lives. They stay silent, bury the evidence of what happened and leave each other behind.
Fast forward twenty years later, when one of the group is suspiciously found dead in town, they must trust one another and reconvene to find out the truth of her death.
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Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen
Out February 20, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense/thrillers, Strangers on Trains type suspense
Fresh off a divorce and now a single mom, Mary is looking for a new start in a new town. She is shocked when she seems someone that looks like her former friend Willa — her former mom friend that she shared secrets with about her husband and who then ghosted her a few months prior — but the woman has a whole different life and name and also claims to not know her.
But then Mary’s ex-husband winds up murdered and her life is thrown into chaos as she finds herself the prime suspect. Mary suspects her old friend with her mysterious identity could have had something to do with and she must find the truth before she’s arrested.
The Guest by B.A. Paris
Out February 20, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense & drama, slower burn suspense, unreliable narrators
The life of a couple, who seem to have it all, has their life upended when a young man has a tragic accident and the husband carries the guilt of his final words before he dies. Soon after, after returning home from a trip, they find that they have an unexpected houseguest: someone who they know but things take a strange turn the longer she stays.
My Name Was Eden by Eleanor Barker-White
Out February 27, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense, domestic suspense featuring motherhood, twin thrillers, books like The Push, creepy thrillers
Ooh I’ve been looking for a creepy new thriller book that gave me vibes like The Push. I don’t WHY but I really enjoy creepy motherhood-adjacent ones.
A mom is relieved to have her teenage daughter home, mostly unscathed, after a drowning incident. But the Eden she was before the incident isn’t the one who came home with her.
In fact, Eden says her name is Eli — which happens to be the name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin (lost in the womb to vanishing twin syndrome)– and she is not the same kid she was before.
Lucy can feel something is really wrong with Eden — it’s almost like she is a whole different person — and Lucy’s life starts to unravel as she tries to grapple with the new child before her.
March 2024 New Thriller Books
A Friend in the Dark by Samantha M. Bailey
Out March 1, 2024
For fans of: domestic thrillers, little bit of spice in your thrillers, Lisa Unger or Gillian Flynn, dark side of social media thrillers, Desperate Housewives
After getting dumped by her husband right after dropping their daughter off at college, a woman sends a drunk message to an old high school flame. Things heat up between them online but she starts to feel like something is off when it seems like he knows way too much about her life than he should know.
Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: domestic thrillers, family dramas, thrillers with a legal/courtroom element, missing persons plots, emotionally heavier feeling thrillers
A husband and wife are consumed with finding their daughter who walked out of the house angry one day and never returned. Everyone in their neighborhood and who knew Sophie has been helpful — except a neighbor across the street who refuses to talk which causes the pair to hone their suspicions on him . Feeling like the investigation, the couple tries to figure out what happened to their daughter as they also grapple with their grief and the wedge starting to grow between them.
Baby X by Kira Peikoff
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: speculative thrillers, Black Mirror, John Marrs The One, DNA/genetics/technological advancement driven stories
Set in a not too super distant future, scientific advancements in genetics have made it possibly to create life from anyone’s cells (and you can basically baby shop to have the best characteristics). The downside is that a black market has emerged that focuses on stealing and selling the DNA of celebrities.
We meet a singer who is sick of paying ransom money on his own DNA, the bio-security agent he hires (and falls for) who specializes in protecting celebrities from this kind of thing and will do anything in her power to protect him as well as a young journalist hoping to make it big with her own genetics story.
The Hunter by Tana French
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: literary crime fiction, police procedurals, atmospheric settings, small town murder & crime
Returning to Cal Hooper from The Searcher! Always a good year when we get a new Tana French, truly! While I’d imagine you can read this as a standalone, it continues Cal’s story and you’d probably get a lot more out of it reading it in order.
“It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places.
But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.”
Murder Road by Simone St. James
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: thrillers with supernatural edges, creepier thrillers, dark secrets in small town, books set in the 1990’s
Simone St. James is my favorite for eerie thrillers! I’m so excited for her latest! Definitely a front runner for most anticipated new thriller release for 2024!
In this latest offering, newlyweds take a wrong turn on the way to their honeymoon and find themselves as suspects in a string of gruesome murders committed on the deserted road where they stop for a bleeding woman who later dies. As they work to clear their name and investigate the violent history that has taken place on that road, they will find the haunting truth and dark secrets surrounding the area.
Finlay Donovan Rolls The Dice by Elle Cosimano
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: the previous books (but check out the series if you love- fun capers & mysteries, female sleuths, the Stephanie Plum series)
Book 4 in the super fun Finlay Donovan series! What are Finlay and Vero going to get up to this time, you ask? Well, continuing from book 3 — they are on a road trip (with too many people) to the seedy underbelly of Atlantic City!
