Tag Archives: Murder & Attempted Murder

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of murder and attempted murder.

See also Genocide and mass murder, and War themes & military violence.

Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti

Eccentric heiress Lady Ruby Ballimore has had enough of the Marriage Mart. After offending yet another Very Important Marquess―and imperiling her father’s diplomatic career―Ruby flees London for the holiday house of a glamorous (and better yet, absent) princess. Armed with a forged invitation and accompanied by her like-minded friends, Ruby arrives at the Cornwall estate expecting a summer of blissful freedom. Instead, she discovers a derelict mansion and the most suspiciously charming man she’s ever met. Former privateer and current con artist Captain Malcolm Archer… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Death of a parent recounted
  • Attempted murder & kidnapping
  • Financial difficulties

All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles

When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative’s remote Gothic manor, he is horrified to find all the people he least wants to see in the world: his estranged brother, his sneering cousin, and his bitter ex-lover Gideon Grey. Things couldn’t possibly get worse. Then the master of the house announces the true purpose of the gathering: he intends to leave the vast family fortune to whoever marries his young ward, setting off a violent scramble for her hand. Zeb wants no part of his greedy family―but when he tries to leave, the way is barred. The walls of Lackaday… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical homophobia & ableism
  • Rape & incest recounted
  • Murder

The Duke by Anna Cowan

Kate, Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat not to be crossed. Consumed by a bitter rivalry, she avoids society and has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself. The beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. She was desperate to escape the guillotine. But after a night of searing passion, the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misgendering & sex worker-shaming
  • Sexual assault (unwanted kiss)
  • Nightmare
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of relatives in a fire
  • Death of an ex-partner in the French Revolution
  • Physical assault
  • Blackmail

I Love It When You Lie by Kristen Bird

Just days before her eightieth birthday, Pearl Williams has the gall to up and die on everyone. Now her granddaughters must make plans for a proper send-off…all while their own lives unravel a little more each day. Tara, the pastor’s wife, makes a series of decisions that could scatter his flock. Then there’s June, who would do anything to have a baby of her own, even if her husband won’t. Clementine, the youngest, is entangled in an affair with her professor, desperate to ignore who he really is. Finally, there’s Stephanie, the sister-in-law—an outsider who knows all… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Divorce (protagonist)
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Kidnapping of a newborn
  • Medical treatment & hospitalisation discussed (protagonist is a nurse)
  • Death of a grandmother mentioned
  • Murder

A Grim and Sunken Vow by Ashley Shuttleworth

The die is cast. The era of Spring is over. Riadne’s bloody coup on the Summer Solstice changed Arlo’s life forever. In one fell swoop and a fool’s bargain, she lost both her family and free will to the newly crowned High Queen. Now, with Arlo forced to use her powers as Luck’s Hollow Star to help summon the rest of the seven deadly sins, Riadne stands closer than ever to achieving her dark goals. And Arlo isn’t the only one trapped in a frightening new role. Her ex-Fury girlfriend, Nausicaä, is determined to do whatever it takes to stay by Arlo’s side, even if that means becoming… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child trafficking
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Depression
  • Suicide recounted (off-page) & suicidal ideation mentioned
  • Self-harm
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a sister, mother & father
  • Murder & torture
  • Arson

Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana can’t afford to escape her tattered form. When she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down to her last breath, she’s forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy chassis—before her own kills her. But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide by overdose
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & illness depiction
  • Murder
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Explosion
  • Imprisonment

This Is Where We Die by Cindy R.X. He

Sadie, Will, Isla, Anthony, Emily, and Charlie are survivors. They were the six (out of eight) to return from a ski holiday turned nightmare two years ago. Although… nobody knows exactly what happened; the details hushed up via the wealth and connections of Sadie’s rich parents. When an exclusive private island with a mansion for rent goes viral on social media, their graduating class persuades Sadie to rent it for the weekend. The six arrive first by helicopter and wait for the rest of their classmates to join them by boat the next day. But nobody ever comes…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendships
  • Self-harm
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Miscarriage
  • Blood depiction, cannibalism & emesis
  • Murder

Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with. Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slut-shaming
  • Improper BDSM practice recounted (not respecting safe words)
  • Intimate partner violence (on-page, protagonist slaps her love interest)
  • Parental infertility & miscarriage mentioned
  • Alochol consumption
  • Physical injury, including temporary loss of vision and gunshot wounds
  • Murder of a father by a mother mentioned (protagonist)
  • Attempted murder & physical assailt
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping & stalking
  • Fire
  • Loss of autonomy (memory manipulation, angelic possession with the intent to impregnate another)
  • Battle scene

A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio

Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party’s finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn’t involve throwing cash at his problems—he’ll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.) Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Toxic friendship
  • Alcohol abuse mentioned
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder

The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen

Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty—somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it? When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story. But he gets more… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Stalking by an ex-partner
  • Homophobic cyberbullying