The Best Mystery Books 2019
The Best Mystery Books 2019
Another year in the books and the world of crime fiction is a little wiser, a little more mature, and the flavors and approaches are more varied than ever before. Psychological thrillers continue to advance, while 2019 was also a year of sweeping sagas, cold case studies, charges against recent history and re imagining classic lyrics and lineups. Contemporary icons like Laura Lipp man and Kate Atkinson were back with new mysteries, while Attica Locke cemented her reputation as one of the very best of the decade. One of the most ambitious crime series in a generation came to a dramatic end, when Don Winslow released the third in the Cartel trilogy and Steph Cha took on the mantle of 'social noir' with a stunning new take on Los Angeles over the years. Ninety. . It was a year for aspiring storytellers and dedicated readers, whose stacks of “read” continued to grow and grow.
In the coming days and weeks, we'll be breaking down the best books of the year - according to our editors and their trusted circles of advisers and minions - into a number of categories, starting with our picks for the best novels from the great 'crime' ”Umbrella of crime, mystery and thrillers. We'll be back soon with our picks for the best new International Crime Fiction, True Crime, Noir, Psychological Thrillers, Espionage Fiction and more. Some books appear on multiple lists, some genre borders fade. We hope you enjoyed the financial year. We know we did. It's an exciting time to read crime fiction.
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Lisa Lutz, The Swallows (Ballantine)
- The Swallows is a fresh, unique twist on genres that have been reworked a million times: it's a prep school set coming-of-age novel, but also a psychological thriller. And a comedy too.
- Alex Witt is a reluctant but tough new teacher at an exclusive boarding school who encounters the school's creepy subculture after missing a class writing assignment. Gemma is a popular girl who plans to sabotage a school tradition called 'The Darkroom'.
- And soon the academy's students and teachers discover that their secrets are slowly being revealed and their thirst for revenge is growing.
- Witty and caustic, engaging and smart, Lutz's novel productively re-enacts these familiar genres with the aim of clarifying how different institutions excuse the oppression and silence of women and girls.
- The New Hollywood Mystery of the 1960s, is clearly a story close to her heart.
- A housewife leaves her husband to pursue a career as a reporter, and faces criticism from her own community even as she embarks on a passionate and transgressive affair and becomes obsessed with a dead woman found frozen in a fountain.
- Lady in the Lake is not a baby boomer nostalgia - quite the contrary; the book is both empathetic to individuals and sharply critical of the divisions and prejudices of the environment.
- A must to read!
Nina Revoyr, A Student of History (Akasha)
- Revoyr's latest is barely a crime fiction, but uses enough of noir's angles and vibe to count, with a story somewhere between Sunset Boulevard and the dark regions of The Great Gatsby.
- Rick Nagano is a Los Angeles graduate student who, by a few chance odds, comes into the service of one of the city's oldest, wealthiest, and most secretive families, familiar with the memoirs of its reigning matriarch.
- Violations ensue as Rick begins to penetrate a new social layer and sees a hidden, paid Los Angeles well-hidden from most eyes. Revoyr is a subtle observer of human frailties and social structures, and the result is one of the most insightful and entertaining books of the year.
Attica Locke, Heaven, My Home (Mulholland)
- Attica Locke's sequel to Bluebird, Bluebird, her Edgar-winning novel about crime and reckonings in East Texas, has a powerful premise: Texas Ranger Darren Matthews heads to Lake Caddo to track down the missing .
- son of a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, but on a secret mission: gather evidence against the boy's father and other members of the white supremacist gang before Trump can stop the Rangers investigation.
- While searching for the boy in the Cajun-influenced city of Jefferson and its environs, Matthews discovers a sinister attempt by the Aryan Brotherhood to take over land in the nearby historic free black town of Hope town.
- Steeped in the music, history, swampy bayous and pine forests of East Texas, Locke's latest is not to be missed.
Don Winslow, The Border (William Morrow)
The finale of Winslow's narco-epic series does not disappoint. The Power of the Dog (2005), The Cartel (2015) and now The Border (2019) form one of the most ambitious works in modern crime fiction, an epic tale of the ill-fated War on Drugs and a feat that rivals Ellroy's history. of the underworld of Los Angeles. The Border goes as far as any work of fiction can explain how we got to today's swamp: a region overrun with violence, the spread of an opioid epidemic, the militarization of police forces in America and the emergence of opportunistic political regimes that are taking advantage of suffering. Winslow also delivers on the human moments, with painful portraits of the war victims: a young boy from a tough Central American capital, heading north on the train known as La Bestia; addicts on Staten Island; Undercover agents put in years to make cases, only to see their jobs bartered. It is an amazingly rich mosaic of humanity.
Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay (Ecco)
Cha's Your House Will Pay is one of the year's most ambitious crime novels, an electric depiction of racial tensions and civil unrest in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Cha begins with the stories of two families and returns time and again to the texture of their daily lives, all the while revealing the escalating racial tensions and civil unrest radiating out from the crossroads of those families - a violent encounter one night in Los Angeles. Your House Will Pay is both an intimate, personal snapshot of a moment in time and a novel of ideas, politics and deeply felt emotion.
Kate Atkinson, Big Sky (Little, Brown)
Jackson Brodie Returns! And is more oppressed than ever ... After the successful 2018 stand-up spy novel Transcript herself, Atkinson returns to her beloved character from the series, as he tries to enjoy a quiet life on the English coast. When Brodie is hired to investigate a trophy wife's alleged infidelity, he quickly tackles the suspicious husband as the real dark character in the marriage. Throw in a local ring of traffickers, some surprisingly independent trophy women, and a scrappy duo of cop women and you've got Kate Atkinson gold.
Ruth Ware, The Turn of the Key (Gallery / Scout)
In Ware's ode to Henry James' Turn of the Screw, a young woman arrives at a mysterious mansion to start a new job as a nanny for the scions of a wealthy family . She's instantly turned off by the intrusive creepiness of the decked-out smart home, and things quickly go from bad to worse with her new employers and disobedient charges, but nothing could prepare Ware's protagonist or her readers for the final twist at the end. .
Alan Bradley, The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Bantam)
The Golden Tresses of the Dead is the final installment in a ten-book mystery series that is loved by many, not just me and my sister. Set in rural England in the 1950s, the series follows the investigation of precocious preteen detective, chemist and amateur poison-blender Flavia de Luce, culminating in the highly anticipated wedding of Flavia's older sister Ophelia to handsome Dieter. Schrantz. But things take a little turn for the macabre when a human finger is found in the wedding cake. This novel also marks a turning point in Flavia's career: after proving her talent for deduction, she starts a professional detective with Arthur Dogger, her family's gardener. The wedding disaster becomes her first official affair. It has been a joy to watch Flavia mature (as well as hone her detective skills) over the past decade - but the series, which is fantastically well written and well researched in its presentation of chemical phenomena, is also extraordinarily meaningful for its nature of the protagonist: a creative and smart girl who believes enough in her skills to deal with underestimation, condescension and dismissal, even when others prefer her to remain silent.
Rachel Howzell Hall, They All Fall Down (Forge)
Rachel Howzell Hall's latest thriller (her first stand-alone) takes a classic screenplay straight from the Agatha Christie playbook and gives it a modern, subversive twist, as Seven Strangers invite answer to a few nights at a private estate on a lush, secluded headland off the coast of Mexico. The clash of personalities and secrets is immediate, when the guests discover that their weekend getaway isn't as peaceful as they'd hoped. Howzell Hall has established herself as one of the most promising voices in detective fiction in recent years with her Elouise Norton series. Here she proves she also knows her way around a traditional mystery, with a few thriller twists for the record.
This year's huge crop of must-see thrillers proves that no place is safe from murder and mayhem. By David Adams
From a quaint English village to the sleek conference rooms of a Dallas clothing company, this year's huge crop of unreadable thrillers proves that no place is safe from murder and chaos. So whether you prefer your tension in the psychological, historical, legal, or supernatural variety, be prepared to lose your sleep - because once you get started on one of these eye-catching page turners, you may never turn off the lights.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
At the beginning of this # 1 New York Times bestseller, Alicia Berenson hasn't spoken a word in the six years since she killed her husband. But that is about to change - so hopes her new therapist, Theo Faber. Theo has just arrived at the secure facility where Alicia is being held and will do everything he can to earn her trust. But the closer he gets to his silent patient, the smoother the truth becomes.
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Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake have come to the English village of Featherbank to start over after a family tragedy. But then a neighbor disappears and the police see unmistakable signs of the Whisper Man. The serial killer, who terrorized Featherbank twenty years ago, is now rotting in prison. But Tom is still worried that Jake is in grave danger, although he doesn't know from whom. Fans of Stephen King will flock to this spooky thriller that hunts every parent's worst nightmare.
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An Almost Normal Family by MT Edvardsson
When their 18-year-old daughter Stella is accused of brutally murdering a much older man, Father Adam Sandell and his lawyer wife Ulrika rush to defend her. But can they live with the repercussions of their spontaneous actions? Told from the perspective of all three family members, this is poignant asks profound questions about the persistence of memory and the nature of guilt.
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Anyone who has become addicted to a true crime podcast will relate to Anna McDonald's dedication to Death and the Dana, the story of a murdered family, a sunken yacht and a wrongful conviction. But not everyone has a secret past life that ties into their new favorite murder mystery. What Anna knows can help save an innocent man's reputation, but can she solve the case while protecting herself? Laughing, funny, and hair-raising thrilling, Conviction is absolutely binge-worthy.
