I’ve enjoyed dark fiction ever since I picked up Dracula for school. But I mostly avoided crime and thriller fiction. I couldn’t relate to a rogue detective with an alcohol problem or an FBI agent on the heels of the next Hannibal Lector. Police procedural books just aren’t my thing. But then Gone Girl came out and changed the genre. The domestic suspense subgenre has exploded over the last decade, and now there’s an abundance of books centered around the dangers within our family and friendship circle. And isn’t that the scariest part of life? Serial killers are rare, but domestic violence is, unfortunately, not rare. Where is more dangerous than in our own homes?
This book is difficult to describe. One part crime, the other part literary fiction and narrated by a child, Dead Girls is unlike any other thriller I’ve read. I couldn’t put it down. When Thera’s best friend goes missing, despite being eleven years old, she decides the grown-ups are doing a bad job at finding Billie and begins investigating on her own. This is a super dark tearjerker about violence towards girls and women. But do check trigger warnings because this one is disturbing.
When her best friend Billie is found murdered, eleven-year-old Thera - fearless and forthright - considers it her duty to find the killer.
Aided by a Ouija board, Billie's ghost, and the spirits of four other dead girls, she's determined to succeed. The trouble with Thera, though, is that she doesn't always know when to stop - and sometimes there's a fine line between doing the right thing and doing something very, very bad indeed.
Tense, visceral and thought-provoking, Dead Girls is the new novel from Abigail Tarttelin, the critically acclaimed author of Golden Boy.
Of course, every mystery needs a perfect crime, but what about the perfect setting? I’m fascinated by how authors manipulate time and place to add to the heightened emotions of their murders, thefts, blackmail, and frauds. It’s the juxtaposition of truth and fantasy—what we believe times were like and how they actually were—that makes setting such an essential detail of every whodunnit. Doing research on my own novel, I wrenched apart the facts and fictions of Post-War America, and grew even more ravenous for mysteries that leveraged their settings for the utmost entertainment.
Not a traditional Whodunnit, this queer, YA retelling of Shakespeare’sJulius Caesarleaves the reader wondering what happened to class alpha-lesbian, Jude Cuthbert, when she goes missing under mysterious circumstances. Set just after the 2016 election, this brilliant satire pulls apart the thoughts of each conspirator – Brutus becomes Bronwyn; Cassius, Cass; and Portia is gender-flipped to Bronwyn’s boyfriend, Porter – as well as Jude/Julius’s own perspective on her fall from power.
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and…
I moved from Germany to Botswana when I was a fledgling translator and then on to South Africa 2 years later. I fell in love with this part of Africa that had a hand in making me the person I am today. Since I used to travel a lot, not all of my books are set in Southern Africa, but I have a passion for sharing my African stories with the world. My latest project is the Charlie Proudfoot murder mystery series, which is set in South Africa. Being a translator, I also translate books into German/English and four of them so far, are my own.
Zoo City is set in a fictional reality Johannesburg. I like how observant she is when it comes to describing Johannesburg, the city where I live. A very clever book and not what you’d expect of a book on Africa. Lauren Beukes inspired me to consider writing about Johannesburg myself.
A new edition of Lauren Beukes's Arthur C Clarke Award-winning novel set in a world where murderers and other criminals acquire magical animals that are mystically bonded to them.
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. When a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, Zinzi's forced to take on her least favorite kind of job -- missing persons.
Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the…
Featured in "Best Middle Grade Fantasy Books" - Reedsy Discovery
"Fun & Fast Paced, This is Middle Grade Fantasy at its Best!"— Shaun Stevenson
"If you know any middle-grade readers who enjoy science fiction/fantasy with a mix of action, danger, and humor - recommend this book to them, or just go ahead and give them a copy." — The Fairview Review
“With elements of adventure, exploration, other worlds, and fantastical science, Nemesis and the Vault of Lost Time is an exciting middle-grade novel with plenty of suspense… Behind the adventure are important messages about believing in oneself and finding inner strength.”— The Children's Book Review
"The plot of Nemesis and The Vault of Lost Time is a tapestry of surprises characterized by its unforeseen twists and turns. It’s this element of suspense that grips the readers, while the vivid descriptions create immersive visual experiences. Beyond its adventurous core, this mystery novel delves into themes of friendship and the nuanced dynamics of father-son relationships, offering a multi-layered reading experience." — The Literary Titan
Thirteen-year-old Max is a daydreamer. It gets him into trouble at school, but his restless curiosity really turns problematic when he runs into a mysterious professor at his uncle's bookstore.
