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As travel season heats up, you might find yourself looking for a page-turner to get you through your next flight. Depending on the type of trip you’ve booked – a tropical cruise, a road trip, or a quick getaway by rail – an accompanying travel thriller can add a new dimension to your summer escape.

Here’s a roundup of recent book releases making waves in the travel thriller genre.

The Vacancy in Room 10

How much do you really know about the people you see every day, even those you share a home and life with? That’s a question Anna must ask herself, along with many others, when her husband confesses to murder and then turns up dead himself. What follows is a winding trail of clues left in surprising places. Who was her husband, really? And how will his past impact her future?

The Vacancy in Room 10 is a gripping story that will have you eagerly following along at each step to find out what happened before, and what happens next.

Harvest Cruise

What’s the true cost of a free vacation? As it turns out, the answer varies greatly depending on who’s holding the ticket. This story follows Geri, an introverted writer, and her boss-turned-best-friend, Lisa. When Lisa wins two tickets for a free singles cruise, she naturally takes Geri along.

What starts as the potential beginning to a rom-com quickly turns into a fast-paced fight for survival for passengers aboard the Harvest Cruise. The events that follow will keep you guessing through to the end.

The Last Passenger

Imagine going on vacation to get away from it all, and finding yourself in complete solitude. Now imagine you went on a cruise with your partner and wake up to find them gone, along with everyone else who’d been on the ship before. For main character Cas, that’s the scenario she finds herself in.

With an original storyline and shocking twist, The Last Passenger will make you question everything you think you know about the travel thriller genre, and human behavior.

The Resort

You probably have a friend or colleague who went to Thailand and has been gushing about the experience ever since. But, what if they never came back?

It’s an innocent premise at first, with a group of expats who’ve opted not to leave the paradisiacal escape. But when Cass joins the party, seeking refuge and rejuvenation, she finds that she’s not the only one trying to outrun the past.

When a dive student turns up dead, it sets off a chain of events that uncover more death and mystery obscured by the allure of the tropics. The Resort is such an engrossing read and is the perfect companion for a beach-side cabana.

Drowning

Following the success of her literary debut, Falling, author T.J. Newman released her follow-up, Drowning, in May 2023. Drowning is a fast-paced thriller set on an airliner that crashes into the sea. The events that follow keep readers engaged as passengers navigate survival in a sunken vessel and teams on the ground launch a harrowing rescue mission. If the setting wasn’t panic-inducing enough, there’s the added layer of suspense as the aircraft only has hours of oxygen available for those stuck onboard at the bottom of the ocean.

If you’re a thrill-seeker, this is the book to pack on your next flight. If you’re already afraid of flying, maybe bring it on your next road trip and give yourself a pat-on-the-back for your preferred method of travel.

About the author:

Rebecca Benison is a New York-based writer. A professional storyteller, her weekdays are spent connecting with new audiences on behalf of brands, while her nights and weekends are devoted to fiction. Her debut thriller, Harvest Cruise, was published by Chicken House Press in January 2024, and other work has appeared in the Workers Write! literary journal, Solstice literary journal, Exquisite Death Magazine, and a host of other publications.