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.

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex worker slur
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Drugging
  • Stillbirth
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Drowning
  • Fire
  • Death from exposure to the cold
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

Annihilator by RuNyx

Annihilator by RuNyx

She lives in the shadows. He rules them. She’s the moon, and he the dark night encompassing her. She’s surrounded by demons, and he’s the biggest devil of them all. And she’s his. Passion, obsession, possesion. Theirs is a tale of danger, deviance, dread, desires, and the darkest flavors of love.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Sexual assault of a minor
  • Suicide & attempted suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Murder

Alice by Christina Henry

Alice by Christina Henry

In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo with the screams of the poor souls inside. In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blonde, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place-just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood… Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Human trafficking
  • Slavery & sex slavery
  • Rape & threats of rape
  • Sexual assault
  • Cannibalism
  • Body horror
  • Psychiatric hospitalization
  • Murder & mass murder
  • Animal death & abuse

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World–and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier. Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something – her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Incest (step-siblings)
  • Self-harm mentioned
  • Murder by drowning mentioned
  • Strangulation
  • Arson & immolation

The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah

The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah

Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him — a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy. Poirot wonders how many more… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Fatmisia & body shaming
  • Suicide
  • Murder

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she’ll never live up to them. Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault
  • Death of a parent
  • Murder

The Last by Hanna Jameson

The Last by Hanna Jameson

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange. Now, two months… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
  • Drug use
  • Murder
  • Nuclear war

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

The convent has returned Sybella to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will the daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse recounted
  • Sex work shaming
  • Incest (brother-sister & father-daughter)
  • Rape & attempted rape, on-page & recounted (multiple scenes)
  • Paedophilia & child sexual abuse
  • Pregnancy from rape mentioned
  • Childbirth mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries & illness,
  • Facial scars and disfigurement mentioned
  • Death of a sister, off-page
  • Death of a newborn daughter recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Attempted infanticide by drowning mentioned
  • Infanticide by snapping a newborn’s neck recounted, on-page
  • Knife, sword & arrow violence
  • Poisoning
  • Imprisonment
  • Animal death (dog) mentioned
  • Animal hunting
  • War themes & battle scenes including discussions of sieges

They Went Left by Monica Hesse

They Went Left by Monica Hesse

Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else–her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja–they went left. Zofia’s last… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Antisemitism
  • PTSD & flashbacks
  • Human medical experimentation mentioned
  • Chemical gassing mentioned
  • Mass murder
  • Concentration camp
  • The Holocaust & World War Two

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan

Love demands sacrifice. Her blood. Her body. Even her life. Singapore, 1927. Verity Edevane needs blood. And not just anyone’s blood. She craves the sweet, salty rush from a young woman’s veins, the heady swirl of desire mixed with fealty—such a rarity in this foreign colony. It’s a lot to ask. But doesn’t she deserve the best? Gean Choo needs money. Mrs. Edevane makes her an offer Gean Choo can’t refuse. But who is her strange, alluring new mistress? What is she? And what will Gean Choo sacrifice to earn her love?… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Rape
  • Child sexual abuse recounted
  • Dubious consent scenarios, including employer-employee relationship
  • Child abandonment
  • Emotional & physical child abuse recounted
  • Abusive relationship
  • Cheating
  • Attempted suicide
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Self-harm & self-inflicted injury
  • Recreational drug use
  • Death during childbirth mentioned
  • Physical injury, including a broken nose
  • Cannibalism
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Physical assault