Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

The Champions by Kara Thomas

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls’ killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school’s championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes–something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past. Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team’s latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poison… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault & gang rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drugging
  • Hospitalisation
  • Emesis
  • Gun violence
  • Bullying & hazing mentioned

Girls Who Burn by M.K. Pagano

When eighteen-year-old Addie’s sister is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, it’s officially ruled an accident, but Addie doesn’t buy it. The problem is, Addie has no evidence because when her sister died, she was a little distracted with Seth Montgomery, the boy next door Addie’s always loved to hate. She believes the murderer is Thatcher Montgomery, Seth’s cousin. He always had a thing for her sister, and Addie caught them arguing shortly before her death. But, one year later, Thatcher is found dead at the bottom of the same ravine and Addie is forced to admit she was wrong… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Infidelity
  • Child sexual abuse mentioned

Stay Dead by April Henry

In the aftermath of a car accident that claimed the life of her senator father, sixteen-year-old Milan finds herself adrift, expelled from her third boarding school. Milan’s mother, who has assumed the senate seat, diverts her private plane to pick up her daughter. But on their way home, a bomb rips off a wing and the plane crashes in the mountains. In her final moments, Milan’s mother entrusts her with a key. She reveals it will unlock the evidence that so many people have already died for—including Milan’s father. The only way Milan can survive, her mom tells her, is to let everyone believe she died with the other passengers.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Cancer
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Death of a father in a car accident
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Plane crash
  • Animal death

Silent Sister by Megan Davidhizar

Two sisters went missing on their class trip—Grace, the outgoing athlete who is friends with just about everyone, and Maddy, the wallflower wilting in her sister’s shadow who’d rather absorb herself in her journal than talk to her classmates. But when Grace is found—injured, with no memory of what happened—everybody thinks she’s lying. It’s hard not to look guilty with Maddy’s blood on her clothes Desperate to save her sister—and prove her own innocence—Grace must piece together what happened on that school trip with the help of her sister’s notebook and.,.. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Amnesia
  • Bullying

Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus

For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since. Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Attempted suicide mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Poisoning
  • Catfishing

The Summer She Went Missing by Chelsea Ichaso

Last summer, they searched for Audrey Covington. This summer, they’ll search for the truth. Paige Redmond has always felt lucky to spend her summers in Clearwater Ridge, with lazy days sunning at the waterfalls and nights partying at the sprawling houses of the rich families who vacation there. The Covingtons are one of these families, and beautiful, brilliant Audrey Covington is Paige’s best friend. And last year, when Audrey’s crush-worthy brother Dylan finally started noticing Paige, she was sure it would be the best summer ever. Except Audrey didn’t seem quite like her… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Disappearance of a friend
  • Kidnapping

The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win. Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & misogyny
  • Terminal illness

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson

The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist. With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Forced pregnancy
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Pyschiatric hospitalisation mentioned
  • Death of a friend mentioned
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • House fire & arson

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne

When a winter storm traps eight teens in a remote ski cabin, they find themselves stranded with a killer—who may be one of their own. The trip of a lifetime might be the death of them all. The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption & drug use
  • Emesis
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Bullying & cyberbullying

Missing Clarissa by Ripley Jones

In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her—who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But with no leads and no body, the case soon grows cold. Despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime aficionados, Clarissa is never found—dead or alive. Over twenty years later, Oreville high school… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism, racism & homophobia mentioned
  • Adult-minor teacher-student relationship & statutory rape
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping