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Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: 19 of Your Favorite Crime Thrillers with Badass Female Leads

Vanessa Diaz

Managing Editor

Book Riot Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz is a writer and former bookseller from San Diego, CA whose Spanish is even faster than her English. When not reading or writing, she enjoys dreaming up travel itineraries and drinking entirely too much tea. She is a regular co-host on the All the Books podcast who especially loves mysteries, gothic lit, mythology/folklore, and all things witchy. Vanessa can be found on Instagram at @BuenosDiazSD or taking pictures of pretty trees in Portland, OR, where she now resides.

Grand Central Publishing and Iris Johansen’s CHAOS.

CIA agent Alisa Flynn is willing to go rogue if it means catching the most heartless band of criminals she's ever encountered. In a ripped-from-the-headlines plot, schoolgirls in Africa have been kidnapped, and Alisa knows that billionaire Gabe Korgan has the courage, financial means, and high-tech weaponry to help rescue them. With additional assistance from renowned horse whisperer Margaret Douglas, Alisa and Gabe lay their rescue plans, only to see them descend into chaos. But with the help of a brave team and a horse with the heart of a warrior, they might just get out of this alive.

We love a pulse-pounding crime read on its own: the mystery, the action, the thrill of—hopefully—solving the case and bringing the bad guys to justice. Now throw in an ass-kicking, name-taking female lead and we’re furiously adding to cart! That’s why we asked you for your favorite crime thrillers with badass female leads! You gave us a mix of standalone books and series to plow through. Thanks for badassifying our TBRs!

Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

The In Death series by JD Robb

Follow Her Home by Steph Cha

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett

The Jaguar Addams series by B.A. Chepaitis

The Kate Shugack series by Dana Stabenow

The Kay Scarpett series by Patricia Cornwell

Killing It by Asia Mackay

The Likeness by Tana French

The Lisbeth Salander books by Stieg Larsson and David Lagercrantz

The Mallory series by Carol O’Connell

Prime Suspect by Lynda La Plante

Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Trail of Echoes by Rachel Howell Hall

Queenpin by Megan Abbott

The V. I. Warshawsk books by Sara Paretsky