Some may find the book’s considerable length daunting, but Crouch largely justifies the nearly 500 pages, proving that the domestic noir genre is safe in her hands. Boyle’s novels are meditative and atmospheric, but they also drive forward with a compulsive and dreadful energy, in part thanks to the deeply lived in surroundings, as well as characters who have an emotional authenticity few can match in today’s crime novels. This crime novel is gaslighting, distilled.Sara Gran is known as an author’s author, and the whole mystery community cheered when she returned to the genre after a hiatus writing for prestige television. Beginning with 1940's The Bride Wore Black, author Cornell Woolrich wrote a series of six unrelated noir novels with "black" in the title, three of which were adapted for film in the 1940s. The new job demands personal growth and carries real emotional consequences, while still bringing the madcap fun that’s an important part of Ide’s signature style.A significant departure from her Dublin Murder Squad series, Tana French delivers an expert take on the psychological thriller in the many-layered tale of memory and murder. Why doesn’t anyone remember that those are the jobs that always go wrong?Everyone know Highsmith’s Talented Mr. Ripley, but did you know she wrote the novel that was the inspiration for Hitchcock’s film? Many of us believe we would jump at the chance to cover up some indiscretion of a loved one in order to truly prove our devotion (or at least, one-up them by cleaning up their mess), but how many of us would not only cover up a murder, but do it well? But the search will lead her into the dark parts of the city she has been working so hard to resist.Recently reissued after fifty years out of print, this stunner involves an escaped prisoner, a beautiful blonde, and the ultimate heist.I love the Hard Case Crime books. The 10 Best Crime Novels of 2019 Lisa Lutz, The Swallows (Ballantine) The Swallows is a fresh, unique spin on genres that have already been reworked a million times: it’s a prep-school-set coming-of-age novel, but also a psychological thriller. McDermid considers her work to be part of the “Tartan Noir” Scottish crime fiction genre. (It’s totally mine.) When a body is discovered in the titular witch elm on his uncle’s estate, French’s protagonist must go on a journey into the past—and into his own mind—to discover the culprit. Keep an eye on your inbox.crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings.” (Yes, it’s also the French word for “black.”) It’s a fantastic, atmospheric subset of the mystery genre, if fatalistic fiction (almost always) featuring femme fatales is your idea of fun. Yvonne Carmichael has achieved considerable success in the field of genetics, and has a strong relationship with her husband and their two adult children. When a young man is badly beaten and sustains brain damage, including significant memory loss, he finds a path towards healing when he moves in with his sick uncle as caregiver. Boyle is a big talent doing complex work with the modern noir. Leave your recommendations in the comments! This is the first in Faust’s gritty series about a tough as nails former porn star who is attacked and left for dead in the trunk of a car, but survives to seek revenge on the men who crossed her.A tense, twisty thriller from the 1940s about a former aircraft pilot who helps his police officer friend search for a murderer who preys on women in Los Angeles. Here they are: the CrimeReads picks for Best Books of 2018. has ushered in the return of an old trend in crime fiction—the unreliable male narrator. In , IQ and his former partner-in-crime Dodson are now officially partners and trying to make their business more professional while also looking into a missing persons case. These are just a few of the many, many questions we’re asking this time of year as we go back over all the powerful and captivating books we read. There is always a kind of dualism that pervades these works. But when Verity opts to marry another man, Mike decides that this is the game taken to another level, and what follows has disastrous consequences for both.Hall’s considerable achievement with Our Kind of Cruelty is to keep the narrative persuasively within Mike’s consciousness – and we learn that he is deeply damaged by an abusive childhood. The sprawling novel, told from multiple perspectives and with long forays into the science of the universe, is an epic endeavor that deserves to stand next to the works of Ellroy and Bolaño in the canon of lengthy crime fiction.