People have recently become much more aware of Earth’s decay. Climate change, the extinction of flora and fauna, and various other natural crises affect almost everyone. A recent study even says that 85% of people on the planet are living with the effects of global warming.

Understandably, there’s a lot of fear and doubt spreading around. It’s what fuels the most gripping stories in environmental fiction.

Best Ecological Thrillers

Below is a list of works that concern the world at large and humanity’s place in it. Each one tackles a threat that, when ignored or denied, can create irreversible damage. It’s not just a few lives on the line, but an entire species, human or not.

1. Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Inti Flynn and her twin sister lead a team of biologists in reintroducing grey wolves into the Scottish Highlands. She hopes not only to rebalance nature, but also to heal from the tragedy that drove the sisters out of Alaska.

Some of the locals see the animals only as mindless killers, especially when a farmer is found dead. Inti knows the wolves aren’t to blame. To prove people wrong, she begins a wild journey into the dark heart of man. But the predator she’s hunting might be closer than she thinks.

2. The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun

Yona works for Jungle, a leading travel agency that specializes in destinations devastated by disaster. But she’s about to lose her job after refusing her boss’s inappropriate advancements.

To save herself, she takes a paid “vacation” to the desert island of Mui. There, she needs to pose as a client and assess why it’s the company’s least profitable location. What she finds, though, is a plot to engineer a catastrophe. With her life on the line, she must choose whether to stop the conspiracy or help implement it.

3. Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

Sangamon Taylor is a chemist with a reputation for exposing water polluters. Tests reveal an alarming spike in PCB levels in the Boston Harbour, which can lead to public health issues. The toxic trail leads to Basco Industries and he decides to investigate.

All of a sudden, Taylor’s being followed, menaced, framed, and discredited. With his corporate foes circling in, he must acquire proof of the conspiracy before it’s too late.

4. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

A white whale ravages the seas and takes revenge against hunters of his kind. It destroys Captain Ahab’s ship and bites off one of his legs. Fueled by revenge, he takes on a new crew and chases after the whale.

But Moby Dick is just as cunning as his hunter. It’s only a matter of time before the monomaniacal captain clashes against the inhuman and, ultimately, uncaring force of nature.

5. Beneath the Mountain by Luca D’Andrea

Jeremiah Salinger moves to his partner’s isolated hometown nestled in the Italian Dolomites. He decides to make a film about a mountain rescue group that goes horribly wrong, leaving him the only survivor. He spirals into depression, blaming himself for the tragedy.

An overheard conversation about a triple murder years ago breathes new life into him. He grows obsessed, and the investigative itch pulls him deeper into the case. But in this small town—isolated and insular—poking around might unearth long-buried secrets that can fracture the community.

6. A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet

Twelve children are on a forced vacation with their families in a lakeside mansion. Their parents, more interested in partying, leave them largely to their own devices.

A massive storm arrives and creates a flood. Convinced by their parents’ inability to take care of them, the kids strike out independently. But their newly found tranquility can only last for so long.

7. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Winter is coming and a small Anishinaabe reserve loses power. Food supplies dwindle and panic sets in. A small band of members struggles to maintain order.

Unexpected visitors arrive from a ruined society to the south and take control. Tensions rise and so does the death toll. Frustrated, a group of friends turn to an unlikely leader in the hopes of seeing their community prosper again.

8. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Mars has always beckoned to humanity. For any person with a spacefaring dream, conquering the desolate planet has always been the first step to the space age.

Now, a hundred people are sent in to terraform the planet. If successful, transnational corporations would gain access to martian resources. But not everyone agrees humanity has the right to colonize the planet, especially when done with such reckless haste.

9. The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

American cities have become overcrowded, resource-draining places. Bea’s five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly dying from the perpetual smog and pollution. Her only chance is the Wilderness State, the last swath of untouched, protected land.

Along with eighteen other volunteers, they take part in an experiment to see if humanity can exist with nature without destroying it. They must hunt and forage without leaving a trace behind. The wilds will test everything they are, including the bonds they share.

10. The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

Just home from the jungles of Southeast Asia, George Hayduke finds the pristine lands of the American West being violated. Industrial development is ruining nature, befouling the air, and contaminating the waters.

Along with three other misfits, George decides to fight back. The group takes on strip miners, dam builders, bridge makers, and anyone else that threatens the natural habitat.

What Is an Ecological Thriller?

Ecological thrillers are best defined as rousing stories with a widespread threat that is aggravated by ecological factors. Nature is central to the narrative but isn’t the main villain.

This way, authors are able to expound on the relationship between humanity and the world. It includes society’s responsibilities to nature and the consequences that come from failing them.

This rules out a ton of science fiction, horror, and other thrillers. Man-eating sharks (Jaws), genetically engineered dinosaurs (Jurassic Park), and carnivorous plants (The Ruins) are thrilling, but they’re not eco-thrillers. Though there’s an element of human meddling in the stories, the villain ultimately comes from nature.

Instead, think of industrialists deforesting an entire continent, society turning a blind eye to the ocean’s pollution, and people dying from winter because of insufficient housing. All of these have relevance in this age of rapid natural destruction.

Essentially, an ecological thriller is a reminder of real-life environmental issues that need to be addressed. And that nature is both beautiful and terrible, depending on how we take care of it.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post 10 Ecological Thrillers for the Environmentally Concerned appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

The room is locked, and every person is accounted for. There is no way someone could get in, do the deed, and leave without a trace. Who could have done this impossible crime?

The plot above is an example of what a honkaku is. It’s a literary genre of Japanese detective fiction that is most similar to European whodunits.

What Is a Honkaku?

Honkaku is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “orthodox.” Japanese crime author Haruta Yoshitame defines it as “a detective story that values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning.”

This kind of story functions much like a complex puzzle that needs to be solved purely through logic and deduction. In this, honkaku usually follows the same set of rules codified by mystery writers from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction—by which it was inspired.

Writers take special care to follow the rule of “fair play” because a hard but still solvable mystery is satisfying, while an unsolvable one is merely frustrating. This is important, as some of the mysteries can rise to a Rube Goldberg level of complexity.

Because of this, writers often highlight information in their novels. They add lists of characters, maps, floor plans, and other diagrams to help the reader visualize and solve the crime.

A honkaku usually takes place under “impossible” circumstances such as a locked room, where the crime is initially thought possible only if the culprit were of supernatural origins. The goal of the detective (and the reader) is to then disprove this by giving the crime a logical solution.

The genre was pioneered by writers such as Edogawa Rampo, Seishi Yokomizo, and Keikichi Osaka. It was popular from the 1920s to the 1940s, before it was replaced by crime novels that focused on psychological elements. However, the genre still exists in some form to this day.

Examples of Honkaku

If you want to experience what a Japanese whodunit is like, here are a few honkakus that you might want to look at.

1. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

The Ichiyanagi household is awoken by a terrible scream followed by the sound of eerie music. A newly married couple is found brutally murdered inside their locked room. The only traces found are a strange handprint and a bloodied katana thrust into the snow outside.

Kosuke Kindaichi is called to the case. But with such strange clues and a large pool of suspects, can the amateur detective solve the impossible crime?

2. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada

An artist is found dead inside a locked room. With the body is a diary, and inside is the artist’s plan to chop up six of his daughters, stepdaughters, and nieces to create the perfect woman.

What’s more baffling is that the plan is enacted perfectly after the artist’s death. It’s a mystery that’s haunted Japan for 40 years—and now Kiyoshi Mitarai must solve it within a week.

3. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Six members of a university mystery club arrive at an island where the last remaining building, the Decagon House, was host to a brutal murder less than a year ago. And one by one, they begin to fall.

Meanwhile, two members of the club who didn’t go to the meeting begin receiving mysterious letters. Something is afoot, and the island is at the center of this mystery.