Back in his hometown of Bienville, Mississippi, to care for his ailing father, shrewd journalist Marshall McEwan catches the unmistakable smell of corruption surrounding a lucrative deal to bring a Chinese paper mill into town. Soon he is up to his neck in mud, which begs the question: Is he shedding light on the truth or digging his own grave? The bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy delivers yet another sweeping saga of violence and intrigue set in the Deep South.
If you think you get stuck in a highway stop overnight with four strangers and no cell phone service sounds like your worst nightmare, think again. Because Darby Thorne, the brave heroine of this thrilling thriller, isn't just snowed in the mountains of Colorado; she just found out that one of her fellow stranded drivers is a psychopath. To save a kidnapped child, Darby will have to find out who she can trust - and who wants her dead.
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
In the 1960s in Baltimore, 37-year-old housewife Maddie Schwartz follows her husband to pursue a career in journalism. But the story she wants to write - about the murder of a black cocktail waitress named Cleo Sherwood - may be too explosive for her own good. Or that Cleo would say to Maddie, if only she wasn't a ghost. In her most ambitious novel to date, Laura Lippman delivers a technicolor portrait of her hometown, an action-packed murder mystery and a thrilling tale of female empowerment.
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag Voted
'Best Debut Novel' by the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy, this riveting, richly detailed historical thriller is set in 18th-century Stockholm, where a mutilated corpse is found floating in a rancid more. The one-armed guard who fishes the body out of the water teams up with a consumer advocate to track down the killer; Along the way, they encounter all the intrigue and injustice of the city. Fans of Caleb Carr, Matthew Pearl and Iain Pears will eat this.
RELATED: 10 Best Suspense Books of 2019 (So)
Miracle Creek By Angie Kim
FarLike many immigrant parents, Young and Pak Yoo came to America to give their daughter a shot at a better life. But unlike most, the small business they start is an experimental medical treatment where patients enter a submarine-shaped tank and inhale pressurized oxygen. When the "Miracle Submarine" mysteriously explodes and two are killed, the Yoos and their surviving patients are faced with a horrific reckoning in this twisty, beautifully written courtroom thriller from a former trial attorney.
Temper by Layne Fargo
Theater is a dangerous place in this edgy psychological thriller with dueling storytellers. Kira Rascher is an emerging actress pushed to the limit by her toxic co-star and director, Malcom "Mal" Mercer. Joanna Cuyler is Mal's second in command and a woman whose frustrations and jealousy are barely contained by her icy demeanor. Provoked by Mal, the two women are on a collision course - who will blink first?
Recursion by Blake Crouch
It's 2018, and New York is in the grip of False Memory Syndrome, a condition that causes sufferers to reminisce about lives they never lived. As the madness-inducing disease spreads across the country, NYPD Detective Barry Sutton traces its origins to an offshore laboratory where neuroscientist Helena Smith developed a technology to preserve the memories of dementia patients. The thrilling sequel to Dark Matter makes Blake Crouch clearly Michael Chrichton's heir.
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell
A serial killer haunts the streets of pre-WWII Prague, imitating the gruesome handiwork of Jack the Ripper. Meanwhile, in a madhouse on the outskirts of town, a doctor tries to unravel the secrets of six notorious murderers, all claiming to have been driven to their crimes by a demonic figure. Inspired by Eastern European folklore and Jungian psychology, this mind-blowing historical thriller features one of the most shocking finals of the year.
American Heroin by Melissa Scrivner Love
This hard-hitting sequel to Edgar-nominated Lola returns to South Central LA and the Crenshaw Six, an up-and-coming gang run by drug queen Lola Vasquez. Smart, ruthless, and deeply devoted to the people she loves, Lola wages a brutal war, all while navigating the complex social dynamics of her daughter's private school. Don't Sleep In This Standout Series - Lola is one of the fiercest, most riveting thriller heroines since Lisbeth Salander.
Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
Revenge suddenly doesn't get any more topical than this insanely funny thriller about three corporate lawyers who are lifting hell in the #MeToo era. When their predatory boss, Ames Garrett, sexually harasses a new employee at the same time as he's in the mood for a big promotion, Sloane, Grace and Ardie add his name to an online spreadsheet of abusive men. Chaos ensues, but the trio are willing to fight fire with fire - no matter who burns it.
Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
When Hollywood actor Bobby Solomon is arrested for murder, lawyer (and former conman) Eddie Flynn uses every trick in the book to get him out. But a serial killer with an intense interest in Solomon has a few tricks of his own - one of which is about to land him in the jury box. Early raves from Michael Connelly, Ruth Ware and Lee Child make this serial killer legal thriller mash-up a must-read.
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