Thrillers
The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser
View availability at your local library
Frank is a service station owner on a little-used highway who just wants a quiet life. His granddaughter has been sent to stay with him to fix her attitude, but they don't talk a lot. When a badly injured young woman arrives at Frank's service station with several cars in pursuit, Frank and a handful of unsuspecting customers are thrust into a life-or-death standoff. But who are this group of men and women who will go to any lengths for revenge? And what do they want? Other than no survivors?... Set on a lonely, deserted highway, deep in the Australian badlands.
Dear Child by Romy Hausmann
View availability at your local library
A windowless shack in the woods. Lena's life and that of her two children follows the rules set by their captor, the father: meals, bathroom visits and study time are strictly scheduled and meticulously observed. He protects his family from the dangers lurking in the outside world and makes sure that his children will always have a mother to look after them. One day Lena manages to flee - but the nightmare continues. It seems as if her tormentor wants to get back what belongs to him. And then there is the question of whether she really is the woman called 'Lena', who disappeared without a trace over thirteen years ago. The police and Lena's family are all desperately trying to piece together a puzzle which doesn't quite seem to fit.
Violet by SJI Holliday
View availability at your local library
When two young women - strangers - end up sharing a cabin on the Trans-Siberian Express, a strange friendship develops, one that can only have one ending... a nerve-shattering psychological thriller from bestselling author SJI Holliday. When Carrie's best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world trip they'd planned together, Carrie decides to go it alone. Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is also desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available. When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend's place. Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond. But as the journey continues, through Mongolia and into Russia, things start to unravel - because one of these women is not who she claims to be... A tense, nerve-shattering psychological thriller about obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships, Violet also reminds us that there's a reason why mother told us not to talk to strangers...
A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone
View availability at your local library
Three generations of women from the Skelfs family take over the family funeral-home and PI businesses in the first book of a taut, page-turning and darkly funny new series. Meet the Skelfs: well-known Edinburgh family, proprietors of a long-established funeral-home business, and private investigators... When patriarch Jim dies, it's left to his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah to take charge of both businesses, kicking off an unexpected series of events. Dorothy discovers mysterious payments to another woman, suggesting that Jim wasn't the husband she thought he was. Hannah's best friend Mel has vanished from university, and the simple adultery case that Jenny takes on leads to something stranger and far darker than any of them could have imagined. As the women struggle to come to terms with their grief, and the demands of the business threaten to overwhelm them, secrets from the past emerge, which change everything.
The Half Sister by Sandie Jones
View availability at your local library
It's Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren't celebrating. They're still reeling from his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly's mother's girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Lego. Lolly's always loved Lego, and he prides himself on following the kit instructions exactly. Now, faced with a pile of building blocks and no instructions, Lolly must find his own way forward.
The Hidden Things by Jamie Mason
View availability at your local library
A twisty, dark thriller, inspired by the real-life unsolved theft of a seventeenth-century painting by a Dutch master.
A home-security camera captures the hidden resolve in fourteen-year-old Carly Liddell as she fends off a vicious attack just inside her own front door. The video of her heroic escape appears online and goes viral. As the view count climbs, Carly's stepfather is spurred to protect his darkest secret: how a stolen painting - four hundred years old, by a master of the Dutch Golden Age - has come to hang in his suburban foyer. The art dealer, left for dead when the painting vanished, sees a chance to buy back her life, and the double-crossed enforcer renews the hunt to deliver the treasure to his billionaire patrons - even if he has to kill to succeed.
The Girl Beneath The Sea by Andrew Mayne
View availability at your local library
For a Florida police diver, danger rises to the surface in an adventurous thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist. Coming from scandalous Florida treasure hunters and drug smugglers, Sloan McPherson is forging her own path, for herself and for her daughter, out from under her family's shadow. An auxiliary officer for Lauderdale Shores PD, she's the go-to diver for evidence recovery. Then Sloan finds a fresh kill floating in a canal - a woman whose murky history collides with Sloan's. Their troubling ties are making Sloan less a potential witness than a suspect. And her colleagues aren't the only ones following every move she makes - so is the killer. Stalked by an assassin, pitted against a ruthless cartel searching for a lost fortune, and under watch within her ranks, Sloan has only one ally: the legendary DEA agent who put her own uncle behind bars. He knows just how deep corruption runs - and the kind of danger Sloan is in. To stay alive, Sloan must stay one step ahead of her enemies - both known and unknown - and a growing conspiracy designed to pull her under.
In Her Shadow by Kristin Miller
View availability at your local library
Once his secretary, Colleen is now pregnant with Michael's baby. When he brings her to his opulent estate, Ravenwood, she is abruptly thrust into a life of luxury she's never known. But Colleen finds the immense house suffused with the memory of Michael's beautiful wife, Joanna, who left months ago and who haunts her imagination. It quickly becomes apparent that there is little room for a new mistress of this house: The staff greets her with hostility, and there are entire wings and corridors from which she is prohibited to enter. Then bones are unearthed in the grove across the street. When Michael falls under the suspicion of the detectives investigating the case, the soon-to-be mother of his child finds herself hurled deeper into her boyfriend's dark past - a past that threatens to upend all her dreams. But the terrifying secrets lurking in the shadows of Ravenwood pale in comparison to the drastic measures Colleen will take to stake a claim to her new life.
The Dead Ex by Jane Corry
View availability at your local library
Vicki's husband Daniel once promised to love her in sickness and in health. But after she was attacked and left suffering with epilepsy, he left her for his mistress. So when Vicki gets a call one day to say that he's missing, her first thought is 'good riddance'. But then the police find evidence suggesting that Daniel is dead. And they think Vicki had something to do with it. What really happened on the night of Daniel's disappearance? And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself?
You Can Trust Me by Emma Rowley
View availability at your local library
Olivia is the domestic goddess-turned-internet sensation who has won millions of followers by sharing her picture-perfect life online. And now she's releasing her tell-all autobiography. Nicky is the ghostwriter tasked with coaxing out the full story - including details of the tragic accident that blighted Olivia's golden childhood. But, as she delves into Olivia's life, Nicky discovers cracks appearing in the glamorous facade. From money worries to Olivia's strained relationship with her handsome husband, the truth belies her perfect image. As Olivia becomes increasingly hostile to the woman she's let into her life, Nicky becomes ever more relentless in her hunt for the truth. Has Olivia really escaped the ghosts of her past - or will Nicky find there are more sinister reasons she wants to leave an old tragedy well alone?