There have been a lot of books I’ve added to my Goodreads wish list recently, so I thought I’d break things down by “genre” and share them on the blog! Today, I’m focusing on Mysteries/Thrillers, so if that’s your type of read, please continue and let me know which of these stand out to you! Also, I realize this is a long post but that’s mainly because I included the full summaries so you don’t have to switch to Goodreads just to find out what the book is about (only if you want to add it to your own to-read list!) Plus, my mysteries/thrillers list is probably the longest wish list I’ll be sharing! What can I say? So many books coming out this year!
A list of 2018 mysteries/thrillers I NEED to read!! #ontheblog Click To Tweet2018 Mysteries and Thrillers I Want to Read
The Lucky Ones by Tiffany Reisz – add to Goodreads
Out: February 13th
They called themselves “the lucky ones.” They were seven children either orphaned or abandoned by their parents and chosen by legendary philanthropist and brain surgeon Dr. Vincent Capello to live in The Dragon, his almost magical beach house on the Oregon Coast. Allison was the youngest of the lucky ones living an idyllic life with her newfound family…until the night she almost died, and was then whisked away from the house and her adopted family forever.
Now, thirteen years later, Allison receives a letter from Roland, Dr. Capello’s oldest son, warning her that their father is ill and in his final days. Allison determines she must go home again and confront the ghosts of her past. She’s determined to find out what really happened that fateful night–was it an accident or, as she’s always suspected, did one of her beloved family members try to kill her?
But digging into the past can reveal horrific truths, and when Allison pieces together the story of her life, she’ll learns the terrible secret at the heart of the family she once loved but never really knew.
Color Me Murder by Krista Davis – add to Goodreads
Out: February 27th
By day, Florrie Fox manages Color Me Read bookstore in Georgetown, Washington D.C. By night, she creates her own intricately detailed coloring books for adults, filling the pages with objects that catch her eye. There’s plenty of inspiration in her new apartment–a beautiful carriage house belonging to Professor John Maxwell, Florrie’s boss. He offers the property to Florrie rent-free with one condition–she must move in immediately to prevent his covetous sister and nephew from trying to claim it.
When the professor’s nephew, Delbert, arrives, he proves just as sketchy as Florrie feared. But the following morning, Delbert has vanished. It’s not until she visits the third floor of the store that Florrie makes a tragic discovery–there’s a trap door in the landing, and a dead Delbert inside. The esteemed Professor Maxwell is an obvious suspect, but Florrie is certain this case isn’t so black and white. Doodling clues, she begins to consider other colorful characters on the scene, all with a motive for murder. With a killer drawing closer, Florrie will need to think outside the lines . . . before death makes his mark again.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara – add to Goodreads
Out: February 27th
A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.
“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark.”
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” McNamara pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by McNamara’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen – add to Goodreads
Out: March 6th
Hannah had a perfect life in London—a loving husband, a great job—until she did something shocking. Something that she doesn’t quite understand herself; and now she has landed herself in a high-risk psychiatric unit.
Since Hannah has been admitted, two women have died, including Charlie, one of her closest friends in the institution. It’s a high-risk unit, the authorities say. Deaths happen. But Hannah knows Charlie wouldn’t have killed herself. She is convinced there’s a serial killer picking off the patients one by one, passing their deaths off as suicides. But why? And who will believe her?
Corinne, Hannah’s mother, is worried sick about her eldest daughter. She hates that she’s ended up in the unit, though she knows it’s the best place for her to get the treatment she needs. At first, Corinne assumes Hannah’s outlandish claims about a killer in the unit are just another manifestation of her psychological condition, but as she starts to uncover strange inconsistencies surrounding the unit’s charismatic director, Dr. Roberts, she begins to wonder if her daughter might have stumbled upon the truth.
But who can Corinne trust, when she doesn’t even trust her own daughter?
Fiction Can Be Murder by Becky Clark – add to Goodreads
Out: April 8th
Mystery author Charlemagne “Charlee” Russo thought the twisty plots and peculiar murders in her books were only the products of her imagination. That is, until her agent is found dead exactly as described in her new, unpublished manuscript. Suspicion swirls around her and her critique group, making her confidence drop as severely and unexpectedly as her royalty payments.
The police care more about Charlee’s feeble alibi and financial problems than they do her panicky claims of innocence. To clear her name and revive her career, she must figure out which of her friends is a murderer. Easier said than done, even for an author who’s skilled at creating tidy endings for her mysteries. And as her sleuthing grows dangerous, her imagination starts working overtime. Is she being targeted, too?
Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin – add to Goodreads
Out: April 17th
An obsessive young woman has been waiting half her life—since she was twelve years old—for this moment. She has planned. Researched. Trained. Imagined every scenario. Now she is almost certain the man who kidnapped and murdered her sister sits in the passenger seat beside her.
Carl Louis Feldman is a documentary photographer. The young woman claims to be his long-lost daughter. He doesn’t believe her. He claims no memory of murdering girls across Texas, in a string of places where he shot eerie pictures. She doesn’t believe him.
Determined to find the truth, she lures him out of a halfway house and proposes a dangerous idea: a ten-day road trip, just the two of them, to examine cold cases linked to his haunting photographs.
Is he a liar or a broken old man? Is he a pathological con artist? Or is she?
The Good Samaritan by John Marrs – add to Goodreads
Out: May 3rd
The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.
Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.
But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?
The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…
Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.
84K by Claire North – add to Goodreads
Out: May 22nd
The penalty for Dani Cumali’s murder: £84,000.
Theo works in the Criminal Audit Office. He assesses each crime that crosses his desk and makes sure the correct debt to society is paid in full.
These days, there’s no need to go to prison – provided that you can afford to pay the penalty for the crime you’ve committed. If you’re rich enough, you can get away with murder.
But Dani’s murder is different. When Theo finds her lifeless body, and a hired killer standing over her and calmly calling the police to confess, he can’t let her death become just an entry on a balance sheet.
Someone is responsible. And Theo is going to find them and make them pay.
Shame On You by Amy Heydenrych – add to Goodreads
Out: July 26th
Have you ever reached the New Year and thought it’s time to reinvent yourself?
Have you ever lied about who you are to get more likes?
Have you ever followed someone online who you think is perfect?
Meet Holly.
Social media sensation. The face of clean eating.
Everyone loves her. Everyone wants to be her.
But when Holly is attacked by a man she’s only just met, her life starts to spiral out of control. He seemed to know her – but she doesn’t know him.
What if Holly isn’t who she seems to be? What if Holly’s living a lie?
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas – add to Goodreads
Out: July 31st
There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.
First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.
That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.
There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.
Oh they looks all intriguing!
I really enjoy a good mystery thriller, and you’ve shared some I haven’t heard about. Thanks so much! Hugs…RORO
O my I can hardly wait for some of these to come out. I love a good mystery.
I love a good mystery/thriller. It’s a great way to curl up and spend a cold winter day.
I read the Lucky Ones! My review is scheduled for a few weeks from now!
Color Me Murder is interesting to me, I am such a fan of coloring! I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but occasionally do indulge in one, so I might have to check some of these other ones out too.
So many of these books look interesting! I read a thriller last month and now want to read more – I like a book that keeps one guessing!
Like I need to add anymore books to my every growing TBR list?!?! But some of these look good so on they go!
YES YES YES!!! My favorite genre of book to read. Also I have goosebumps reading these descriptions. The Lucky Ones sounds really good but all of these are really up my alley. Also Paper Ghosts sounds familiar; did you get an advance copy to read? I feel like maybe you mentioned that one, but it’s possible I’m getting it confused with something else…
I think I reviewed the author of Paper Ghosts’s other book – but no, I don’t have any of these!
These all sound so good! I’ll definitely have to suggest them to my book club!
Oh wow these all sound intriguing! I pick up a thriller on occasion, but I’ll have to add some of these to my “to read” list – especially the first four!
I do love a good thriller now and then so I do like this post for giving me some ideas of some books (I honestly don’t keep track of the genre so always feel a little lost on deciding what to read). Colour Me Murder sounds interesting but I might have just been drawn in by the cover.