4. My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura

An anonymous man plans to steal another man’s identity. He begins readings the man’s journal, but what he finds inside are the writings of a dangerous person.

Then he is captured, named as the man he was trying to impersonate, and taken to a facility. From there, identities begin to blur, and we begin to wonder who’s currently speaking and whether they’re telling the truth.

5. The Master Key by Masako Togawa

The K Apartment for Ladies is about to be moved in a highly-publicized road project. Its occupants are less than thrilled, especially the ones hiding secrets beneath its foundations.

Then the master key is lost, stolen, and re-stolen—and with it, the ability to open every door and unlock every mystery lurking within the building.

6. Malice by Keigo Higashino

Acclaimed novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found murdered just a night before he was supposed to immigrate to Canada. His body is found inside his locked office, within his locked house.

Those who found him—his wife and best friend—have solid alibis… or so it seems. It’s not the who or how that Detective Kyochiro Kaga must find out, but the why. A cat and mouse game ensues as he tries to make sense of why the crime was done in the first place.

7. The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo

 The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from an old legend. While taking refuge within the village, eight samurai are massacred for the treasure they possess.

Centuries later, the village is again struck by tragedy. A villager goes on a murder spree before vanishing into the woods. His infant son survives the slaughter.

In the present, a slew of poisonings begins to trouble the village. At the center is a mysterious young man, who must find out why the deaths are happening and why he’s being framed.

8. The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows by Edogawa Rampo

The Black Lizard features a master jewelry thief and the detective pursuing her. Though both are attracted to one another, they also can’t compromise the ideals and circumstances they live by.

Beast in the Shadows follows a mystery writer who begins an affair with a married woman. Her claims of being menaced by an ex-lover get him involved in a tale of secret identities, violent sexuality, and questions about innocence.

9. The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi

Kinue Nomura’s torn body is found inside a locked room. The only thing missing is the part of her that bore one of the most beautiful full-body tattoos ever made.

Kenzo Matsushita, a doctor, is the first to discover the macabre scene. As his detective brother investigates the case, he feels compelled to assist in every way. But Kenzo has a secret and his involvement twists the case into something as intricate as Kinue’s missing tattoos.

10. The 8 Mansion Murders by Takemaru Abiko

The 8 Mansion, so called for its figure-8 shape, is the scene of two impossible crimes. First, the owner’s son is shot dead with a crossbow. Then a witness to the first murder is killed the same way.

Police Inspector Kyozo Hayani is called to the case. And while a culprit is swiftly identified and arrested, the detective knows someone else has blood on their hands.

11. The Devotion of Suspect X  by Keigo Higashino

Yasuko Hanaoka lives a quiet life, working in a bento shop and taking care of her daughter. Then her ex-husband, Togashi, appears to extort money from them.

The situation escalates into violence, with Togashi ending up dead on the floor. It’s a good thing their next-door neighbor knows how to cover up a body. And when the body does turn up, the case becomes a high-stakes battle between two cunning minds on opposite sides of the crime.

12. Devils in Daylight  by Junichiro Tanizaki

After a sleepless night, Takahashi receives a call from an old friend, Sonomura. He claims to have decoded a secret message and knows exactly when and where a murder will take place. And if they don’t hurry, they’ll miss seeing it later tonight!

But Takahashi knows Sonomura suffers from a mental illness and is reluctant to believe him. Still, they stake out the scene, and to his shock, become witnesses to a slaughter.

Japanese Detective Fiction

Honkaku-ha is only one particular school within Japanese detective fiction. There’s also the shakai-ha (“social school”), which was a more realistic story that deals with society’s place in crime. It was created as an answer to honkaku’s perceived lack of realism and plausibility. This is much like how hardboiled fiction came to be as a reaction to Western whodunits.

There’s also shinhonkaku-ha (“neo-orthodox school”), a modern revival of the honkaku school. The distinction between the two can be difficult. Like honkaku, shinhonkaku focused on puzzle-like crimes, but tended to embrace the mystery’s implausibility. It sometimes goes into metafictional levels, where the prose draws the reader to the fact that it is fiction, and need not follow reality.

Japanese detective fiction offers crime stories beyond the Western world. While the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (mostly British and American writers) does have a large influence over the genre, Japanese writers have worked hard to create their own blend of crime fiction—thus, the three schools above.

And thanks to increasing efforts to translate these works, more people can now enjoy whodunits written from different cultural, social, and political perspectives.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post A Brief Introduction to Honkaku Detective Fiction appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

But while they are the originals who established the genre, there are also female detectives who deserve recognition. Although only a small fraction of them exist as of now, they have done more than their part to enrich the genre.

Best Female Detectives in Literature

Whether they’re amateur sleuths or professional detectives, these are some of the best detectives you can read about in books.

1. Mma Precious Ramotswe from The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith

Mma Ramotswe was a loving daughter, battered wife, and mourning mother before becoming Botswana’s first-ever female detective. Despite being untrained, her life experiences and talent for understanding people help her solve the many cases she’s faced with.

Whether it’s tracking down missing people, outmaneuvering conmen, or helping wrongdoers seek atonement, Mma Ramotswe is more than up for the challenge.

2. Mrs. Bradley from Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell

“Reptilian” with a “cackling laugh,” Mrs. Bradley is a gloriously mean old lady who just so happens to be talented at solving crime and throwing shade while she’s at it. And although her eccentricities can be grating to other people, she wears them like a badge of honor.

As chaos ensues, she calmly observes and interprets, carefully laying down the traps that ultimately catch the culprits. She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty and isn’t above using a bit of ruthlessness to solve a mystery.

3. Clarice Starling from the Hannibal Series by Thomas Harris

Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee suddenly thrown way out of her league. And yet, she matches the wits and earns the respect of one of the most fearsome serial killers in the business.

Throughout the books, Starling proves herself to be smart, intuitive, and brave, a powerful combination for a sleuth. Sadly, she does turn to the dark side in Hannibal. She and Hannibal grow close and he even feeds her the brains of the officer who was stunting her career.

4. Nancy Drew from the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene

Everyone’s favorite girl detective is smart, headstrong, and curious. While the crimes she investigates aren’t as “hardcore” as the others on this list, there’s no denying her place in crime literature.

Remarkably talented, she’s also accompanied by a steadfast group of people in her work. Whether it’s her friends Bess and George, her boyfriend Ned, or her dad Carson, they always find a way to solve any mystery they find.

5. Miss Marple from the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie

Arguably the most famous female detective in fiction, Miss Marple is the brainchild of Dame Agatha Christie, who is regarded as the greatest mystery writer of all time.

An elderly spinster with razor sharp intellect, she’s adept at reading people and picking up the most minuscule clues that many overlook. And because everyone else dismisses her as a silly old woman, she’s always in the perfect position for investigating cases—overlooked but never outmatched.

Best Female Detectives on Screen

Movies and TV series have brought to life some of the most compelling female detectives. Here are just a few of them.

6. Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo

While each member of the gang has their own skills and specialties, Velma’s usually the one who actually solves the mystery. Incredibly intelligent and well-read in many obscure topics, she can connect seemingly random clues and figure out the perpetrator of a case.

Perhaps her greatest strength (and weakness) is her skeptical nature. Unlike the rest of the gang, she’s likely to ignore any supernatural explanation to a case. She’ll claim that ghosts and zombies (which are real in the franchise) are mere hallucinations.

7. Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is a high school (later college) student who moonlights as a private investigator. Unlike many on this list, she’s actually being mentored by an expert: her detective father. Most of the cases she investigates occur in or around her high school and range from petty crimes to more serious ones like sexual assault.

