The Best Female-Led Thrillers for the Beach this Year

We’ve shared our list of the best beach books of 2019. Now, we’re taking a more sinister turn, and sharing some of the best new thrillers of the summer. Specifically, the best new female-led thrillers for the beach this year.

What are the best female-led thrillers for the beach this year? Dear reader, we’re happy to report that there are so many excellent new thrillers this summer that it’s challenging to choose. 

The Best New Thrillers of the Summer

There are all kinds of thrillers out there in the world: spy and espionage; courtroom; kids in danger; obsessive love; vengeful psychopaths; and supernatural forces mysteriously at work. Whatever your dark pleasure, there’s a perfect book out there for you right now among the best new thrillers of the summer.

Particularly if you’re looking for a new thriller featuring a female protagonist. 

Whether its female CIA agents, or working mothers, or daughters in search of lost fathers, there are fierce women on the case all over the world in fiction this summer. In the summer’s best new female-led thrillers, some may be in distress or in dire straights. But none of them are waiting around to be rescued. Which makes us feel just a little bit tougher when we brave our own slightly-less-cinematic challenges in real life.

The Best New Female-Led Thrillers for the Beach this Year

Here’s a crop of literary thrillers for those who want some chills along with the warmth of the summer sun this year. They’re the best new female-led thrillers to bring along to the beach this summer.

1.

The Need by Helen Phillips. When paleo-botanist Molly uncovers strange artifacts at a dig—including a plastic toy soldier with a monkey tail —she’s intrigued but not alarmed. But after sleepless nights devoted to her two children under age 5, more weird discoveries, and inexplicable sounds in her home, she begins to unravel. Already hailed as one of the best new books of the year, Publisher’s Weekly says the novel is “An unforgettable tour de force that melds nonstop suspense, intriguing speculation, and perfectly crafted prose.”

2.

The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone. We love Chris Pavone’s smart espionage thrillers driven by strong, intelligent women and this new novel is no exception. Kate Moore, the protagonist from his first work is back. She’s living in Paris, married with kids, and running an intelligence desk in the city for the CIA. A terrorist attack at the Louvre and a kidnapping set off a tense series of incidents in the City of Light. As Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times Book Review writes: “I nominate Kate Moore for patron saint of working wives and mothers everywhere.”

3.

The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz. Billie James returns to her childhood home in the Mississippi Delta to claim her meager inheritance: a shack that belonged to her now-deceased father. A renowned black poet, he died unexpectedly when she was only 4 years old. Thirty years later, she returns for the first time and begins to uncover long-kept secrets about race, justice and memory. Benz is described as “a master storyteller” and this novel is hailed as “extraordinary.”

4.

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman. The best-selling author returns with a novel set in Baltimore in 1966. Maggie, a middle-aged housewife has just walked out of her 20-year marriage. She’s hoping to become a reporter at the city paper by solving a cold murder case. She delivers the goods and gets the job, and then sets out to make her name by solving a more recent murder. A young black woman has turned up dead in a city park, and Maggie’s investigation brings her into contact with denizens of Baltimore who were never fully visible to her before. Touching on profound issues of race and gender, one reviewer notes “The story is bigger than the crime, and the crime is bigger than its solution.”

5. 

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker. One of the best new female-led thrillers  this summer is set at the cold face of the #MeToo movement. This twisty new novel has a ripped-from-the-headlines plot. The sudden death of a corporate CEO leads to the promotion of a new male boss. A man about whom there have been persistent whispers about how he treats women in the workplace. Four long-time female employees decide not to remain complacent in the face of this management change. A line on page one makes us want to dive right into this one: “If only you had listened to us, none of this would have happened.”

6.

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok. This suspenseful novel traces the complex connections between two sisters and their mother. Members of a Chinese immigrant family, when the bold and protective eldest daughter disappears, the sheltered and shy younger sister has to rise up and figure out what happened. The answer turns on dark family secrets that have long been hidden. The New York Times notes that the story raises a profound question: “What is the price of realizing The American Dream? And who must pay it?”

7.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. On the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two sisters – aged 8 and 11 – go missing. Over the course of a year, this debut novel traces the impact of their disappearance on the women of the remote community. Ethnic and class divisions come to the fore, as does the deep distrust of newcomers that bubbles beneath the surface. It has received rave reviews (“Superb, brilliant, daring, nearly flawless“), particularly for the authors’ skillful evocation of the nuances of this little-known part of the world and its people.

