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Read and rated – we review the latest and best mysteries, psychological thrillers, Nordic noir, pulp, cosy crime fiction, historical and suspense novels… and plenty more here on Crime Fiction Lover.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz

Halfway house by helen fitzgerald, dark deeds down under 2 edited by craig sisterson, murder under the sun edited by cecily gayford.

Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

The debt collector by steven max russo, murder under the midnight sun by stella blómkvist, return to blood by michael bennett, recent comments, french crime drama i killed my husband comes to more4, a classic revisited: the silence of the lambs, first look: the death watcher by chris carter, the danish crime show dna returns, astrid and raphaëlle return to more4.

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Best Mystery/Thriller Book Review Blogs in 2024

Showing 128 blogs that match your search.

9th Street Books

https://www.9thstreetbooks.com

9th Street Books is the place to go for everything about the literary life, including book reviews, lists, and more.

Blogger : Grace Pursel

Genres : Mystery/Thriller

🌐 Domain authority: 14

👀 Average monthly visits: 1,800 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Website contact form

⭐️ Accepts indie books? Yes

Pop. Edit. Lit

https://editingeverything.com/

I started my book blog as a way to have a presence as an editor online, but started enjoying reading and reviewing so much more than I thought. I am based in Australia, so I am always eager to learn about new Australian authors. Currently my favourite genre is crime, whether it's adult fiction, YA or NA. I'm a fan of urban fantasy and contemporary reads as well.

Blogger : Verushka

🌐 Domain authority: 34

👀 Average monthly visits: 2,200 p/mo

Book Briefs

http://www.bookbriefs.net/

I read all YA and New Adult books for the most part, but do read some Adult Paranormal and contemporary Romance as well as some adult Chicklit, Romance and Mystery/Suspense. My favorite genres of YA/NA books.

Blogger : Michelle

🌐 Domain authority: 41

👀 Average monthly visits: 5,500 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Email

Jen Med’s Book Reviews

https://jenmedsbookreviews.com/

I have a real love for Crime Fiction and thrillers as I love a little (fictional) human suffering from time to time, but don’t mind the occasional bit of Chick Lit, Young Adult or romance – I’m not completely heartless and consider myself an equal opportunity reader.

Blogger : Jen Lucas

🌐 Domain authority: 27

👀 Average monthly visits: 3,500 p/mo

Birdie’s booktopia

https://birdiesbooktopia.com/

Welcome to booktopia! In this messy yet wonderful world, everything revolves around diverse literature — from (YA) fantasy to contemporary to thriller. Let’s take a walk together, shall we?

Blogger : Birdie Woodnyx

🌐 Domain authority: 12

👀 Average monthly visits: 2,000 p/mo

Read and Rated

https://readandrated.com/

Read and Rated, where all good books come to be reviewed! Find me on twitter too @ReadandRated

Blogger : Lisa Hall

🌐 Domain authority: 17

👀 Average monthly visits: 6,000 p/mo

The Eclectic Review

https://eclecticreview.wordpress.com/

My name is Sharon (sherton on LibraryThing) from Iowa and I am an avid reader of just about every genre. Of course, I have my favorites, but I'll let you try to guess what they are. If I'm not working in my garden, I'm writing reviews here, for Amazon, LibraryThing, GoodReads and others as requested.

Blogger : Sharon

🌐 Domain authority: 16

👀 Average monthly visits: 5,000 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Mail

Beyond the Bookends

https://www.beyondthebookends.com/

Welcome to Beyond the Bookends, a blog for modern Moms who love to read and wish to inspire a love of reading in their children.

Blogger : Jackie and Kirsten

👀 Average monthly visits: 3,000 p/mo

Compulsive Readers

https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

My name is Tracy and I’m a bookaholic. It’s been 35 minutes since I last bought a book and despite having over 450 books on my kindle, 200 books on my bookshelf I can’t stop buying more books. I receive loads of books to read from the publishers and Netgalley – but will only be recommending the books that I think are brilliant. Some you will agree with me about, and others you will hate – and that’s what makes reading so wonderful. Enjoy!

Blogger : Tracy

🌐 Domain authority: 30

⭐️ Accepts indie books? No

Caffeinated Book Reviewer

http://www.caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

I cannot guarantee a favorable review, but I will be honest, respectful and fair. My reviews generally take seven days from start to finish. I read books in order of release date, and try to accommodate your requests.

Blogger : Kimberly

🌐 Domain authority: 36

Jill's Book Cafe

https://jillsbookcafe.blog/

I read a variety of genres but you will normally find me reading UK based police procedurals and psychological thrillers, well researched historical fiction, and I’m partial to a bit of chick lit (or Choc Lit as I prefer to call it) of the more intelligent and humorous kind. I also enjoy quirky and interesting novels and what would be described as women’s fiction/romance but not of the Mill’s and Boon variety (nothing wrong with M&B just not my thing).

