They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan… until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Victim blaming
  • Rape
  • Nonconsensual voyeurism mentioned
  • Cheating
  • Domestic abuse mentioned
  • Anxiety
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s magnetic story collection breathes life into her Latina characters of indigenous ancestry and the land they inhabit. Set against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado–a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite–these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force.

Sabrina & Corina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Sexual assault
  • Domestic violence
  • Parental abandonment
  • Alcoholism
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Magician’s Bird by Emily Fairlie

The Magician’s Bird by Emily Fairlie and illustrated by Antonio Javier Caparo

In The Magician’s Bird, the mystery Bud and Laurie must solve is much more serious than a treasure hunt—their beloved school founder, Maria Tutweiler, has been accused of murdering Marchetti the Magician!

Can Bud and Laurie—with the help of enthusiastic Misti and evil but useful Calliope—prove Maria Tutweiler’s innocence? Or will Tuckernuck Hall be closed down for good?

Emily Fairlie once again blends lists, notes, and classic prose to tell a story that sings with humor, suspense, and magic.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Smoking mentioned
  • Murder recounted
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Memory Thief by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Memory Thief by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Twelve-year-old Rosie Oaks’s mom is missing whatever it is that makes mothers love their daughters. All her life, Rosie has known this…and turned to stories for comfort. Then, on the night Rosie decides to throw her stories away forever, an invisible ally helps her discover the Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, a book that claims that all of the evil in the world stems from thirteen witches who are unseen…but also unstoppable. One of these witches—the Memory Thief—holds an insidious power to steal our most precious treasures: our memories. And it is this witch who has cursed Rosie’s mother.

In her quest to save her mom—and with her wild, loyal friend “Germ” by her side… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder
  • Hanging mentioned
  • Kidnapping & presumed death of a newborn
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

In the Winter Woods by Isabelle Adler

In the Winter Woods by Isabelle Adler

Declan Kensington isn’t really in the mood for Christmas. His latest mystery book sales are tanking, his finances are in a dismal state, and his spirits are anything but festive. Perhaps spending the holidays alone at his family lakeside cabin in the small village of Maplewood, Vermont, will provide him much-needed peace and quiet. Then he might finally get to work on a new book and (hopefully) jumpstart his stalling writing career.

When he starts receiving anonymous letters threatening him to leave, Declan realizes his solitary writer’s retreat isn’t at all what he bargained for. And if the threats aren’t enough, a killer strikes, casting Declan in the role of the most likely suspect. Now it’s up to him… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Dead body
  • Murder, off-page
  • Gun violence
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle

Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle

Easy Motion Tourist is a compelling crime novel set in contemporary Lagos. It features Guy Collins, a British hack who stumbles by chance into the murky underworld of the city. A woman’s mutilated body is discarded by the side of a club near one of the main hotels in Victoria Island. Collins, a bystander, is picked up by the police as a potential suspect. After experiencing the unpleasant realities of a Nigerian police cell, he is rescued by Amaka, a Pam Grier-esque Blaxploitation heroine with a saintly streak. As Collins discovers more of the darker aspects of what makes Lagos tick – including the clandestine trade in organs – he also falls slowly for Amaka. Little do they realise how the body parts business is wrapped up in the power and politics of the city. 

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Sex work
  • Blood depiction
  • Kidnapping
  • Murder
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Gift by Rilzy Adams

The Gift by Rilzy Adams

When Maya’s best friend, Charlotte, asks her to be her surrogate, she reluctantly agrees. Although pregnancy and motherhood were things Maya didn’t plan to deal with for years, she was willing to sacrifice nine months of her time for her best friend’s happiness.

Her world is turned inside out when Charlotte is murdered just as Maya gets confirmation of the IVF’s success. Now, Maya must raise the child she never intended to keep and preserve peace with Charlotte’s widower, Jaxon.

Soon Maya finds that pregnancy and impending motherhood are the least of her worries. She must fight against the tenderness she’s begun to feel for her best friend’s husband and she must atone for the sin she desperately tries to keep hidden. Maya Jenkins killed her best friend.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Pregnancy
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Serpent’s Curse by Tony Abbott

The Serpent’s Curse by Tony Abbott

Wade, Lily, Darrell, and Becca may have found the Copernicus Legacy’s first relic—a beautiful blue stone named after the constellation Vela—but they have lost much more than they have gained. Darrell’s mother, Sara, has been kidnapped by Galina Krause, the conniving leader of the Teutonic Order, who hopes that the renowned academic will lead her and her minions to the next relic.

That means the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Kaplan kids, who trek across the cold wilderness of Siberia, along the winding canals of Venice, and through the streets of Moscow’s Red Square in search of their beloved family member and the sought-after relic called the Serpens… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Drugging
  • Medical experimentation mentioned
  • Beheading mentioned
  • Death of an uncle recounted
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Stabbing
  • Explosion
  • Poisoning
  • Car accident
  • Kidnapping
  • Fire
  • Mass death in Siberian labour camps mentioned
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott

It all began when four friends-Wade, Lily, Darrel, and Becca-received a strange, coded email from Wade’s uncle Henry shortly before the old man’s sudden death. They set off for Germany to attend the funeral with Wade’s father, Roald, and discover that Uncle Henry left them yet another baffling message that they suspect is the key to figuring out how and why he died.

The message leads to a clue, and the more clues they discover, the farther they travel down a treacherous path toward an ancient, guarded secret. Soon they are in a breathless race across the globe, running for their lives as a dangerous shadow organization chases them around every corner. Their only hope of saving themselves-and the world that they know-is to find twelve magical relics from a hidden past that will unlock the Copernicus Legacy

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Murder by strangulation
  • Kidnapping
  • Death from a fall mentioned
  • Boat & car accidents mentioned
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com

Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat. Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two. A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape of a minor mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Death of a mother from a drug overdose mentioned
  • Death of a father from suicide
  • Death of parents from gun violence mentioned
  • Death of a husband from heart failure mentioned
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
Support Us at Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com