Picture this: you’re alone in a cabin in the woods when suddenly there’s a knock on the door. Is it friend or foe? Do you answer it? Your cozy cabin might no longer seem like a place of refuge. And it for sure won’t if you’re a character in one of these mysteries and thrillers!
A cabin setting is perfectly suited for these thrilling reads. The isolation of a remote place or the power dynamics at a camp means it’s easy to set characters (and readers) on edge. Today’s list is short and sweet but I know there are more mysteries and thrillers with this setting than we included today: I hope you’ll share your favorites in the comments.
And if you want a more meta reading experience, make sure you pack one of these titles for your next cabin getaway.
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Kubica has made a name for herself with her hugely successful and compulsively readable psychological thrillers and it all started with her debut. When Mia’s mercurial boyfriend stands her up at the bar where they were supposed to meet, she decides revenge is in order in the form of a one-night stand with a stranger. But it turns out Colin isn’t the stranger she thinks he is and his cabin in rural Minnesota is no refuge. When he double-crosses his employers, the countdown is on, even as detective Gabe and Mia’s mother race to find her. More info →
Pavone’s international thriller follows travel journalist Will Rhodes. When a beautiful Australian woman makes him an offer he can’t refuse while traveling in Argentina, he becomes embroiled in espionage and conspiracy. Who is he working for and who can he trust? Before he knows it, he’s an undercover agent taking missions all across Europe, from a mansion in Paris to an isolated cabin in Iceland, all while doing his best to stay alive and discover the truth behind his deadly employer. More info →
In the opening pages of this installment, a stranger is found murdered on the floor of Olivier’s Bistro. Olivier and his partner, Gabri, claim they don’t know the victim, but it quickly becomes clear to Gamache that that’s not the whole truth. A cabin in the woods may hold the key as Three Pines residents are forced to confront the unthinkable: Could the murderer really be the man who tends the hearth of the bistro, the symbolic heart of village life? “Thomas Hobbes said that hell is truth seen too late,” Louise Penny wrote on Goodreads. “That’s the vortex around which The Brutal Telling swirls.” More info →
On the run from drug cartels in Arizona, Rich Moore flees to an Appalachian forest preserve. Tracking wildlife and building cabins among the quiet trees suits him, but solitude doesn’t last forever. After finding several killed bears on the preserve, Rich becomes obsessed with catching the poachers but receives little help from locals or the law. Instead, he partners up with a scientist to put his risky plan in action. For those of you who tell me you read like my husband: Will hasn’t read this yet but it sounds right up his alley! More info →
I loved the premise of this psychological thriller: on a dark and stormy night, a guilt-ridden mother walks away from her life, five years to the day after her youngest child was killed in a tragic accident. Two days after she disappears, police find Molly’s handwritten note in a local motel: it says the pain is too much to bear, her family will be better off without her, she’s leaving. “Don’t look for me,” she writes. The police call it a walk-away, saying it happens all the time. But Molly’s daughter is suspicious and begins her own investigation into her mother’s disappearance. More info →
Heller returns to the magnificent and wild Yellowstone National Park in this quietly urgent eco-thriller. Ren Hopper was born to be a ranger, but his work has grown increasingly difficult as more humans than ever flock to our nation’s national parks. Man and nature have peacefully coexisted during Ren’s tenure, but he fears that balance can’t last, given the human behavior he’s witnessed in the park lately. When a wolf researcher is nearly killed in the park, Ren suspects it was no accident—and he begins to tail his prime suspect, a local poacher involved in a dangerous grassroots militia group. This one shines for its evocative setting, lyrical commentary, intriguing science, and sympathetic protagonist. More info →
Moore’s latest is a family saga, missing persons tale, and 1970s summer camp story rolled into one. One August morning in 1975, a camper vanishes without a trace. But not just any camper: she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns this camp, and fourteen years before, her older brother similarly disappeared. As the family, the campers themselves, and the neighboring blue-collar town residents gather to search for the girl, everyone suspects the two missing children must be linked, but how? The mystery is a driving force, but Moore’s story is complex and carefully layered, with a large cast of believably drawn characters who add texture and nuance. A character-driven, compulsively readable literary mystery and a 2024 MMD Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick. More info →
What are your favorite mysteries and thrillers set in a cabin? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 20 riveting wilderness mystery and suspense novels and 20 unputdownable mysteries and thrillers to keep you glued to the page.
