Five thrillers that blend true crime elements with a gothic ambience

Tara Goedjen loves anything mysterious. Her books include The Breathless (2017) and No Beauties or Monsters.

[My Book, The Movie: The Breathless; Writers Read: Tara Goedjen (December 2017); The Page 69 Test: The Breathless]

Goedjen's new novel, Please Enjoy Your Stay, is her adult debut.

At CrimeReads Goedjen tagged five thrillers that blend true crime elements with a gothic ambience, including:

Riley Sager, Home Before Dark

One of my favorite Riley Sager novels to date, Home Before Dark is delightfully chilling. The story centers on Maggie Holt, who inherits a Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall from her father and plans to renovate it. Interspersed with Maggie’s present-day narrative are excerpts from the bestselling memoir written by Maggie’s father, called House of Horrors.

As Maggie begins to experience strange occurrences within the Victorian house that echo her father’s terrifying account of his time there, the reader slowly uncovers clues to a cold case as the dark history of Baneberry Hall finally comes to light.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Home Before Dark is among Daniel Kenitz's seven novels where real estate drives the plot, Tom Ryan's six top suspense novels featuring mysterious mansions, Chanel Cleeton's nine novels about grand homes that are filled with secrets, Philip Fracassi's ten best thrillers with supernatural elements, Ana Reyes's six top books with embedded narratives, James S. Murray's five top books about women fighting their way out and Karen Dionne's eight top thrillers that turn home into a place of mortal danger.

The Page 69 Test: Home Before Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty top feel-good novels

Marion Winik is the author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (2019) and First Comes Love (1996; reissued with a new introduction in 2026). Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011.

[Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (December 2009); Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (June 2013); Writers Read: Marion Winik (June 2013)]

A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award.

At Oprah Daily Winik tagged twenty novels that "provide the perfect literary antidote to a stressful day," including:

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

While “murder” and “feel-good” might not sound like natural bedfellows, beloved mystery author Lippman manages to turn a crime scene into something genuinely cozy in this amusing, intelligent whodunit, which is all about discovering the hidden blessings of middle age. Mrs. Blossom is a shy, plus-size, habitually self-effacing widow whose life changed dramatically the day she found a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot. At the urging of her children, she has booked a trip on a Seine River cruise for herself and her lifelong best friend, Eleanor. On the way to the Paris embarkation, she is surprised to be taken under the wing of a handsome older man—and even more surprised when he turns up dead a few days later. As Mrs. Blossom discovers she’s become a pawn in an international art heist, she rises to the occasion with brio, realizing that far from being a minor player in other people’s stories, she is the formidable main character in her own life. For women feeling sidelined, and also for those who are no longer, or have never been, a size 10, this book is inspiring and refreshing.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Murder Takes a Vacation is among CrimeReads's top 20 crime fiction, mysteries, and thrillers of 2025 and Sue Hincenbergs's eight mysteries and thrillers featuring older sleuths and criminals.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Takes a Vacation.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five historical horror novels

Rachel Brittain is a writer, Day Dreamer, and Amateur Aerialist. Her short fiction has appeared in Luna Station Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways, and others. She is a contributing editor for Book Riot, where she screams into the void about her love of books. Brittain lives in Northwest Arkansas with a rambunctious rescue pup, a snake, and a houseful of plants (most of which aren’t carnivorous).

At Book Riot she tagged five favorite historical horror novels. One entry on the list:

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Drenched in history and Chinese folklore, this novel from the author of The Night Tiger and The Fox Wife follows a young woman from a bankrupt family with few prospects until she receives a strange proposal to become the ghost bride of a wealthy family’s dead son. Though rarely practiced, ghost marriages in British-colonized Malaya are occasionally performed to settle restless spirits. But even as she discusses the possibility of this ghost marriage with the Lim family, Li Lan is drawn into the afterlife night after night. She’ll have to uncover the darkest secrets of the Lim family—and her own—or else remain trapped in the underworld forever.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books on heroes

Don Mullan is the author of Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, a book critical in reopening the British government's inquiry (over 25 years later) into what became known as Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was January 30, 1972, a day when thirteen civilians were killed by British soldiers during a civil rights march in North Ireland.

