| The Elephant of Surprise by Joe R. LansdaleWhat it's about: When they see a bloodied young woman run out into the road, odd couple detective duo Hap and Leonard stop to help her without hesitation. But no good deed goes unpunished, and soon all three of them are running for their lives.
Who it's for: thriller fans who appreciate dark humor and violent, fast-paced action.
Series alert: The Elephant of Surprise is the 14th entry in Joe Lansdale's series of novels about white, working class conscientious objector Hap Collins and black, gay, heat-packing Vietnam veteran Leonard Pine. |
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| Saving Meghan by D.J. PalmerWhat it's about: Meghan Gerard is a star high school athlete who begins to develop odd symptoms of an illness her doctors can't diagnose, and despite her seemingly adoring parents and their considerable financial resources of, her condition only gets worse.
Is it for you? This medical thriller features a deteriorating marriage, toxic family dynamics, difficult characters, and frank discussions of childhood trauma.
Did you know? Munchausen syndrome is a disorder in which a person or their caregiver fabricates or inflicts symptoms of an illness for attention and sympathy (not a spoiler!). |
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Red, White, Blue
by Lea Carpenter
Anna is the beloved only child of the charismatic Noel, a New York City banker; and a mother who abandoned her. When Noel dies in a mysterious skiing accident in Switzerland the day before his daughter's wedding, Anna, consumed by grief, grows increasingly distant from her prominent music-producing husband, who begins running for office. One day, while on her honeymoon in the south of France, Anna meets an enigmatic stranger who will cause perhaps even greater upheaval in her life. It will soon become clear that this meeting was no chance encounter: this man once worked with Anna's father and has information about parts of Noel's life that Anna never knew. When she arrives back in New York, she receives a parcel that contains a series of cryptic recordings and videos showing Noel at the center of a brutal interrogation. Soon, everything Anna knows about her father's life, and his death, is called into question, launching her into a desperate search for the truth.
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Death of a Novice : A Mystery Set in 1920s Ireland
by Cora Harrison
The Reverend Mother is delighted with her new entrant to the convent. Young Sister Gertrude is well-educated, has worked for an accountant and has an appealing sense of humour. But one autumn morning, Sister Gertrude is found dead inside a small wooden shed, just beside the river. Surely a young nun could not die from alcohol poisoning? But when the Reverend Mother delves more deeply into Sister Gertrude's background, she finds some puzzling anomalies. Why did the young nun not delay her entry to the convent until after her sister's wedding? Is it a coincidence that her father died of a similar illness not long before? And could there be a link between Sister Gertrude's death and the gunpowder explosion on Spike Island? The Reverend Mother must find the answers to these questions if she is to safeguard her community from suspicions of murder.
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The chestnut man : a novel
by Søren Sveistrup
"On the first Tuesday in October, Rosa Hartung is returning to her job as minister for social affairs following a year's leave of absence--granted after the dramatic disappearance of her twelve-year-old daughter. Linus Bekker, a mentally ill young man, confessed to her killing, but is unable to remember where he buried the various parts of her dismembered corpse, leaving Rosa with no choice but to try to move on without closure. The same day Rosa returns to parliament, a young single mother is found brutally murdered at her home in the suburbs of Copenhagen--she's been tortured, and one hand has been cut off. Thulin and Hess, the detectives sent to investigate the crime, arrive at the address to find a figure made of chestnuts hanging from a playhouse nearby. When yet another woman is murdered--this time with both hands cut off--and another chestnut figure is found, Thulin and Hess begin to suspect a connection to the Hartung case. To put an end to the killing spree, the pair, with nothing in common aside from equally troubled personal lives, realize they will need to put aside their differences in a race against time--and a brutal psychopath"
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The dead ex : a novel
by Jane Corry
"One man's disappearance throws four women's lives into chaos--and not all will survive. Vicki works as an aromatherapist, healing her clients out of her home studio with her special blends of essential oils. She's just finishing a session when the police arrive on her doorstep--her ex-husband David has gone missing. Vicki insists she last saw him years ago when they divorced, but the police clearly don't believe her. And her memory's hardly reliable--what if she did have something to do with it? Meanwhile, Scarlet and her mother Zelda are down on their luck, and at eight years old, Scarlet's not old enough to know that the "game" her mother forces her to play is really just a twisted name for dealing drugs. Soon, Zelda is caught, and Scarlet is forced into years of foster care--an experience that will shape the rest of her life. David's new wife, Tanya, is the one who reported him missing, but what really happened on the night of David's disappearance? And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself? The answer lies in the connection among these four women--and the one person they can't escape"
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False Witness
by Michelle Davies
7.15am: Two children are seen on top of a wall in a school. Shortly later one of them lies fatally injured at the bottom. Did the boy fall or was he pushed? As a family liaison offer, DC Maggie Neville has seen parents crumble under the weight of their child's death. Imogen Tyler is no different. Her son's fall was witnessed by the school caretaker, a pupil is under suspicion, and Imogen is paralysed by grief and questions. For Maggie, finding the truth is paramount if she is to help the mother. But as she investigates, further doubts emerge and the truth suddenly seems far from certain. Could the witness be mistaken about what happened, and if he is, then who is responsible? And how far will they go to cover up the boy's death?
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Don't You Cry
by Mary Kubica
In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is the only clue, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn to wonder, who is Esther really? And where did she go? Meanwhile, in a small lake town an hour outside of the city, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dish washer. He is immediately drawn to her, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something deeper and darker. As Quinn searches for answers about Esther and Alex is drawn further under Pearl's spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up.
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Science Fiction Thrillers
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| Sleeping Giants by Sylvain NeuvelThe premise: When Rose Franklin was a little girl, she stumbled across a massive metal artifact near her South Dakota town. Now an adult, she's working with a team of fellow scientists to figure out what it is, how it got there, and what the markings on it mean. And the clock is ticking.
Science fiction elements: giant robot parts hidden across the earth, inscrutable extraterrestrial contact.
Series alert: Sleeping Giants is book one of three in the Themis Files series, followed by Waking Gods and Only Human. |
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| The Dead Lands by Benjamin PercyWhat it is: a compelling and descriptive reimagining of the journey of Lewis and Clark, set in a near-future world devastated by war and a flu pandemic.
Science fiction elements: post apocalyptic setting, massive nuclear fallout, mutated flora and fauna.
Reviewers say: "a compelling and at times disturbing story that will leave readers wanting more" (Booklist). |
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| Invasion of Privacy by Christopher ReichStarring: Mary Grant, a canny and tenacious widow who doesn't quite buy the story of her FBI agent husband's death; Jessie Grant, Mary's equally suspicious teenage daughter whose hacking skills will come in handy for discovering the truth.
Science fiction elements: unbreakable computer code and advanced, untraceable surveillance technology.
Read it for: the amoral, creepy villain(s), strong family ties, and an exploration of privacy concerns that may be just around the corner for us all. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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