Collection: Mystery, Thrillers, & Crime

"Every once in a while, a book comes along that drops you into another world and takes you places you never could imagine. This is that book. An astounding accomplishment!"
--R. L. Stine, author of Goosebumps

Set in 19th century Sri Lanka and inspired by local folklore, the daughter of a traditional demon-priest--relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself--tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.

Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father's craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise.

Now someone--or something--is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara's father's help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.

As she tries to clear her father's name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can't shake the feeling that it's all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother's frantic cries: No one can find out what happened.

100 floors. 100 new friends. 100 stories. Flip open this towering book vertically to climb and count with Tochi as he tries to discover who lives at the top of a strange, magical house.

Tochi receives a mysterious invitation to the House with 100 Stories. On each floor, Tochi meets the colorful, animal residents from squirrels working on their bonsai garden to bats taking baths on the ceiling. But who sent the invitation? Why do they live at the top of this strange house? Tochi must climb to the top to find out!

With a unique structure, readers flip open this book vertically to reveal towering illustrations of the House with 100 Stories. Readers feel like they are climbing the tower with Tochi as they follow the text from bottom to top.

Where's Waldo? meets My Neighbor Totoro in this highly detailed and adorably illustrated counting book. Each floor features its own mini story as the reader counts with Tochi from 1 to 100. Packed with fun, hidden details, young readers will discover something new with every read.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

"An absolutely mesmerizing read. . . . Tana French is simply this: a truly great writer." --Gillian Flynn

Read the New York Times bestseller by Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Hunter and "the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years" (The Washington Post).

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin's Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: "I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM." Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case--beneath the watchful eye of Holly's father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly's close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

You can check out of Room 9, but you can never leave.

The Haunting of Hill House meets Nina LaCour in this paranormal mystery YA about the ghosts we carry with us.

Something is building, simmering just out of reach.

The room is watching. But Mira and Layla don't know this yet. When the two best friends are stranded on their spring break college tour road trip, they find themselves at the Wildwood Motel, located in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Mira can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong and rotten about their room. Inside, she's haunted by nightmares of her dead brother. When she wakes up, he's still there.

Layla doesn't see him. Or notice anything suspicious about Room 9. The place may be a little run down, but it has a certain charm she can't wait to capture on camera. If Layla is being honest, she's too preoccupied with confusing feelings for Mira to see much else. But when they learn eight people died in that same room, they realize there must be a connection between the deaths and the unexplainable things that keep happening inside it. They just have to find the connection before Mira becomes the ninth.

Readers won't be able to put down this tender thriller that includes over thirty interior black and white photos by the author!

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2023

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2019

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game come

A young woman searches for the truth about her sister, who boarded a ship headed to the frozen Arctic and never returned.

"Lizzie Pook is a master of suspense. The story of one sister's love and determination to avenge her sister's death, is an unforgettable, atmospheric thrill ride." --Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone

Twenty-year-old Constance Horton has run away from her life in Victorian London, disguising herself as a boy to board the Makepeace, an expedition vessel bound for the icy and unexplored Northwest Passage of the Arctic. She struggles to keep her real identity a secret on the ship, a feat that only grows more difficult when facing off with the constant dangers of the icy North.

Even more dangerous than the cold, the storms, and the hunger, are some of the men aboard--including the ship's scientist Edison Stowe. He seems to be watching Constance, and she knows that his attention could be fatal.

In London two years later: Maude Horton is searching for the truth. After being told by the British Admiralty that her sister's death onboard the Makepeace was nothing more than a tragic accident, she receives a diary revealing that Edison Stowe had more of a hand in Constance's death than the returning crew acknowledged.

In order to get the answers she needs, Maude decides to shadow Edison. She joins him on a new venture he's started to capitalize on the murder mania that has all of London in a frenzy--a travel company that takes guests around the country via train to witness public hangings--to extract the truth from him in any way possible. As tensions and dangers mount, it ultimately falls to Maude to enact the ultimate revenge to get justice for her sister.

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge is a transporting, atmospheric novel about the lengths we will go to for justice--and for love.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone...

OUR HOUSE. OUR FAMILY. OUR SECRETS.

Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous tro

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR MYSTERY/THRILLER

An addictive novel of psychological suspense from the author of #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train and A Slow Fire Burning.

"Hawkins is at the forefront of a group of female authors . . who have reinvigorated the literary suspense novel by tapping a rich vein of psychological menace and social unease... there's a certain solace to a dark escape, in the promise of submerged truths coming to light." --Vogue

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from--a place to which she vowed she'd never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Beware a calm surface--you never know what lies beneath.

There's nothing a community won't do to protect its own...

Shirley Wallace and her four sons return to her childhood home on Pope Mountain in Jubilee, Kentucky, with a lifetime of hardship behind them, hoping to find peace and begin their lives anew. Eldest brother Aaron Pope returns to his life as a police officer, and is settling in just fine. Then Aaron's investigation into an attempted murder leads him right to Dani Owens. She may hold the key to a long-lost part of the Pope family's past, and more importantly, she may hold the key to Aaron's heart.

Praise for Sharon Sala:

"Emotionally wrenching, sensually appealing, edgy and suspenseful, and hopeful and endearing."--USA Today

"Vivid, gripping...this thriller keeps the pages turning."--Library Journal for Torn Apart

"Skillfully balancing suspense and romance, Sala gives readers a nonstop breath-holding adventure."--Publishers Weekly for Going Once

Now an HBO limited series starring Ben Mendelsohn!​

Evil has many faces...maybe even yours in this #1 New York Times bestseller from master storyteller Stephen King.

An eleven-year-old boy's violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City's most popular citizens--Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge, King's story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

The latest installment in the charming and congenial 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents of Scotland's most celebrated address up to their usual hilarious hijinks.

It's the most anticipated event of the decade--Big Lou and Fat Bob's wedding--and everyone is invited! But the relative peace and tranquillity of 44 Scotland Street is about to be disrupted. Domineering Irene is set to return for a two-month stay, consigning young Bertie to a summer camp. Not content with that, she somehow manages to come between the enigmatic nun, Sister Maria-Fiore dei Fiori di Montagna, and her friend, the hagiographer, Antonia Collie.

And can a person really change, even after being struck by lightning? Bruce Anderson's metamorphosis and new-found outlook on life is put to the test as he prepares to leave his creature comforts for the monastic simplicity of Pluscarden Abbey. His house sitter, meanwhile, gets a little too comfortable in his new life and discovers that his talented employer's shoes are all too easy to slip into. With great taste comes great responsibility.

Alexander McCall Smith's delightfully witty, wise and sometimes surreal comedy spirals out in surprising ways in this new installment, but its heart remains where it has always been, at the center of life in Edinburgh's New Town.

Don't miss the TV series, Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn, Chee, & Manuelito novels, now on AMC and AMC+!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A fine legacy series . . . in the spirit of her late father, Tony."--Booklist

An ancient mystery resurfaces with ramifications for the present day in this gripping chapter in the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series from New York Times bestselling author Anne Hillerman.

Sergeant Jim Chee's vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He's on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier.

Chee's journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon's ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

Back in Shiprock, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is driving home when she witnesses an expensive sedan purposely kill a hitchhiker. The search to find the killer leads her to uncover a dangerous chain of interconnected revelations involving a Navajo Nation cannabis enterprise.

But the evil that is unleashed jeopardizes her mother and sister Darleen, and puts Bernie in the deadliest situation of her law enforcement career.

When a series of mysterious deaths spoil the Christmas season in Crozet, Virginia, Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen and her beloved cats and dogs lend the police a helping paw in this exciting holiday mystery from Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown.

"As feline collaborators go, you couldn't ask for better than Sneaky Pie Brown."--The New York Times Book Review

Christmas is coming and Harry's to-do list is a mile long. The days are filled with delivering holiday baskets to neighbors in need, chopping down the perfect tree with her best friend, Susan Tucker, and hunting for that elusive special gift for her beloved husband, Pharamond "Fair" Harristeen. Harry also decides to try her hand at dog showing, enrolling her handsome Irish Wolfhound puppy Pirate in classes to prepare for a future exhibition. Through it all, holiday cheer--and plenty of treats for Pirate--keep spirits high.

But the holidays aren't cheerful for everyone. Harry's friend on the police force, Cynthia Cooper, warns that the season can bring an uptick in crime. Her words prove tragically prescient when Harry and Susan discover the dead body of a man by the side of the road, without any clues to his identity. One suspicious death is bad enough, but when Cooper reports that two more bodies have been found, also unidentified, Harry knows trouble is afoot. The autopsies for all three bodies reveal the presence of a deadly drug. Could their deaths have been accidental, or is a devious killer on the prowl?

With help from her feline sidekicks, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, as well as Tee Tucker the corgi and Pirate, Harry vows to find the answers and stop the spate of deaths so that all of Crozet can have a very merry Christmas.

Don't miss the JOE PICKETT series--now streaming on Paramount+

It's elk season in the Rockies, but a different kind of hunter is stalking prey in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Joe Pickett series.

Game wardens have found a man dead at a mountain camp--strung up, gutted, and flayed as if he were the elk he'd been hunting. Is the murder the work of a deranged anti-hunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is the man to track the murderer and stop him, before someone declares open season on humans...

Don't miss the JOE PICKETT series--now streaming on Paramount+

In this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Joe Pickett series, the Wyoming game warden is up against a vicious killer who's more beast than man...

Local authorities in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming, are quick to label a rash of animal mutilations as the work of a grizzly bear, but game warden Joe Pickett suspects that something far more sinister is afoot. And when the bodies of two men are found disfigured in the same way, his worst fears are confirmed: A modern-day Jack the Ripper is on the loose--and the killings have just begun.

Summer is on the wane in the charmingly picturesque coastal village of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, but an upcoming fashion show benefit ensures there's still plenty of excitement in store for the Seaside Knitters...

Like every coastal town, Sea Harbor needs tourists and their dollars. But there's something special about that time of year when summer people return to their normal lives, and the wide sandy beaches welcome back locals with their dogs and strollers. And this year, even as the season cools down, Izzy Perry's Sea Harbor Yarn Studio is heating up, thanks to an upcoming fashion benefit . . .

The show will feature hand-knit garments, and enthusiastic knitters flock to the shop for supplies to create runway-worthy pieces. Yet Seaside Knitter Birdie is enjoying flocks of a different kind, thanks to a rekindled interest in birdwatching, a hobby she enjoyed with her late husband. Along with a small group of passionate birders, she often spends weekend mornings looking for warblers, or keeping watch for gannets and grebes. The group members themselves are almost as fascinating as the birds. It's a lovely, special time--until Birdie makes her way through a tangle of vines and stumbles upon a fellow birder's body.

At first, it appears to be an accidental fall, but an autopsy soon reveals that the victim died before hitting a granite boulder. When police discover a clue linking the victim to one of the Seaside Knitters, the web of suspicion grows. Before the woods are ablaze in autumn glory and the knitters have cast off the final rows on their runway projects, they'll have to unravel secrets and ties strong enough to bind friends and neighbors together--and some that may press a killer to take another life.