Paul Greengrass, perhaps better known to Americans as the director of The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and United 93 (2006), made a film (co-produced by Mullan) titled Bloody Sunday (2002) about those events.

In 2006 Mullan named his top ten books on heroes for The Guardian, including:

The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story by Denise Chong

1972 was a momentous year in my life. On January 30 I witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday. On May 4, then aged 10, one of my closest friends, Richard Moore, was blinded by a rubber bullet on the edge of our school grounds. One month later, on the far side of the earth, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc, was photographed by Nick Ut of the Associated Press, running naked and terrified from her burning village. Years later I was to meet the girl in the picture and we became friends. In 2001 I brought Kim to Ireland to meet my friend Richard and a schoolgirl he was mentoring who lost her eyesight in the 1998 Omagh Bomb. Together we made a 10-minute documentary for Ireland's TV3. Chong's book movingly tells how Kim Phuc's image changed the course of the Vietnam war. She writes: "In the voiceless cry of the girl in the picture is the silence of guilt. "

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven great stories of suspense in a house by the sea

Peter Swanson is the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger; Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year; and Eight Perfect Murders, a New York Times bestseller, among others.

[My Book, The Movie: The Kind Worth Killing; The Page 69 Test: The Kind Worth Killing; Writers Read: Peter Swanson (February 2015)]

Swanson's new book is Do You See What I See?: A Chilling Holiday Mystery Novella of a Celebrity Writer's Christmas Party Gone Wrong.

At CrimeReads the author tagged seven great stories of suspense featuring seaside houses. One title on the list:

Slam the Big Door by John D. MacDonald

Another book in which the ideal house by the sea (this time on the Gulf Coast of Florida) hides multiple secrets and marital disfunction. This standalone novel by one of my all-time favorite writers has the perfect set-up. Widower Mike Rodenska is invited by his oldest friend to visit him and his wife at their mid-century beach house in Florida. Once there, Rodenska naturally discovers that all is not well. But between the twists and violence MacDonald paints such a perfect picture of beach-side living, with its constant crashing waves and near-constant cocktail parties.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top books about haunted houses

Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her rescue greyhound, Misty.

At Mental Floss Wallace tagged eight of the best books about haunted houses, including:

How to Sell a Haunted House (2023) // Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix had wanted to write about a haunted house for a while, but he knew he needed a good answer to the vital question that is often asked about such stories: “Why don’t people leave?” He finally cracked it with How to Sell a Haunted House, which follows siblings Louise and Mark as they clash after their parents die in a car crash. Not only can they not agree on how best to clear out the house, but they also fight over the will—which keeps them trapped when spooky things start to happen. But How to Sell a Haunted House isn’t just a haunted house story; it’s also a haunted doll and puppet story. And even though the novel dives into the complex emotions of grief, it’s still laced with Hendrix’s trademark campy humor.

Read about the other entries on the list.

How to Sell a Haunted House is among Lisa Zhuang's top ten spookiest haunted house novels and Meredith R. Lyons's six stories featuring ghosts with unfinished business.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight witchy mysteries and thrillers

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight books that "are either intriguing mysteries or absorbing thrillers, and they’re all brimming with magic." One title on the list:

A Familiar Tail (Witch’s Cat Mystery #1) by Delia James

Annabelle acquires an unexpected familiar when she arrives in Portsmouth. She also acquires a question, since Alistair the cat’s owner died in mysterious circumstances. When somebody else dies, it’s up to her, her magic, and her cat, to find out who did it and why.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five essential books for understanding Chinese American history

Beth Lew-Williams is Professor of History and Director of the Program in Asian American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America.

Her latest book is John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life under American Racial Law.

