Sunday, August 23, 2026

Five of the most WTF thrillers & crime novels

Jamie Canaves is a contributing editor at Book Riot. She tagged five great thrillers and crime novels with WTF premises, including:
The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley

This slow-burn suspense novel is built and caged (heh) in a WTF premise.

If a stranger shows up to your house with a bunch of money (which you desperately need) and a request that they be caged in your basement, you’re gonna think you’re being pranked. But this goes into seriously “I’m sorry, what now?!” territory because this is not a prank. For additional context, the homeowner is Black, and the stranger asking to be caged in his basement is white…
Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue