September 2021 Most-Anticipated Crime Books
NEW MYSTERIES, THRILLERS, AND SUSPENSE NOVELS FOR YOUR TBR
September is here, and what an incredible month it is for us crime fiction readers! This month is bringing with it an almost too-good-to-be-true lineup of new crime, mystery, and thriller books for readers to devour—and in today’s blog post, I’m rounding up the (many!) books releasing this month that are on my personal most-anticipated list. This month sees the return of fan-favorite authors including Lisa Jewell, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Alice Feeney, and it also includes a number of my most-anticipated debut crime novels of the entire year (of particular note: debuts by authors Amanda Jayatissa and Catherine Dang, among many more!). It’s got chilling Nordic crime novels, stories involving serial killers, psychological suspense that will make you suspicious of everyone, dark revenge stories, and lots more—in short, this September is a crime fiction reader’s dream. Many of the books on today’s list I’ve already been fortunate enough to read, and others are still on my TBR list for the fall season, but all of them look exceptional. Dig into today’s blog post and clear your calendar—we’ve got some amazing books in store for us this month!
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THESE TOXIC THINGS by Rachel Howzell Hall
Available September 1, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
On the heels of her outstanding 2020 thriller AND NOW SHE’S GONE, Rachel Howzell Hall returns this fall with her newest gripping thriller THESE TOXIC THINGS, an irresistible story centering around a “digital archaeologist” who finds herself drawn into a dangerous mystery when one of her clients dies under mysterious circumstances. Rachel Howzell Hall has a knack for writing some of the most memorable protagonists I’ve encountered in crime books recently, and readers will love getting to know Mickie Lambert, the protagonist of her newest thriller THESE TOXIC THINGS. Couple Howzell Hall’s superb character development with her newest book’s unique and intricate serial killer plotline, and you’ve got a recipe for success. THESE TOXIC THINGS is another excellent standalone from Howzell Hall.
About the Book:
A dead woman’s cherished trinkets become pieces to a terrifying puzzle.
Mickie Lambert creates “digital scrapbooks” for clients, ensuring that precious souvenirs aren’t forgotten or lost. When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain―twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country.
But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone.
It’s becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own.
THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Jewell
Available September 7, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
No one writes addictive psychological suspense quite like Lisa Jewell. From the talented mind that brought us binge-worthy stories like Then She Was Gone and I Found You now comes another engrossing, intricate, character-driven work of psychological suspense. THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED has in spades all the qualities that have made me such a fan of Lisa Jewell’s over the past few years. This book is emotional, immersive, and complex—the kind of story that draws you into the lives of its characters so intimately, you begin to feel like you’re getting to know real people, and become even more invested in their fates as a result. Jewell’s books always balance “popcorn read” entertainment value with emotionally-resonant mysteries, and readers who have loved Jewell’s previous releases will devour her newest as well. It’s no wonder Jewell has become such a fan-favorite author, and THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED is another feather in her cap.
About the Book:
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone comes another riveting work of psychological suspense about a beautiful young couple’s disappearance on a gorgeous summer night, and the mother who will never give up trying to find them...
On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.”
Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?
With her signature “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Lisa Jewell has crafted a dazzling work of suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final page.
NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian
Available September 7, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I’m currently reading Vera Kurian’s very entertaining debut thriller NEVER SAW ME COMING, and so far, I’m thoroughly enjoying it! This clever and inventive story has the kind of premise that will make you impulse-buy it in a second: it follows a student who is participating in a unique clinical study for psychopaths at her college, all while plotting to murder someone. In this compulsively readable thriller, Vera Kurian takes readers inside the mind of a psychopath, and her protagonist’s distinct voice is immediately captivating—and highly entertaining. I love campus thrillers, and this unique and highly entertaining twist on such a premise is all kinds of fun to devour. If you loved Layne Fargo’s THEY NEVER LEARN, check this one out.
About the Book:
Never Saw Me Coming is a compulsive, voice-driven thriller by an exciting new talent in fiction that will keep you pinned to the page and rooting for a would-be killer.
You should never trust a psychopath. But what if you had no choice?
It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre… She’s a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.
Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.
