Thrillers and Suspense
May 2023

Recent Releases
How I'll Kill You
by Ren DeStefano

What it's about: Twisted sisters Iris, Sissy, and Moody, who have made a family business out of seduction-based serial murder.

Read if you liked: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. 

Reviewers say: How I'll Kill You is "a novel that will stun readers" with its "cleverly crafted plot that delivers ingenious twists" (Library Journal).
 
Available on Libby
Black Wolf
by Kathleen Kent

What it is: the action-packed, richly detailed story of an undercover CIA agent sent behind the crumbling Iron Curtain to keep Soviet nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands once the Cold War ends. 

What makes her unique: Protagonist Melvina Donleavy is a "super recognizer" who never forgets a face.

About the author: Though Kathleen Kent first made her mark with historical novels like The Heretic's Daughter and The Outcasts, she is also known for her Edgar Award-nominated police procedural The Burn.
 
Also available on cloudLibrary
The Donut Legion
by Joe R. Lansdale

What it's about: East Texas writer and former P.I. Charlie Garner takes on "one last job" after the disappearance of his ex-wife Meg and her new husband, who had ties to a strange local cult. 

Read it for: Hap and Leonard series author Joe. R. Landsdale's trademark combination of offbeat humor, intricately plotted suspense, and a strong sense of place.
 
Also available on cloudLibrary
Moscow Exile
by John Lawton

Series alert: Moscow Exile is the 4th entry in the series of Cold War spy novels starring flawed Brit Joe Wilderness.

This time: Joe has been captured by the KGB, and his release in a prisoner exchange has surprising ties to the actions of two unlikely, seemingly unrelated British spies based in Washington D.C.

Read it for: the atmospheric tone, witty writing, and examination of what draws people into the espionage business.
 
Available on Hoopla
The Housemate
by Sarah Bailey

What it's about: A decade after covering the "Housemate Homicide" story in-depth, Australian journalist Olive Groves is once again assigned to the case when a body is discovered, dredging up unpleasant truths for both the reporter and her subjects.  

Reviewers say: Author Sarah Bailey's "sophisticated, multilayered plot will have readers longing for more books about this intriguing new leading lady" (Booklist).
 
Available on Hoopla
River Woman, River Demon
by Jennifer Givhan

What it's about: Eva Santos Moon has a deep connection with her Chicana heritage and the spiritual practices that go along with it, which she relies on to cope with PTSD-induced blackouts and memory gaps -- a condition that gets even worse when her husband is accused of a murder similar to the one that traumatized Eva in her youth. 

Read it for: the well-developed characters, cultural fluency, and pervasive sense of psychological uncertainty.

You might also like: All the Broken Girls by Linda Hurtado Bond; My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa.
 
Available on Hoopla
The Confessions of Matthew Strong
by Ousmane K. Power-Greene

Starring: Allie Douglass, a Black philosophy professor researching a wave of disappearances of young Black women; the titular Matthew Strong, a white supremacist who kidnaps Allie and attempts to force her to write his Mein Kampf-like apologia for Southern history.

Is it for you? Unsurprisingly Matthew and his cohorts are deeply creepy, with a lot of the novel's menacing moments taking place in one-on-one interactions between Allie and her kidnapper that may be too uncomfortable for some readers.

Try this next: My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson.
 
Available on Hoopla
Contact your librarian for more great books!