The Best of 2019 – Maggie & Shannon’s Favourite Mysteries and Thrillers
One of the strongest and most popular markets in publishing right now is the thriller/mystery market. There is a lot of crossover between mystery and romance readers since women make up the bulk of the consumers of both these genres. AAR has finished our Best of 2019 romance lists and now Maggie and Shannon combine their knowledge to bring you their list of the best of the mystery/thriller market from 2019.
Maggie: For me, this was the year of the suburban/small town thriller. Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson, Someone We Know by Shari Lapena, The Chain by Adrian McKinty, The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger, Stolen Things by Rachel Heron. Did you get that vibe from this year’s crop of novels or did you find yourself reading a slightly different style of book?
Shannon: I completely agree with your assessment, Maggie. Many of the books I read in 2019 had that small town feel, and I’d be completely fine if 2020 brought me more of the same. You and I read a lot of the same books set in small towns.
Maggie: The Domestic Thriller is still quite popular and several of my favorite books of the year revolved around the theme of family. Fiona Barton’s absolutely excellent The Suspect, Ruth Ware’s The Turn of the Key, Jane Harper’s The Lost Man, Siri Mitchell’s State of Lies, Lesley Kara’s The Rumor, Alice Feeney’s I Know Who You Are and Lisa Jewell’s outstanding The Family Upstairs. Did you feel the domestic thriller was still going strong this year? What were your favorites?
Shannon: Domestic Thrillers are still super popular. Emma Rous’ The Au Pair, Sally Hepworth’s The Mother-In-Law, Gillian McCallister’s The Good Sister, Wendy Herd’s The Kill Club, Christina McDonald’s The Night Olivia Fell, Lizzy Barber’s A Girl Called Anna, and Haylen Beck’s Lost You were the ones that stood out for me. And of course, I agree about Ruth Ware, Alice Feeny, and Lisa Unger as well.
Maggie: Dangerous friends remains a strong theme in the thriller market and for me the outstanding offerings in that arena were Her One Mistake by Heidi Perks, The First Mistake by Sandie Jones, and I Invited Her In by Adele Parks. What were your favorite dangerous friends novels?
Shannon: The First Mistake and Her One Mistake were fantastic! I’m definitely looking forward to reading more by Perks and Jones. Other stellar novels that fall into this category are Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline, Before She Was Found by Heather Gudenkauf, and One More Lie by Amy Lloyd.
Maggie: Thrillers can be expensive to buy, both in print and digital. What is your favorite reasonably priced read? For me it was Loreth Anne White’s In the Dark.
Shannon: In the Dark was a phenomenal read! Until the Day I Die by Emily Carpenter is another compelling mystery that won’t break the bank.
Maggie: The Gothic market remains a steady presence in the thriller market and is still one of my favorites. I loved Ware’s Turn of the Key, Tess Geritsen’s The Shape of Night and Michelle Adams’ Between the Lies.
Shannon: You know, I didn’t read too many gothics this year. The Au Pair by Emma Rous had a gothic feel to it, and, of course, Ruth Ware is the queen of the modern gothic.
Maggie: Police procedurals are not as popular as they once were but there are still some really strong books being published in this market. My favorite in 2019 is easily Cara Hunter’s No Way Out. It is the third book in the DI Fawley series and was absolutely fabulous. Did you read any great police procedurals this year?
Shannon: I certainly did! Readers who love Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books should definitely check out Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series. The Scholar, which is the second book in the series, came out in 2019, and I loved it!
Maggie: Thrillers are known for their startling twists. I don’t know that I can name a biggest twist this year but Alice Feeney’s I Know Who You Are definitely had one of the more stunning ones. Which book would you say had a twist that took you completely by surprise?
Shannon: I was stunned by the twist in Gillian McCallister’s The Good Sister. Other stellar twists can be found in Dear Wife by Kimberly Bell and Never Look Back by Alison Gaylin.
Maggie: I still love romantic suspense and we are not seeing anywhere near enough of it. This year my favorite novel in that genre is Lisa Clark O’Neill’s Undertow. It’s the fifth book in the Sweetwater series but you don’t have to have read the other novels in that series to enjoy this one.
Shannon: Karen Rose is one of today’s strongest voices in romantic suspense, and this column wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the latest book in her Cincinnati series. Into the Dark was everything I was hoping for and then some.
So, there it is. Our favourite mysteries and thrillers of 2019. What were yours?
Interesting that small-town mystery-thrillers had a strong showing in 2019. I had the opposite sense from reading romances in general where my favorite books of the year featured urban settings. As an urban dweller, I have to say that urban settings are my own personal preference.
Next week, Simone St. James’s The Sun-Down Motel is out, and I’m excited for it.
The Sun-Down Motel is amazing. St. James in all her brilliance, imo. What books did you read with an urban setting? None are coming to me right now that are thrillers.
Oh, that’s wonderful news about Simone St. James’s new book! I’ve pretty much only read terrific reviews of it. For urban settings, so many of my favorite romances last years used this setting, but I too did not read urban settings in the thriller genre.