Blogger : Jill Doyle

🌐 Domain authority: 10

👀 Average monthly visits: 1,500 p/mo

Self-Publishing Review

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com

Self-Publishing Review has been providing book reviews of indie books since 2008. We review all genres of books fairly and impartially, as well as provide additional marketing services, for a fee. Our reviews are shared to our social media accounts totalling 40,000+ followers. Our site has been covered in The Guardian, New York Times, Forbes, Publisher's Weekly, Writer's Digest, and other sources.

Blogger : Henry

🌐 Domain authority: 46

👀 Average monthly visits: 20,000 p/mo

Shalini's Books & Reviews

https://bookreviewsbyshalini.com/

My first love has always been BOOKS. My blog features my reviews, author interviews, book spotlights, and other bookish events. I read nearly all genres, according to my mood.

Blogger : Shalini

🌐 Domain authority: 25

💌 Preferred contact method: Social media

Linda's Book Bag

https://lindasbookbag.com/

The blog was initially designed to share a few thoughts about the books I read and that's the aspect I still enjoy most. I don't give star ratings as my 5 stars might be someone else's 3 so I say what I thought instead, trying to be as honest as I can and I make the review personal to me as a reader. After a few months of blogging I realised just how hard it is for smaller publishers and independent authors to get their books noticed so I'm always willing to feature them if I can.

Blogger : Linda Hill

🌐 Domain authority: 39

Jessicamap Reviews

https://jessicamapreviews.com/

What exactly will you see here? Books. Reviews about books. A random chocolate lab. Then some of the awesome subscription boxes and other bookish things.

Blogger : Jessica

🌐 Domain authority: 24

So you want to find a book blog?

If you’re a voracious reader, you might think of a book blog as an oasis in the middle of the desert: a place on the Internet that brims with talk about books, books, and more books.

Well, good news — we built this directory of the 200 of the best book blogs  to satiate your thirst. Take a walk around, use the filters to narrow down your search to blogs in your preferred genre, and feel free to bookmark this page and come back, as we do update it regularly with more of the best book blogs out there. 

If you’re an aspiring author, you might see a book blog more as a book review blog: a place where you can get your yet-to-be published book reviewed. In that case, you’ll be glad to know that most of the book blogs in our directory are open to review requests and accept indie books! We expressly designed this page (and our book marketing platform, Reedsy Discovery ) to be useful to indie book authors who need book reviews. If you’re wondering how to approach a book blog for a review request, please read on. 

You’ve found a book blog. Now what? 

Let’s say that you’re an author, and you’ve found a couple of book blogs that would be perfect fits to review your book. What now? Here are some tips as you go about getting your book reviews:

• Be sure to read the review policy. First, check that the book blog you’re querying is open to review requests. If that’s the fortunate case, carefully read the blog’s review policy and make sure that you follow the directions to a T.  
• Individualize your pitches. Book bloggers will be able to immediately tell apart the bulk pitches, which simply come across as thoughtless and indifferent. If you didn’t take the time to craft a good pitch, why should the blogger take the time to read your book? Personalize each pitch to up your chances of getting a response. 
• Format your book in a professional manner before sending it out. Ensure that your manuscript isn’t presented sloppily. If the book blogger asks for a digital ARC, you might want to check out apps such as Instafreebie or Bookfunnel. 
• Create a spreadsheet to track your progress. Wading through so many book blogs can be troublesome — not to mention trying to remember which ones you’ve already contacted. To save yourself the time and trouble, use a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your progress (and results). 

Looking to learn even more about the process? Awesome 👍 For a detailed guide, check out this post that’s all about getting book reviews . 

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Book Reviews

Reviews of new and upcoming books in the mystery, thriller, horror, crime, and suspense genres. Our editorial staff and reviewers choose which titles to review. All reviews meet standards of notability.

Liar’s Point

The #1 Lawyer

Cast a Cold Eye

The five year lie.

