Mystery

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewel is a well-written thriller that not only contains a mystery but is also loaded with lots of family drama.

Libby Jones, who at age 25 is happy with her simple life, working to sell kitchen remodels, finds herself pulled into discovering her past when she inherits a $7 million dollar home from her biological parents who died in a suicide pact when she was 10 months old. Told from many characters’ perspectives, we learn that the Chelsea house in London has a history that is dark and disturbing.  The book continually switches between the past and present

On the face of things, Where the Crawdads Sing is about murder. But this isn't your typical, fast-paced whodunit. Even when the plot moves into the investigation stage the story takes its time, much like the water Kyra lives on, winding between the present and past.  A victim of her circumstances, Kyra is alone in the world at the age of 10. As a young woman, Kyra has limited interactions with the town and its people. Her world revolves around the swamp and marsh, necessity bringing her to the edge of town and thereby society. As she grows up we see more of her inner turmoil: the desire to

Small town.  Urban Legends.  A gruesome stabbing.

Before She Was Found definitely felt like it could be the ripped from the headlines fictionalized retelling of the Slender Man stabbing.  For those unfamiliar, in 2014 two 12 year old girls lured their 12 year old friend into the woods and proceeded to stab her 19 times to appease the entity known as 'Slender Man'.  For the first couple of chapters I was worried that this book was going to be nothing more than a retelling of true events with the names changed.  Though the plot does concern the aftermath of a brutal stabbing involving three 12

This story is the legend of Sleepy Hollow from the point of view of the main female character, Katrina Van Tassel. Having grown up the only daughter to a wealthy farmer and doting mother, Katrina is strong in her opinions, desires and actions. While this strength of character gets Katrina into some mischief, it also allows her to follow her heart and find a deep love with the new school teacher, Ichabod Crane.

When Ichabod first arrives at Sleepy Hollow he stays with the Van Tassel family until he finds the first host family among his pupils. Katrina's father hires him quickly to be her music

Lethal White is the fourth book in this mystery series, featuring detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. If you're unaware, Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, and she does a great job with this adult series. 

Coming off the success of catching the Shacklewell Ripper, Cormoran Strike is busier and more famous than ever. With Robin having been fired, Strike must hire contract workers to help provide surveillance on his cases. One of his hires, Barclay, is a likable character who gets decent coverage in this book, and hopefully future books. Thankfully, we pick up pretty

Helen Abell runs four CIA safe houses for the Berlin Station in 1979. While performing routine microphone inspections she captures two important conversations that will change the course of her life. Helen knows her clearance does not allow her to investigate these agents, however a series of events leads her to uncover sinister cover ups within the CIA. In 2014, Helen and her husband are murdered in their Maryland farmhouse by their son. Anna goes home to bury her parents and discover what lead her brother to this horrific act. She enlists the help of a private investigator new to town, Henry

Cop Town is set in 1974 Atlanta. There aren't a lot of women on the police force, and for those that are, things aren't always what they hoped. The only female detectives are used as under-cover prostitutes to catch perps, and the rest of the women are denigrated and harassed to no end.

We meet Kate Murphy on her first day on the job, unexpectedly forced into the working world after the death of her husband. There's a cop killer in the city, and the Atlanta Police Department is in turmoil. Kate is shuffled around because no one wants her, and eventually gets paired with Maggie Lawson for

I See You is a psychological thriller about Zoe Walker, who, while commuting to work on the train, sees a picture of herself in a classified ad in a newspaper. Knowing she did not place the ad, Zoe becomes paranoid and hyper-vigilant on her way to and from work. After noticing her own picture, Zoe begins looking at the ads more closely, and believes there is a connection between the women featured and the same women being victims of recent crimes. Fearing that she will come to the same fate as the strangers whose faces she now finds so familiar, Zoe begins to view everyone she encounters as a

Unforgotten opens with a series of scenes depicting perfectly ordinary people going about their lives and interacting with other perfectly ordinary people. At the same time, a body is discovered in the basement of a building that's over a century old, and DCI Cassie Stuart and her partner DI Sunny Khan must figure out not only what happened to the deceased, but when, in the long history of that building, he died. This mystery series is smart, engaging, thoughtful, and empathetic, and the story's interplay between ordinary people and the crime that's almost certainly been committed by one of

As and initial suspense thriller from this author, The French Girl is pretty well done. It follows the typical plot points used by many others: there's been a murder and our main character can't remember exactly what happened. Or she thinks she might remember, but she is constantly questioning herself and her memories based on what other 'friends' tell her and say. 

