I’m reading The Strangler Vine for the CC Bookclub - mystery and thrills set in 1830s India. Two sequels if you like it.
loved Magpie Murder - I think I recommended it a few pages back in this thread - great if you are an agatha christie fan
Caimh McDonnell’s Dublin trilogy. Wickedly funny mystery-thrillers set in Dublin with unique characters and plotting (though the plot is the least of it and the endings aren’t quite as good as everything else). Reminds me of Donald Westlake’s comic novels. So far there are 2 books in the trilogy (A Man with One of Those Faces, The Day That Never Comes) and a prequel (Angels in the Moonlight). It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud these days but these books do.
I just did some mystery thriller research. I usually go to a website that lists the recipients of mystery book awards - there are several: the Anthony Award, the Edgar, etc. Here’s the website with winners and nominees in many categories going back a few decades for some awards.
http://stopyourekillingme.com/Awards/
From my research, I’m planning on buying, IQ, You Will Know Me, Before the Fall, Under the Harrow, and Where it Hurts - all 2017 winners or nominees. Please let me know if any of these are duds. Please don’t mistake Before the Fall with Since We Fell. That one was a dud.
^^ I’ve read three of those books, and none of those three were duds.
“You Will Know Me” is a Meg Abbott book, and it got a lot of good reviews (even from non-mystery readers.) Abbott has a distinctive voice - if you like “You Will Know Me,” you should try “The Fever.” And speaking of a distinctive voice, “Where It Hurts” was my favorite of the three. It’s gritty and atmospheric, and I’ve already put the sequel on my to-buy list. Again, YMMV.
I also read “Under the Harrow.” It was good, but not my favorite - although that could just be me. Reviewers kept comparing it to “Girl on the Train” and I HATED “Girl on the Train.” That may have colored my impression.
I think you’ve picked some winners. Can’t comment on “IQ”or “Before The Fall.” I did hear that “since we fell” was terrible. (That’s too bad. I loved Dennis Lehane’s earlier books.)
Loved Before the Fall. Don’t know about Since We Fell, since I threw the Kindle across the room half way through it.
Regarding mysteries, I highly recommend The Lewis Trilogy by Peter May - and the Louise Penny books of course.
Thanks @scout59 and @MomofJandL ! I’ll look a little more closely at the “Under the Harrow” reviews before I buy, although I was one of the few that thought “Girl on the Train” was OK. Not a masterpiece, but worth reading.
I had a great stroke of luck while voting today at the library. They were having a $1/bag book sale and I got three new (to me) books. So I’m ready for a reading marathon with those in addition to the ones you recommended!
I just finished The Animators, by Kayla Rae Whitaker. It’s a view into a very different world, with excellent character depiction. The subjects of how artistic sensibility shapes lives and whether one’s personal history is necessarily appropriate fodder for artistic expression are intriguingly explored. I think it would be a good choice for a book club discussion.
I’m a mystery fan, but usually don’t read books in the thriller genre. I went to a local book festival with a friend to hear one of my favorite mystery authors, who was on a panel with two other authors. It turned out that the author I went to see was ill and canceled. I ended up buying a new book by one of the other authors, Joseph Finder. The book is The Switch and it’s about a US Senator whose laptop is accidentally switched with that of a coffee company CEO at airport security. The laptop is the Senator’s personal laptop but she had her aid download classified information so she could easily read it. (Sound familiar?) It’s a great story–a little long, but it kept me up until 2 am last night.
Joe Finder was a college classmate of my wife’s!
I am in the middle of reading Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust, which is the first volume of the in-process trilogy he’s calling La Belle Sauvage. It’s a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy, and fills in lots of details on the early life of the heroine of those books, Lyra. Which means that it takes place in an alternate-universe version of Oxford, the two major differences being (1) John Calvin became Pope, so there was never a Counter-Reformation, 100 Years’ War, or anything similar, and the Protestant ideology was wedded to the administrative structure of the Catholic Church, and (2) everyone has an external, physical representation of their soul as some kind of animal who always accompanies the person but acts somewhat independently of its principal.
This new book is a welcome return to the tight focus of The Golden Compass, the first and best book of the prior trilogy. It’s easy and fun to read. It’s still infused with Pullman’s hatred of organized religion, but so far there are no psychopathic Jesuit assassins, just overly officious, often hypocritical zealots.
My wife has been plugging The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, which others here have praised a lot, too. I haven’t read it yet, but plan to very soon.
Giving The Book of Dust to D2 for Christmas this year (shhh!). Glad to hear that it is good!
I hadn’t realized The Book of Dust is now out - there’s a nice interview with Pullman in the NYT magazine sometime within the last month or so I think.
I read the most recent Penric novella by Lois McMasters Bujold. Lots of fun - nothing too serious. But it’s interesting how her last two books have explored the notions of threesomes - makes you wonder what is going on in her life!
Or what she wishes was going on. 
Skipping forward several pages, so don’t know if this has been mentioned, but reading The tea girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. Loving it so far. Of course my favorite of her books is the autobiographical On Gold Mountain. But then I’m a history geek.
Just like when the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano you know it’s spring, when the author interviews show up in the New York Times you know the book is being published that week. Generally.
I have the Book of Dust on my night stand… next in line to be read.
I read Before the Fall earlier this year and really liked it. Maybe I’ll look at other things by the same author…
I’m also getting Game Change by Ken Dryden for DH for Christmas. He’s a huge fan of everything about Dryden and his favorite book of all time is The Game.
@intparent - okay, I finished “Good Morning, Midnight” a while back and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting - way more thoughtful, not much post-apocalyptic-ness. And I was completely caught off-guard by the revelation on the last page (not to be too cryptic.)
I also read “The Glass Castle.” I thought it was very well-written, and I loved the gritty intelligence and spirit of the author as a child, but I really loathed her parents, especially her father. I know, I know - unconditional love, blah blah…but still.
Another Joseph Finder fan here. Just finished Scott Turow’s Testimony. Love the legal thrillers and he’s much better, if not as prolific, as Grisham.