Her gut says it can’t be real, but she goes to the tree anyway

Lying Next to Me

The lives of the two couples are converging in unpredictable ways

Storm Child

There is only one survivor, who tells police their boat was rammed

One Liar Left

He’s silencing these women

A Calamity of Souls

What is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial

Three Drowned Girls

The body of a dark-haired young girl is pulled from the river

Disturbing the Dead

Their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy

The Alliance

The very fabric of society threatens to unravel

Four-Alarm Homicide

She shows up at the fire station, then collapses, never to recover

Nonna Maria and the Case of the Lost Treasure

A mystery unfolds at the deathbed of one of her old friends

Indian Burial Ground

The facts about the death just don’t add up

A Forgotten Kill

Stopping a killer becomes more personal with each new twist

A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering

A perfect house and a dead body

A Murder Most French

A chef pours himself a glass of wine and promptly drops dead

Coconut Drop Dead

The police think it may be a tragic accident

The Infiltrator

Intelligence points to one final camp in the remote Kentucky wilderness

Ill-Fated Fortune

One customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder

Public Anchovy #1

She will have to top all of her previous crime-solving accomplishments

Crime Novels of the 1960s

Nine timeless novels, including four lost classics restored to print

The Intruder

Everything is called into question, including who the real intruder is

Borgata: Rise of Empire

The social, economic, and political forces that powered the mafia’s rise

The President's Lawyer

He attempts to defend an authoritative man with a taste for infidelity

Heroine Withdrawal

A seminal collection of classic pulp and mystery comics

Cold to the Touch

When the body of another woman is found, a serial killer is suspected

He learns his son died following in his footsteps

Blessed Water

The Sister struggles to stay on the righteous path

A resident’s body is found brutally stabbed and his apartment ransacked

Galway Confidential

He cannot stay away from the mystery surrounding these vicious attacks

Murder by Lamplight

Another body is found with links to the first

She discovers that he had been a police officer in Tokyo after the war

No matter how far she runs, her past is always just a few steps behind

Long Time Gone

A discovery leads her to a small town, the site of her disappearance

What Happened to Nina?

Facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation

Three-Inch Teeth

A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage

If Something Happens to Me

On a summer trip abroad to Italy he gets a call from his father

The teenager’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along a millionaire

The Hunter's Daughter

A serial killer emerges who is copying her father

Nothing But the Bones

A local crime boss runs everything on the mountain

The Lock Box

She wakes up across the country, trapped in her own personal nightmare

Those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood

One Wrong Word

Sometimes one wrong word can kill

The Deepest Kill

His pregnant daughter washed up dead on a nearby shore

The Unquiet Bones

The investigation takes a sharp turn when she discovers a second body

Murder Road

They soon learn that there is something supernatural at work

The Chaos Agent

Someone is killing the world’s leading experts on robotics and AI

Three Kinds of Lucky

They seek out the one person who might be able to help

Missing Before Daylight

The more she digs, the longer her list of suspects becomes

The Price You Pay

Someone has stolen notebooks full of incriminating secrets

Older Reviews

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Daily Thrill

• Noir/Hardboiled
• Espionage/Thriller
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• Literary Hub

Time to Read Some Gothic Fiction!

A look at some of this year's gothic thrills, as i continue to battle humidity and mold in my home, the deadly world war ii mission over the roof of the world, caroline alexander on the airmen who flew over "the hump", 10 new books coming out this week, new offerings from the world of crime, mystery, and thrillers., 10 new books coming out this week, the state of the crime novel, part 2: the future of crime writing, "everything's important, everything's on the table, and everything's fair game.", the state of the crime novel, part 1: writing life, "you can always edit crap. you can’t edit nothing.", the best reviewed books of the month: april 2024, featuring a new biography of ian fleming and the latest releases from don winslow, dervla mctiernan, and more., the best international crime fiction of april 2024, swedish conspiracies, japanese gourmands, and french butchers, the best debut novels of april 2024, featuring debuts from sasha vasilyuk, sara koffi, and more., michael dirda on curating stories for a folio society anthology of "weird tales", the pulitzer prize-winning book critic talks with olivia rutigliano about the challenges and delights of assembling a the eerie collection., the 81 best, worst, and strangest dr. watson portrayals of all-time, ranked, an endeavor which was hardly "elementary, my dear watson.", the best psychological thrillers of april 2024, social justice thrillers, vengeance plots, and tons of family dysfunction, the best international fiction of march 2024, french noir, japanese mystery, argentine horror, and more, the best reviewed books of the month: march 2024, new books from tana french, colin barrett, and more., the best psychological thrillers of march 2024, ballet moms, conspiracy theorists, and suburban intrigue, the best debut novels of march, featuring first novels from sophie wan, andrew boryga, brendan flaherty, and more., 7 modern gothics featuring an intersectional feminist perspective, these books "serve to illustrate the dangers of misogyny while centering the power and resilience of all women.", the best reviewed books of the month: february 2024, featuring new books from paul theroux, sarah ruiz-grossman, and more., 15 new and upcoming historical mysteries and thrillers to read in 2024, swashbucklers, spiritualists, and swindlers galore, the best debut novels out this month, featuring first novels from sarah ruiz-grossman, jenny hollander, kobby ben ben, and more., the best psychological thrillers of february 2024, equestrian fortune tellers, murderous bookstagrammers, ill-fated reunions, and exploitative tabloid reporters, 15 horror novels to look out for in 2024, slashers, serial killers, supernatural entities, and splatterpunk, an ode to newsprint on screen, for keith roysdon, seeing a newspaper on screen is one of life's finest pleasures., the best reviewed books of the month, featuring new books by lea carpenter, elizabeth gonzalez james, and more., 15 speculative crime novels coming out in 2024, scifi and fantasy mysteries and thrillers to check out this year, january's best debut novels, featuring first novels from vanessa chan, nishita parekh, and more., weirding the west: strange tales that complicate the picture of texas, elizabeth gonzalez james on the weird, wild literature of her home state., the best psychological thrillers of january, sinister doctors, sniping frenemies, scheming sisters, haunting djinns, and dysfunctional families galore, mwa announces the 2024 edgar nominations, the most anticipated crime fiction of 2024, buried deeds, international gothics, high-concept noirs, and so many thrillers, the year's best international crime series, a look back at the global crime scene, much of which is soon headed to us streamers (or already available)., the best speculative crime fiction of 2023, alternate histories, scifi thrillers, and magical murder mysteries.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ">Several Observations Regarding The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Olivia Rutigliano has a few questions for Guy Ritchie

