"I am the star of screaming tabloid headlines and campfire ghost stories. I am one of the four Black-Eyed Susans. The lucky one." ~ from Julia Heaberlin's Black-Eyed Susans |
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| Rubbernecker by Belinda BauerPsychological Suspense. Patrick Fort is a medical student whose Asperger's adds an extra challenge to an already demanding career choice. But it also improves his observations of the cadaver he's currently dissecting, which leads him to believe there's something dodgy going on in his lab. Unfortunately, he lacks the social skills to effectively share what he finds. At the same time, a coma patient in another ward can hear strange activities going on around him, but is similarly unable to express himself. With these unusual narrators, this creative, often darkly humorous novel won the 2014 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. |
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| Black-Eyed Susans: A Novel of Suspense by Julia HeaberlinPsychological Suspense. Nearly 20 years ago, Tessa Cartwright was left for dead in a patch of black-eyed Susans. Unlike the other three girls dumped there, she survived. But as the man convicted for the crimes nears his execution date, Tessa finds the same flowers planted outside her house, prompting her to consider that the wrong person was convicted...and that the true killer may want to finish what he started. Told in parallel storylines 18 years apart, this tautly suspenseful novel incorporates plenty of CSI details. |
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| Pretty Baby: A Novel by Mary KubicaPsychological Suspense. Chicago literacy tutor Heidi Wood wants to help the homeless teen mom she's seen on her commute, so she invites Willow and her tiny daughter back to the condo she shares with her family (to her husband's horror). Their arrival leads to a spectacular deterioration of the relationships within the home, all told from the rotating perspectives of Heidi and her husband, as well as flashbacks from Willow herself. This narrative technique ramps up the suspense -- it's clear that something devastating happens, but the details...well, you'll have to read the book to find out. |
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| Dragonfish: A Novel by Vu TranCrime Fiction. Set mostly in Las Vegas, this debut hits the ground running as Oakland cop Robert Ruen is forced to work for Sonny, a Vietnamese gangster in Las Vegas. Sonny's wife Hong (a Vietnamese refugee who was once married to Robert) has disappeared, and Sonny wants Robert to find her. Alternating between Robert's journey through the sleazy Vegas underworld and the story of Hong's perilous escape from Vietnam, Dragonfish has all the tenets of a good noir novel as well as a compelling depiction of refugee life. |
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If You Like: The Millennium Trilogy
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With the publication of a fourth book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, albeit by a different author, some readers may be eager to read The Girl in the Spider's Web, while other may be equally eager to try other, similar books. Try any of the ones below (or the series they're part of, in some cases) for elements of what made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so popular.
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| The Absent One: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-OlsenScandinavian Crime Fiction. There are plenty of similarities between the Department Q series and the Millennium Trilogy, including cold cases, conspiracies, twisting plots, protagonists with difficult personalities, and Scandinavian settings. Although in both series, slow-building suspense allows deep immersion into the characters' worlds, Department Q novels contain more humor and less violence. In The Absent One, Copenhagen police detective Carl Mørck must navigate the chilly waters of his department and the 20-year-old murders of a brother and sister; it appears that the confessed killer may be the patsy of the rich and powerful. |
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| Alex by Pierre LemaîtreSuspense Fiction. Starring a tragic French detective and a beautiful kidnapping victim, this translation of a bestselling French novel was the 2013 winner of the CWA International Dagger Award. It's also the brutal opening salvo in a trilogy (though actually the 2nd book in the French version). Knowing he has little time to save the young woman, senior detective Camille Verhoeven is desperate to find her, but the victim turns out to have resources of her own. Like the Millennium trilogy, this is a dark, twisty, sometimes-gruesome crime novel that explores the barbarity with which humans treat each other. Be prepared for violence and torture; some graphic scenes won't be for everyone. |
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| The Son by Jo NesbøScandinavian Crime Fiction. Though author Jo Nesbø is known for his brooding series star Harry Hole, The Son is a highly praised stand-alone. What it shares with the Millennium books is this: vengeance drives much of the intricately plotted, fast-paced narrative, and political conspiracies play no small part. With complex characters (like Sonny, an incarcerated heroin addict serving time in exchange for drug payouts), this is an excellent choice for Stieg Larsson's fans. |
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| The Andalucian Friend: A Thriller by Alexander SöderbergThriller. Since the death of her husband, nurse Sophie Brinkman has mostly focused on her son, her home, and her job. But that all changes with the arrival of a new patient, the charming Hector Guzman, who reawakens her romantic side. But Hector is the head of a powerful crime syndicate, and Sophie soon becomes a target for police investigators and rival criminals alike. Harassed on all sides, Sophie draws upon inner strength she didn't know she had, while a global turf war swirls around her. Intricately plotted and action-packed, this Scandinavian thriller is the first in a projected trilogy (the 2nd, The Other Son, published in July), and moves at a faster pace than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. |
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| The Informationist: A Thriller by Taylor StevensThriller. This series debut introduces an "informationist" named Vanessa Michael Munroe, a tech-savvy, tough, and creatively violent young woman; despite a terrible past, she earns a living by learning and passing on the information her clients seek. Skilled with languages and able to blend in anywhere, she's recently been hired by a man looking for his daughter, Emily, who disappeared in Africa four years ago. Fast-paced and gritty, with a heroine in the vein of Lisbeth Salander, this "blazingly brilliant" (Publishers Weekly) thriller adds evocative descriptions of Africa for a very different flavor. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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