Just like any teenager, Veronica’s equipped with a sarcastic streak, which she often uses a weapon. She’s also creative and resourceful, often solving cases before her father can.

8. Olivia Benson from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Olivia Benson is a detective whose unshakeable morals steadfastly help her rise from a dedicated detective to the eventual captain of the Special Victims Unit. She specializes in cases where sexual offenses such as rape and child sexual abuse are involved.

As a detective, she’s strongly motivated to help victims achieve justice, and works almost obsessively to see things through. Her empathic nature inspires those who work with her to approach their jobs with the same compassion she has.

9. Marge Gunderson from Fargo

As chief of police, Marge has the skills, experience, and intuition required for the role. She’s able to quickly and accurately judge a crime scene, identify leads, and make an arrest—while being seven months pregnant too!

What makes her different is that she’s kept her warm and cheery outlook on life, unlike many detectives who are depicted as cynical and broken. She’s in a happy marriage, is expecting her first child, and exhibits kindness even in the way she speaks to criminals.

10. Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Lisbeth is a brilliant hacker known all over the world and uses her skills to do investigative work for Milton Security. She also has perfect recall and is a master of disguise, changing her appearance to travel undetected anywhere.

Unconventional, asocial, and deeply troubled, Lisbeth is motivated by a hatred for men who abuse women and takes pleasure in punishing them. She follows her own set of morals and isn’t afraid of breaking the law to expose the bad guys.

Lady Detectives Taking the Lead

The stereotypical detective reclines on their leather chair behind a scratched, messy desk. The room is dark and their face is further hidden beneath the shadow of their hat. On one hand is a glass of alcohol—typically, whiskey—and on the other, a cigar. A trenchcoat hangs on a peg, ready to be snatched and worn when going out on a case.

This is the image of a detective as set by popular fiction. You can blame classic noir for this one. And while the image has bled and molded itself to other subgenres of crime fiction, there’s one thing that links them all. More often than not, that detective is a man.

But what if it were a woman? That’s a question many writers with female detective characters seek to answer. Women obviously have a different perspective of the world, and it’s that perspective that many storytellers try to convey.

This opens up new themes, issues, and concepts to explore, such sexism in the workplace, harassment cases, and more. In other words, the female perspective brings a fresh and distinct approach to crime fiction that makes it all the more richer.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post The Greatest Female Detectives in Fiction appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

Pair those situations with the heavy responsibility of guarding a patient’s life and you have the perfect setting for a thriller. And it works! From TV series to books, medical thrillers are one of the most popular genres in the media.

Medical Thrillers

Medical thrillers are stories that center on medical environments and involve medically-trained characters. These thrillers portray how these characters deal with the problems and difficulties that often surface in surgery, virology, immunology, and other medical fields.

Because of this, a medical thriller’s narrative often involves heavy scientific knowledge that may or may not be restricted to medical science.

It often goes at length to explain the purpose, benefits, and risks of a medical procedure or piece of equipment. With such highly specific information, it’s not uncommon for writers of this genre to have medical backgrounds or at least consult relevant experts.

Medical thrillers often go for narratives where medicine has either gone terribly wrong, or is struggling to keep up with horrific scenarios—like diseases becoming epidemics, doctors going rogue, and medical companies practicing horrible ethics.

In this way, the genre also gets to explore the people within the medical field—like how they cope with being unable to save people from dying, make necessary decisions for their patients, and compartmentalize their personal and professional lives.

Popular Medical Thriller Books

As a popular genre, there are thousands of medical thrillers available for you to read. Here are some of the most popular ones to date.

1. Coma by Robin Cook

Susan Wheeler is an attractive, up-and-coming medical student working at Boston Memorial Hospital. During her training, it comes to her attention that Boston Memorial has an oddly high amount of patients going into a coma after being treated.

Deciding to investigate, she discovers that the oxygen line to Operating Room 8 has been tampered with, leading to possible brain death. But what she finds further on is far more horrifying—a large-scale black market operation for human organs taken from the very people the hospital promised to help.

2. Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

For Kay Scarpetta, the goal isn’t to save those in her care. Instead, as a medical examiner, she focuses on determining how they died so she can save whoever’s next.

And right now, the Richmond Police Department is relying on her to find clues for a string of unsolved murders. But her investigation puts her in the killer’s sights. Will she be able to determine who it is before she becomes the next victim?

3. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s picture-perfect life comes to an end when she kills her husband and never speaks again. Her refusal to talk, even to defend herself, turns the case into a high-profile drama that everyone seems to watch.

Admitted into a secure psychiatric unit, Alicia is placed in the care of Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist with a keen interest in her side of the story. But as he digs deeper into her psyche, it becomes clear that his agenda may be more personal than he lets on.

4. Harvest by Tess Gerritsen

A car crash victim’s heart is found to be the perfect match for Boston Bayside Hospital’s wealthy private patient, Nina Voss. However, Dr. Abby DiMatteo makes sure it’s transplanted to a dying 17-year-old instead—a move that may have just ended her career.

But then a new heart is suddenly found and given to Nina. When Abby realizes it didn’t come from the proper channels, she plunges headfirst into a chain of deceptions involving organs and the Russian mob.

5. The Cobra Event by Richard Preston

Seventeen-year-old Kate Moran wakes up feeling sick. Hours later, she’s convulsing, blood is rushing out her nose, and she can’t stop biting herself. As similar cases appear everywhere, the CDC sends in Dr. Alice Austen, a forensic pathologist, to investigate.

When she finds evidence that what she’s investigating may be manmade, she’s faced with the possible collapse of the United States. It’s a race to find the cure—and the perpetrators—before it’s too late.

6. The Line Between by Tosca Lee

Wynter Roth has just escaped a doomsday cult when she is immediately confronted by what she’s been fearing her whole life—the apocalypse. A strange disease frozen in the Alaskan permafrost has gone active, causing madness in its victims.

When her sister shows up with samples that may be the key to everyone’s survival, Wynter knows what to do. As the nation descends into chaos, she must take the samples to a lab in Colorado, in the hopes of saving a world she’s always been taught was evil.

7. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

A space probe returns to Earth and unleashes an extraterrestrial organism that decimates a whole town. A team of scientists is sent in to investigate and contain the threat.

But the microbe, code-named Andromeda, is unlike any terrestrial organism on earth, rapidly evolving to change its biological properties. When it escapes containment, the team must deal with an imminent nuclear explosion that may just turn Andromeda into its deadliest form.

8.  Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

Dr. Greta Helsing is a doctor specializing in the inhuman. She fashions new bones for mummies, cures sore throats for banshees, and supplies blood to vampires in need. Despite all that, her life is a relatively quiet one.

That’s until a sect of murderous monks begin killing humans and undead alike. As one who lives on both worlds, only Greta has the necessary skills and insights to bring back peace to the community.

What Makes a Medical Thriller?

Medical thrillers are identified by their use and comprehension of medical science and beyond. Many writers of this genre, such as Robin Cook and Tess Gerritsen, are former medical practitioners. This equips them with the necessary inside view on medicine that makes their novels realistic.

This genre speculates on the limitations, possibilities, and dangers of the medical field—how far is too far in medicine, the emergence of new threats such as viruses and bioterrorism, and how medical science is used to enhance society. In this, it serves as a reminder of the delicate balance that medicine must maintain.

And just like other thrillers, this subgenre finds ways to uncover the darkness in the human spirit—like how villainy festers like a wound in some people, and that, no matter how medicine was created for the betterment of society, there are doctors that kill their patients, corporations that unfairly raise their prices, and medicine that’s used for illegal activities.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post What Is a Medical Thriller? Definition and Examples appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

These types of stories offer readers the same amount of danger and suspense as hardcore crime fiction—just minus all the gristly details. While injustice and death are present in the narrative, the reader is always assured that the case will be solved, the culprit apprehended, and the community will be at peace again.

