Below is a list of the best mystery and thriller novels released (or to be released) in 2019 so far. I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, so I know how great it is when you find that one book that really satisfies that mystery-thriller itch.
This list will be updated as the year progresses, but here’s a list of your best bets for 2019 so far!
What It's About: In The Silent Patient, a well known artist, Alicia Berenson, has been in a psychiatric hospital for years after she shoots her husband and has not spoken a word since. In the years after the shooting, Alicia paints only one painting, which is a self portrait entitled “Alcestis,” named after a Greek heroine who returns from the dead, but never speaks again.
Theo Faber is a psychologist who takes on the her case to understand what happened that night and why she is unable or unwilling to speak.
See the Full Summary and Review of The Silent Patient Publication Date: February 5, 2019
What It's About: Jules Larsen is a young woman with less than $500 bucks in her checking account, a broken engagement and no job. When she’s offered a chance to “apartment sit” for an apartment at a beautiful, upscale building called The Bartholomew, she jumps at the chance, despite knowing that it all seems a little too good to be true.
As Jules begins to look into the many stories that surround the Bartholomew, she soon starts to uncover secrets of its dark and haunted past. However, it seems there are those around her that would prefer those secrets stay buried.
See the Full Summary and Review of Lock Every Door Publication Date: July 2, 2019
What It's About: In The Chain, a young girl is abducted on the way to school. Soon, her mother Rachel is contacted by a nefarious organization called The Chain. If she wants her daughter back, she needs to pay a ransom and kidnap someone else’s loved ones. For her daughter to live, Rachel needs to perpetuate and become a part of The Chain.See the Full Summary and Review of The Chain Publication Date: February 9, 2019
What It's About: Recursion by Blake Crouch is about a scientist who creates technology that has the power to change time and reality, giving people the ability to go back and re-do parts of their lives.See the Full Summary and Review of Recursion Publication Date: June 11, 2019
What It's About: Rowan gets a job as a live-in nanny, working for a wealthy couple in their technologically-advanced home. However, the longer she’s there, the more she can tell there’s signs that things feel a little off, from the misbehaving kids to the creepy garden of poisonous plants in the back. Soon, she hears from the locals and other people about the many stories of death and murder in the home’s enigmatic past.
By the end, Rowan will find herself awaiting trail for the murder of a young child, but how she ends up where and why are the questions at the heart of this haunted house mystery.
See the Full Summary and Review of The Turn of the Key Publication Date: August 6, 2019
What It's About: Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead. In an isolated belt of Australia, their homes a three-hour drive apart, the brothers were one another’s nearest neighbors. Cameron was the middle child, the one who ran the family homestead. But something made him head out alone under the unrelenting sun.
While they grieve Cameron’s loss, suspicion starts to take hold, and Nathan is forced to examine secrets the family would rather leave in the past. Because if someone forced Cameron to his death, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.
Publication Date: October 23, 2018What It's About: In My Lovely Wife, our unnammed narrator and his wife, Millicent, are a married couple with two kids living in the upscale neighborhood of Hidden Oaks. He’s a tennis instructor, and she’s a realtor. Based on outward appearances, they appear to be a fairly normal couple, with the same financial stresses and worries about daily life as anyone else.
What separates them from others is that they both find excitement in their marriage by killing people. Their "date nights" are codewords for planning a time to plot murders, and when the book opens, they are in the process of identifying their next victim.
See the Full Summary and Review of My Lovely Wife Publication Date: March 26, 2019
What It's About: You've lost your daughter. She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found.Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble. She runs.
And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
What It's About: In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window...See the Full Summary and Review of The Institute Publication Date: September 10, 2019
Great list!! I want to read most of them now!!!!
And I’m still going to read Where The Crawdad Sings. I’ll be looking for clues for racism in the book! I really enjoy your writing.
Lock Every Door was just so, so good!
What a great list. Thanks for this. I have put several on my TBR list.
I loved The Silent Patient and Recursion!
I suggest you to add the Fourth Monkey (4MK) series to this list. All three books of this series are awful!