The Best Debut Novels of August

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The CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debut novels in crime fiction, mystery, and thrillers.

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Jamison Shea, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me 
(Henry Holt)

In this ballet horror novel, a young ballerina is given a chance at power after a star of the company takes her under her wing. But all power comes at a cost, and this power derives from an ancient source with its own agenda. I’m not sure what it is about dance that lends itself so well to horror—think Black Swan or Suspiria—but add this one to the list of stories that take the bloody feet and brutal precision of the dance world and turn them into visceral horror. –MO

Kyle Dillon Hertz, The Lookback Window
(Simon and Schuster)

The Lookback Window is a powerful debut with a clarity of voice and mission to be much admired. It follows the story of Dylan, the victim of sex-trafficking, now afforded an opportunity to sue the perpetrator, but first he goes on a dark journey of self-exploration. Kyle Dillon Hertz writes with tremendous fire and artistry. –DM

Nigar Alam, Under the Tamarind Tree
(Putnam)

Alam’s debut spans decades and generations in an epic mystery emanating out of one fateful night in Karachi in 1964, following the reverberations altering so many lives. Alam handles the sprawling, ambitious material with enviable dexterity, and brings out a story that’s full of texture and humanity. –DM

Ken Jaworowski, Small Town Sins
(Henry Holt)

In a tough Pennsylvania town on the precipice, three lives and three stories barrel toward calamity in this debut novel from Ken Jaworowski. Small Town Sins gives us a portrait of modern America in all its dark complexity, as Jaworowski brings insight and empathy to his characters’ struggles, while always maintaining the story’s strong momentum. –DM

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