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Dive into some of the most gripping new titles in the crime and thriller categories. Including locked-room mysteries to near-future suspense, these stories deliver heart-pounding entertainment.

The Murder at World’s End

The debut for grown-ups from an award-winning children’s author takes place in 1910 on a isolated island cut off by tides off the Cornish coast. In Tithe Hall, Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt gets ready for an end-of-the-world event he thinks will be triggered by Halley’s comet. The convoluted home is teeming with secrets and bitterness among both staff and family, including an bad-tempered and profane maiden aunt, the aunt. When Lord Conrad is discovered dead in his sealed study, struck by a crossbow bolt to the eye, Decima co-opts a recent servant to help her solve the crime. With numerous turns, misleading leads, and a bungling law enforcer, this is a superb opening to a set of books that promises to be highly entertaining.

The Confessions

This newest title from a digital reporter is set in a not-so-distant time where machine intelligence guides every decision for individuals and authorities. The smart program can suggest matters ranging from dinner choices to homicide decisions. Trained in empathy by its human “mother”, ex-religious sister Maud Brookes, the system grows emotionally, soon experiencing regret for the harmful consequences of a few of its recommendations. Chaos breaks out when it ceases functioning, and as notes start to arrive globally revealing subscribers’ private shames, households collapse and executives and politicians resign en masse. As the AI's owning firm in disarray, chief executive the leader is certain that locating Brookes, who has vanished in the state, will restore LLIAM. But, she has received a letter of her own, revealing a secret about the CEO… An excellent and topical mystery based on relatable issues and horrifyingly believable.

The Good Nazi

Within this newest novel from an award-winning Brazilian author, private lives reflect public issues within a zeppelin on the final leg of its trip from the German capital to Rio de Janeiro. Taking place in that year, the heyday of blimp transport, which was additionally the year Hitler rose to German chancellor. The well-heeled riders are devotees of the party: meal services in the ship's restaurant are accompanied by discussions vilifying Jewish people, leftists and labor groups, and emphasizing the need to curb open dialogue, gay culture and unacceptable creativity. After one passenger is found killed, with several illegal periodicals in his belongings, the vessel's leader assigns a passenger, law enforcer Bruno Brückner, with solving the mystery. Very Agatha Christie, even with the staged concluding assembly, but there’s an smart surprise to this compelling and uncomfortably resonant thriller, as well as a captivating glimpse into the lost world of zeppelin travel.

Deception

This second novel from the writer is set in St Rule, a town by the sea in Scotland with distinct resemblances to the famous town. At that time, Cameron returns to St Rule on the holiday; seeing old friends rekindles recollections of his teenage crush, one-time peer Joanie, who vanished a decade ago at a disastrous school's end party. His efforts to track her down are met with vagueness, dodging and, ultimately, threats. Another narrative strand returns to that year, and the young the character. Confused after her discovery that her boyfriend is unfaithful, wrecking their plan for a year abroad, she meets an more mature pair. The two welcome her, give her significance and seem, briefly at least, to have the solutions. Expertly managed subjects of remorse, sorrow and teenage uncertainty alongside gothic education themes make for an slow-building sense of impending disaster, though the fast finale may make some readers disappointed.

The Pass

The newest book opens in the ocean off the shoreline, with a yacht stuck in a storm so fierce that two of the group of eight travellers are washed away, then goes back a couple of weeks to detail the happenings that preceded this ill-advised voyage. A group of seven receive a strange message notifying them that, by showing the attached object, they will receive a portion of wealthy man Logan Quick’s wealth. The people are – to their knowledge – unacquainted both to each other and to the ailing rich person. When the story of the inheritance goes public, they are hounded, by the journalists and by others intent to acquire these lucrative passes, and what initially seemed a godsend swiftly starts to look like a liability. A degree of suspension of disbelief is needed, but the suspense is skillfully built as the novelist accumulates the problems for a fast-paced narrative: clear the decks and hold on tight for some critical drama.