You absolutely need to read the previous books, so get caught up if you enjoy silly capers and a great cast of characters to enjoy!
Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: murder mysteries, thrillers & mysteries with a true crime podcast element, small town drama, unreliable narrators
I’m familiar with this author through her fantastic YA sci-fi/post-apocalyptic duology that starts with Reboot so this is QUITE the departure and sounds like a FANTASTIC and thrilling murder mystery.
What if your best friend was murdered and everyone thinks you just may have done it — and, to be honest, you aren’t so sure if you did or didn’t because you can’t remember anything from that night?
That’s what Lucy is trying to figure out — what happened the night her best friend was murdered and did she actually do it?
Ben, a true crime podcaster, is also trying to find out the answers to that for a new episode by digging into the unsolved murder and the small town they lived in, which in the processes, exposes dark secrets kept in the community. Will these secrets prove that she did it or finally exonerate her?
Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense/drama, obsession fueled suspense, friendship dramas
I’ve really enjoyed Carola Lovering’s other suspense thrillers and this domestic suspense book has elements I love that are intertwined in the story: female friendship (more toxic/unhealthy elements), motherhood and social media.
Childhood best friends Billie and Cassie, forever bonded by a dark shared secret, have grown apart as they’ve gotten older. Billie feels cast aside and like she has to share Cassie with all her social media fans, her new baby and wealthy husband. And then Cassie’s baby is missing and Billie, who desperately wants her friend back, is the one who did it. But why?
Told in dual POV in the past and present, we find everything that transpired in the complicated friendship to lead to the shocking event of Cassie’s missing baby.
The New Couple In 5B by Lisa Unger
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense/thrillers, Gothic vibes, creepy house thrills
I love reading books that really get into my head like — is there a ghost or something supernatural orrrrr is something else going on? This book is giving me those vibes. Those kind of books don’t always work but when they do it’s EXHILARATING and, if done right, I’m pleased with either outcome supernatural or human because I really feel like felt in the middle of that psychological dread. I’m hoping this one does it right!!
It’s about a couple — Cassie and Chad — who are struggling when they inherit a luxury apartment in a historic NYC building from Chad’s late uncle.
The new home seems like a dream but soon Cassie things start to feel unsettled as she notices some strange things about the building and its dark history.
And then a neighbor turns up dead and she knows she must find out the truth about her new home before its too late.
What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: missing person crime stories, true crime fiction stories that feel ripped from the headlines
When Nina doesn’t return from the mountain climbing trip with her boyfriend Simon, her worried parents report her missing. As the search for Nina intensifies and Simon comes under more scrutiny, the fallout is huge for both families — with the story going viral and becomes the latest true crime frenzy — and they go head-to-head willing to do anything for the justice they think their children deserve.
Big Time by Ben H. Winters
Out March 5, 2024
For fans of: speculative thrillers, time-wimey things, Blake Crouch, thought-provoking books
A woman is abducted seemingly for no reason but is able to escape from her captor. She ends up at a hospital with amnesia, as a Jane Doe, where she meets a woman from the FDA who is there to check out the unidentified and unusual medical device implanted in her.
Scared and confused about strange memories she can’t explain, the woman escapes the hospital and tries to figure out what is happening to her.
As Grace — the FDA employee — investigates this mysterious device and starts to unravel its origins, she knows she must find Jane Doe.
But she isn’t the only one trying to track down the woman — her kidnapper is motivated to find her before time runs out.
Such A Lovely Family by Aggie Blum Thompson
Out March 12, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense, dysfunctional & messy family secrets/drama, suburban scandal, a good murder mystery
The Calhouns are all set to host their yearly Cherry Blossom season party until the picture perfect gathering turns deadly when a brutal murder occurs in the middle of the celebration and every guest is a suspect.
As the investigation heats up, the picture perfect family facade starts to fade away as dark secrets and dysfunction start to bubble to the surface.
Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird
Out March 12, 2024
For fans of: Southern small town-set mysteries, psychological suspense, cult vibes, small town scandals
Three women, after the death of a high-profile local woman, work to uncover the truth behind the woman’s mysterious death which leads them to the cult-like personal development group she was connected to.
The more they dig into the group, the more lies and secrets and scandals they unravel that rip their small Southern town apart.
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French
Out March 19, 2024
For fans of: missing person mysteries that are also part family drama, slower burn mystery & suspense
So many elements of this make me so excited — it feels part family drama and part missing person investigation/cold case.
