CBTB’s Fall 2021 Most-Anticipated Crime Fiction Debuts
Six Buzzy Debut Crime Novels to Add to Your Fall TBR
What an absolutely amazing year it’s been for crime books—and it’s far from over! This fall is bringing with it incredible new crime fiction releases from returning favorites and genre newcomers alike. Today I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of the very exciting new voices in the crime genre whose first thriller novels will be published this fall! In today’s spotlight on buzzy fall crime fiction debuts, I’m rounding up six thrilling debut crime novels that I can’t wait for readers to get their hands on in the months ahead! Some of these books I’ve been lucky enough to read already and others are still on my personal TBR list, but all of them look poised to deliver truly unique, compelling, twisty crime stories for us to devour in the months ahead. From new psychological suspense to legal thrillers, Nordic Noir, and beyond, this list has a little something for everyone. Read on for my picks for most-anticipated crime fiction debuts publishing from September - December 2021, and make space on your fall TBR for these thrilling new releases!
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NICE GIRLS by Catherine Dang
Available September 7, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Love Jessica Knoll’s debut Luckiest Girl Alive? Obsessed with armchair sleuthing? Catherine Dang’s razor-sharp debut suspense novel NICE GIRLS is the perfect fall read for you. I’ve already been lucky enough to read this one, and I absolutely loved it. In this astute and insightful suspense story, a young woman finds herself in the one place she swore she’d never be: stuck at home, back living at her parents’ house after an incident at college caused her expulsion from the Ivy League school she fought so hard to attend. When a local town sweetheart and social media star goes missing, our protagonist finds herself unable to tear herself away from the case. This book investigates our obsession with true crime as entertainment while also delving into the dark, angry corners of womanhood. With a sometimes-unlikeable, often-relatable, and always-memorable protagonist, coupled with an intricate mystery involving a serial killer at work in the town, NICE GIRLS is a standout work of psychological suspense and a Fall 2021 must-read crime debut.
About the Book:
What did you do?
Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota—the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Taking a job at the local grocery store, Mary tries to make sense of her life’s sharp downward spiral.
Then beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand goes missing. A rising social media star, Olivia is admired by everyone in Liberty Lake—except Mary. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: nineteen-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.
Who is the real Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary pries at the cracks in the careful facades surrounding the two missing girls, old wounds will bleed fresh and force her to confront a horrible truth.
Maybe there are no nice girls, after all.
NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian
Available September 7, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
There’s something utterly irresistible to me about crime novels that put readers in the minds of psychopathic characters, and Vera Kurian’s debut NEVER SAW ME COMING is exactly that kind of book. In this psychological thriller, author Kurian gives readers a fascinating protagonist: a young woman who is a psychopath. Set on a college campus where seven students are taking part in an unusual clinical study of psychopaths, NEVER SAW ME COMING puts readers in a position to root for a would-be killer. I absolutely love the sound of this book—it sounds like such a fresh, unique spin on psychological suspense! NEVER SAW ME COMING has already received incredible early praise, with authors like Lisa Gardner and Tess Gerritsen singing its praises. Sign me up.
About the Book:
You should never trust a psychopath. But what if you had no choice?
It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre… She’s a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.
Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths—students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.
When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan for revenge into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths—and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.
MY SWEET GIRL by Amanda Jayatissa
Available September 14, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
I’ve already shared my love for Amanda Jayatissa’s outstanding debut psychological thriller on social media, but allow me to remind you once more how fantastic MY SWEET GIRL really is. MY SWEET GIRL is a darkly delicious blend of so many elements I love in a thriller: an unreliable narrator, moody and sinister Gothic touches, and a jaw-dropping reveal that manages to be both “fair play” and genuinely surprising. In MY SWEET GIRL, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she comes home to her San Francisco apartment one day to find her roommate, brutally murdered in the apartment. But things get worse still: our protagonist flees her apartment, terrified… and when she returns with the police, there’s no trace of her roommate’s body, or of a crime scene. Convinced that the crime she swears she saw has ties to her own past, our protagonist sets out on her own investigation. Shifting between San Francisco in the present and Sri Lanka in the past, MY SWEET GIRL expertly weaves an irresistible tale of long-buried secrets come back to light. MY SWEET GIRL was an instant-favorite for me when I read it earlier this spring, and I can’t wait for the CBTB community to get their hands on this one! (Bonus: if you’re on Instagram, pop over to my profile - @crimebythebook - and tap on the “MSG” Highlight on my profile for a spoiler-free glimpse into the book from author Amanda Jayatissa herself!)
About the Book:
Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…
Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she'll never live up to them.
Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.
Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there's no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.
Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?
THE CORPSE FLOWER by Anne Mette Hancock
Available October 12, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
This is one book I’ve been waiting to read for ages! It’s no surprise that I absolutely love Scandinavian crime fiction, and I’ve been hearing great things about Danish crime writer Anne Mette Hancock’s crime fiction series for a couple of years now. I am so excited that the first book in the series, THE CORPSE FLOWER, is finally coming to the US! THE CORPSE FLOWER centers around a Danish journalist who begins receiving cryptic letters from a woman suspected of committing a brutal murder years earlier. When another body is found, and our protagonist herself finds clues that begin to implicate her as a possible culprit, she must dig into the darkest corners of her own past to uncover the truth. I can’t get enough Nordic noir, and THE CORPSE FLOWER has been a highly-anticipated read for me ever since Anne Mette Hancock first burst onto the crime scene overseas. I can’t wait to read this debut Scandinavian thriller!
About the Book:
Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. Then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman named Anna Kiel.
Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years earlier, Anna hasn't been seen by anyone since she left the crime scene covered in blood. The police think she's fled the country until homicide detective Erik Scháfer comes up with a lead after the reporter who originally wrote about the case is found murdered in his apartment. Has Anna Kiel struck again, or is there more than one killer at large? And why does every clue point directly to Heloise Kaldan?
Meanwhile, the letters keep coming, and they hint at a connection between Anna and Heloise. As Heloise starts digging deeper, she realizes that to tell Anna's story she will have to revisit the darkest parts of her own past--confronting someone she swore she'd never see again.
ALL HER LITTLE SECRETS by Wanda M. Morris
Available November 2, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Of all the crime fiction subgenres, the legal thriller is probably the subgenre that I am least familiar with. But if ever there were a legal thriller to make me want to explore the genre a bit more, Wanda M. Morris’ debut ALL HER LITTLE SECRETS is it! This thriller, which has already been hailed as “brilliantly nuanced” by Karin Slaughter and “stunning” by Alafair Burke, follows a lawyer who seems to have it all, but finds her life dangerously upended when she finds her boss dead in his office from a gunshot wound. In the fallout from this shocking death, our protagonist finds herself trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma, and drawn into a dark conspiracy with far-reaching implications. As someone with limited experience in the legal thriller genre, I’m very much looking forward to getting more exposure to the genre through Wanda M. Morris’ debut. There has been lots of buzz for this debut thriller already, and I can’t wait to dig into it this fall!
About the Book:
Everyone has something to hide...
Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive, who just happens to be her white boss. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice arrives in the executive suite and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.
And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight—again.
But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace her boss. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off.
When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined…
HELLO, TRANSCRIBER by Hannah Morrissey
Available November 30, 2021
Why I’m Excited:
Give me a moody, darkly atmospheric thriller like Hannah Morrissey’s debut HELLO, TRANSCRIBER any time of the year and I’ll be a very happy reader! In HELLO, TRANSCRIBER, readers are invited into the crime-ridden city of Black Harbor, Wisconsin, where protagonist Hazel has just accepted a new job working as a transcriber for the local police department. Hazel works the night shift, typing up reports from the department’s detectives while the rest of the city sleeps. But one case particularly catches Hazel’s interest: a suspicious death with ties to a notorious local drug dealer. Hazel finds herself drawn into the case, increasingly risking her own safety to get to the bottom of the Candy Man’s crimes. I was lucky enough to read a copy of this one a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it. In her gritty and dark debut, Hannah Morrissey gives readers a fresh spin on a police procedural: our protagonist here isn’t a police officer, but her unique perspective on the ongoing police investigations in the town of Black Harbor coupled with her status as an “outsider” (or civilian) make her a perfect guide to draw readers into the criminal underbelly of this small town. HELLO, TRANSCRIBER is a perfect bridge between more traditional procedural-focused crime fiction and psychological suspense, all wrapped up in a dark, gritty atmosphere.
About the Book:
Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin's most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor's gruesome secrets. As an aspiring writer, Hazel believes that writing a novel could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape. And then her neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster.
The suspicious death is linked to Candy Man, a notorious drug dealer. Now Hazel has a first row seat to the investigation and becomes captivated by the lead detective, Nikolai Kole. Intrigued by the prospects of gathering eyewitness intel for her book, Hazel joins Kole in exploring Black Harbor's darkest side. As the investigation unfolds, Hazel will learn just how far she'll go for a good story—even if it means destroying her marriage and luring the killer to her as she plunges deeper into the city she's desperate to claw her way out of.
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.