A Mid-Year Assessment

It’s June, time again for publications to begin issuing their “best books of the year … so far” lists. I don’t know that I shall weigh in on this matter, as I think I have not yet read enough 2026 crime, thriller, and suspense novels to represent a proper sample of what’s available. However, Amazon shows no such hesitation. Its editors just posted their 20 favorites from this genre, released over the last six months:

1. Night Objects, by Eli Raphael (Grand Central)
2. Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke (Knopf)
3. Nothing Tastes as Good, by Luke Dumas (Atria)
4. Five, by Ilona Bannister (Crown)
5. Mad Mabel, by Sally Hepworth (St. Martin’s Press)
6. A Violent Masterpiece, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland)
7. Someone Else’s Husband, by Kimberly McCreight (Knopf)
8. Whidbey, by T Kira Madden (Mariner)
9. The Keeper, by Tana French (Viking)
10. The Best Little Motel in Texas, by Lyla Lane (Harper Perennial)
11. A Bad, Bad Place, by Frances Crawford (Soho Crime)
12. The Adventures of Juan Planchard, by Jonathan Jakubowicz
(Grand Central)
13. This Story Might Save Your Life, by Tiffany Crum (Pine & Cedar)
14. The Take, by Kelly Yang (Berkley)
15. The Drop, by S.R. Masters (Sourcebooks Landmark)
16. It Could Have Been Her, by Lisa Jewell (Atria)
17. A Good Person, by Kirsten King (Putnam)
18. My Grandfather, the Master Detective, by Masateru
Konishi (Putnam)
19. Beth Is Dead, by Katie Bernet (Sarah Barley/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
20. Worse Than a Lie, by Ben Crump (Bantam)

Yesteryear (really a time-travel tale) and Beth Is Dead (a young-adult novel) seem not to belong with the other choices here. But I’ll otherwise refrain from commenting, because I haven’t read most of Amazon’s picks. It will be interesting to see how many of these feature among future “best so far” selections.