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Thrillers and Suspense January 2021 |
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| Take it Back by Kia AbdullahStarring: Londoner Zara Kaleel, who left behind her high-powered legal career to work as a rape counselor; disabled teen Jodie, who is referred to Zara after accusing a group of Muslim boys of assaulting her.
Read it for: the well-developed characters; Zara's compelling efforts to navigate her fraught position -- as a Muslim herself, she faces censure from all sides of the case as she tries to advocate for her client. |
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| Double Agent by Tom BradbyWhat it is: the intricately plotted sequel to Secret Service, which continues the story of MI6 agent Kate Henderson.
Her mission: to investigate allegations that the Prime Minister might be a Russian agent, a case which could end her career for good.
Is it for you? Part of Agent Henderson's case involves child abuse, which some readers might want to know about going in. |
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| Fool Me Twice by Jeff LindsaySeries alert: Fool Me Twice is the 2nd entry in the series of thrillers starring likeable rogue Riley Wolfe, an ambitious master thief always up for a challenge.
The prize: This time, Riley is strong-armed into stealing a priceless Raphael painting from deep in the Vatican by "an arms dealer who scares the crap out of other arms dealers."
The problem: It's not just any Renaissance painting -- Riley's target is a fresco, meaning he has to find a way to steal an actual wall. |
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| You Will Never Know by S.A. PrentissStarring: Jessica Thorton, a bank teller who has built a good life for herself despite a difficult past; Jessica's second husband, Ted Donovan; her daughter, Emma; and Craig, Ted's son from his first marriage.
What goes wrong: The murder of one of Emma and Craig's classmates on a night when neither teen has an alibi reveals the fault lines in the Thorton-Donovan family and threatens to destroy everything Jessica has worked so hard to build.
Try this next: The First Mistake by Sandie Jones, which also features an intensifying pace and flawed characters trying to keep their families from collapsing under the weight of suspicion and shifting loyalties. |
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| Open House by Katie SiseWhat it is: Told from multiple perspectives, this atmospheric and intricately plotted story follows the effects of a young woman's suspicious death on the residents of a picturesque small town.
Who it's for: readers who enjoy character-focused thrillers about communities with secrets to hide, such as those by Jessica Knoll and Liane Moriarty.
Reviewers say: "Sise’s talent is her ability to keep readers guessing about which character might be covering for whom, and she keeps the surprises coming" (Publishers Weekly).
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The flight attendant : a novel
by Chris Bohjalian
What it's about: A binge-drinking flight attendant wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room beside a dead body and sneaks back to her work, telling a series of lies that complicate her ability to figure out what really happened. By the best-selling author of Midwives.
Why you might like this: An American streaming television series based on the novel of the same name is on HBO Max. It stars Kaley Cuoco in the title role and premiered on November 26, 2020. In December 2020, the series was renewed for a second season.
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I've got my eyes on you : a novel
by Mary Higgins Clark
What it's about: When an 18-year-old girl is found murdered at the bottom of her family's pool, her older sister, a guidance counselor, rules out the chief suspects and teams up with the Prosecutor's Office to uncover the truth, unaware that doing so is putting her own life at risk.
Author note: By the best-selling author of As Time Goes By.
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The undertaker's daughter
by Sara Blædel
What it's about: Receiving an unexpected inheritance from the father who abandoned her, 40-year-old widow Ilka Nichols Jenson impulsively travels from Copenhagen to her late father's mortuary in Wisconsin and begins to comb through his estate before stumbling on an unsolved murder.
Author note: By the #1 internationally best-selling author of The Forgotten Girls.
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Jar of Hearts
by Jennifer Hillier
What it's about: Fourteen years ago, Angela Wong disappeared. Her best friend Geo has just given testimony against her own high-school boyfriend, now known as the Sweetbay Strangler -- and is facing jail time herself as an accessory.
Why you might like it: What happened that night? Flashbacks allow the story to unfold slowly, the tension always increasing. Meanwhile, women in the present are dying in eerily similar ways.
For fans of: the gruesome realism of the grisly Heartsick series by Chelsea Cain.
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The current : a novel
by Tim Johnston
What it's about: Surviving the accident that killed her friend, a young woman delves into the case of another victim from a decade earlier to identify a killer among her neighbors.
Author note: By the author of the best-selling Descent.
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The chalk man : a novel
by C. J. Tudor
What it's about: Three decades after his circle of friends is traumatized by the discovery of a murder victim while passing secret messages through a chalk-figure code of their invention, Eddie finds himself targeted by an unknown adversary who is using their former communication methods to torment and kill his friends.
Author note: A first novel.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street
Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100
http://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us
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