October Thrillers Keeping Us Up at Night!

with Lauren Nossett

It’s spooky season! Time to carve pumpkins, light candles, and embrace the lengthening nights with page-turning reads. This month, we’re racing against time alongside a renowned puzzle creator in a thrilling sequel, diving into a cat-and-mouse game at a remote destination wedding, exploring a secret society in a dark academia debut, and uncovering a spine-chilling mystery set in the Canadian wilderness. Get ready for some thrilling tales!

October Recommendations

Danielle recommends: The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni (out October 8th)

One of my favorite contemporary fiction characters is back in a sequel to The Puzzle Master. A promising football star transformed by a traumatic brain injury that left him with a rare condition called acquired savant syndrome, Mike Brink is now a world renowned puzzle creator. When Brink is invited to Japan to open the legendary Dragon Box, he is thrilled by the opportunity. But even before Brink steps on the plane, events hint that this is no normal task. Every puzzle master who has attempted to open the box has died in the process. What follows is a thrilling race against time (he has only the night of the full moon to accomplish the task) and a fight against the powers that will do anything to claim the box’s treasure for themselves. The Puzzle Box is one of those perfect combinations of clever mystery and high-octane thriller. Even if you haven’t yet read The Puzzle Master, you’re not going to want to miss it. 

To hear more, listen to my interview with Danielle Trussoni, live October 8th, on Killer Women, click HERE.

Lauren recommends: The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak (out October 8th)

Money is relative. That’s what Frank Szatowski learns when his daughter, Maggie, decides to marry Aiden Gardner, the son of a tech billionaire. But from the moment he receives her phone call with the news of her engagement to his introduction to the groom, Frank senses something isn’t right with the arrangement. Immersed in a world of the uber-wealthy, where microdosing is as common as home chefs and valets, Frank finds himself completely out of his depth. Is he—a veteran UPS driver from a small town—simply as out of touch as his daughter suggests, or is there something more nefarious at play? In a cat-and-mouse game set at a remote destination wedding, The Last One at the Wedding had me flipping pages to see how the secrets unraveled, and grateful that the worst thing I’ve ever been asked to do for a wedding was wear a highlighter-yellow tank top with the bride's face at the bachelorette party!

Greg recommends: Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown (out now!)

Maya can’t wait to return to her alma mater, Princeton, to celebrate her ten-year reunion and watch her younger sister, Naomi, graduate from the prestigious Ivy League university. But Maya’s joyous weekend takes a harrowing turn when she learns that Naomi has died suddenly, under suspicious circumstances. When Maya’s investigation into the supposed accident unearths eerily similar hallmarks to the death of a classmate a decade prior, it forces her to reckon with the secret society at the center of the mystery and a past she’s tried so desperately to bury. With an assured narrative voice and beautifully evocative prose writing, Lauren Ling Brown’s dark academia debut provides intrigue aplenty while doubling as an astute interrogation of the myth of meritocracy in higher education and the underlying racism and misogyny that shape our culture. Society of Lies achieves a beautiful balancing act: a social thriller teeming with both brains and heart. 

Tessa recommends: Running Cold by Susan Walter (out October 8th)

Julie Weston Adler’s life is irrevocably altered when she finds herself widowed and broke virtually overnight. The former Olympic biathlete flees to the safety of her past home in Banff, Canada and starts a new life as a housekeeper, leaning on an old friend turned hotel manager for help. But when one of the hotel guests is found murdered and Julie’s closest girlfriends track her across the border, Julie is pitted against the police and a ruthless winter storm as she fights to regain control of her life. Susan Walter paints an incisive portrait of grief, desperation, and determination with a plot that has more forward momentum than a skier on a black diamond run of sheer ice. Bundle up for this spine-chilling mystery that doubles as a vacation to the beautiful—and merciless—Canadian wilderness.