This is the third installment in my list of 25 favorite mysteries. You can find the first two here and here. As is always the case with favorites, I make no claim these are the best. They are simply the novels I’ve read, loved, and read again. I’d love to know which ones you think I’ve missed.
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (2024)
Man, do I enjoy this book. Its narrator, the morally iffy Evie Porter, is great company. Evie is a con artist who moves from town to town and identity to identity, all under orders from her boss, the mysterious Mr. Smith. Her latest assignment has taken her to Lake Forbing, Louisiana, where she has been told to figure out Ryan Sumner for reasons she doesn’t actually know. She is succeeding—she’s moved in with Ryan and, behind his back, is digging through his life. The problem, and this is very much not the goal, is that she not only enjoys sleeping with Ryan, she actually likes him. What makes the novel work is Evie’s voice: smart, slippery, funny, and never so charming that you forget she is dangerous. Everyone I’ve recommended it to has loved it.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025)
Broken Country had buzz before it was even published. It sparked a bidding war and was instantly optioned by Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s production company. It reads like a thriller, but it lingers like literary fiction. A dual-timeline novel built around a love triangle, it is really about grief, class, secrecy, and the choices people spend the rest of their lives trying to survive. If you love Tana French, you’ll recognize the appeal: Broken Country is a mystery driven as much by character and regret as by plot.
We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter (2025)
Karin Slaughter—her real name—was born to write thrillers. Her 25 novels have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and been adapted for television more than once. We can thank her, among other things, for the diverting Will Trent. I have read almost all her books and, though I can rarely put them down, many contain more violence against women than I enjoy. (I also think Sara and Will, the leads in her long-running series, have run out of steam.) I opened this one with apprehension. This proved unwarranted. We Are All Guilty Here is one of Slaughter’s strongest books: well plotted, emotionally sharp, and full of the messy family loyalties she writes so well.
Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray (2026)
The advance reader copy of Dissection of a Murder arrived with quite the announcement: the novel, a debut, had already been optioned as the inspiration for the upcoming second season of Presumed Innocent. The setup is excellent: a young barrister is handed the murder case that could make or ruin her career. She’ll be arguing against her husband, a man who never loses in court, and her own client refuses to speak. The twists keep coming and, unlike so many modern thrillers, each one is earned. I love a good courtroom drama, and this one delivers. Sure, at times, it’s too much, but oh, it is riveting.
The Anniversary by Alex Finlay (2026)
Alex Finlay’s thrillers remind me of Harlan Coben’s, but with more juice. Both men are secretly writing romances—there’s always a love story underneath the suspense—and both are very good at families. The Anniversary is Finlay’s best book yet. It begins on May 1, 1992, when the lives of two teenagers, Quinn and Jules, are nearly destroyed on the same night. Each year for the next decade, on the first of May, they return to that day, still trying to understand what happened, why it happened, and who is to blame. The structure works, but Quinn and Jules are the reason the book does. The pleasure is watching them survive not just the crime, but the years after it.