The old man informs Max that time is being sucked out of the planet by invisible bandits, stolen from unsuspecting people one breath and one sneeze at a time, and is being stored in a central vault. Once full, the vault will fuel a hungry horde of invaders looking to cross into earth, and cross out all its people.
What's more, the professor claims he knew Max's missing scientist father.…
I can't stop thinking about this book! It's difficult to describe, but it perfectly captures this sense of dread we all felt at least once in our life when our mundane, everyday reality feels slightly off, like some other world is encroaching upon it, moving too close, its boundaries
scraping against the thin layer of fabric that separates us from the awful things
that dwell just beyond our reach.
The Changeling is a story about
strange disappearances, about things and feelings we can rarely explain, and
about what happens when the veil is pulled back from our eyes for the first
time, allowing us to see things as they are, however terrifying they are.
LaValle
takes a chilling metaphor, turns it on its head, and wraps it in ingenious
layers of social commentary on racism, sexism, and power. It's an absolutely
fascinating read!
When Apollo Kagwa was just a child, his father disappeared, leaving him with recurring nightmares and a box labelled 'Improbabilia'. Now a successful book dealer, Kagwa has a family of his own after meeting and falling in love with Emma, a librarian. The two marry and have a baby: so far so happy-ever-after.
However, as the pair settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Emma's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, until one day she commits an unthinkable act, setting Apollo on a wild and fantastical quest through a suddenly otherworldly New York, in…
I grew up in Boston and New York and currently live in Montreal. I have worked primarily in writing performance texts and plays. I founded the performance company Bluemouth Inc., with whom I have written and staged over a dozen works. In 2018, I completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Concordia University, where I was awarded the Dean of Arts and Sciences Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. As for my expertise in compiling this list, I am the daughter of a strong force-of-nature woman who fought for what she had and taught her kids they can get through anything as long as they have humor, music, and books.
When it comes to ass-kicking, take-no-prisoners, the female protagonist of this book is as fierce as they come. I loved having my heart broken by this book that was simultaneously an action-packed thriller and a thoughtful, unflinchingly honest work of historical fiction.
I grew up just outside of Boston, and it is so often that books or movies get Boston wrong, but not Dennis Lehane. Nailed it.
“Small Mercies is thought provoking, engaging, enraging, and can’t-put-it-down entertainment.” — Stephen King
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River—an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.
In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,” the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to…
Years ago, I stumbled upon the gravestone of an unidentified murder victim from 1954. Then I entered into a partnership with my local sheriff and with forensic experts to successfully determine the young woman's identity. At the time, I was (and still am) a historical researcher, newspaper columnist, and author. The Jane Doe case, however, gave me the opportunity and insight to investigate and research the young woman's murder, allowing me to dig into the context of the times. Now, as a researcher and writer of historical true crime, I've found a niche, allowing me to combine my investigative skills and interests with a deep passion for the past.
Dooling's nonfiction account of the searches for a girl and two women who disappeared in New England in the 1940s and 1950s is another good example of weaving together true crime and historic context. Only one of the victims' remains have been found, but all of the victims may have met up with the still-unknown killer.In addition to covering the missing person searches as they were conducted in their times, Dooling provides new hope by looking back on these cases with twenty-first-century eyes.
Three young women, all seen hitchhiking, all disappeared. Two of these unsolved disappearances are the oldest cold cases in their respective states. Paula Welden, a resident of Stamford, Connecticut and student at Bennington College in Vermont disappeared in 1946 after hitching a ride to walk a portion of the Long Trail. Her disappearance sparked the largest search in Vermont's history. She was never found. Two states away, Connie Smith of Wyoming left a Lakeville, Connecticut summer camp in 1952 and was seen trying to catch a ride to the village center...and then she was gone. A nationwide search resulted in…
I write mysteries and I love to read them. The mysteries I write are traditional and cozy. The focus is on my sleuth as she solves murders, her relationships, and on the local setting. These past few years I've enjoyed reading mysteries quite a bit edgier than the ones I write. These books are filled with characters that are often unstable or emotionally damaged. The murders are more brutal; the plots are more complex. Psychological thrillers veer off in many directions, and the person narrating the story is not always reliable. You can't take for granted that what a character says is true. Your best bet is to observe the action and enjoy the ride!