Urban settings are coming back in romance and that has been really, really nice.T here have been some great stories set in mid/large cities.. I actually like the small town/suburban setting for thrillers because it adds the element of the people we know being the ones we most need to fear. Also, it shatters the illusion that these are havens of safety while urban situations are hotbeds of danger.
Hope you like the St. James as much as I did. It’s my top read of the year and it’s had some stiff competition.
I can see why more thrillers are being set in urban areas though. Small town/suburban mysteries and thrillers, especially series, definitely require more suspension of disbelief as in, “We’re just going to pretend it’s not weird at all that this charming little town of 3,000 (and dropping!) has a higher murder per capita rate than some of the world’s most violent major cities.” Not saying it’s a bad setting, but am wondering if that’s part of the reason for the switch.
@Maggie – I think there was a conversation in one of Conan Doyle Holmes’s stories about the particular insidiousness of evil hiding in small towns.
After brainstorming a little I remembered that The Widow of Rose House from Diana Biller is a paranormal ghost story/thriller romance set in urban areas. It’s a Gilded Age story and uses New York City and New England settings quite well.
Thanks everybody!
I remembered some old friends (Louise Penny, a few good Mary Stewarts, Diane Mott Davidson) and have a few new good ideas.
:-)
Laurie King’s Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mysteries are also a favorite!
I am a big police procedural fan. I love Louise Penny, Peter Robinson and Deborah Crombie to just name a few. I’m a big scaredy-cat so psychological thrillers are not my cup of tea. I’m not sure how to categorize them, but I just finished the fifth Kelly Armstrong’s Rockton series.
Louise Penny is an excellent recommendation. I’d completely forgotten them but they are perfect intellectual mysteries which keep most of the violence off the page,
My favorite 2019 mysteries:
Never Tell—Lisa Gardner, A Dangerous Man—Robert Crais, The Night Fire—Michael Connelly, The Silent Patient–Alex Michaelides, The Last Widow—Karin Slaughter, If She Wakes–Michael Koryta, The Better Sister–Alafair Burke, Run Away–Harlan Coben, A Dangerous Collaboration–Deanna Raybourn, and The Art of Theft–Sherry Thomas.
I love Lisa Gardener! Her 2020 release – When you See Me- was fantastic! The Silent Patient has been on my TBR for months – hopefully i will get to it soon.
Lieselotte, I think what you are looking for is called cozy mysteries. Might be wrong! Anyway, I really like the series by Kerry Greenwood about a femake baker. Ms. Greenwood is best known for her Miss Fisher series, also cozies, but I like the Corinna Chapman ones better.
And yes, I too miss Agathe Christie and especially Dorothy Sayers.
Thanks Katja!
Phryne Fisher did not really grab me, I will try the other series.
Thank you, very good topic!!
My great new crime discovery 2019 (hope translation year counts! the book itself is very old) is:
Seishi Yokomizo, Honjin Murders
I have a question – If you covered the question in another blog, or can direct me how to search (which search words are needed), please redirect me::
Can you recommend any new great Agatha Christie type books?
Mysteries where most of the violence is off the page?
I loved Knives Out, the film, this is just the perfect type of book or film for my taste.
From the list above, I read that you are all much more courageous than I, and love the chills and thrills. At least, I did not identify books on it that fit my “mystery enjoyment level” – our tastes seem too different.
This is also why I have not had the courage to delve into Gregory Ashe, or Victoria Kingsbridge, who get such good reviews at AAR.
Unfortunately, I am a horrible complete frightened chicken and I have stopped reading quite a few types of mystery fiction due to that. And it gets worse, as I age.
So I cannot really enjoy:
– most thrillers due to violence, some exceptions from time to time.
– sustained violence against children – kidnapping, torture – if it is on the page. I can deal with a background history where adults have such a past, but only with very limited on the page. That is why I stopped reading Tami Hoag.
– serial killers of women, especially the ritual type . They always seem to take over the book, and the good guys fade as opposed to them. That is why I stopped reading Patricia Cornwell. There was an amazing article somewhere about how the serial killer is nearly always about a man’s pain at some women dying, and the women become background – also, all the women who “deserve to die” because they are not virtuous, because they loved a criminal, because they did not stay home at night….
– domestic thrillers because the idea that a good person (often a woman) is just a generous idiot surrounded by evil she does not recognize – Enemy in my Bed (the old film) still gives me chills occasionally when I see certain relationship patterns.
Can anyone help? Is there a reader or reviewer whose taste is similar?
I like my mysteries intelligent, people well written, and mostly, I like my mysteries short, i.e. Agatha Christie length, because I tend to read them in one-two goes, to remember all the details and clues.
I love Charlaine Harris mystery books (Aurora Teagarden, Shakespeare), Janet Neel, Jill Paton Walsh (and Dorothy Sayers, of course), Taya Huff’s Smoke and Blood series both, just discovered Seishi Yokomizo who got translated (Honjin Murders).
I do not mind Elizabeth George like deep delving into places and character (in her early books, I stopped around the 10th, too long and too depressing and too similar in some way.
Cute and stupid is not so good for me, because I read mystery as brain candy, so pretend cute and stupid is wonderful, but really bad plotting does not work.
