Best mysteries and thrillers of January, as chosen by the Amazon Editors
The Amazon Editors’ picks for the Best Mysteries and Thrillers of January kick the new year off beautifully. Whether you’re in the mood for “morally murky, very quirky” goings-on at a home for pregnant teenagers, a twisted tale about a missing wife and a baffled husband that would do Agatha Christie or Lucy Foley proud, a thriller with “many and varied” twists of the legal variety, readers will find something to keep them glued to the page this month. Read on for a few of our favorites and don’t forget to check out the complete list. Happy reading!
In Grady Hendrix's latest, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, we meet Neva in May 1970 when her seething father is driving her and her swollen body for hours to deliver her to a group home for pregnant unwed teenagers in rural Florida. Everyone knows “...homes were for poor girls, trashy girls, fast girls. They were for sluts," and her dad makes sure she knows how far she's fallen. Once at the home, more slut-shaming and punitive treatment follows (the teens are directed to smoke out of sight in a screened porch in the backyard because standards, y'all). But a book checked out of a mobile library points to a new possibility. Hendrix's book is a sharp and sharply-observed look at the ways in which young girls' innocence is exploited before they, and they alone, are punished for the results. But it's also an amusing, moving, morally murky, very quirky, coming-of-age tale that blends swollen ankles, witchy goings-on, wrongs-made-right, and agency for the sisterhood to spellbinding (pun intended) effect. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
We won’t even try to lay out the plot of Beautiful Ugly, because like a lot of Alice Feeney’s novels, you won’t be able to tell if it’s a murder mystery, a cozy mystery, or even a serial killer tale at first. And some of the events that take place after author Grady Green’s wife goes missing border on the preposterous. But, as with her other novels, Feeney is a writer of such power and persuasion that once you start to read, she pulls the reader through, and suspension of disbelief becomes one more spoke in a flywheel of unpredictability and menacing suspense. Let’s just say there was a suggestion of Gone Girl (missing spouse), a touch of Yellowface (a mysterious manuscript), and a whisper of a hint of Misery (as a one-hit wonder chooses a remote location to write his way back to success). Have no fear though, Feeney puts her own unmistakable stamp on all of the above, taking this nerve-tightening tale of danger, revenge, and double crosses down some deliciously dark and twisty terrain. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
Scott Turow is a master of the legal thriller. I still remember that ‘mind blown’ feeling when I read Presumed Innocent, and he’s continued to bring a level of suspense, clever plotline, and fly-on-the-wall atmosphere to his books that makes them unputdownable. With Presumed Guilty, Rusty Sabich comes out of retirement for a high stakes murder trial, and true to form, the twists are many and varied. I came away from this novel with a deeper understanding of the law, the flaws and foibles of the judicial system, and the struggle to determine guilt and innocence—especially when it’s someone you love. I’ve got my fingers crossed this is not the last we’ll see of Rusty Sabich (looking at you, Mr. Turow), but if it is, it’s been a helluva ride. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor
This thriller gets more disturbing with every page, but I couldn’t stop reading it. The story follows the Weilands, a Kennedy-esque family besieged by a curse—each April, family members have brutally died for decades. Thankfully, things have been calm for the last fourteen years, and the current Weilands—charming politician Teddy, his sister and recovering disaster Clara, and her best friend Jess (who also happens to be Teddy’s wife)—now live in relative peace on a small island in Maine. But when Teddy decides to run for senate, Clara feels he’s tempting fate. What she doesn’t expect is to be the target. On April 1, an intimate video of Clara is released to the public, but she has no recollection of it. As more videos are released and Clara questions her sanity, the Weilands devolve in increasingly terrifying ways as they reckon with who they are and the secrets they’ve kept. A modern-day horror story about technology and male rage, you’ll be unnerved and unable to look away. —Abby Abell, Amazon Editor
Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid will love this propulsive novel about a best-selling author who decides to reveal her identity, and her true story, after years of keeping it a secret. Cate and Amanda are the type of best friends that other best friends wish they could be. Inseparable since they were nine years old, they’ve graduated high school and are one day out from the next chapter of their lives when a devastating accident changes everything. Cate flees, taking new names as she creates a life she never expected to lead, and turning away from a past she’s too scared to face. When a shocking truth is revealed, Cate realizes that revisiting the past is the only way to move forward. I couldn’t put this book down. There are so many threads woven together beautifully to tell a story about friendship, ambition, and love. It is sexy, gripping, heart-breaking, and ultimately, redemptive. I dare you not to read this in one sitting. —Abby Abell, Amazon Editor
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