Love to Hate Her: Novels About Destructive Women

Is the act of writing messy female characters a transgressive response to women's coerced compliance?

The Bloody, Intertwined History of Anarchism and Dynamite

In Steven Johnson's new book, he looks at the birth of dynamite in era of political upheaval.

CrimeReads Brief

The best mystery, thriller, & crime on the internet.

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The Last King of California , by Jordan Harper: Excerpt and Cover Reveal

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Mask of the Deer Woman , by Laurie L. Dove: Excerpt and Cover Reveal

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Humor in Mysteries and Thrillers Is No Joke

Hog Butcher ">A Heavy Town: On Chicago, Author Ronald L. Fair, and Hog Butcher

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Read the Excerpt

In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys in Puerto Rico seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a Latinx STAND BY ME with a haunted, obsidianly dark heart. 

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High camp revels in excess; it turns the mundane into the spectacular. 

Celebrating Diversity in Crime Fiction

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The Best Reviewed Mystery and Crime Books of 2021

Featuring john le carré, colson whitehead, s.a. cosby, viet thanh nguyen, stephen king, and more.

Well, friends, another grim and grueling plague year is drawing to a close, and that can mean only one thing: it’s time to put on our Book Marks stats hats and tabulate the best reviewed books of the past twelve months.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2021, in the categories of (deep breath): Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections ; Poetry ; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature; Literature in Translation; General Fiction; and General Nonfiction.

Today’s installment: Mystery and Crime .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

30 Rave • 10 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan Read an interview with Colson Whitehead here

“Whitehead’s own mind has famously gone thataway through nine other books that don’t much resemble one another, but this time he’s hit upon a setup that will stick. He has said he may keep Ray going into another book, and it won’t take you long to figure out why … brings Whitehead’s unwavering eloquence to a mix of city history, niche hangouts, racial stratification, high hopes and low individuals. All of these are somehow worked into a rich, wild book that could pass for genre fiction. It’s much more, but the entertainment value alone should ensure it the same kind of popular success that greeted his last two novels. It reads like a book whose author thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing … The author creates a steady, suspenseful churn of events that almost forces his characters to do what they do. The final choice is theirs, of course … Quaint details aside, this is no period piece … Though it’s a slightly slow starter, Harlem Shuffle has dialogue that crackles, a final third that nearly explodes, hangouts that invite even if they’re Chock Full o’ Nuts and characters you won’t forget even if they don’t stick around for more than a few pages.”

–Janet Maslin ( The New York Times )

2. The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove)

19 Rave • 12 Positive • 4 Mixed • 1 Pan Listen to an interview with Viet Thang Nguyen here

“The novel is […] a homecoming of a particularly volatile sort, a tale of chickens returning to roost, and of a narrator not yet done with the world … Nguyen […] is driven to raptures of expression by the obliviousness of the self-satisfied; he relentlessly punctures the self-image of French and American colonizers, of white people generally, of true believers and fanatics of every stripe. This mission drives the rhetorical intensity that makes his novels so electric. It has nothing to do with plot or theme or character … That voice has made Nguyen a standard-bearer in what seems to be a transformational moment in the history of American literature, a perspectival shift … It’s a voice that shakes the walls of the old literary comfort zone wherein the narratives of nonwhite ‘immigrants’ were tasked with proving their shared humanity to a white audience … May that voice keep running like a purifying venom through the mainstream of our self-regard—through the American dream of distancing ourselves from what we continue to show ourselves to be.”

