Ah, small towns; close-knit neighbors, beautiful landscapes and murder... Small towns with big secrets abound in this list of mysteries.
Dry.
By Harper, Jane
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A breathless page-turner, driven by the many revelations Ms. Harper dreams up ... You'll love [her] sleight of hand ... A secret on every page." -- The New York Times"One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read ... Every word is near perfect." -- David BaldacciA small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn't tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there's more to Luke's death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781250105608
|
Hardcover
A Madness of Sunshine
By Singh, Nalini
On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates. That is until one fateful summer - and several vanished bodies - shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that's left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can't run from the past forever. Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape. It's not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.
Publisher: n/a
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9780593099094
|
Paperback(Mass Market Paperback)
Last Words
By Koryta, Michael
Markus Novak just wants to come home. An investigator for a Florida-based Death Row defense firm, Novak's life derailed when his wife, Lauren, was killed in the midst of a case the two were working together. Two years later, her murderer is still at large, and Novak's attempts to learn the truth about her death through less-than-legal means and jailhouse bargaining have put his job on the line. Now he's been all but banished, sent to Garrison, Indiana to assess a cold case that he's certain his boss has no intention of taking.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780316122634
|
Hardcover
Shoot the Moon
By Letts, Billie
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Where the Heart Is comes this eagerly anticipated tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years. In 1972, the tiny windswept town of DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the terrifying disappearance of Nicky Jack Harjo. When he was no more than a baby, his pajama bottoms were found on the banks of Willow Creek. Nearly 30 years later, Nicky mysteriously returns in this intriguing and delightfully hypnotic tale, full of the authentic heartland characters that Billie Letts writes about so beautifully. Billie Letts first novel, Where the Heart Is (Warner, 1996) , was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a selection of Oprah Winfreys Book Club, and was made into a motion picture starring Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman.
Publisher: n/a
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446529001
|
Print book
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
By Dicker, Joel
Instant New York Times Bestseller "Unimpeachably terrific." - The New York Times Book Review One of CBS This Morning's 6 "Must-Have Titles for Your Summer Reading List" The publishing phenomenon topping bestseller lists around the world, with sales of more than two million copies in Europe and rights sold in more than forty countries, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is a fast-paced, tightly plotted, cinematic literary thriller, and an ingenious book within a book, by a dazzling young writer. August 30, 1975: the day fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan is glimpsed fleeing through the woods, never to be heard from again; the day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence. Thirty-three years later, Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist, visits Somerset to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of the country's most respected writers, and to find a cure for his writer's block as his publisher's deadline looms.
Publisher: n/a
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9780143126683
|
Book
The Killing Hills
By Offutt, Chris
Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer's increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife. The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal -- sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers -- and the way it so often shades into violence.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780802158413
|
Hardcover
Unspeakable Things
By Lourey, Jess
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author's hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet - or as safe - as it seems.Cassie McDowell's life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents' strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she's grown accustomed to them.All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who's responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781542008785
|
Paperback
The Witches of Eastwick
By Updike, John
Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorces with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick - and through the even darker fantasies of the town's collective psyche.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780739370810
|
Audiobook
A Small Town
By Perry, Thomas
In A Small Town, twelve conspirators meticulously plan to throw open all the gates to the prison that contains them, so that more than a thousand convicts may escape and pour into the nearby small town. The newly freed prisoners rape, murder, and destroy the town -- burning down homes and businesses. An immense search ensues, but the twelve who plotted it all get away.After two years, all efforts by the local and federal police agencies have been in vain. The mayor and city attorney meet, and Leah Hawkins, a six-foot, two-inch former star basketball player and resident good cop, is placed on sabbatical so that she can tour the country learning advanced police procedures. The sabbatical is merely a ruse, however, as her real job is to track the infamous twelve. And kill them.Leah's mission takes her across the country, from Florida to New York, from California to an anti-government settlement deep in the Ozarks. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues. Full of exhilarating twists and surprisingly resonant, A Small Town will sweep readers along on Leah's quest for vengeance.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780802148063
|
Hardcover
Winter Counts
By Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservationVirgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780062968944
|
Hardcover
The Downstairs Neighbor
By Cooper, Helen
One House. Three Families. Countless Secrets.From her downstairs apartment in suburban London, Emma has often overheard the everyday life of the seemingly perfect family upstairs--Steph, Paul and teenage daughter Freya--but has never got to know them. Until one day, she hears something that seizes her attention: Freya has vanished and the police are questioning Steph and Paul about their life. Do either of you have any enemies? Anyone who might want to harm or threaten you?The effects of Freya's disappearance ripple outward, affecting not just her parents, but everyone who lives in the building, including Emma and local driving instructor Chris, who was the last person to see the teenager before she went missing. Each character's life is thrown into sharp focus as devastating mistakes and long-held secrets are picked apart and other crimes come to light--including a child gone missing twenty-five years earlier, and a shocking murder--that make clear that the past never stays where we leave it, and that homes can be built on foundations of lies.