Thank you for reading this long post, hope it is on topic, here.
I also enjoyed the early Elizabeth George books and also Faye Kellerman but the latter lost my interest when the focus was on the daughter, Cindy. I learnt so much about the Jewish way of life and the stories were set in a part of LA I knew well once upon a time. Great post, Lieselotte.
Did you read Loreth Anne White’s latest, In the Dark? It’s very Christie-esque.
True, I did, based on rec here, yes it is very much “Orient Express-y”.
I was not bowled over, the glimpse into the mean thoughts of the characters soon at the beginning made me dislike them, but I liked the structure and approach -skimmed some, though..
Are her other books like that?
I think In the Dark is a good example of White’s books. If you are looking for less violence, Shari LaPena is not scary. I find her less scary than Loreth Ann White. in fact. I would recommend starting with An Unwanted Guest. If you haven’t read Mary Stewart, I strongly recommend her mysteries. I recall them being more intellectual than violent. I enjoyed the cozy mysteries of Dianne Mott Davidson, they are a series about a caterer who solves crime. Maybe start with the first book, Dying for Chocolate. Maybe Dorothy Cannell, her mysteries are very light in tone and don’t dwell on the violence.
I too did not enjoy Loreth Anne White’s In the Dark nearly as much as I had hoped. I’m a Christie fan though and so maybe my expectations were just too high. I also though am not a huge fan of outdoor survival type stories, which this one was, and I thought the book had a difficult time negotiating a traditional closed-door mystery with a outdoor survival adventure narrative.
I’m not much of a mystery reader but I do like some thrillers. Have you tried any Harlequin Intrigue titles? They are not terribly violent, tend to focus a little more on the mystery/race against time rather than the romance (although the romance is there, of course), and tend to split POV pretty evenly between the hero and the heroine.
Oh, and Harlequin also has a line of mystery/thriller romances called “Love Inspired Suspense.” I haven’t read any of those titles, but they have a rule of no graphic violence or sex.
I loved Knives Out too. Could have done with a bit less vomiting :-) but that’s one of my favorites from 2019.
Hi Liselotte, I was a big Charlaine Harris mystery fan as well. I remember waiting for the next Aurora Teagarden book to get released and hunting for an out of print Shakespeare book in used bookstores (back in the olden days before ebooks of them were available). I also really enjoyed the Grave Sight series And read her two stand alone mystery books, but I haven’t been able to get into the Midnight Crossroad ones. I think we have similar tastes!
If you have never read them I think you would really enjoy Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels books. There’s nothing graphic in them and there is usually a little romance thrown in. The heroines are smart and savvy. Some of my favorites by Barbara Michaels are “Stitches In Time”, “Into The Darkness”, “Shattered Silk” and “Search The Shadows.” As Elizabeth Peters her “Vicky Bliss” series is really fun. As you like Aurora Teagarden, I think you will like these.
Thanks – yes me too – so happy when I finally found the last missing Shakespeare book in a used book shop – and the hunt for Aurora Teagarden… old days…
Yes, Midnight Crossroads was a pleasant read, but I never really got into it, and did not read the third one – just not invested. But they were not mysteries to me.
will try your recs!
If you liked Grave Sight, you might enjoy Tanya Huff’s Blood series, too. And her Smoke trilogy (maybe that one is better, the Blood books may feel dated, I like it because I read it when it wasn’t dated yet…)
I think I already own some Tanya Huff books in my never ending “to be read” stacks. I will have to move them up towards the top.
It’s funny that I also have to think about books I have read and if they will “hold up now”. I often think about it when I look at old “Best 100 AAR books” polls or best books of the year polls and see which books were “flash in the pans” and didn’t hold up over time. Some like old Brockmann books used to dominate polls and hardly get mentioned by anyone now.
Liseolotte,
I like the Lord and Lady Hetheridge series by Emma Jameson, a cozy style mystery series set in modern London. Not too much violence, the victims are mostly men, and there is a strong element of humor as well. I don’t read cozy mysteries as a general rule, but I very much enjoy these. The offbeat romance is a delight, as well. (Her Dr. Bones series, set in WWII era Cornwall is also fun, but there aren’t a lot of books in that series yet.)
I also like the wonderfully atmospheric Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn. Set in Victorian times, Lady Julia’s husband dies in the first book, and she meets the mysterious Brisbane in the course of that investigation. There are intriguing mysteries, romantic tension you could cut with a knife, eccentric characters, amusing animals, and fascinating settings. If you have enjoyed her Veronica Speedwell books I think will adore these.
I’m not a fan generally of romantic suspense; one element or the other often gets shortchanged in my opinion. But these 2 series are exceptionally well executed, the writing quality is high and the characters are relatable.
Great discussion! My favourite mysteries and thrillers of 2019 are:
Jane Harper – The Lost Man
Simon Beckett – The Scent of Death
Candice Fox – Crimson-Lake-Series
Chris Hammer – Outback
PJ Tracy – Ice cold Heart
Karin Slaughter – The last Widow
The Crimson Lake series sounds wonderful – I’m going to have to add those to my list. Thanks for the recommend!