Five Latest Spine-Tingling Mystery Novels

There is a certain kind of literary genre so captivating and full of suspense that once you turn the first page of a book, you will fall victim to a tightly plotted storyline and vibrant characters. It is called mystery fiction. A great mystery novel will make you get comfortable on a sofa and immerse yourself in reading that will be interrupted only by quick runs to the kitchen to grab some snacks and coffee. The pages will turn imperceptibly, the events will unfold dynamically, and the characters will become so vivid and alive that you can visualize every little feature of their appearance. The glaring digits on your clock will turn over unusually fast towards the morning hours, and you will try to convince yourself that you can finish the chapter, lay the book aside, and continue reading tomorrow. And you will indeed close the book…once the last page is turned.

End of Watch by Stephen King

The patriarch of horror and mystery has provided yet another addition for the personal library of every avid reader. “End of Watch” is the last part of Stephen King’s “Mr. Mercedes” trilogy, which features the retired police detective Bill Hodges and his arch enemy, Brady Hartsfield. In the trilogy’s first volume Hartsfield committed a mass murder by driving a Mercedes-Benz – which got him his corresponding nickname – into a crowd at a job fair. After committing this horrendous act, Hartsfield managed to escape and later began playing a twisted cat-and-mouse game with the detective.

The first book ended with Holly Gibney, Hodges’s strange and neurotic partner, bashing Hodges in the head to prevent him from blowing up innocent children. The powerful blow sent Mr. Mercedes into a permanent vegetative state, in which he remains throughout the second volume in the trilogy, titled Finders Keepers.

End of Watch begins with Bill Hodges, who owns a small detective agency, receiving very upsetting news from the doctor – the title of the novel hints at the content of this news. At the same time, his partner gets hold of information which indicates that Brady’s doctor, Felix Babineau, has been conducting experiments on his patients, giving them “advanced” drugs which are far from being legal or approved. The effect is absolutely astounding: Hartsfield develops superior mental powers. Now the detectives have to face the cunning enemy once again.  

What are these powers? How will detective Hodges solve his dilemma – will he give up and undergo treatment? All the answers await you in the pages of this book, written by a modern literary genius.               

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbot

The latest thriller novel by the winner of the Edgar Award, which is presented by the Mystery Writers of America, tells the story of an exceptional girl, a prodigious gymnast who is deemed a future Olympic star.

The Knox family has focused all their energy and will to make their daughter Devon a member of the national Olympic team. This might seem like a noble purpose at first, until the reader realizes that it has turned into an obsession. This success fixation seems to have spread to the entire community of the town – everyone is literally drunk with the anticipation of a great breakthrough until one day their little world is shattered by the death of Ryan, the handsome boyfriend of Coach T., Devon’s gymnastic trainer, who is killed in a hit-and-run accident.

The community is filled with rumors and suspicion. Why was he walking alone at night all by himself? Who had a reason to kill the community’s favorite guy? Besides, the turmoil puts Knox’s dreams at huge risk, while unveiling complicated psychological relationships between parents and their daughter.

You Will Know Me is a breathtaking mystery novel about enormous ambitions, complicated parent-child relationships, intrigues within a tightly-knit community and, most certainly, an enigmatic murder.    

Behind Closed Doors by P.A. Paris

What would you do if you discovered that you are the wife of a madman? Grace Angel, who is married to Jack Angel, a successful lawyer with a horrific dark side, decides to get rid of her husband for good in the most trivial way – by killing him.

Behind Closed Doors is a novel in which you will root for the murderer and worry that she might not escape punishment. Grace is an intelligent and educated woman who marries a seemingly perfect man. In the presence of others, Jack heeds her requests, he buys a lovely dog and takes care of his wife’s sister. However, when they are alone, Jack takes off his mask and shows his true, sadistic self. After he threatens to kill Grace’s sister in an unventilated red room in their basement, she becomes determined to kill the despot.  

How is she going to execute her fiendishly clever plan? Will she be able to get away with a justified murder? You will know once you take a look behind closed doors.  

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware is a bestselling author from England. Having attained international acclaim for her first novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, she has produced another book with an intricately woven plot and the sophisticated style of Agatha Christie.    

Lo Blacklock, a contributor to a travel magazine, seizes an opportunity to spend a week on a luxury cruise ship. At first, the journey seems like a tremendous good time: amazing cabins, scrumptious dinners, and polite guests. But one night all the pleasantries turn to nightmare when she witnesses the woman she met in Cabin 10 being thrown overboard into the North Sea. To her astonishment, no one seems to notice the woman’s disappearance, and the ship continues its journey, as if nothing has happened, despite the journalist’s attempts to attract the attention of the crew and passengers to this accident. But what if it wasn’t an accident?

The Woman in Cabin 10 is a breathtaking maritime mystery novel that will keep the reader on tenterhooks until the last page.

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

The events in Louise Penny’s 12^th novel about Chief Inspector Gamache start to unfold after the discovery of an abstruse old map in the walls of a bistro in Three Pines, the village in Quebec where Gamache lives with his wife. At first glance, it seems no more than just a weird drawing; but when it gets in the hands of inspector Gamache, it starts to unveil astonishing secrets and leads him to the Surete Academy where he finds a dead professor holding an exact copy of the strange map.

If you think that this sounds like the plot of a straightforward detective novel, you are making a fine mistake because the investigation will son turn to Gamache himself, and that is when the time for a great reckoning will come.

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