Heart-Pounding New Mystery and Thriller Books Releasing in October 2024

October just got a lot more mysterious. 

college of books to be released in october 2024

With chillier days, longer nights, and Halloween around the corner, October is the ultimate month for a good mystery or thriller to settle down with—before getting delightfully unsettled.

While some people prefer the instant horror of jump scares and gore, others get that the most terrifying monsters aren't monsters at all: they're other people.

From psychological thrillers tinged with the supernatural to mystery slow-burns with characters icier than the impending winter winds, these books are sure to satisfy your fear fix as well as any James Wan movie—if not better. 

For those of you simply looking to curl up with a fall-scented candle and a good mystery, we've got you covered, too. 

Here are 10 new mystery and thriller books coming out in October of 2024.

October 8

This Cursed House

This Cursed House

By Del Sandeen

In 1960s Chicago, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker wants two things: to leave the city and to be rid of the spirits she has been able to see since birth.

When the mysterious Duchon family sends her an unsolicited offer to work at their estate in New Orleans, she is relieved to have found the solution to at least one of her problems.  

Jemma’s optimism upon her arrival at the estate gives way to concern as she observes the many unsettling peculiarities of the Duchon clan.

Its white-passing family members look down on her dark skin, and the hostile environment of the Duchon residence becomes all the more so when Jemma uncovers a terrifying secret: the entire family is cursed. And they think Jemma is the only one who can break it. 

As Jemma dives deeper into the Duchons’ twisted, centuries-old past, she learns just how much is at stake—not just for the Duchons, but for her own life. 

The Blue Hour: A Novel: The Addictive New Novel of Suspense from the NYT Bestselling Author of The Girl on the Train

The Blue Hour: A Novel: The Addictive New Novel of Suspense from the NYT Bestselling Author of The Girl on the Train

By Paula Hawkins

From the award-winning author of The Girl on the Train comes a twisted psychological thriller about ambition, envy, and the fine line between passion and obsession.

The Blue Hour unfolds on  Eris, an isolated island off the coast of Scotland accessible by boat only twelve hours a day. The late artist Vanessa Chapman while away her days here, crafting breathtaking sculptures and building resentment toward her notoriously unfaithful husband, Julian. Until one day, he disappears. 

Twenty years later, two people find themselves in the house where Vanessa once lived. The first, Becker, is a curator for an elite art foundation that has recently acquired Chapman’s works, sent to obtain Vanessa’s private letters for the foundation’s collection.

The second, Grace, is Vanessa’s longtime friend and former caretaker, who can decide which of Vanessa’s letters should remain private.

As the two pursue their related but juxtaposed missions, they begin to uncover secrets about the artist and those around her that may have been better off at the bottom of the surrounding sea. 

Society of Lies: A Novel

Society of Lies: A Novel

By Lauren Ling Brown

Fans of The Secret History by Donna Tartt or If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio will be darkly delighted to read this Ling’s upcoming dark academia thriller. 

It’s been ten years since Maya graduated from Princeton, and she’s excited to be back for her reunion—and for her little sister Naomi’s graduation. Then Naomi is found dead, and though the police rule it an accident, Maya knows better.

Turns out, that’s about all Maya does know about her sister, as attempts to understand Naomi’s death reveal a hidden life Maya knew nothing about. Not only had Naomi joined the highly exclusive Sterling Club on campus, she had even been tapped for the secret society within it—at least, that’s what Maya suspects. 

It’s not like she can blame her sister. Maya had been part of the Sterling Club, too. That’s also why she told Naomi to stay away.

But there’s something Maya left out, something that may have cost Naomi dearly. Something that Maya be paying for now: Naomi wasn’t the first young woman to die on the Sterling Club’s watch.

Will she be the last?

Find Her

Find Her

By Ginger Reno

Wren’s life hasn’t been the same since her mother, a member of the Cherokee Nation, went missing years ago. Everyone but Wren’s grandmother seems to have given up. Her father won’t even talk about it. But Wren knows she’s out there. 

When pets around town start going missing and turn up badly injured, she jumps at the chance to sharpen her detective skills with the help of a new friend, anticipating the day she cracks her mother’s case. If she can find out who’s behind this, maybe there’s a chance she can still find her mother, too. 

Find Her is a sensitive coming-of-age story great for young readers as much as it is a testament to the pain and frustration of young people impacted by the national crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

Through the eyes of one bold, determined, and deeply empathetic young girl, Ginger Reno takes readers on a touching quest for friendship, community, and justice. 

Coup de Grâce

Coup de Grâce

By Sofia Ajram

Vicken should be dead. He wanted to be dead. Instead, he’s trapped. One minute, he was on the subway to the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal, where he planned to end his life of pain and misery.

The next, he finds himself in an endless, labyrinthine subway station, with strange wonders within and no clear way out. 

With no choice but to explore its tunnels, Vicken comes to realize his presence there may be more than a nightmarish coincidence. And he is terrifyingly certain he is he is not alone.

Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel

Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel

By Nick Harkaway

Set in the ten-year gap between two books in John le Carré’s George Smiley series, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harkaway’s latest novel breathes new life into le Carré’s iconic spy. 

George Smiley has finally put his life of espionage to rest. The West’s spy war against the Soviets has eased, he’s happily married, and he feels at peace for the first time in his adult life—at least, something close to it. If only.

After a Russian agent defects under unusual circumstances, and the man he was assigned to kill in London goes missing, Smiley is called in to speak with Szusanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and hunt down a lead. It was supposed to end there, but of course, it doesn’t.

Before long, Smiley finds himself ensnared in a dangerous mystery in a Moscow that’s only grown more treacherous since his last visit. Smiley wasn’t even supposed to be on this case.

Could it now be his last?

The Last One at the Wedding: A Novel

The Last One at the Wedding: A Novel

By Jason Rekulak

Frank Szatowski has never had the best relationship with his daughter, Maggie. In fact, they haven’t spoken in years, which is why he’s both elated and surprised to receive a call from her inviting him to her wedding.

He’s even more surprised to discover, upon his arrival at the secluded and marvelously opulent venue, that her husband-to-be is none other than Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. 

This should all be cause for celebration. But Frank can’t help but feel that something’s…off. Aidan is aloof and avoidant. Maggie has hardly a spare minute to talk to her father. The locals seem to dislike the Gardeners with a passion.

Frank is determined to find out more about the Gardeners before Maggie makes a huge mistake. But can he warn her without losing forever? 

This Girl's a Killer: A Novel

This Girl's a Killer: A Novel

By Emma C. Wells

You’d never know it by looking at her, but Cordelia Black is a killer. The minute she clocks out of her job as a pharmaceutical rep, she’s out on the streets of South Louisiana, ridding it of bad men who might otherwise do women harm—women like her best friend Diane, or her goddaughter.

She’s making the streets safer, really. Just not for certain men. If only the police saw it that way. 

When news begins to spread of Cordelia’s handiwork, and the term “serial killer” gains traction in the media, Cordelia gets put under more pressure than ever to maintain her carefully concealed, delicately balanced double-life.

But when the guy she’s dating starts to seem like just the type of guy she’d strike down in the street, that balance is officially toppled—maybe for good.

A New Lease on Death: A Mystery

A New Lease on Death: A Mystery

By Olivia Blacke

Twenty-year-old Rachel Young has just moved into a new apartment in Boston, and between the broken heating, noisy neighbors, and dead body on the sidewalk outside her building, she’s feeling less than optimistic. At least she doesn’t have a roommate. 

Well, not a living one, anyway.

Cordelia Graves died in that apartment two months ago, and she has no plans of moving out, though the incessantly perky Rachel is making her wish she could. When the boy across the hall, Jake Mcintyre, is found dead outside the building, Cordelia is determined to find out who killed him. And she needs Rachel’s help to do it. 

In this darkly funny, not-quite-cozy mystery, two girls form a friendship they never expected—and run into more danger than they bargained for. 

In the Blink of a Pie (Maple Syrup Mysteries Book 3)

In the Blink of a Pie (Maple Syrup Mysteries Book 3)

By Catherine Bruns

In the third installment of the Maple Syrup Mysteries, Leila Khoury, manager of Sappy Endings Farm, has devised the perfect way to kick of the holiday season: a pie bake-off on Thanksgiving day.

Khoury can’t wait for the whole town to get a taste of her maple lattes and sweet treats, but when a neighbor drops dead after sampling Khoury’s pumpkin pie, her reputation and livelihood are thrown on the line.

She knows someone else poisoned her pie. But who? And can she stop them before they strike again?