Murder, mysteries and mayhem gallore in our latest staff picks:
The enigma of room 622 by Joel Dicker
One night in December, a corpse is found in Room 622 of the Hotel Verbier, a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. A police investigation begins without definite end, and public interest wanes with the passage of time. Years later, the writer Joel Dicker, Switzerland's most famous literary ingenue, arrives at that same hotel to recover from a bad breakup, mourn the death of his longtime publisher, and begin his next novel. Little does Joel know that his expertise in the art of the thriller will come in handy when he finds himself investigating the crime. He'll need a Watson, of course: in this case, that would be Scarlett, the beautiful guest and aspiring novelist from the next room, who joins in the search while he tries to solve another puzzle: the plot of his next book.
56 days by Catherine Ryan Howard
No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead. 56 DAYS AGO: Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores. 35 DAYS AGO: When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who - and what - he really is. TODAY: Detectives arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposing body inside. Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime?
Pensioner Felix Pink is about to find out that it's never too late... for life to go horribly wrong. When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he's there to perform an act of kindness and charity - to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath ... But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police - after making the biggest mistake of his life. Now his world is turned upside down as he tries to discover what went wrong, while staying one step ahead of the law.
Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy
An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving
The Complicities by Stacey D'erasmo
After her husband Alan's financial crimes come to light, Suzanne's wealthy, comfortable life shatters. Alan goes to prison. Suzanne files for divorce, and begins to create a new life and identity. Ignoring a steady stream of calls from Norfolk State Prison, she tries to cleanse herself of all connections to her ex-husband.
The Other side of the Night by Adam Hamdy
David Asha wants to tell you a story about three people: Elliott Asha, his son, broken by a loss that will redeem him. Ben Elmys, a surrogate father and David's trusted friend, a man who might also be a murderer. Harriet Kealty, a detective determined to find the truth behind three mysterious deaths, investigating a man who might be the love of her life. Every word David tells you is true, but you will think it fiction..
Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan
Near the dying English seaside town of Ilmarsh, local police detective Alec Nichols discovers sixteen horses’ heads on a farm, each buried with a single eye facing the low winter sun. After forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen travels to the scene, the investigators soon uncover evidence of a chain of crimes in the community – disappearances, arson and mutilations – all culminating in the reveal of something deadly lurking in the ground itself.
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