LibraryAware November 2020

A Beautiful Crime
by Christopher Bollen

Starring: Nicholas Brink, who trades New York for Venice when his new boyfriend is called back to the Floating City to claim an inheritance; Clay Guillory, Nick's grounded boyfriend who has a long history with the city; Venice itself, which is portrayed in all of its lush (but decaying) glory.

The scheme: Nick gets greedy upon seeing the beautiful but decrepit palazzo Clay has inherited a share in, and soon talks a reluctant Clay into a risky but lucrative antiques hustle that quickly goes awry.

Read it for: the compelling relationship between Nick and Clay, which has more depth than it initially seems to; the tone, which manages to evoke both Patricia Highsmith and André Aciman.

A Good Death
by Christopher R. Cox

Thriller. Boston P.I. Sebastian Damon has been hired by an insurance company to investigate the suspicious death, in Bangkok, of a Laotian immigrant to the U.S. who'd become the president of a Boston bank. Once in Thailand, Sebastian teams up with an American Vietnam vet expat and finds the (not in fact dead) former bank president. But there's a corrupt, money-hungry Thai cop on their tail, and Sebastian is more than a bit taken by the lovely banker, who's in search of her long-lost father -- in Laos, which is across a dangerous jungle border, rife with unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War. With a strong sense of place, this debut thriller offers exotic settings, local color, and an insightful perspective on both the Vietnam war and the Laotian wilderness.

Almost Perfect

The Perfect Wife
by JP Delaney

What it's about: Abbie Cullen-Scott doesn't remember why she's in the hospital, although her high-profile tech innovator husband tells says she's been in a coma for five years after a major accident. But while she rebuilds her life, Abbie starts to notice other things she can't account for, including her mysterious inability to taste or smell anything.

Why you might like it: Evoking elements of classic thrillers like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, this novel raises compelling, troubling questions about the intersection between advanced technology and humanity's most primitive impulses.

Perfect Little Children
by Sophie Hannah

The premise: More than a decade after it happened, Beth Leeson still feels pangs of guilt about the way things ended with her closest friend Flora. After hearing that Flora has returned to town with her husband and children, Beth follows an impulse and drives to their upmarket neighborhood to see how life is treating her friend.

The problem: Beth times it perfectly and gets to catch a glance them returning home. Flora looks good, but instead of the teenagers she expects, she sees two small children that appear not to have aged a day in the last 12 years.

Nine Perfect Strangers
by Liane Moriarty

What it is: a character-driven, witty take on the suspense trope of a group of strangers thrown together by circumstances, this time at a chichi wellness retreat that may be more than it seems.

Featuring: wealthy but unhappy people like a couple whose marriage is suffering after winning the lottery, a young woman haunted by the death of her twin, a washed-up romance novelist, and an out-of-shape former Olympian. And overseeing it all is a preternaturally beautiful fitness guru with an unorthodox new regime to test out on her clients.

One Perfect Lie
by Lisa Scottoline

What it's about: Living undercover as a high school baseball coach, ATF agent Curt Abbott is investigating a potential domestic terror plot inspired by the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. But he didn't anticipate the complex web of connections underpinning the school's picturesque little town, nor the forces waiting to reel him into it.

Who it's for: young adult readers looking for sophisticated thrillers; anyone who enjoys parallel narratives; readers curious about the pitfalls of modern technology and its ability to radicalize vulnerable and disaffected young people.

Contact your librarian for more great books!

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