Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives. Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood. Theo has almost… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse
  • Infidelity
  • Self-harm
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Teen pregnancy & miscarriage mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Didn’t See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a fabulous gamer girl with confidence to boot. She can’t help but be totally herself… except when she’s online. Her secret? She plays anonymously as a guy to avoid harassment from other male players. Even her online best friend—a cinnamon roll of a teen boy who plays under the username Sourdawg—doesn’t know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn’t know his real name either, and it’s not like they’re ever going to cross paths IRL. Until she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year and discovers that Sourdawg… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Sexual harassment

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted sexual assault recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Attempted murder
  • Kidnapping

The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

After an ultra-romantic honeymoon across Europe, Meddy Chan and her husband Nathan have landed in Jakarta to spend Chinese New Year with her entire extended family. Chinese New Year, already the biggest celebration of the Lunar calendar, gets even more festive when a former beau of Second Aunt’s shows up at the Chan residence bearing extravagant gifts—he’s determined to rekindle his romance with Second Aunt and the gifts are his way of announcing his courtship. His grand gesture goes awry however, when it’s discovered that not all the gifts were meant for Second Aunt and the Chans—one particular…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Drugging
  • Kidnapping

I’m Not Done with You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Jane is unhappy. A struggling midlist writer whose novels barely command four figures, she feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage, just scraping by to pay a crippling Bay Area mortgage for a house–a life–she’s never really wanted. There’s only ever been one person she cared about, one person who truly understood her: Thalia. Jane’s best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. It was the only good year of Jane’s life–cobblestones and books and damp English air, heady wine and sweet cider and Thalia, endless Thalia. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendship
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Social Anxiety
  • Heart attack mentioned
  • Murder by poisoning & stabbing
  • Strangulation

Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto

After Sharlot Citra’s mother catches her in a compromising position, she finds herself whisked away from LA to her mother’s native Indonesia. It’ll be exactly what they both need. Or so her mother thinks. When George Clooney Tanuwijaya’s father (who is obsessed with American celebrities) fears he no longer understands how to get through to his son, he decides to take matters into his own hands. To ensure that their children find the right kind of romantic partner, Sharlot’s mother and George’s father do what any good parent would do: they strike up a conversation online, pretending to be their children….. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Teen pregnancy mentioned
  • Death of a parent mentioned

You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite. Then Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now she has access to the family calendar and Aspen’s social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer’s only taking back what she deserves—what should…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendship
  • Domestic abuse & stalking
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Car accident
  • Cyberbullying
  • Kidnapping & stalking

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet). But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal emotional, verbal & financial abuse recounted
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly…bored. Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Suicide
  • Dieting discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

Forbidden Passage by Jeff Probst and Christ Tebbetts

It happened to them once. It could never happen again, right? Two months ago, Vanessa and Buzz’s dad married Jane and Carter’s mom and they became a family. But their adventure really started just two weeks ago when the four siblings were shipwrecked and stranded on a deserted tropical island for thirteen days. Alone. They thought it was over, but now, they find themselves on a whole new island, and this time, they’re not alone. Getting here was a nightmare. Leaving just might be impossible. Because this time, it’s forbidden.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical assault
  • Death from a fall
  • Kidnapping