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Thrillers and SuspenseSeptember 2015
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"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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The bazaar of bad dreams : stories
by Stephen King
"A master storyteller at his best--the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future orcorrect the mistakes of the past. "Afterlife" is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers--the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in "Obits;" the old judge in "The Dune" who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In "Morality," King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil's pact they can win. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant reader--"I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.""
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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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Friction
by Sandra Brown
Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him relegated to deskwork and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer.
Holly, ambitious and confident, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high-stakes. Despite Crawford's obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet.
But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat.
Catching the real culprit becomes a personal fight for Crawford. But pursuing the killer in his customary diehard fashion will jeopardize his chances of gaining custody of his daughter, and further compromise Judge Holly Spencer, who needs protection not only from an assassin, but from Crawford himself and the forbidden attraction between them.
FRICTION will keep you on the edge of your seat with breathtaking plot twists and the unforgettable characters that make Sandra Brown one of the world's best-loved authors. It is an extraordinary novel about the powerful ties that bind us to the ones we love and the secrets we keep to protect them.
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The night sister : a novel
by Jennifer McMahon
Once the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever. Now adult, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Suddenly, Margot and Piper are forced to relive the time that they found the suitcase that once belonged to Silvie Slater, the aunt that Amy claimed had run away to Hollywood to live out her dream of becoming Hitchcock's next blonde bombshell leading lady. As Margot and Piper investigate, a cleverly woven plot unfolds—revealing the story of Sylvie and Rose, two other sisters who lived at the motel during its 1950s heyday. Each believed the other to be something truly monstrous, but only one carries the secret that would haunt the generations to come.
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The girl in the spider's web
by David Lagercrantz
She is the girl with the dragon tattoo—a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.
Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it . . .
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Trust no one : a thriller
by Paul Cleave
In this exciting psychological thriller by the Edgar-nominated author of Joe Victim, a famous crime writer struggles to differentiate between his own reality and the frightening plot lines he’s created for the page.
Jerry Grey is known to most of the world by his crime writing pseudonym, Henry Cutter—a name that has been keeping readers at the edge of their seats for more than a decade. Recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of forty-nine, Jerry’s crime writing days are coming to an end. His twelve books tell stories of brutal murders committed by bad men, of a world out of balance, of victims finding the darkest forms of justice. As his dementia begins to break down the wall between his life and the lives of the characters he has created, Jerry confesses his worst secret: The stories are real. He knows this because he committed the crimes. Those close to him, including the nurses at the care home where he now lives, insist that it is all in his head, that his memory is being toyed with and manipulated by his unfortunate disease. But if that were true, then why are so many bad things happening? Why are people dying?
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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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The solomon curse
by Clive Cussler
There are many rumors about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others say terrible things happened here, atrocities and disappearances at the hands of cannibal giants, and those who venture there do not return. It is cursed.
Which is exactly what attracts the attention of husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. How could they resist? Clues and whispers lead them on a hunt from the Solomons to Australia to Japan, and what they find at the end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous—and like nothing they have ever seen before.
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Alert
by James Patterson
"This is not a test"--every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality.
New Yorkers aren't easily intimidated, but someone is doing their best to scare them, badly: why? After two inexplicable high-tech attacks, the city that never sleeps is on edge. Detective Michael Bennett, along with his old pal, the FBI's Emily Parker, have to catch the shadowy criminals who claim responsibility--but they're as good at concealing their identities as they are at wreaking havoc.
In the wake of a shocking assassination, Bennett begins to suspect that these mysterious events are just the prelude to the biggest threat of all. Soon he's racing against the clock, and against the most destructive enemy he's faced yet, to save his beloved city--before everyone's worst nightmare becomes a reality.
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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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Field of blood : a novel
by Denise Mina
When her fiancé's cousin is implicated in the sensational murder of a young boy and a rival reporter leaks the story, fledgling Scottish journalist Paddy Meehan is forced to salvage her relationship with her future in-laws by clearing the cousin's name. By the author of Deception.
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Sleepyhead
by Mark Billingham
His first three victims ended up dead. His fourth was not so fortunate...
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel and is aware of everything going on around her, but is completely unable to move or communicate. Her condition is called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer made his first mistake.
Then D.I. Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth; it isn’t Alison who is the mistake, it’s the three women already dead. "An appropriate margin of error" is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. For the killer is smart, and he’s getting his kicks out of toying with Thorne as much as he is pursuing his sick fantasy. Thorne knows immediately he’s not going to catch the killer with simple procedure. But with little more than gut instinct and circumstantial evidence to damn his chief suspect, anesthetist Jeremy Bishop, his pursuit of him is soon bordering on the unprofessional. Especially considering his involvement with Anne Coburn, Alison’s doctor and Jeremy’s close friend.
Thorne must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer’s identity, is unable to speak...
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Death of a Nightingale
by Lene Kaaberbøl
Thriller. In this 3rd entry of a bestselling Danish series, nurse Nina Borg continues to do good, protecting the young daughter of imprisoned Ukrainian refugee Natasha Doroshenko after a kidnapping attempt. She's also looking into Natasha's past, especially after Natasha escapes police custody and is suspected of killing her fiancé. Interwoven with this story of a desperate mother on the lam is that of two sisters starving through a grim childhood in Stalinist Ukraine. What connects them all isn't immediately clear but eventually provides a satisfyingly twisty resolution for the two different threads of this dark, chilly thriller.
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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 distance : a thriller
by Helen Giltrow
Charlotte Alton is an elegant socialite. But behind the locked doors of her sleek, high-security apartment in London's Docklands, she becomes Karla. Karla's business is information. Specifically, making it disappear. She's the unseen figure who, for a commanding price, will cover a criminal's tracks. A perfectionist, she's only made one slip in her career—several years ago she revealed her face to a man named Simon Johanssen, an ex-special forces sniper turned killer-for-hire. After a mob hit went horrifically wrong, Johanssen needed to disappear, and Karla helped him. He became a regular client, and then, one day, she stepped out of the shadows for reasons unclear to even herself. Now, after a long absence, Johanssen has resurfaced with a job, and he needs Karla's help again. The job is to take out an inmate—a woman—inside an experimental prison colony. But there's no record the target ever existed. That's not the only problem: the criminal boss from whom Johanssen has been hiding is incarcerated there. That doesn't stop him. It's Karla's job to get him out alive, and to do that she must uncover the truth. Who is this woman? Who wants her dead? Is the job a trap for Johanssen or for her? But every door she opens is a false one, and she's getting desperate to protect a man—a killer—to whom she's inexplicably drawn. Written in stylish, sophisticated prose, The Distance is a tense and satisfying debut in which every character, both criminal and law-abiding, wears two faces, and everyone is playing a double game.
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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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It happens in the dark
by Carol O'Connell
After two patrons at a play are found murdered on successive nights, detective Kathy Mallory investigates the killings along with the mysterious backstage chalkboard messages in the latest mystery in the series following The Chalk Girl.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Prince George's County Memorial Library System 6532 Adelphi Rd. Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 301-699-3500http://www.pgcmls.info/ |
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