Mystery & Thriller – Page 102 – Trigger Warning Database

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room by Emma Donoghue

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough … not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child sexual abuse
Kidnapping & captivity

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost.

Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Racism & racist language
Sexism
Ableism
Blood & gore depiction
Graphic dead bodies
Body horror
Hospitalisation
Decapitation, on-page
Murder (theme)
Gun violence
Infanticide by defenestration, on-page
Physical assault
Fire
Riots
Loss of autonomy (possession)

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Dinner by Herman Koch

A summer’s evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness – the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. Together, the boys have committed a horrifying act, caught on camera; despite a police manhunt, the boys remain unidentified – by everyone except their parents.

Goo d reads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Misogyny
Mental illness
Drug use
Miscarriage
Chronic illness
Murder

Too Late by Colleen Hoover

Too Late by Colleen Hoover

Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does, every single day. After finding herself stuck in a relationship with the dangerous and morally corrupt Asa Jackson, Sloan will do whatever it takes to get by until she’s able to find a way out. Nothing will get in her way. Nothing except Carter.

Sloan is the best thing to ever happen to Asa. And if you ask Asa he’d say he’s the best thing to ever… Read more

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Rape, on-page
Abusive relationship (theme)
Intimate partner abuse & violence
Substance addiction
Schizophrenia
Murder
Drug use & abuse

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Verity by Colleen Hoover

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiogr… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Child abuse
Attempted self-abortion
Death of a child
Death of a parent
Murder
Attempted murder of a newborn
Car accident

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Ableism, racism, sexism & slut-shaming
Homophobia & coming out themes
Dubious consent scenarios involving minors discussed, including mentions of nonconsensual voyeurism*
Parental abandonment recounted
Infidelity, recounted & discussed
Alcoholism mentioned
Bipolar Disorder
Suicide & attempted suicide and self-harm
Alcohol consumption & abuse and recreational drug use
Death from anaphylaxis
Cancer mentioned and heart attack
Hospitalisation
Death of a classmate (on-page)
Death of an uncle mentioned
Death of a mother recounted
Murder & attempted murder
School shooting & gun violence discussed
Strangulation
Physical assault
Car accident recounted
Blackmail
Bullying

*Context: Characters under the influence of alcohol recount having sex, and a protagonist recounts coerced ‘consent’ to sex with her boyfriend.

The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett

The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl. Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above. After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian. Everyone has a label, whether they like it or not–and Emma was always known as a good girl. But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Biphobia & slut-shaming
Statutory rape & sexual assault, grooming & teacher-student relationship
Disordered food & weight thoughts
Alcohol consumption & drug use
Death of a sibling recounted
Murder & gun violence

Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group’s ranks may have the answers she’s looking for. Things are looking up until Sawyer… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Illegal adoption of a baby
Dead body
Death of a daughter
Attempted murder
Car accident

Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Alcohol abuse
Miscarriage mentioned
Blackmail
Car accident
Kidnapping & captivity

The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Kira Bennett’s earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her perfectly. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Along with Cady’s son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world’s most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

Physical child abuse in the past, implied
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & night terrors
Minor physical injuries depiction
Disappearance of a child & friend (theme)
Kidnapping (a teenaged secondary character is charged with kidnapping for removing his sister from an abusive home)
Death of a pet dog from old age & mentions of animal cruelty & hunting