Back when Kate was a student at Oxford, she and five friends spent a week at a French farmhouse. The neighbor, Severine, had gone missing, but Kate didn't dwell much on the news. Now, ten years later, it turns out that Severine

And Then There Were None is the first Agatha Christie novel I’ve read, and I was not disappointed. This intense mystery follows ten strangers who have been invited to stay on an island by an unknown host. Trying to figure out which of the guests lured the rest to this remote location, and then committed murder, is what keeps the reader engaged. As I am often disappointed when I can foresee the conclusion of a book, I was delighted that Christie’s writing style kept me on my toes, and didn’t make any one suspect stand out consistently. Each flawed characters’ flashbacks show possible malice

Everyone has their path. The choices they've made. How any two people end up in the same place at the same time is a mystery. You get on an elevator with a dozen strangers. You ride a bus, wait in line for the bathroom. It happens every day. To try to predict the places we'll go and the people we'll meet would be pointless.

In a world of 24/7 news coverage, where is the line between news and entertainment? In our instant-access world, can we handle the unknown? Do coincidences happen or is everything connected by fate? Does correlation mean causation? Before the Fall by Noah Hawley may ask

Aiden was six when he went missing during a bad rainstorm which flooded the banks of the river that runs through their village. His family and police believed he had been swept away by the river and drowned, having only found his jacket floating in the river and no body. Ten years later his mom is married and in her last month of pregnancy when she gets the incredible news that Aiden is alive. Told from the viewpoint of Aiden's mom, Emma, the Silent Child is a psychological thriller that will engulf you in the chaos of Emma's intense emotions as she tries to figure out who took Aiden.

What

Persons Unknown is second in the DS Manon series, where we follow Manon Bradshaw after she has adopted Fly Dent, gotten pregnant, and left the murder squad. She's taken on cold cases to avoid strenuous duty, but it seems she has buyer's remorse. It is obvious that she'd prefer to be working on active cases, and her opinion of her former partner, Davy, and his new lead are less than kind. Steiner touches on current issues of race - Fly, twelve, is aware that he is frequently stopped and questioned or searched because he is a black, teen boy giving Manon reason to move out of London. Manon, Fly

On a disturbance scale, Mother! falls somewhere between other Darren Aronofsky films, Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, with a story more comparable to Noah combined with an all-out assault on social etiquette and political correctness that creates the strangest kind of satire.  

In a movie of characters' without names, Jennifer Lawrence plays the titular mother. Wife to a famous poet, played by Javier Bardem, she single-handedly rebuilds their house which has been lost in a fire. She paints, builds, and decorates all day long while he attempts to write. Quiet and secluded, their existence

I was swept away by this miniseries. Not fully knowing what to expect, the first episode traps you in an engaging story of anxiety and murder. The set-up feels like the first half of The Stranger by Albert Camus. Every detail, small or otherwise, will be taken into account in later episodes that depict the trial of one of the protagonists.

The show is spearheaded by John Turturro who plays criminal court attorney John Stone. Stone can be described as an "ambulance chaser" but clearly has a soft spot for people in general and his family specifically. His struggles with eczema mirror the

I love a good cookie and a good murder mystery. When I heard about Murder, She Baked, based on Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series, I couldn't wait to check it out. I have been meaning to read Fluke's Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, which is first in the series and is the plot for this Hallmark TV movie.

We follow Hannah, a professional baker whose amateur sleuth tendencies come out when one of her friends is murdered in their small town. Hannah (played by Alison Sweeney) uses her local connections to retrace her friend's last steps and to uncover clues. Her sleuthing causes her to butt heads

Renée Ballard works the overnight shift at LA's  Hollywood station aka The Late Show. Cops on this shift don't get to follow their cases - they respond to calls, get information and start the paperwork for the daytime crews to take over. This is why it's considered a punishment for cops that have screwed up in some way. It's rather unfulfilling, and Ballard struggles against this - she's a good cop, and wants to finish a case. She finds a way to keep working on all three of the cases she gets a call out on. One of the cases is a credit card theft that seems pretty straight forward, another is

Arrowood is a grand mansion on the banks where the Des Moines River meets the Mississippi River. Arden Arrowood spent her childhood living in the family home until the tragic disappearance of her two-year old twin sisters drove her family to abandon the house. Now, almost 20 years later, Arden returns to  Arrowood and the memories of her childhood and her sisters. Will she finally be able to find out what happened on that fateful day so long ago?

Arrowood is an absorbing story with a strong lead character that holds your interest throughout. The sense of place (the mansion on the river and

The Haunting of Fabian Gray is a classic action and adventure story with some wonderful twists that are fitting for comics. The reader follows Fabian Gray, a treasure hunter, in search of his missing sister after a supernatural incident made her disappear and gave him special abilities.

