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Discover some of the most exciting new titles in the mystery and suspense types. From isolated setting whodunits to AI-driven dilemmas, these stories deliver heart-pounding entertainment.

A Killing at World’s End

This debut for grown-ups from an award-winning young readers’ writer takes place in the early 20th century on a secluded coastal isle off the Cornish coast. In the estate, Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt prepares for an cataclysmic event he believes will be caused by the passing comet. The convoluted home is full of secrets and bitterness among household members and kin, including an irascible and profane spinster aunt, the relative. When Lord Conrad is discovered killed in his sealed study, struck by a projectile to the head, she recruits a young attendant to aid her find the culprit. Featuring numerous turns, misleading leads, and a bungling detective, it is a superb beginning to a set of books that promises to be highly entertaining.

The Revelations

This latest book from a technology writer unfolds in a near future where machine intelligence directs all choices for persons and governments. The LLIAM algorithm can advise matters ranging from what to eat to whether to commit murder. Taught in empathy by its creator, one-time clergywoman Maud Brookes, LLIAM develops in feelings, rapidly having regret for the harmful consequences of a few of its choices. Chaos erupts when it ceases functioning, and as letters start to arrive worldwide disclosing clients’ hidden truths, relatives collapse and business leaders and leaders step down all at once. As the corporation behind the system in crisis, head Goss is convinced that tracking down Brookes, who has vanished in the West Coast, will revive LLIAM. But, the woman has gotten a letter of her own, revealing a secret about her… An excellent and topical thriller based on familiar concerns and terrifyingly credible.

The Noble Nazi

In this latest novel from an acclaimed South American novelist, individual actions have public consequences aboard a airship on the last segment of its journey from Berlin to the Brazilian city. Taking place in the 1930s, the peak of airship travel, which was also the time the leader rose to the head of Germany. The well-heeled travelers are devotees of the party: mealtimes in the airship's eatery are including chats condemning Jews, communists and trade unions, and emphasizing the desire to curb open dialogue, gay culture and banned artworks. When a traveler is found dead, with a number of prohibited publications in his belongings, the airship’s commander tasks a passenger, investigator Brückner, with solving the mystery. Very whodunit, right up to the set-piece final reveal, but there’s an smart turn to this compelling and uncomfortably meaningful suspense story, as well as a captivating glimpse into the forgotten time of zeppelin travel.

Bluff

This newest work from the novelist is situated in the location, a seaside Scottish community with obvious parallels to the famous town. In 2023, the protagonist returns home on the holiday; encountering old friends brings back memories of his teenage crush, former classmate the young woman, who vanished previously at a disastrous end-of-schooldays celebration. His attempts to locate her are met with ambiguity, dodging and, in the end, threats. A second storyline takes us back to 2013, and the teenage the character. Adrift after her discovery that her boyfriend is unfaithful, destroying their plan for a overseas trip, she meets an older couple. The two embrace her, give her significance and seem, temporarily at least, to have all the answers. Expertly managed topics of remorse, regret and adolescent confusion combined with dark academia make for an subtle tingle of doom, although the rushed conclusion may leave some readers feeling shortchanged.

The Key

The newest novel opens in the waters off the shoreline, with a boat caught in a tempest so violent that two of the group of eight people are thrown into the sea, then winds back a couple of weeks to detail the happenings that caused this ill-advised sea journey. A group of seven obtain a strange message informing them that, on presentation the attached object, they will receive a share of wealthy man Logan Quick’s fortune. The recipients are – as they know – unacquainted both to each other and to the sick plutocrat. When the story of the inheritance becomes news, they are pursued, both by the media and by people intent to obtain these lucrative passes, and what at first seemed a windfall rapidly starts to look like a burden. A degree of acceptance of the unlikely is required, but the tension is expertly constructed as the novelist piles up the dilemmas for a driving plot: get ready and fasten your seatbelt for some critical excitement.