13 Best Mystery & Thriller Books of 2023

The Washington Post calls Stephen Amidon’s Locust Lane “compulsively readable,” and we wholeheartedly agree. The evocative crime novel has a vivid sense of place and an intriguing central mystery that rivals the best in the genre. The book takes place in Emerson, Massachusetts, an upscale New England suburb of high-end homes and manicured lawns. But the exclusive community is rocked when teenager Eden Perry is found dead in the nicest part of town. Fingers quickly point to the three teenagers who were with Eden on her last night alive: outsider Christopher, the mean and popular Jack, and unstable but seemingly sweet Hannah. As tensions mount and suspicions swirl, it soon becomes clear that the parents of the young suspects will do whatever it takes to protect their own — even if it means letting someone else take the fall. A suspense-steeped literary mystery that calls to mind Mystic River by Dennis Lehane or the suburban thrillers of Harlan Coben, Locust Lane is not to be missed. 

Alex North hit it out of the park with his first two creepy thrillers, The Whisper Man and The Shadows, so we’re not surprised that his latest release kept us reading long into the night this year. In The Angel Maker, the internationally bestselling author weaves together a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries, crafting a twisted dual-timeline narrative that will keep you guessing until the last page is turned. One of these mysteries involves Katie Shaw, whose brother Chris has just disappeared years after a violent attack changed their family forever. The other thread follows Detective Laurence Page and the ghastly murder of a professor of fate and free will. The deeper the detective digs into the case, the more he’s drawn back to the brutal attack on young Chris Shaw and the vile crimes of a notorious serial killer who, if the rumors are to be believed, could see into the future.

From Swedish crime novelist M. T. Edvardsson, author of A Nearly Normal Family, The Woman Inside is an absorbing domestic thriller about secrets, lies, and the desperate race to save yourself. Karla is a law student and an aspiring judge who rents a room from a struggling widower named Bill Olsson. Bill needs the money to help care for his daughter — and, as it turns out, Karla could use some cash too. She begins working as a housekeeper for the Rytters, a wealthy but intensely secretive couple whose lives are just too good to be true. Indeed, something is terribly wrong in the Rytter household: The husband is obsessive and controlling, while the wife suffers from a mysterious malady and rarely leaves her room. When the Rytters wind up dead, however, deep secrets are revealed that put everyone in jeopardy.

In 2021, S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears made multiple best-of-the-year lists, including roundups from NPR and Time. This year, Cosby returned with All the Sinners Bleed to show that he’s still at the top of his game. An instant New York Times bestseller, the riveting Southern noir explores race, class, faith, and our capacity for violence. At its center is Titus Crown, a former FBI agent turned small-town sheriff of Charon County, Virginia, and the first Black sheriff in the county’s history. The murder of a local teacher exposes a second shock to the community: A serial killer is on the loose. As Titus hunts for the devil tormenting Charon County, he must also confront his painful past, a deeply troubled town history, and a far-right group demanding to celebrate the Confederacy with a parade.

In Small Mercies, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane delivers yet another crime novel masterpiece set on the streets of Boston— indeed, horror author Stephen King recommends Small Mercies as “thought-provoking, engaging, enraging, and can’t-put-it-down entertainment.” It’s the summer of 1974 when Mary Pat Fennessy, a down-on-her-luck single mother who’s lived her whole life in the housing projects of Southie, Boston, experiences a parent’s worst nightmare: Her teenage daughter Jules has failed to come home. The same night that Jules goes missing, a young Black man is found dead after being struck by a subway train, which Mary Pat soon discovers is no accident. As she scours the city amid a sweltering heatwave and deepening racial tensions over school integration, she’s determined to find answers, even if it means ruffling the feathers of Irish mob boss Marty Butler.

One way to know that a book has hooked you is if it sticks in your mind long after you put it down. And even though Jane Harper’s Exiles hit shelves at the very start of 2023, we’re still thinking about it as the year draws to a close. The instant New York Times bestselling crime novel focuses on federal investigator Aaron Falk, who cannot escape mystery even when he’s on vacation. A local woman named Kim Gillespie vanished a year before the detective visited Southern Australia’s wine country, and Aaron and his old friend have trouble staying away from the case after Gillespie’s daughter pleads for their help on the anniversary of the disappearance. Aaron infiltrates the Gillespie family’s inner circle, unearthing more questions — and dangers — than answers. 

