Every year, She Reads reaches out to readers to discover the books that they thought were the best of the year! This year we had over 8,000 of you cast your vote and the results are in. In our roundups of all the Best Books of 2024, we’ll include the number one book, chosen by you and some favorites from our professional book loving editors. We hope this reading year was as wonderful for you as it was for us!
Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense of 2024: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
In August 1975, thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar vanishes from her family’s summer camp, echoing the unsolved disappearance of her older brother years earlier. As a frantic search ensues, Liz Moore weaves a compelling narrative of buried secrets and strained loyalties within the Van Laar dynasty and the working-class community it sustains. This richly layered story explores themes of loss, mystery, and redemption in Moore’s most expansive novel to date.
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Nothing is better than a good mystery, suspense, or thriller that keeps you guessing the entire time and dares you to try and put it down. If you want an immersive thriller that will captivate you and don’t know where to start, here are some of the best of 2024! From dark academia to toxic friendships and serial killers, these are the best of the best when it comes to this year’s thrillers!
Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz
Ruth-Ann Baker is a bartender and college dropout who has been obsessed with true crime since a friend of hers was murdered by a suspected serial killer twelve years ago. Ruth-Ann still thinks of the long dead alleged serial killer, Ethan Oswald, but when another young girl goes missing in the same town, Ruth-Ann finds evidence that suggests that Oswald was not working alone. Now, she’s determined to find his partner and finds herself intertwined with three different women and one of them might hold the key to unfolding this mystery.
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Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Margot may be shy and quiet, but things might be turning around for her when the popular and enigmatic Lucy asks Margot to room together at the liberal arts college they go to. Soon, Margot finds herself living off campus with the center of attention Lucy, the sarcastic Sloane, and the nice Nicole. Right as Margot feels like she’s coming out of her shell, the unthinkable happens. A fraternity boy is found murdered and Lucy is missing.
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Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh
In New York City, Amanda and Wendy are two strangers who meet by chance and realize they have one thing in common: the desire to kill the men who ruined their families. After a few drinks, they agree if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you. Meanwhile, a woman named Ruth is attacked by a man who vanishes into the night and leaves her wondering if she will ever be safe again in her home from the man with the bright blue eyes.
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Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody
Ten years ago, Teddy Angstrom’s sister, Angie, disappeared and the police never found out what happened to her. Now, Teddy’s father, Mark, has just committed suicide. When Teddy finds that Mark had been active in the Reddit community of amateur sleuths that were trying to solve Angie’s case, Teddy picks up the pieces Mark left behind in hopes she can find out what really happened to Angie.
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Zetas Till We Die by Amber and Danielle Brown
Ten years ago, Priscilla and the Zeta Phi Zeta sorority lost one of their sorority sisters. Just days before their ten-year reunion, Lupe’s killer is released on a technicality. Regardless of the news, Priscilla and the Zetas have their wild party and reunite, and everything seemingly goes off without a hitch. That is, until the next morning one of the sisters doesn’t return from the party and Priscilla begins to suspect there could be more to Lupe’s murder than anyone ever suspected.
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A Lovely Lie by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
In 1999, best friends Scarlett and Pepper got into an accident that left two classmates dead, leaving them to lie to the police and never see each other again. Now, twenty-two years later, Scarlett is raising her teenage son with her husband in Florida and living a more peaceful life. When twenty-one-year old Zoey shows up at Scarlett’s claiming to be Pepper’s daughter, Zoey says Pepper is dead and provides a mysterious letter about the night that changed everything. With Zoey wanting to know everything about that night, Scarlett’s past is about to come back to haunt her.
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The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb
After feeling stuck in life, Cassidy Foster just got the deal of a lifetime being a personal assistant to the hot Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling. All Cassidy has to do is run a few errands and the designer clothes, pool, and pay are at her fingertips. When Nate asks Cassidy to read some scripts he’s written, their professional relationship moves into something more and soon, she finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when one of the Sterlings ends up dead.
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Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown
Maya is returning to Princeton for her ten-year reunion and to attend her sister, Naomi’s graduation. When Maya receives the news that Naomi is dead, the police claim it was an accident but Maya thinks there’s way more to the story. As Maya puts the pieces together, she finds Naomi was involved in a social club on campus that Maya had also belonged to called the Sterling Club. Now, in order to find out what really happened to Naomi, Maya must confront her past as Naomi isn’t the first woman Maya knows that ended up dead.
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Providence by Craig Willse
Mark Lausson got his dream job at the elite Sawyer College in Ohio, but his dream begins to fade in his second year when he finds that the paychecks aren’t cutting it anymore and he can barely keep up with his deadlines. When he meets Tyler Cunningham, Mark is both unsettled and enamored with the sophomore. Fueled by sex and the excitement of a secret, Mark ignores the red flags of the situation until it’s too late and now the damage is done.
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The Man on the Train by Debbie Babitt
Manhattan District Attorney Linda Haley finds two police officers at her door one morning stating that her husband, Guy, is the prime suspect in a brutal murder and now he’s missing. Linda learns that not only was he leading a double life, but this case could not only affect her career but also be related to a cold case. Now, not only is Linda determined to find out what happened to Guy but revisit the scene of an unsolved murder in hopes of getting answers in both cases.
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The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished twenty years ago without a trace. Now, local teenager Ellie Black, who vanished two years ago is found alive in the woods. Ellie won’t say where she’s been or what happened to her and now Chelsey is determined more than every to find out what happened to her.
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The Last Party by A.R. Torre
When you look at Perla Wultz, you’d think she has the perfect life with her husband and daughter in a gated Pasadena community. But if you look closer, Perla has an obsession with a decades old crime that is consuming her. Over twenty years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Although time has passed and Leewood is serving a life sentence, a doctoral student has been interviewing him and trying to get answers to what happened on the night of the murders.
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The Hunter’s Daughter by Nicola Solvinic
Anna is the daughter of a serial killer whose memory was wiped away by a controversial hypnosis treatment. Now living as a sheriff’s lieutenant and living an ordinary life, things take a turn when Anna kills a man in the line of duty and all of her memories come flooding back. When a serial killer copying her father emerges, Anna wonders if it’s a copycat killer or if her father is back.
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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
In 1975 in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are vanishing. Patch, a local boy, finds himself in a position in which he saves the daughter of a wealthy family from being abducted from the madman that erupts in a tale that spans decades and affects the lives of everyone in Patch’s life.
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