Summer Reading 2021: Mysteries, Suspense, Thrillers

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi's hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Thrillers and suspense.

1426, Joseon (Korea). Hwani's family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest near a gruesome crime scene. Years later, Detective Min--Hwani's father--learns that thirteen girls have recently disappeared from the same forest that nearly stole his daughters. He travels to their hometown on the island of Jeju to investigate...only to vanish as well. Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. Historical mysteries.

When Savannah disappears soon after arguing with her mom’s boyfriend, everyone assumes she's run away. The truth is much worse. She’s been kidnapped by a man in a white van who locks her in an old trailer home, far from prying eyes. And worse yet, Savannah’s not alone: ten months earlier, Jenny met the same fate and nearly died trying to escape. Now as the two girls wonder if he will hold them captive forever or kill them, they must join forces to break out—even if it means they die trying. Multiple perspectives; Thrillers and suspense.

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch -- and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive. Mysteries.

Six kindergarteners were taken. Eleven years later, five come back--with no idea of where they've been. No one remembers the sixth victim, Max. Avery, Max's sister, needs to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story. But as details of the disappearance begin to unfold, no one is prepared for the truth. Multiple perspectives; Mysteries.

Six years ago Maddie lived in Washington D.C. with her father, a Secret Service agent assigned to the President's family, and her best friend was Logan, the President's son; but after her father was wounded in an attempted kidnapping the two of them moved to a remote cabin in Alaska and Logan never replied to her letters--but now he has suddenly turned up on her doorstep, and, while she has no attention of forgiving him for his silence, she soon realizes that first she has to save him from the winter wilderness and the men who are pursuing him. Thrillers and suspense.

Laureth Peak's father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers--a skill at which she's remarkably talented. Her secret: She is blind. But when her father goes missing, Laureth and her 7-year-old brother Benjamin are thrust into a mystery that takes them to New York City where surviving will take all her skill at spotting the amazing, shocking, and sometimes dangerous connections in a world full of darkness. First person narratives; Mysteries.

When DJ ParSec (Paris Secord), rising star of the local music scene, is found dead over her turntables, the two girls who found her, Kya (her pre-fame best friend) and Fuse (her current chief groupie) are torn between grief for Paris and hatred for each other--but when the lack of obvious suspects stalls the investigation, and the police seem to lose interest, despite pressure from social media and ParSec's loyal fans, the two girls unite, determined to find out who murdered their friend. African American fiction; First person narratives; Multiple perspectives; Thrillers and suspense.

A suspenseful reimagining of Hamlet is set in 1920s Oregon, where the outcast daughter of a white mother and a black father finds her survival further complicated by the fearmongering of the KKK and the discovery that her stepfather might have murdered her father. Historical fiction; Mysteries; Shakespeare-inspired fiction.

Stevie Bell, a true-crime aficionado and aspiring detective, wanted to come to Ellington Academy for one reason: it’s the site of one of the most infamous unsolved kidnappings in the world. Founded by the wealthy, generous Albert Ellington, the private school is an academic haven where learning is playful. But in the 1930s, Ellington’s wife and young daughter were kidnapped, held for ransom, and then, presumably, murdered; the true perpetrator, was never found. Stevie is determined to solve the crime, but her new housemates have secrets of their own, and her wish may come true sooner, and more frighteningly, than she ever wanted it to. Mysteries.

A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl named Cadence; a passionate, political boy named Gat. A group of four friends--the Liars--whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Thrillers and suspense.

Cat hasn't been to Montgomery Falls since she was twelve years old-- and discovered she could do things that no normal twelve-year-old could do. Five years later she's back, and finds that her childhood friend Riley disappeared three months ago. When Noah, Riley's brother, asks for help in discovering what happened, Cat is torn between wanting to learn the truth and protecting the secret that she has been guarding ever since that summer she and Riley stopped speaking. Cat must make a choice. She can use her ability to discover the truth and find Riley-- or keep running away from a power she can't control. Canadian fiction; Paranormal fiction; Thrillers and suspense.

Eight years after being kidnapped Addie Webster, now sixteen, resurfaces under mysterious circumstances, significantly changed, and her childhood best friend, Darrow Fergusson, is asked by a national security advisor to spy on her to uncover whether she is a threat to her father's Presidency or the nation. Multiple perspectives; Thrillers and suspense.