In a mostly flat market, mystery and thriller sales are up in 2024 and holding their position as one of the top selling genres, according to data from Circana BookScan. That could be because the already-broad genre continues to expand and reinvent itself.

The staying power of classic mysteries can be exemplified by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None,the fourth best-selling book of all time, according to Words Rated. But cozy, Christie-style whodunits are only the tip of the mystery iceberg. Other mainstay subgenres include classic, crime, police procedurals, gumshoe/private detective, noir, psychological thrillers, and capers.

That’s a long and non-exhaustive list, especially since authors have begun throwing in new twists by hybridizing mysteries with other top-selling genres in recent years.

“Romance and mystery, romance and fantasy, romance and horror and fantasy together,” says Virginia Stanley, director of library marketing at HarperCollins. “Everything’s going into the blender, and they’re pushing the puree button.”

Rob Carroll, founder and publisher of Dark Matter INK, thinks marrying mysteries with other genres is a natural progression. “Every book kind of has an element of mystery, right?” he says.

Lainey Mays, library marketing associate at HarperCollins, tracks this trend back to HelenKay Dimon’s Moorewood Family Rules, March 2023. Since then, Mays says she’s seen a lot of romantasy-mystery mashups especially. She calls hybrid genres a “backdoor” for readers into categories they may not otherwise try.

Here, these two publishers share their most intriguing new mysteries for the fall across a wide variety of mystery and mystery-mashup genres.

HarperCollins

Hardly new to the mystery genre, HarperCollins’ frontlist includes both straight-up thrillers and mysteries in addition to trending mashups. Here the house shares five fresh titles from its Perennial, Harper, William Morrow, Mariner, and Amistad imprints.

Hampton Heights by Dan Kois, August 2024, ISBN 9780063358751, combines coming-of-age with light horror that will appeal to fans of Stranger Things. In 1980s Milwaukee, young paperboys are out selling subscriptions one night in the elite neighborhood of Hampton Heights when they run into primordial monsters, werewolves, witches, and demons of all kinds. “It is a wild ride, from start to finish,” Mays says. “It unveils several little mysteries throughout. And it’s got this horror element tied to this specific period with these kids and their humor.”

Best-selling author Paula Hawkins is back with another literary mystery, The Blue Hour, October 2024, ISBN 9780063396524. The work of a multimedia artist sparks suspicion—especially after one piece is found to contain a human bone. And the deceased artist’s story, told in diary entries, increases the unease. She lived on a remote Scottish island that’s only accessible from the mainland by boat every 12 hours with the tide. Her husband was notoriously unfaithful and disappeared on a visit there 20 years earlier. “It’s about isolation and being a woman at the height of power and fame,” Mays says. “The words just drip off the page. It’s literary. It’s beautiful. But there’s a clock ticking in the background. You know something’s going to happen.”

A new domestic thriller from Gillian McAllister, Famous Last Words, January 2025, ISBN 9780063338425, has already earned raves from Jodi Picoult and Emily Henry. On the morning that Camila is going back to work as a literary agent after maternity leave, there’s breaking news about a hostage situation. Then the police turn up at her door, telling her that her husband is involved—not as a hostage but as a gunman. “This is about a crime and a marriage and secrets and the unraveling of it all,” Stanley says.

New to HarperCollins, author Joseph Finder—who’s published 16 suspense novels—gets back to his spy novelist roots with The Oligarch’s Daughter, January 2025, ISBN 9780063396012. Set in New York in the years before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, this book is informed by Finder’s deep background in Russian studies. When a young guy working at a hedge fund begins dating a young woman whose wealthy family is from Russia, the FBI swoops in and enlists him to spy on his girlfriend’s father. “There are lots of twists and turns and chase scenes and a cat-and-mouse setup in Moscow,” says Stanley. “It’s really exciting and fun.”

Author Connie Briscoe has reimagined Daphne Du Maurier’s classic, Rebecca,with Chloe, March 2025, ISBN 9780063338562. Angel is from the south but works as a personal chef on Martha’s Vineyard, where she meets and marries a handsome billionaire. She realizes she may be in over her head when she moves into his mansion and finds that he and his house are both haunted by his first wife, Chloe, who committed suicide…or did she? “It’s this very cool, eerie story about this billionaire who is unraveling,” Stanley says. “Connie Briscoe is a terrific novelist. She does domestic suspense really well.”

Dark Matter INK

In keeping with some of its apocalyptic stories, Illinois-based Dark Matter Media was founded in Spring of 2020 during the dawn of the pandemic. Since fall 2022, the small indie press has published 30 titles in dark science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, and mysteries under its Dark Matter Ink imprint.

“A lot of our stories, because they’re thoughtful and dark, have a mystery element to them,” says Rob Carroll, founder and publisher. “As a matter of fact, two of them are basically police procedurals couched in genre. And I think we’re going to continue to look towards thrillers.”

I Can See Your Lies by Izzy Lee, February 2024, ISBN 9781958598283, is a psychological thriller, suspense tale, and murder mystery with paranormal elements. Recently abandoned by her husband, Fin is now a single mom in Los Angeles, where she’s trying to solve her mother’s cold-case disappearance from the ’70s. “She interviews possible suspects and witnesses,” Carroll says. “And there is also a supernatural factor. She can see when people lie. Lies manifest as black bubbles that grow on the liar’s face. And old newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and movie clips help her solve the case while also providing a glimpse into Hollywood’s past.”

Carroll describes When the Gods Are Away by Robert E. Harpold, May 2024, ISBN 9781958598474, as a police procedural-urban fantasy mashup. In this world, still ruled by Greek gods, Virgil Glezos is a detective on his first case when a former police officer is murdered. To track the killer, Virgil uses a combination of magic and technology. “What I love about this detective is [he’s] very neurotic and incredibly intelligent,” Carroll says. “Social mores and how to interact with people are very foreign to him.”

Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, June 2024, ISBN 9781958598368, marries reality TV satire with horror and mystery. On the set of The Groom, a reality TV show, a group of women compete for the heart of bachelor Tristan by spending a week in a haunted house. “There's a number of murders in this one, and there is a supernatural element to the murders, but it’s a very, very well written, very entertaining story that is sure to please fans of darkly humorous horror mystery fiction,” Carroll says.

Voracious by Belicia Rhea, June 2024, ISBN9781958598252, should appeal to fans of similar psychological thrillers and mysteries, like You by Caroline Kepnes, who provided the cover blurb. The novella is told mostly from the point of view of 16-year-old Lila, who is pregnant, bulimic, and has terrifying dreams of a coming insect plague. On top of all that, her boyfriend is assumed dead after going missing under mysterious circumstances.

To help her cope, Lila’s mother forces her to see a therapist, who soon begins experiencing similar symptoms to Lila’s. “What’s so beautiful and brilliant about this book is the narration,” Carroll says. “She [Lila] just feels so authentic. It's so deftly done. The pacing and the reveals are so perfect. It's beautiful prose, and  it’s deeply philosophical, deeply personal.”

Coming in November 2024, The Threshing Floor by Steph Nelson, ISBN 9781958598498, fits onto the thriller/suspense/mystery shelf. Dalice is a single mom of a toddler who needs an unaffordable heart transplant. She’s desperate when she meets Shane, who is part of a mysterious group whose leader claims to be able to heal any disease or injury. Dalice witnesses one of these healing miracles—but how far is she willing to go to save her son?

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