5 Best Mystery & Thriller Beach Reads Of All Time!

If you like to relax with a bonkers premise and the real definition of a page-turner, this is a great beach read that was all the rage in 2017. Imagine finding out that your husband is a serial killer and that he killed his victims in the home you were raising your family in. Then the public refuses to believe you had no idea, so you are forced to constantly be on the run with your kids, trying to hide. That all sounds stressful enough, yes? Now put a dead body behind your new house…

So few books have comps that actually fit, but this YA does totally match its comps of Gossip Girl and Get Out—and I would even toss in a sprinkling of I Know What You Did Last Summer. All those titles feel like something to watch on vacation, so naturally a dark academia—with an anonymous blackmailer—would be a fitting beach read!

A cozy murder mystery romp set at a resort wedding is exactly what a beach read should be: fun, compelling, and relatively lighthearted. If I’m on vacation, I want to sit back and immerse myself in a story so good, I don’t want to put it down, even for pool or beach time. That’s Dial A for Aunties. An accidental death, a bunch of meddling aunties trying to dispose of a dead body, and a former flame showing up at the most inopportune time — that’s exactly the kind of nonstop story I’m after. It’s the perfect blend of mayhem and humor that will have you laughing and guessing until the last page.

—Rachel Brittain

Did somebody demand a page-turner? Gillian Flynn’s 2012 psychological crime thriller is so good it launched me into reading her entire catalog of mindfuckery and resulted in a truly excellent David Fincher adaptation. Missing women mystery and thriller books are no strangers to beach reads lists, but I dare you to name one more deliciously twisted and surprising than Gone Girl. The book was a New York Times Best Seller, and I can’t count the number of noses I’ve personally seen stuck in this book, from beaches to airports to public spaces and coffee shops, over the many years since the book came out.

— S. Zainab Williams

A good guy doing bad things for good (well, let’s say at least understandable) reasons will always work. Books about cars always work. We are off to a good start. But it is the web of racial, cultural, and economic strings that pull on the characters of Blacktop Wasteland that elevate this from another very good crime novel into the rare territory of compelling, page-turning novels that are about something. Cosby has been steadily growing in popularity, but I think you can still get on board and be an early fan. You won’t be sorry.

— Jeff O’Neal