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Mystery

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

An isolated mansion in the hills of Scotland. An app that controls every lock and camera. A mysterious noise in the attic. And a nanny sitting in prison, explaining how she did not kill a little girl.

The Turn of the Key is the perfect mix of a Gothic ghost story, as it is based on Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, and a cautionary tale of what happens when we let technology invade every aspect of our lives.

Rowan is a young woman moving to the Scottish Highlands to work as a nanny for three little girls. The pay is high, and the house is an amazing hybrid of Victorian architecture and modern style. The mansion is equipped with state-of-the-art technology that allows everything to be controlled through an app.

As Rowan tries to settle into her new role, she is disturbed by footsteps in the attic and whispers about ghosts scaring away the girls’ previous nannies.

Told through Rowan’s perspective as she recounts what happened after she arrived at the house, the novel’s twists and turns kept me guessing until the very last page.

I devoured this book in one day, because I just had to know what happened to land our protagonist in prison. This is easily my favorite Ruth Ware novel, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

Find it in the catalog!

The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas

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Twilight Zone Radio Dramas
Hoopla Audion
For Teens and Adults

Over the past month or so, I’ve been hooked on The Twilight Zone “Radio Dramas” a radio series featuring adaptations of actual episodes of the classic TV series The Twilight Zone.  The stories are often expanded and updated to reflect twenty-first century technology and society, but the scripts remain fairly close to the original television broadcast. All 29 volumes are available for instant download with Hoopla Digital.  These are indeed top-notch productions featuring voice performances from some notable celebrities. Its like listening to some old-time radio theater complete with the thrill and all the spooky feels.  If you’re into audio dramas, these might be worth a listen.

Find yourself in The Twilight Zone on Hoopla Digital.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes

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The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith
Who it’s for: Adults
Format: Book, eBooks, Audiobook on CD, eAudio

Scandi-noir is big these days – Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, and Peter Hoeg are just a few of the authors known for this crime fiction genre set in any one of the Nordic countries. Scandi-noir is known for being dark, moody, and often grisly. Alexander McCall Smith’s newest series about a Swedish police department assigned to investigate crimes that are a bit too quirky for the rest of the police force is a bit of a different take on the genre. The series deals with crime in a Nordic country, but it lacks the bleakness typically associated with Scandi-noir. McCall Smith refers to it as “Scandi-blanc,” defined as “Scandinavian crime fiction without much crime and without any bodies.”

The cases the title team takes on are strange, but not so bleak and gory as typical Scandi-noir: a man stabbed in the back of the knee and the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend are just the start. The complicated lives and relationships of Detective Ulf Varg and his team are also explored: Will Ulf and Anna admit their feelings for each other? Will Varg’s deaf dog Martin overcome his depression?

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy his familiar writing style, while fans of Scandi-noir might just like this tongue-in-cheek play on the genre.

Do you prefer listening to digital audiobooks? The eAudio version of The Department of Sensitive Crimes is only available through RBdigital, so create an account with your St. Mary’s County Library card and download the app to get started listening!

Find The Department of Sensitive Crimes in the catalog.

House of Salt and Sorrows

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 House of Salt and SorrowsHouse of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Format: Book
Who it’s for:  Teens, Adults

House of Salt and Sorrows is a retelling of the German fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a little bit of influence from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, Annabell Lee.  Annaleigh is one of twelve sisters in the Thaumas family living in a kingdom by the sea.  One by one her sisters tragically die.  Each death appears to be accidental but the kingdom starts to whisper that the family is cursed.  Suddenly, Annaleigh is one of seven remaining sisters and she is second in line to inherit the kingdom.

Annaleigh’s stepmother is determined they are no longer going to mourn and they must celebrate that she is pregnant with a boy.  They decide to have a ball and new dancing shoes are ordered for the girls.  The ball is a failure as no one wants to dance with the “cursed” sisters.  Disappointed and lonely they find a doorway to other kingdoms where they can dance the night away with people that don’t know who they are.  After attending a few of these magical balls, Annaleigh starts to have disturbing visions and begins to question if her sisters’ deaths were accidental or were they murder.

Meanwhile, Annaleigh meets a mysterious stranger on the docks who seems to have a romantic interest in her.  And, her childhood friend, Fisher, returns to attend the ball.  Fisher and Annaleigh have always just been friends, but it seems that he might want more than just friendship.  However, Annaleigh needs to solve the mystery surrounding her sisters’ deaths and figure out why she is having ghostly visions before she can decide on her romantic future.

This a great Gothic tale with lots of creepy atmosphere.  If you are familiar with Poe’s poem and a fan of fairy tale retellings, you will like this one.  Another one of my favorite fairy tale retellings also happens to be based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier.

Find House of Salt and Sorrows in the catalog.

The Bitterroots

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The Bitterroots by C.J. Box
Read by Christina Delaine
Published: August 13, 2019
Audiobook
Adult

 

This is the 4th in the “Cassie Dewell” book series by C.J. Box.  The first three “The Highway”, “Badlands” and “Paradise Valley” proved to be exciting and suspenseful reads.

In this new book, expected out on August 13th, we find former sheriff’s investigator Cassie Dewell trying to start over with her own private investigation firm.  Even though she isn’t happy about the idea, she has agreed to help an old friend, who is a defense attorney, and who is calling in a favor.  She wants Cassie to help her exonerate a man from an influential family, who is accused of assaulting his 15 year old niece.  Out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there’s always something more to the story.

Even though it is 4th book in the series, it appears that it is not necessary to have read the previous titles.

I can’t wait to see how C. J. Box spins this one!  Sounds like there will be some suspenseful twists to try and figure out!

Find it in the catalog

Every Heart a Doorway

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Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults, Teens

There are a lot of stories about children unexpectedly finding doorways to other worlds, like Alice in Wonderland, or the Chronicles of Narnia. There are also a lot of stories, sad stories in the news occasionally, about children who disappear without a trace, never to be seen again. What if there was a correlation between these stories? What if children really were stumbling through magical doorways all the time? What if some never return from those worlds, and those that do come back with such fantastic tales, they can only be accepted as fiction?

For those who return from their magical lands, our world, the “real” world, is difficult to re-acclimate to, and for them there is a special school, Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, where they can process what happened to them. This is where 17 year old Nancy Whitman finds herself upon returning from the Halls of the Dead. She longs to go back, where the Lord and Lady of the Dead rule over their underworld wisely and justly, while she serves them stilly and silently. She’s not alone in hoping to one day find another doorway leading back “home.” Though Nancy’s found kindred spirits at her new school, all is not well, and when a fellow student turns up dead, an incredible mystery begins to unfold.

I would recommend this to adult or teen readers interested in fantasy, horror, or mystery, but preferably all three, and if you like it, there are more books in the “Wayward Children” series. See Every Heart a Doorway in our catalog.