Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall

Freddie Makin is a spy for hire. For a year he’s been watching Jiang Cheng, an academic whose life seems suspiciously normal. To Freddie it’s just a job: he never asks who’s paying him and why—until the day someone is sent to kill him, and suddenly the watcher becomes the watched. On the run from whoever wants him dead, Freddie knows he must have seen something incriminating. The only trouble is, he has no idea what. Is the CIA behind all this—or does it go higher than that? Have his trackers uncovered his own murky past? As he’s forced into a lethal dance across… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including flashbacks, nightmares & sleeping difficulties
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Stalking

Champions of the Fox by Kevin Sands

Commanded by the magical artefact known as the Dragon’s Eye, junior con artist Callan and his friends are eagerly reaching the end of the epic quest that will finally free him from the Eye’s sinister hold. But their final task is their most ambitious: sneaking into the emperor’s private island prison and rescuing a man from a jail cell that has been locked tight for forty years. This impossible heist will strain the gang’s unique abilities to thieve and deceive everyone from the guards, the city elite, the warden, and even the nefarious local crime boss who warns them to stay away. Commanded by the magical… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Mentions of a dead body
  • Physical assault of a minor recounted
  • Minor knife & sword violence
  • Loss of autonomy (magical)

Seekers of the Fox by Kevin Sands

Rule number one: Never mess with magic. Even so, a life-or-death situation calls for Callan and his criminal friends to make a deal with the Eye—the sinister, sentient artifact they stole from a sorcerer. Something precious in exchange for a future task, and the gang has no choice but to agree. The cure—and their part of the deal—lies with the Dragon’s Teeth, a pair of swords with extraordinary powers, and the search for them leads the thieves on a quest that will unravel the mystery of the Eye.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Minor knife & sword violence
  • Loss of autonomy (magical)

Mark of the Plague by Kevin Sands

The Black Death has returned to London, spreading disease and fear through town. A mysterious prophet predicts the city’s ultimate doom—until an unknown apothecary arrives with a cure that actually works. Christopher’s Blackthorn shop is chosen to prepare the remedy. But when an assassin threatens the apothecary’s life, Christopher and his faithful friend Tom are back to hunting down the truth, risking their lives to untangle the heart of a dark conspiracy. And as the sickness strikes close to home, the stakes are higher than ever before…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Plague (theme)
  • Physical injury & Illness (broken bones, plague)
  • Death of a child mentioned
  • Murder including mentions of a mob lynching
  • Explosion
  • Physical assault of minors & threats of torture
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Animal injury (bird)

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands

Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn—with maybe an explosion or two along the way. But when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & physical assault of a minor
  • Murder & mentions of public executions
  • Torture by acid mentioned (secondary character)
  • Explosions

The Assassin’s Curse by Kevin Sands

Wherever Christopher Rowe goes, adventure—and murder—follows. Even a chance to meet King Charles ends in a brush with an assassin. All that’s recovered from the killer is a coded message with an ominous sign-off: more attempts are coming. So when Christopher’s code-breaking discovers the attack’s true target, he and his friends are ordered to Paris to investigate a centuries-old curse on the French throne. And when they learn an ancient treasure is promised to any assassin who succeeds, they realize the entire royal family is at stake—as well as their own lives.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Amputation (off-page)
  • Poisoning
  • Death from impaling
  • Death from animal attack (snake, bee)
  • Death of a snake from decapitation

Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his freedom approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? Why was she visiting him in the first place? When they hit a wall in the investigations have long suspected him in the murders of six… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Drugging
  • Heart attack
  • Hospitalisation
  • Murder
  • Strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Stalking

She Started It by Sian Gilbert

Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe are best friends—or were, as children. Despite drifting apart in adulthood, shared secrets have kept them bonded for better or worse, even as their childhood dreams haven’t quite turned out as they’d hoped. Then one day they receive a wholly unexpected—but not entirely unwelcome—invitation from another old friend. Poppy Greer has invited them all to her extravagant bachelorette party: a first-class plane ticket to three days of white sand, cocktails, and relaxation on a luxe private island in the Bahamas. None of them has spoken to… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Substance addiction
  • Eating disorder
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm
  • Bullying

A Marriage of Lies by Amanda McKinney

Beneath the surface of every marriage there are secrets. This one is deadly. My husband is lying. The minute he came home with alcohol on his breath and unable to look me in the eyes I knew it. We used to be in love – the intense ‘I can’t be without you for a second’ kind. Where it hurts deep to be apart. But now, we’re the couple that keep secrets from each other. We hide the truth. He thought I wouldn’t find out. I’m a detective – it’s literally my job to uncover clues and solve mysteries. I know what he did. And now I’m sitting here, in a police interview, being asked the question ‘did you kill her?’ to which I utter one life-shattering ‘yes.’

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse mentioned
  • Infidelity
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Murder

Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt

Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do? Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover. Gross. Jack hatches a plan to find out what Carlevaro’s holding over his… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & abandonment
  • Infidelity recounted (side character)
  • Alcohol consumption & gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Incarceration of a parent