Family Suspense Thrillers

Best-selling author Jennifer Chiaverini charms her many fans with her engaging Elm Creek Quilts novels. In The Quilter’s Legacy, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson resolves to find several heirloom quilts that have vanished. Traveling far and wide, she discovers fascinating truths about her mother, who died when Sylvia was only a child.

Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling Seattle bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden.

The hamlet of Hillside has one factory, three churches, and more bored teenagers than it knows what to do with. Georgie Rocco is more lost than any of his classmates, and decides one night to take control. When an attempted robbery at the factory turns into murder, Georgie discovers an empowering new talent for exploiting other people's vulnerabilities, including those of his lovely sister, Jo.

It’s 2011 and Deecie Jeffries’s missing person’s case in Austin, Texas, is still cold. New mom Bee, struggling with postpartum depression, is living in Portland, Maine, having left Austin–and those memories–far behind. Until Leo, her childhood crush and her estranged twin Gus’s best friend, suddenly resurfaces, drawing Bee back into their shared past. Bee’s predictable life is upended, pushing her to return to her childhood home and piece together a neighborhood’s shattered history.

When Josh’s longtime partner, Grace, dies in a tragic accident, he is left with a mess of grief - and full custody of her seven-year-old son, Logan. Wanting to do right by Logan, Josh begins the process of becoming his legal guardian - something that seems suddenly urgent, though Grace always brushed it off as an unnecessary formality. But now, as Josh struggles to find the paperwork associated with Logan’s birth, he begins to wonder whether there were more troubling reasons for Grace’s reluctance to make their family official.

Beloved author Alexander McCall Smith’s seventh Isabel Dalhousie tale finds the ethical philosopher doing background checks on several candidates for the same job. In the process, Isabel learns quite a bit about herself, as well.

When Beth was 10, her beautiful, wild mother, Alice, disappeared. Beth’s life since hasn’t always been easy, but now she's settled, with a successful career, a loving family and a beautiful home. Then one day, there’s a knock at the door. Alice has returned. Desperate to rebuild their relationship, Beth invites her mother to move in. At first, everything is wonderful. But then Beth’s friends start to drift away, strange things happen at home and rumours about Beth begin to circle. Someone is out to destroy Beth’s newfound happiness. But who? And how far will they go?

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets. Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year.

In this 13th mystery, Sammy is entering eighth grade with more than the usual angst - add to it being a bridesmaid in Officer Borsch's wedding, dealing with the break-up of her friend Marissa's parents, and her own mother dating the father of arch-enemy Heather. How will she be able to solve the mystery of who's making death threats against the history teacher that nobody likes (especially with her name at the top of the suspect list?) With wit, style, and spirit as usual!

Welcome back to the irresistible world of Greenglass House, where 13-year-old Milo is, once again, spending the winter holidays stuck in a house full of strange guests who are not what they seem. There are fresh clues to uncover as friends old and new join in his search for a mysterious map and a famous smuggler's lost haul. This exciting sequel to a beloved book is sure to thrill both fans and newcomers.

Jessica Chamberlain, newly separated and living with her two sons in a small Iowa town, can't believe a tragedy in another state could have anything to do with her. But when her phone rings one quiet morning, her world is shattered. As she tries to pick up the pieces and make sense of what went wrong, Jess begins to realize a tragic death is just the beginning. Soon, she is caught in a web of lies and half-truths - and she's horrified to learn everything leads back to her seven-year-old adopted son, Gabriel.

Bertie's respite from his overbearing mother, Irene, is over. She has returned home from the Middle East, only to discover that her son has been exposed to the worst of evils: cartoons, movies, and even carbonated beverages. But the one who should be most concerned is her unfortunate husband, Stuart, upon whom her wrath is about to descend.

Adèle appears to have the perfect life. A respected journalist, she lives in a flawless Parisian apartment with her surgeon husband and their young son. But beneath the veneer of "having it all", she is bored - and consumed by an insatiable need for sex, whatever the cost. Struggling to contain the twin forces of compulsion and desire, she begins to orchestrate her life around her one-night stands and extramarital affairs, arriving late to work and lying to her husband about where she’s been, until she becomes ensnared in a trap of her own making.

When the misanthropic Dr Miriam Price wakes up dead, her day has only just started to go wrong. With everyone mistakenly thinking she killed herself, she's condemned to half a century in Limbo as a 'Death By Misadventure' - unless she can prove that she was murdered. Unable to communicate with anyone living, Miriam's investigative options look decidedly limited.

Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life. She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns. And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.

Lucy Bluecrowne is beginning a new life ashore with her stepmother and half brother, though she's certain the only place she'll ever belong is with her father on a ship of war as part of the crew. She doesn't care that living in a house is safer and the proper place for a 12-year-old girl; it's boring. But then two nefarious strangers identify her little brother as the pyrotechnical prodigy they need to enact an evil plan, and it will take all Lucy's fighting instincts to keep her family together.

Detective September Rafferty - Nine to her friends - recognizes the artwork that arrives in the mail. She created it back in second grade. Now a killer's words are slashed across it in what looks like blood. He knows her. September's investigation leads to her old classmate, Jake Westerly. She wants to believe Jake is innocent. But trusting anyone could be her last mistake....

When Sasha's best friend, Xavier, gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away. But Sasha's plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become. Told in multiple points of view, Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is sexy and twisted, with shocks at every turn.

Like most families, they had their secrets...and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the '50s was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.

Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker. But he hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father - to take care of his sister. Susannah is not an easy person to keep tabs on....