July 2021 Most-Anticipated Crime Books
New Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense Novels for Your TBR
Summer is here, and it’s bringing with it some incredible new crime fiction releases for us to devour! Summer 2021 is jam-packed with amazing crime books, some of which I’ve been lucky enough to read already and others that are still on my personal TBR list. To help you plan your own reading lists, each month this summer I’ll be sharing monthly lists of my personal most-anticipated new crime fiction releases for that respective month. I can’t wait to share these books with you, and I hope they will catch your eye as much as they’ve caught mine! In case you missed it, you can check out my list of Most-Anticipated June 2021 Crime Books here. July 2021 delivers a thrilling assortment of gritty noir, wickedly fun psychological suspense, and lots more. This month sees the return of fan-favorite crime writers S.A. Cosby, Samantha Downing, Karin Slaughter, and lots more. Whether you’re in the market for juicy suspense or blistering, action-packed thrillers, there’s a little something for everyone publishing this month. Read on for my picks for most-anticipated July 2021 crime fiction!
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July 2021 Most-Anticipated Crime Books
Organized by Publication Date
RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby
Available July 6, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I devoured S.A. Cosby’s RAZORBLADE TEARS in a couple of breathless sittings earlier this spring, and I can’t wait for you all to be able to get your hands on this book this month. (And stay tuned for my full review of the book coming on the book’s publication day!) The basic premise: when their sons are murdered, two fathers embark on a mission to avenge their untimely deaths. RAZORBLADE TEARS is a gritty, action-packed thriller that packs a major emotional punch. This blistering crime story tackles topics including prejudice, fatherhood, masculinity, and lots more, and it’s all wrapped up in a truly gripping package that you won’t want to put down. Bonus: this book’s cinematic final showdown is truly worthy of the big screen. After 2020’s Blacktop Wasteland, S.A. Cosby has upped the ante even more in his 2021 release RAZORBLADE TEARS.
About the Book:
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.
The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.
Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.
SILVER TEARS by Camilla Lackberg
Available July 6, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I’ve been a longtime fan of Swedish Queen of Crime Camilla Lackberg - I began reading her Fjallbacka books long before starting this blog! Last year, Camilla released her first psychological thriller The Golden Cage, and this year, she’s back with its follow-up. SILVER TEARS is perhaps even more juicy, sexy, and entertaining than The Golden Cage. In SILVER TEARS, a woman who has built her dream business to exact corporate revenge on her (now ex-) husband finds her carefully-constructed world falling apart. In order to save what she’s built, she is going to have to team up with former rivals to destroy her enemies once and for all. If you love books featuring antiheroine protagonists and/or thrilling, female-driven revenge plots, both The Golden Cage and SILVER TEARS are well worth checking out! These books are tons of sexy, glitzy, thrilling fun.
About the Book:
In this bold, mesmerizing story of seduction, deceit, and female power, a woman’s secret cannot stay buried forever.
Faye Adelheim is living a delicious lie. She is wealthy beyond imagination, she is the Chairman of her self-made global cosmetics brand, and her ex-husband, the monster who killed her beloved daughter Julienne, is living out the remainder of his days behind bars.
But unbeknownst to journalists, police officers, and investors, and even the lovers she occasionally invites to her bed, Faye has a secret: her daughter is, in fact, alive and well and so is her mother, the woman Faye’s father was sentenced for allegedly killing years ago.
Together, three generations of women have survived in hiding from the men who sought to destroy them. But unfortunately for Faye, cages are meant to be opened, pillow talk can lead to betrayal, and secrets always end in tears.
THE THERAPIST by B.A. Paris
Available July 13, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
B.A. Paris’ recent releases have honestly been a bit hit-or-miss for me, but I’m very intrigued by the premise of her 2021 release THE THERAPIST. This book looks like it has major “popcorn read” potential, and I’m excited to give it a read this summer! THE THERAPIST looks like it might be the book that gets me back into her work (or at least, that’s my hope!) In THE THERAPIST, a couple moves into an exclusive neighborhood, only to uncover a dark secret about their new home. The summer months always have me craving lighter psychological suspense, and THE THERAPIST looks like a very promising option if that sounds like something you love during the summer, too.
About the Book:
The multimillion-copy New York Times bestselling author B.A. Paris returns to her heartland of gripping psychological suspense in The Therapist―a powerful tale of a house that holds a shocking secret.
When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…
As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
FOR YOUR OWN GOOD by Samantha Downing
Available July 20, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I’ve already been lucky enough to read Samantha Downing’s FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, and I can honestly say this book will easily be one of my favorites of 2021. (And I’ll have a full review explaining exactly why coming as we get just a bit closer to the book’s release!) FOR YOUR OWN GOOD is all kinds of wicked fun, and it has so many qualities that I love in a crime novel: an academic setting (in this case, a prestigious prep school), an unlikeable-yet-wildly-engaging protagonist (a teacher who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants), and a wickedly fun plot that is both dark and very clever. I loved this book, and if any of what I’ve just described appeals to you, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD is practically guaranteed to be your ideal summer read.
About the Book:
USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school—complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson…
Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest.
He says his wife couldn’t be more proud—though no one has seen her in a while.
Teddy really can’t be bothered with a few mysterious deaths on campus that’re looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy’s personal life. His main focus is pushing these kids to their full academic potential.
All he wants is for his colleagues—and the endlessly meddlesome parents—to stay out of his way. If not, well, they’ll get what they deserve.
It’s really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.
FALSE WITNESS by Karin Slaughter
Available July 20, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Karin Slaughter is an institution in the world of crime writing, and this summer, she returns with her newest standalone thriller FALSE WITNESS. As someone who has not read Karin Slaughter’s series (I promise one of these days I will make the time!!), I am always eager to have the chance to read a standalone story from Slaughter. FALSE WITNESS has an immediately compelling premise: a defense attorney is given a case with ties to her own dark past, which she has worked hard to keep hidden. FALSE WITNESS has already been praised as “a twisty, searingly contemporary mystery” (Stacey Abrams) and “equal parts hyperrealistic thriller and epic tragedy” (Booklist, Starred Review). I can’t wait to experience this one for myself!
About the Book:
AN ORDINARY LIFE…
Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She’s an up-and-coming defense attorney at a prestigious law firm in Atlanta, would do anything for her sixteen-year-old daughter Maddy, and is managing to successfully coparent through a pandemic after an amicable separation from her husband Walter.
HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST...
But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure … a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and ultimately destroyed by a brutal act of violence.
BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP…
On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the firm's partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. Though wary of the case, it becomes apparent she doesn't have much choice if she wants to keep her job. They're scheduled to go to trial in one week. When she meets the accused face-to-face, she realizes that it’s no coincidence that he’s specifically asked for her to represent him. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he may know what happened over twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades avoiding her past.
AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
Suddenly she has a lot more to lose than this case. The only person who can help is her younger, estranged sister Callie—the last person Leigh would ever want to drag into this after all they’ve been through. But with the life-shattering truth in danger of being revealed, she has no choice...
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.