–Jonathan Dee ( The New Yorker )

3. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria)

20 Rave • 5 Positive • 3 Mixed Read an excerpt from The Other Black Girl here

“ The Other Black Girl isn’t a story about finding solidarity or even about speaking up; it probes something more unsettling. As the novel presents competing ideas of success at the office, and the sacrifices that might entail, it evolves into an intense psychological thriller … Although Harris’s book takes up the office novel’s critique of opaque and soul-crushing hierarchies, it also flirts with race transformation, a theme explored in decades of African American literature … Harris formulates a central dilemma: For many Black people, the office setting becomes a microcosm of the version of the United States that sees them as vessels of struggle and tension. To push back against that system feels essential. And yet the Black experience in America has never been solely defined by struggle … Diana or Kendra, Hazel or Nella, career or identity: This is the binary that pulses through The Other Black Girl . The novel shows a workplace pushing individuals into ever-hardening, limiting roles. It captures, through Nella especially, the stories some Black employees feel they must tell themselves about themselves to survive all-white environments … If The Other Black Girl often swerves beyond the conventions of the genre, into territory between psychological thriller and sci-fi, it may be because the specific experience of the Black employee—haunted by precarity and tension—can be almost otherworldly.”

–Lovia Gyarkye ( The New Republic )

4. Billy Summers by Stephen King (Scribner)

14 Rave • 9 Positive • 1 Mixed

“[King] actually is as good at the hard-boiled prose—in this case, the tale of an extremely effective assassin trying to get out after one last job—as he is the scary stuff … King’s known for his literary villains, yet in creating his killer title protagonist, he exquisitely gets into the mind of a hitman and roots around in there to figure out what kind of person would do wetwork, the loneliness involved for those who choose that as a career path and the effect it would have on friends and loved ones … Those worried he’s gone full Raymond Chandler, never fear: King makes it clear that Billy Summers very much exists in his creepily familiar world. It’s also very much a part of ours as well, with a few Donald Trump references and a foreshadowing of the COVID-19 crisis as Billy hunkers down and has to watch life go by outside, less because of a pandemic and more because of his morally questionable chosen profession … The biggest crime here, however, would be missing out on Billy Summers and King’s new reign as a pulp genius.”

–Brian Truitt ( USA Today )

5. Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)

17 Rave • 3 Positive Read an interview with S. A. Cosby here

“Cosby, a Black man born and raised in a family of limited means in southeastern Virginia, knows exactly how to bring authenticity to the page … This is crime fiction packed with everything fans have come to expect of the genre, but the way Cosby writes about emotion is more aligned with literary fiction. Razorblade Tears expands into social commentary that’s not preachy … grief, guilt, and revenge are the driving energies that propel the narrative and its characters forward at all times. In fact, guilt is so present it eventually becomes a character in the novel, a silent, omnipresent force that fuels Ike and Buddy Lee as they unflinchingly take on a growing number of threatening individuals who want to keep them from figuring out who shot their sons … Cosby has a deep understanding of homophobia and deals with it brilliantly here … Buddy Lee is an interesting, nuanced character that shows that white privilege isn’t the same for all whites … a fast-paced thriller with plenty of violence. It is also a narrative that cements Cosby as one of the most honest and steadfast chroniclers of the Black experience in the rural South.”

–Gabino Iglesias ( The Los Angeles Review of Books )

6. Silverview by John le Carré (Viking)

10 Rave • 15 Positive • 4 Mixed • 3 Pan Read about John le Carré’s advice to a struggling novelist, here

“… the plot unfolds with as much cryptic cunning as a reader could want, and le Carré’s people are perfection, most especially the Service’s grand poohbahs, all in a discreet tizzy when they find they’ve been snookered by some renegade, conscience-stricken apostate. The fabric of duplicity and betrayal, though gratifyingly present here, is not so devastatingly intricate and shocking as in, say, A Most Wanted Man —whose ending is never far from the reader’s mind. Silverview is a minor work in the le Carré canon, but it is enjoyable throughout, written with grace, and a welcome gift from the past.”

–Katherine A. Powers ( The Wall Street Journal )

7. Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

14 Rave • 4 Positive

Read Silvia Moreno-Garcia on the best noir novels of the 1960s and 1970s, here

“ Velvet Was the Night has little in common with the delirious Mexican Gothic . Its prose is lean, its characters are nobodies, its setting is urban, and there isn’t the slightest speck of the supernatural. But Moreno-Garcia, a bona fide literary chameleon, slips effortlessly out of the satin pumps of the gothic and into the beat-up wingtips of noir. The scary thing about this novel is how good it is … the way that war—not a world war, but the Dirty War between the government and its restive citizens—keeps erupting into their lives, forcing them to confront the reality of history and politics, keeps the novel fresh; in contrast with classic noir, this war refuses to remain hidden. The delectable cocktail that is Velvet Was the Night contains a generous dash of bitters, but the finish is satisfyingly mellow. It goes down so smoothly that it left me marveling at what kind of sorceress Moreno-Garcia must be as she reworks genre after genre, weaving in Mexican history and culture, satisfying familiar cravings without resorting to mere pastiche.”