When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan for revenge into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS by Alice Feeney
Available September 7, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Alice Feeney is one of my go-to domestic suspense writers, and she returns this fall with an atmospheric tale of an ill-fated marriage and the terrible secrets hidden therein. In ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, Alice Feeney crafts another clever and unpredictable story sure to trick seasoned suspense readers. This thriller takes a simple setup—a couple embark on a weekend away, determined to rekindle their relationship, only to discover that not everything is as it seems—and turns it into a genuinely shocking story of hidden motivations, secrets, and danger. I loved the setting of this book (a remote church-turned-Airbnb in Scotland), its clever and engaging structure, and its final twist(s) which knocked me sideways. If you’re a fan of domestic suspense looking for a new read this fall, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS is well worth adding to your TBR.
About the Book:
Think you know the person you married? Think again…
Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.
Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts--paper, cotton, pottery, tin--and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.
Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.
Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.
MY SWEET GIRL by Amanda Jayatissa
Available September 14, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
What can I say about MY SWEET GIRL except: READ THIS BOOK. Amanda Jayatissa’s dark and hypnotic debut thriller is my favorite debut of the whole year. This masterful blend of psychological suspense and Gothic elements completely captivated me when I read it earlier this year, and I simply cannot wait for readers to get their hands on it this September. In MY SWEET GIRL, Jayatissa expertly crafts a story of long-delayed retribution. Centering around a narrator whose wry personality leaps off the page, this thriller follows a young woman whose past appears to be catching up to her. With alternating timelines, unreliable characters, touches of Gothic inspiration, and a truly shocking and satisfying finale, MY SWEET GIRL is easily one of the best crime novels of the year. Pre-order this one now—your future self will thank you!
About the Book:
Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…
Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she'll never live up to them.
Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.
Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there's no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.
Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?
NICE GIRLS by Catherine Dang
Available September 14, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Sharp, smart, and engrossing, Catherine Dang’s debut suspense novel NICE GIRLS is the perfect choice for any reader who loved Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive and/or the reader who can’t get enough of true crime podcasts. In this astute and insightful story, a young woman finds herself in the midst of a real-life mystery when the local town sweetheart and social media star goes missing. Unable to tear herself away from the case, our protagonist finds herself drawn ever-deeper into a dangerous web. Though this book itself is fiction, it has major appeal for those of us who love armchair sleuthing as we listen to our favorite true crime podcasts. NICE GIRLS examines our cultural obsession with true crime, while also delving into the darker corners of womanhood. NICE GIRLS has a sometimes-unlikable, always-memorable protagonist, plus an intricate central mystery involving a killer at work in a small town… oh, and an epic finale worthy of the big screen. This one is a Fall 2021 stand-out!
About the Book:
A pulse-pounding and razor-sharp debut with the emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask: Which is more dangerous for a woman—showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?
What did you do?
Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota—the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Taking a job at the local grocery store, Mary tries to make sense of her life’s sharp downward spiral.
Then beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand goes missing. A rising social media star, Olivia is admired by everyone in Liberty Lake—except Mary. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: nineteen-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.
Who is the real Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary pries at the cracks in the careful facades surrounding the two missing girls, old wounds will bleed fresh and force her to confront a horrible truth.
Maybe there are no nice girls, after all.
DARK THINGS I ADORE by Katie Lattari
Available September 14, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
If I had to describe Katie Lattari’s DARK THINGS I ADORE in one word, it would be hypnotic. This dark book casts a sinister spell over readers, moving between past and present to tell a tale of brilliantly-executed revenge. The setting: a remote home in New England, where a talented art student has invited her esteemed art professor to visit and view her thesis collection. But beneath the surface of this seemingly-innocent trip, dark forces are at play. Because this professor has a dark secret, and his student has painstakingly laid the perfect trap for him. Moving between past and present timelines effortlessly, this book’s heady atmosphere and unputdownable plot kept me riveted from its first page to its last. There are dark, disturbing themes explored in this book, so do proceed with caution, but for me this was an absolute winner. DARK THINGS I ADORE is somehow both beautifully-written and seriously dark, and readers who love triumphant stories of revenge will adore this lush and deadly tale.
About the Book:
A debut thriller for fans of Lucy Foley and Liz Moore, Dark Things I Adore is a stunning Gone Girl-esque tale of atonement that proves that in the grasp of manipulative men, women may momentarily fall. But in the hands of fierce women, men will be brought to their knees.
Three campfire secrets. Two witnesses. One dead in the trees. And the woman, thirty years later, bent on making the guilty finally pay.
1988. A group of outcasts gather at a small, prestigious arts camp nestled in the Maine woods. They're the painters: bright, hopeful, teeming with potential. But secrets and dark ambitions rise like smoke from a campfire, and the truths they tell will come back to haunt them in ways more deadly than they dreamed.