Centering around two families who experienced a shared tragedy many years, it follows the family and the impact of a missing mother/wife as well as the shocking events around her disappearance.
Decades later, the unresolved tragedy is brought back up when one of the now grown children impacted by the events starts a podcast exploring the tragedy — a decision that will expose long hidden secrets and bring more tragedy.
As the podcast gets the case back in the spotlight, a new detective comes in to take over the investigation and find out what happened once and for all.
Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh
Out March 19, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers, Gone Girl, Alice Feeney, Stranger On A Train, revenge thrillers, dark & twisty reads
I have been impatiently waiting for this one as it was published in the UK last year and got rave reviews!
Two women meet at a grief support group and, over drinks, decide to help each other enact revenge on horrible men who destroyed everything for them. Perfect plan, right?
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a woman is attacked by a man in her home but is now afraid that he’s still out there.
But nothing is as straight-forward as it seems.
The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian
Out March 19, 2024
For fans of: fast paced thrillers/suspense, dark and seedy settings, mob action, family secrets, his previous books The Lioness or The Guest Room
Chris Bohjalian’s thrillers are never like anything else I read and this one sounds fantastic!
While not without her own personal problems, Chrissy enjoys her life as a Princess Diana impersonator with her own residency in Las Vegas. But soon her life is upended when her bosses at the casino are dead and she finds out that her estranged sister moved to Las Vegas with her crypto boyfriend around the same time. Soon she finds herself, and her sister, caught up in a dangerous web of organized crime, money, murder, and family secrets.
The Truth About The Devlins by Lisa Scottoline
Out March 26, 2024
For fans of: domestic thrillers/suspense heavy on the family drama & dynamics, legal dramas
Lisa Scottoline is a local gem for me here in the Philadelphia area (she hosts book clubs to her house for cool events!) and her backlist is HUGE if you haven’t checked her books out yet. She’s got legal thriller series, domestic suspense, some fantastic historicals and more! ANYWAYS, big fan and I’m excited for this new domestic thriller from her!
TJ Devlin, black sheep of his family and newly out of prison, is working on his sobriety and working as his family’s law firm as an investigator (as the only member of the family who isn’t a lawyer).
When his golden boy older brother confesses to him that he murdered a client after accusing him of embezzlement, he decides to help his brother out of this mess. As he begins to investigate the whole mess, he finds himself in a web of blackmail, family secrets and more than he could have ever imagined.
When I’m Her by Sarah Zachrich Jeng
Out March 26, 2024
For fans of: thrillers with sci-fi premises, body swapping plots, revenge thrillers
Oooh what a twist on the “stalking you and wanting to steal your life” flavor of thrillers in which this main character figures out how to LITERALLY steal her sworn enemy’s life by switching bodies with her.
A woman, wronged by a former friend who ruined her life, has been watching her every move she she plots her her revenge for the betrayal. She plans to steal her former friend’s charmed life after she gets an opportunity that would help her to swap bodies with her. But she’ll find out her frenemy’s life isn’t all that she thought it is and she might have made a deadly mistake in the pursuit of revenge.
How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
Out March 26, 2024
For fans of: cozier murder mysteries, amateur sleuths, Agatha Christie, Clue, Knives Out, Thursday Night Murder Club, Only Murders in the Building, small British village settings
I have been SO into cozier murder mysteries and shows these days (I need more Only Murders in the Building type shows!!). This one sounds so good!
In 1965 a teenage Frances is told her fortune at the country fair and it is a shocking one: she will be murdered one day. This prediction, while nobody else takes it seriously, causes Frances to spend the next 60 years increasingly paranoid and trying to solve her own murder before it can even happen.
In the present day, Frances’s estranged grand-niece finds her dead at her estate and on to the case that Frances had been trying to solve. As she goes through all of the work Frances put into finding her murderer, she finds there are plenty of suspects and, if she’s not careful, she just might find herself right in the path of the murderer.
Every One Is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf
Out March 26, 2024
For fans of: locked room thrillers, reality tv competitions
I’ve enjoyed a couple of books from this author and I cannot get enough of a reality tv competition setting for a thriller — especially as a long time Big Brother/Survivor watcher and now a Traitors fanatic.
Five contestants agree to join a reality show competition — One Lucky Winner — in order to win $10 million dollars. They don’t know much about what to expect except that it will be live streamed world wide and they will be on a secluded property with no contact with the rest of the world.
As they settle into the competition, they begin to realize that things aren’t what they seem and they were picked there for a reason.
