14 Best Crime, Mystery And Thriller Books of December 2023

Our December 2023 list of best crime, mystery and thriller books includes highly-anticipated titles such as The Jazz Club Spy by Roberta Rich, The Keokee Triangle by John Peace, as well as cozy mystery novel The Brittany Murders by Anne Penketh.

Note: Mystery Tribune’s Reading Lists include the best crime and thriller books of each month as well as our picks for different sub-genres: Check them out here.

Never Dead by Joe Scipione (December 11)

After a series of grave robberies in the 1920’s goes unsolved until reporter Michael Jacobs follows a new thread. He gets too close to the truth and becomes part of the story he is looking to write.

At the same time, wealthy businessman Edmund Creighton organizes a group of equally wealthy families and individuals in the Chicago area to finance illegal experiments in the basement of his mansion.

These experiments require the presence of recently dead bodies. By the time these dark secrets are uncovered, it may be too late for the truth to make any difference.

The Brittany Murders by Anne Penketh (December 26)

Jennifer and her family moved to France when she’d finally had enough of the rat race. With her husband, Jonathan, she took on a smallholding in the idyllic Brittany countryside — complete with chickens and rabbits. But the fresh start and change of scenery hasn’t fixed the problems in their marriage.

Pippa is reinventing herself as a baker after leaving her old life as a City banker behind. She was delighted to meet fellow Brit Jennifer on the stalls at the weekly market. She lives next door to a friendly gendarme who inadvertently provides helpful tidbits for Pippa and Jennifer’s investigations.

The remote village of Louennec lies in the far west of Brittany, where Atlantic storms sweep across the sheep-dotted hills and valleys. The countryside is beautiful, but earning a living as a farmer in this wild terrain can be tough, and the locals are not always so welcoming towards newcomers, or the British fondness for le curry.

Dead of Night by Simon Scarrow (December 26)

BERLIN. JANUARY 1940. After Germany’s invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party’s hold on power is absolute.

One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood.

Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor’s widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret.

Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive.

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