Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh
Fiction
About the authors: Clare Mackintosh is an award-winning New York Times and international bestselling author. She spent twelve years on the police force in England and has written for the Guardian, Good Housekeeping, and other publications.
For fans of: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins and Liar Liar by Lisa Jackson.
Reviewers say: “[A] deliciously creepy tale of urban paranoia.”—Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10.
The Outsider by Stephen King
Fiction
Starring: Ralph Anderson, Flint City detective, and Holly Gibney, former assistant to Bill Hodges of Mr. Mercedes fame.
What it’s about: It looks like an open and shut case when Terry Maitland, local coach and all-around great guy, is arrested for the brutal murder of an 11-yr old boy. There were reliable witnesses who saw Maitland, and his DNA and fingerprints are all over the evidence. Ralph Anderson is sure he has the right guy and arrests him at a public event. But then Maitland produces an iron-clad alibi that has witnesses and DNA evidence putting him in a different place when the murder was committed. The contradictory evidence is grounds to bring in investigator Holly Gibney, who played a crucial part in King’s Bill Hodges trilogy. This being Stephen King, the supernatural eventually finds its way into the plot and if you have a phobia about worms you may want to let someone else recap the last part for you.
Audio note: This is a great experience on audio; Will Patton does an excellent job voicing all the characters, with much emotion and expertise, as he did for King’s Bill Hodges trilogy.>
The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney
Fiction
What the reviewers say: “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child
Book Buzz: Soon to be a major motion pictures directed by Ron Howard.
For fans of: Girl on the Train by Paula McLain and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn./a>
How It Happened by Michael Koryta
Fiction
What it’s about: FBI interrogation specialist Rob Barrett takes on the case of a double murder in Maine and gets a confession out of local drug addict Kimmie Crepeaux. She confesses to having helped conceal the murders and accuses well-known and well-liked local resident Mathias Burke of committing the murders. Problem is, when the lake where Burke supposedly dumped the bodies is searched, nothing is found and Kimmie is branded a liar. Only Barrett believes her and starts to investigate Burke, making enemies of the local community and law enforcement.
Reviewers say: Kirkus calls it “flawless, unpredictable storytelling,” and Publishers Weekly writes that Koryta “has few peers in combining murder mysteries with psychological puzzles.”
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Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Fiction
What it’s about: Five female employees of an accounting firm are sent on a team-building exercise in the Australian wilderness, but only four return. Federal Agents Falk and Cooper get involved in the search for Alice, the missing woman, because she was their inside source in an investigation of possible money laundering by the firm.
Series alert: This is Harper’s second thriller featuring Aaron Falk, after The Dry, which won The British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of the year in 2017.
Reviewers say: Publishers Weekly calls it “a gripping tale of an elemental battle for survival,” and Kirkus writes that “Harper layers her story with hidden depths, expertly mining the distrust between Alice and her four colleagues, and the secrets that simmer under the surface.”
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Fiction
1867 Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Ross, who narrates parts of the book, finds the murdered body of a trapper in his cabin. Her teenage son Francis, who was friends with the dead trapper, has disappeared and is assumed by some to have been the killer. She decides to go searching for Francis with the help of half-Indian trapper William Parker. Of this 2006 Costa Book of the Year winner, Booklist writes the following: “This atmospheric, multilayered first novel is part murder mystery, part historical saga, and part meditation on civilization versus wilderness. The sparsely settled, frozen landscape is vividly evoked, and each stage of the pursuit takes the characters deeper into the wild and deeper into him-or her-self.”
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
Fiction
Arthur Pepper lived a quiet and contented, if very ordinary, life with his wife Miriam. One year after her death, he discovers a charm bracelet among her things that he has never seen before. There is a telephone number on one charm and thus begins a most surprising odyssey to London, Paris, and India to discover who Miriam was before she met Arthur. Arthur’s journey of self-discovery is a story of optimism and healing.
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
Fiction
Stephen King’s hard-boiled detective thriller finds Bill Hodges retired from the police force and contemplating suicide. Then he receives a note from the “Mercedes killer” who killed 8 people at a jobs fair and was never caught. Mr. Mercedes is trying to talk Hodges into killing himself, just as he talked the woman whose Mercedes he used in the killings to commit suicide. But Hodges comes out of his depression and decides to go after the Mercedes killer, Brady Hartfield, who lives with his alcoholic mother in the same house he has lived all his life. Brady has plans for a much bigger massacre and Hodges means to stop him. Will Patton does an excellent job narrating the audiobook, doing full justice to both leads, Hodges and the Mercedes killer.
The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan
Fiction
Real estate inspector David Malone starts an affair with local law student Jana Fletcher after discovering that his live-in fiancée cheated on him. Less than two weeks after meeting Jana, he is a suspect in her murder. The real killer, who calls himself “K”, goes on to kill another woman and reveals what else he has been doing that brought him to this point; he is now debating if and how he should go about killing David, who has decided to investigate Jana’s murder. This is a prequel to Dolan’s Bad Things Happen where David Malone becomes David Loogan. Intricately plotted and fast-paced, this is a book of well-crafted suspense.
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
Fiction
A psychological suspense novel about Rachel Jenner who is out walking in the park with her eight-year-old son Ben and their dog when Ben asks to run ahead by himself and out of sight. After she discovers their dog has been injured but no Ben she becomes frantic and calls the police. The search begins for Ben and the person who may have taken him. Detective Inspector James Clemo is put in charge of the case and is frustrated by how long it is taking him to solve it. Everyone is under suspicion including Rachel’s ex-husband and new wife and her own sister. Rachel of course blames herself and soon is on trial in the press. A compelling storyline and a good book to listen with two narrators.