The Best Mysteries, Suspense, and Thrillers of 2020

There were many weeks in 2020 when I couldn't concentrate on a single thing.  Mysteries, suspense novels, and thrillers saved me by offering puzzles that engaged my brain while taking my thoughts away from the devastation of the pandemic. I read thirty-five mysteries this year including a few series. Reading mystery series is like coming home as characters you know greet you on the first page. Image credit: https://prowritingaid.com

My vote for the best mystery/suspense/thriller book of the year is:

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

It's much more than simply a great psychological, suspense-filled thriller, it also affords a look at our divided, unequal society. Based on the real-life killing of fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins in 1992 by a Korean woman who was convicted of manslaughter but never sentenced to serve a day in prison, Cha takes the anger, fear, grief, and guilt of the families involved and transforms them into a masterpiece of a novel about human nature. Shawn, the cousin of the murdered girl, is a 40-year-old black man who served time and now lives a life of hard work and devotion to family. Grace Park, the daughter of the woman who killed his cousin as he watched 24 years previously, is a pharmacist in her parents’ store who didn’t know about her mother’s crime. Seeing things through both their eyes is brilliant, unsettling, and informative. This would be a great choice for your book club as it brings up multiple issues and the writing is spectacular.

The Best Mysteries, Suspense Novels, and Thrillers of 2020:

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
The Gamache family travels to Paris to await the birth of a grandchild, but after a reunion dinner, Gamache’s billionaire godfather is hit by a speeding van and is near death. Gamache thinks the hit-and-run intentional and investigates. Corporate secrets and the possibility of corruption in the French police bring in Gamache’s wife Reine-Marie and her research skills to find out what’s happening. I missed Three Pines but loved this clever mystery.

A Palette for Love and Murder by Saralyn Richard 

Palette brings back Detective Oliver Parrott in a case involving the theft of two paintings from a Brandywine Valley estate. When the theft leads to murder, Parrot investigates while trying to understand his wife’s PTSD. The murder victim’s secret past may reveal clues, but the New York City police don’t want Parrott’s help. Read my complete review.

The Sacrament by Olaf Olaffson

The Sacrament is a haunting tale of Pauline, a young woman studying at the Sorbonne who becomes enamored with her roommate Halva, a student from Iceland. When a church deacon thinks Pauline might be a lesbian, he convinces her to leave. Pauline pushes against her instincts and becomes a nun. Years later, the deacon who is now a bishop sends Pauline, now Sister Johanna, to Iceland to investigate charges of abuse in a local school because she speaks Icelandic. The book moves back and forth between these two periods and forty years later when Sister Johanna again travels to Iceland. Sister Johanna is a great character and the tension of the novel builds with the unveiling of the abuse. The ending is spectacular as is the setting. The audio version is extraordinary.(2019)

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

The Stranger Diaries has all the features of a Victorian gothic novel, but it’s set in contemporary England. After Ella, a teacher, is murdered, someone writes in her friend and fellow teacher Clare’s diary. Soon, another teacher is killed and the reader learns more about the characters and crimes from three viewpoints: that of Clare, her 15-year-old daughter Georgie, and Harbinder Kaur, the Detective Sergeant investigating the case. All are intriguing and make the 2020 Edgar winner compelling. There are touches of Wilkie Collins’s Woman in White and a clever ghost story within the novel that add to the gothic atmosphere. Hoping for more from Detective Kaur. (2019)

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Winter Counts is an evocative debut thriller that takes place on the South Dakota Rosebud Indian Reservation where Virgil Wounded Knee is an enforcer who metes out justice and revenge when the legal system won’t. When pills and heroin threaten lives, his teen nephew Nathan is trapped. The crime narrative is compelling and exciting, but what counts in this novel is its attention to tribal ceremonies and identity and to the injustice of the federal response to felonies. Read my complete review.

The Widow, The Suspect, and The Child by Fiona Barton

The Child is the second of Barton’s thrillers told from the point of view of a detective, a reporter, and a person of interest in a crime. A construction worker unearths a baby’s skeleton in SE London. Kate stumbles onto the story and tries to identify the infant. One woman thinks it must be her baby that was kidnapped years before. Red herrings abound. (2019)

*Barton, Fiona, The Suspect is the third in the series and this time
Kate’s son who dropped out of law school to explore Thailand hasn’t been heard from. When two London teens are killed in Bangkok, Kate goes to cover the story and finds that her son is a suspect. Lots of great twists and turns. I love Kate.

*Barton, Fiona, The Widow is a searing suspense-filled tale told from the perspectives of the widow of a probable baby killer, the detective investigating the case, and the reporter trying to get the story. Your opinion of each will change as you learn more about who they are and how they’re motivated. This is brilliant and was just what I needed as a pandemic read. Can’t believe it’s a debut. (2016)

Other series you might enjoy:

Helen Fields "Perfect" series beginning with Perfect Remains

Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek K-9 mysteries beginning with Killing Trail 

Julia Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson/Russ VanAlstyne mysteries beginning with In the Bleak Midwinter