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Thrillers and Suspense March 2020
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The Red Lotus
by Chris Bohjalian
A bike ride: 6 months after meeting, and almost in love, Austin and Alexis travel to Vietnam for a bike tour. Austin wishes to show Alexis his love of cycling and to pay his respects to the place where his dad and grandfather fought in the war.
What happens: Sipping white wine at the hotel, Alexis waits for Austin to return from a solo bike ride. Except he doesn't return, he simply vanishes into thin air. While dealing with the FBI, Austin's family, and her colleagues at the hospital where she works, Alexis begins to uncover lies, that make her question the trip to Vietnam.
Read it for: The well developed characters, the compelling writing style, and the atmospheric and suspenseful tone.
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Last Girl Standing
by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush
Meet the Five Firsts: An elite high school clique including Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta, and Zora, ABCD & Z. They are pretty, popular, and no strangers to backstabbing. During a graduation party, one of the five dies in what seems to be an accident.
15 years later: More accidents occur, and now there are only three members of the Five Firsts left. Digging into their pasts, one of their old classmates, now a detective, tries to stop more "accidents" from happening.
If you like this, read: Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline, The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter, or A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell.
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| The Holdout by Graham MooreWhat it's about: The long-simmering consequences of a highly charged trial, in which Maya Seale convinced her fellow jurors to acquit an African American teacher accused of murdering a white 15-year-old.
Ten years later: A true crime documentary about the case gathers the former jury together again, and revisiting the trial dredges up secrets and resentments that everyone is hiding, with fatal consequences and another person wrongly accused of murder.
You might also like: other fast-paced legal thrillers like Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow and Invisible by Andrew Grant, which also deal with revenge. |
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A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan #19)
by Kathy Reichs
A new case: Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan thinks that she is hallucinating after her neurosurrgery, but text messages don't lie. Someone is sending her pictures of a corpse with no face or hands.
What happens: When a corpse turns up, some questions are answered, but new ones arise. Tempe must use all of her expertise and connections to find out the truth about the corpse.
Who was the faceless man?: A spy or a trafficker? Or was he a target for an assasination attempt?
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| The Girlfriend by Michelle FrancesWhat it's about: Successful TV producer Laura Cavendish shares a strong bond with her medical student son Daniel. Any girl Daniel brings home would struggle to meet Laura's high expectations, and his new girlfriend Cherry doesn't come close.
The other woman: Cherry is beautiful and ambitious, but also from the wrong side of the tracks. Even worse, she isn't fazed by Laura's elitism and manipulation, and she's determined to hang onto Daniel, who she wants to marry for his family's wealth.
Why you might like it: The narrative alternates between Cherry and Laura's points of view, which keeps their intensifying conflict from feeling over-the-top. |
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| The Good Liar by Nicholas SearleWhat it is: a compelling and intricately plotted psychological thriller that's part character study and part cat-and-mouse game.
Starring: veteran con man Roy Courtnay, who's out to make one last big score; well-off widow Betty McLeish, who Roy sees as an easy target but who is cannier than she seems; and Betty's protective grandson Stephen, who isn't shy about his distrust of his grandmother's new boyfriend.
Media buzz: The Good Liar was adapted into a film of the same name in 2019, starring Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen. |
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| Jane Doe by Victoria Helen StoneWhat it's about: Self-declared sociopath Jane drops everything to seek revenge on Steven, the abusive boyfriend who drove her first and only friend Meg to suicide with his manipulative and controlling treatment.
Read it for: the surprisingly appealing Jane, whose righteous cause, painful past, and clever Machiavellian tendencies make her (mostly) easy to root for.
Author alert: Victoria Helen Stone is the pseudonym that romance author Victoria Dahl uses when writing suspense. False Step, the sequel to Jane Doe, is due out at the end of March. |
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| The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen WhiteWhat it is: the suspenseful and atmospheric story of long-buried secrets (and crimes) hiding behind the veneer of gentility in Atlanta suburb Sweet Apple, where newly divorced Merilee Dunlap moves with her children.
Read it for: the unlikely and dynamic bond Merilee forms with her 93-year-old neighbor Sugar Prescott, whose family once owned the land that Sweet Apple was built on and who is much more than the gossipy curmudgeon she appears to be.
Who it's for: fans of Kate Morton and Liane Moriarty who don't mind a little Mary Kay Andrews now and then. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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