Megan Abbott has taught literature, writing and film at New York University and the State University of New York at Oswego. Born in the Detroit area, she graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English Literature. She received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University in 2000, and in 2002 Palgrave Macmillan published her nonfiction study, The Street Was Mine.
Lost Man's Lane (2024) Scott Carson "With LOST MAN'S LANE, Scott Carson fuses a gothic spellbinder steeped in old-American lore with the piercing ache of a coming-of-age story, bittersweet and filled with longing. With echoes of Ray Bradbury and Peter Straub, it's a dazzling, genuinely terrifying novel that hovers darkly in your head long after you finish."
Great Expectations (2024) Vinson Cunningham "Recent history becomes both thrillingly vivid and achingly past in Vinson Cunningham's spellbinding debut novel, Great Expectations. A coming-of-age novel of the richest, most expansive kind, it's a rare debut, one that feels both intimate and revelatory."
Malibu Burning (2023) (Sharpe & Walker, book 1) Lee Goldberg "By turns tense and rambunctious, wildly entertaining, and breakneck-paced, Lee Goldberg's splendid Malibu Burning is pure storytelling pleasure from beginning to end."
The Stolen Coast (2023) Dwyer Murphy "Dwyer Murphy's The Stolen Coast reads like coming upon a favorite Robert Mitchum movie late at night and getting swept up in its aura of creeping danger and looming, romantic regret. With rich, complicated characters, a serpentine plot, and atmosphere to burn, this is neo-noir at its elegiac best."
Prom Mom (2023) Laura Lippman "I read this acid-dipped beauty in 2 desperate sittings. Pure James M. Cain noir at its delirious best, it moves so fast and so skillfully, you don't fully grasp what it's really saying (about men, women, desire) until its final stunning pages."
The Block Party (2023) Jamie Day "Jamie Day's The Block Party immediately transports you to its suburban hotbed, rife with whispered rumors, prying eyes and social-and personal-peril. Making clever use of shifting POVs, social media scrums and canny flashbacks, it's a suburban Rear Window: delicious, nail-biting and utterly unputdownable."
Black Thorn (2023) Sarah Hilary "A mesmerizing story of family and community, secrets and lies. Psychologically rich and captivatingly told."
The Quiet Tenant (2023) Clémence Michallon "Clémence Michallon's The Quiet Tenant is a spell-binding Trojan horse of a novel, bracing and beguiling. A dangerous man and his unforgivable crimes are its seeming center but, in Michallon's nimble hands, the novel soon reveals itself to be a story of female strength, cunning, depth and power."
The Only One Left (2023) Riley Sager "Riley Sager's spellbinding The Only One Left captures you in its snares from its first tantalizing pages. A Gothic house of horrors, it carries you along effortlessly before delivering a symphony of twists so shocking it took my breath away."
My Murder (2023) Katie Williams "Katie Williams' My Murder is a sly, captivating twister of a novel. Darkly funny, deeply scary and utterly original, it will keep you guessing until its final, haunting pages."
Social Engagement (2023) Avery Carpenter Forrey "Like a candy-colored wedding favor with a daringly dark center, Avery Carpenter Forrey's Social Engagement is as mordant and incisive as it is utterly delectable. And its growing emotional heft makes it linger long after its bittersweet final pages."
Sing Her Down (2023) Ivy Pochoda "Urgent, haunting, and fearless, Ivy Pochoda's Sing Her Down has the grit and guile of Rachel Kushner, but with a ferocious empathy all Pochoda's own. Pochoda proves herself a singular portraitist of Los Angeles, and Sing Her Down is her most ambitious and accomplished novel yet."
Ozark Dogs (2023) Eli Cranor "Eli Cranor's superb new novel Ozark Dogs tunnels into your brain with feverish power. A story of family burdens and dark legacies, it's thrillingly told, deeply wrenching, not to be missed."
Scorched Grace (2023) (Sister Holiday Mysteries, book 1) Margot Douaihy "One chapter into Margot Douaihy's Scorched Grace and you'll be ready to follow Sister Holiday wherever her instincts take her. Vibrant, crackling and deliciously insubordinate, it's a mystery full of trapdoors and surprises but with a keen emotional force that leaves you shaken, hooked."