–Laura Miller ( Slate )

8. Dream Girl by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

15 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Pan Read Laura Lippman on James M. Cain’s transgressive noir, here

“There’s the brilliance, the devastating humor, the complicated sexual history with women, and the fraught relationship with his mother … But, a more explicit literary presence here is that of Stephen King, as Dream Girl swiftly morphs into Nightmare … With each stand-alone novel she writes, Lippman triumphantly turns in a different direction … Socially conscious (the #MeToo movement makes a decisive entrance into the plot) and packed with humor, ghosts and narrative turns of the screw, Lippman’s Dream Girl is indeed a dream of a novel for suspense lovers and fans of literary satire alike.”

–Maureen Corrigan ( The Washington Post )

9. A Lonely Man by Chris Power (FSG)

12 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed Read Chris Power on the deep, dark influences behind A Lonely Man , here

“Chris Power’s elegant first novel is a slyly ensnaring literary thriller written in immaculate prose … an almost self-effacing commitment to unadorned clarity … Power’s restraint pays off, making for a subtly immersive read, his sentences rippling like clear water even as the story’s murkier undertow pulls you out to sea. He doesn’t skimp on themes either, raising interesting questions about whether stories draw their power from reality or imagination, who (if anyone) owns them, and what privileges narrative control confers on the teller. Contemporary socio-political issues aside, A Lonely Man is a gripping and deftly controlled novel that proves Power is as good at writing books as he is at writing about them.”

–Louis Conway ( Vanity Fair )

10. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon Book)

9 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“If you’re a person who harbors notions about the glamour of the writing life, The Plot will jettison them to the deepest, darkest trench of the ocean floor. If you’re a novelist who has endured the humiliation of a reading with no audience, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s latest novel will help you laugh about the empty room. And if you’re a reader who likes stories where a terrible decision snowballs out of control, this book is just what the librarian ordered. Welcome to a spectacular avalanche … as a longtime fan of Korelitz’s novels, I will say that I think The Plot is her gutsiest, most consequential book yet. It keeps you guessing and wondering, and also keeps you thinking: about ambition, fame and the nature of intellectual property (the analog kind) … Jake Bonner’s insecurity, vulnerability and fear are familiar to those of us who have faced a blank screen, wondering how or whether we’ll be able to scramble letters into a story. Korelitz takes these creative hindrances and turns them into entertainment. Not only does she make it look easy, she keeps us guessing until the very end.”

–Elizabeth Egan ( The New York Times Book Review )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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70 Best Mystery Blogs and Websites

• The Strand Mystery Magazine
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• Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book
• In Reference to Murder Blog
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Mystery Blogs

Here are 70 Best Mystery Blogs you should follow in 2024

1. The Strand Mystery Magazine

2. The Cozy Mystery List Blog

3. Mystery*File Blog

4. Listverse » Mystery

5. Elizabeth Spann Craig

6. Mystery Writers of America

7. Criminal Element

8. Mystery Tribune Magazine

9. Mystery Fanfare

10. The Rap Sheet

11. Chicks on the Case

12. Robin Stevens Blog

13. Lesa's Book Critiques

14. Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

15. In Reference to Murder Blog

16. Omnimystery News

17. The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog

18. Something Is Going To Happen

19. Writers Who Kills

20. In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel Blog

21. Dru's book musings

22. Killer Hobbies

23. Mystery Scene Magazine

24. MYSTERIES in PARADISE

25. Unsolved Mysteries In The World

26. Leslie Budewitz Blog

27. Mystery and Horror Blog

28. Mysteries and My Musings

29. Vancouver Mysteries Blog

30. Ladies of Mystery

31. Mysteries Unsolved

32. The Passing Tramp

33. The Bunburyist

34. Steph Broadribb

35. Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery Blog

36. Bitter Tea and Mystery

37. MAKE MINE MYSTERY

38. Scene of the Crime

39. It's A Mystery blog

40. ReviewingTheEvidence.com

41. Here's the Fucking Twist

42. The Plain-Spoken Pen » Mystery

43. Ah Sweet Mystery

44. Cozy Mystery Bookshop

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The Cozy Review

Cozy Mystery Book Reviews for Cozy Mystery Book Lovers!

Five Furry Familiar’s

Book five of the “Kitchen Witch Mystery” series, Five Furry Familiar’s” is a delightful read with wonderful characters, an interesting murder, and some great clues …

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Take an old outhouse, add in some human bones, a few disappearances, and a magical librarian and you have everything you need for a mystery. …

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Sugar Plum Poisoned  Jenn McKinlay This is book #15 in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. The usual characters that readers are familiar with are present, …

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Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys Liz Ireland It’s Thanksgiving in Santaland. April must track down a killer and find a missing turkey before …

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Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant

Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some …

Mischief Nights Are Murder

Poppy is none too pleased when her B&B is coerced into participating in the Cape May Haunted Dinners Tour during the Halloween season. Pranks abound, …

Steeped in Malice

Afternoon tea isn’t just about flavorful brews and delicious treats. It’s also about presentation—fine china teacups or fun tea sets (never mugs!) with carefully coordinated …

Death of a Clam Digger

Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell usually reserves judgment for local cuisine, especially anything with clams, not the people who serve it. But staying neutral …

Welcome to the Cozy Review

Book five of the “Kitchen Witch Mystery” series, Five Furry Familiar’s” is a delightful read with wonderful characters, an interesting murder, and some great clues to the killer’s identity. Mia …

Take an old outhouse, add in some human bones, a few disappearances, and a magical librarian and you have everything you need for a mystery. Josie isn’t sure if a …

A Twinkle of Trouble is the 5th book in the “A Fairy Garden Mystery” series. Courtney can see and speak to fairies, and many of her customers at the garden …

Sugar Plum Poisoned  Jenn McKinlay This is book #15 in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. The usual characters that readers are familiar with are present, along with an old friend …

Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys Liz Ireland It’s Thanksgiving in Santaland. April must track down a killer and find a missing turkey before the holiday is ruined. I …

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Till Death Do Us Port

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Poppy Harmon and the Shooting Star

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Strike Out 4 Murder

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Witch Upon a Star

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Primer and Punishment

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are looking once again to rehab and resell a house, only this particular house is made of fiberglass, floats, and has been dubbed …

Irish Knit Murder

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6 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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It’s a happy coincidence that we recommend Becca Rothfeld’s essay collection “All Things Are Too Small” — a critic’s manifesto “in praise of excess,” as her subtitle has it — in the same week that we also recommend Justin Taylor’s maximalist new novel “Reboot,” an exuberant satire of modern society that stuffs everything from fandom to TV retreads to the rise of conspiracy culture into its craw. I don’t know if Rothfeld has read Taylor’s novel, but I get the feeling she would approve. Maybe you will too: In the spirit of “more, bigger, louder,” why not pick those up together?

Our other recommendations this week include a queer baseball romance novel, an up-to-the-minute story about a widower running for the presidency of his local labor union, a graphic novelist’s collection of spare visual stories and, in nonfiction, a foreign policy journalist’s sobering look at global politics in the 21st century. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

REBOOT Justin Taylor

This satire of modern media and pop culture follows a former child actor who is trying to revive the TV show that made him famous. Taylor delves into the worlds of online fandom while exploring the inner life of a man seeking redemption — and something meaningful to do.

“His book is, in part, a performance of culture, a mirror America complete with its own highly imagined myths, yet one still rooted in the Second Great Awakening and the country’s earliest literature. It’s a performance full of wit and rigor.”

From Joshua Ferris’s review

Pantheon | $28

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY Cat Sebastian

When a grieving reporter falls for the struggling baseball player he’s been assigned to write about, their romance is like watching a Labrador puppy fall in love with a pampered Persian cat: all eager impulse on one side and arch contrariness on the other.

“People think the ending is what defines a romance, and it does, but that’s not what a romance is for. The end is where you stop, but the journey is why you go. … If you read one romance this spring, make it this one.”

From Olivia Waite’s romance column

Avon | Paperback, $18.99

ALL THINGS ARE TOO SMALL: Essays in Praise of Excess Becca Rothfeld

A striking debut by a young critic who has been heralded as a throwback to an era of livelier discourse. Rothfeld has published widely and works currently as a nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post; her interests range far, but these essays are united by a plea for more excess in all things, especially thought.

“Splendidly immodest in its neo-Romantic agenda — to tear down minimalism and puritanism in its many current varieties. … A carnival of high-low allusion and analysis.”

From David Gates’s review

Metropolitan Books | $27.99

THE RETURN OF GREAT POWERS: Russia, China, and the Next World War Jim Sciutto

Sciutto’s absorbing account of 21st-century brinkmanship takes readers from Ukraine in the days and hours ahead of Russia’s invasion to the waters of the Taiwan Strait where Chinese jets flying overhead raise tensions across the region. It’s a book that should be read by every legislator or presidential nominee sufficiently deluded to think that returning America to its isolationist past or making chummy with Putin is a viable option in today’s world.

“Enough to send those with a front-row view into the old basement bomb shelter. … The stuff of unholy nightmares.”