Elements of a Cozy Mystery

So what makes a mystery cozy? While writers incorporate their own style and voice into these stories, there are certain conventions that truly separate this subgenre from other crime stories.

Characters

It’s rare for a cozy mystery to feature a trained detective as the puzzle-solver of the story. In most cases, it’s an untrained sleuth (who’s also often a woman) with brilliant deduction and observation skills.

Sometimes they have a particular career that helps them solve the crime. For example, a protagonist who’s also a doctor might be able to identify the poison used to murder a victim.

They might also be friends or family with someone from the police, giving them access to information that’s normally hard to get. And the police often don’t take them seriously, making it easier for them to slip into crime scenes or conveniently overhear sensitive conversations.

In general, the characters in a cozy mystery are likable and the main cast is mostly well-educated, with respectful positions. The antagonists are also not as awful as those in other crime genres. In fact, they’re presented as sophisticated and are often someone the protagonist knows.

Setting

Cozies often take place in a community (usually a small town or village) that’s small enough for everyone to know everyone. The protagonist is usually well-liked and is capable of getting people to talk. There’s often one nosy person who knows things, which helps the protagonist make a breakthrough in the case.

The settings are often described in detail. Writers want to create a vivid image of it to ensure that readers feel the impact of the crime on the community.

Because they usually come as a series, richly detailed settings ensure that there’s a lot to explore with each story. While the focus of the first book may be a secluded mansion, the second can take place in a village just beyond its walls. So while the crimes are contained in a small area, they don’t feel repetitive.

And while most stories in this subgenre are set in a realistic setting, there are some who include bits of paranormal elements to the narrative. For example, the Aunt Dimity series follows a protagonist who regularly solves cases with the help of her deceased aunt.

Crimes

In cozy mysteries, the victim is rarely killed in an awful manner. In most cases, the method of murder is fairly bloodless, such as poison or a clean stab to the back.

The cause of death is also rarely dwelled upon. Once it’s established how the victim is murdered, the narrative quickly shifts to finding out who the murderer is.

In the course of investigating, the sleuth also faces danger, but it’s never abnormally dark. The villain mostly works on impeding the hero’s progress, rather than attempting to kill or injure them.

This softer approach to crime is because the suspense relies on the mystery of it rather than its violence. Cozies are then the direct contrast of hardboiled fiction, which usually has violence as part of its central themes. So a cozy mystery doesn’t solely revolve around a murder—blackmail, kidnappings, and theft are also reasonable substitutes.

The crime is also never senseless. While cozies don’t usually focus on the why’s of the crime, the reason behind it is always explained at the end. Characters don’t just go axe-crazy and kill someone.

Structure

Cozy mysteries closely follow the narrative format of whodunits. At the start of the story, the protagonist and the readers are presented with a puzzle (the crime) they need to solve.

Throughout the narrative, clues are gathered, people are interrogated, and hypotheses are made. Unlike other crime fiction subgenres, investigative work is done via common sense and logic. When enough information is gathered, a character is accused of being the culprit.

The crime is then explained in detail, ensuring that no loose ends are left untied. The method and reason for the crime are revealed and the culprit is taken away.

Of course, this is only a general outline of what a cozy mystery is. Writers have found countless ways to deconstruct and elevate this particular type of story.

Examples of a Cozy Mystery

Below are a few examples of novels that incorporate the elements of a cozy mystery.

1. Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien

Lana Lee finds herself back at her family’s restaurant after a break-up and career blow-up. At this point, waiting tables seems like the best way to get her act together—even if it means putting up with her nosy mother.

Then they find their restaurant’s property manager dead from food that’s been ordered from their restaurant. With the restaurant under suspicion from both the police and the media, it’s up to Lana to find who made the fatal order.

2. The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton

PR agent Agatha Raisin gives up the urban life and moves to quiet, rural Carsley. But the life of leisure she’s been dreaming about isn’t exactly all that.

Bored and lonely, she enters a local baking contest to ingratiate herself to her neighbors. But when her store-bought entry ends up killing one of the judges, she ends up being the enemy of the village. The clock’s ticking, and she needs to track down who’s behind the poisoned quiche before somebody decides on making her pay for it.

3. The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Colonel Lucius Protheroe is the most detested man in the village of St. Mary Mead. So it’s no surprise when he finally turns up dead.

What’s surprising though is he’s found inside the vicar’s office, with two different people already confessing to the crime. Not only that but there are seven total suspects to investigate. Seems like a case that only the unrelenting Miss Marple can untangle.

4. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

Jim Qwilleran never expected his most recent assignment to take such a dark turn. As he enters the world of art journalism, the gallery he’s supposed to be covering becomes the location of a stabbing, vandalism, and a suspicious fall from scaffolding.

But Jim and his new feline sidekick are on the case. As they navigate the extremely competitive art scene, will more blood be spilled before they find the killer?

5. The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton

Delaney Nichols moves halfway across the world to start her dream job at The Cracked Spine, a rare book and manuscript shop. It’s got everything a book lover wants, and all the friends a book lover needs.

But before she can fully settle into her new life, an important artifact is stolen and her boss’s sister is murdered. Never did she think that her job in a bookshop would include tracking down a murderer.

What Makes a Good Cozy Mystery?

The most appealing part of a cozy mystery is its de-emphasis on profanity, violence, and sex. Readers can enjoy the reading experience without having to worry about the graphic details that are often found in much more hardcore works. It’s a relaxing escape from everyday life.

Cozies are also more about solving the puzzle of the crime rather than cross-examining its horrific details. To be enjoyable, it must present the reader with a mystery that’s challenging but also solvable.

As the reader follows the case, they’re able to solve it side-by-side with the protagonist, instead of being stuck in the sidelines. In the end, when their guess is proven right, they’re awarded with the satisfaction of knowing that they beat the mystery, or they can enjoy the satisfying twist of having their expectations turned upside down.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post Cozy Mysteries: The Gentlest Type of Crime Fiction appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

We are currently in a period of film and literary entertainment where mystery fiction reigns as royalty. From short stories to novels and podcasts to movies, it’s hard not to find stories that keep you guessing until the very last minute.

One of the longest-running formats that still enjoys much popularity today is the whodunit. It’s a detective story where the culprit of a crime is the ultimate puzzle that needs to be solved.

What Is a Whodunit Novel?

The typical whodunit story presents the readers with a crime right at the start. It’s usually a murder, but can be any other serious crime. Some details of the crime are also withheld until the climax of the story.

From there, an investigator, either an amateur or professional detective, is injected into the story with the goal of unveiling the culprit. Throughout the narrative, the investigator obtains clues, interrogates suspects and witnesses, and considers or rejects speculations. Finally, the detective’s efforts pay off and the criminal is apprehended.

What makes the whodunit so successful is its inclusion of the reader in the story. You, as the reader, are not only there to read but to also try and solve the mystery on your own. As more is revealed, you get pulled deeper into the story.

Sometimes you may figure out the killer’s identity before the protagonist does, bringing you the satisfaction of solving it on your own. Or you can sit back and watch the case unfold before an intrepid investigator. Whatever the case, there’s immense satisfaction in finally knowing who the culprit is after guessing for so long.

An important variation of the whodunit is the inverted detective story, where the crime and culprit are openly revealed at the start. The narrative then follows the detective’s investigation and the culprit’s attempts at preventing it. This is also called the “howdunit” or the “howcatchem”.

A Brief History of the Whodunit

The term “whodunit” was invented in 1930 when Donald Gordon, a book reviewer for News of Books, needed a term to describe a detective story he was currently reviewing. Despite its loose use of grammar and spelling, the term stuck and became common for classifying a specific type of mystery novel.

