I got hooked on mystery novels as a kid reading the Encyclopedia Brown stories. Something about the combination of a great story and a puzzle to solve is irresistible to me. As a historian, I’m interested in communities, and especially how people understood themselves as being part of the new kinds of economic, political, and cultural communities that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century. When I learned about Dorothy L. Sayers’ lifelong writing group, the wryly named ‘Mutual Admiration Society’, I was thrilled at the chance to combine my professional interests with my personal passion for detective fiction.
This set of interlocked novellas opens with a comatose detective – a legend in his time – apparently conducting an interrogation through means of electrical signals sent from his brain to a computer. I was skeptical.
I’m a fan of the rules that Sayers and the Detection Club developed: no magic, no ‘jiggery-pokery’, no mystery poisons or miracle drugs, only the fair play of putting the evidence before the reader and letting them practice deduction. My skepticism was totally misplaced.
Chan Ho-Kei’s brilliant work tells the history of twentieth-century Hong Kong through the careers of two policemen. Each novella pays homage to the classic genres of crime fiction, and they build up to twists and revelations that are both shocking and completely faithful to fair play as Sayers knew it.
Six interlocking stories.
One spellbinding novel.
The year is 2013, and Hong Kong's greatest detective is dying. For fifty years, Inspector Kwan quietly solved cases while the world changed around him. Now his partner Detective Lok has come to his deathbed for help with one final case.
Where there is murder, there is humanity. This bold and intricate crime novel spans five decades of love, honour, race, class, jealousy and revenge in one of the most intriguing nations in the world.
This is the story of a man who let justice shine in the space between black and white. This…
I’m from Mauritius, of Indian heritage, and proudly African. I remember reading my first chick-lit romance circa 2001, thinking Mauritius has everything—the drama, the over-the-top characters, love matches, exciting backdrops both physical & cultural—to create great rom-coms & uplifting fiction…but where were such stories? A decade later, I was helping other African authors showcase their feel-good books by creating an imprint dedicated to African romance with a US publisher. I’m an author who loves to write about her country & life experiences, and I have the perfect day job for a bookworm as an editor who specializes in editing romance stories for indie authors & publishers alike.
I’m a sucker for all things Royal! Give me a prince and/or princess looking for love in today’s world, and I’m sold. This one has a princess and a prince!
Imagine you’re a princess bidden to enter a marriage of convenience with a neighbouring land’s prince. Then, on your wedding day, you get into an accident, your new husband dies, and when you wake from a coma, you find you’ve now been legally married off to the new Crown Prince, aka your late husband’s younger brother. And he’s hot as sin itself!
This one is more on the steamy side, but don’t let it deter you. Amidst all the heat is a treasure trove of feels and warring emotions and a seismic journey of falling for the "wrong" person who now happens to be exactly the right one!
India Saene, Princess of Bagumi, must enter a marriage alliance to save her kingdom from an economic crisis. Tragedy strikes when her husband of a few hours is killed in an accident on the way to their honeymoon. She recovers from a coma two weeks later to discover she has been inherited by her husband's younger brother! Sheikh Omar El Dansuri has never wanted to be king, nor does he desire a wife. However, when his older brother dies, he not only becomes the future king of Sudar, but he also inherits his brother’s bride through an age-old tradition. Falling…
I am a radiologist specializing in emergency room and breast imaging and a lifelong book nerd. Though I chose radiology as my medical specialty, I have always been fascinated by the complicated workings of the human mind. I majored in psychology in college and strongly considered careers in both psychiatry and neurology. Books exploring the fragility and fallibility of the human brain never fail to catch my attention. These stories explore the essence of what it means to be human and highlight the resilience of the human spirit.
I am fascinated by the idea of how an assault to the brain can change a person not only physically, but also on deeper emotional and spiritual levels.
Stella emerges from a drug and alcohol-induced coma to find her personality, identity and relationships have completely changed. Before her coma, Stella was an exceptional nurse, but afterwards, she no longer finds fulfillment in her chosen career. Will Stella ever get back to the person she used to be?
"Leavitt has crafted an irresistible portrait of midlife ennui and the magic of breaking free." -People
"With or Without You is a moving novel about twists of fate, the shifting terrain of love, and coming into your own. With tenderness and incisive insight, Leavitt spotlights a woman's unexpected journey towards her art." -Madeline Miller, author of Circe
A Best Book of the Month: Bustle * PopSugar
New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt writes novels that expertly explore the struggles and conflicts that people face in their search for happiness. For the characters in With or Without You, it seems…
I've always been fascinated by people and the life stories that shape who they are. From a young age, I’ve observed people’s idiosyncrasies closely and as I grew older, I wondered about nature versus nature debate (how much of your personality is innate versus how much life events and familial patterns shape who you become). My background in child protection social work and studies of sociology, psychology and human development have also strengthened my understanding of the theories behind each human emotion. I have almost 20 years of experience working in child protection, and as such, I have a well-rounded understanding of trauma, and the ongoing effects of this throughout the life span.