Whenever Edgar Award–winning author Walter Mosley releases a new novel, we take notice — and 2023’s Every Man a King, the second in Mosley’s King Oliver series, delivers the thrilling goods. In the book, Joe King Oliver is tasked with investigating a crime that might mean clearing the name of a reprehensible — but in this case, innocent — man. The individual, Alfred Xavier Quiller, is a white nationalist who’s been accused of murder and of selling secrets to Russia. King is approached by family friend and billionaire Roger Ferris, who thinks Quiller is being framed, and the case puts King and his family in danger as he heads down a path to the unexpected truth.

From Brendan Slocumb, author of The Violin Conspiracy, Symphony of Secrets is a propulsive thriller about a music professor who uncovers a startling secret in music history. Bern Hendricks, a leading expert on composer Frederick Delaney, is tapped by one of Delaney’s descendants to authenticate a newly discovered piece of music. With the assistance of a techie named Eboni, Hendricks discovers that Delaney may have lifted his work from Josephine Reed, a Black Jazz Age prodigy who never received the credit she deserved. This novel is a thrilling ride, but it’s also a commentary on power, privilege, legacy, and the dispiriting American tradition of white performers stealing ideas from people of color.

Rebecca Makkai’s New York Times bestseller I Have Some Questions for You was one of our favorite mysteries of 2023, and we promise you won’t be able to put this plot-twisting whodunit down. The novel centers on Bodie Kane, a film professor and podcaster who remains haunted by the murder of her boarding school roommate. When she returns to her old New Hampshire boarding school years later to teach a course, Bodie gets drawn back to the mystery of her roommate’s death — and considers whether the man who went down for the crime was indeed the killer.

Mystery fans in the mood for a warmhearted caper will gush over Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, a delightful new mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties. At the heart of the book is an unexpected amateur sleuth: the titular Vera Wong, an elderly shopkeeper who runs a tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. When Vera finds a dead man in her shop, she decides to lift a flash drive from the body before the cops arrive. Afterward, Vera launches her own investigation and becomes convinced that one of her new customers is the killer — and with business suddenly booming, she has plenty of potential suspects to sort through.

Eleanor Catton wowed readers in 2013 with her Booker Prize–winning novel The Luminaries. In her new psychological thriller, Birnam Wood, Catton explores humanity’s darkest impulses as the world teeters on the brink. A natural disaster wipes out a section of New Zealand’s South Island, leaving a sizable farm in ruins. Birnam Wood — a guerrilla-gardening collective that straddles the line between philanthropic and criminal — moves in to plant crops there, but an American billionaire named Robert Lemoine is also interested in the tract. When Robert finds Mira, Birnam’s founder, on the property, the two discover that they share common enemies and may make better partners in crime than archrivals. But can either side trust the other? Birnam Wood has been named one of the best books of 2023 by The New Yorker, the BBC, Vulture, and more. The international bestseller also has its fair share of high-profile fans, including former President Barack Obama, who added it to his summer 2023 reading list.

Juan Gómez-Jurado electrified mystery and thriller fans around the world this year with his international bestseller Red Queen, the first in a proposed trilogy. At the center of the enthralling new narrative is Antonia Scott, a brilliant sleuth whose visionary forensic mind can crack the most impenetrable of cases. In the wake of a personal trauma, however, Antonia has left her detective work behind and refuses to leave her apartment. Jon Gutierrez, a disgraced cop in Bilbao, Spain, has been offered a second chance if he can get Antonia back on her feet. Together, the pair investigate the ritualistic murder of a teenage boy whose body was drained of its blood and the slaying’s connection to the kidnapping of a wealthy heiress. 

Shari Lapena’s Everyone Here Is Lying is the perfect book to round out our list of the best mystery and thriller books of 2023 — after all, how can you resist that title? The bestselling thriller from the author of The Couple Next Door takes place in the upstanding suburb of Stanhope, where safety has never been an issue. That is, until 9-year-old Avery Wooler goes missing, mere hours after having an explosive fight with her father, William, who is in the midst of an extramarital affair. As the mystery over Avery’s disappearance intensifies and more shocking secrets come to light, the residents of Stanhope begin to wonder whether their once-placid community is about to combust.