The whodunit thrived during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction,” a literary era from the 1920s to 1930s where murder mysteries were written in similar styles and patterns. This was the period where many classics of the mystery genre emerged. Notable writers in this era are Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot Series), G.K. Chesterton (The Father Brown Stories), and Dorthy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries).

Over time, this kind of detective story suffered from the limited ways that it can surprise the readers. Certain cliches that developed, including locked rooms, shady characters, and cozy country home settings made some stories too familiar and too predictable.

This predictability made writers push away more from what’s expected and led to the development of hardboiled fiction, a genre that plays out much like a whodunit, but darker, more violent, and more emotionally raw.

Today, contemporary whodunits are strongly influenced by the classics. Conventions such as red herrings, false suspects, and final twists are still regularly used in modern mysteries. Contemporary writers often deconstruct or modernize these tropes to create a different kind of story that’s suited to modern tastes.

For example, Ruth Ware’s One by One is a throwback to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. But while it shares the same type of isolated setting, the mystery is blended in with the sense of dread that a contemporary thriller conveys—a concept that modern readers are familiar with.

Examples of the Whodunit

Here are some of the best examples of a whodunit story. Some of these are classics, while others are a contemporary take on this long-running story format.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The famous Orient Express is stranded by a snowdrift, and in the morning, one of its passengers is found murdered inside his locked compartment. Isolated by a snowstorm and in the middle of nowhere, the killer is, without a doubt, still among the train’s occupants.

As the snowstorm rages outside the train, detective Hercule Poirot must deduce which one of the remaining passengers is the murderer—before they decide to strike again.

Buy the book here.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The curse of the Baskervilles started when an ancestor of theirs chased down a girl into the fields where she died of fright. But the Baskerville met a worse fate—his throat torn out and devoured by a spectral hound. Now the beast stalks Baskerville Hall, where many family members have met violent deaths.

Sherlock Holmes is presented with the latest death by a local doctor hoping to end the curse. But can he solve it in time before the Hall is forever emptied of any occupants?

Buy the book here.

The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen

A disreputable lawyer is found dead in a theatre, surrounded by empty seats despite the show being sold out. Anyone in the theatre could have killed the man and as police hold down the fort, they call to the only person who could possibly solve the crime: Inspector Richard Queen.

Together with his son, Ellery, they must slowly untangle the mess of witnesses, suspects, and clues to arrive at the truth.

Buy the book here.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Fifteen-year-old Christopher is a quiet kid who lives on patterns and rules. He doesn’t like being touched, hates the color yellow, and relates more to animals than other people.

One day he finds his neighbor’s dog dead from being speared with a garden fork. Having fallen under suspicion, he must find the real killer. But his investigation leads him to a secret that blows his carefully constructed world wide open.

Buy the book here.

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

Wealthy Diana Cowper enters a funeral parlor to arrange her own service. Six hours later, she is found dead at her own home, strangled with a curtain rod.

Meanwhile, Anthony Horowitz is approached by the eccentric detective Daniel Hawthorne to record his life. Drawn into the mystery of the Cowper case, the two form an unlikely partnership as they navigate its twists and turns. But Hawthorne has dark secrets of his own—secrets Horowtiz may be unwilling to touch.

Buy the book here.

In The Woods by Tana French

As night falls across a Dublin town, three children do not answer their parents’ calls. The police are brought in, and only one child is found, gripping a tree, wearing blood-soaked shoes, and unable to recall the past few hours.

Twenty years later, the child is now a detective who wishes nothing more than to keep those events secret. But when they’re called in to investigate a case eerily familiar to what he experienced, he must now discover the conspiracies that link the both of them.

Buy the book here.

What Makes a Good Whodunit?

The best whodunits are those with mysteries that challenge and confound the reader but don’t make it impossible for them to solve it. Enough clues and evidence must be shown in the narrative to make the crime solvable by means of investigation.

But because not every reader is an expert in criminal investigation, crimes in whodunits tend to become logical puzzles. You solve the crime by following events and facts that don’t fit the narrative.

The problem is that these logical deductions rarely work in real life. For example, a common occurrence in whodunits are characters that lie about their alibis in some way. Like in this famous riddle:

A man is found murdered on a Sunday morning. His wife calls the police, who question the wife and the staff, and are given the following alibis: the wife says she was sleeping, the butler was cleaning the closet, the gardener was picking vegetables, the maid was getting the mail, and the cook was preparing breakfast. Immediately, the police arrest the murderer. Who did it and how did the police know?

The answer is the maid because there’s no mail on Sundays. But that doesn’t actually prove her guilt; it merely means she lied.

Factual inconsistencies aren’t good substitutes for hard evidence. Good whodunits not only create an interesting mystery but focus on the investigative side of the story, where research, interrogation, and analysis techniques lend it a realistic vibe.

Good whodunits are plausible and realistic. If a crime isn’t believable, it takes the reader further away from the story rather than immersing them in it.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post The Whodunit: Stories to Satisfy Your Inner Detective appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

A scream is heard in the dead of the night and everyone rushes to where it came from. The bleeding body of the victim is discovered, along with the murder weapon. No one knows who did it—no one but you, that is. After all, you watched them imagine, plan, and ultimately, execute the deed.

This is the howcatchem, a murder mystery format where the crime and the identity of the criminal are fully revealed to the reader from the start of the narrative.

What Is a Howcatchem?

A howcatchem (also called a howdunit, reverse whodunit, or inverted detective story) is the complete opposite of the whodunit, a type of detective story where the ultimate goal is discovering who’s guilty of the crime.

It’s almost a challenge from the writer to the reader. Usually, murder mysteries start with the, you know, mystery. It’s what readers are looking forward to solving. But sometimes a writer readily lays out the whos of a crime. And then they dare the reader into reading on as they explain the hows surrounding it. Optionally, the writer can also immediately reveal the whys but may also choose to gradually reveal them throughout the story.

Rather than answering “Who did it?” this format quickly answers that and immediately goes to “How do we catch them?” The narrative then focuses on the detective’s investigation and the criminal’s attempts to hinder it.

As the reader, you become a disembodied witness of the case. You know the who, what, where, when, and why of it. The mystery of the howcatchem is then to discover how the detective in the story will solve a seemingly impossible crime and apprehend the right culprit.

This format is also sometimes called a procedural (but don’t confuse it with the police procedural) because it focuses on the procedure of the investigation rather than the solution.

It’s not as common as whydunit stories, mainly because of the difficulty maintaining a reader’s attention when they already know the secrets of a mystery. But when done right, it still conveys that sense of satisfaction when the culprit is finally captured and gets his well-deserved punishment.

Origin of the Howcatchem

The Howcatchem was possibly invented by writer R. Austin Freeman, with his 1912 short story collection, The Singing Bone. His short story, The Case of Oskar Brodski, is considered to be the very first story that follows this format.

In a 1924 essay entitled The Art of the Detective Story, he is quoted to have said:

Some years ago I devised, as an experiment, an inverted detective story in two parts. The first part was a minute and detailed description of a crime, setting forth the antecedents, motives, and all attendant circumstances. The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all the facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell. But I calculated that the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence. And so it turned out. The second part, which described the investigation of the crime, had to most readers the effect of new matter. All the facts were known; but their evidential quality had not been recognized.

Howcatchem Examples

Here are some of the stories that best exemplify the howcatchem format:

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

With society being policed by telepaths, murder has practically become non-existent. But paranoid Ben Reich plans and carries out exactly that. Unhinged by recurring nightmares and facing his company’s eventual bankruptcy, he kills his business rival and hires a powerful telepath to hide his crime.

Police Prefect Lincoln Powell, a telepath himself, knows Reich is guilty. But telepathic knowledge is far from concrete evidence, so he must find another way to prove Reich’s guilt.

Buy the book here.

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

FBI profiler Will Graham captures a brilliant serial killer at a great personal cost that forces him to retire. Now, five years later, he’s reluctantly pulled into the case of another dangerous murderer known as the Tooth Fairy.

With two families already slaughtered, Graham must quickly apprehend the Tooth Fairy. But doing so means getting help from the person who scarred him all those years ago.

Buy the book here.

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

Forced out of the Los Angeles Times because of a financial crisis, veteran reporter Jack McEvoy decides to cover one last murder story. But the case he chooses is full of holes and the 16-year-old suspect is most likely innocent.

And when McEvoy digs deeper into the case, what he finds is a killer that doesn’t appear on any law enforcement’s radar. Seemingly all-knowing, the killer soon discovers McEvoy’s inquiries and quickly makes him the next target.

Buy the book here.

A Demon In My View by Ruth Rendell

Arthur Johnson is missing something essential, and he knows it. His urges have led him to kill women before, but he’s managed to maintain some sort of equilibrium by “killing” a mannequin he keeps deep in the cellars of the building he calls home.

However, his tenuous control is threatened when a young man sharing his name moves into his building, sparking a destructive fascination within him. Then his beloved mannequin disappears and his urges begin calling him to find a more suitable replacement…

Buy the book here.

Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

Light Yagami is a genius bored out of his mind. That all changes when he finds a black notebook seemingly dropped from the heavens. When he finds out that any person whose name he writes on it dies, he begins a campaign to rid the world of evil.

But when criminals suddenly drop dead like dominoes, the police recruit the legendary detective L to track down the killer. As L gets closer and closer, will Light lose his noble goals and use the notebook to rid himself of his nemesis?

Buy the book here.

Advantages of the Howcatchem

Though it is more difficult to write and sell to readers, the inverted detective story does something better than its whodunit counterpart.

Because it outs the killer’s identity and motivations from the beginning, the howcatchem forces the writer to create a deviously intelligent villain. They should be created in such a way that readers will believe that they can design a crime complex enough to still remain interesting even when it’s already revealed. They must also be good enough to confound any investigation without getting caught or raising suspicions.

This also applies to the detective pursuing the culprit. Because the howcatchem focuses on the investigative side of the case, detective characters are not only shown to be logical but also competent in other investigative skills. They must be shown to be intellectually equal to the villain, able to follow difficult clues, and connect the dots between seemingly unconnected things. Their deductions and speculations must also be plausible enough to fit the crime as readers already know more about the crime than they do.

Writers of howcatchem stories can also no longer rely on misdirection to make the case harder and more thrilling. For example, clues can no longer be withheld until the last minute to create a more dramatic reveal of the criminal.

The howcatchem requires more developed characters to make up for revealing a large part of the murder mystery from the start, and the mysteries they offer become more complex and more cleverly framed to create that necessary curiosity as to how they must be solved.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post The Howcatchem: An Inverted Detective Story appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

There are books that read like thrillers but feel like speculative fiction. While there’s an emphasis on uncovering secrets, elements of the paranormal also make themselves known. These stories are called paranormal thrillers, combining the best of both worlds between two engaging genres.

Sometimes the narrative unfolds much like a detective story, only to reveal a world full of magic and hidden creatures. Or sometimes it’s the other way around, where the mundane openly interacts with the extraordinary. Whatever the case, a mystery is presented, and a strange new world is available for exploration to both readers and protagonists.

Best Paranormal Thrillers

Here is a list of novels that merge the escapism of supernatural fiction with the edge-of-your-seat magic that thrillers bring to the fore. These are stories guaranteed to make you scream—whether it’s out of wonder or terror.

1. Providence by Caroline Kepnes

Best friends Jon and Chloe are inseparable until Jon is kidnapped and their budding romance is ripped apart. Reappearing four years later, Jon is an entirely different person: bigger, stronger, and more prone to violence.

As he begins manifesting powers that threaten everyone he cares about, he runs away on a quest for answers—a path that leads him to a dangerous adversary.

Buy the book here.

2. Wendigo By Vaughn C. Hardacker

The Wendigo: a malevolent spirit with a need for human flesh. To John Bear, it’s merely the boogeyman his grandfather used to scare him when he was a kid.

That is until they find a man butchered like an animal with his heart cut out. Now, as the snow slowly isolates them from the world, he must hunt down a creature he once thought was a myth.

Buy the book here.

3. The Sun Down Motel By Simone St. James

In 1982, her aunt Viv disappeared while working at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. More than three decades later, Carly isn’t able to let go of the disappearance and decides to investigate.

Moving into Fell, she soon finds that nothing has changed in the Sun Down—including the events that claimed her aunt. And this time, it’s her they’re trying to take.

Buy the book here.

4. Aunt Dimity’s Death by Nancy Atherton

Lori always thought that adventurous Aunt Dimity was a fictional character from her mother’s bedtime stories. Recently divorced and barely scraping by, she receives the surprising news of her aunt’s death. Her surprise doesn’t stop there when she learns of the sizable inheritance she’s potentially getting—but only if she succeeds in one task.

She must first discover the secret hidden within her aunt’s massive collection of letters. It’s not as easy as it sounds though, because the cottage the letters are located in is haunted by none other than her aunt’s ghost.

Buy the book here.

5. Our Trespasses by Michael Cordell

Hundreds of miles away, Matthew Davis feels his twin brother die, and his brutal murder only seems to strengthen the psychic connection the two always shared. Now Matthew must share Jake’s agony in the afterlife.

Hoping to break the connection, Matt travels back home to solve his brother’s murder. What he finds is an otherworldly force slowly corrupting their link. He must now find a way to sever the bond or watch the world go up in the flames of Hell.

Buy the book here.

6. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Strange bodies are appearing all over the city and hardened detective Gabriella Versado has no idea where to start investigating. How does one go about searching for leads about a half-boy, half-deer corpse?

Reality seems to be unraveling, and everyone’s trying to hold on to sanity. For Gabrielle’s daughter, that means flirting with a potential predator. To journalist Jonno, it’s doing everything to get that exclusive horror scoop. And to TK, it’s doing what he can to keep his homeless family alive. All of it leads to the culprit dreaming to remake the world, however violent it takes.

Buy the book here.

7. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Aiden Bishop is stuck in a loop. Every day, he must watch the beautiful Evelyn Hardcastle die at Blackheath Manor. And every day he must try to identify her killer and finally end the cycle. But waking up in a different body each day doesn’t help much with his investigation.

That’s not all—there are two other people in the loop, competing to solve the murder. And there can only be one winner, and only one permitted to leave.

Buy the book here.

8. Rivers of London By Ben Aaronovitch

If there’s one thing Peter Grant never expected to do on the job, it’s taking a witness statement from a ghost. But there he was, doing just that. It sees him transferred to a secretive branch of the Metropolitan Police, run by wizards and deals with cases of the supernatural sort.

Being the first English apprentice wizard in over seventy years, there’s a lot of pressure on Peter. Especially when there’s something, or someone, possessing ordinary people and turning them into vicious killers. Then there’s that small matter of brokering peace between two gods on the warpath…

Buy the book here.

9. Strange Practice By Vivian Shaw

Greta Helsing (of the famous Helsing family) makes a living out of treating London’s undead population of their many ills. She’s the one a banshee goes to when it gets a sore throat, or when a mummy has trouble with entropy. It’s a simple and quiet life and she wants to keep it that way.

So when someone begins indiscriminately killing the dead and the living, she teams up with her paranormal friends to stop them. To do so means using all the unusual skills and knowledge that is her family’s legacy.

Buy the book here.

10. The Lingering By S.J.I. Holliday

Desperately needing a break, married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to Rosalind House, once a psychiatric house turned into a residence. But as they settle into their new lives, they quickly discover that something’s very wrong in their new home.