Mysteries/Thrillers are not really my thing, but I will give it a go if a book really inspires me. Tiffany Reisz is amazing, therefore I may read anything by her no matter the genre. 🙂
I’m not a big mystery/thriller reader but I’m trying to find what ones might work for me. I have Rachel Caine’s Stillhouse Lake on my Kindle to read soon.
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
The Lucky Ones sounds so good! I’m going to save this post for book club ideas.
I have NEVER been into murder or mystery or murder mystery books.. which is ironic, since my dad was a detective, then a coroner my whole life, and I was fascinated with his work, haha! – http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
I absolutely LOVE mystery/thriller books. They’re all I read. I used to read them all the time and then I just started feeling like I didn’t have time to read anymore. But I really want to get back into it and you just got me super excited and motivated to buy a new book! The Good Samaritan sounds super interesting! My favorite mystery/thriller author is James Patterson. <3
They all look good to me!
I am definitely going to keep this post in mind the next time I’m in the mood for a mystery or thriller! Some of these sound so good.
I enjoyed The Lucky Ones but heck yes, you have some cool looking mysteries and thrillers here. I need to add some of them to my shelf.
Oooo you switched to WordPress! Took me awhile to find you. ??
All of these look really interesting, especially Color Me Murder since I think that’s a coloring book? It looks like it, but I’m not sure.
Hey Sophia! Yea, switching made things a bit confusing. LOL Sorry about that. Color Me Murder has a cover that you CAN color, but it’s an actual book.
Great list! I love a good murder mystery 🙂
Great list of books to read there! I also nominated you for the The Versatile Blogger Award, just to let you know as I love your blog so much! <3
I can totally see why these are on your list! Awesome! I have finsihed 3 books htis moth so far. That is kind of a feta for me, so I am rolling right along 🙂
I almost requested Paper Ghosts! Looks so good but I had way to may ARCs pending. Can’t wait to hear what you think of it. The cover of They All Fall Down reminds me of The Shape of Water which I watched yesterday and LOVED!
They All Fall Down looks super good and I am hoping to read it too. I’ll have to look into the rest of them, because I love my thrillers.
I added some of your books to my list – especially Fiction Can Be Murder. This one sounds so good! Great list!!
I’ve read The Lucky Ones and I actually liked it. It’s not a book for everyone but I thought Tiffany Reisz did a really good job of explaining the web of lies and making the situation acceptable.
Kara Thomas is a great big YES for me! I love her books. I didn’t realize Tiffany Reisz wrote mysteries. I think I am only familiar with her romance. I know I will be reading the new Claire Mackintosh. Her books are great.
I haven’t read any of these- but I do enjoy a good mystery. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
These are all new to me but they all sound fantastic, especially Paper Ghosts, so I think my TBR is about to grow again, lol.
There are so many books coming out this year that I’m excited about. I’ll have to keep an eye out for these!
Oo, so many good sounding books!
I’m excited to read The Lucky Ones and Paper Ghosts as well, Lauren! 🙂
Ooh nice. The Cheerleaders sounds creepy! The Lucky Ones and They All Fall Down both sound good to me. And I’ve got 84K on my TBR… can’t wait for that to come out!
I love mysteries and thrillers! Paper Ghosts is one I am excited for. The Lucky Ones and The Cheerleaders are also on my TBR. Thanks for sharing!
The Cheerleaders is on my list too!
Some of these books sound so good! I need to add them to my to-read list. Thanks for sharing, Lauren! x
-Leta | The Nerdy Me
The paper ghosts sounds like a good one to read! I’m trying to read more this year and I keep coming to your lists because you leave such fantastic reviews!! LOVE THEM!
The only one I’ve read is Shame on You and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So many of the others appeal to me too, especially They All Fall Down . So I added that to my TBR!
Paper Ghosts sounds beyond terrifying and creepy! Ack lol! I hope you end up loving every single moment of it!
Color Me Murder looks fun 🙂
This is a great roundup. I haven’t read any of these, and so that is exciting!
I really want to read Color Me Murder too. Most of these others are not familiar to me, but I’m going to keep an eye out for them!