Amazon’s Editor’s Picks: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense for September, 2024

If any of the titles garnered starred reviews in the four library journals, that is indicated after the plot summary of the title. Amazon does a good job of coming up with these monthly lists and especially its year-end best list.

A very good list this month, with WHERE THEY LAST SAW HER by Marcie R. Rendon and WE SOLVE MURDERS by Richard Osman getting the most starred reviews. Larry Gandle really liked BLACK RIVER by Nilanjana Roy when he reviewed it as one of the nominees for a CWA Dagger Award. I’ve read three of the titles and liked WE SOLVE MURDERS by Richard Osman, ASHES NEVER LIE by Lee Goldberg and the Sherlock Holmes title. I’m in the middle of the Attica Locke title and hope to read THE BUTCHER GAME by Alaina Urquhart as I liked the first in the series which ended with a cliff-hanger. The Deaver/Maldonado novel looks intriguing.

Disclaimer: this is not intended to advertise amazon.com or encourage you to buy books from that site. It is for information purposes only.

Amazon Editor’s Picks: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense – Standalones –September, 2024

GRAVEYARD SHIFT (a novella), M. L. Rio (Flatiron, $26.99). Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks

WHERE THEY LAST SAW HER, Marcie R. Rendon (Bantam, $28.00, September). Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what happens to women who look like her. Just a girl when Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge and she ran for help, Quill realizes now that she’s never stopped running. As she trains for the Boston Marathon early one morning in the woods, she hears a scream. When she returns to search the area, all she finds are tire tracks and a single beaded earring.
Things are different now for Quill than when she was a lonely girl. Her friends Punk and Gaylyn are two women who don’t know what it means to quit; her loving husband, Crow, and their two beautiful children challenge her to be better every day. So when she hears a second woman has been stolen, she is determined to do something about it—starting with investigating the group of men working the pipeline construction just north of their homes. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus Starred Reviews

BLACK RIVER, Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo, $17.95, September). Teetapur, an unassuming village just a few hours outside of bustling Delhi, is famous for nothing—until one of its children, 8-year-old Munia, is found dead, hanging from the branch of a Jamun tree.
In the largely Hindu village, suspicion quickly falls on an itinerant Muslim man, Mansoor Suspicion ignites like wildfire, fueled by religious tensions that simmer beneath the surface.
The responsibility of uncovering the elusive truth – and prevent the lynching of the prime suspect – now rests on the weary shoulders of Sub-Inspector Ombir Singh. With only one other officer beneath him, and just a single working revolver between them, can he bring justice to a grieving father and an angry village – or will Teetapur demand vengeance instead? CWA Dagger Nominee

THE EXAMINER, Janice Hallett (Atria, $29.99, September). University professor Gela Nathaniel must make her new master’s program in multimedia art succeed. If it doesn’t, then Royal Hastings University will cut her funding and she’ll be out of the job she loves. The six students in this inaugural course will be key to that success…but how well has she selected the team?
The students include a talented young sculptor who is determined to graduate with top grades, a former gallery owner with limited artistic skills, a single mother more interested in a paycheck than homework, a people pleaser who struggles with technology, a marketing executive suffering from burnout, and a successful artist who seems rather overqualified for the program.
At the end of the academic year, when the examiner arrives to grade the students’ final project, he finds himself asking what happened. Because if someone in that course isn’t in mortal danger, then they are already dead. But who, and why?

THE SERIAL KILLER GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO, Michelle Chouinard (Minotaur, $28.00, September). The chill of a San Francisco summer can be deadly. No one knows this better than Capri Sanzio, who makes her living giving serial killer tours of the city. Capri has been interested in the topic since she was a kid, when she discovered she’s the granddaughter of serial killer William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio. She’s always believed in his innocence, though she’s never taken the leap to fully dive into the case.
But now an Overkill Bill copycat has struck in San Francisco. And Capri’s former mother-in-law, Sylvia, just cut off Capri’s daughter’s tuition payments. Needing cash, Capri wonders if this is the time to exonerate her grandfather. The case is back in the news and the police will be looking to understand the past to catch a present-day killer. Capri could finally uncover the truth about Overkill Bill – documenting the process with a podcast and a book – and hopefully earn some money.
Before Capri can get very far, the cops discover the copycat’s latest victim: Sylvia. Capri soon finds herself at the heart of the police’s investigation for an entirely different reason. She and her daughter are prime suspects.

WILLIAM, Mason Coile (Putnam, $27.00, September). Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William.
No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.
When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to finally meet Henry and see the new house—the smartest of smart homes—Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in.

THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL, Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley, $29.00, September).
Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.
To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.
But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.
After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body. Booklist Starred Review

TINY THREADS, Lillian Rivera (Del Rey, $28.00, September). Fashion-obsessed Samara finally has the life she’s always dreamed of: A high-powered job with legendary designer Antonio Mota. A new home in sunny California, far away from those drab Jersey winters. And an intriguing love interest, Brandon, a wealthy investor in Mota’s fashion line.
But it’s not long before Samara’s dream life begins to turn into a living nightmare as Mota’s big fashion show approaches and the pressure on her turns crushing. Perhaps that’s why she begins hearing voices in her room at night—and seeing strange things that can’t be explained away by stress or anxiety or the number of drinks she’s been consuming.
And it may not be just Samara imagining things as her psyche unravels, because she soon discovers hints that her new city—and the House of Mota—may be built on a foundation of secrets and lies

THE HOUSE HUNT, C. M. Ewan (Grand Central, $30.00, August). For two years Lucy and Sam renovated their beautiful Victorian home but spiraling debts are forcing them to sell. The agreement with their real estate agent is that they won’t be home for viewings, but when Lucy gets a voicemail saying the Agent is running late, she realizes she will have to show the prospective buyer around herself.
Suffering from extreme anxiety and claustrophobia, Lucy watches the stranger on their doorstep waiting to be let in; she wants to hide and pretend she’s not home, but then she thinks of Sam working at all hours to cover their bills, of how much they need this sale, and opens the door.
Lucy takes a breath and begins to show their house. He is well dressed, polite, and despite her unease everything goes well, until he starts acting strangely. Why is he asking increasingly intrusive questions about her and Sam’s relationship? Why is he trying to take photographs of her? And why does he disappear into the basement and then not answer her when she calls?
There is something very wrong with this stranger, and now he is refusing to leave…

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE TELEGRAM FROM HELL, Nicholas Meyer (Mysterious Press, $26.95, August). June, 1916. With a world war raging on the continent, exhausted John H. Watson, M.D. is operating on the wounded full-time when his labors are interrupted by a knock on his door, revealing Sherlock Holmes, with a black eye, a missing tooth and a cracked rib. The story he has to tell will set in motion a series of world-changing events in the most consequential case of the detective’s career.
Amid rebellion in Ireland and revolution in Russia, Germany has a secret plan to win the war and Sir William Melville of the British Secret Service dispatches the two aging friends to learn what the scheme is before it can be put into effect. In pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram sent from Berlin to an unknown recipient in Mexico, Holmes and Watson must cross the Atlantic, dodge German U-boats and assassination attempts, and evade the intrigues of young J. Edgar Hoover, while enlisting the help of a beautiful, eccentric Washington socialite as they seek to foil the schemes of Holmes’s nemesis, the escaped German spymaster Von Bork.

QUEEN MACBETH, Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press, $22.00, September). A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre, and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.

SAFE ENOUGH (short stories), Lee Child (Mysterious Press, $28.00, September). For the past twenty years, Lee Child has been one of the bestselling authors in the world, thanks to the popularity of his iconic and instantly recognizable hero Jack Reacher. But even at the height of Reacher’s fame, Child’s short story writing was not confined to the series; throughout the course of his career, he published tales about a range of characters on both sides of the law, including assassins, a body guard, CIA and FBI agents, gangsters, and more. Meticulously plotted and packed with Child’s trademark action and suspense, the stories show the author’s mastery of the short form, and they’ve never been collected before now.

Amazon Editor’s Picks: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense – New and Continuing Series – September, 2024

WE SOLVE MURDERS, Richard Osman (Viking, Pam Dorman, $30.00, September). First in a new series. Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus Starred Reviews

GUIDE ME HOME, Attica Locke (Mulholland, $29.00, September). Texas Ranger Darren Mathews isn’t sure he’s been a good cop, but believes he’s got a shot at being a good man—if he manages to dodge the potential indictment hanging over his head and if he, from here on out, pledges allegiance to the truth. It’s a virtue the country appears to have wholly lost its grip on, but one Darren sees as his salvation. He is in the midst of remaking his life with the woman he loves, hoping for the peace of country living at his beloved farmhouse, when he is visited by someone who couldn’t hold the truth on her tongue if it was dipped in sugar, a woman who’s always been bent of tearing his life apart. His mother. Armed with a tall tale about a missing Black college student, Sera (whose white sorority sisters insist she isn’t missing at all). Darren must decide if his can trust his mother is telling the truth—and what her ulterior motive may be, and what if that motive has to do with a grand jury deciding his fate. Kirkus and Booklist Starred Reviews

DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK, Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, $30.00, September). Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.
In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

THE DARK WIVES, Ann Cleeves (Minotaur, $29.00, August). The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.
DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue being the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.
Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact.

WHAT TIME THE SEXTON’S SPADE DOTH RUST, Alan Bradley (Bantam, $28.00, September).
Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine’s main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia’s hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem.
When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet, and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? “I have to admit,” says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, “that I’d been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?”
But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet’s good name. Little does she know that following the case’s twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life.

