Real talk: Am I the only one who feels like summer is flying by just a little bit too quickly? I’m definitely a fall/winter kind of person, but I love my summer thrillers. While this summer was a fantastic time for thrillers, fall thrillers are right around the corner and are shaping up to be just as great. Here are the most anticipated thrillers of fall 2019.

Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard

Obviously, this one is on the list because I have read and loved Howard’s last two novels. The Liar’s Girl is easily one of my favorite serial killer thrillers and her newest release sounds even more deadly. This story is described as Fatal Attraction meets Psycho – sign me up! It’s about the manager of a group of cottages who sees a guest get murdered on a hidden camera. Then the story goes back in time to give readers a better understanding of these characters and their pasts. I have a strong feeling not everything is as it seems and I am seriously turning off my cell phone and locking all of my doors when I devour this gem.

The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger

The Stranger Inside looks like it is going to be one insane ride! Rain Winter and two of her friends met a terrible fate as children – Rain escaping abduction, Tess disappearing and Hank held in captivity and later escaping. Even though their abductor was released from prison years later, someone has killed him. Now as an adult, Rain is a journalist and another murderer is found dead, and for obvious reasons, Rain can’t walk away from this story. I love a complex thriller and the details in the synopsis of this book are enough to send me over the edge. The Stranger Inside seems like the perfect kick-off to what I really look for in a fall thriller and the only thing that can make this experience perfect would be pairing it with an oversized hoodie and some takeout pizza.

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski

I. Love. A. Cold. Case. There is something so chilling about unraveling clues and finding out what happened during a crime that occurred years and years ago. One summer, a woman named Maureen goes to the wealthy Opal Beach to start a new life – a city with all kinds of glitz and glamour. Then, Maureen suddenly disappears. Thirty years later, Allison is a newly divorced woman who receives the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach and she is drawn to the case (like we all would be) and starts to get to the truth about what happened to Maureen. This synopsis immediately drew me in and the cover is just the cherry on top of this thriller sundae.

Before the Devil Fell by Neil Olson

Every now and then, I like to dip my toes into something a little more unfamiliar than the usual thriller, suspense and mystery novels I always read. Before the Devil Fell by Neil Olson is the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Will returns to his hometown north of Boston to care for his mother, having not really been around since high school. After returning home, Will finds himself looking into his mother’s previous “spirit circle” and the death of one of her friends that caused their coven to basically close shop. As Will learns more about the story, he ends up deep in New England’s history with witchcraft and the inhabitants of his town. As Halloween is ultimately my favorite time of year, a little supernatural witchcraft in my thriller is just what I need.

The Furies by Katie Lowe

The Furies is the story of Violet, who, in 1998, goes to a new all-girls boarding school and meets some new friends who become obsessed with the 17th-century witch trials. Do they dive into the witchcraft? Do they have a sleepover? Do they ultimately decide not to mess with black magic? Well, a year later a girl is found dead dressed in all white on a swing on campus and from there, chaos takes over. Let’s just say, you should add this to your TBR now. Bring on the witches!

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

How can I possibly do a book round-up without gushing about Lisa Jewell? Since I started my blog, this woman has churned out one brilliant title after the next. The Family Upstairs is an intricate tale of a woman who inherits a mansion after learning who her biological parents are. Sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? Wrong! Twenty-five years ago, the police were called to the home on reports of a baby crying. When the police arrived, the baby was fine, but three dead bodies were lined up in the kitchen with an ominous note. The other four children in the residence had completely disappeared. I don’t know about you, but this sounds so eerie and if I know Lisa Jewell, that synopsis only scratches the surface of this devilish tale. 

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt

Margot Hunt is the kind of author that writes a novel, you read it, you review it, you close the book and you immediately start to wonder what she is going to do next. With her upcoming title, The Last Affair, I think this is going to be the perfect blend of everything I like in a thriller – an affair, a seaside setting and a murder. When Nora begins an affair with Josh, all seems fun and steamy until his daughter Abby catches them and begins her plan of taking Nora down… and then Abby’s mother and Josh’s current wife ends up dead, setting a new spiral into motion. I cannot wait!

Reputation by Sara Shepard

Sara Shepard is the twisty and brilliant author who came up with one of my favorite series to date (Pretty Little Liars) and she is back with another adult thriller this season. There’s something about a college setting that sparks such an interest when it comes to choosing what books I want to feature on my blog. Reputation is all sorts of twisty drama in one of my favorite settings. A university is shocked when a hacker exposes the entire campus’s emails and puts them into an easily accessible database for anyone to read. Sounds juicy and dramatic already? There’s more! A professor is murdered, his sister-in-law returns home after 15 years with dark secrets and an investigative journalist is determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening on campus. I am expecting some Scream and Gale Weathers type of drama with a murderer on the loose along with some Desperate Housewives feel.

Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

Dead Girls Club seems like the kind of read that will keep me occupied while I wait for more Stranger Things. The synopsis makes me believe this is the ultimate thrill ride: a ’90s opening, an urban legend and a mysterious death turned into a cold case. When Heather and her friends were younger, they had a club called the Dead Girls Club where they told stories about serial killers and urban legends like the Red Lady. All is fun and games until one of the girls is found dead. I’ll give you a minute to pre-order this before I let you know that the story then takes readers 30 years into the future where Heather still believes that the Red Lady is real and has been harboring a secret about her friend’s death all this time. Then some I Know What You Did Last Summer-esque things start happening and Heather realizes she isn’t the only one who knows the truth.

The Kill Club by Wendy Heard

I love Wendy Heard because her novels are really unique, and the prose is dazzling as well. The Kill Club features a young woman named Jazz who grew up under Carol’s supervision in foster care. Carol has always been extreme, but things become worse with Jazz gone and in turn, a young teenager’s life is at risk. Then Jazz gets an anonymous call from someone involved with The Helpers – a vigilante group who are responsible for the Blackbird Killings – bodies that have been left all over Los Angeles – who are The Helpers abusers. All Jazz has to do to get them to take care of Carol is to do one act of “kindness” for them – kill a complete stranger. Will she do it? Will there be a twist? IDK, but I can’t wait to find out!

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison

J.T. Ellison… where do I even begin? Every single thing Ellison writes is better than the last and yet her backlog is still all precious to me. Good Girls Lie is the newest thriller from Ellison and it takes place in a prep school. The Goode School is basically an Ivy League boarding school – with only the most elite students – until a stranger shows up and things go from Goode to bad (see what I did there?). In a school where people can’t be bothered to turn their heads or question anything about the evil of some of these students, everything comes to a head when a popular student is found dead…. possibly due to a dark secret.

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