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.

The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy

Gigi Graham has exactly three goals: qualify for the women’s national hockey team, win Olympic gold, and step out of her famous father’s shadow. So far, so good, except for two little things. Fine–a little thing and a big, grumpy thing. She needs to improve her game behind the net, and she needs help from Luke Ryder. Ryder is six-foot five, built, opinionated, rude… and sexy as hell. But he’s still the enemy. Briar’s new hockey co-captain has his reasons, though. The men’s team just merged with a rival program, leaving Ryder with an angry roster where everyone hates one another’s guts. To make matters worse, the summer coaching… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity recounted
  • Murder of a mother by a father (off-page)
  • Abusive foster care experiences recounted

I’m Not Done with You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Jane is unhappy. A struggling midlist writer whose novels barely command four figures, she feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage, just scraping by to pay a crippling Bay Area mortgage for a house–a life–she’s never really wanted. There’s only ever been one person she cared about, one person who truly understood her: Thalia. Jane’s best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. It was the only good year of Jane’s life–cobblestones and books and damp English air, heady wine and sweet cider and Thalia, endless Thalia. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendship
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Infidelity mentioned
  • Social Anxiety
  • Heart attack mentioned
  • Murder by poisoning & stabbing
  • Strangulation

You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite. Then Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now she has access to the family calendar and Aspen’s social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer’s only taking back what she deserves—what should…. Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Toxic friendship
  • Domestic abuse & stalking
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder
  • Car accident
  • Cyberbullying
  • Kidnapping & stalking

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet). But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Spousal emotional, verbal & financial abuse recounted
  • Dead bodies
  • Hospitalisation
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Death of a spouse
  • Murder

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly…bored. Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Suicide
  • Dieting discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Emesis
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

Life in a slasher film is easy. You just have to know when to die. Aerial View: A suburban town in Texas. Everyone’s got an automatic garage door opener. All the kids jump off a perilous cliff into a shallow river as a rite of passage. The sheriff is a local celebrity. You know this town. You’re from this town. Zoom In: Homecoming princess, Lindsay. She’s just barely escaped death at the hands of a brutal, sadistic murderer in a Michael Jackson mask. Up on the cliff, she was rescued by a horse and bravely defeated the killer, alone, bra-less. Her story is already a legend. She’s this town’s heroic final girl, their virgin angel. Monster… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol abuse
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Decapitation
  • Death of a child & sibling recounted
  • Graphic murder & stalking
  • Gun violence
  • Fire
  • Animal death & cruelty

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA – they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death. This is all about to change. Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide & suicidal ideation
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Emesis & allergic reacction
  • Murder & torture
  • Car accident
  • Stalking
  • Bullying
  • Animal death & cruelty

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Animal death

Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent

I’m a golden boy. A genius law student, the heir to the Carson empire, and the dutiful son. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like from the outside. Deep inside, I have the urge to set the world on fire. I keep these impulses in check, rarely indulging in mayhem. Until one night of debauchery backfires, and I’m caught by a villain. I bury the entire ordeal with the rest of my skeletons. That is, until that night walks into my classroom in the form of my new professor. Kayden Lockwood. A criminal who’s teaching criminal law. I can’t expose what he’s done without unmasking my secret life. What I can do, however, is force him to taste the poison… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (protagonist) including dubious consent scenarios, consensual non-consent (cnc), mentions of the protagonist’s wife being gang-raped and murdered, and mentions of the rape of the protagonist’s high school girlfriend by her father
  • Intimate partner abuse including one partner shooting the other with an arrow (twice)
  • Teacher-student relationship
  • Self-harm
  • Drugging
  • Murder of a wife recounted
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Kidnapping

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

Every citizen of England is granted one bargain from their immortal fae queen. High society girls are expected to bargain for qualities that will win them suitors: a rare talent for piano in exchange for one’s happiest childhood memory. A perfect smile for one’s ability to taste. But Ivy Benton’s debut season arrives with a shocking twist: a competition to secure the heart of the Queen’s fae son, Prince Bram. A prize that could save Ivy’s family from ruin… and free her sister from the bargain that destroyed her. Yet every glittering fae deal has a rotting heart—and at the center of this contest is a plot that could destroy everything…

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Physical & verbal child abuse mentioned (secondary character)
  • Memory loss
  • Suicide (implied)
  • Self-injury & loss of limb/appendages for magic
  • Alcohol consumption & mentions of smoking
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis
  • Murder by stabbing
  • Drowning mentioned
  • Animal death (swan)
  • Bullying mentioned (secondary character)