7 Mystery & Thriller Books to Read for Cancer Season

The truth is coming for the Crabs of the zodiac.

Books covers for "The Body in the Gallery" by Katherine Hall Page, "The Yellow Room" by Mary Roberts Rinehart, and "A Deadly Inside Scoop" by Abby Collette across a blue brick background.
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  • Photo Credit: Wesley Tingey/Unsplash

Cancer season has washed ashore! As the sign of the Crab skitters around from June 21st to July 22nd, they're going to want to indulge in some good reads!

This water sign is known for having a deep well of emotion and sympathy. They are relentlessly loyal individuals who can be as persuasive as they are suspicious.

If you ask me, Cancers sound like excellent detectives. So, from a high-stakes hostage situation to a sugary-sweet investigation, here are the best mystery and thriller books for Cancer!

Hostage

Hostage

By Clare Mackintosh

Those born under the sign of Cancer are tenacious and loyal. They would do anything to help a loved one—anything.

Mina is a flight attendant working a nonstop flight from London to Sydney. She's got 20 straight hours to try and focus on her work instead of her issues with her husband and five-year-old daughter back home.

But it gets hard when an anonymous passenger delivers her a terrifying note. “The following instructions will save your daughter's life…”

Someone doesn't want the plane to reach Sydney, and as people start dying off, Mina has a difficult choice.

Does she save the lives of hundreds of passengers, or does she save the lives of those who are most precious to her?

Hostage
The Yellow Room

The Yellow Room

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Cancers love their family, but they adore their mothers above all others. This gripping classic mystery will speak to those familial bonds while sprinkling in a bit of their love for the seaside.

Carol Spencer's life has been completely derailed by the war. She and Don were so close to getting married, and then he was shot down in the South Pacific.

Now Carol is 24 and unmarried, teetering on the edge of spinsterhood. Her heart is set on taking up a job in the war effort, but her ailing mother asks her to join her at the family's summer home in Maine.

As the woman arrives at their vacation mansion, something is amiss. It's locked up tight, the lights are out, the servants are gone, and there's a dead body in the closet.

The police are quick to suspect Carol of the crime, but she's determined to find the real killer stalking the grounds. If she doesn't, her mother's life may be in danger.

The Yellow Room
Help for the Haunted

Help for the Haunted

By John Searles

Water signs are known for having good intuition, and this trait combined with Cancer's vast imagination makes supernatural mysteries 

Sylvie Mason comes from an unusual family. Her parents dedicate themselves to bringing peace to “haunted souls.”

One wintery night, her parents receive a peculiar phone call. Later that night, a horrific act of violence leaves them dead in an old church.

A year later, a teenage Sylvie is being cared for by her older sister. But is her sister at fault for the loss of their parents?

Sylvie dives into the dangerous mystery of the tragedy that changed her life, unraveling a web of dark secrets.

Help for the Haunted
memory man by david baldacci

Memory Man

By David Baldacci

There have been two tragedies that changed Amos Decker's life forever. The first happened during his time in the NFL when a brutal collision ended his football career and somehow imbued him with an infallible memory.

Almost 20 years later, Decker was a police detective when the second tragedy struck. When he came home from a stakeout, he found his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law viciously slain.

There were no leads on the killer and no motive to go off of. Haunted by the murder scene living perfectly in his memories, Decker left the police force and ended up taking jobs as a PI to get by.

More than a year after the murders, a man confesses to the police. At the same time, Decker is brought back to his hometown of Burlington to investigate a devastating event.

But it's the perfect chance for him to pursue the truth of what really happened to his family that dark night.

This book will not only speak to a Cancer's love of family, but to their deeply emotional spirit.

memory man by david baldacci
The Body in the Gallery

The Body in the Gallery

By Katherine Hall Page

There are two things a Cancer can't resist: a good meal and good art. So why not combine both in this captivating mystery?

As the economy struggles, business has been slow at Faith's catering company. It seems like an opportunity she can't pass up when her friend Patsy suggests she take over the Aleford’s Ganley Art Museum café.

Patsy does have a hidden agenda, though. The Romare Bearden piece she lent the museum has been replaced by a fake, and she wants Faith to hunt down the thief.

The body of an unidentified woman found in the gallery only complicates matters. As her investigation takes her through Boston's art scene and historic Beacon Hill, the killer doesn't seem content with leaving only one body behind.

The Body in the Gallery
Peg and Rose Solve a Murder

Peg and Rose Solve a Murder

By Laurien Berenson

Who said solving a mystery can't be a family affair? The interpersonal tension in this fun read will excite the moodiness in any Cancer.

Rose Donovan is a soft-spoken woman who is willing to see the good in anybody. Her gruff sister-in-law Peg Turnbull makes that difficult sometimes.

Only Peg would know how to get on the nerves of a former nun, but after 40 years of bickering, these 60-something-year-old women are attempting to call it a truce. They're going to join the local bridge club as partners.

On the heels of their first win, the club's best player is found dead in his home. The sisters-in-law look like a suspicious pair as the newest members.

Determined to clear their own names, they set out to find the truth. But can they maintain their fragile grasp on teamwork as a killer twists them up in a web of games?

Peg and Rose Solve a Murder
mysteries by diverse authors

A Deadly Inside Scoop

By Abby Collette

Our final recommendation pairs Cancer's loyalty to a family with a sweet treat!

Bronwyn Crewse has just graduated with an MBA and is ready to take over her family's ice cream shop in Chagrin Gall, Ohio. With renovations in full force, she's hoping to elevate the shop to the wonder it once was.

The first step? Fleshing out the menu with delicious homemade flavors, many of which are based on her grandmother's original recipes.

Unfortunately for Win, construction delays mean she can't open for the summer season. It's snowing the day she finally opens her doors, and customers seem content to stay warm rather than indulge in a frozen treat.

On the evening of her opening day, things only get worse when Win finds a dead grifter in the snow. As it comes to light this grifter had a long-running feud with the Crewse family, Win's dad suddenly becomes the main suspect in his murder.

It's going to take everything Win has to keep her new business afloat while proving her dad's innocence. But with her friends and family at her side, she can do anything.

mysteries by diverse authors

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