8 Lesser-Known Mysteries & Thrillers That May Have Slipped Your Radar This Year
By Mary Kay McBrayer
With the abundance of mystery and thriller books that hit the shelves this year, here are eight lesser-known books that we wanted to shine a little spotlight on.
Sean Courtland’s truck broke down in this random Wisconsin town, and he never left. Dan Young drifted in from Minnesota. They work in carpentry and plumbing for old man Marion Devereaux, and while they fall in with him and the tavern waitress Denise Givens, they learn about the disappearance of three boys in the 1970s, whose absence still haunts the town today. Sean and Dan’s presence unwittingly sets off a chain of events that reveals the long-buried truth about what happened to those boys.
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After a fight with her husband, pediatrician Dr. Emory Charbonneau goes on a mountain wilderness run to clear her head. And then she goes missing. Police immediately suspect her husband, Jeff, but Emora regains consciousness as a captive. Her kidnapper is not as purely evil as he seems, though… especially when it’s gradually revealed that he might have been the one to save her from death and heartbreak.
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Boady Sanden learns of the case of Elijah Matthews, self-professed prophet on psychiatric lockdown for brutally murdering a megachurch’s pastor, while serving as a lawyer working for the Innocence Project. He doesn’t think he can help, despite his mission of emancipating the wrongfully convicted. But then Elijah’s case links back to the murder of his friend Ben Pruitt, whose daughter, Emma, is Boady’s own goddaughter.
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If you’re fascinated with the crimes of Burke & Hare, step carefully into the officed of Dr. Burnett, year 1826. Isobel Tait can’t unsee one preserved specimen in particular: it’s a juvenile human heart with a damaged mitral valve… the same condition of her son’s, who has been missing for months. Isobel is determined to uncover the owner of the heart, so she becomes his collection’s keeper, but in a city like Edinburgh where so many people vanish, it won’t be an easy answer to find.
Format
Trade Paperback
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Another disappearance lives at the heart of this novel: this time of Davy Malcor who went missing from Wynotte North Carolina twenty years ago. When his Marty McFly jacket resurfaces, the cold case reopens, and with it, the small southern community tries to untangle its turmoil and heal.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 1, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Dez Lane is only dating Patrick Ruskin to get at his mother, the editor in chief of an acclaimed fashion magazine, and to leverage herself into an internship typically reserved by nepotism. But when she gets to the Ruskin Easter reunion on a luxurious island, she learns that the Ruskins have made their servants all sign contracts that look like indentured servitude. And this just so happens to be the moment when the servants have decided the only way out of those contracts is to depose the Ruskins for good.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 10, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances. Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet. Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around February 13, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
When the body of a barista is found in the once-pristine Alaskan snow, Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans is gutted to recognise the young woman, Jolene. He’d bought coffee from her every morning, and knew her as a bright college student working her way through school. Devastated by the murder and by the life cut short, Beans vows to find the killer. Since scavengers damaged the body, obtaining any usable evidence is impossible, even with the assistance of wildlife expert Raisa Ingalls, Beans’ ex. When the body of another woman is found, a serial killer is suspected and the FBI joins the hunt. After a third body turns up, Beans is desperate to find the killer – especially when another woman goes missing. With the murderer moving so quickly, Beans and Raisa are determined to stop the spree and catch the killer before it’s too late. Pulse-pounding and vividly depicted, this remote Alaskan thriller will electrify fans of Lisa Gardner and true crime junkies fascinated by the Israel Keyes case.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 9, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
