| The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures by Jennifer HofmannStarring: Bernd Zeigler, a Stasi agent nearing retirement age; young waitress Lara, who disappears shortly after Bernd impulsively reveals classified information to her; Bernd's neighbor Johannes, a physicist who he met on the wrong side of an interrogation decades before.
Why you might like it: The surreal happenings, quirky characters, and dark humor distinguish it from other thrillers set in totalitarian states.
Reviewers say: This novel tells "a story that John le Carré might have written for The Twilight Zone" (The Washington Post). |
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| The Loop by Jeremy Robert JohnsonWhat it is: a fast-paced techno-thriller set in the small Oregon town of Turner Falls, where a biotech company loses control of an experiment with devastating potential fallout for the town and the human race itself.
For fans of: Other apocalyptic stories that combine elements of horror with social satire, such as Wanderers by Chuck Wendig or Mira Grant's Newsflesh series. |
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| The Second Mother by Jenny MilchmanWhat it's about: Grieving the loss of her daughter, recovering alcoholic Julie Weathers is hoping for a fresh start after accepting a teaching job on an island off the coast of Maine, in a quaint town called Mercy. But beneath Mercy's charming surface is a knotty web of secrets, and Julie's arrival in town risks unearthing everything.
Read it for: The well-rendered atmosphere, which alternates between appealing small-town scenes, gothic-tinged moments of building suspense, and the ever-present menace of the open sea. |
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Too close to home : a novel
by Andrew Grant
As an intelligence agent-turned-courthouse janitor, Paul McGrath notices everything and everyone but no one notices him. It's the perfect cover for the justice he seeks for both his father and the people who've been wronged by a corrupt system. Now McGrath has discovered a missing file on Alex Pardew the man who defrauded and likely murdered his father but avoided conviction, thanks in large part to the loss of this very file. And what lies behind its disappearance is even worse than McGrath had feared.
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Death in the east : a novel
by Abir Mukherjee
1905, London. As a young constable, Sam Wyndham is on his usual East London beat when he comes across an old flame, Bessie Drummond, attacked in the streets. The next day, when Bessie is found brutally beaten in her own room, locked from the inside, Wyndham promises to get to the bottom of this. But the case will cost the young constable more than he ever imagined. 1922, India. Leaving Calcutta, Captain Sam Wyndham heads for the hills of Assam, to the ashram of a sainted monk where he hopes to conquer his opium addiction. But when he arrives, he sees a ghost from his past a man thought to be long dead, a man Wyndham hoped he would never see again. In Assam, Wyndham knows he must call his friend and colleague Sergeant Banerjee for help. He is certain this figure from his past isn't here by coincidence, but for revenge.
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Curse the Day
by Judith O'reilly
At a global tech gala hosted at the British Museum, scientist Tobias Hawke is due to unveil an astonishing breakthrough. His AI system appears to have reached consciousness, making Hawke the leading light in his field. But when terrorists storm the building, they don't just leave chaos in their wake. They seize Hawke's masterwork, sparking a chain reaction of explosive events which could end the world as we know it. Michael North, ex-assassin and spy-for-hire, is the man to find out. But he can't work alone. Teenage hacker Fangfang, and Hawke's widow, a prize-winning ethicist, have their own reasons to solve the murder. But can they uncover the truth before it's too late?.
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Nine elms : a Kate Marshall thriller
by Robert Bryndza
Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal. Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them. A copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol. Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. Success promises redemption, but there's much more on the line: Kate was the original killer's intended fifth victim and his successor means to finish the job.
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Perfect Kill
by Helen Fields
Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim. Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he's been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn't yet know is that he's now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed. DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland. With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task but there's no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead.
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| The Perfect Wife by JP DelaneyWhat 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. |
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| Perfect Little Children by Sophie HannahThe 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. |
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| One Perfect Lie by Lisa ScottolineWhat 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. |
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| The Perfect Nanny by Leïla SlimaniWhat it is: a twisted, compelling psychological thriller first published in France, which is told from multiple perspectives and raises troubling questions about the demands of modern motherhood.
Back to work: Attorney Myriam is returning to her career after taking time off to spend with her young children, so she and her husband begin to search for a nanny. Forty-something Louise seems perfect and the children take to her immediately, but what role will Louise play in the tragedy revealed in the story's first pages? |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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