Dry.
By Harper, Jane
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A breathless page-turner, driven by the many revelations Ms. Harper dreams up ... You'll love [her] sleight of hand ... A secret on every page." -- The New York Times"One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read ... Every word is near perfect." -- David BaldacciA small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn't tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there's more to Luke's death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.
A Madness of Sunshine
By Singh, Nalini
On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates. That is until one fateful summer - and several vanished bodies - shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that's left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can't run from the past forever. Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape. It's not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.
Last Words
By Koryta, Michael
Markus Novak just wants to come home. An investigator for a Florida-based Death Row defense firm, Novak's life derailed when his wife, Lauren, was killed in the midst of a case the two were working together. Two years later, her murderer is still at large, and Novak's attempts to learn the truth about her death through less-than-legal means and jailhouse bargaining have put his job on the line. Now he's been all but banished, sent to Garrison, Indiana to assess a cold case that he's certain his boss has no intention of taking.
Shoot the Moon
By Letts, Billie
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Where the Heart Is comes this eagerly anticipated tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years. In 1972, the tiny windswept town of DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the terrifying disappearance of Nicky Jack Harjo. When he was no more than a baby, his pajama bottoms were found on the banks of Willow Creek. Nearly 30 years later, Nicky mysteriously returns in this intriguing and delightfully hypnotic tale, full of the authentic heartland characters that Billie Letts writes about so beautifully. Billie Letts first novel, Where the Heart Is (Warner, 1996) , was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a selection of Oprah Winfreys Book Club, and was made into a motion picture starring Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman.
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
By Dicker, Joel
Instant New York Times Bestseller "Unimpeachably terrific." - The New York Times Book Review One of CBS This Morning's 6 "Must-Have Titles for Your Summer Reading List" The publishing phenomenon topping bestseller lists around the world, with sales of more than two million copies in Europe and rights sold in more than forty countries, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is a fast-paced, tightly plotted, cinematic literary thriller, and an ingenious book within a book, by a dazzling young writer. August 30, 1975: the day fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan is glimpsed fleeing through the woods, never to be heard from again; the day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence. Thirty-three years later, Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist, visits Somerset to see his mentor, Harry Quebert, one of the country's most respected writers, and to find a cure for his writer's block as his publisher's deadline looms.
The Killing Hills
By Offutt, Chris
Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer's increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife. The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal -- sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers -- and the way it so often shades into violence.
Unspeakable Things
By Lourey, Jess
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author's hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet - or as safe - as it seems.Cassie McDowell's life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents' strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she's grown accustomed to them.All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who's responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
The Witches of Eastwick
By Updike, John
Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorces with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick - and through the even darker fantasies of the town's collective psyche.From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Small Town
By Perry, Thomas
In A Small Town, twelve conspirators meticulously plan to throw open all the gates to the prison that contains them, so that more than a thousand convicts may escape and pour into the nearby small town. The newly freed prisoners rape, murder, and destroy the town -- burning down homes and businesses. An immense search ensues, but the twelve who plotted it all get away.After two years, all efforts by the local and federal police agencies have been in vain. The mayor and city attorney meet, and Leah Hawkins, a six-foot, two-inch former star basketball player and resident good cop, is placed on sabbatical so that she can tour the country learning advanced police procedures. The sabbatical is merely a ruse, however, as her real job is to track the infamous twelve. And kill them.Leah's mission takes her across the country, from Florida to New York, from California to an anti-government settlement deep in the Ozarks. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues. Full of exhilarating twists and surprisingly resonant, A Small Town will sweep readers along on Leah's quest for vengeance.
Winter Counts
By Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservationVirgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power.
The Downstairs Neighbor
By Cooper, Helen
One House. Three Families. Countless Secrets.From her downstairs apartment in suburban London, Emma has often overheard the everyday life of the seemingly perfect family upstairs--Steph, Paul and teenage daughter Freya--but has never got to know them. Until one day, she hears something that seizes her attention: Freya has vanished and the police are questioning Steph and Paul about their life. Do either of you have any enemies? Anyone who might want to harm or threaten you?The effects of Freya's disappearance ripple outward, affecting not just her parents, but everyone who lives in the building, including Emma and local driving instructor Chris, who was the last person to see the teenager before she went missing. Each character's life is thrown into sharp focus as devastating mistakes and long-held secrets are picked apart and other crimes come to light--including a child gone missing twenty-five years earlier, and a shocking murder--that make clear that the past never stays where we leave it, and that homes can be built on foundations of lies.