Fall is a great time to curl up by the fire with a good book. Maybe it’s because the leaves begin falling from the trees and there’s a chill in the air, but there’s something about those autumnal vibes that makes a reader crave a mysterious book. Perhaps, a book that will thrill. Maybe a book that gives you the creeps and has you double-checking to make sure your door is locked. Here are five new releases that will keep you in suspense this fall.
My Heart Is A Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
This book pays homage to slasher films and melds horror with literary fiction. It’s no wonder Stephen Graham Jones has been described as the Jordan Peele of horror fiction. On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America, but beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror that is her own life.
Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
From the New York Times best-selling author of Mexican Gothic comes a twisted treat for lovers of noir mystery. A historical thriller set in 1970s Mexico City, a daydreaming secretary named Maite, who feels like life has passed her by, escapes by reading the magazine Secret Romance, oblivious to the political upheaval around her. (The book draws on the real-life efforts of the Mexican government to suppress political dissent in the 1970s.) When her neighbor Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents. Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock ’n’ roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he watches Maite from a distance—and comes to regard her as a kindred spirit who shares his love of music and the unspoken loneliness of his heart. Velvet Was the Night is an edgy, simmering historical novel for lovers of smoky noirs and anti-heroes.
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train, comes a new scorching thriller with lots of twists and turns. When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the victim’s home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent death of yet another family member. And Miriam is the nosy neighbor clearly keeping secrets from the police. Three women with separate connections to the victim. Three women who are – for different reasons – simmering with resentment. Who are, whether they know it or not, burning to right the wrongs done to them. When it comes to revenge, even good people might be capable of terrible deeds. How far might any one of them go to find peace? How long can secrets smolder before they explode into flame?
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
If you are a true crime addict, Catherine Dang’s debut novel will have you hooked. A pulse-pounding and razor-sharp debut with the emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask: Which is more dangerous for a woman—showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is? Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota—the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Then beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand goes missing. A rising social media star, Olivia is admired by everyone in Liberty Lake—except Mary. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: nineteen-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.
Who is the real Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary pries at the cracks in the careful facades surrounding the two missing girls, old wounds will bleed fresh and force her to confront a horrible truth.
Maybe there are no nice girls, after all.
Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune
A perfect mix of creepy and cozy for fall, Under The Whispering Door is a hilarious and uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home. When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.
And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.
But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
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