As visions of the past begin haunting their present, the couple begins digging deeper into their home’s disturbing history. And the deeper they dig, the more they realize how much dangerous the house carries for them.

Buy the book here.

11. Soulless By Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is a woman with three problems. She has no soul, no husband, and a vampire was rude enough to attack her. But accidentally killing her attacker further complicates her life. Now she’s hounded by an investigator sent by the Queen herself.

And as London’s vampiric elites begin to disappear, the public’s eye turns on her as the prime suspect. Alexia must quickly find the real culprit before everyone else turns on her.

Buy the book here.

12. The Rook By Daniel O’Malley

Myfanwy Thomas wakes up in a London park surrounded by bodies and missing her memories. Following instructions left by her former self, she learns that she’s a Rook—a high-level operative of a secret organization dedicated to fighting the supernatural.

But a mole inside the organization wants her dead. And a vast conspiracy threatens to destroy the things she’s hoping to rediscover.

Buy the book here.

13. The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Looking for a simpler life, Helen and Nate give up the city life for a chance at rural paradise. They begin building their dream home but the land they’re building on has its own story to tell.

Consumed by its history, they begin incorporating special materials into their home—a mantelpiece here, old bricks from a farm there. And each piece added takes them closer to a violent legend that’s waiting to manifest once again.

Buy the book here.

14. Pines By Blake Crouch

Federal agent Ethan Burke arrives at Wayward Pines to investigate the disappearance of his fellow agents but something feels off about the place. Electric fences surround the town, phone reception is nonexistent, and people begin disappearing.

As he gets closer to the truth, he becomes more and more entangled in the horrors surrounding the town. And soon he finds himself unable to escape.

Buy the book here.

15. I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

In the frozen Westfjords of Iceland, three friends decide on renovating a crumbling house. But they’re not alone, and whatever’s with them wants them out. Meanwhile, across the waters, a disappearance and a suicide capture a young doctor’s attention.

And when both events collide, a horrible truth is unveiled—one that reaches decades back into the past.

Buy the book here.

Reading Paranormal Thrillers

It’s inevitable for some genres to meld as literature continues to evolve. This provides both readers and writers with new horizons to explore and fall in love with. Paranormal thrillers are a result of such a melding.

Paranormal thrillers manifest the best qualities of both paranormal fiction and thrillers—from the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the unknown, and the things that go bump in the night.

Make no mistake, though: while both genres contribute much to these books, paranormal thrillers are a different kind of reading experience altogether.

While there are familiar tropes, themes, and plot devices to enjoy, they are combined or juxtaposed to create unique stories. This can mean detectives with supernatural powers, otherworldly criminals, or worlds where magic is a common occurrence.

Whether you’re looking for a thriller with just a dash of the weird or vice-versa, the books in this list are great entry points into blended fiction. They showcase what you’ve grown to love from two genres, but in a new and exciting way.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post 15 of the Best Paranormal Thrillers to Keep You Up All Night appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

Nordic Noir is a subgenre of crime fiction that has been steadily gaining attention over the years. In its broadest sense, it’s a type of noir (characterized by cynicism and moral ambiguity), written from a police perspective and set in a Nordic country.

But within its narrative is a juxtaposition of the still and bland societies in Nordic countries, and the societal issues hidden beneath them.

Until recently, this particular blend of crime fiction had no name. It is simply noir to Nordic countries and was relatively unknown to English-speaking countries. That all changed sometime in the 2010s thanks to the success of English-language adaptations such as The Millenium Trilogy, which drew many into this world of dark and bleak stories.

Characteristics of Nordic Noir

Also known as Scandinavian Noir or Nordic crime fiction, this genre is characterized by some or all of the following:

Plain Language

Nordic Noir is almost always written without any embellishments. The writing is economic and realistic, with writers preferring to let the brutality and realism speak for themselves, rather than dress them up with figures of speech. It’s a relentlessly matter-of-fact presentation, warts and all.

It makes for an extremely chilling read when a crime is described in as plain a language as possible. You aren’t shielded from the worst aspects of a violent event, whether it’s a murder, a racial attack, or the simple violence of a bar fight.

Injuries and deaths are written as is, no matter how gruesome they are. With a story stripped of unnecessary words, the impact of a crime is better felt and understood.

It’s not just the cases that are written in such an unwavering realism, but the people too. There’s no romanticizing the methods or motivations of a character. If a character is a bastard, then they’re written as a bastard, no matter if it makes readers hate them more. In fact, that’s the point of it all—Nordic crime fiction is composed of stories that don’t shy away from reality, because they want to be portrayed as realistic as possible.

Bleak Settings

While Nordic Noir is typically set in Nordic countries, it’s not just their geographical location that identifies their setting, but also their society.

Society is initially presented as peaceful and picturesque, but this slowly crumbles as the story reveals itself. A crime disrupts the peace and serves as the prelude to the many flaws lurking beneath society’s placid surface. Misogyny, misandry, racism, isolationism, and rape are the frequently touched upon.

Perhaps one of the best examples is Henning Mankell’s Faceless Killers. An old man is tortured to death, his wife beaten and left with a noose around her neck. She later dies in the hospital, uttering her last word: “foreign.” This sparks multiple racially motivated attacks across the community.

It also helps that the landscape of these Nordic countries is expansive and solitary. Winter skies, isolating snowstorms, and stretches of unpopulated land serve to enhance the dark and brooding atmosphere of the genre.

Characters

Nordic Noir is largely about its characters. Their struggles and regrets, private thoughts, and character development are as important as the mystery of the crime itself.

Forget about the refined characters that populate classic whodunnits and whydunnits. Characters in this genre are written to be realistic, especially the detectives who must deal with all the horror that their job requires them to face. They’re all fighting against their inner demons, whether it’s a vice they’re trying to quit, a family they want to mend, or a failure they’re seeking to correct.

The protagonists of these stories are typically ill-tempered individuals worn down by responsibilities and other concerns. They’re antiheroes who simply get the job done, in contrast to a typical hero who does it for some altruistic reason. And sometimes, getting the job done means using questionable methods.

Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole is an excellent model for this kind of character. He’s an obsessively driven detective who is a chain smoker, recovering alcoholic, and depressed introvert—things that the books often focus on. These characteristics result in an unsociable behavior that sees him frequently clashing with the people around him. Then there’s his frequent use of unorthodox methods that tend to lean towards the illegal, all for the sake of solving the crime.

All of these lead to a gripping narrative where you follow a semi-broken man trying to keep sane while doing the only thing he knows he’s good at: solving the gruesome crimes plaguing his community. He’s no crusader, just a man trying to do his best.

Slow Burn

Nordic noir is mostly a slow-burn experience. While you’re introduced to an exciting, albeit morbid crime, the narrative soon takes on a slow and melancholic pace.

That’s far from a disadvantage, though. While other thrillers may rely on fast-paced action, Nordic noir slowly builds up an atmosphere of fear and impending doom. These novels are often in a police procedural format, contrasting the abrupt chaos of violence with the monotonous day-to-day operations of law enforcement.

The payoff becomes increasingly valuable as you get more intimate with the characters and learn more about the societal undercurrents happening in the book.

Writers of this genre use it as a platform for social critique. As such, the themes in these stories are often complex, touching upon real-life issues in their society that an author wants to comment on. So it’s necessary for the narrative to unfold in its own time and let the reader truly understand what it is about.

Mankell’s Faceless Killers is a comment on Sweden’s inability to properly assimilate immigrants into its population. Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy deals with rape and misogyny. The Bridge, a Nordic television crime series, frequently touches upon immigration, homelessness, and child labor issues.

