The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate 

It’s an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews.

He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he’s done before, it’s routine, a constant, like the tides.

Yet there’s something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air. Someone stalking the ship.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antiziganism (g slur)
  • Homomisia & internalised homomisia
  • Hate crimes
  • Suicide
  • Blood & gore depiction
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Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

Atlanta, 1974. As a brutal killing and a furious manhunt rock the city, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the police force will also be her last. For life is anything but easy in the male-dominated world of the Atlanta Police Department, where even the other female cops have little mercy for the new girl.

Kate isn’t the only woman on the force who is finding things tough. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Racism
  • Queermisia
  • Antisemitism
  • Murder
  • Police brutality
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The Last Window by Karin Slaughter

The Last Window by Karin Slaughter

On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. Vanished into thin air, the authorities are desperate to save the doctor.

One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhood’s has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Antisemitism
  • Homomisia
  • Misogyny
  • Racism & white supremacy
  • Rape
  • Paedophilia
  • Child abuse recounted
  • Blood depiction
  • Bioterrorism & terrorism
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a spouse recounted
  • Murder
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosion
  • Mass shooting
  • Suffocation
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping
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Indelible by Karin Slaughter

Indelible by Karin Slaughter

When medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver take a trip away from the small town of Heartsdale, it should be a straightforward weekend at the beach. But they decide to take a detour via Jeffrey’s hometown and things go violently wrong when Jeffrey’s best friend Robert shoots dead an intruder who breaks into his home. Jeffrey and Sara are first on the scene and Jeffrey’s keen to clear his friend’s name, but for Sara things aren’t so simple. And when Jeffrey appears to change the crime scene, Sara no longer knows who to trust… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic abuse
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Murder
  • Mass shooting
  • Hostage situation
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Criminal by Karin Slaughter

Criminal by Karin Slaughter

A woman is found brutally murdered in a sordid Atlanta apartment.

Her blood-soaked body bears a chilling similarity to a woman found dead almost 40 years earlier.

Soon Special Agent Will Trent finds himself returning to the home he grew up in, and a past that could hold the clue to the killings…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist slurs
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Murder
  • Torture
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A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues – and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal – but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don’t add up.

Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Rape
  • Domestic abuse
  • Abusive relationship
  • Drug use
  • Graphic physical injuries
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Physical assault
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Kisscut by Karin Slaughter

Kisscut by Karin Slaughter

When a teenage quarrel in the small town of Heartsdale explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton – paediatrician and medical examiner – finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. And what seems at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications when the autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse and ritualistic self-mutilation.

Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, but the children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime. And unless Sara and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it’s going to happen again…

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Rape
  • Paedophilia & child pornography
  • Incest
  • Suicide
  • Self harm
  • Female genital mutilation
  • Death of an infant & child
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
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One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Queermisia discussed
  • Racism & gentrification mentioned
  • Hate crimes, including the UpStairs Lounge fire, recounted (chp. 11)
  • Anxiety
  • Hurricane Katrina discussed
  • Alcohol consumption & recreational drug use
  • Minor mention of blood
  • Death of a grandparent mentioned (chps. 11 & 16)
  • Car accident mentioned (chp. 16)
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Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Andrea Oliver’s mother, Laura, is the perfect small-town mum. Laura lives a quiet but happy life in sleepy beachside Belle Isle. She’s a pillar of the community: a speech therapist, business owner and everybody’s friend. And she’s never kept a secret from anyone. Or so Andrea thinks.

When Andrea is caught in a random violent attack at a shopping mall, Laura intervenes and acts in a way that is unrecognisable to her daughter. It’s like Laura is a completely different person – and that’s because she was. Thirty years ago. Before Andrea. Before Belle Isle… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Domestic abuse
  • Suicide
  • Drug abuse
  • Loss of a pregnancy
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • AIDS
  • Emesis
  • Death of a sibling
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence & stabbing
  • Explosions
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A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan

Cameron doesn’t want to go to prom. Not with his boyfriend, Shane, and definitely not with his fake date, Virginia. Sure, it’s senior prom, it’s the end of high school, and Virginia’s drop-dead gorgeous. But none of that matters to Cam, who’s never liked any high school dance. Ever.

Then an unexpected kiss changes everything, and Cam needs to make a quick exit. After teaming up with a waiter who’s been dealing drugs in the bathroom, Cam leaves the prom. But his night is far from over. From a high-speed car chase, to a stop at the after-prom party, to a bar with a wild dance contest… Cam’s night finally ends in the most unlikely of romances.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia & homomisic slurs
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Emesis
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