Sleuthing Summer: 12 Great New Mystery & Thrillers For July 2023
Whether you’re on a lounger outside quickly reading to find out the solve or curled up inside with the AC blasting, reading a mystery or thriller can help you enjoy or escape the summer heat. It’s part of the beauty of genre reading — in this case the crime genre — that allows you to become fully absorbed into the world inside a book. Plus, solving a mystery is always a fun way to pass the time.
This month publishing has treated mystery and thriller readers to a slew of new crime releases with something for every reading taste. There’s a historical mystery set in Bombay and a historical crime sequel set in Harlem. There is a domestic thriller following a toxic couple. We have not one but two neighborhoods full of secrets and a mystery, plus a satirical murder mystery with a murdered teacher. There’s an elite school with a competition and a language school with a mysterious cost…
There’s a YA royalty mystery, a return home after a past crime, a translated Japanese detective novel, and an action-filled thriller! See, there is something for everyone. Plus, a bunch of the authors have great backlists to dive into if you’re not a new release reader or have a wait at the library. You have standalones and also some great series that you should also pick up the first book to if you haven’t already. Hope your next great escape is below!
The Mistress of Bhatia House (Perveen Mistry #4) by Sujata Massey
For fans of historical mysteries inspired by a real person.
Perveen is a lawyer working for her father but because of the time period (1920s Bombay), how she can practice has plenty of limitations. This doesn’t stop Perveen from representing those in need of help or solving mysteries. This time around a servant is charged with murder (abortion) after saving an aristocrat’s grandson from a fire…
If you’d like to start at the beginning, pick up The Widows of Malabar Hill, or catch up in the series with The Satapur Moonstone, and The Bombay Prince.
Crook Manifesto (Ray Carney #2) by Colson Whitehead
Why yes, the author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys does have a crime novel — two in fact!
Set in Harlem in the 1970s, this story follows three years of Ray Carney’s life starting in 1971. Ray is a family man and business owner who turned his back on his criminal past, but this is a crime novel so he’s not going to be let go so easily. Instead, needing a favor from a cop to get Jackson 5 tickets for his kid means he now owes a favor…
If you’d like to start at the beginning of the series, pick up Harlem Shuffle.
A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing
For fans of domestic thrillers from an author with a great backlist (For Your Own Good, My Lovely Wife).
Follow along with Wes and Ivy, who are in a toxic relationship that has the highest of highs and lowest of lows. They should finally end their relationship and walk away, but they decide instead to remain together through a past death and a current detective’s investigation. What could possibly go wrong?
Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
Another popular author with a big backlist to get to (Not a Happy Family, An Unwanted Guest)!
This is for fans of neighborhood mysteries full of secrets! A 9 year old girl is missing after a fight with her father — one whose life just imploded due to an affair. As neighbors come forward to discuss the missing case, offer information, and assumptions, the neighborhood tensions start to crank up…
Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington
For fans of YA mysteries with elite school settings and competitions.
Adina Walker has just found her entire future placed in peril after one fight places her on a blacklist for her top Ivy League school choice. Her option? Join in a high-stakes mysterious contest. She’s worked too hard not to. The problem? The high-stakes end up being life or death…
The King Is Dead by Benjamin Dean
For fans of royalty, YA, and mystery.
At 17 years old, James is the heir to the throne of England and hiding his romantic relationship. Then his father dies and James suddenly finds himself King, with a missing boyfriend, and told he can’t trust anyone — not even family.
Prom Mom by Laura Lippman
For fans of past mysteries coming to get you in the present.
In the late 1990s, Amber Glass becomes known as “Prom Mom” by the media after giving birth and killing her baby in her boyfriend Joe’s hotel room in Baltimore. She’s lived away since but finds herself having to return home. It can be good for her if only she and Joe can stay away from each other…
The Devil’s Flute Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #8) by Seishi Yokomizo, Jim Rion (Translator)
For fans of translated Japanese detective novels, classic mystery novels, and locked-room murders.
In 1940s Japan, a feuding family finds themselves the victims of gruesome murders. They’ll need Detective Kosuke Kindaichi to sleuth his way through all the clues and red herrings…
You don’t have to worry about reading these in order, but if you’d like to start at the beginning, pick up The Honjin Murders.
The Block Party by Jamie Day
For fans of neighborhood mysteries where the secrets slowly come out!
This is the kind of neighborhood mystery that opens with the reader knowing there is a murder on a specific day but not knowing the who and the why. I know! So readers are taken back a year to where all the events leading up to the murder start, and follow different adults and a teenager, to see if they can guess the answers before the reveal…
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
For fans of genre-blended novels with a must-keep-reading-to-know-what-is-going-on feel.
If you were nowhere near accomplishing your dream of being a translator for great literature and suddenly learned of a center that gives you complete fluency in a new language in just 10 days, would you take it? Anisa Ellahi does, but in a world where nothing is ever as good as it seems, what is the actual cost?
An Honest Man by Michael Koryta
For fans of thrillers with action!
Israel Pike is a lobsterman who finds a yacht full of dead men, including senators, making him a suspect. Lyman Rankin is a 12 year old who is hiding from his father and finds instead a woman in an abandoned house holding a hatchet…
Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker
For fans of murder mysteries and satire.
What happens when a new private school teacher is found murdered with a pair of scissors? The parents and children become suspects of course! Follow along as three of the mothers tell their stories, and let us into their lives.
If you need to stock your summer with as much mystery and thrillers and possible, we’ve got you covered! 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.
