Beach Reads: Mystery & Suspense

Dream Town by David Baldacci : It is New Year's Eve, 1952 in Los Angeles. Private Investigator, Aloysius Archer, is dining with his friend and rising Hollywood star, Liberty Callahan, when they're approached by Eleanor Lamb, a famous screenwriter, who would like to hire him as she suspects someone is trying to kill her.A visit to Lamb's Malibu residence leaves Archer in no doubt of foul play when he's knocked unconscious entering the property, there's a dead body in the hallway and Eleanor seeming to have vanished. With the police now involved in the case, a close friend and colleague of Lamb's employs Archer to find out what's happened to Eleanor.Archer's investigation will take him from the rich and dangerous LA to the seedy and even more dangerous side of the city where cops and crooks work hand in hand. He'll cross paths with Hollywood stars, politicians and notorious criminals. He'll almost die several times, and he'll discover bodies from the Canyon to the Malibu beaches.And, with the help of Liberty and the infamous Willie Dash, he'll leave no stone unturned in trying to find out who Eleanor Lamb really was.Because 1953 Hollywood is a place where you have to survive regardless of who has to be sacrificed to get there.

The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal : In 2015 Paris, a young au pair is arrested after the sudden death of her young charge and finds herself caught in the middle of turbulent dynamics of her host family's household, in this novel told from six women's point of view--all of whom know the truth.

Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier : A destitute woman pretends to be someone else and moves into the lower floor of a Los Angeles duplex, and inadvertently becomes a target in the twisted game of the wealthy family upstairs. All out of money and friends' couches to sleep on, Demi is desperate. Lucky for her, a stranger presents her with the chance of a lifetime: a new identity and the downstairs apartment in a secluded Beachwood Canyon duplex. Unlucky for her, the couple upstairs is wealthy, bored, and in need of a new play thing. What starts as another round of the game the couple play where they move a 'self-made' person into the apartment and compete to make them lose everything, quickly devolves into chaos. Because Demi isn't clueless and she's spent her whole life just trying to survive. We all know this game can only end in one way...winner takes all.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave : Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to who the note refers-Owen's sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah's increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen's boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn't who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen's true identity-and why he really disappeared. Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realize they are also building a new future-one neither of them could have anticipated.

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney : Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney. Think you know the person you married? Think again ... Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can't recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts--paper, cotton, pottery, tin--and each year Adam's wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn't randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn't want them to live happily ever after. Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay : From the author of the breakout thriller Every Last Fear, comes the electrifying new novel about a pair of small-town murders fifteen years apart--and the ties that bind them. "The night was expected to bring tragedy." So begins one of the most highly-anticipated thrillers of 2022. It's New Year's Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey, four teenagers working late at the store are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again. Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive. In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who's forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who's convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller who must delve into the secrets of both nights--stirring up memories of teen love and lies--to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift. Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

Sparring Partners by John Grisham : The “Sparring Partners” are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison. Kirk and Rusty loathe each other, and speak to each other only when necessary. As the firm disintegrates, the resulting fiasco falls into the lap of Diantha Bradshaw, the only person the partners trust. Can she save the Malloys, or does she take a stand for the first time in her career and try to save herself?

The Club by Ellery Lloyd : Envisioned as a luxurious home-away from-home for Very Important People, The Home Group is a collection of celebrity members clubs dotted across the globe where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media. But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point. As tempers fray and behaviour worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Home's members begin to wish they'd never RSVP'd at all.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides : Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike-particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana's obsession with proving Fosca's guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything-including her own life.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone : Tautly wound and expertly crafted, Two Nights in Lisbon is a riveting thriller about a woman under pressure, and how far she will go when everything is on the line. With sparkling prose and razor-sharp insights, bestselling author Chris Pavone delivers a stunning and sophisticated international thriller that will linger long after the surprising final page.

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager : One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline : Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn. He is driving his family home after his daughter's field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever.

Metropolis by B. A. Shapiro: The interlocking stories of six characters whose only connection is their units at a storage facility, where a tragic accident will either tear them apart or help them salvage their own precarious lives.

The Match by Harlan Coben : Wilde, the man with a past shrouded in mystery who appeared one day in the Ramapo Mountains with no memory of how he got there or the mother and father who abandoned him. Wilde uncovers a major break in the case that may hold the key to revealing the truth of his origins. But the discovery links him with a present-day disappearance and presumed suicide that is much more than at first it appears. Wilde has grown up knowing nothing of his family, and even less about his own identity. All he knows is that, as a young child, he was found living a feral existence in the Ramapo mountains of New Jersey. He became known simply as Wilde, the boy from the woods. Now Wilde has had a hit on the DNA website he has been researching. A 100% match. His father. They meet up, and Wilde soon realises that his father doesn't even know he had a son and is as mystified as Wilde is by his existence. Undaunted, Wilde continues his research for his family on DNA websites where he becomes caught up in a community of online doxxers, a secret group committed to exposing anonymous trolls. Then one by one these doxxers start to die, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting this secret community - and that his next victim might be Wilde himself ...

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich : Out of work and out of money, Stephanie Plum lands a job as bounty hunter and her first prey is, guess who? None other than Joe Morelli, the macho pig who deflowered her in high school and bragged on the lavatory wall of Mario's Sub Shop. Now a cop, he is wanted for murder. The intriguing thing is she still rather fancies him and even more intriguing is that he will save her life.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks; Sarah Pekkanen : If Avery Chambers can't fix you in 10 sessions, she won't take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal--she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault--and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband's death. Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple--until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods. When the Bishops glide through Avery's door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it's no longer simply a marriage that's in danger.

Good Day Sunshine by Amy Mason Doan : For Jackie Pierce, everything changed the summer of 1979, when she spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle's sprawling estate ... Jackie and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship, testing their limits along the rocky beach ... until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night. Twenty years later, Jackie unexpectedly inherits The Sandcastle and ... when a piece of the past ... sparks new questions about Willa's disappearance, Jackie must discover if the dark secret she's kept ever since is even the truth at all.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston : After seventeen-year-olds Chole and Shara, Chole's rival for valedictorian, kiss, Shara vanishes leaving Chole and two boys, who are also enamored with Shara, to follow the trail of clues she left behind, but during the search, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to Shara and her small Alabama town than she thought.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys : In a country governed by isolation, fear, and a tyrannical dictator, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer, but he decides to use his position to try to outwit his handler, undermine the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. Includes author's note.

This Golden State by Marit Weisenberg : Poppy doesn't know why her family has been running her whole life, but she does know that there are dire consequences if they're ever caught. Still, her curiosity grows each year, as does her desire for real friends and the chance to build on something, instead of leaving behind school projects, teams, and crushes at a moment's notice. When a move to California exposes a crack in her parents' airtight planning, Poppy realizes how fragile her world is. Determined to find out the truth, she mails in a home DNA test. Just as she starts to settle into her new life and even begins opening up to a boy in her math class, the forgotten test results bring her crashing back to reality. Unraveling the shocking truth of her parents' real identities, Poppy realizes that the DNA test has undone decades of careful work to keep her family anonymous--and the past is dangerously close to catching up to them. Determined to protect her family but desperate for more, Poppy must ask: How much of herself does she owe her family? And is it a betrayal to find her own place in the world?