5 Tense New Thrillers To Read This Fall

This fall’s slate of fantastic new releases includes a bunch of well-paced thrillers that are fun to read yet really quite frightening.

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Teenaged Saffyre is upset that her therapist stopped treatment—and then she disappears. Her therapist? Roan Fours, from a family that seems to have everything. Last to see her? Owen Pick, a teacher who lives across the street from the Fours. An unpredictable thriller with expert pacing and haunting questions. (Out now.)

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Struggling young Anna Tromedlov works great with data, hence her temp gigs with evil supervillains. Wait, what? Fast-paced, dark and really funny, Hench pulls just as much from 9 to 5 as it does from superhero comics. A macabre sense of humour will be richly rewarded. (Sept. 22)

The Finder by Will Ferguson

This plucky and seductive adventure novel from the Giller Prize winner is set in a world where iconic objects like Buddy Holly’s glasses and Muhammad Ali’s Olympic medal go missing. A strange magic pulls the book forward, and Ferguson’s prose has a quick-yet-gentle lilt. It makes for a perfect escape. (Out now.)

The Forger’s Daughter by Bradford Morrow

A reformed literary forger and his wife hear a shriek one night and rush outside to find their shaken daughter bloodied but alive. She’s holding a package containing a forgery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane—and the forger finds himself both trapped and not so reformed. A gothic mystery as chilling as the famous author on whom the book turns. (Out now.)

Daniil and Vanya by Marie-Hélène Larochelle (trans. Michelle Winters)

Emma and Gregory are a model Toronto couple who adopt twin toddler boys after Emma miscarries. The parents have every advantage for a perfect life, but the boys have other plans. An unflinching psychological horror story, both sinister and awe-inspiringly good. (October.)