Genre Games Finalists for the Times Book Prize in mystery/thriller, from top left going clockwise: Rachel Howzell Hall, Christopher Bollen, Ivy Pochoda, Jennifer Hillier and S.A. Cosby. (Jay L. Clendenin / LAT/Sebastien Botella/Darren Blohowiak/S.A. Cosby.) Five of 2020’s best crime writers on where mystery fiction is today A young queer couple runs a high-stakes con game in Venice, Italy. Black and white people in rural Virginia become uneasy allies in a heist gone wrong. A fledgling PI works a case while evading her abusive ex-husband. A child abduction in Seattle reveals fissures in a marriage that could turn fatal. Women in West Adams live in the shadow of a serial killer. While they are all very different, what unites these five novels, apart from their being shortlisted for the Times Book Prize in the mystery/thriller category, is that they are unafraid to explore difficult topics with diverse characters, unencumbered by expectations about genre.