13 New April Mysteries, Thrillers, and True Crime For Criminal Spring Reading
Welcome to a new month – and spring! – with plenty of mysteries, thrillers, and true crime to read. Once again there is something for every reading taste – and a ton for readers who read it all!
In the true crime department, there’s a focus on violence against Native American women in America and the rise and fall of D.C. Stephenson, who controlled Indiana through the Ku Klux Klan.
There’s a mystery/horror novel with tribal folklore, the final-for-now book in the Ruth Galloway series (do not shoot the messenger), and fan favorite Megan Miranda has a new tale with the trope of “something bad happened in high school and now those students are reunited for something bad to happen again.”
Domestic suspense fans have a full dish: a “perfect life” woman is found dead at the bottom of her stairs, and now secrets will come out; a British Pakistani actress is definitely hiding something, but is it murdering her husband?; and a couple spends a week at a marriage retreat with all their secrets mounting.
There’s also a coming-of-age tale with a dash of time travel and murder mystery, a middle grade mystery exploring grief, a firefighter mystery (if you can handle the heat!), a fictional sleuth best friend’s with Julia Child, and a James Bond start to a trilogy. Have fun choosing your next read!
As always, you can find a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina
For fans of tribal folklore, past and present storylines, and mystery/horror mixes.
High school student Anna Horn works at the reservation Casino and has always felt an entity following her. She is dealing with school bullies on top of being part of a tribe where girls are disappearing. As she tries to find her own place in life and her tribe, her own sister becomes one of the missing girls. Anna has no choice but to figure out who/what is responsible to bring home her sister.
Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
For fans of domestic suspense, past and present, and switching point of view!
Ciara Dunphy is the woman to envy. Living in a village near Dublin, Ireland she presents as having it all. But when is that ever the case? After a “fall” down the stairs, Ciara is found dead, and her perfect facade can’t hold. Who knows her secrets? Her best friend Mishti Guha, from Calcutta, currently unhappy raising a child in an arranged marriage; and Lauren Doyle, who spies on Ciara and is the town outcast. As the title suggests, when fingers start pointing and you need to save yourself, would you air out everyone’s dirty laundry?
Spider by Azma Dar
For fans of twisty domestic suspense.
British Pakistani actress Sophie is currently only famous for an accidental video of her son’s birth. She’s married to Tariq, a prominent member of Bradford’s Muslim community, when Tariq disappears. He’s then potentially found dead – the body’s condition makes it difficult to identify. Could Sophie have a played a hand in it? Could it be one of her first two husbands? Sophie has something to hide, but does that make her a murderer?
The Last Remains (Ruth Galloway #15) by
Elly Griffiths
For fans of procedurals, archeologist leads, and long running series!.
This is being marketed as the final Ruth Galloway for now. Dr. Ruth Galloway has plenty on her plate with her relationship with DCI Nelson and with the university threatening to close her department. That’s when she’s called to a crime scene: a cafe renovation has unearthed a skeleton. The case hits even closer to home when the bones are revealed to belong to a missing archeology student, placing people in Galloway’s life on the suspect list…
If you want to start at the beginning, pick up The Crossing Places.
The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda
For fans of past group of classmates reuniting and bad things happening (past and present).
A year after a senior high school class trip had a deadly crash, one of the survivors dies by suicide. Since then, the remaining students reunite once a year. Now, 10 years later, they’ve once again come together after another member has died and they’re only down to seven – something Cassidy finds suspicious. Then another member goes missing during the reunion, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s an impending storm coming…
I’ll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman
For fans of coming-of-age mysteries and time travel!
Justin Warren’s grandparents died suspiciously before he was born. But now, Justin finds himself meeting a young girl, Rose Yin, who lives in the same town and goes to the same school Justin did — except they shouldn’t be able to meet like they are, because Justin won’t actually be born for decades, and his grandparents are alive. Looks like he and Rose have one week in 1985 to figure this out to send him back to his time period and stop the murder of his grandparents…
No Man’s Ghost by Jason Powell
For fans of thrillers and fire fighters!
Charles Davids is fresh out of the academy and on his first week as a New York City firefighter, meaning he’s a probationary firefighter and dealing with all the new-guy pranking. And his start as a firefighter gets even trickier when an angry soon-to-be-ex husband starts calling in about fake fires at his ex-wife’s apartment. But when calling in fake fires is no longer enough, things turn dangerous…
When Impossible Happens by Jane De Suza
For fans of middle grade, child sleuths, and the exploration of grief.
Swara’s grandmother dies during the pandemic when India is in lockdown. Swara has a hard time with her grief and doesn’t even believe that it’s possible, instead wanting to investigate the disappearance of her grandmother Pitter Paati, a lover of sleuths. But soon she’s on a new investigation related to lies she overhears in a sari shop, knowing her grandmother would want her to apply her sleuth skills.
Searching for Savanna: The Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many by Mona Gable
For readers of true crime with a focus on violence against Native American women in America.
Using interviews and trial analyses, Gable looks at the case of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, who was murdered in Fargo, North Dakota in 2017, and the history of violence toward Native American girls and women since colonization.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
For readers of true crime, narrative nonfiction, and history.
Egan brings to light Indiana in the 1920s, when D.C. Stephenson rose to power in the Ku Klux Klan and had the governor, judges, ministers as members – essentially giving him power over the state. When he kidnapped and raped Madge Oberholtzer, it led to a trial over her death where her dictated account of the crime as she died of poisoning got him sentenced to life in prison.
Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge
For fans of historical mysteries looking for a new series to start!
The lead of this new series is none other than Julia Child’s American best friend (fictionally invented for this book). Tabitha Knight has traveled from Detroit to Paris after WWII to stay with her grandfather and spend time with her friend Julia Child. But it’s not all fun and eating when a body is discovered in Child’s building and one of her knives is the weapon…
The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh
For fans of domestic suspense and revenge.
A married couple show up to a one-week retreat to work on their marriage. One shows up with their bags already packed, ready to ask for a divorce so they can move in with the person they’re having an affair with. The other shows up having never disclosed they aren’t exactly who they’ve said they are and the past they’re running from is catching up. Now they are thrown into a marriage test, one question a day, meant to strengthen their bond or break them permanently…
Double or Nothing (James Bond Double O Trilogy #1) by Kim Sherwood
For fans of James Bond looking for something new!
James Bond is back with the start of a new trilogy! Er–James Bond is missing, and we get to know MI6’s Double 0 agents: Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. They’ve all got licenses to kill and a ticking clock as a tech billionaire claims he can save the planet by reversing climate change and there’s a mole in MI6…
In case you ever worry you may run out of mysteries to read, we got you! You can find also a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
