It’s No Mystery: Crime Novels, Detective Series, and Thrillers Abound at Prince William Public Libraries

Crime fiction is one of the most popular genres of fiction available—and with good reason. Many readers find the lure of a good mystery irresistible, and the genre is broad enough to appeal to many different audiences. Your library has new mysteries for a variety of fans.

Bestselling author David Bell plays on the anxieties of college students in his new suspense work, “The Finalists.” Six college students are challenged to spend a night in an old Victorian house to qualify for a generous scholarship. Things soon turn morbid and what began as a quest for academic funding soon turns much darker.

Creepy old houses aren’t the only place a small group can be trapped. In Carol Goodman’s “The Disinvited Guest,” a woman and her husband retreat to a family-owned private island with a small group of friends and family for what should be a relaxing and restorative break from the stress of the COVID pandemic. Once again—strange, macabre things begin happening, and old mysteries on the island come back to haunt the present.

Another mystery built on secrets from the past—this one taking place on a beach a quarter century before the action—lies at the heart of Aggie Blum Thompson’s “All the Dirty Secrets.” When her daughter loses a friend at the same place and same way as she did in the past, main character Liza Gold begins to realize that the unsolved death of her friend was no accident.

In some thrillers, the main character’s past—their very identity—is part of the mystery. Megan Goldin’s “Stay Awake” takes the well-worn trope of an amnesia victim finding themselves entangled in a possible crime they cannot even remember and takes it to some scary places. The protagonist must avoid arrest even while trying to recreate a full two years of their missing life.

Issues of memory and identity are a natural fit for suspense novels such as Goldin’s or for Brian Freeman’s “I Remember You.” In this book, rather than the protagonist forgetting her own life, here is a woman who remembers somebody else’s. Starting off with the incredible premise of a person dying only to come back with somebody else’s memories, Freeman explores issues of identity, mental illness, and murder.

If you need a little less darkness and a little more cozy, the latest Lily Adler mystery from Katharine Schellman will suit your tastes. In “Death at the Manor,” crime-solving widow Lily Adler is confronted with a classic locked-door mystery set in a charming country manor.

And while crime-solving British senior citizens are a staple of the cozy, what could be more comforting than a crime-solving dog? Spencer Quinn is back with his latest “Chet and Bernie” mystery, “Bark to the Future.”The fact that Chet—the dog—rather than Bernie—the human P.I.—is the narrator just adds to the charm.

These are just a few of the new mysteries to be found at Prince William Public Libraries. Start your literary sleuthing today!

Written by Kirk Johnson, PWPL Materials Services Division