Must-Read Mysteries & Thrillers by Hispanic Authors
The mystery genre is one of the oldest in literature. From the creation of the first detective story to the array of sub-genres that define what we know and love today, mystery books are as wide-ranging as ever. As the genre continues to evolve, so does its roster of diverse voices—each representing an aspect of their community’s history and language and traditions that make their titles unique and diverse. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we wanted to celebrate Hispanic voices in the crime fiction shape by highlight some of our favorite mystery & thriller books by Hispanic authors. While there are plenty of outstanding books to add to this list, we’ve lined up seven from various subgenres of crime fiction—cozy mystery to thriller to a touch of supernatural—that are perfect to get you started.
Odessa Hardwicke’s life is derailed when she’s forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn’t the tragedy itself—it’s the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent’s body after his death.
Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named Hugo Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity’s best and only defense against unspeakable evil.
This panoramic fictional oral history begins with one small mystery: the body of a young woman found in an Arizona border town, presumed to be an illegal immigrant, disappears from the town morgue. To the young CDC investigator called in to consult with the local police, it’s an impossibility that threatens her understanding of medicine.
Then, more bodies, dead from an inexplicable disease that solidified their blood, are brought to the morgue, only to also vanish. Soon, the U.S. government—and eventually biomedical researchers, disgruntled lawmakers, and even an insurgent faction of the Catholic Church—must come to terms with what they’re too late to stop: an epidemic of vampirism that will sweep first the United States, and then the world.
With heightened strength and beauty and a steady diet of fresh blood, these changed people, or “Gloamings,” rapidly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society. Soon people are beginning to be “re-created,” willingly accepting the risk of death if their bodies can’t handle the transformation. As new communities of Gloamings arise, society is divided, and popular Gloaming sites come under threat from a secret terrorist organization. But when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, runs for political office—well, all hell breaks loose.
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