Thriller writer E.A. Aymar recommends new and upcoming 2024 crime fiction releases you won’t want to miss!
Amid the constant chaos and uncertainty of publishing – layoffs, AI-generated work, feverish book bans – I feel oddly optimistic to be a writer nowadays. Publishing, of course, always seems to be on the ropes, and industry prophets are forever foretelling its doom but, in the last few years, there has been such an explosive growth and increasing diversity in crime fiction. You’d be hard-pressed to find a time with more powerful, urgent voices and depth. It’s competitive, but warmly so – with my new novel, When She Left, I’ve received nothing but support from my fellow writers. We’re all in this together, and fiercely determined to lift each other up.
That said, you also might be hard-pressed to find a time with more challenges. But if crime fiction is about anything, it’s about heroes fighting back against overwhelming odds. And when I look at the other books coming out in 2024, particularly from the authors below, I like our chances.
Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar
Dunia Ahmed, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in New York, is missing and the subject of a popular true crimes podcast. Days before her disappearance, she was coping with the death of her mother and an ended engagement when her life took a turn for the worse – someone tried to kill her. And now Dunia has to find who wants her dead. Akhtar is a darkly funny writer, capable of satire without losing emotion, as she has shown in the targets of her previous works, #FashionVictim (the fashion industry) and Kismet (wellness). Almost Surely Dead looks to contain much of her enviable humor even as the novel takes, as Akhtar has said in interviews, a more personal turn for the author.
What Is Mine by Lyn Liao Butler
A kidnapped child can be reduced to a careless gimmick in the hands of a lesser writer. That’s not the case with What Is Mine by Lyn Liao Butler, her new novel about two women whose lives are forever webbed together when nine-year-old Luca, Hope Chen’s nephew, goes missing. Butler captures Hope’s anguish, even as she desperately, at times clumsily, searches for any information about Luca’s whereabouts. Butler scored a knockout with last year’s Someone Else’s Life, and fans of that thriller will find much to love in What Is Mine.
The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb
One of the conventions crime fiction writers are often told is to “turn off the camera” for sex scenes. Like swearing, animal cruelty, or violence against children, overt depictions of sex are often considered an unsavory inclusion in stories or novels. Fortunately, May Cobb has gleefully ignored that advice in her novels, and the genre is better for it. But more than simply titillating readers, Cobb lays bare the impulses in her characters, revealing truths and vulnerabilities that we may otherwise have never known. The Hollywood Assistant tells the story of a young woman (and hopeful writer) who becomes the personal assistant to a famous director and his actress wife, and her entanglement with them that, unfortunately, places her in a terrible position when one of them is found dead. Fans of Cobb and psychological suspense will be delighted, as this mix of compelling plot and complicated emotion is when May Cobb is at her absolute best.
Blue Ridge by Peter Malone Elliott
Rural noir is having a moment. The tone is being set by S.A. Cosby, Laura McHugh, and Eli Crainor, and their success (among others) has opened the door to more writers, proving that readers are thirsting for these writers and their Southern gothic-infused approach to storytelling. In Peter Malone Elliott’s debut, Blue Ridge, Cillian Clarke is framed for the murder of his more successful twin brother, Christopher, a southern Virginia politician. Christopher’s death doesn’t particularly bother Cillian, given that Cillian was planning to kill Christopher anyway. But he finds himself immersed in a personal and political conspiracy that harkens back to the roots of the golden age of noir fiction, when antiheroic protagonists found themselves facing off against dangerous, seemingly indestructible, institutions. Blue Ridge sounds like a perfect candidate for inclusion in this provocative, fascinating canon.
Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
Kellye Garrett has either won or been nominated for every major award in crime fiction, and with good reason – she’s a fearless writer, unafraid to discuss pressing issues about celebrity, identity, race, or gender, and doing so with compelling plots and, often, humor. Missing White Woman tells the story of a woman named Breanna, who is supposed to have a romantic evening in New York with her boyfriend but, the last morning of the trip, comes downstairs to find her boyfriend missing and a dead woman in the foyer – a woman whose whereabouts the world has been determined to find. This could be Garrett’s best book, which is high praise, because she sets the bar higher with every book she writes.
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
Horror and crime fiction share a natural, if slightly uneasy, connection. The two genres often employ the same techniques, particularly in regards to creating suspense and developing antagonists, and it’s not unusual to find writers (Stephen King, Alma Katsu) who write well in both forms. Gabino Iglesias – the horror columnist for the New York Times, winner of horror’s Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker awards and finalist for crime fiction’s Anthony and Edgar – has always meshed the two genres seamlessly, most notably in his last novel, The Devil Takes You Home. This year’s The House of Bone and Rain tells the story of five friends in Puerto Rico who, upon the murder of one of their mothers, are willing to do anything to get revenge, even if their journey leads them to an untouchable kingpin. Iglesias is a powerful writer, particularly when describing men driven into dark places of grief and violence, and House of Bone and Rain promises to be yet another display of his immense talent and unique voice.
Hurt for Me by Heather Levy
Levy’s debut, Walking Through Needles, was a breakthrough when it came out in 2021 – for the author as she established a confident new voice in crime fiction, and for her fearless examinations of violence and sexuality. Hurt for Me, her new novel, promises to voyage even deeper into that world and further cement her voice and topics as a fixture in the genre. Rae Dixon, who escaped sex traffickers at a young age, has a thriving, but necessarily secretive, business as a dominatrix in Oklahoma City. She’s found balance…until one of her clients goes missing, and a police investigation, coupled with more missing persons, threatens to bring back her past and expose her present. Publishers Weekly praised the novel in a glowing review, writing that “Levy keeps the twists coming and makes it easy to root for her smart, empathetic leads.”
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
One of the buzzier debuts for 2024, K.T. Nguyen’s You Know What You Did has appeared on numerous “Most Anticipated” lists and received endorsements from S.A. Cosby, Karen Dionne, Samantha M. Bailey, and more. Nguyen’s novel delves into psychological suspense, as it tells the story of Anne “Anh Le” Shaw, a successful first-generation Vietnamese American artist who finds herself tormented by obsessive-compulsive disorder after her mother’s death. After a prominent art patron disappears, the investigation focuses on Annie, but she’s too distraught and tortured to successfully clear herself. And things get worse when she wakes up in a hotel room, naked and next to a dead body. As firstCLUE Reviews wrote, in warm praise, “A debut to remember, and what a gripping ending.”
The County Line by Steve Weddle
There aren’t many writers who can take breaks between books, taking the time to hone their craft even further, and still find an audience waiting. You need to write a book with such a unique voice, and such enviable prose, that your style is essentially irreplaceable. Angie Kim and Jordan Harper are two of those writers, and Steve Weddle absolutely belongs in those ranks. His 2013 debut, Country Hardball, was beloved by readers and other writers, and is still discussed a decade later. The County Line, a predecessor to that book taking place in the 1930s, is the story of a man named Cottonmouth Tomlin who finds himself caught between community and criminals. Weddle’s restless eye has the ability to capture characters at their most vulnerable, as well as how the ramifications of a disruptive event affect an entire community of people, like a modern-day Sherwood Anderson. Readers of The County Line will be thankful for this introduction to his work.
