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Find out moreEnter the criminal underworld and solve a complex case all from the comfort of your favourite reading nook. Have a look at our Crime/Mystery selection to get your hands on the latest and greatest case and get mystery solving! You might also be interested in our Thriller and Suspense categories.
In the five years since her young husband's death, Celia Cassill has retreated from view. She has moved from one New York neighbourhood to another but she has not moved on. The owner of a small apartment building, she has chosen tenants who will not intrude upon her grief. Privacy is the byword; self-containment the aim. Everything will change when a new tenant, Hope, moves in upstairs. Intoxicating and dangerous, Hope is on the run from a failed marriage and in thrall to a seductive, sinister man. As her noisy affair destroys the building's quiet, and another tenant disappears, Celia is forced into contact with life - complicated, messy, irrepressible life - through violence, sex, and the secrets that lurk within the brownstone's walls.
Nineteen-year-old Megan Thompson is beautiful, cool, clever and sexy - and has consequently never been short of boyfriends. She has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Diana Duprey, an abortion doctor and, following the death of her younger brother, has mostly steered clear of family life. That is until the day her defense attorney father calls to tell her that Diana has been found dead in their pool. Young detective Huck Berlin is assigned to the case when the suspicious circumstances of Diana's death emerge. She's a national figure who, by virtue of her career, has made many enemies. Yet when relationships past and present are revealed, they prove to be far more key to understanding exactly what happened to Diana, than anyone has expected. Set in a small town in Colorado, THE ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER is a novel about people and their relationships. Raw emotion, basic need and, ultimately, fear lead to an extraordinary catharsis for those whose lives have become so strangely entwined. 'A remarkably lucid and authoritative novelist' John Irving 'Like Anne Tyler, Hyde captures the quirky, heartbreaking core of a character and puts it on the page with shining prose' Publishers Weekly
Heart-racing suspense and irresistable characters from the bestselling author of TOUCH & GO, CATCH ME, LOVE YOU MORE and many others. My name is Dr Adeline Glen. Due to a genetic condition I can't feel pain. All Boston Detective D.D. Warren remembers is walking the crime scene. Next, a creaking floorboard, a voice in her ear...Now D.D. is seriously injured and unable to return to work. My sister is Shana Day, a notorious child murderer. She has killed more people in prison than as a free woman. Then a second victim is found with the same calling cards left at the scene: champagne and a single red rose. Only D.D. may have seen the killer, but she recalls nothing from the night that may have cost her everything. Our father was Harry Day, an infamous serial killer dead for over forty years. The Rose Killer knows things about my father he shouldn't. All I know is my family still has the power to hurt me. Now D.D. is back on the hunt. Because the Rose Killer isn't just targeting lone women, he is targeting D.D. And D.D. knows there is only one way to take him down: Fear nothing.
An excellent series of period spy novels comes to an end with the sixth episode. I do urge you to read them all. We are now in Europe in 1948, particularly in Berlin. John Russell, our series character, is a disillusioned communist now with an attitude of ‘a plague on both your houses’ so plays each side against the other with consummate skill. It ends as the Berlin airlift got under way and just before the Wall was erected. Only at this distance of time can one realise how dreadful it must have been to have lived through this period following as it did, the Nazi regime. A superb read. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Masaryk Station a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'A real punchy page turner that will have you coming back for more...outstanding.' – Susan Walsh. Scroll down to read more reviews. To read the Station titles in order: Zoo Station Silesian Station Stettin Station Potsdam Station Lehrter Station Masaryk Station
A tense, evocative thriller set on the freezing banks of the Thames. A woman reconnects with her dead father by solving the murder case that obsessed him in life.
You can count the priests who have also been sleuths in the history of mystery writing on the fingers of two hands but none have proved as endearing as Father Brown, who has recently graced our TV screens portrayed by Mark Williams (and Kenneth More in an earlier incarnation). Plump, shambolic and badly-dressed, the mild-mannered Catholic priest solved his often puzzling cases by putting himself in the minds of murderers minds and understanding their humanity and is now considered an all-time classic. The whole series is now reissued and also includes The Wisdom of Father Brown, The Incredulity of Father Brown, The Secret of Father Brown and The Scandal of Father Brown. If you haven't somehow come across the character of Father Brown before, I envy you the exhilarating discovery you are about to make.
Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2014. January 2014 Debut of the Month. You of frail stomachs turn away from this. It’s brutal, bloody, sad and horribly compulsive. Concerning infidelity and the overwhelming desire to reproduce along with a couple of side plots to hold off the horror, this is disturbing stuff. Very good.
