Mystery

Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens

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Rumours of the “Marsh Girl” have circulated for years in the small coastal village of Barkley Cove. Kya Clark is uneducated, barefoot and wild, not fit for civilised society. So when handsome and popular Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya. But Kya is not what everyone thinks she is.
Abandoned by her family and forced to fend for herself from a very young age, Kya is a born naturalist and learned life’s lessons from the land and wildlife around her. But while she has the skills necessary to survive, as she grows up, Kya feels her lack of community ever more keenly. Drawn to two very different young men from the village, she opens herself to a new and startling world, until the unthinkable happens. Read More »

The Mother-In-Law, by Sally Hepworth

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From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was held at arm’s length. Although Diana is always polite to a fault, Lucy knows that even after marrying Oliver, she and Diana will never have the close bond she imaged and hoped for. Yes, you may get to choose your partner, but you don’t get to choose your mother-in-law. Diana is the matriarch of a loving family, a pillar of her community and Lucy just wanted to please her.
That was ten years ago. Now Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But things do not add up; the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation, the suicide note was left concealed in a drawer, and everyone in the family is hiding something… Read More »

City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett

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The city of Bulikov was once the greatest city on the Continent, thanks to the all-powerful Gods who watched over its people. But these Gods also had the power to conquer the world and enslave its people, until they were killed themselves. Now Bulikov’s illustrious history has been censored and its inhabitants subjugated. The city itself was irrevocably altered by the death of the Gods and stands as a constant haunting reminder to its inhabitants of the lives they once lived.
Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. On the surface, she is just another junior bureaucrat sent by the city’s oppressors to lord it over them. But beneath her official veneer, Shara is in fact one of her country’s most accomplished spies. She was sent to Bulikov to investigate a murder but soon realizes that there is much more going on amongst the rubble. And she begins to suspect that the all-powerful Gods may not be as dead as everyone thinks. Read More »

Songbirds, by Christy Lefteri

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Petra, newly widowed and struggling, hires Nisha to care for her daughter. Nisha left her own daughter behind in Sri Lanka to find work in Cyprus and has not seen her for many years. Yiannis rents the upstairs apartment in Petra’s house, has a secret relationship with Nisha and another secret: he is a poacher, hunting the tiny songbirds which migrate past the island each year.
When Nisha suddenly vanishes, nobody cares, she is only a domestic worker after all. The only people desperate to find her are Petra and Yiannis, although for different reasons. As they search for Nisha, both realise how little they actually knew her and what they uncover will change them all. Read More »

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

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The young heroine of Rebecca is working as a companion to a rich American woman summering in Monte Carlo. Her future looks bleak until a surprise meeting with Max de Winter changes everything. A handsome widower with a large estate in England would not seem a likely match. However, a relationship of sorts is formed, but his sudden proposal still takes her by surprise. Whisked from Monte Carlo to the brooding house of Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds herself out of her depth, and her new husband a changed man.
The memory of his dead wife is everywhere at Manderley, kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper. Will the new Mrs de Winter be able to find her place, both in the household and her new marriage, or will the constant presence of Rebecca prove too much? Read More »

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

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Just after midnight, somewhere in the Balkans, the Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a massive snowdrift. This famous train is unusually busy for the time of year, but by morning there will be one less passenger. A man is found dead in his compartment, stabbed twelve times in the chest. And his door was locked from the inside!
Luckily Detective Hercule Poirot happened to be travelling on the train, and must now put his remarkable talents to the test. Undoubtedly, the murderer was among the passengers and with the snow preventing any escape, they are certainly still in their midst. The remaining passengers present a real puzzle to Poirot, with many different nationalities, backgrounds and stories. Can he sort out the liars and identify the murderer before he or she strikes again? Read More »

And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

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First, there were ten. An odd assortment of characters, all invited as guests to a small private island off the coast of Devon. Their mysterious host is nowhere to be found and everything seems a little strange. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they are unwilling to reveal. By the morning of the second day on the island, two of the party are dead. Signs point to foul play, but with the island cut off from the mainland by a storm, the murderer must be one of them. Only the dead are above suspicion. And when the guests realize that the murders are happening in sequence, following a famous nursery rhyme which is hung in every bedroom, tensions run high. By the end of the weekend, there will be none. Read More »

The Sanatorium, by Sarah Pearse

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Although on compassionate leave from her job as a police detective, Elin Warner has no desire to travel. But, when an invitation to her estranged brother’s engagement party arrives, she cannot refuse. So she finds herself in an ultra-modern and very isolated hotel in the Swiss Alps. The new hotel might be the height of luxury, but Elin senses a strange feeling about the place. Maybe it is only the hotel’s history as a sanatorium?
However, they wake up the next morning to find her brother Isaac’s fiancée is missing. With the hotel cut off from the outside world by a major snowstorm, Elin is tasked by the Swiss police to investigate the disappearance. As time passes and they are no nearer to finding her, the remaining hotel guests begin to panic. But nobody has realised that another woman is also missing. Read More »

The Ice, by Laline Paull

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A frozen corpse emerges from a glacier under the startled eye of a cruise ship full of tourists. The body is quickly identified as Tom Harding, who was lost in an accident over three years ago. Tom’s friend Sean survived the accident but has lived with the uncertainties and guilt ever since. But what other secrets lie hidden in this cold and unpredictable place? Read More »

The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis

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Nina Borg is a Red Cross nurse living in Copenhagen with her family. She is dedicated to her work and to helping people in need. So, when her old friend Karin calls her in a panic and asks for her help, she cannot say no. Karin gives Nina the key to a storage locker at the station and asks her to retrieve the contents. Nina was in no way expecting what she finds. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy, drugged and naked. Read More »