THE BUTCHER GAME, Alaina Urquhart (Zando, $28.00, September). Destruction follows the ruthless serial killer, Jeremy Rose, the Bayou Butcher, as he heads north to evade capture for his horrific crimes. As he seeks safe harbor with a former friend, he remains focused on unfinished business with forensic pathologist Dr. Wren Muller, the only target who’s ever escaped him – twice. But not this time. He’s determined to make Wren suffer, and he’s promised to make her play by his own twisted rules.
Still in shock over the harrowing encounter with her old nemesis, Wren is on forced medical leave in New Orleans, attempting to mend the deep scars of her traumatic past. But with growing evidence that Jeremy is leaving a fresh trail of mutilated victims across Massachusetts, Wren realizes the best way to heal is to renew her pursuit of this vicious killer. She sets her sights on Jeremy, only to discover that she may have walked directly into his trap. As their twisted cat-and-mouse game rachets up to a violent clash of good versus evil, Wren prepares to sacrifice everything to bring Jeremy to justice.

THE ACCOMPLICE, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Amistad, $27.99, September). New York-born and Texas-bred Nia Adams always dreamt of becoming a Texas Ranger. She knows the dangers of the job, and as the first Black female ranger, she knows the politics, but she’s never encountered a criminal like Desmond Bell. A Vietnam vet turned thief, Desmond steals more than money; he steals the secrets of the rich and powerful and blackmails them for millions. When Desmond steals from the Duchamps, the wealthiest family in the country, Nia’s investigation into the robbery threatens to expose him and the criminal enterprise he works for. As the bodies pile up, Nia digs deeper for the truth, putting her life and career in danger. It’s a deadly cat-and-mouse game between ranger and thief, but to protect their family’s secrets, the Duchamps won’t hesitate to kill them both.

TALKING TO STRANGERS, Fiona Barton (Berkley, $29.00, August). When Karen Simmons is murdered on Valentine’s Day, Detective Elise King wonders if she was killed by a man she met online. Karen was all over the dating apps, leading some townspeople to blame her for her own death, while others band together to protest society’s violence against women. Into the divide comes Kiki Nunn, whose aggressive newsgathering once again antagonizes Elise.
A single mother of a young daughter, Kiki is struggling to make a living in the diminished news landscape. Getting a scoop in the Simmons murder would do a lot for her career, and she’s willing to go up against not just Elise but the killer himself to do it.

FATAL INTRUSION, Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, September). Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. But when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator.
With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she’s cashing in. They team up to catch the assailant, who, mystifyingly, has no discernible motive and fits no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives this chillingly efficient tactician his nickname: Spider.

ASHES NEVER DIE, Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer, $28.99, September). Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It’s a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex–US marshal who craves action.
But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man’s corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers. The burn patterns and charred body tell Sharpe a bizarre story that only creates more questions for Eve. So the four detectives team up to find the answers. Their investigation into the two unrelated cases leads to one shocking discovery after another.
Now they must gamble their lives to unmask a brilliant arsonist, crack open a massive swindle, track down a desperate fugitive with a terrifying secret, and race against time to save thousands of people from an agonizing death.

GROUNDS FOR MURDER, Betty Ternier Daniels (ECW Press, $18.95, September). Jeannie is in trouble. After the loss of her husband, everyone around her is pressuring her to leave her precious farm, including an incredibly persistent realtor who won’t name her client. But when that realtor ends up dead, killed by mistake when she borrows Jeannie’s car, it becomes clear that her client won’t take no for an answer. Who wants Jeannie’s land so badly that they are willing to kill her for it? And why her farm when there are plenty around her for sale? To find the answer, Jeannie joins forces with off-duty cop Derek and finds refuge with the young back-to-the-land tenants who rent a section of her farm. Set in her ways at 60, Jeannie must learn to open her mind — and her heart — in her quest to find the killer, all while grappling with ghosts from her past and wrestling with the question of land transfer and ownership. Will the next generation love her farm as intensely as she does? And will she survive long enough to find out?

THE ALASKA SANDERS AFFAIR, Joel Dicker (HarperVia, $30.00, September). April 1999. The body of Alaska Sanders is found on the shore of a lake near the quiet town of Mount Pleasant, New Hampshire. The young woman’s death rocks the small community, but the murder is quickly solved. Within days, a suspect is identified and soon convicted. Case closed. Or so it seemed. . . .
Eleven years later, Marcus Goldman, celebrity author and amateur sleuth, picks up a thread that will unravel not only the “open and shut” case of Alaska Sanders, but the very fabric of his best friend,–Sergeant Perry Gahalowood–’s life. Gahalowood, who led the original Alaska Sanders investigation, is hell-bent on finding the truth and setting the record straight. Teaming up with Marcus, he hopes to find redemption by solving the most intricate and trying case of his career.