Tag Archives: Substance Addiction

Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Adult-minor relationship
  • Parent with substance addiction
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use including overdose
  • Cancer
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England. Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison. As Susan begins to read the manuscript’s opening chapters, the skeptical editor… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence mentioned
  • Alcoholism & substance addiction
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Terminal illness
  • Knife violence
  • Animal injury

The Hike by Lucy Clarke

Maggie, Liz, Helena & Joni. Old friends bound by history, adventures, old secrets. And now, bound by murder. They lace up their hiking boots for the adventure of a lifetime in the Norwegian wilderness: a place of towering mountains, glass-like lakes, log cabins and forests stolen from a fairytale. It’s the perfect place to lose yourself – until a broken body is found at the bottom of a ravine. Somewhere out there, someone knows exactly why a woman has died. And in this deep, dark wilderness, there’s a killer on the trail . . .

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Infidelity
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Unplanned pregnancy
  • Cancer mentioned
  • Death of a parent
  • Landside
  • Animal hunting

The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker

For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive. As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Rape
  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic violence
  • Substance addiction & alcoholism
  • Drug use
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder
  • Torture
  • Gun violence
  • Animal death & cruelty

Trashed by Mia Hopkins

My name is Eddie Rosas, but everyone calls me Trouble. Since I got out of prison six months ago, I’ve had one goal: find my father, whatever the cost. My older brother says I need to move on. He also wants me to leave our gang, East Side Hollenbeck, and go straight, but I can’t–not until I uncover the truth about our family and its missing piece. One problem? I’m distracted. My distraction’s name is Carmen Centeno. Smart, passionate, and tough as hell, Carmen is a woman from the neighbourhood who’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction & recovery
  • Drug use
  • Gang violence
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident mentioned

The Alpha of Bleake Isle by Kathryn Moon

Lord Ronson Cadogan can stall no longer. He needs an omega and he needs an heir. Settled on the obvious perfect choice, and determined to see his fate through, Ronson can’t afford to wait for the next ceremony to claim what he is owed. If only he was more excited about the match. Mairwen Posy knows precisely who the Alpha of Bleake Isle will choose, and it certainly isn’t her. In fact, it’s so predictable it’s almost boring. Resigned to her fate of disappearing into the background, Mairwen takes the role of observer, distracting the ache of being left out with… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Indentured servitude discussed
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming
  • Sexual assault (forced kiss, on-page)
  • Pregnancy & death during childbirth mentioned (secondary characters)
  • Emesis (on-page)
  • Death of a father recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Bullying

The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape (sodomy)
  • Death of a child
  • Alcohol & substance addiction
  • Incarceration

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & racism
  • Substance addiction & drug abuse
  • Dementia discussed
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Animal abuse & death (on-page)

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

Ricky Rice is a middling hustler with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee, and a haunted mind. A survivor of a suicide cult, he scrapes by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a mysterious letter arrives, summoning him to enlist in a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard what may have been the voice of God.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism & misogyny
  • Child abuse
  • Substance addiction
  • Torture
  • Kidnapping

The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face. The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world’s subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away. But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Slavery
  • Parental abandonment & child abuse recounted
  • Self-sacrifice & mentions of suicide
  • Infidelity by an ex-partner mentioned (protagonist)
  • Alcohol consumption, drug use & mention of addiction and withdrawal
  • Blood & gore depiction and emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Murder & mass death
  • Torture