This was the first Lisa Jewell mystery I read. When I finished it, I went on to read several more. Kim is thirty-nine and raising her grandson Noah because her daughter Tallulah has disappeared. She and her boyfriend Zach, who lived with Kim, have gone out for the evening and never returned home. The police discover they ended up spending the evening with a group of young people from a nearby school. As the story progresses, we learn more about these young people and about Tallulah's secret relationship with their leader, a volatile woman. And finally we find out what happened that fateful night.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone comes “her best thriller yet” (Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author) about a young couple’s disappearance on a gorgeous summer night, and the mother who will never give up trying to find them.
On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend.
One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the…
I'm the author of two police procedural mysteries, a series that features a father/daughter detective team. I write in the traditional mystery genre for the simple reason that I'm a passionate reader of this genre, and always have been. I enjoy the structure of a whodunnit—the pacing, red herrings, clues, plot twists, reveals—and love constructing a multi-layered mystery that is both engaging and suspenseful. I’m a big fan of the masters of this genre: Agatha Christie, PD James, Dick Francis, and Val McDermid. I’m also an avid watcher of police procedural television series, and I’m especially drawn to the darker investigative stories you find in programs like The Killing, Mare of Easttown, and The Wire.
Former NYPD detective and single mom PI Laney Bird is flawed and imperfect, yet resourceful and determined—a nuanced protagonist that makes this book as much a character study as a mystery thriller. Far from the grisly crime cases she investigated in NYC, Laney settles into a small town in upstate New York hoping to raise her teenage son in a safe environment. When Laney’s neighbor Holly disappears, the plot takes off in unexpected directions as Laney scratches the surface of her friend’s seemingly normal life. Although this is a crime novel, at its heart, it’s about the lengths women will go to to protect their families.
NYPD detective turned small town PI Laney Bird is in a fight to save lives—including her own—when an explosion of deadly violence at a block party exposes the crimes simmering underneath her neighborhood’s peaceful façade.
A transplant to the upstate New York hamlet of Sylvan, all Laney wants is a quiet life for herself and her son. But things rarely remain calm in Laney’s life. When one neighbor, a Russian immigrant, is shot, and his Ukrainian wife disappears—along with Laney’s best friend—at her neighborhood summer block party, Laney will need all her skills as a PI to solve a mystery…
I remember the night it happened. I was lying next to my son in bed, reading to him. It was already well past his bedtime, but when we came to the end of the chapter, he begged me: “Just one more chapter, Dad! Pleeeease!” That was the moment I knew I wanted to write novels for kids. And ever since then, I’ve been passionate about helping young people learn to love reading by introducing them to books they’ll truly love—even if they’re what some might call, “reluctant readers.” That’s what’s behind the books I recommend and will always be behind the books I write.
Combining rich, imaginative Bengali folklore, pulse-elevating action, laugh-out-loud humor, and an amazing narrative voice, this book had me hooked, literally, from the first line. (“The day my parents got swallowed by a rakkhosh and whisked away to another galactic dimension was a pretty craptastic day.”) The twists and turns in this lovely novel were utterly unpredictable and kept me guessing page after page.
From New York Times bestselling author comes a world packed with action and adventure, perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and Soman Chainani.
MEET KIRANMALA:INTERDIMENSIONAL DEMON SLAYER(Only she doesn't know it yet.)On the morning of her 12th birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey...until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents' fantastical stories -- like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this…
I’ve always loved dark stories. There is something especially human about being lured by that part of us we bury. How secret desires and thoughts get teased out in ways we don’t really experience in real life. Which is why I write suspense novels. Sometimes you just want to go there! Here are some books that I find hit that fix.
No matter how much you may love a certain genre, you can inevitably fall into a reading slump. Too much of a good thing, right?
I will begrudgingly admit, the “missing” or “murdered girl” trope can sometimes get a bit dull without a new touch. Which is why when I came across Megan Miranda’s adult debut told entirely in reverse (from Day 15 to Day 1) was I ever floored with delight!
How absolute genius is it to take a twisty, shocking story about the disappearance of two girls, decades apart but give it to reader backwards? I found myself deeply engrossed not only in the propulsive story but intrigued by the unique way I had to process the timeline.
A New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” Entertainment Weekly — Thriller Round-Up The Wall Street Journal — 5 Killer Books Hollywood Reporter — Hot Summer Books…16 Must Reads
“This thriller’s all of your fave page-turners (think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl) rolled into one.” —TheSkimm
“Both [Gillian] Flynn’s and Miranda’s main characters also reclaim the right of female characters to be more than victim or femme fatale… All the Missing Girls is set to become one of the best books of 2016.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