April 2024 Book Releases
Friends in Napa by Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Out April 1, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense, Liane Moriarty, friend drama
A reunion of six old college friends, for a luxurious weekend in Napa Valley, turns dark when someone winds up dead. Old resentments, secrets and unrequited crushes yield plenty of motive to go around.
The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton
Out April 2, 2024
For fans of: Gothic historical mysteries, atmospheric settings, gothic mansions, dual timelines
I love Chanel Cleeton’s historical fiction so much and I’m delighted to dive into this historical mystery full of Gothic vibes. It looks like it might be a great Fall read!
Weaving between two timelines, one in the Roaring 20’s and one in 1941, it centers around a mysterious Miami mansion — a mansion with a legacy of murders — and two women who will become connected by the secrets of the grand estate and the danger living there poses to them.
One of those “is it the creepy house?” or something else type mysteries that I love!
Nosy Neighbors by Freya Sampson
Out April 2, 2024
For fans of: cozier mysteries, Only Murders in the Building, The Thursday Murder Club series, books more on the feel-good side, amateur sleuths
I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot but I’m super into cozy everything these days — cozy mysteries and cozy fantasy especially! This looks like the feel-good mysteries I’m looking for.
Two warring neighbors — a prickly 20-something and a nosy 70 year old — band together to save their historic home from demolition AND suss out a dangerous criminal in their midst.
She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica
Out April 2, 2024
For fans of: psychological thrillers/suspense, thrillers set in medical settings, Mary Kubica’s previous books
You can always count on Mary Kubica for a compelling and addictive thriller you won’t be able to put down!
This one is about a single mom and ICU nurse who finds herself in way too deep with one of her patients — who is in a coma after attempting to jump from a bridge — and her family: a line blurred that could prove deadly to her and her daughter when a witness comes forward that has shocking information about the fall.
Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda
Out April 9, 2024
For fans of: small town mystery thrillers, family drama
Megan Miranda books and I have a roller-coaster relationship (mostly positive overall though) but I ALWAYS find myself anticipating them regardless.
It’s about the daughter of a local detective who returns back to the small town (and childhood home) she left a decade before after the longtime detective passes away.
When a drought descends on the area, long-hidden secrets are uncovered that could help finally put the pieces together to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance years ago.
A Better World by Sarah Langan
Out April 9, 2024
For fans of: dystopian thrillers, satire, dark domestic thrillers, social issue/commentary thrillers
Sarah Langan’s Good Neighbors was such an interesting and unsettling read that I feel like kinda was more underrated than it should have in 2021 when it came out. I am so eager to get my hands on this new one because of that — especially because this one has “something is not quite in suburbia” vibes like that one did.
Set in the near future (full of climate disaster and more), a job offer gives a family the opportunity to move into an ultra exclusive (and walled off) utopian-like company town. As the family settles into their year-long trial period in the town, they learn there’s much beyond the surface of this “safe” utopian away from everything else.
Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda
Out April 9, 2024
For fans of: serial killer thrillers, wintry thrillers, police procedurals, books from Lisa Gardner/Harlan Coban/Karin Slaughter
Y’all know I love my wintry thrillers so this one is definitely an anticipated new thriller for me with it’s remote and snowy Alaskan setting as the backdrop for the hunt for a serial killer. Plus apparently it’s inspired by a true crime (look up Samantha Koenig if you want to know more).
It’s about a homicide detective whose latest case is someone he recognizes — the young woman who was his barista every morning when he went to get coffee — and it makes him even more determined to find her killer. Especially when more bodies of young women are found and another young woman has just gone missing. It’s a race against the clock to stop the serial killer’s killing spree.
The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass
Out April 9, 2024
For fans of: domestic suspense/thrillers, neighbor drama, strong settings, secrets galore
Thriller author extraordinaire Seraphina Nova Glass it out with a new one and if you are sick of all the ritzy/rich neighborhood domestic suspense/thrillers — this one is for you!
This one is set in a run-down motel/apartment complex and is about a woman who moves in after the shocking death of her husband which came after an even more shocking confession he made to her on the phone before he was found dead.
As she talks with her new neighbors, she puts together a different picture of the man she though she knew and tries to get answers to the many questions she has. But it wasn’t only her husband who had secrets when it comes to this group of tenants.
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
Out April 16, 2024
For fans of: psychological suspense meets horror, thrillers with a little “more” to them that make great book club books, unreliable narrators, mental illness heavy books, authors like Lisa Unger and Lisa Jewell
Annie has been through a lot — childhood trauma and OCD — and has the dream life with the great career, home and family.
When her mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly — everything starts to unravel for Annie especially when her OCD returns and disturbing fixations might actually be coming true this time around.
Especially when Annie wakes up next to a dead body in a hotel, after already being on the police’s radar in connection to a missing person, and struggles to find answers to what happened.
Lost To Dune Road by Kara Thomas
Out April 16, 2024
For fans of: ripped from the headlines mystery thrillers, unsolved mysteries, darker themed mysteries
I’ve raved so much about Kara Thomas’s YA mystery thrillers that this is definitely a must read new mystery for me!
This one is about a disgraced reporter turned PI, who lost it all after a tragic mistake while investigating an unsolved murder that gained national attention, now pulled back in to the old case when a woman in a coma has a connection to the still-unsolved case. Not only that — the woman had a note in her backpack with the former reporter’s name on it.
Ready to solve this case and make amends, she works to find out how it is all connected.
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
Out April 16, 2024
For fans of: spooky/creepy thrillers, mental illness centered thrillers, more unique thrillers, gothic vibes
I love Alyssa Cole’s romance novels and she’s been definitely hitting it out of the park with her thrillers! This one is pitched as “Knives Out meets The Shining” about a woman with dissociative identity disorder — living on an island as the caretaker of a historic estate — who must find the murderer that she is trapped on the island with before it is too late.
The Mayfair Dagger by Ava January
Out April 23, 2024
For fans of: historical mysteries, cozier mysteries, fun hijinx, lady detectives
I have been DYING for a fun and new historical mystery series to dive into and hopefully fall in love with as much as I love Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series and Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock!
1894 in London is the setting for this one and it’s about a woman who does NOT want to get married so she reinvents herself as a Countess (complete with an absent fictional husband) and starts a detective agency.
She soon becomes the suspect of a murder of a Lord, in which she was the last to see him, and then that of her fictional husband forcing her to figure out who the murderer actually is to clear her name.
Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh
Out April 23, 2024
For fans of: suspense, gritty small town secrets and mysteries, more character-driven missing person mysteries, family secrets & drama
Sisters Amelia and Kylee have been determined to solve the mystery of what happened to their older cousin Grace six years earlier — when she disappeared without a trace babysitting them one night — before they can leave their dead-end Ozark town forever like Grace was planning to. As the sisters get closer to finding out what happened to their cousin, dark secrets are uncovered and they don’t know who to trust as their suspect list grows longer and danger creeps closer.
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Out April 23, 2024
For fans of: psychological domestic suspense, more disturbing/messed up suspense thrillers, thrillers with strong family/sister threads
Love me some Sally Hepworth (as I’m sure many of you do too!). Content warning for child abuse though if that’s a subject you try to avoid.
Three foster sisters — close as real sisters — have never quite been able to, even after they left their foster mother, shake the horrific childhood they endured together all those years ago.
But the past collides with the present when human remains are discovered under they home they grew up in which throws them into the spotlight of the police investigation.
Told from multi-POV and times, we find out whether these sisters were key witnesses to what happened or prime suspects.
Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols
Out April 30, 2024
For fans of: gritty crime thrillers (a la Mare of Easttown/Long Bright River), serial killer books, police procedurals, small town settings
A horrendous murder of a teenager shocks a small, quiet town in Maine and a detective, whose daughter was friend’s with the victim, sets out to find the murderer.
But when another teenager is found killed in the same manner, fear of a serial killer takes over the small town and the detective – with the help of an old friend and parent to a teen who was also friends with the victim — try to find the killer before they strike again.
Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
Out April 30, 2024
For fans of: domestic thrillers, books that explore the impact of social media sleuths and true crime fanatics, thrillers that tackle race and social issues
I’m so excited for this one — Kellye Garret is sharp in her social commentary and the “missing white woman” phenomena (as well as the disparity in national attention when it comes to their missing counterparts) has been something I’ve been reading about a lot lately and obviously noticing play out in the news/social media.
It’s about a Black woman, on what was supposed to be a romantic city getaway with her new boyfriend, who wakes up and finds her boyfriend gone and the body of a stranger in the foyer — a stranger who turns out to be the missing woman whose case has gone viral all over social media.
As the media frenzy descends and #justiceforjanelle trends, the young woman works to clear her and her boyfriend’s name in the investigation by figuring out what really happened that night.
I hope this list of best new thrillers was helpful for you to find some good thriller books to read! What recent thriller books have you been reading and loving? What upcoming new thriller books are you anticipating?
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rissa says
Some of these are not in my radar, added them to my tbr list. Thanks!
Bruce says
Your blog on the most anticipated new thrillers, suspense, and mystery books is a treasure trove for suspense enthusiasts. Your insightful curation has me eagerly anticipating my next gripping read. A must-follow for any thriller lover!