From Scott Anderson’s review

Dutton | $30

THE SPOILED HEART Sunjeev Sahota

Sahota’s novel is a bracing study of a middle-aged man’s downfall. A grieving widower seems to finally be turning things around for himself as he runs for the top job at his labor union and pursues a love interest. But his election campaign gets entangled in identity politics, and his troubles quickly multiply.

“Sahota has a surgeon’s dexterous hands, and the reader senses his confidence. … A plot-packed, propulsive story.”

From Caoilinn Hughes’s review

Viking | $29

SPIRAL AND OTHER STORIES Aidan Koch

The lush, sparsely worded work of this award-winning graphic novelist less resembles anything recognizably “comic book” than it does a sort of dreamlike oasis of art. Her latest piece of masterful minimalism, constructed from sensuous washes of watercolor, pencil, crayon and collage, pulses with bright pigment and tender melancholy.

“Many of these pages are purely abstract, but when Koch draws details, it’s in startlingly specific and consistent contours that give these stories a breadth of character as well as depiction.”

From Sam Thielman’s graphic novels column

New York Review Comics | $24.95

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An appealing new heroine, a fast-moving plot, and a memorably nightmarish family make this one of Box’s best. Full review >

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The darkest hour yet for a detective who pleads, “The only thing I can do is investigate murders. And drink”—and a... Full review >

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An unusual, intoxicating thriller from Argentina that casts deeper and deeper shadows. Full review >

by Michael Robotham

Robotham is a master plotter at the top of his form, and readers will surely hope to see more of his complicated new... Full review >

SEPT. 3, 2019

by Søren Sveistrup ; translated by Caroline Wright

A tantalizing, un-put-down-able novel by an instant master of the form. Full review >

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Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Jen Psaki is the host of MSNBC’s Sunday afternoon and Monday evening program, Inside with Jen Psaki . She served as the thirty-fourth White House Press Secretary under President Biden until May 2022. Over the course of her twenty years in public service, Psaki also served as White House Communications Director under President Obama, as the spokesperson for the State Department under then Secretary of State John Kerry, and worked on three presidential campaigns. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and two children.

Product Details

• Publisher: Scribner (May 7, 2024)
• Length: 240 pages
• ISBN13: 9781668019856

Browse Related Books

• Self-Help > Communication & Social Skills
• Political Science > Public Affairs & Administration
• Biography & Autobiography > Women

Raves and Reviews

"Psaki’s memoir of swimming in the deep end of the world’s most analyzed press pool is as forthright and reassuring as her behind-the-podium personae. The lessons she shares with readers often landed first with her toughest audience, her children. It is precisely this balance of political and journalistic strategies and general life advice that elevates Psaki’s narrative beyond the standard Washington insider tell-all. A helpful resource for anyone who knows how much words matter." — Booklist "Psaki combines the personal and the professional in her enjoyable debut . . . Sprinkled throughout are self-deprecating jabs that highlight her own occasional blunders . . . Such levity helps the book breeze by. Readers need not be political obsessives to appreciate the practical wisdom on offer here." — Publishers Weekly "Throughout the book, Psaki mines her most sensitive moments for lessons on communication to impart to her readers… The narrative shines brightest when Psaki approaches her personal and professional past with circumspection, infusing her words with humor and vulnerability." — Kirkus

"This book is more than an engaging memoir on being the voice of the White House. Jen Psaki offers a crash course on how to communicate more effectively in a turbulent world. Regardless of whether you agree with her politics, you can learn a lot from her clarity and candor.” — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again , and host of "Re:Thinking" “ Say More is the book I wish I had when I was first thinking about a career in politics. Jen Psaki made one of the hardest jobs in the White House look easy—not just because she’s brilliant, tough, and tireless, but because she has an innate ability to connect with almost anyone by listening, empathizing, and treating people as equals. If you want to know what it takes to succeed in politics or in life, this book is for you.” — Jon Favreau, host of "Pod Save America" "You don't have to love politics to love this book. But with candor and humor, Jen shows the reader what it's actually like to be in front of the political spotlight, including how to navigate different kinds of bosses and how to deliver a powerful message." — Chelsea Handler, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Life Will be the Death of Me “I’ve seen Jen Psaki in action during some of the most intense crises we faced . . . and also some of the most outrageous. In Say More , Psaki takes readers behind the scenes of campaigns, inside the White House and State Department, tells us the backstories and gives us the tools to learn how to communicate seamlessly and honestly, all with her trademark humility and humor.” — Alyssa Mastromonaco, bestselling author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? and former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama "Jen Psaki is remarkable in this book, helping us communicate and get value back in all of our relationships. Say More is not just about her career highs—though there have been many. She is a generous storyteller in sharing not just her successes, but her mistakes along the way. All of it helps the reader feel better equipped to SAY MORE!" — Mika Brzezinski, co-host of "Morning Joe"

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• Book Cover Image (jpg): Say More Hardcover 9781668019856

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