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Thrillers and Suspense December 2025 |
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| The Predicament by William BoydIn 1963, travel writer-turned-reluctant spy Gabriel Dax is dispatched from politically volatile Guatemala to divided Berlin, where whispers of an assassination plot threaten global consequences. Blending wit, history, and intrigue, William Boyd delivers a sharply observed espionage tale about an MI6 agent who keeps surviving his own missteps in this sequel to Gabriel's Moon. |
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Matchmaking for Psychopaths
by Tasha Coryell
Lexie was expecting a nice evening with her fiancé for her birthday. Instead, her best friend is sitting next to her man, and what's worse: They're in love. To escape her relationship troubles, Lexie throws herself into her job where she works as a matchmaker for psychopaths -- a label that the clients themselves are unaware of -- and finds herself entangled with two of her most recent clients, both of whom have mysterious pasts that inspire Lexie to breech work protocol and spend time with them outside of the office. One of the clients, Rebecca, becomes a candidate to take the role of new best friend, while the other, Aidan, insists that the two of them are soul mates and meant to be together despite Lexie's insistence that her fiancé is going to return in time for their scheduled wedding. When her ex-fiancé goes missing and threatening packages begin arriving at her doorstep, Lexie has to figure out who is trying to target her and how it relates to her own dark past. Can she trust her instincts as a matchmaker or has she set herself up with her enemy?
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| Her One Regret by Donna FreitasWhen real estate agent Lucy Mendoza disappears from a Rhode Island supermarket, leaving her infant daughter behind, questions spiral: was she kidnapped -- or did she choose to escape the life of motherhood she secretly resented? Donna Freitas weaves multiple perspectives into a tense story exploring societal pressures on women, maternal ambivalence, and the bonds between friends. |
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| The Perfect Hosts by Heather GudenkaufA gender reveal party at the Drakes’ sprawling ranch takes a tragic turn when an accident leaves one of the 200 guests dead. As ATF Agent Jamie Saldano investigates, hidden rivalries, family secrets, and mysterious visitors surface, revealing that beneath the celebration’s glitter lies a dangerous web of deceit and a killer among the guests. |
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| Simultaneous by Eric HeissererA federal agent and a past-life regression therapist team up to track a killer across states, timelines, and consciousness in this mind-bending debut thriller. As psychic connections reveal crimes before they happen, the pair race to prevent disaster, uncovering a chilling conspiracy that challenges the boundaries of reality, time, and memory. For fans of: Blake Crouch. |
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Make Me Famous
by Maud Ventura
Daisy Jones and the Six meets Patricia Highsmith in this addictive, intense novel about the brutal and ferocious road to glory, from the award-winning author of My Husband. Ever since she was a child, Cléo Louvent has had only one obsession: becoming a famous singer. To everyone's surprise but her own, she has overcome every obstacle and become a global superstar with millions of dollars, countless awards, and several villas to her name. But as any celebrity will tell you, getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another. Now thirty-two years old, Cléo is taking her first real vacation in years, on a remote island with no one else in sight. With the never-ending spin cycle of her life finally on pause and no paparazzi peeking out from behind the coconut palms, she can work on her fourth album in peace. Except that with so much time to think, she can't help but ruminate on her past -- and how, just six months earlier, things started to go very wrong.
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The Family Inside
by Katie Garner
Since her husband's unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett's life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can't pay her mortgage--and now that she's lost her job, she has no idea how she'll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory. Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother's centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property. It seems like the perfect solution, but when Iris and Ellory arrive at Ravencliff, the family inside isn't quite what they expected. Iris didn't even know Hugh had siblings, much less that they'd all be living together. With repairs underway, the house gives up its dark secrets one by one. Before long, Iris unearths a chilling family history--and the terrifying reason she and Ellory were invited in the first place...
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| The Intruder by Freida McfaddenWhen a bloodied girl appears on Casey’s doorstep during a violent storm, her quiet cabin in the New Hampshire woods becomes a trap. The girl’s mysterious past and deadly secrets soon put Casey in mortal danger. Alternating perspectives heighten the suspense as survival, trust, and hidden truths collide in this tense, pulse-pounding thriller. |
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What about the Bodies
by Ken Jaworowski
In this propulsive crime novel from Edgar Award nominee Ken Jaworowski, three lives collide in a gritty rust-belt town--a single mother covering up a deadly mistake, a young man on a mission to honor a dying wish, and a musician racing to escape a violent debt. Carla, a single mom poised to finally break free from her cycle of poverty, must risk it all, including her morality, to help her son hide a terrible secret.Reed, an autistic young man, sets out on a journey to keep a deathbed promise to the mother he just lost. Along the way he'll encounter both kindhearted residents and a cold-blooded nemesis.And Liz, an aspiring musician on the cusp of a breakthrough, needs to quickly come up with the cash she owes a brutal ex-con. If she can't pay him, both her dream and her life will be in grave danger.As these three compelling characters intersect, the novel ignites into a story filled with explosive twists, hair-raising chills, and boundless love.
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Crooks: A Novel about Crime and Family
by Lou Berney
You've never met a family like the Mercurios. They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals? For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they've ever known. When they're forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City -- a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime -- until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family's long, dark shadow. Jeremy, the family's Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s. Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow. Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he's ever known. Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life. And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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NORTH KANSAS CITY LIBRARY
2251 Howell St
North Kansas City, Missouri 64116
816-221-3360www.nkcpl.org/ |
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