Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

In the summer of 1933, Alice Eveleigh has arrived at Fiercombe Manor in disgrace. The beautiful house becomes her sanctuary, a place to hide her shame from society in the care of the housekeeper, Mrs Jelphs. But the manor also becomes a place of suspicion, one of secrecy. Something isn’t right. Someone is watching. There are secrets that the manor house seems determined to keep. Tragedy haunts the empty rooms and foreboding hangs heavy in the stifling heat. Traces of the previous occupant, Elizabeth Stanton, are everywhere and soon Alice discovers Elizabeth’s life eerily mirrors the path she herself is on.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Emotional child abuse & gaslighting
  • Postpartum depression
  • Suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Miscarriage

Girl A by Abigail Dean

Girl A by Abigail Dean

Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents–her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Self-harm
  • Death of a child
  • Torture

The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather’s ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems. And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess’s classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Hostage situation

The Liars Beneath by Heather Van Fleet

The Liars Beneath by Heather Van Fleet

After a tragic accident ends her best friend’s life, 17-year-old Becca Thompson succumbs to grief the only way she knows how: by wallowing in it. She’s a fragment of the person she once was-far too broken to enjoy the summer before her senior year. But when Ben McCain, her best friend’s older brother, returns home, Becca must face her new reality head on. She isn’t interested in Ben’s games, especially since he abandoned his sister during the months leading up to her death. But when he begs for her help in uncovering the truth about what really happened the night of his sister’s death, Becca finds herself agreeing, hoping to clear up rumors swirling in the wake of her best friend’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Physical assault

Hard Rain by Irma Venter

Hard Rain by Irma Venter

Journalist Alex Derksen’s new assignment in Tanzania should be easy, but he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the news. It starts when he meets Ranna, a beautiful photographer with something to hide. Alex stopped believing in love a long time ago, yet here in the middle of East Africa, it’s found him again. Alex knows a thing or two about chaos—wherever he goes, it follows. When an IT billionaire washes up onshore after seasonal flooding, he finds himself at the center of an investigation with Ranna as the main suspect. It turns out she may have a good reason for hiding… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Stalking

Cash Plays by Cordelia Kingsbridge

Cash Plays by Cordelia Kingsbridge

The Seven of Spades is back with a vengeance—the vigilante serial killer has resumed their murderous crusade, eluding the police at every turn. But a bloodthirsty killer isn’t the only threat facing Sin City. A devious saboteur is wreaking havoc in Las Vegas’s criminal underworld, and the entire city seems to be barreling toward an all-out gang war. As Detective Levi Abrams is pushed ever closer to his breaking point, his control over his dangerous rage slips further every day. His relationship with PI Dominic Russo should be a source of comfort, but Dominic is secretly locked in his own downward spiral, confronting a night… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • Homomisia
  • Physical abuse
  • Gambling addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Fire

The Door in the Alley by Adrienne Kress

The Door in the Alley by Adrienne Kress

This is one of those stories that start with a pig in a teeny hat. It’s not the one you’re thinking about. (This story is way better than that one. This pig-in-a-teeny-hat story starts when a very uninquisitive boy stumbles upon a very mysterious society. After that, there is danger and adventure; there are missing persons, hired thugs, a hidden box, a lost map, and famous explorers; and also a girl on a rescue mission.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent in a car crash
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
  • Disappearance of a grandparent

Only the Lucky by Linda Castillo

Only the Lucky by Linda Castillo

It’s Friday the 13th in Painters Mill and rumors of an Amish “rager”—a huge outdoor party rife with underage drinking—puts Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her small department on edge. To make matters worse, Painters Mill is in the midst of a county-wide power outage. At the height of the rager, a teenage Amish girl is attacked with a hammer and left for dead. Kate is called to the scene—an abandoned farm teeming with loud music and rowdy behavior—to find the girl unconscious and bleeding from a head wound. With the girl in a coma and an unknown attacker on the loose, Kate must discover who would want to hurt her, and why, before it’s too late.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Coma
  • Physical assault

Nine First Dates by Jennifer Ryder

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald

In the small hours of the morning, Abi Knight is startled awake by the phone call no mother ever wants to get: her teenage daughter Olivia has fallen off a bridge. Not only is Olivia brain dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive. And then Abi sees the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists. When the police unexpectedly rule Olivia’s fall an accident, Abi decides to find out what really happened that night. Heartbroken and grieving, she unravels the threads of her daughter’s life. Was Olivia’s fall an accident? Or something far more sinister?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault of a minor
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Death from a fall
  • Daughter on life support

* Context : The protagonist’s pregnant teenage daughter fell off a bridge after being assaulted. She is on life support until she is able to deliver the baby or the baby dies.

Family of Liars by E Lockhart

Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts. A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow. A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy. A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes. Welcome back to the Sinclair family. They were always liars.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Homomisia
  • Attempted rape
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Percriptond drug abuse
  • Surgery (jaw reconstruction)
  • Dead body
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister
  • Drowning recounted