It can be challenging to know where to begin with the best mystery books of 2020. Never fear! We’re here to help you hone your search, with our list of the top 5 thrillers and super-suspense reads.

It’s no secret that the news is pretty frightening these days. If you prefer your thrills and chills to be of the fictional variety, we’ve got you covered. Assuming you’re a fan of mystery, you’ll probably recognize some of these authors. But we think we’ve tried to create just the right mix of familiar favorites and fresh faces.

The suspense is killing us – so let’s get started!

David Baldacci is a master. He even teaches a MasterClass called David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing! This is Memory Man book six, which means you’ve got some catching up to do if you haven’t tackled books one through five.

In this New York Times Bestselling series, we follow two FBI agents as they work a sensational, suspenseful, unsolved murder. Book six delves into all manner of exciting territory: religious sects, mysterious government facilities, and too many secrets to count. The result is a nail-biter and a most fantastic mystery book.

You’ll read about a missing child, an eerie old house, and a deliciously dysfunctional family in this gripping thriller. The ghosts may or may not be real. Still, the suspense is authentic, and the story is finely crafted in this creepy, intelligent page-turner.

This is a fast-paced, exciting tale of email scams, missing persons, and fetish priests in the world’s internet capital—Ghana. If you’re old enough to remember Murder, She Wrote, you’ll probably love this fresh take on a tenacious female detective who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

From the author of the NYT Bestseller, The Broken Girls, comes a taut, haunting thriller that takes the reader down an unforgettable path of missing family members and towns that time forgot. If you love a good mystery that incorporates ghosts into the plot, this chilling tale is right up your alley.

This is a smart, supernatural thriller full of unexpected twists and turns. But it’s also a story of substance, simultaneously entertaining and enriching.

Fans of Lisa Gardner, rejoice! In this book, Gardner brings three of her most beloved characters together in the same story: Kimberly Quincy, Flora Dane, and Detective D.D. Warren.

What brings them all together? Murder, of course! It’s a female-driven psychological thriller that never lets up as a sensational, compelling page-turner.

To round out our list, we chose a book that’s both thrilling and touching. Although it’s never short on suspense, The Red Lotus takes the reader on a thoughtful observation of friendship, human connection, and the bond between child and parent.

If you read Midwives or The Flight Attendant, you’re familiar with the author’s thoughtfulness and remarkable compassion for his characters. Like so many of the books on our list, this is a story of the long winding pursuit for answers when a loved one disappears into thin air.