Patrick didn't care what made people work. He was only interested in what happened when they stopped. Life is strange for Patrick Fort - being a medical student with Asperger's Syndrome doesn't come without its challenges. And that's before he is faced with solving a possible murder. Because the body Patrick is examining in anatomy class is trying to tell him all kinds of things. And now he must stay out of danger long enough to unravel the mystery - while he dissects his own evidence...
January 2014 Debut of the Month. A brilliant novel, I cannot believe this is her first. It is the proverbial ‘page-turner’ which is hard to put down, with characters that are really well drawn and believable. Interestingly it stars a 59-year old woman retired from the FBI and embarking upon a new life with a new husband. Naturally her past catches up with her and this fast-paced, thrilling and suspenseful tale takes you by the throat and doesn’t let go until all strands are woven together. Highly recommended. Shortlisted for the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger 2013. CWA judges' comment: “Lethally skilled in the art of self-defence, ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn is a heroine-in-peril forced back into the horrors of her old life. Characterisation and pace ensure a criminally engrossing and assured edge-of-the-seat debut thriller exploring the well-furrowed path of the FBI behavioural science unit pitted against the serial killer, but with a freshness of plot that makes the reader sit-up to attention.” The Lovereading view... An emotionally powerful debut mystery thriller with a radically different central character in the shape of Brigid Quinn, ex FBI, 59 years old, haunted by past violence and trying to be retired. Drawn into a very personal cold case she is soon on the end of mortal danger she thought she had left behind. Fast-paced, suspenseful, laced with dark humour and more than a splash of blood and guts - crime fans will love it.
Dull, unambitious Rose is whisked out of her predictable life by a work colleague. Odalie arrives in the New York 1920’s typing pool and Rose is completely infatuated. In a city of speakeasies, gangsters, the Charleston and gin it’s not surprising that murder turns up. What is surprising is who, how and why and like all good crime tales the denouement is quite a shock, especially since dear Rose has led us, the reader, very much astray. This is delicious fun. Highly recommended. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for The Other Typist a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - 'The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell is an astonishing debut which had me gripped from the first page...Be prepared for an amazing read.' - Francesca Ashurst. Scroll down to read more reviews. A 'Piece of Passion' from Juliet Annan, Publisher Fig Tree/Penguin... 'I am very, very keen on this wonderful debut: The Other Typist is a wonderful, creepy, funny edge-of-the seat thriller combined with period romp. Set in Prohibition New York, it tells the story of Rose, an orphaned, mousy-looking hard-working secretary who works in the typing pool at the police precinct and her growing friendship with the new -- other -- typist. Glamorous Odalie mesmerises Rose and draws her into her roaring twenties web of speakeasies, gangsters, illicit sex and murder where everyone is telling stories about each other (none of which quite match up). It's not long before the identities of the two girls become inextricably entwined, until it is almost impossible to tell one from the other. It is the most beguiling and page turning novel, where the reader is never quite sure of their footing, and I'm thrilled that early online reviews have described it as The Great Gatsby meets Gone Girl.'
Dr John Watson is fresh from his time in the trenches of Flanders Fields and back home for some much needed R&R. But deep in England's green and pleasant land something evil lurks. For enemy spies have inflitrated the home front, in search of vital information to take back to Germany. And when seven dead men are discovered, their bodies laid side by side, there is only one man who can solve this curious crime: Dr John Watson.
Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger - Thriller of the Year 2014. A gripping psychological thriller. Yvonne Carmichael is a woman who prides herself on her ability to control her life and achieve what she wants. The tale builds alarmingly, beginning with an impulsive affair which sets in train a series of events that spiral beyond her control and look set to destroy everything. A terrifically well-written highly believable read, not at all what I was expecting.
Murderous, Mysterious, Machination
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From the suave to the sleazy, the saint to the sinner; from the sensitive to the sanguine, the sexy to the squalid, we just can’t resist a good sleuth. Here you’ll find immersive crime stories to feed your fascination for conspiracy, your love for psychological sorcery, to make your hairs stand up on the back of your neck, to make your blood run cold and adrenaline fill your nervous system. Whether you’re after a classic like; Poirot (Agatha Christie), Rebus (Rankin) or Morse (Colin Dexter); or a more contemporary crime confrontation from the likes of, Michael Connelly, Gillian Flynn or J.A Lance, there’s something here to float the most demanding of boats. Have a look at our Books of the Month from this and previous months for a head start to a great next read.
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