Comedic Mystery and Thriller Must-Reads: Add to your May TBR
By Rachel Moore
There are countless ways to die, each of them harrowing in their own right. Drowning sounds downright unpleasant. Asphyxiating just as bad. I don’t need to harp on the horrors of getting stabbed, crushed, maimed, et al, and even a slow, sleeping demise carries its fair degree of terror. But the only fate worse than death I can fathom is a life without laughter.
I absolutely love writing and reading books that don’t take themselves too seriously because life (and death!) is serious enough as it is. These mysteries and thrillers have the laugh-out-loud stamp of approval if you’re in the mood for something a little zanier than your ordinary procedural drama.
I have to admit I love an Ally Carter novel. After being heralded into my adolescence by her Gallagher Girls, watching her bring her signature comedic zest to the general fiction space has been a gift to my bookshelves. While this is a holiday read, I’d argue you can enjoy Maggie and Ethan’s writerly locked room mystery any month of the year.
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Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 23, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
The title alone sold me on the first of the Pomona Afton mysteries. If you love Only Murders in the Building and Schitt’s Creek, have ever wanted to see Eloise solve a murder mystery, or grew up on a drip-feed of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, you’ll love this! Titular Pomona’s heiress lifestyle is upended by the sudden (and suspicious) death of her hotelier grandmother and teams up with her former nanny’s son Gabe to solve the crime and reinstate her inheritance, and she might just fall in love along the way.
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Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 20, 2026. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Get this one on your TBR! A departure from her young adult novels, Liz Lawson’s brilliant voice shines in this spunky, hilarious thriller. If you, like me, prefer your mysteries with a hearty dose of rom-com antics, this one can’t be missed because Harper and Nic have quickly wormed their way into my heart.
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Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 26, 2026. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
It’d be a crime not to include Elle Cosimano’s startlingly relatable makeshift murderer, Finlay Donovan. Freshly divorced and in desperate need of some disposable funds, a $50,000 hitwoman gig could be the break Finlay needs. Buckle up for a wild ride in this one—the start of a whole Finlay Donovan series you’ll be ready to devour.
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Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 4, 2022. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
You might be wondering, “Rachel, is this a thriller?” To which I’d dutifully respond: Are undercover agents thrilling? Are motorcycle chase scenes through Italy thrilling? Are bodyguards and assassins and international scandals thrilling? Yes. Yes. And yes, indeed. Code Word Romance is a romping, high-octane adventure that takes off at a break-neck pace from the very first page. You’ll laugh, you’ll swoon, and you’ll be racing through the chapters to see how it ends.
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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around March 18, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
As darkly funny and delightfully twisty as it is, it’s hard to believe Serial Killer Games is Kate Posey’s first novel. This workplace thriller is immediately gripping as we enter the world of Jake and Dolores, two office employees who are equally yoked in their suspicion of one another, and their story takes a sharp left when there’s a body to dispose.
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Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 29, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige. After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat-a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great…until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company. So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles. To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and… marketing executives? Oh my. While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 19, 2026. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
