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New Mystery and Thriller Trends We're Seeing in 2023
Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, our editorial team sorts through a lot of books. Like, a lot a lot. The sheer volume of books we look at on the daily is great for trendspotting.
Wading through the new mysteries and thrillers of 2023, we’ve spotted several trends that may be of interest to the dedicated genre reader. For instance, we’re seeing a lot of mysteries/thrillers about pregnancy and postpartum trouble—and wow, these are some dark visions. Other trends include podcast investigations gone wrong, true-crime obsessions gone sideways, and a strange little cresting wave of underwater thrillers. You’ll also find several perennial mystery/thriller concerns—heists and revenge stories and missing persons. And following up on last year's hit book The Maid, we've got plenty of maids and housekeepers and dirty laundry.
Click the book cover images below for more details about each title, and feel free to add anything interesting to your Want to Read shelf.
Dark Motherhood
Ah, the miracle of life…
Girl, Gone
Mysteries with missing women
Podcatch Me If You Can
Podcast hosts in peril
Heists
What could possibly go wrong on this One Last Job?
Revenge
Tales of vengeance!
All Too Real
Inspired by true crimes or the ethics of our collective cultural obsession with true crimes
Take 'Em to the Cleaners
Maids and housekeepers find all the dirty laundry in these books
Something Terrible Happened When We Were Kids
…and now we are grown-ups who have to confront those cold cases
Underwater Thrillers
Murder and mayhem in the watery depths
The Deadly Outdoors
Look, hiking will kill you if you're not careful
Murder They Wrote
Bookish whodunits
Let us know if you've spotted any new trends in the mystery genre lately!
Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)
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Law
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Aug 10, 2023 01:08AM
What about the Hawthorne Brothers?
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Such a good read! It's both funny and sad at the same time, love a good revenge story. 
I think The Couples Trip by Ulf Kvensler would fit great into the Deadly Outdoors. Overall, an absolute great list!
Meaghan wrote: "The Bandit Queens was fantastic!"To balance out your recommendation, i did not like The Bandit Queens. I wrote in part:
. Many [readers] consider it a “hilarious,” “funny, feel good read” etc. I guess if you think men beating their wives so much other women try to determine which bruises on a woman’s face are the most recent is hilarious; or chuckle reading how men steal their wives’ money, get drunk and rape women and young girls; or you get your jollies reading about good-for-nothing husbands being poisoned, clubbed with a brass statue, or shot in the face, this may be the novel for you.
I liked The Bandit Queens. I didn't think it was hilarious or a feel good read. I thought it was more poignant. Women who live in an abusive environment trying to deal with it and find acceptance and friendship with each other.
Inventive groupings, GoodReads! Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon should be somewhere on this list. Been looking forward to reading it for months…long before Reese chose it this week for the September read.
