7 Queer Thrillers I’ve Read & Loved

 

Hot take: the best thrillers out right now are the queer ones.

Seven I’ve read and loved, from a gay 007 to literature’s original sociopath.

If you want your Pride reading with a body count, this stack is for you. Seven crime novels where the queerness isn’t a subplot, it’s the whole engine. I split them into two moods.

For when you want to laugh: The Tuxedo Society is a campy, action-packed spy caper with an elite gay secret society that’s licensed to kill. The Disaster Gay Detective Agency drops four messy twenty-somethings into a murder they’re spectacularly unqualified to solve. And The Long Con is the sapphic Miami heist you’d get if Ocean’s 8 finally admitted what it was.

For when you want something darker: Scorched Grace follows a chain-smoking, tattooed queer nun chasing an arsonist through New Orleans. The Dime puts a sharp-tongued lesbian detective up against a Dallas cartel. A Beautiful Crime traps two con men in Venice with no clean way out. And The Talented Mr. Ripley is where the whole charming queer antihero blueprint started, all the way back in 1955.

Twenty years as a librarian and I still think a good crime novel is the easiest book to put in someone’s hands. These seven make it even easier.

ps: Scorched Grace’s author, Margot Douaihy, is a Scranton native, so that one’s a hometown pick for me. always rooting for a northeastern PA writer.

Looking for more thrillers you won't be able to put down? Check out these 5 Books that Made Me Cancel Everything.

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency

 

This is what happens when a hopeless romantic refuses to take the hint.

Brandon works the night shift at a hotel and falls in love at the drop of a hat, so when a handsome guest named Jon invites him up, he ignores every warning from his friends and goes for it. They hook up, Jon promises to text, Jon ghosts. Classic. But when Jon checks out early and leaves his phone behind, Brandon sets out to return it and find his happy ending, and instead witnesses a murder, with Jon fleeing the scene.

This one is all about the characters, and that’s exactly why it works. Brandon just wants to be loved and keeps dragging everyone into trouble chasing it. Ian is so over romance that stalking their ex and keying his car has become a hobby. Nicole is a workaholic lawyer who’s put her whole life on pause until she makes partner. And Ollie is floating through grief over his dad with the help of some edibles and his dog-walking gigs, just wishing the group still had time for each other.

The full-cast narration is fantastic. Four narrators meant the alternating POV chapters each got their own distinct voice, which gave the whole thing extra pop. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s occasionally sweet, and it never pretends to be more than a good time. If you love a found-family mess, a queer mystery with real laughs, and a thriller that comes with a side of chaotic friendship, this is your pick.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to Sourcebooks Audio for the gifted listen. The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev AC Rosen is out now.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in The Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick.

About the Author

Bestselling author Lev AC Rosen writes books for all ages, including the Evander Mills series, which began with the Macavity Award-winning Lavender House and continues with The Bell in the Fog and Rough Pages. His most recent young adult novels are Emmett, Lion’s Legacy, and Camp. Rosen’s books have been nominated for Anthony and Lambda Awards and have been selected for best-of lists from the Today show, Amazon, Library Journal, Buzzfeed, Autostraddle, Forbes, and many others. He lives in NYC with his husband and a very small cat.

For more news and information about Lev's books, visit his website and follow Lev on Instagram.

Last, Now, Next

 

From a murdered nanny to a baby penguin to center court at the US Open. My reading life has no theme and I've made peace with it.

Last, now, next is back after I let my reviewing slide for a bit. No apologies, just catching up.

LAST: The Neighbors Are Watching by Aggie Blum Thompson. A slow burn suburban thriller set in a too-perfect neighborhood outside DC. Empty nester Caren blacks out after a graduation party and becomes convinced someone drugged her. She teams up with a new neighbor who is obsessed with solving the murder everyone else wants to forget. Rich people behaving badly, manicured lawns hiding ugly things. My kind of mess.

NOW: How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior. My book club pick. An eighty five year old woman who is wealthy, cranky, and estranged from her family decides to fly to Antarctica to see the penguins she watched on TV, whether the scientists want her there or not. She is exactly the kind of difficult old lady I hope to become. Family, second chances, and yes, a baby penguin. I am not made of stone.

NEXT: The Open Era by Edward Schmit. My library hold finally is in. It follows the first openly gay man to compete in a Grand Slam as he handles the spotlight, an anxiety disorder, and a slow burn thing with his biggest rival, all during two weeks at the US Open. A tennis romance is nowhere near my usual lane and that is the whole point.

That is the range. Murder, penguins, tennis. Tell me your brain works any differently.

Indie Darling

 

Kelly Williams might be my favorite new PI in ages, and I'm already hoping this turns into a series.

She's a Dolly Parton-loving, sports-car-driving private investigator in Nashville who only takes cases helping women, and her own past gives her real empathy for the women who walk through her door. Her newest client is Sarah Owens, better known as Seraph, the magnetic lead singer of an indie band with a cult-like following, witchy stage presence, and cryptic lyrics fans love to decode. Someone's been stalking her, and it's escalating. Then Seraph gets shot on stage mid-concert and the ambulance carrying her vanishes.