Fabian Gray is torn, possessed by five ghosts: The Wizard (much like Merlin), The Archer (much like Robin Hood), The Detective (much like Sherlock Holmes), The Vampire (much like Dracula), and finally, The Samurai (much like, well, a samurai). He uses their spirits to enhance his own prowess. I enjoyed that

Line of Duty is a British cop show that follows the internal affairs unit as they attempt to flush out corruption in their own ranks. In the first series, Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott is transferred to the anti-corruption squad after he refuses to participate in the cover-up of a botched counter-terrorism raid. In his new position, he finds himself charged with looking into the possibly-shady activities of Detective Chief Inspector Gates, who has come to the attention of the anti-corruption unit because of his team's unusually high solve rate for their cases. Gates' unique success has

Jean Taylor's husband, Glen, is accused of abducting a small child named Bella in what becomes a sensationalized media case. The press fixates on Glen and his alleged guilt, even after he is declared by the courts to be not guilty. Jean is noteworthy mostly for standing steadfastly by Glen's side and staunchly maintaining his innocence throughout the long ordeal. Both Glen and Jean also refuse to ever speak to the rabidly interested press, but now that Glen has died in an accident, Jean decides (seemingly at random) to open up to one journalist in particular. Since the Bella case has never

Mikael Blomkvist is an investigative reporter and co-owner of a magazine, Millennium, in Stockholm, Sweden. A bygone behemoth of Swedish industry hires him to solve the 36-year-old mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Lisbeth Salander is the 24-year-old genius computer hacker (complete with tattoos, piercings, and black lipstick) who aids Mikael in his search for the answers. In uncovering what happened to Harriet, they discover a much bigger secret in Sweden.

This story is well-written and creative. Stieg Larsson creates a world where everything is possible and nothing is coincidence

Celine is a savvy, cultured, sixty-nine year-old private investigator and sculptor battling emphysema. Gabriela hires Celine to investigate her father’s death. Paul Lamont, Gabriela’s father, is a famous National Geographic photographer. Lamont’s frequent travels to South America cause friends to joke he is a spy. After Gabriela finds a passport with a different name, she is certain her father was not killed in a bear attack at Yellowstone National Park.

Celine and her quiet, yet always-on-top of things husband, Pete, set out to Yellowstone to travel Lamont’s path. As a champion of lost

Aubrey, Jenny, and Kate are thrown together as roommates their freshman year at Ivy league Carlisle College. Despite their vastly different personalities--and the betrayal, in-fighting, and back-biting among them--they claim to be the closest of friends until a tragic accident (or is it a murder?) at the end of the year tears them apart. But their stories don't end there. Twenty years later, they're all back in their college town, and one of the three dies in an accident (or is it a murder?) suspiciously similar to the one they were involved with as students. 

It's Always the Husband is

I picked up Behind Her Eyes simply because Stephen King said it was "bloody brilliant." He said you'll never see the ending coming. I decided if he couldn't figure it out, then it must be good. Even if some of his books are too terrifying to read, I think King is a genius.

The opening scene in this book is a man walking out of the woods with dirt under his nails after having killed someone. You will spend the rest of the book trying to figure out his identity. Behind Her Eyes is a psychological thriller about the deeply troubled marriage of Adele and David. At the beginning of the book, David

In this latest novel from Ruth Ware, travel writer Lo Blacklock gets the opportunity of a lifetime to go on the maiden voyage of the Aurora, a luxury cruise ship. Days before, however, a break-in at her flat while she is home leaves her rattled and shaken. Lo settles in to her cabin to get ready for a formal dinner the first night, only to discover she's got no mascara--it was in her purse when it was stolen. She decides to borrow some from another passenger, goes next door, and meets her neighbor, a mysterious woman who seems in a hurry to get rid of her. Throughout the dinner, Lo tries her

Told in alternating perspectives of members of the Dane family from both the past and the present, McHugh builds a twisted and disturbing portrait of a family with deep, dark secrets.

Lucy never knew her mother; she walked into a cave when Lucy was one and never came out. Then, at sixteen, Lucy’s developmentally disabled friend, Cheri, goes missing, leaving Lucy wondering what part her lack of enthusiasm for the friendship played in the disappearance. When Lucy starts working at the family store, she discovers a clue that puts her on the trail of not just Cheri’s final moments, but her long

The In Death murder mystery series is based on Lieutenant Eve Dallas solving homicides in 2058 New York City. Eve, with her troubled past and guarded demeanor, works tirelessly to give the dead the justice they deserve. Coupled with Roarke, Eve's billionaire and tech savvy husband, she often finds herself digging through cases with his help. Along with standing for the dead, Eve must face the demons in her own past. These futuristic crime novels will keep you guessing until the last page!

You can read any book out of order for a suspenseful murder mystery, or read in order to follow the

In Dead Dancing Women, Emily Kincaid has moved to northern Michigan to get a fresh start and some distance from her ex-husband. Emily is a freelance journalist who dreams of writing mystery novels. The trouble starts when she goes for a walk and finds the head of an old woman in her trash can. How did it get there? Who would do such a thing in this small town? Emily teams up with Deputy Dolly so she can write for the newspaper about the current event and help solve the mystery before someone else is murdered.

This is the first book in the Emily Kincaid series, and Emily gets a cute sidekick