Exciting New Mystery/Thriller Books Publishing in August!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase something I have shared, I will earn a small commission...at no extra cost to you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My love of Mystery/Thrillers can be traced all the way back to my Nancy Drew and R.L. Stine days! They are always the books I turn to when I am looking for a book to capture my attention. There are so many new books being published this month that I had to divide them up by genre. You can check out my previous post on new Contemporary Romance novels here. For today though, we are going to talk all about the exciting new Mystery/Thrillers that are publishing in August! Is there anything you are dying to read? Let’s chat!

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

So, I have been known to select a book based on it’s cover. Come on, admit it…you’ve done it to. Well, this first book I immediately added to my TBR solely based on the gorgeous eye-catching cover. It just draws you in, doesn’t it? The synopsis is just as good. This one sounds like it could walk the border between mystery, thriller, and horror…and I am here for all of that! I am going to let you read the synopsis below to judge for yourself, but I think it sounds pretty awesome! House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias publishes on August 6th.

Goodreads Synopsis

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen

Next up, and also publishing on August 6th, is The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen. Completely captivated by this gorgeous cover. This one seems to be part mystery and part historical fiction…which is always a winning combination. I have seen this one around Instagram and have heard great things, so I am definitely adding this one to my TBR. Here is a little info.

Goodreads Synopsis

An investigation into a girl’s disappearance uncovers a mystery dating back to World War II in a haunting novel of suspense by the bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Paris Assignment.

1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer assigned to the case.

Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again.

As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?

Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Next up we have Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor. This book I have actually already read. I had the oppportunity to read an early copy and I absolutely loved it. This is a small town mystery set in rural Vermont back in the 1960’s. I was immediately drawn to the book because I grew up in New England and love a small town setting. This was a great read, a brand new mystery series featuring Detective Franklin Warren. Really great story. This was a 4 star book for me. Agony Hill publishes on August 6th.

Goodreads Synopsis

Set in rural Vermont in the volatile 1960s, Agony Hill is the first novel in a new historical series full of vivid New England atmosphere and the deeply drawn characters that are Sarah Stewart Taylor’s trademark.

In the hot summer of 1965, Bostonian Franklin Warren arrives in Bethany, Vermont, to take a position as a detective with the state police. Warren’s new home is on the verge of monumental change; the interstates under construction will bring new people, new opportunities, and new problems to Vermont, and the Cold War and protests against the war in Vietnam have finally reached the dirt roads and rolling pastures of Bethany.

Warren has barely unpacked when he’s called up to a remote farm on Agony Hill. Former New Yorker and Back-to-the-Lander Hugh Weber seems to have set fire to his barn and himself, with the door barred from the inside, but things aren’t adding up for Warren. The people of Bethany—from Weber’s enigmatic wife to Warren’s neighbor, widow and amateur detective Alice Bellows — clearly have secrets they’d like to keep, but Warren can’t tell if the truth about Weber’s death is one of them. As he gets to know his new home and grapples with the tragedy that brought him there, Warren is drawn to the people and traditions of small town Vermont, even as he finds darkness amidst the beauty.

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Next up we have House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen. I had a chance to read another of her books this past year and I loved it, so I am really looking forward to this book! This sounds like the perfect blend of Mystery and Psychological Thriller…which is always a winning combo in my book. It sounds like it is going to be a page turner about a “perfect” family…who might be living a little bit of a lie…and might not be as perfect as they seem! House of Glass publishes on August 6th.

Goodreads Synopsis

On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.

A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there’s something eerie about the house itself: It’s a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?

The Body Next Door by Maia Chance

You had me at the title, folks. You had me at the title. The Body Next Door by Maia Chance sounds like the perfect Mystery/Thriller Who-Done-It with lots of twists and turns. I am always on the look out for a page turner that I can’t put down and I am hopeful this will be the perfect fit. The Body Next Door also publishes on August 6th!

Goodreads Synopsis

They buried their secrets, but not deep enough…

Hannah McCollough’s life is far from perfect, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Instead, you’d see a beautiful young mother wholly devoted to her two children and a docile wife utterly besotted with her self-made millionaire husband, Allan. You’d see the designer clothes she wears, the luxury car she drives, the dewy-eyed au pair she employs.

You wouldn’t see the dark secret she carries.

But when a construction crew unearths the body of a young girl near the McCulloughs’ vacation home on Orcas Island, Hannah has no choice but to confront her past. She wonders how much Allan knows about the victim and the apocalyptic cult she was connected to. Meanwhile, Allan can’t seem to understand why his beautiful young bride, as polished and pristine as the collectible artifacts in his glass case, would threaten their fairy-tale lifestyle by digging too deep, in places she knows she shouldn’t.

As the police investigation into the gruesome discovery deepens, the facade of Hannah’s picture-perfect marriage starts to crumble, and she soon finds herself on a dire hunt for answers. And Hannah’s search takes an unexpected turn after she crosses paths with three strangers with shocking secrets of their own.

After Oz by Gordon McAlpine

A retelling of The Wizard of Oz. I am going to need you to stop talking right there and just take my money. And can we look at this cover. I cannot tell you how excited I am to read this book! After Oz by Gordon McAlpine takes places in the midwest at the end of the 19th century. I am going to let you read the synopsis to see why I am so excited to read it. After Oz also publishes on August 6th.

Goodreads Synopsis

Gripping and emotionally riveting, this whimsical tale is an empowering and timely retelling of The Wizard of Oz where one little girl is forced to face head-on the prejudices of the Midwest in the late 19th century.

Kansas, 1896. After a tornado destroys the Gale family farm, 11-year-old Dorothy goes missing. As the days pass by, the Gales are increasingly terrified the worst has happened. But when the girl turns up unharmed four days later, the townsfolk breathe in a sigh of relief. That is, until Dorothy herself relates her account of the events that took place after her disappearance. 

In vivid detail, Dorothy describes a fantastical land and its magical inhabitants, from the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion to the wizard and the witch. Her recollections are not only regarded as delusional, but also as pagan and diabolical in nature, especially when the body of a local spinster is found.

Making connections between the evil witch Dorothy claims to have defeated and the ill-tempered old crone, authorities find what they believe to be incriminating evidence, sentencing Dorothy to the Topeka Insane Asylum.

When 28-year-old psychologist Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford arrives at the asylum to interview Dorothy, she begins to wonder if Dorothy truly committed the crime or if something unfathomable has really occurred. 

In a small town full of insidious secrets, will Evelyn be able to save Dorothy from her terrible circumstances? Or is something menacing lurking just out of sight?

Red River Road by Anna Downes

We finally have a book that ISN’T published on August 6th! Mark your calendars for August 27th, because our next book, Red River Road by Anna Downes is publishing. This book sounds fantastic…sounds like the perfect edge of your seat Mystery/Thriller. A woman is desperately trying to figure out what happened to her sister on a solo trip through Australia. I can already tell this one is going to stress me out…but I still can’t wait to read it!

Goodreads Synopsis

Anna Downes’s extraordinary next thriller Red River Road follows a woman desperate to discover what happened to her sister on a solo road trip through the Australian outback.

Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNAevidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?

And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.

Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.

The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich

When a cover simultaneously captivates me and freaks me out…you know Im going to need to read it. This cover…isn’t it fantastic?!? The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich sounds like it is going to be a blend of Mystery, Thriller, Gothic, Horror, and Paranormal all in one and I am so insanely read to read it. I feel like I need to try to get my hands on an advanced copy because I don’t want to wait. The Madness publishes on August 27th!

Goodreads Synopsis

Beware what waits in the shadows…

With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, along with her routine and the calm it brings, she returns to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious patient with amnesia hundreds of miles away.

With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.

As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…

Happy Reading!

I hope that your August reading is already off to a great start! I have finished 2 books so far this month and have just started a 3rd!

If you want to take a peek at the Contemporary Romance books that are also publishing in August you can click here to read all about them. There are SO many amazing titles.

Stay tuned…I have one more blog post coming that has a few more Adult Fiction titles that I am super excited for this month!

Happy Reading, friends!