8.

The Body in Question by Jill Ciment. In central Florida, a sensational jury trail is underway. A rich white teenager – a twin – is on trial for murdering her toddler brother. Two of the sequestered jurors begin a furtive extra-marital affair as the trail drags on. They discover that they’ve got opposing views on the innocence of the girl on trial. And once a verdict is rendered and the two part, it turns out that their affair can’t remain secret, and that the investigation of this crime is far from over. Anyone who has ever served on a jury will recognize the daily indignation that jurors face as chronicled in this “smart and disturbing” courtroom thriller.

9.

The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda. Described as “the perfect summer thriller,” this menacing and darkly humorous novel is set in the summer resort of Littleport, Maine. The wealthy live in summer homes on the ocean coast. The working-class year-round residents live on the harbor. When the daughter of a summer resident befriends the daughter of a local, it seems that times may be changing. Until one of them ends up dead. The complexities of female friendship, of class, and of memory all propel the plot to its riveting conclusion.

10.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim. In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they all have a loved one in treatment in a hyperbaric chamber run by a family of Korean immigrants. It’s believed that this unorthodox approach could be a cure for a range of conditions. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident. Chapter by chapter, the reader’s alliances shift as different voices and motives are uncovered in the courtroom proceedings. The author is herself a mother of a “miracle submarine” patient, giving the narrative a sense of authenticity and heartfelt anguish.

11.

Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon. On a winter night, Autumn Spencer’s twin sister Summer disappears from the rooftop of their Harlem brownstone. The local police are indifferent to the disappearance of another black woman, leaving Autumn to try to find the truth on her own. As her mental state unravels, we experience the despair of being an invisible member of society – and the perils of modern urban life. The novel is on numerous lists of the best books of the summer, and is hailed as “moving, emotionally charged, and wise.”

12.

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth. In this thriller about a woman’s relationship with her mother-in-law (who dies under mysterious circumstances), Lucy is well aware that she’s not the woman that Diana dreamed of as a future daughter-in-law. Five years into her marriage, she’s resigned to that fact. But then Diana is found dead with a note saying that she committed suicide because of her terminal cancer – but the autopsy shows no trace of such an illness. And it’s revealed that Diana disinherited both of her children right before her death. And Lucy just doesn’t seem all that sorry to see her go. Library Journal says it’s “perfect for lovers of Big Little Lies.”

13.

The Chain by Adrian McKinty. This is one of the most talked-about books among the best new female-led thrillers. The plot is a parent’s worse nightmare. In broad daylight, a young girl is kidnapped. Her frantic single mother quickly learns that the crime is part of a diabolical scheme: families are told that in order to regain their child, they must kidnap another family’s child. Just like a chain letter. Only much, much worse. How far will a desperate parent go to rescue her child? You’d think that this clever plot would fuel the entire operation, but critics are praising the well-drawn characters and emotional depth of the prose. The Master himself, Stephen King, says “This nightmarish story is incredibly propulsive and original.”

14.

Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak. In another thriller ignited by a close female friendship, the setting this time is the world of cable news in Manhattan. In one of the best new female-led thrillers out this summer, Stella comes from a wealthy family with all the right connections, Violet is self-made. Both end up working at the same network when Stella becomes jealous of Violet’s hard-won success. Their rivalry becomes darker as the stakes grow higher – and there’s a serious examination of social mobility, ambition, and how far one will go for the glittering prize of professional success.

15.

Those People by Louise Candlish raises a question that can become quite profound and pressing in the summertime, depending on how close your house is to your neighbor’s: “Could you hate your next door neighbor enough to plot to kill him?” It might depend on how loudly he plays his stereo and how often he hosts outdoor parties, no? When a new couple moves into a tidy and serene suburban subdivision and launch both an unsightly renovation and a used-car operation on their front lawn, tensions ensue. When a shocking murder is discovered, life on the cul-de-sac changes forever. Booklist describes this novel as “fiendishly twisty and suspenseful.” Maybe turn your stereo down before you crack this one open on a summer night.

The Best Female-Led Thrillers for the Beach this Year

That’s it! Our top picks of the best new female-led thrillers for the beach this year. Happy reading.

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