The TOP 5 New Thrillers to Read this January
By #1 Bestselling Author Matt Miksa
Happy New Year! The holidays really zipped by this year. Time flies when you’re reading a good book (or five!). Here’s a list of five new releases that I can’t wait to dive into this month.
#5
QUICKSILVER
By Dean Koontz
I’m always down for a modern thriller, delicately threaded with supernatural aspects that get pretty wild by the third act. Books about folks with special powers are a plus.
In Koontz’s upcoming novel, Quinn Quicksilver was born with an unusual ability, abandoned by his parents, and raised by nuns in an orphanage. Now age nineteen, Quinn is compelled to drive into a middle-of-nowhere-desert where he meets up with a woman with similarly “unique DNA” that is suggested to be of extraterrestrial origin. Both become hunted by shadowy government agents, and if that’s not enough, some scary aliens are after them too.
Quicksilver sounds like another magnificent tension-filled supernatural fantasy by the #1 New York Times Bestseller and master of suspense, Dean Koontz. I can’t wait!
Publication Date: Jan. 25
#4
END OF DAYS
By Brad Taylor
The New York Times bestselling author Brad Taylor brings his expertise as a former special forces officer to his newest installment of the Pike Logan series (Book 16, y’all!). When the former head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, is murdered, investigators call upon American Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill to solve the case. As more key members of the U.S. and Israeli governments mysteriously turn up dead, the team races to hunt the assassins responsible.
Geopolitical intrigue, sky-high stakes, and heaps of duplicity - count me in for another adrenaline rush, Mr. Taylor!
Publication Date: Jan. 11
#3
THE FIELDS
By Erin Young
A body is found in a field in rural America. Add a splash of gore and a sprinkle of small-town secrets and you’ve got the classic ingredients for a riveting police procedural.
Early readers have described this book as “graphic,” “disturbing,” “creepy,” and “aggressively realistic.” Okay, now you’ve got my attention. Personally, I’ve never been easily triggered. As a thriller writer myself, that would be a counterproductive quality. So, if you enjoy diving headlong into the darkness that is human behavior, you may enjoy this tale. If you dare to take the plunge, I’ll see you on the other side.
Publication Date: Jan. 25
#2
ONE STEP TOO FAR
By Lisa Gardner
Gardner is set to release the highly anticipated follow-up to her smash hit, BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED. In this sequel, missing-persons expert Frankie Elkin searches for a young man who disappeared in a Wyoming national forest during his bachelor party (5 years ago!). Frankie isn’t a trained professional or a member of any law enforcement organization; rather she’s just damned good at finding people who have vanished without a trace. Even after the case has gone ice-cold.
Early readers have praised Gardner’s immersive descriptions of the forest setting and all of the natural (and unnatural) dangers that her characters encounter there. I visited the national parks of Wyoming several times as a child, and I still remember how beautiful, untamed, and utterly expansive they are. It’s a fantastic backdrop for an edge-of-your-seat thriller like ONE STEP TOO FAR.
Publication Date: Jan. 18
#1
THE STARLESS CROWN
By James Rollins
The blockbuster author of the long-running Sigma Force series is releasing an all-new adult adventure fantasy novel this January. As a fan of Rollins’s early novels (SUBTERRANEAN, EXCAVATION, AMAZONIA), mostly for their exotic, Indiana Jones vibes, I’m thrilled to see him release a visionary novel with a new cast of characters.
The plot of THE STARLESS CROWN sounds truly epic. A clairvoyant student living on an unusual planet with perpetual light and dark sides, predicts the end of the world. Unfortunately, she’s sentenced to death for her inconvenient vision. She escapes, joins up with a band of outcasts, and embarks on a breakneck mission to uncover the ancient mysteries that could save her world. So much pressure.
Early readers have praised Rollins’s multi-layered world building and lyrical prose. I’m looking forward to settling into this (560-page!) beast and losing all sense of time and space.
Publication Date: Jan. 4
Happy New Year everyone and Happy Reading!
MATT MIKSA
***
Matt Miksa is a bestselling author and former FBI intelligence analyst who helped prevent foreign spies from stealing America’s secrets. Today, he writes thrillers that blend history, politics, science, and espionage. His latest paranormal crime thriller, DON’T GET CLOSE, is available March 8, 2022.
WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER FOR MY NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, DON’T GET CLOSE
SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on future blog articles like this.
SEE MORE OF MATT’S PICKS
Check out these great Christmas gifts for book lovers this holiday season, 2022.