Our picks for the best mysteries and thrillers of the year

Our favorite mysteries and thrillers of the year confused us, scared us, thrilled us, creeped us out, made us stand up and cheer, and even made us hoot with laughter. That’s what makes them the best, in our opinion. We hope you agree.

Below you’ll find a few of our favorite mysteries and thrillers and you can browse the complete list here—but don’t forget to check out the best of the rest, too: the Amazon Editors’ overall favorites, in literary fiction, biographies, romance, science fiction, history, mystery, and more.

Don Winslow (Power of the Dog trilogy, Broken) is, without doubt, one of the finest crime fiction writers to come along in decades. And in City on Fire, he’s written one of the most immersive, head-turning, heart-stopping crime family novels since The Godfather. This story about two crime fiefdoms—Irish and Italian—is about loyalty, love, fraternity, family, belonging, betrayal, and survival. But no matter how epic its themes, it’s Winslow’s eye for the small, personal details—the moments or the interactions that only register as pivotal later—that will sear these characters in your heart and in your memory. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

 

The Maid

by Nita Prose

4.3 out of 5 stars 52,495

It’s a problem for any number of reasons when Molly, a twenty-something hotel maid, discovers notorious—and very wealthy—guest Charles Black dead in his bed. First, it offends Molly’s sense of order, which leads her to clean Black’s room immediately. At sea when it comes to social cues, lonely, and reliant on her late Gran’s codes of conduct to navigate the world, Molly’s actions and curious demeanor see her propelled to the top of the police’s suspect list. The bulk of the suspense in this novel is watching Molly— guileless, earnest, but determined—try to clear her name. Luckily, this endearing odd duck has more friends than she realizes, making this mystery as charming and amusing as it is compulsively readable. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

Killers of a Certain Age

by Deanna Raybourn

4.4 out of 5 stars 2,330

Four assassins—part of an elite, all-female squad called the Sphinxes—are ushered into retirement with an all-expenses-paid luxury cruise. One explosive—and unscheduled—disembarkation later, they make their way back, like post-menopausal Kingsmen, to the abandoned English country mansion where it all began decades earlier. Except this time, it’s not to train, but to train their sights on whomever has put a hit on them. And the invisibility that happens to all women beyond a certain age may well prove to be their most valuable weapon. This novel—fast and direct as a bullet—pits men against women, age against youth, technology against old school know-how, and is hilarious to boot. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor