Emma Keeling | Contributor
Looking for a suspenseful murder-mystery novel to read this spooky season? Look no further. And, since mystery is one of my personal favorite genres, my standards for good ones are pretty high. With all the new murder/crime documentaries coming out on all the streaming services, it’s easy to get wrapped up in one (or in my case a lot) of them. Well, you’ll feel the same way reading any of these three novels – like you can’t stop.
Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner
A couple of years ago, my best friend and I were at the bookstore just looking around and we came across the section of on sale books. The deal was 2 for $20, or something like that. We had bought Right Behind You because we had heard of Lisa Gardner and thought the book sounded pretty good. Thank goodness we did because it is such a good read. Sharlah and Telly Ray Nash lived with their drunk, abusive father until Telly beats him to death when Sharlah was only 5 years old in order to save both their lives. Eight years later, Sharlah is finally adopted by a retired FBI profiler and his partner. However, when things seem to be going so well, the couple gets a call informing them of a double murder at a local gas station. And who does the evidence point to? Sharlah’s older brother, Telly. You won’t want to put this book down until you know all the answers to the many questions that arise in this utterly suspenseful and fast-paced mystery.
A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
I listened to A Good Girls Guide to Murder on an audiobook and the cast was awesome, the narrator was easy to listen to, and the book is simple enough to really follow along while listening. It has everything in a typical murder mystery novel – a small town, secrets, the murder of a young girl. But, someone’s already in prison for it. No mystery, right? Wrong. Pipa Fitz-Amobi uses the murder case of a young girl, Andie Bell, in her hometown as her senior class research project. She doesn’t quite buy that Sal, the man in prison for Andie’s murder, is guilty. She uncovers so much more than the police ever did and finally gets to the real killer – but they will do almost anything to keep Pipa from telling.
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
The Woman in the Window is certainly an interesting subset novel of the murder-mystery genre. It’s extremely suspenseful and will have you turning pages faster than you ever have before. It took just one day for me to read it – I may have been up until midnight, but there was no way I was stopping. Anna Fox, a woman with agoraphobia, lives alone in her NYC home. A new family moves in across the street. They seem nice and normal, until she witnesses (through their windows) a terrible crime happening before her eyes. No one believes her story – her usual drinking and mental health issues make her hard to believe; but she knows what she saw was something very wrong. This novel is full of gripping questions and unthinkable plot twists that you’ll never see coming.
Emma Keeling is a third-year student at BGSU studying Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Her favorite genres of book include mystery and horror and her favorite author is Stephen King. She can usually be found curled up on the couch studying, reading, or watching movies. To easily contact Emma, email her at emmamk@bgsu.edu.
You may also like this
