Must-Read Mysteries and Thrillers Coming Out in August

The Stranger In the Seine is the latest from internationally bestselling author Guillaume Musso. A young woman is pulled out of the Seine on a cold winter night in Paris. She has lost her memory and has no idea who she is. DNA tests reveal that she’s the famous pianist Milena Bergman. But how can that be when Milena died in a plane crash over a year ago? Searching for answers, Milena’s former fiancé Raphael teams up with police officer Roxane to find out the truth behind the stranger in the Seine.

Lisa Jewell’s None of this is True is the perfect psychological thriller for podcast lovers. Alix Summers is a popular podcaster who meets her “birthday twin” Josie Fair when both women are out celebrating their 45^th birthday. Josie tells Alix that she thinks she would make an excellent subject for her podcast, and Alix agrees. But the more Alix learns about Josie, the more unsettling the woman becomes. Before Alix can make sense of what’s going on with Josie, she disappears, leaving in her wake a horrifying mystery.

James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski join forces in the thriller Lion & Lamb, a story of two rival PIs working the same case. And it’s a very high-profile one. Grammy-winning singer Francine Hughes has been murdered. The #1 suspect? Her equally famous husband, Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback Archie Hughes. Cooper Lamb, private investigator to the stars, hopes to prove Archie’s innocence. Meanwhile, Veena Lion is a PI equally determined to prove Archie’s guilt. Between the two of them, they’ll stop at nothing to get to the truth.

Dead Mountain is the fourth exciting thriller novel in Preston and Child’s Nora Kelly series. Set in Colorado near the Cheyenne Mountains, this novel follows a group of engineers on a cross country ski trip. The trip is ambitious, it’s dangerous, and the group is using brand new equipment that they themselves invented. And when the group was expected to return from their excursion, no one comes back. Now Nora Kelly and Agent Corrie Swanson will stop at nothing to find out what happened to them.

Vampires of el Norte is a supernatural western set on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1840s. Nena is the daughter of a rancher, and she’s seen her fair share of threats living so close to the border. She knows there are things much more dangerous than the Anglo settlers in the north. There’s something that lurks near the ranch at night, attacking people and draining them of their blood. Nena knows it’s there because she was once attacked. Néstor thinks Nena is dead. Since the attack, he has been moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero, unable to shake the grief from losing his childhood love. When the United States attacks Mexico in 1846, Néstor meets Nana again in a shocking reunion.

At least, everyone thinks so at Vixed, the nutritional supplement company where Dawn works as an accountant. She never says the right thing. She has no friends. And she is always at her desk at precisely 8:45 a.m.

So when Dawn doesn't show up to the office one morning, her coworker Natalie Farrell—beautiful, popular, top sales rep five years running—is surprised. Then she receives an unsettling, anonymous phone call that changes everything…

It turns out Dawn wasn't just an awkward outsider—she was being targeted by someone close. And now Natalie is irrevocably tied to Dawn as she finds herself caught in a twisted game of cat and mouse that leaves her wondering: who's the real victim?

But one thing is incredibly clear: somebody hated Dawn Schiff. Enough to kill.

In Out of Nowhere, readers get a fast-paced, emotional thriller from bestselling author Sandra Brown. Children’s book author Elle Portman is enjoying a wonderful night at a county fair with her two-year-old son Charlie when a shooter opens fire on the crowd. Many were killed in the fray, and now Elle wants justice. And she’s not the only one. Corporate consultant Calder Hudson was injured at the fair, and he too wants to see the shooter brought to justice. Calder and Elle are brought together by their shared goals, and a romance even starts to develop between the two, but is this enough to keep them together? Especially when the shooter is still at large?

Colette “Coco” Weber has relocated to her Catalina Island home, where, twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a deadly home invasion. All Coco wants is to see her aunt Gwen, get as far away from her ex as possible, and get back to her craft—writing obituaries. Thankfully, her college best friend, Maddy, owns the local paper and has a job sure to keep Coco busy, considering the number of elderly folks who are dying on the island.

But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar…and not natural. Then Coco receives a sinister threat in the mail: her own obituary.

As Coco begins to draw connections between a serial killer’s crimes and her own family tragedy, she fears that the secrets on Catalina Island might be too deep to survive. Because whoever is watching her is hell-bent on finally putting her past to rest.

With Denise Mina’s The Second Murderer, Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective character Philip Marlowe returns! This book sees Philip Marlowe on the hunt for a missing heiress, wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery. But Marlowe isn’t the only one on the case. There’s also Anne Riordan, the head of an all-female detective agency. Which one will find Chrissie first? And what happens if she doesn’t even want to be found?

After that Night is the 11^th novel in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton’s life was changed forever when she was the victim of a violent attack. But now, she’s left the past behind her. She’s a successful doctor and has a loving fiancé. Then one evening in the ER, Sara must save a young woman who’s been the victim of an attack that bears a striking resemblance to Sara’s own experiences. And when GBI Special Agent Will Trent starts investigating the case, the link between Sara’s attack fifteen years ago and the one that just happened becomes disturbingly clear.

Mister Magic is the story of a classic children’s program gone wrong. Thirty years ago, a tragic accident shut down production on the children’s show Mister Magic. Five surviving members of the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have done their best to move on, but fans of the show will just not let go. When fate brings the five back together, they will be force to finally face the mysteries of the show no one can forget, even though no recordings of the show have survived. Who was Mister Magic really? And was it only fate that brought the friends together again? Or is this a trap?

Looking Glass Sound is a story about a writer trying to come to terms with the horrors of his past. Years ago when Wilder Harlow was young, there was a summer that changed everything. A killer stalked his small town in Maine, and a tragedy bonded Wilder to his friends Nat and Harper in ways that would forever change them. Now, decades later, Wilder has returned to the town in the hopes of making sense of that summer’s events as he writes his memoir. But the longer he spends in the town and the more he writes, the more Wilder feels like he’s losing his grip on reality. And it feels as if the book is somehow writing itself.

True crime aficionados, you’ll appreciate that Catherine Ryan Howard’s The Trap is inspired by a series of still-unsolved disappearances in Ireland in the 90s. One year ago, Lucy’s sister Nicki went to a Dublin pub and never returned. Nicki wasn’t the first woman to go missing, and no one seems to have answers. So Lucy decides to take the investigation into her own hands.

22-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.

Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.

Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family's safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia - and must frame somebody else for her murder.

If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?

This clever and endlessly surprising thriller is laced with a clever look at family and motherhood, and cements Gillian McAllister as a major talent in the world of suspense and a master of creating ethical dilemmas that show just how murky the distinction between right and wrong can be.

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.