2018. Esteemed art professor Max Durant arrives at his protégé's remote home to view her graduate thesis collection. He knows Audra is beautiful and brilliant. He knows being invited into her private world is a rare gift. But he doesn't know that Audra has engineered every aspect of their weekend together. Every detail, every conversation. Audra has woven the perfect web.
Only Audra knows what happened that summer in 1988. Max's secret, and the dark things that followed. And even though it won't be easy, Audra knows someone must pay.
A searing psychological thriller of trauma, dark academia, complicity, and revenge, Dark Things I Adore unravels the realities behind campfire legends―the horrors that happen in the dark, the girls who become cautionary tales, and the guilty who go unpunished. Until now.
HER PERFECT LIFE by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Available September 14, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I’m almost a bit embarrassed to admit that I have never read a book by Hank Phillippi Ryan—but I’m determined to change that this fall, and her forthcoming standalone novel HER PERFECT LIFE looks like the perfect place for me to start! I’ve heard nothing but great things about Hank Phillippi Ryan’s work from both readers and crime writers alike, and I can’t wait to explore her work for myself. In HER PERFECT LIFE, Hank Phillippi Ryan centers a suspense story around a TV reporter hiding a dark secret. The author herself has a background in journalism, working as an investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV and having won 37 (!) EMMYs and dozens more journalism awards and honors. I can’t wait to experience her thriller writing for myself this fall!
About the Book:
The next thrilling standalone novel by USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan.
Everyone knows Lily Atwood―and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all―fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it, all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret.
Her own.
Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips―but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life. How does he―or she―know the truth?
Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world―and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear.
How much will she risk to keep her perfect life?
WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER by Tove Alsterdal
Available September 28, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Swedish crime writer Tove Alsterdal at a book festival a few years ago, and I am so thrilled that she is making her American debut this fall with WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER, a Swedish procedural that won the award for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year! No matter how many different crime fiction subgenres I try, I will always come back to Scandinavian crime fiction as my absolute favorite, and I can’t wait to give author Tove Alsterdal’s work a try this fall. WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER sounds like a delicious blend of classic procedural elements coupled with an intriguing and dark tale of past crimes and their present-day fallout. This one is on my fall TBR, and I can’t wait to dig in.
About the Book:
A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer.
It’s been more than twenty years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench, water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower.
For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then fourteen, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town’s collective memory—a wound that never quite healed—and tinged Eira’s childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now.
An intricate crime narrative in which past and present gracefully blend, We Know You Remember is a relentlessly suspenseful and beautifully written novel about guilt and memory in which nothing is what it seems, and unexpected twists upend everything you think you know.
THE ICE COVEN by Max Seeck
Available September 28, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Nordic Noir fans, listen up! If you haven’t yet discovered Finnish crime writer Max Seeck’s Jessica Niemi series, this is your official reminder to dig into Book 1 in the series—THE WITCH HUNTER—before book two publishes later this month. THE ICE COVEN is the second novel in Seeck’s bestselling series, and it promises to deliver another dark and chilling mystery for fans of the Scandinavian crime genre. I loved Seeck’s unique blend of serial killer story and occult elements in his debut thriller THE WITCH HUNTER, and I can’t wait to dig into his newest crime novel. I am always eager to get my hands on new Nordic Noir, and if THE ICE COVEN is anything like Seeck’s previous novel, I’m confident it will be a perfect book to dig into around the Halloween season.
About the Book:
Investigator Jessica Niemi is in a race against time to find the link between a body with strange markings that has washed up on a frigid shore in Finland and two baffling disappearances in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Hunter.
Six months have passed since Jessica’s encounter with the mysterious serial-killing coven of witches and the death of her mentor. Her nightmares about her mother and the witchcraft that undid her have only gotten worse, but she’s doing what she can to stay focused. Her homicide squad, now under new leadership, has been given a murder case and a new series of disappearances to investigate. A young woman’s corpse has washed up on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing at the same time.
The missing influencers and the murdered woman all have ties to a sinister cult. Jessica finds an eerie painting—of a lighthouse on a remote island—as she investigates, and under the picture is a gruesome poem detailing a murder. The nightmares about her mother suddenly seem all too real, making Jessica wonder if the dead woman might be trying to tell her something about the killings. And as Jessica works frantically to solve her latest case, her horrific past comes roaring back and threatens to destroy her.
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.