Tag Archives: Murder & Attempted Murder

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive. Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive. Beck has been warned to tell no… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Sex work mentioned
  • Murder
  • Gun violence

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists. 

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Blood depiction
  • Murder

All That Remains by Sue Black

All That Remains by Sue Black

Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment, and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed, and what her work has taught her. Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Graphic dead bodies
  • Murder & genocide
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a parent
  • Natural disasters

Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The dead of winter. An isolated island off the coast of Maine. A man. A woman. A sinister house looming over the sea. He’s a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She’s a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids’ puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs. But she’s not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they’re trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Fire

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

A rare meteorite struck Alex Woods when he was ten years old, leaving scars and marking him for an extraordinary future. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, Alex hasn’t had the easiest childhood. But when he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the front seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Drug use
  • Human euthanasia

May Day by Josie Jaffrey

May Day by Josie Jaffrey

If the murderer you’re tracking is a vampire, then you want a vampire detective. Just maybe not this one. It’s not that Jack Valentine is bad at her job. The youngest member of Oxford’s Seekers has an impressive track record, but she also has an impressive grudge against the local baron, Killian Drake. When a human turns up dead on May Morning, she’s determined to pin the murder on Drake. The problem is that none of the evidence points to him. Instead, it leads Jack into a web of conspiracy involving the most powerful people in the country, people to whom Jack has no access. But she knows someone who does… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Sexual assault
  • Suicide
  • Drug use mentioned
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder

Midnight in Everwood by Maria Kuzniar

Midnight in Everwood by Maria M.A. Kuzniar

There’s nothing Marietta Stelle loves more than ballet, but after Christmas, her dreams will be over as she is obligated to take her place in Edwardian society. While she is chafing against such suffocating traditions, a mysterious man purchases the neighbouring townhouse. Dr Drosselmeier is a charming but calculating figure who wins over the rest of the Stelle family with his enchanting toys and wondrous mechanisms. When Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate set for Marietta’s final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Body shaming
  • Sexual assault mentioned
  • Claustrophobia
  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
  • Animal hunting

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Sam Sylvester’s not overly optimistic about their recent move to the small town of Astoria, Oregon after a traumatic experience in their last home in the rural Midwest. Yet Sam’s life seems to be on the upswing after meeting several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, the pretty neighbor. However, Sam can’t seem to let go of what might have been, and is drawn to investigate the death of a teenage boy in 1980s Astoria. Sam’s convinced he was murdered–especially since Sam’s investigation seems to resurrect some ghosts in the town… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Transmisia & misgendering
  • Bimisia
  • Homomisia
  • Hate crime
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Attempted murder
  • Gun violence
  • Strangulation mentioned
  • Stalking
  • Bullying

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Marital rape mentioned
  • Sexual harassment
  • Cheating
  • Forced arranged marriage
  • Suicide
  • Pregnancy & childbirth mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood, gore and injury depiction
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a son & father
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Kidnapping
  • Blackmail
  • Hanging
  • Graphic animal death & cruelty
  • War themes