Rapid Eye Movement is an intense and enlightening read. The descriptive prose and carefully constructed characters stand out throughout. Jennifer and Ilan are running for their lives in Cyprus, where a car accident leaves Jennifer with a head wound. The reader is introduced to Lucy who stumbles down a rabbit hole and suffers a head injury that leaves her in a coma. The story moves on to a series of dream sequences where the two women somehow become connected. The reader becomes hooked on the intensity of their lucid dreams and becomes curious about the mystery surrounding this. Sheridan expertly weaves backwards and forwards in a seamless manner, adding depth to the story. The intensity builds as the finale approaches which creates just enough tension between the two main characters to make the book 'unputdownable'.
When Jennifer Scott and Lucy Wilson were injured in accidents near their respective homes in Cyprus and England, they had no inkling of the connection that was formed when their consciousnesses collided and linked them together within their dreams.Both are ordinary women. Living their lives. They have never met. Yet when Jennifer goes to sleep each night, she finds herself dreaming how Lucy came to be the woman she is today. She learns of the dream house Lucy found in the Yorkshire Dales, the two daughters she adores and her happy, but ordinary, life with her husband, Charlie.When Lucy’s head…
The human mind fascinates me. Perhaps that’s why I got a PhD in Psychology, and have spent decades in the counseling field. That, of course, brought me in touch with all kinds of minds. Why do people do the things they do, make the choices they live with? We learn patterns in childhood that keep us safe. What if those patterns no longer work in adulthood, or worse, were built on false beliefs? Do life’s events shape us or do they merely show who we were all along? In my psychological thrillers, I explore such things. Even the bad guys have their stories.
Families. What can I say? They can be weird beasts, and none less so than the family of detective Eva Rae Thomas. A father who kidnapped her sister from a grocery store when they were children. A brother she didn’t know existed. Ignored by her family for decades, can she refuse their call for help? Many would, in a case where nothing is as it seems.
Former FBI-profiler Eva Rae Thomas is back and embedded in a true nightmare reaching deep into her own family.
What would you do if your brother was accused of a horrible crime, and you were certain he didn’t do it?
Life is not done throwing Eva Rae Thomas curveballs.
A phone call turns her life upside down – once again.
The call is from her father, the man she hasn’t seen in thirty-six years, not since he kidnapped her sister in a supermarket.
Now, he is back in Florida, and he needs her help.
When called a badass, I say thank you. Though I was raised to say and do the right thing, I’ve spent a lifetime speaking my truth, on radio and now on podcasts, being both reverent and irreverent. It took losing three immediate family members and getting hit by a car as a pedestrian for me to learn that I don’t have to be in perpetual motion. I went from being the baby of my family to being the matriarch in a heartbeat and am honored to share what I’ve learned about resilience and authenticity in my first book, By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go.
I cannot imagine sitting at the bedside of one of my children in a coma.
Isabel Allende not only did that, but used her grief, fear, pain, hope, optimism, memory, and humor to write an extraordinarily compelling book. We come to know not only Paula, Isabel’s gravely ill daughter, but a colorful cast of characters from the family’s past.
We learn about Chilean history and somehow find ourselves laughing and crying in the same chapter. At least I did. Allende is a master with words – and English is not her first language. Do yourself a favor and read this gem.
"Beautiful and heartrending. . . . Memoir, autobiography, epicedium, perhaps even some fiction: they are all here, and they are all quite wonderful."-Los Angeles Times
In this literary classic, New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende recalls the story of her beloved daughter and her remarkable family's past.
When her daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, Isabel Allende began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. Bizarre ancestors are introduced; delightful and bitter childhood memories are shared; amazing anecdotes of youthful years are relived, and the most intimate secrets are quietly passed…
In case it isn’t obvious, I have a thing about graveyards. Maybe it’s being Irish-Catholic – it must be infused into my blood. It’s a rare family holiday that doesn’t involve a visit to the local cemetery. I think it’s the combination of gothic architecture with the sense of a social history collected. I have my own favourites (of course!) from Rock Cemetery in Nottingham to Pere Lachaise in Paris where the family spent an afternoon dodging the most unusual tour guide I have ever come across.
I loved BirdBox, but then I read Unbury Carol and discovered Josh Malerman had managed to peer directly into my brain and write a book just for me. I don’t know how he did it, and I don’t really want to know because it’s possibly more than a little freaky, but there you go.
This is not your typical horror novel. I’m not sure if it’s even horror, but who cares? It feels like a real olde-worlde adventure yarn where steampunk meets western and they have a scrap to decide who is best, and the only winner is the reader.