What pulled me in was the peek behind the curtain of the music industry, where all that glitter hides a lot of grit. Seraph's orbit is full of suspects, the pace never lets up, and the twists and red herrings kept me guessing. Amara Jasper's narration is so good. She juggles a big cast and balances Kelly's go-go-go energy with her tenderness, and gives Seraph the sympathy a complicated woman deserves. The easter egg lyrics running through the story and the actual songs at the end add to the whole atmosphere and really pull you in. Stay for the author's note too. It's worth it.

Twenty years of handing books to reluctant readers taught me that the right thriller can convert almost anyone, and this is one of those. If thrillers aren't usually your thing, this one still works for the strong women at its center, the questions about staying true to yourself, and the real cost of fame. Music lovers especially, this is your book.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the early listen. Indie Darling is out July 28. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead. It's a novel centered around the music industry.

About the Author

Lauren Nossett is a former professor turned novelist with a PhD in German literature. Her debut, The Resemblance, won the ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

For more news and information about Lauren and her books visit her website or follow her on Instagram.

Dad-Coded Thrillers | six crime novels with that gruff, been-around-the-block energy

 

Father's Day weekend's coming up here in the U.S., and whether you're celebrating a dad, missing one, or just here for a good crime novel, these six fit the mood.

Six thrillers your dad or the thriller lover in your life probably haven't read yet. No hype. Just a retired librarian who loved books and wants to press these into your hands.

Every single one of these is under the radar, and every single one delivers.

if you liked these recommendations, you might be interested in 5 Mayteries that Take Place in 24 Hours or Less.

Give Me Everything You've Got

 

Every book has its reader. This one's reader just isn't me, and I want to tell you why.

Back in the 1930s, a librarian named S.R. Ranganathan wrote a set of guiding principles for library science. Two of them have stuck with me for 20 years: every reader their book, and every book its reader. The idea is simple. Every person can find books they love, and every book will find the people who love it.

That's my roundabout way of telling you I'm not the reader for Give Me Everything You've Got. And that's genuinely fine.

The premise: Ruby is a young filmmaker just starting to taste success when she's invited to spend the summer at the country house of Ellen, the feminist director she idolizes and who's promised to mentor her. The retreat sours fast. Ruby gets pulled into the mind games between Ellen and her magnetic daughter Lara, and the house itself starts to feel haunted by the sense that she isn't the first promising young woman brought there.

On paper that's gothic Rebecca territory, and I wanted to love it. I just didn't feel it. The characters stayed vague and hard to root for, the pace crawled, and the whole thing is written in long unbroken blocks with no quotation marks around the dialogue. If the goal was to read like one long stream of consciousness, the writing pulls it off. I found it tough to follow.

But not connecting with a book isn't the same as a book being bad. The prose is doing something deliberate, and there are readers who will fall hard for exactly that. If you love literary fiction that asks you to sink into a mood instead of a plot, this could be your summer obsession.

Thank you to Henry Holt for the gifted copy. Give Me Everything You've Got is out July 21.

If you enjoy literary fiction, James Grady's coming of age novel American Sky might interest you.

About the Author

Imogen Crimp’s debut novel A Very Nice Girl was shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize, selected for Malala Yousafzai’s Fearless Book Club and chosen as a book of the year by the Sunday Times and Grazia. She lives in London.

The Keeper

 

There's a particular kind of sad that comes with finishing the last book in a series you love.

That's exactly where I landed with Tana French's The Keeper, the third and final Cal Hooper book from Tana French. Three books in Ardnakelty, this tiny farming village in rural Ireland, and now we're saying goodbye to Cal, Trey, Lena, and the whole gossipy lot of them.

Life has been quiet for Cal and his fiancée Lena. Trey, the wild mountain girl he took under his wing back in The Searcher, has grown up and started making real plans for her future. Then the village gets rocked when Rachel Holohan, a young woman about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot, turns up dead. The official story is one thing, but anyone paying attention knows there's more to it. Cal gets pulled back in, the gossip starts flying, and what he uncovers could change Ardnakelty for good.

French is a master of setting. Her descriptions are so vivid you feel like you're standing right there in the village watching it all unfold. She balances the slow character work with a genuinely good mystery and never lets the pace sag.

One heads up: do not start with this book if you haven’t read the first two in the series. There's way too much history with these characters to skip ahead. Read The Searcher and The Hunter first and this one will hit so much harder.

On audio it's a marathon at just under 20 hours, but Roger Clark makes it fly. His narration paired with French's writing is a perfect match. I got pulled right in and I'm sad to leave this place behind. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you liked this review, you might be interested in my review of Tana French's Faithful Place.

About the Author

Tana French is the New York Times–bestselling author of nine books, including In the Woods, The Likeness, and The Searcher. Her novels have sold over eight million copies worldwide and won numerous awards, including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry Awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin with her family.

Visit Tana's website for more news and information about her book.