| What Happened That Night by Nicci FrenchTyler Green spent 27 years in an English prison for the 1993 murder of his best mate, but he's always denied the charge. Freed, he reunites with the eight university friends present the night of the killing, which leads to another death. DI Maud O'Connor works the case, and despite what others think, she doubts Tyler's guilt. This slow-burn, locked-room mystery is the suspenseful 3rd in the Maud O'Connor series. Try this next: Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan novels. |
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| A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm KemptThis atmospheric debut follows divorced cop Elderick Cole, who's been exiled to a troubled small town in the Canadian Arctic after mishandling a missing child case. When a young Inuit woman is found dead by hanging, Cole realizes she didn't get there on her own in this haunting, immersive story. Booklist raves, "If you only read one mystery this year, this should be it." |
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| The Murder at World's End by Ross MontgomeryOn a Cornish tidal island in 1910, 19-year-old Stephen Pike is the new footman at Tithe Hall, where Viscount Stockingham-Welt believes Halley's Comet will destroy the earth. That doesn't happen, but someone does kill the viscount in his locked study. When ex-con Stephen is suspected, the viscount's elderly, scientific-minded aunt teams up with him to prove his innocence in this delightful series starter. For fans of: atmospheric Edwardian mysteries; witty, unlikely detective duos. |
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| Wolf Hour by Jo NesbøIn 2022, a Norwegian true crime writer visits Minneapolis, Minnesota, to research a set of 2016 serial killings. Back in 2016, everything starts with the sniper shooting of a gun dealer known for not asking questions. Divorced cop Bob Oz becomes obsessed with the case, working it even after he's suspended from the force, believing a taxidermist may hold the key to it all in this twisty dual-timeline standalone. Try this next: Stephen Mack Jones' August Snow series; Christoffer Carlsson's "Blaze Me a Sun". |
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| The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-ReverteAfter bad weather cuts off an idyllic Greek island in 1960, a dead British tourist is found inside a locked cabana. Aging actor Ormond Basil, who played Sherlock Holmes in 15 films, finds himself tasked with investigating while a Spanish mystery writer acts as his Watson. Also on the island are an Italian film producer, a former opera star, and others. For fans of: locked-room mysteries; Sherlock Holmes; Anthony Horowitz. |
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| Ruby Falls by Gin PhillipsTo drum up publicity and attract tourists during the Great Depression, the proprietors of Ruby Falls, a massive waterfall inside a Tennessee cave, have a psychic attempt to find a hatpin hidden inside. In case of emergency, the psychic and his group of five are secretly shadowed by Ada, a friend of the owners who knows the caves well, and Quinton, a cavern guide. Then a shocking murder occurs deep underground. For fans of: suspenseful impossible crime stories; well-researched historical novels. |
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How to Get Away with Murder
by Rebecca Philipson
If you picked up this book because you truly want to get away with murder, you will not be disappointed. Simply turn the page and we'll get started. This fresh debut thriller finds a Scotland Yard detective trying to find the author of a self-help book that promises quite literally to teach readers how to get away with murder, which seems to have inspired London's newest murderer. One of the case's only leads is a copy of a self-help book found in the victim's backpack called "How To Get Away With Murder" by a man named Denver Brady. Brady claims to be the most successful serial killer of our time, which is why no one's ever heard of him.
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Darkrooms
by Rebecca Hannigan
On the night of the Summer Solstice in 1999, nine-year-old Roisin O'Halloran marched into the Hanging Woods, the mysterious corpse that had inspired fear in decades of children in the small Irish town of Bannakilduf. She was never seen again. Twenty years later, two women are drawn together to discover the truth of what happened to Roisin: Roisin's older sister Deedee, a rookie cop who's barely hanging on to the appearance of keeping it all together, and Roisin's childhood best friend Caitlin, a petty criminal who was the last person to see the young girl before she disappeared. The secrets of that long-ago summer rise to the surface, and they will expose the truth that many in the small town are desperate to keep buried. After all, nothing can stay hidden forever.
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The Exes
by Leodora Darlington
In this explosive debut thriller, a woman's seemingly perfect romantic life is on the verge of collapse as she uncovers a hidden history surfacing dark secrets that have deadly consequences. Natalie has only ever wanted to find the one. The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, she's bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. Then along comes James--wonderful, handsome James--and Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe he's the one for her. Maybe he's the one she's been waiting for all along. Maybe he won't wind up dead. But the harder Natalie tries to be a normal wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what she'll do . . . leaving her to question whether there is a monster within her or whether there is a villain toying with her from the outside. What's the secret story behind Natalie's dead exes? Will she and James survive their marriage? And do either of them deserve to?
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Missing
by E. a. Jackson
A detective returns to a thirty-year-old case--an infamous disappearance in London--that has haunted her entire career and now may jeopardize her future. In August 1990, London is suffering through an unprecedented heatwave when baby Bella Carpenter is snatched through the open window of her hotel room. Detective Inspector Martha Allen is assigned the high-profile case and, knowing that it could make or break her career, is determined to find Bella. When a young woman named Nell Beatty walks into the police station with a baby who appears to be Bella, and whom Nell claims she found on a bench, it seems that the mystery is solved. Her family, the police, and the press are overjoyed at her return. But DI Allen isn't convinced, something about Nell's story doesn't ring true. As much as she wants to continue, however, now that the baby is safe, she's ordered to close the investigation. Thirty years later, Nell Beatty is found dead. Now a superintendent, Allen has never really gotten over her doubts about the Carpenter case and can't resist doing a little digging on her own time, eager to find out what happened to Nell, and her involvement in the baby's disappearance all those years ago. But will her efforts uncover something darker than she could have ever imagined? And what is she risking as she tries once and for all to reveal the truth?
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