At Lit Hub Lew-Williams suggest five books if "you want to know more about the history of Chinese Americans, Asian Americans, and the discriminatory laws their presence inspired." One title on the list:

Gordon Chang, Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

Chinese workers played an important role in America’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century. Most famously, they helped to build the transcontinental railroad, which connected California to the eastern states. Gordon Chang captures the scale of this awesome feat, as well as the sacrifices made in attaining it. He carefully mines the scant historical record to find the stories of Chinese railroad workers who laid track through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across the Utah desert.

Read about the other books on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five revenge and eat-the-rich thrillers

L.M. Chilton is a journalist with fifteen years of experience working on TV shows for the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 in the UK, as well as writing columns for magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, and reporting for national newspapers across the world, everywhere from Doncaster to Delhi. He lives in London, procrastinating.

Chliton's new novel is I Think We Should Kill Other People.

At CrimeReads he tagged five revenge and eat-the-rich thrillers about the 1 Percent, including:

Ellery Lloyd, The Club

For the truly rich, money buys the most valuable thing of all: somewhere the rest of us can’t get in. Ellery Lloyd’s pacy, sun-soaked thriller is set in the most exclusive members’ club in the world, housed on a private island where celebrities can party away from the likes of us. But behind the velvet rope, the VIP guests are not quite as protected as they think. By the end of the opening weekend, plenty of them will wish they’d never made the list.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight literary science fiction books

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged eight "literary science fiction books [that] tell engaging stories set in futuristic worlds, but they’ll also make you think about humanity and your own life from new perspectives." One title on the list:

Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty

Weaving sci-fi elements into our contemporary world, Jaclyn Moriarty’s Time Travel for Beginners deeply explores the lives of three people in Sydney who patronize a new time travel agency to go looking for answers to today’s problems in the past. But the more they look into the agency’s methods and start experimenting with time travel, the more the ripple effects of their actions begin to change everything. It’s a bit whimsical and playful for some fun haters to call it “literary”, but who among us couldn’t use a little more (cleverly written) whimsy these days?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eighteen of the best romantasy books

Sofia Lodato is a staff writer at Oprah Daily. Aside from reading, writing, and wellness, she is a lover of all things media-related, and can usually be found overanalyzing her latest favorite show, album, or video game.

One title on Lodato's list of the eighteen best romantasy books:

A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas

No romantasy list would be complete without the BookTok sensation. Impoverished Feyre kills a wolf in the forest, only to learn that the animal was actually a shape-changed fae. Now, Fae High Lord Tamlin requires her life as recompense, and she agrees to live out her days in the faery realm of Prythian. Deeply suspicious at first, eventually Feyre finds herself enjoying her comfortable existence at Tamlin’s estate… and her growing attraction to its lord. But his court is under a curse, and a sinister, more powerful noble is threatening to take over. This twist on Beauty and the Beast is high-pitched romantic drama at its fantastical best, and just the first volume in an ongoing series—the latest of which releases at the end of this month.

Read about the other titles on the list at Oprah Daily.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is among Jenny Kawecki's five top YA love triangles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top books featuring bogs

Anna North is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick Outlawed, America Pacifica, and Lambda Literary Award winner The Life and Death of Sophie Stark. She is a senior correspondent at Vox. She lives in Brooklyn.

North's latest novel is Bog Queen.

[The Page 69 Test: The Life and Death of Sophie Stark; The Page 69 Test: Outlawed; Q&A with Anna North]

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven "books [that] will satisfy your bog witch cravings, while also reminding you of the real-world importance of bogs as bulwarks against climate change, cradles of biodiversity, and keepers of ancestral memory." One title on the list:

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

An eerie fable that seems to take place across and outside of time, The Bog Wife is already a classic of the modern bog-core genre. This story of a West Virginia family with a very unusual tradition has notes of Edward Gorey and Rebecca, but Chronister creates a world all her own, its mossy darkness illuminated by flashes of humor.

Read about the other entries on North's list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue