Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham

All it takes to ruin someone’s life is the stroke of a key. Just ask Iris Henley. Her life is destroyed when someone posts an anonymous message on her high school’s subreddit thread: “Iris Henley is a killer. I’ve been too scared to come forward until now, but I saw her murder Rocky and Lynette last summer.” Just like that, Iris loses everything. Her reputation. Her friends. Her hope of getting into college on scholarship. Even, possibly, her freedom, once the police start to investigate. After all, she’s the perfect suspect: Rocky was her boyfriend, and Lynette was her ex-best friend—and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendship
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug abuse
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping mentioned
  • Bullying & cyberbullying
  • Stalking mentioned

Fair Game by Charlotte Mills

Lexi Ryan is being targeted and can’t work out why. She’s escaped the troubled town of Warner with her beautiful partner, former Det. Chief Inspector Helen Taylor, and is looking for a quieter life. Instead she’s faced with an attempted hit-and-run and mailbox tampering. Helen, meanwhile, is finding it hard coming to terms with civilian status. But once a cop, always a cop, and she uses her old skills to play bodyguard to Lexi and kick over the clues. As the incidents against her love keep piling up, Helen stars to wonder if it’s one of her old enemies up to tricks, or some… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Self-harm
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Poisoning
  • Stalking

Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a black neighbourhood. But for Ruby, it means she’ll be living alone with her violent father. The only person who understands the gravity of her situation is Ruby’s best friend, Layla. Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what are his true motives? And what is the price for turning a blind eye? In a relentless quest to save… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Incest
  • Attempted suicide recounted

Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer

Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, doctors intervene and immediately suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioural disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Domestic violence & child abuse
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation for medical treatment
  • Child with a terminal illness

Sanctuary by V.V. James

To Detective Maggie Knight, the death of Sanctuary’s star quarterback seems to be a tragic accident. Only, everyone knows his ex-girlfriend is the daughter of a witch – and she was there when he died. Then the rumours start Bereaved mother Abigail will stop at nothing until she has justice for her dead son. Her best friend Sarah will do everything in her power to protect her accused daughter. And both women share a secret that could shatter their lives. It falls to Maggie to prevent her investigation – and Sanctuary itself – from spiralling out of control.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Bullying

Saltwater Taffy by Eric Delabarre

The adventure story follows the lives of five ‘tweenage’ friends as they uncover a treasure map that once belonged to the ruthless New Orleans pirate, Jean Lafitte. The discovery thrusts them from one treasure-hunting adventure to the next as they try to out-wit, out-think and out-maneuver everyone from the one-legged junk-yard man and an overbearing town bully, to the creepy old man living at the top of the hill. Saltwater Taffy is a coming-of-age adventure that grabs the reader and never lets go.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Explosion
  • Vivisepulture (buried alive in a cave)
  • Animal death & poaching

Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men – employees at the resort – are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. The story turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the return home to broken lives. Years later, Claire is living and working in New York… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder of a sister

The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Emily Proudman has been offered the chance of a lifetime – leave her messy London life, move to a beautiful estate in France and help her boss’s wife take care of their daughter. It seems like the perfect opportunity to start again. But once there, Emily soon starts to suspect that her charismatic new employers aren’t telling her the whole truth. That there are even dangerous secrets hidden beneath the glamorous facade. Why have the family been moved to this isolated house so far from home? Why does her boss’s daughter refuse to speak or be touched?… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Foster care experiences mentioned
  • Child abuse, including one slap scene, faking a child’s chronic illness, and forcing them to live in isolation (etc.)
  • Discussions of childhood trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)
  • Parent with dementia
  • Panic attacks
  • Self-harm (on-page)
  • Suicide by jumping (on-page)
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse and implied drug abuse
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a daughter recounted
  • Minor blood & injury depiction and emesis
  • Attempted murder by gun violence
  • Kidnapping and captivity of a child
  • Stalking
  • Financial difficulties discussed

The Baby by A.J. McDine

The day I was told I’d never be able to have a child, my world came crashing down. My husband says he still loves me but I lie awake at night, wishing we could have a family. One morning, my husband’s side of the bed is cold and empty. I hear a noise and head downstairs. In the middle of the rug in my living room is a wooden drawer. Swaddled inside, with perfect rosy cheeks and beautiful round blue eyes, a baby gazes up at me. I shiver. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but this baby is not mine…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Depression
  • Miscarriage

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Meet Hanna. She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good. Meet Suzette. She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette’s husband remains blind to the failing family dynami… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Mutism
  • Self-harm
  • Parent with depression recounted
  • Surgery for Chron’s Disease recounted
  • Emesis