The Book Club Hub – Crime Mysteries and Thrillers

Book clubs offer a great opportunity for friends and book lovers to gather (whether virtually or in person) to catch up and discuss a good book. There’s only two problems with this activity and they seem to come up at every meeting: what book should the group read next and how do you find enough copies for everyone?

TBPL is here to help with our Book Club in a Bag service. Each bag includes 10 paperback copies of the same book, discussion questions for your group to ponder, author information, and book reviews. With over 200 different titles available, there is bound to be one that is the perfect next read for your group.

Visit our online catalogue to place holds on book club bags as well as individual copies of any of the books mentioned below. If you’re looking to view all of the book club bags available, simply click the link and search “book club bag”. Any library patron can place a hold on a bag for pick up at any of our open branches. These bags are loaned out for 8 weeks, which gives you and your book club plenty of time to read and discuss.

Every month, a new set of book club titles will be highlighted in The Book Club Hub post. This month features crime mysteries and thrillers. Stories of crime – who did it, what happened, and will the right people be caught – are always thrilling to readers. They give book clubs lots to discuss, as everyone’s theories tend to change as the novel goes on. Here are this month’s selections:

The Widow – Fiona Barton

When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen…

But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.

There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.

The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…

____________

The Couple Next Door – Shari Lapena

It all started at a dinner party. . .

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors–a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . .

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all–a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family–a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

___________

Out of Focus – Carol Ashe

When Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) top sniper officer Margarite Hunter takes a position on the city’s crime unit, her goal is to save lives rather than take them.

While searching for two missing young women, Mags and her partner Hank uncover an extensive trafficking and crime ring. Meanwhile, Charlie Mahone is brought out of retirement from the Canadian military to find a lost soldier suspected of seeking revenge on the man who killed his family.

When their paths cross, the sparks threaten to derail both of their investigations. Mags soon realizes that Charlie’s story goes much deeper than what he lets on. She needs to stop the killer before more lives are lost, and Charlie needs to stay out of her way. She has no time for love, no matter how chiselled its jawline. But to break the crime ring that strangles her city, they will need to work together, and that requires something she doesn’t give easily: Trust.

Out of Focus is book two of the WPS (Winnipeg Police Service) series.

__________

Defending Jacob – William Landay

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis – a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Crime mysteries and thrillers are always a popular genre that never get old to our readers! You never know what kind of twists and turns these types of novels will take. As soon as you think you know how the crime will be solved, think again!

Not in a book club? No problem! These books are also available as single copies in our online catalogue.

Book descriptions via GoodReads

Lindsay – www.tbpl.ca. If you have a comment about today’s column, we would love to hear from you!

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