Everybody Knows (2023) Jordan Harper "Searing, timely, sprawling, EVERYBODY KNOWS pulls back Hollywood's velvet curtain, exposing the sordid machinations on which the industry runs and the seamy complicity which keeps it humming. This is L.A. noir at its most incendiary."
The Wild One (2022) Colleen McKeegan "Addictive from its first pages, Colleen McKeegan's The Wild One mines all the complexities and darkness of young women in the battleground of summer camp, fashioning a riveting tale of secrets, shame and a harrowing reckoning."
Two Nights in Lisbon (2022) Chris Pavone "Weaving together hairpin Hitchcockian suspense and true moral heft, Chris Pavone's Two Nights in Lisbon is his best yet - utterly timely and brimming over with surprise, nuance, cunning, and a palpable weight."
The Lioness (2022) Chris Bohjalian "From its first dazzling pages, Chris Bohjalian's The Lioness enraptured me. You'll want to sink into its velvety glamour at the same time as you'll be swept up in its sharp-eyed exploration of power and predation."
Ocean State (2022) Stewart O'Nan "Stewart O'Nan's haunting and fleet Ocean State tunnels deeply into the heady, hard lives of the vivid young women at its center. Half-broken and full of longing, these women move us deeply. As the story hurtles toward an act of violence that feels both impossible and inexorable, we find ourselves wanting to stop and protect all of them."
Notes on an Execution (2022) Danya Kukafka "Spellbinding and beautifully written. Danya Kukafka's Notes on an Execution is an irresistible, unbearably tense thriller; a poignant, deeply compassionate tale of resilience; and a vital intervention in the way we talk about violent crime, its endless reverberations and foremost its survivors."
The Savage Kind (2021) (Nightingale Trilogy, book 1) John Copenhaver "John Copenhaver’s dark sparkler of second novel, The Savage Kind, tantalizes from its first pages. With rich period detail and a sneaky subversion of storied noir tropes, it brings to life the delicious intricacies of teen female friendship and the slippery line between identification and desire, between desire and desperation."
Five Decembers (2021) James Kestrel "Utterly enthralling. Wildly ambitious and deeply haunting, Five Decembers drops you in the middle of a dark noir dream full of heat, loss and memory. Not to be missed."
The Last Mona Lisa (2021) Jonathan Santlofer "From its seductive first pages, The Last Mona Lisa carries us along on an utterly irresistible time-jumping, continent-leaping tale of intrigue and family secrets, obsession and the ineffable power of art itself. I could not put it down."
The Plot (2021) (Book , book 1) Jean Hanff Korelitz "From its first pages, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot ensnares you in a rich tangle of literary vanities, treachery and fraud. Psychologically acute and breathtakingly suspenseful, you’ll find yourself rushing towards a finale both astonishing and utterly earned."
The Night Always Comes (2021) Willy Vlautin "Willy Vlautin’s The Night Always Comes is a tear-struck revelation—both epic and timely, intimate and clear-eyed. Only Vlautin could cross the harrowing emotional richness of A Woman Under the Influence with the breakneck desperation of the greatest of film noir. Lynette will have you from the first page and put you to the test a hundred times before the last. You’ll finish knowing you’ll never forget her."
A Man Named Doll (2021) (Happy Doll, book 1) Jonathan Ames "If Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe landed in the middle of Uncut Gems, you’d have something like Jonathan Ames’s A MAN NAMED DOLL, which expertly mines the dark humor, mordant wit and dreamy fatalism of great LA noir. And at its center is a detective with a battered heart and bruised conscience. I’d follow him, and his dog George, anywhere."
Shoot the Moonlight Out (2021) William Boyle "William Boyle's Shoot the Moonlight Out is his best yet, an operatic ode to passion and grief, reckless youth and radical forgiveness, and most of all the pangs and beauty of parental love, unswerving and irreplaceable. Sprawling yet intimate, epic yet full of the lived-in humor of the great Sidney Lumet or Richard Price, it hums hard in your heart long after the final page."
