30 must-read new thriller books
Sarah Harman (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
When wealthy 10-year-old brat Alfie Risby goes missing, the prime suspect is the kid he bullies: Dylan Grimes. Dylan’s mom, Florence, is a single party girl with no tangible skills or mom friends, but she’s got to pull it together to clear her kid’s name. March 11
C.J. Box (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The 25th installment in the Joe Pickett series finds Wyoming game warden Pickett trying to locate the governor’s missing son-in-law in the Sierra Madres. Pickett’s falconer buddy Nate Romanowski has been living in isolation and looking for revenge, but the two men’s paths collide on the titular landform. Feb. 25
Alice Feeney (Flatiron Books)
A man’s wife disappears suddenly on her drive home one day. A year later, the grieving man journeys to a Scottish island, where he encounters a woman who looks just like his wife. Out now
Camilla Sten (Minotaur Books)
Four childhood girlfriends meet up every year on a remote Swedish island for a night of fun, but, one year, they mysteriously disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. A decade later, a struggling true crime podcaster is intent on finding out what happened to the women, and she plans a bachelorette party for her best friend with eerie similarities to the missing women’s getaway. June 10
Sandra Brown (Grand Central Publishing)
A divorced Louisiana police detective and the producer of a true-crime TV series come together to work on an unsolved case — a teen girl who disappeared — and realized it’s not an isolated incident. They must find the perpetrator before he strikes again, all the while dealing with a spark between themselves. March 4
Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)
McFadden, the bestselling author of “The Housemaid” and “Do Not Disturb,” has a gripping new thriller. At eight months pregnant, Tegan is stranded in a blizzard in rural Maine after her car dies. She’s rescued and taken in by a seemingly helpful couple, but soon realizes she’s actually in peril. Out now
Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)
Carr, a former Navy SEAL sniper and the author of the No. 1 bestseller “Red Sky Mourning,” has set his new novel in 1968. Navy SEAL Tom Reece is on a mission to find out what happened to a spy ship that Communist forces took over just off the coast of North Korea. June 10
Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth)
This literary crime novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Liliana’s Invincible Summer” was first published in 2007 but it’s only now been translated from the original Spanish. A professor named Cristina Rivera Garza discovers a dead body with lines of poetry written on the wall next to the corpse. Soon, the violence spreads, and more bodies and poems are found across the city. Feb. 25
Nicholas Binge (Riverhead Books)
For years, Maggie cares for her aging husband as his memory faces and he forgets all that they once shared. Then, one day a man shows up claiming that her husband isn’t simply suffering from dementia — his memories are being taken from him by someone desperate to keep a secret from getting out. With the stranger’s help, Maggie can enter her husband’s mind and rescue his memories, but what she finds is far more complex, dangerous and far-reaching than she could have ever imagined. March 25
Laila Lalami (Pantheon)
Lalami’s 2015 novel, “The Moor’s Account,” was a a finalist for the Pulitzer. Her newest is set in the near future. After returning home from a business trip, a woman named Sara is retained by the Risk Assessment Administration. Using information obtained from Sara’s dreams, the government entity has found she’s likely to harm her beloved husband, and she’s sent to a facility indefinitely for observation. March 4
Lisa Jewell (Atria Books)
When the widow Nina Swann takes up with the charming Nick Radcliffe, she’s the happiest she been since her husband’s unexpected death. But Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, thinks Nick is too good to be true. She does some digging and is shocked by what she finds. June 24
Chris Pavone (MCD)
Drama unfolds both inside and just outside a tony bourgeois-bohemian Manhattan apartment building as the city explodes into race riots after police kill a black man. Beloved doorman Chicky Diaz finds himself carrying a gun to work. May 20
Brad Thor
July 1 (Atria/Emily Bestler Book)
In the 24th Scot Harvath book, the Navy SEAL-turned-spy wrestles with a new administration and a major conspiracy with far-reaching consequences for the country. July 1
Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer)
Three childhood friends return home after their fourth pal — the only one who didn’t leave the small town where they grew up — slips into a mysterious coma. As the condition worsens, the trio confront sinister forces in their seemingly idyllic town and recall how others fell into similar comas in the past. May 20
Nora Roberts (St. Martin’s Press)
A police office returns home to live with her parents while recovering from being shot (and getting dumped), then gets swept up in a string of unsolved missing person cases, in the latest from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. May 27
Brad Taylor (William Morrow)
Retired Delta Force officer Taylor offers up a new Pike Logan novel. In India, the Taskforce thwarts an attack on both that country’s intelligence forces and the CIA — but separatists continue to wage terror, including a massacre and a kidnapping at a wedding. Logan must act quickly to save lives and prevent global turmoil. April 22
Liann Zhang (Atria Books)
After a glam influencer dies, her downtrodden twin assumes her identity and comes to realize that all was not picture perfect. April 29
S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar)
A patriarch in a crime-ridden Virginia town ends up in a coma after a car crash, and his adult children — older son and money man Roman, troubled younger brother Dante, and depleted sister Neveah — come to realize that it was no accident. June 10
John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The new Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers novel from the blockbuster writer finds the Minnesota investigators digging into the cold case of a woman killed 20 years ago. After receiving a cancer diagnosis, the victim’s twin is desperate to finally get some answers. March 25
Steve Berry (Grand Central Publishing)
In the 19th book in the Cotton Malone series, the Justice Department operative-turned-antiquarian book dealer travels to Italy in search of an artifact from the 1500s — and answers about what really became of Florence’s famous Medici family. Out now
Ashley Flowers (Bantam)
Seven years after her older sister disappeared, 24-year-old Nicole Monroe is struggling with a DWI and a job that’s going nowhere. But then she connects with a young woman whose sister also went missing around the same time, and the two become determined to uncover what really happened to their siblings. May 6
Stephen King (Scribner)
A detective investigates deadly threats by a person seeking brutal revenge, while a feminist speaker fears for her safety as she tours the country, in the suspense master’s new novel. It features characters both new and familiar, such as Holly Gibney, an OCD private investigator with an amazing memory who appears in many King books. May 27
Harlan Coben (Grand Central Publishing)
Recent TV adaptations of Coben’s books, such as “Fool Me Once” and “Missing You,” have been Netflix blockbusters, and the hits keep coming. Coben’s latest begins when Sami Kierce, a 20-something backpacking in Europe, wakes up covered in blood — with a knife and his dead girlfriend next to him. More than two decades later, Kierce is a detective with a new baby trying to get past the trauma. But then he spots a woman who looks just like Anna. March 25
Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine Books)
In the new fast-paced Alex Delaware novel, the psychologist and his detective buddy Milo Sturgis investigate the murder of a wannabe actress, found drugged and dead near a Los Angeles hospital. She’s the first victim of a killing spree in the City of Angels, with no clear connection between the dead. Out now
Paranoia
James Patterson and James O. Born (Little, Brown and Company)
The latest Michael Bennett thriller finds the Irish-American NYPD detective covertly investigating a spate of cop deaths. Out now
Jeneva Rose (Blackstone Publishing, Inc.)
In “The Perfect Marriage,” high-powered criminal defense attorney Sarah Morgan had to defend her husband in court after his mistress turned up dead. The follow-up takes place 11 years later. Morgan has happily remarried and changed careers, but then she discovers her new husband has cheated on her and the woman he had a fling with has gone missing. April 15
Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing)
The bestselling author of “Presumed Innocent” has a masterful new legal thriller. A judge named Rusty finds his peaceful retirement disrupted when his troubled stepson and his girlfriend disappear — and then she turns up dead. Rusty must step up to defend the boy, who finds himself in the title’s predicament. Out now
Elizabeth Kaufman (Penguin Press)
This debut from a network security specialist is drawing comparisons to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” A 20-something chip designer becomes a cyber criminal and makes hundreds of millions of dollars in five years. But one day she realizes she’s been caught — and flees with her dog, desperate to outrun the government agents who see her as both a huge threat to national security and a potentially valuable asset. April 15
Jeffery Deaver (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Deaver continues with the Colton Shaw series, which is the basis for CBS’s “The Tracker” (starring Justin Hartley as the lone wolf survivalist). Shaw’s sister summons him to a small town in Northern California where a levee has collapsed and rising waters endanger families. The Shaws initially assume they’re dealing with a natural disaster, but they begin to suspect something more sinister may have happened. May 6
David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “A Calamity of Souls” has written a historical thriller set in World War II. In London in 1944, two teens orphaned by the war bond with a widowed bookseller. But as bombs fall on Britain, each is revealed to be keeping secrets with potentially dangerous consequences. April 15
