Category Archives: Mystery & Thriller

The Skylight by Louise Candlish

The Skylight by Louise Candlish

The Skylight by Louise Candlish

They can’t see her, but she can see them…

Simone has a secret. She likes to stand at her bathroom window and spy on the couple downstairs through their kitchen skylight. She knows what they eat for breakfast and who they’ve got over for dinner. She knows what mood they’re in before they even step out the door. There’s nothing wrong with looking, is there?

Until one day Simone sees something through the skylight she is not expecting. Something that upsets her so much she begins to plot a terrible crime…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Infidelity
  • Death

The List by Carys Jones

The List by Carys Jones

The List by Carys Jones

Beth Belmont runs every day, hard and fast on the trail near home. She knows every turn, every bump in the road. So when she spots something out of place – a slip of white paper at the base of a tree – she’s drawn to it. On the paper are five names. The third is her own.

Beth can’t shake off the unease the list brings. Why is she on it? And what ties her to the other four strangers?

Curiosity getting the better of her, Beth looks up the first two names, only to find that they’re both dead. Is she next? Delving into the past of the two dead strangers, the truth Beth finds will lead her headlong into her darkest and most dangerous nightmares…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Death
  • Trauma
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus

You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.

So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say. … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Drug use
  • Death of a friend
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Murder

The Cousins by Karen McManus

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racist microaggressions
  • Sexism
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Parental abuse & neglect
  • Parental abandonment
  • Familial disownment & estrangement (central theme)
  • Pregnancy discussed
  • Miscarriage recounted
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Alcoholism
  • Death of a father & grandfather mentioned
  • Death of a mother & grandmother mentioned
  • Death of a son mentioned
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Death in a car accident mentioned
  • Murder recounted
  • Gun violence
  • Hostage situation
  • Housefire & death from smoke inhalation mentioned
  • Financial struggles & bankruptcy discussed

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sexual assault
  • Drug abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Murder
  • Suffocation
  • Hit-and-run car accident
  • Disappearance of a loved one

One of Us Is Next by Karen McManus

One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one’s been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts. Until now. This time it’s not an app, though—it’s a game.

Phoebe’s the first target. If you choose not to play, it’s a truth. And hers is dark. Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare. But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it’s that they can’t count on the police for help. Or protection.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Public outing recounted
  • Slut-shaming
  • Victim-blaming
  • Sexual assault, on-page & detailed
  • Suicide recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Cancer remission & relapsing discussed
  • Mild blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Hospital
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Death of a classmate & ex-boyfriend, off-page
  • Death of a child, off-page
  • Death by a fall
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Explosion & attempted bombing
  • Death threats
  • Blackmail
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith, and Donna Tartt. But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Homomisia
  • Rape
  • Cheating
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction
  • Drug use & abuse
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Overdose
  • Death from a heart attack
  • Murder
  • Poisoning
  • Physical assault
  • Drowning
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident
  • Blackmail

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Delayed in London, Ted Severson meets a woman at the airport bar. Over cocktails they tell each other rather more than they should, and a dark plan is hatched – but are either of them being serious, could they actually go through with it and, if they did, what would be their chances of getting away with it?

Back in Boston, Ted’s wife Miranda is busy site managing the construction of their dream home, a beautiful house out on the Maine coastline. But what secrets is she carrying and to what lengths might she go to protect the vision she has of her deserved future?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Child abuse
  • Cheating
  • Murder
  • Stabbing
  • Car accident

Locke and Key, Volume Six by Joe Hill

Locke & Key, Vol. 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Roríguez

The shadows have never been darker and the end has never been closer. Turn the key and open the last door; it’s time to say goodbye. Omega and Alpha, the final two storylines of the New York Times bestselling series, are collected together to offer a thunderous and compelling conclusion to Locke & Key. An event not to be missed!

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Home invasion

Locke and Key, Volume Five by Joe Hill

Locke & Key, Vol. 5: Clockworks by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Roríguez

The sprawling tale of the Locke family and their mastery of the whispering iron thunders to new heights as the true history of the family is revealed to Tyler and Kinsey. Zack Wells assumes a new form, Tyler and Kinsey travel through time, and surprises beyond imagination will be revealed.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Sexism
  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault