Tag Archives: Kidnapping

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman

When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, in the middle of the night, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbours can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten. Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance. As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy.. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Infertility & miscarriage
  • Kidnapping & drugging of children

The Institution by Helen Sarah Fields

On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital for the criminally insane, a nurse has been murdered and her newborn baby kidnapped. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking. Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth, and use her unique skills to find the baby – before it’s too late. She has five days to catch the killer. But with the walls of The Institution closing in on her, will her sanity last that long?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism & mentions of homophobia
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder & foetal abduction
  • Physical & child sexual abuse

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena

Welcome to Stanhope! A safe neighbourhood. A place for families. William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • False accusation of rape and kidnapping of a child

My Summer Darlings by May Cobb

Jen Hansen, Kittie Spears, and Cynthia Nichols have been friends since childhood. They are now approaching forty and their lives have changed, but their insular East Texas town has not. They stay sane by drinking wine in the afternoons, dishing about other women in the neighbourhood, and bonding over the heartache of their own encroaching middle age and raising ungrateful teens. Then Will Harding comes to town, moving into one of the neighbourhood’s grandest homes. Mysterious and charming, he seems like the answer to each woman’s prayers. He’s a… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship & paedophilia
  • Divorce recounted
  • Infidelity
  • Alcohol consumption & abuse
  • Physical assault
  • Kidnapping & captivity

The Alchemy of Moonlight by David Ferraro

When Emile’s aunt declares he must marry or be disowned for being gay—he runs away to hide as a servant in Count Montoni’s mansion. In their service, Emile tends to the family who all suffer a strange affliction on the full moon. And after overhearing suspicious family arguments, he finds a body on the estate, drawing the attention of a handsome doctor as well as the count’s charismatic nephew, Henri. Before Emile can sort out his affections or unravel the growing Montoni family mystery, his identity is revealed and his aunt comes to collect him. When… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Domestic abuse (secondary character)
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping & captivity

The Only Light Left Burning by Erik J. Brown

Against the backdrop of a ravaged world, Andrew and Jamie have settled in a new community, more in love than ever. Finally they’ve reached safety and have each taken on roles and responsibilities in this new life. But it’s soon clear they want different things: Jamie is ready to move on and take to the road, just the two of them. Andrew wants to remain in the safety of numbers. With a storm brewing up the coast they have no choice to head back into the wilderness where old enemies roam and they don’t know who to trust. Can they find their way back to safety and each other?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & religious bigotry
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping

The Fell of Dark by Caleb Roehrig

The only thing August Pfeiffer hates more than algebra is living in a vampire town. Located at a nexus of mystical energy fields, Fulton Heights is practically an electromagnet for supernatural drama. And when a mysterious (and annoyingly hot) vampire boy arrives with a cryptic warning, Auggie suddenly finds himself at the center of it. An ancient and terrible power is returning to the earthly realm, and somehow Auggie seems to be the only one who can stop it.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Kidnapping & captivity

Every Gift a Curse by Caroline O’Donoghue

Big things are happening for Maeve and her tight-knit coven in Kilbeg, Ireland. Fiona lands a role on a TV show, Roe’s band is poised to hit the big leagues, and Lily is embracing a new style and outlook. Then there’s Maeve, whose magic is growing stronger all the time. Yet she finds herself increasingly lashing out, doing and saying cruel things without knowing why. When her recurring dreams begin to involve her physically manifesting in other places, including enemy-turned-maybe-friend Aaron’s bedroom, Maeve realizes the power she wields might not be entirely under her… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering & transphobia
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Kidnapping

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

After Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet during her in-school suspension, she quickly becomes the most sought-after diviner at St. Bernadette’s Catholic school. But when Maeve’s ex–best friend, Lily, draws an unsettling card called The Housekeeper that Maeve has never seen before, the session devolves into a heated argument that ends with Maeve wishing aloud that Lily would disappear. When Lily isn’t at school the next Monday, Maeve learns her ex-friend has vanished without a trace… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & religious bigotry including mention of a homophobic hate crime (physical assault)
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Suicidal ideation (on-page)
  • Suicide & attempted suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction including self-harm for magic & emesis
  • Kidnapping
  • Whipping mentioned
  • Bullying

The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez

Tansy didn’t even want to go to the party. It’s hard enough living in one of your best friend’s shadows and secretly in love with your other best friend. And now she’s leaving it a vampire. Now her best friend Skyler is stuck on the road trip from hell, on tour as a groupie with a literal band of vamps. Tansy sets out with Vaughn, her other BFF turned maybe more, to save Skylar’s life and take down the band. But when they find themselves in the middle of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Abandonment
  • Sexual harassment
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Emesis
  • Kidnapping
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Animal death