The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters - When British lieutenant Charles Acland returns home from Iraq, his serious head injuries are the outward manifestation of a profound inner change: he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or it may be, as his psychiatrist suggests, “the prolonged destruction of a personality.” In its imeliness, its psychological complexity, and its unstoppable suspense this is a thriller of the first order. (March 2009)

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - A gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades. (March 2009)

San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics edited by Peter Maravelis - (February 2009)

Matala by Craig Holden - Darcy Arlen, a beautiful young American, is dangerously bored. Though she's on a very pricey tour of Europe, she's already sick of museums and ruins, and eager for distraction. After slipping away from the group one afternoon, she meets Will, an attractive young drifter who carries about him the scent of true adventure. Will invites Darcy back to the hostel where he's been staying and introduces her to Justine, his darkly seductive lover and mentor. Justine, a master of the con, senses a grand opportunity in this amenable blonde. (February 2009)

The Dead Man's Brother by Roger Zelazny - A lost manuscript from Hard Case Crime from a six -time Hugo winner. This is the only mystery/thriller he wrote. (January 2009)

Betrayal by John Lescroart - Hardy and Glitsky reunite in a story filled with the big themes that are worthy of them—the intersection of love, betrayal, and a desperate search for the truth in a critical matter of national security. (December 2008)

Diablerie by Walter Mosley -Ben Dibbuk is an amoral computer programmer who can't seem to feel anything but lust. But it's just possible that during one of his alcohol-induced blackouts he found the passion to murder. A dark plot. (December 2008)

Zugzwang by Ronan Bennett - A masterpiece of literary suspense unfolds in a city on the verge of revolution. On a blustery April day, a respected St. Petersburg newspaper editor is murdered in front of a shocked crowd. Five days later, Dr. Otto Spethmann, the celebrated psychoanalyst, receives a visit from the police. There has been another murder in the city—and somehow he is implicated. The doctor is mystified and deeply worried, as much for his young, spirited daughter as for himself. (September 2008)

Oystercatchers by Susan Fletcher - Sixteen-year-old Amy lies in a coma. Her elder sister, Moira, sits beside her in the evenings and tells this story seeking forgiveness and retribution. She tells of her own life—her secrets, her shameful actions, and her link to the accident that has brought her sister to this bed. (August 2008)

The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham - A young policewoman breaks all the rules to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of the best friend she betrayed in this stunning follow-up thriller from the author of Suspect and Lost. (July 2008)

Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri - Having taken a young Chinese woman under her wing, teacher Emma Perotti finds herself on trial for the girl's murder. (June 2008)

Raven Black by Anne Cleeves - It begins New Year's Eve with a lonely outcase Named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors that never arrive. The next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered in the snow, and Inspector Perez begins an investigation that leads deep into the past. (June 2008)

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple - (May 2008)

The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson - One snowy day, thirty-five-year-old Laura Hindersten goes to the police to report that her father, a local professor, is missing. Inspector Ann Lindell and her colleagues can find no motive for the man’s disappearance. And when the corpses of two elderly men do turn up, neither of the dead men is the missing academic. (April 2008)

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney -The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. (March 2008)

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman - A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. (February 2008)

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino - Apartment Serial Murders case, which involved the brutal killings of two Tokyo prostitutes, has gripped the country, leading to the arrest of a Chinese immigrant, Zhang Zhe-zhong, for the crimes. Strangely, Zhang freely admits to murdering the first victim, Yuriko Hirata, but denies the near-identical slaying 10 months later of Kazue Sato. (February 2008)

The Song is You by Megan Abbott Fans of James Ellroy nostalgic for his gritty, cynical take on postwar Hollywood in such noir classics as L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia should enjoy Edgar-finalist Abbott's second novel. (February 2008)

Damage Control by Robert Dugoni - Dana Hill is accustomed to stress: she's a successful attorney at a prestigious Seattle law firm, the mother of a young daughter, and the wife of a busy, self-involved man. But her carefully-balanced world is rent asunder when she is diagnosed with breast cancer, her twin brother is beaten to death and she discovers that her husband is having an affair. (February 2008)

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber -Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, this is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery . . . or self-destruction. (February 2008)