Camden Public Library: Mystery & Thrillers: February 2026

Bitter fall
by Bruce Robert Coffin

Summer's last breath meets autumn's first kill in Greenville, Maine.... Detective Brock Justice is working a complicated case--trying to solve the murder of a woman who was both the victim of a crash and a stabbing--when he is reunited with his partner, Detective Chloe Wright. The victim had secrets, and as Justice investigates, he begins to antagonize people who would prefer secrets to remain just that. Adding to his difficulties, someone in the department wants him to pay for having testified against a fellow trooper.

All the little houses
by May Cobb

It's the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can't get for herself... well, that's what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she'd so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh's entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble.Who will be left standing when the dust settles?

Murder will out : a mystery
by Jennifer K. Breedlove

Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sue--and word of Sue's death--brings Willow back to the picturesque island. The islanders rarely mention Sue without also bringing up Cameron House, and the controversy around Sue's unexpected inheritance of the sprawling mansion. When Willow overhears someone threatening the next heir to the property, she starts to question whether Sue's death was really an accident, and can't help but wonder whether someone on this sleepy island is willing to stop at nothing--even murder--to claim Cameron House for their own. Through Willow's eyes, as well as those of others on the island, a mystery unfolds that keeps drawing Willow back to Cameron House and the very real ghosts that walk its corridors.

Spasm
by Robin Cook

Taking a break from office politics, Laurie Montgomery and Jack join a weekend getaway that turns investigative when strange deaths surface alongside rising Alzheimer’s cases. Drawn in by a colleague’s call, they head upstate to uncover a troubling medical mystery.

A box full of darkness
by Simone St James

Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town's roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings--Violet, Vail, and Dodie--the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to ten while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother-he was gone and the ongoing search efforts turned up no clues. As their parents grew increasingly distant, Violet, Vail, and Dodie were each haunted by visions and frightening events that made them leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people--spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. And now after two decades running from their past, it's time for a homecoming. Because Ben is back, and he's ready to lead them to the answers they've longed for and long feared. If the ghosts of Fell don't get to them first.

The method : a thriller
by Matthew Quirk

Actress Anna Vaughn is fearless-on screen, at least. She tends to play doomed brunettes with a badass streak, and has put in countless hours training for parts and learning how to fight, shoot, and drive like a pro. She likes to believe she is as tough as her characters, but off-camera she leads a far quieter life: trying to keep her acting career alive so she can take care of her younger sister. When her best friend Natalie, her rock, disappears after a night out with a mysterious new man, the signs point to foul play and a circle of spies operating in Manhattan. Anna must use all the tricks she's learned for her roles to hunt for her missing friend. She quickly learns the dangers are all too real. She crosses paths with Kevin Matthews, an FBI agent on the same trail, tracking a string of killings and disappearances and a powerful clique of oligarchs. With Matthews as her handler, she has only days to prepare for the greatest performance of her life-going undercover.

Murder your darlings
by Jenna Blum

Simone "Sam" Vetiver is a mid-career novelist finishing a lukewarm publicity tour while facing a deadline for a new book on which she's totally blocked. Recently divorced, Sam is worrying where her life is going when she receives glowing fan mail from Stratospherically Successful author William Corwyn, renowned for his female-centric novels. When William and Sam meet and his literary sympathy is as intense as their chemistry, both writers think they've found The One. But as in their own novels, things between Sam and William are not what they seem. William has multiple stalkers, including a scarily persistent one named The Rabbit. He lives on a remote Maine island, where his writer life resembles The Shining. And when writers turn up dead, including from The Darlings support group William runs, Sam has to ask: Is it The Rabbit--William's #1 Stalker? Another woman scorned? Can William be everything he seems?

Cold zero : a thriller
by Brad Thor

A vanished plane. An earth-shattering secret. A countdown to World War III. Hemisphere Airlines Flight 777--the most advanced jetliner ever built--disappears without a trace over the North Pole. Crippled by sabotage, it crash-lands on the ice, stranding the surviving passengers in a wasteland of frigid cold and chaos. The real storm, however, is still coming. Hidden inside the wreckage is the prototype for a revolutionary piece of technology that could upend the balance of world power. Now Washington, Moscow, and Beijing are racing to be the first on scene to retrieve it--at any cost. Trapped in the middle of the world's most dangerous flashpoint are CIA operative Kasey Sheridan and former fighter pilot turned first officer, Brett Sharpe. Hunted by enemy forces, they must spirit both the device and its creator across the ice to safety--before rival superpowers turn the Arctic into a war zone. With the clock ticking and the temperature dropping, the fate of the free world is about to be decided at the top of the globe.

Contact your librarian for more great books!