6 Crime Thriller Books Mystery Lovers Are Loving Right Now

If you’re searching for crime books that can quickly pull you out of a reading slump, this list is a good place to begin. I first got into crime fiction after picking up Karin Slaughter’s books. The mix of dark unexpected twists, and high-stakes investigations were totally gripping.
One reason crime books are also great book club reads is that they spark a lot of discussion. The shocking reveals, layered characters, and surprising endings give readers plenty to talk about. If you want top-rated crime novels to add to your 2026 reading list these crime fiction books are great ones to pick up next.

The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

The Man Made of Smoke follows Dan Garvie, a criminal profiler still haunted by a childhood moment when he came face-to-face with a serial killer. Years later, after his father dies under strange circumstances, Dan returns to his small island hometown to look into what really happened. As he starts digging into the past, he can’t shake the feeling that the same killer he once saw as a child may have come back.

The latest gripping serial killer thriller from the New York Times bestselling author Alex North.

Dan Garvie’s life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child—narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death. Is it possible that the monster he remembers from his childhood nightmares has returned after all these years?

With his signature shock and suspense, Alex North brings us The Man Made of Smoke. In turn emotional, introspective, and utterly terrifying, this is a story of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets, and the fight we all face to escape the trauma of the past.

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A Voice in the Night by Simon Mason

A Voice in the Night follows detectives Ryan Wilkins and Ray Wilkins, two very different investigators working in Oxford. What begins as a missing person case involving an elderly professor soon takes a darker turn when he is found dead. As the detectives look deeper into the case, they uncover a puzzling investigation filled with unusual clues and long-buried secrets.

Thames Valley has a new Superintendent – DCS Wainwright – young, charismatic and ruthless, charged with pushing through big reforms. Her in-tray is full of problems – and at the top of the pile is the problem of Wilkins and Wilkins.

Trailer park boy DI Ryan Wilkins, interesting looking in baggy trackies and over-large lime-green puffa. In his personnel file is a handwritten note scribbled by the outgoing Super: ‘Do not, repeat not, give him responsibility.’ And posh boy DI Ray Wilkins, improbably handsome in navy blazer and tan chinos: ‘Thinks too highly of himself. More experience needed at the wet end.’ Their previous investigations – though somehow successful – were models of disorder and dysfunction. The new Super needs to take action.

There’s been a shocking murder in the heart of Oxford, the stabbing of a security guard during an attempted armed robbery. Meanwhile, an elderly professor of linguistics goes missing from his home in cosy Iffley Village.

The high-profile murder investigation can be safely handled by reliable detective DI Hare. The entry-level enquiry into the wandering academic can be given to the problem duo, with instructions to keep it simple. But when the body of the professor is found, still dressed in his pyjamas and dripping wet, spreadeagled on a hotel lawn miles from home, things get a little unexpected for the Wilkinses. Will Ray keep on top of the brief? Will Ryan keep it together?

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We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter

We Are All Guilty Here takes place in the small town of North Falls, where two teenage girls vanish during a fireworks celebration. Officer Emmy Clifton becomes deeply involved in the case, especially since one of the girls has a connection to her past. As she begins to investigate, Emmy discovers the missing girls were keeping troubling secrets—and the town itself may be hiding even more.

The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent Series. Welcome to North Falls-a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think. Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites. For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help-and now she must bring her home. But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did. Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The God of the Woods starts when thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from a summer camp in the Adirondacks. The camp belongs to her wealthy family, and this isn’t the first time a child from the Van Laar family has disappeared. As the search for Barbara grows, old secrets about the powerful family and the nearby community slowly begin to surface.

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

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My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

My Husband ’s Wife follows Eden Fox, who comes home one day to find a woman living in her house claiming to be her husband’s wife. At the same time, a woman named Birdy inherits the same mysterious house and soon becomes tangled in secrets surrounding identity, life, and death. As the story moves forward, hidden motives and shocking lies slowly come to light.

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists is back with a psychological masterpiece that will leave you questioning everything you know about love, identity, and revenge.

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.

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The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

The Chestnut Man begins when a woman is found murdered in Copenhagen, with a small doll made of chestnuts left hanging above the crime scene. Detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess take the case and soon discover a clue that connects the murder to a young girl who disappeared the year before. As more victims are found, the detectives realize they may be hunting a dangerous serial killer who is still out there.

THE DEBUT NOVEL FROM THE CREATOR AND WRITER OF HIT TV SHOW THE KILLING

One blustery October morning in a quiet Copenhagen suburb, the police make a terrible discovery. A young woman is found brutally murdered with one of her hands missing. Above her hangs a small doll made of chestnuts.

Ambitious young detective Naia Thulin is assigned the case. Her partner, Mark Hess, is a burned-out investigator who’s just been kicked out of Europol. They soon discover a mysterious piece of evidence on the chestnut man – evidence connecting it to a girl who went missing a year earlier and is presumed dead; the daughter of politician Rosa Hartung. The man who confessed to her murder is behind bars and the case long since closed.

Soon afterwards, a second woman is found murdered, along with another chestnut man. Thulin and Hess suspect that there’s a connection between the Hartung case and the murdered women. But what is it?

Thulin and Hess are racing against the clock, because it’s clear that the killer is on a mission that is far from over . . .

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