Lurkers (2021) Sandi Tan "Sandi Tan’s Lurkers is an acid-etched American Beauty for our current moment. But rather than suburban white male dread, Lurkers excavates the deeper mysteries and dark humor of female desire and a cultural and existential desperation so heavy it takes both tragedy and catastrophe to root it loose. A sneaky marvel of a novel and not to be missed."
Leave the World Behind (2020) Rumaan Alam "Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind is a canny Trojan horse of a novel, and also a Pandora’s Box. Like the family at its center, we’re seduced utterly by the bounty and insularity of its world, only to find ourselves, inch by inch, approaching a larger darkness lurking just beyond. With a potent Shirley Jackson energy, it is both eerily timeless and sharply prescient at once, and lingers long after its final page."
Nothing Can Hurt You (2020) Nicola Maye Goldberg "Captivating, serpentine and affecting ... It subverts the tropes of the 'dead girl' genre in ways that impart its female characters with a dark majesty and mystery all their own."
The Spinster Diaries (2020) Gina Fattore "Witty, whip-smart and winning, Gina Fattore’s Spinster Diaries is a sheer delight. In her tale of an anxious TV writer who turns to the lessons gleaned from her favorite writer - eighteenth-century novelist Fanny Burney - to navigate a health scare and ensuing existential crisis, Fattore expertly carries us from droll humor to incisive cultural critique, from lively comedy to utter poignancy."
New Waves (2020) Kevin Nguyen "Mordant and fiercely smart, Kevin Nguyen's New Waves is a mystery within a mystery within a love story and it left me haunted, breathless. An ambitious, unsparing, exhilarating debut."
Drowning with Others (2019) Linda Keir "Drowning with Others is both a deeply compelling page-turner and a timely exploration of power and authority in the hothouse atmosphere of a storied private school. You’ll find yourself racing towards its (very satisfying) ending, but its impact will linger with you long after its final page."
One Small Sacrifice (2019) (Shadows of New York, book 1) Hilary Davidson "Hilary Davidson’s One Small Sacrifice is both a heart-pounding procedural and a rich, mesmerizing tale of the weight of trauma and the elusive nature of memory. Twisty, absorbing, and deeply humane, it’s a thriller you won’t want to miss."
The Club (2019) Takis Würger "A cunning, sinuous tale, Takis Würger's The Club is so wildly entertaining that, at first, it's easy to miss its deeper mysteries. But, as it unfolds, brutal truths about class and gender and violence emerge, take hold and shudder through the novel's final pages."
Breakers (2019) Doug Johnstone "It’s as psychologically rich as it is harrowing. I’ve come to expect nothing less from Doug Johnstone, one of the genre’s premiere writers."
Last Woman Standing (2019) Amy Gentry "A harrowing and razor-sharp thriller, Amy Gentry’s Last Woman Standing feels both ripped from the headlines and utterly timeless as it takes on gender and violence and the far limits of female rage. As the story twists and turns, you’ll feel breathless, troubled and helplessly propelled to its deeply satisfying final pages."
The Feral Detective (2018) Jonathan Lethem "Like The Crying of Lot 49 as written and directed by Elaine May, The Feral Detective is hilarious and terrifying and wrenching. Phoebe is one of the grandest, funniest heroes I've come upon in a long time."
November Road (2018) Lou Berney "From its first frenetic pages to its wrenching final ones, Lou Berney takes us on the ride of a lifetime...It’s a crime story, a love story, a deeply American story. With November Road, Berney proves beyond doubt that he’s one of the most talented crime novelists working today."
Girls' Night Out (2018) Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke "Girls’ Night Out is a heart-stopper of a thriller, rippling with suspense from its opening pages. But it’s also much more: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke plumb the intricacies of female friendship with skill and depth and heart. It’s a deeply satisfying read, and one you won’t want to miss."
Blackout (2018) (Pete Fernandez, book 4) Alex Segura "A series not to be missed."