The New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box returns with a supernatural thriller of love, redemption, and murder.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NEWSWEEK
“This one haunts you for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on. . . . [Josh Malerman] defies categories and comparisons with other writers.”—Kirkus Reviews
Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days.
Whatever story I’m telling, I try to write female characters who are smart, funny, kind, and ultimately empowering; characters that drive the narrative, not the other way around. It is really important for me that my female characters have agency – that they actively move the story forward, make decisions and step up. Those are the kind of stories I like to read too. The books on this list are some of my favourites and all contain strong female protagonists. I hope you enjoy.
This is an absolute heartstopper of a novel. The protagonist, Jess, has a rare skin condition that means she is allergic to sunlight. Even the tiniest exposure can cause her serious injury and pain. She lives her life in a world of loneliness and shadows, but is desperate for an adventure. When she sneaks out one night she discovers a garden of ice that will change her life forever. Not only did I love the magic of this novel, I loved Jess’s humour and I was weeping for her towards the end. A wonderful book that really touched my heart.
Tom's Midnight Garden meets The Secret Garden in this mystical, classic-feeling adventure!
'A beautiful book that touches on friendship and the unbreakable bond between a protective parent and her child.' THE SUN
'Elegant, assured, sad and hilarious' GUARDIAN
Jess is allergic to the sun. She lives in a world of shadows and hospitals, peeking at the other children in the playground from behind curtains. Her only friend is a boy in a coma, to whom she tells stories.
One night she sneaks out to explore the empty playground she's longed to visit, where she discovers a beautiful impossiblity: a magical…
I have always been fascinated by medicine and the people who are there to care for us when needed. I have worked as a nurse and midwife, and the thought that someone, anyone, could actively harm those in their care is horrific. But it happens. At first, I read medical thrillers as I would have read any murder mystery, but now, post-Shipman et al., I also want to know why they kill. I think that these books give us some ideas about this, but we can still never really know what goes on in the mind of a murderous doctor or nurse, and that’s what makes these books so thrilling.
Robin Cook is the Grandaddy of medical thriller writers, and I read this not long after it first came out. It is the chilling story of a medical student who investigates why normally fit and healthy patients are suddenly lapsing into coma.
There is a strong and intelligent female protagonist, which is important to me. Yes, she can cry and even fall into the arms of a man, but she needs to be intelligent and stay strong, and Susan does that here. At the time, I was impressed by the level of authenticity but didn’t believe that anyone in the medical profession would ever deliberately hurt or kill their patients. Now, of course, we know better.
I re-read it before writing this and can honestly say that this book stands the test of time and is still relevant today.
The blockbuster bestseller that kickstarted a new genre--the medical thriller--is now available in trade paperback for the first time. They called it "minor surgery," but Nancy Greenly, Sean Berman and a dozen others--all admitted to Boston Memorial Hospital for routine procedures--were victims of the same inexplicable, hideous tragedy on the operating table. They never woke up. Susan Wheeler is a third-year medical student working as a trainee at Boston Memorial Hospital. Two patients during her residency mysteriously go into comas immediately after their operations due to complications from anesthesia. Susan begins to investigate the causes behind both of these alarming…
In my reading and writing, I’m drawn to complex characters, who embody the unpleasant impulses and mixed motivations we all have. I especially love well-drawn antiheroines, as women tend to be judged more harshly for being badly behaved, in life. All my books revolve around women who fit this description, from the wives and girlfriends of notorious serial killers in The Love of a Bad Man to the inner-circle of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple in Beautiful Revolutionary to Paulina Novak, the reckless, alcoholic murder victim at the heart of The Newcomer. To me, fiction is a playground for exploring the extremes of human thought and behaviour.
Originally published as Under Your Wings in Australia, The Majesties could just easily be titled My Sister, the Mass-Murderer. It has one of my favourite openings of all time: beginning in a hospital, where Chinese-Indonesian fashion designer Gwendolyn lies comatose, the sole survivor of her sister Estella’s mass-poisoning of their 300-strong family dynasty. Though it has been compared to Crazy Rich Asians with its globe-trotting plot (taking place in Jakarta, Paris, and Melbourne, among other settings), The Majesties is a more sombre read, exploring corruption and racial tension in the upper echelons of Indonesian society.
Gwendolyn and Estella are as close as sisters can be. But now Gwendolyn is lying in a coma, the sole survivor after Estella poisons their entire family.
As Gwendolyn struggles to regain consciousness, she desperately retraces her memories, trying to uncover the moment that led to such a brutal act.
Journeying from the luxurious world of Indonesia's rich and powerful, to the spectacular shows of Paris Fashion Week, and the melting pot of Melbourne's student scene, The Majesties is a haunting novel about the dark secrets that can build a family…
