Fall in Love With February’s New Mystery, Thriller & True Crime Books

For readers of true crime memoirs by the victims of high-profile cases/trials.

Gisèle Pelicot’s case against her husband and the 50 men who assaulted her horrifically was watched around the world. This is her story told “not as victim, but as witness.”

For fans of a book-within-a-book and Scotland Yard detectives!

What a hook: Detective Inspector Samantha Hansen returns to work from leave to work on the case of a murdered teen, one that seems to have ties to a self-help book teaching readers how to get away with murder!

For fans of historical fiction with mysteries and characters based on real people!

Pasadena in the early 1900s comes to life as we follow Ryui, an art dealer’s apprentice, living in Riley House along with his roommate and best friend, Jack. Jack, whose previous roommate went missing, becomes a PI. Following an attack and the theft of a painting, Jack and Ryui find themselves investigating.

For fans of literary fiction with psychological and criminal elements, and explorations of obsession

Twenty-one-year-old K-pop idol Yosep, known as “the boy,” has a cultish fandom. Enter four women with not much in common other than their obsession with Yosep and their desire to have him. That’s how he ends up kidnapped in a mansion with the women, all desperate to keep him…

For fans of New York-set murder mysteries and stories of amateur sleuths having to clear their name

Siriwathi Perera is a 28-year-old cab driver in New York who spends her time listening to true crime podcasts. When she becomes the number one suspect after a fare dies in her cab, she calls a previous passenger who is a lawyer. While Perera might be a loner living in the big city, that doesn’t mean she won’t get help from interesting New Yorkers to solve this mystery and clear her name.

For fans of unreliable narrators and multiple POV and timelines

Nat has a history of dead exes. They all died in accidents or in self-defense, and they all were terrible men. Nat doesn’t remember any of the incidents because she blacked out during them. Now she’s discovered that her husband James used their savings for IVF to pay off a blackmailing family member who thinks Nat is a murderer.

For fans of twisty mysteries with secluded lake settings

A family has to have dark secrets for a vacation to turn deadly, like when Courtney Gray finds her brother and sister-in-law dead, her niece missing, and her nephew asleep on what was supposed to be a peaceful lakeside retreat…

For fans of procedurals set in remote, secret towns!

In the Yukon wilderness in a sanctuary town, Detective Casey Butler and Sheriff Eric Dalton, now married with a six-month-old baby, are the town’s law. Being a town filled with people who have needed to disappear from the world, there is always danger lurking, sometimes from within and sometimes from the outside. After Casey and Eric come across two hikers that make them question their story, one is later found dead and the other is missing.

If you want to start at the beginning, pick up Murder at Haven’s Rock!

For fans of whodunnits set in retirement communities!

Seventy-five-year-old serial killer Carol Quinn has been released from prison and settles down in a retirement home in London. Only two people know of her murderous past, so she’s able to make friends and join in the group activities. Problem? A couple! First, a retired cop recognizes Carol, and the friendly new environment is not so friendly anymore, and then a body plummets off the roof.

Here’s another one for readers of true crime memoirs by the victims of high-profile cases.

That we have two memoirs by women at the center of high-profile sexual assault cases in the same month speaks volumes about the state of our rape culture.

This is Reshona Landfair’s story, known during R. Kelly’s trial as Jane Doe, about growing up in a world that made it possible for her to land in an abuser’s orbit as a young teenager. It’s about her experience and how to look out for one another.

For fans of multiple POV thrillers

Tess and Alma end up fighting for their lives in a remote cave system on the Cascade Range, targeted by a caver who’s stalking them. Now, Tess is in the hospital telling the story to a detective who is trying to figure out what really happened…