Watch Me Disappear (2017) Janelle Brown "Tantalizing and twisty, Watch Me Disappear is both a spider’s web of a thriller and a moving exploration of the deeper mysteries of marriage and family. You won’t be able to put it down, but you won’t forget it either."
The Marsh King's Daughter (2017) Karen Dionne "I was drawn into Karen Dionne's The Marsh King's Daughter from its first captivating sentences. Troubling, sinuous and powerfully told, you won't be able to stop turning the pages,"
Every Last Lie (2017) Mary Kubica "With Every Last Lie, Mary Kubica spins an utterly mesmerizing tale of marriage and secrets. Haunting, psychologically deft and full of hairpin turns (every one earned), it'll have you rapt until its final pages, and also richly rewarded by them."
Sunset City (2016) Melissa Ginsburg "Suffused with longing, regret and a twisty eroticism... it entrances from its first pages."
Murder at the 42nd Street Library (2016) (42nd Street Library Mystery, book 1) Con Lehane "Con Lehane's Murder at the 42nd Street Library offers up a masterful tale of intrigue, jealousy, and revenge in the grand tradition of Ross Macdonald. Not to be missed."
Where It Hurts (2016) (Gus Murphy, book 1) Reed Farrel Coleman "Where It Hurts ushers us into a vivid and rueful new world with a striking and haunted hero for whom we fall hard. With his signature hard-bitten lyricism but with an urgency and darkness all its own, Reed Farrel Coleman has given us a riveting new series we'll want to live with for a very, very long time."
The Killing Kind (2015) (Michael Hendricks, book 1) Chris Holm "Lean, brutal and riveting, Chris Holm's 'The Killing Kind' is the kind of novel you can't put down but also want to savor. With sharply etched characters, knifelike twists and hardboiled energy to burn, it's an utter winner, beginning to end."
Those We Left Behind (2015) (DCI Serena Flanagan, book 1) Stuart Neville "Those We Left Behind is a great, brawling ache of a novel. Filled with both prickling suspense and fiercely wrought emotion, it’s a tale of the burdens of family and the weight of the past. And at its center, holding it all together, is DCI Serena Flanagan, the bruised and compassionate hero for whom we’ve all been waiting."
Luckiest Girl Alive (2015) Jessica Knoll "With the cunning and verve of Gillian Flynn but with a febrile intensity all its own, Jessica Knoll's LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE is a debut you won't want to miss. Sly, darkly funny and chilling-to-the bone, it gets under your skin and stays there."
(Kick Lannigan, book 1) Chelsea Cain "Prepare to read One Kick with your heart in your throat. Chelsea Cain has created a world that's both utterly exhilarating and emotionally rich. With Kick Lannigan as our protagonist--resilient yet broken, conflicted yet righteous--we find ourselves willing to go anywhere, even to the darkest places, knowing she'll protect us, surprise us, move us."
Shovel Ready (2014) (Spademan, book 1) Adam Sternbergh "With prose chiseled to hardboiled perfection and a tale that throbs with the keen ache of noir, Adam Sternbergh's 'Shovel Ready' reads like William Gibson as directed with inky brilliance by Christopher Nolan. Debut novels as sleek, resonant and accomplished as this are a rare gift."
The Circle (2011) (Engelsfors Trilogy, book 1) Sara B Elfgren and Mats Strandberg "The Circle ensnares you from the start, with all the epic mayhem and darkness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and with teen characters as rich and nuanced as any reader could hope for. It’s an utterly convincing world, and a resonant one, and we find ourselves wanting to follow its heroes anywhere."
The Bastard Hand (2011) Heath Lowrance "...a lurid thrill. You will finish it in one frenzied sitting, then feel as if you're awakening from a red-misted trance."
Print the Legend (2010) (Hector Lassiter, book 8) Craig McDonald "With Print the Legend, with a James Ellroy-like scope and vision of national history, McDonald takes on governmental conspiracy, Hemingway hagiography, the under-history of the FBI, the Death of the Author (literal and figurative) and the tantalizing, destructive mythologization of the Writer's Life. While the scale is immense, McDonald's hand is deft, and we never forget that, at its center, this is a human story, complex and bruising and deeply felt."
