This article was submitted by Evangeline Cessna of the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library. 

This week, the library is featuring Mystery/Thriller titles from our New Adult Fiction collection.

In Talking to Strangers by Fiona Barton, Detective Elise King’s murder investigation keeps getting derailed by a reporter who insists on doing her own digging into the events surrounding the woman’s death. Karen Simmons is murdered on Valentine’s Day and Elise wonders if perhaps she was killed by a man she met online. Karen was all over the dating apps, which has led many to blame her for her own death, while others come together to protest society’s violence against women. Enter aggressive reporter Kiki Nunn who seems to be hellbent on antagonizing Elise. Kiki is a single mother struggling to earn a living in an oversaturated news industry. If she can get the scoop on Karen’s murder, Kiki’s career could get the boost it needs. Elise is worried that Kiki’s will do whatever it takes to get the scoop, including going up to the killer himself.

The latest from author Liz Moore is titled The God of the Woods. Early one morning in August 1975, a camp counselor at an Adirondack summer camp finds an empty bunk. It seems that thirteen-year-old Barbara Van Laar—daughter of the family that owns the camp—has gone missing. This isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Fourteen years ago, Barbara’s older brother vanished, never to be seen again. Panic sets in as the search begins and the drama surrounding the wealthy Van Laar family unfolds. What secrets do the family hold? Could a resentful member of the surrounding blue-collar community be responsible? The longer the search runs, the more secrets come to light.

Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson’s latest Nordic noir is Death at the Sanatorium. It’s 1983 and an old nurse is found murdered on a hospital ward that used to be a sanatorium in the north of Iceland. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir and her boss Sverrir are dispatched to investigate the crime. They narrow their leads to five: the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker. At first the caretaker is arrested, but it is discovered that the nurse who implicated him gave a false testimony. Then, the chief physician is found dead, apparently having fallen from the balcony. Sverrir is quick to rule his death as a suicide and assumes the man guilty of murder as well, so case closed. Thirty years later, Helgi Reykdal is a young police officer who returns to Iceland after studying criminology in the UK. He accepts the job which detective Hulda Hermannsdottir is about to retire from. His thesis is on the 1983 murders in the north, and he is eager to meet with the original suspects when he starts his new job. Unfortunately, he finds nothing but silence and suspicion around every corner. Will he be able to find justice for the old nurse after all this time?

The eleventh entry in Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series is called The Dark Wives. One early morning a dog walker discovers a man’s body in a park outside a home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. It turns out the victim is a staff member who was due to work the previous night, but never showed. DI Vera Stanhope is assigned the investigation, and her only clue seems to be the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera feels strongly that Chloe isn’t responsible, but she can’t dismiss the possibility outright. A second connected body turns up near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside igniting speculation and superstition. Will Vera be able to find Chloe and get to the bottom of these murders, or will the dark and dreary countryside hold onto its secrets?

Bestselling author Fern Michaels introduces readers to a group of women from all walks of life bound by friendship and adventure in her latest Backwater Justice. These friends are armed with vast resources, first-class expertise, and a loyal, worldwide network of allies. Fourteen-year-old Vanessa’s parents think the small Oregon town of Mountain Valley is the perfect place to raise a family in peace. That is, until one day when Vanessa doesn’t show up for dinner. Their calls to her cell go straight to voicemail and none of her friends have seen her. A girl fitting Vanessa’s description is seen getting into a pick-up that the witness is pretty sure belongs to the richest and most influential families in the area, the Spanglers. The search parties fail to turn up any clues and another young woman goes missing. Myra Rutledge gathers the women of the Sisterhood, and they begin their own investigation. But small towns have deep secrets, especially when one family holds so much power.

This Is Why We Lied is the latest thriller from Karin Slaughter. GBI investigator Will Trent and his new wife medical examiner Sara Linton are spending their honeymoon at McAlpine Lodge. This gorgeous off-grid property is the perfect place to unplug and connect with each other. That is until a blood-curdling scream is heard in the middle of the night. The manager of the lodge is found dead and with a storm raging on the mountain, the murderer is still close by. As Will and Sara investigate, they realize that everyone at the lodge is lying—lying about their past, lying to their family, and lying to themselves. So, who killed Mercy McAlpine? It is soon made clear that normal rules don’t apply at the lodge and Will and Sara will need to be extra-vigilant about watching each other’s backs. With the road washed out, they are the only ones who can untangle this decades-old web of deceit. Can they find who killed Mercy before he/she strikes again?