Archives de catégorie : Crime & Thrillers

DIG TWO GRAVES de Gretchen McNeil

One of Us is Lying meets Hitchcock in this novel from celebrated author of the #MurderTrending series, Gretchen McNeil. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, the reader never quite knows who’s telling the truth, who’s playing games, and who is going to end up dead.

DIG TWO GRAVES
by Gretchen McNeil
‎ Disney-Hyperion, April 2022
(via Kaplan DeFiore Rights)

I did my part, BFF. Now it’s your turn. Seventeen-year-old film noir fan Neve Lanier is a girl who just wants to be seen, but doesn’t really fit in anywhere. When Neve is betrayed by her best friend, Yasmin, at the end of the school year, she heads off to a girl’s empowerment camp feeling like no one will ever love her again. So when she grabs the attention of the beautiful, charismatic Diane, she falls right under her spell, and may accidentally promise to murder Diane’s predatory step-brother, Javier, in exchange for Diane murdering Yasmin. But that was just a joke…right?
Wrong. When Yasmin turns up dead, Diane comes calling, attempting to blackmail Neve into murdering Javier. Stalling for time, Neve pretends to go along with Diane’s plan until she can find a way out that doesn’t involve homicide. But as she gets to know Javier – and falls for him – she realizes that everything Diane told her is a lie. Even worse, she discovers that Yasmin probably wasn’t Diane’s first victim. And unless Neve can stop her, she won’t be the last.

Gretchen McNeil is the author of #MurderTrending, #MurderFunding, #NoEscape, I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Possess, 3:59, Relic, and Ten which was adapted as the Lifetime original movie Ten: Murder Island in 2017, as well as Get Even and Get Dirty, adapted as the series Get Even which is streaming worldwide on BBC iPlayer and Netflix.

SECRETS SO DEEP de Ginny Myers Sain

From the bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies comes a moody and atmospheric paranormal thriller about a seventeen-year-old girl returning to an exclusive theater camp to uncover the truth of what really happened there twelve years ago, the night her mother drowned.

SECRETS SO DEEP
by Ginny Myers Sain
‎ Razorbill/Penguin BYR, September 2022
(via Park & Fine Literary)

Twelve years ago, Avril’s mother drowned at Whisper Cove theater, just off the rocky Connecticut coastline. It was ruled an accident, but Avril’s never been totally convinced. Local legend claims that the women in the waves—ghosts from old whaling stories—called her mother into the ocean with their whispering. Because, as they say at Whisper Cove, what the sea wants, the sea will have.
While Avril doesn’t believe in ghosts, she knows there are lots of different ways for places, and people, to be haunted. She’s spent the past twelve years trying to make sense of the strange bits and pieces she does remember from the night she lost her mother. Stars falling into the sea. A blinding light. A tight grip on her wrist. The odd sensation of flying. Now, at seventeen, she’s returning to Whisper Cove for the first time, and she might finally unravel the mystery of what really happened.
As Avril becomes more involved with camp director Willa and her mysterious son Cole, Whisper Cove reveals itself to her. Distances seem to shift in the strange fog. Echoes of long-past moments bounce off the marsh. And Avril keeps meeting herself—and her dead mother—late at night, at the edge of the ocean.
The truth Avril seeks is ready to be discovered. But it will come at a terrible cost.

Ginny Myers Sain lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has spent the past twenty years working closely with teens as a director and acting instructor in a program designed for high school students seriously intent on pursuing a career in the professional theatre. Having grown up in deeply rural America, she is interested in telling stories about resilient kids who come of age in remote settings. Her debut novel Dark and Shallow Lies was published by Razorbill in 2021.

THE BLACK QUEEN de Jumata Emill

Sold in a 6-figure pre-empt, Jumata Emill’s debut is at once a fast-paced and ingenious thriller, as well as being an exploration of white privilege, systemic racism—brimming with small-town secrets, Southern Gothic atmosphere, and twists galore. Perfect for fans of White Rabbit and One of Us is Lying.

THE BLACK QUEEN
by Jumata Emill
‎ Delacorte, February 2023
(via Writers House)

Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.
Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.
No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons—Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t face the fact that the main suspect is right in front of his face. Duchess is convinced Tinsley killed Nova. And that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: falling behind the blue line. That could mean the white girl is going to walk free.
Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her. Only Tinsley has an agenda, too. Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.

Jumata Emill is an award-winning Louisiana journalist who has covered crime and local politics in towns that share stark similarities to the one he created for this book. He’s a recent alum of the 2018 Pitch Wars mentee class and member of the Crime Writers of Color.

AFTER DARK WITH ROXIE CLARK de Brooke Lauren Davis

For fans of Kara Thomas and Cruel Summer, a gripping new YA novel about a girl who revels in all things macabre. . . until a chilling murder hits closer to home.

AFTER DARK WITH ROXIE CLARK
by Brooke Lauren Davis
Bloomsbury, October 2022
(via Writers House)

Whistler, Indiana has suffered more than its fair share of misfortunes—everything from sudden drownings to poisoning conspiracies to unsolved disappearances. And almost every bad thing can be traced back to the Clark family. Some people even believe they are cursed. But instead of cowering from her family’s past, Roxie Clark is fascinated by it. Combining her flare for performance with her obsession with all things horror, she’s woven her ancestors’ history into a lucrative ghost tour that has quickly become infamous all over the state.
But six months ago, a shocking tragedy rattled Roxie’s world when Colin Riley—her sister Skylar’s boyfriend—was found stabbed to death in a cornfield. Skylar is distraught, and Roxie is desperate to help her find answers and closure. Instead, Skylar becomes fixated on finding the killer. As the two young women dig into the mystery, Roxie realizes that everyone in town may hiding something. . . and maybe some secrets are best left untold. Brooke Lauren Davis offers another thought-provoking and eerily satisfying tale.

Brooke Lauren Davis grew up in rural Southern Ohio. Now she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she divides her time between working as an indie bookseller and dreaming up more stories about small towns with big secrets. Her debut novel The Hollow Inside was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.

STAY AWAKE de Megan Goldin

In the vein of S.J. Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep and Christopher Nolan’s Memento, an electrifying novel of memory and murder.

STAY AWAKE
by Megan Goldin
‎ St. Martin’s Press, August 2022
(via The Gernert Company)

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.
Two years ago, Liv was living with her best friend, dating a new man, and thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, the same message that’s inked on her hands. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing as she tries to piece together the fragments of her life. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget—permanently.
A complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, STAY AWAKE will keep you up all night.

Megan Goldin, author of The Escape Room and The Night Swim, worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs.