READING LIST: Luxury Thriller Vibes
One of my favorite niche genres is something I call the “Luxury Thriller.” Give me dead bodies in castles, secret passageways, murderous heiresses, lemon groves of secrets, false identities, poison on trains, etc etc etc.
I want to feel like I’m summering in Amalfi, covered in a tiny bikini and jewels, surrounded by fabulous people with horrible consciences. Or perhaps I’m meeting up with long lost friends at a chateau on a remote island and one of us is found dead in a gothic canopy bed with a bloody Cartier hanging off the wrist. (Gosh, and these are just made up scenarios, not even from any of the books I’m here to tell you about!)
While this niche sub-genre always feels like warming months (like when you’re aching for the arrival of Spring or a summer trip abroad or an invitation on a yacht in the BVI), it’s truly a timeless mood. I’ve read each of these titles with such ferocity that I consider each of them among the BEST and worthy of your time.
However, be warned… some of these you’ll be utterly unable to put down Plan your day accordingly.
THE PARIS WIDOW by Kimberly Belle. I read this one in 24 hours. A gorgeous couple vacation in Paris. There’s an explosion, which opens up into a crazy fast paced story situated inside the art and antiquities black market. LOVED IT.
“When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy—a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics.
As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?”
THE CHATEAU by Jaclyn Goldis. A woman and her three girlfriends are invited to her grandmother’s French chateau. It’s an absolute dream come true, until people start dying. Gorgeous descriptions, excellent characters and such a TWIST. Again, this is one I read in just a weekend.
“Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and her three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation?
Amid winery tours, market visits, and fancy dinners overlooking olive groves and lavender fields, it becomes clear that each woman has a hidden reason for returning to the estate after all these years. Then, following a wild evening’s celebration, Séraphine is found brutally murdered.
In the midst of this shocking crime, a sinister Instagram account pops up, exposing snapshots from the friends’ intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more. As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine—and is now stalking them—the friends begin to suspect each other. Because the chateau houses many secrets.”
THE PARIS APARTMENT by Lucy Foley. This will forever stand out in my memory as one of the most decadent, unputdownable, shocking luxury thrillers I’ve ever read.
“Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.
The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.
The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge. Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.”
THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Jewell. Compiling this list, the criteria is really about location and how addicted I was to the story (and how fast I had to finish the book to know what happens!). This one takes place in the idyllic English countryside. YES YES YES.
“On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite place for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.”
Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?”
THE CAVE DWELLERS by Christina McDowell. The badly behaved wealthy elite in Washington DC. This one is based on a real life murder that happened in a very famous mansion near the Capitol.
“They are the families considered worthy of a listing in the exclusive Green Book—a discriminative diary created by the niece of Edith Roosevelt’s social secretary. Their aristocratic bloodlines are woven into the very fabric of Washington—generation after generation. Their old money and manner lurk through the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, Kalorama, and Capitol Hill. They only socialize within their inner circle, turning a blind eye to those who come and go on the political merry-go-round. These parents and their children live in gilded existences of power and privilege.
But what they have failed to understand is that the world is changing. And when the family of one of their own is held hostage and brutally murdered, everything about their legacy is called into question.”
THE CLOISTERS by Katy Hays. If you LOVE the inner workings of museums and/or rare collections of esoteric ephemera (like tarot cards), this is a twisty, fast paced story set in NYC’s The Cloisters (an extension of The Met museum). Loved it and definitely haven’t seen other stories like it.
“When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination.
Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers’ more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs.“
(If you’re into more esoteric, magical type book recs, check out this blog.)
HER DARK LIES by J.T. Ellison. This was a perfect read, so much so that I finished the last chapters while literally standing in the ocean. I absolutely couldn’t put it down. IT WAS GOOOOOOD.
“Jutting from sparkling turquoise waters off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an idyllic setting for a wedding. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter will marry handsome, charming Jack Compton, surrounded by close family, intimate friends…and a host of dark secrets.
From the moment Claire sets foot on the island, something seems amiss. Skeletal remains have just been found. There are other, newer disturbances, too. Menacing texts. A ruined wedding dress. And one troubling shadow hanging over Claire’s otherwise blissful relationship—the strange mystery surrounding Jack’s first wife.
Then a raging storm descends, the power goes out—and the real terror begins…”
THE VILLA by Rachel Hawkins. This checks so many boxes, all I can say is: READ IT.
“As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.” (I mean, COME ON.)
SAFE PLACE by Anna Downes. Tension, drama, the perfect setting, serious secrets and a twist ending.
“Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day. Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily. Emily is perfect.
Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.”
THE FINAL ACT OF JULIETTE WILLOUGHBY by Ellery Lloyd. If you’re familiar with husband wife writing duo Ellery Lloyd, you’d think I would recommend their book The Club, a dark thriller about a luxury resort for the poorly behaved and depraved young, hot, wealthy crowd (totally modeled after real life SoHo House). I read that one and it was really good. Add it to your list, too. But their standout is really THIS book.
“Some women won't be painted out of history . . .
Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.
Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.
But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?
A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets . . .”
THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley. I LOVE Lucy Foley’s thrillers, and this newest release THRILLS. I’ll leave it to the book description to entice you, but for real, this is a must read. Privelege and chaos galore.
“It’s the opening night of The Manor, the newest and hottest luxury resort, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.
But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And it’s not too long before the local police are called. Turns out the past has crashed the party, with deadly results.
THE GIRLBOSS · THE HUSBAND · THE KITCHEN HELP · THE MYSTERY GUEST
Everyone’s got a secret. Everyone’s got an agenda. But not everyone will survive The Midnight Feast.”
THE LION’S DEN by Katherine St. John. Definitely a perfect beach or poolside read. (Or if you dare go yacht vacationing…)
“Belle likes to think herself immune to the dizzying effects of wealth. But when her best friend, Summer, invites her on a glamorous getaway to the Mediterranean aboard her billionaire boyfriend's yacht, the only sensible answer is yes. Once she's aboard the luxurious Lion's Den, it soon becomes clear that this jet-setting holiday is not as advertised. Belle's dream vacation quickly devolves into a nightmare as she and the other girls Summer invited are treated more like prisoners than guests by their vicious host.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this book list. If you read one and love it, let me know! Have a recommendation you know I’d love? Reach out in an email. Want to buy me a coffee? MERCI! Xo Morgan