Examples of Nordic Noir

There is currently a lot of interest in Nordic crime fiction. Apart from its popularity in books, it’s also seeing much attention on the big screen. Here are some of the best examples you can currently read and watch.

Insomnia

Insomnia follows an investigation gone horribly wrong when a detective accidentally shoots his partner while they’re investigating a murder. As he deals with the guilt of killing his colleague, he must also survive a cat-and-mouse game against the murderer they’ve failed to apprehend.

The Killing

The Killing is a Danish police procedural drama considered by some to be the perfect entry point to Nordic noir. It concerns the day-to-day duties of a detective as she is confronted with the murders happening in her city.

Dark

Dark is a science-fiction take on the genre and can be considered as the Nordic noir equivalent of Stranger Things. The disappearance of a child sets four estranged families into pursuing the truth. But what they find is a time travel conspiracy involving their town that spans generations.

The Story of a Crime by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

The Story of a Crime is a series of ten police procedural novels written by the parents of Nordic Noir: Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. This is the series that basically spawned the genre. It follows Detective Martin Beck and his team as they uncover the mysteries behind the murder cases assigned to them.

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by  Peter Høeg

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow is a literary example containing many of the elements that characterize the genre. The novel follows a woman whose fascination for ice and snow leads her to doubt and investigate the supposed accidental death of a child.

Why Is Nordic Noir So Popular?

Nordic Noir is admired because of its wide social view. It blends social critique with atmospheric storytelling, giving readers the dual satisfaction of a good story and social justice.

It’s this very nature of social commentary that makes the genre exciting. Writers of the genre move with the relevant issues they see in their society, incorporating them into their highly entertaining stories.

Not only does this result in consistently fresh stories that don’t rely too much on established tropes, but they also stay close to the interests and desires of the public consciousness.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post Nordic Noir: Definition, Characteristics, and Examples appeared first on killerthrillers.net.

A lone thief or a team of experts, an elaborate plan, and treasure with worth beyond measure — these are only a few of the tropes that make heists so entertaining. It doesn’t matter if the characters are honorable thieves or straight-up bastards because, in this genre, the heist is all that matters.

Best Heist Books

I’ve rounded up some of the best books about heists that currently exist. Whether it’s about stealing a priceless painting, breaking into the most secure vault, or even taking away a magical artifact, these books are guaranteed to pump you full with adrenaline delight.

If you’re interested in watching heists unfold on the screen, check out my list of the best heist movies.

1. Steal the Sky by Megan O’ Keefe

Detan Honding is a highborn thief with a less-than-noble mouth. And currently, he’s plotting to steal a massive airship belonging to the Throatslitter, a war criminal bent on taking over the government. His straightforward plan is disrupted when he gets entangled with a shapeshifter with a self-appointed mission for revenge. But is it only revenge, or the start of a revolution?

2. The Man in the White Linen Suit by David Handler

Stewart Hoag is a washed-up ghostwriter who also happens to be quite the amateur sleuth. A call from his literary agents leads him to publishing’s most fearsome editor. A valuable manuscript has been stolen, and they want him to track it down. Finding it the perfect chance to rekindle his writing career, he accepts. But then the murders start happening…

3. The Hunter by Richard Stark

Cold and methodical, Parker is the perfect criminal. He has only one rule: never double-cross a fellow criminal. And now he’s laying on the ground, his home a burned mess, with none of the money he helped steal to show for it. But he didn’t die. Now he’s on the warpath, willing to scam and steal his way to sweet revenge.

4. Heist Society by Ally Carter

At the age of three, Katarina took her to the Louvre to case it. At seven, she accompanied her uncle to Austria and stole the crown jewels. And at fifteen, she tricked her way into a prestigious boarding school, determined to leave the family business. But the disappearance of a mobster’s art collection drags her back into the world she’s left behind. Her father’s the only suspect, and if she doesn’t recover the valuables, he’s as good as dead.

5. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Michael is a mute teenager with a dangerous talent. Whether it’s an old rusting padlock or the latest safe, he can open them all. It’s a talent that makes him popular with the underworld, whether he likes it or not. Seeing the chance to solve the mystery that’s kept him mute all these years, he lets himself get roped into the most dangerous job he’ll ever experience.

6. The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton

Outlaws knew that steam trains were were basically banks on wheels. In this fictionalized account of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, in which more than 200 pounds of gold were stolen, Crichton provides a captivating vista of how an old-fashioned crime was done with the technology of the time.

7. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Beauregard Montage was once the best getaway driver in three states. Now all he wants is to stay on the straight and narrow, earn an honest living, and provide what’s best for his family. But his mechanic shop is going under and he’s desperate to keep everything afloat. So when a former associate comes calling, he can’t afford to say no. Then things go sideways fast…

8. Void Moon by Michael Connelly

Cassie Black is now a free woman. In prison for the last six years after a heist went sour, all she learned is to be much more careful the next time. Back to her old ways again, she quickly plans the perfect caper. But the job goes awry and now she’s being chased by a relentless investigator — one who’s linked to her previous failure.

9. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Locke, known as the Thorn, is a master of deceit, the dagger, and disguise. He and his friends are the Gentlemen Bastards, thieves who specifically rob nobles despite a secret pact that the peers and their servants are off-limits. Betrayed and left for dead by the Grey King, Locke, and his remaining allies must navigate a city boiling with magic and danger to get revenge — and maybe some profit on the side.

10. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

To everyone else, Ray Carney is the epitome of a law-abiding citizen who gives his family the comfortable life they deserve. Little did they know he comes from a line of crooks, so he’s not beneath accepting the occasional shady jewelry. Then he falls into a heist that doesn’t go as planned. Now he’s got a new sort of clientele: gangsters, shady cops, and all sorts of lowlives. How’s he going to maintain his unblemished reputation?

11. The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

Martha Andersson might be 79 years old and in a retirement home, but she’s not ready to stop living the best moments of her life. So when the management of the home begins cutting corners, she and her friends won’t stand for it. Fed up with all the micromanagement, they form the League of Pensioners, a group dedicated to regaining their independence, improving their care, and standing up for every senior out there. Their answer to all this? White-collar crime.

12. The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

In the summer of 2009, 20-year-old American flutist Edwin Rist broke into the Tring Museum. Consumed by his interest in salmon fly-tying, he stole hundreds of exquisite bird skins — some as old as 150 years. It took over a year before police found him and recovered what’s left of the skins. This book documents everything about the case and the author’s obsessive search for the missing skins.

13. The Gardner by Heist Ulrich Boser

On March 18, 1990, two men successfully took off with thirteen works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, including a Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and five Degas. Valued at half a billion dollars, it is perhaps the largest art heist in history. No arrests have been made, and not one artwork has been recovered. This is Boser’s deep examination into the puzzling mystery and people’s scary obsession with art.

14. Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman

Carr is ex-CIA and nearing his retirement age. He’s also the reluctant leader of a gang of professional thieves still stressed over their previous leader’s death a few months ago. They’re gearing up for a big job — stealing millions of dollars from a former hedge fund manager currently into all sorts of illegal stuff. But their information is badly inaccurate, and some of his team aren’t who they say they are…

15. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Career criminal Kaz Brekker is offered the job of his lifetime: a heist that could set him up for a lifetime and more. But first, he has to assemble his crew. But putting together a band of wildly different people is harder than he thought. To pull off the crime of the century and survive, they must first learn to trust each other.

The Charm of the Heist

The heist is a format that’s long been popular among readers. Winning against all odds and getting away with the crime of the century makes for an entertaining read while sitting comfortably at home.

I find that there are three general reasons why the heist format works so well. One, high-paced action motivates the readers to keep flipping pages, trying to keep up with everything that’s happening. With so many interesting things going on, they naturally want to learn what happens next.

Second, there’s a structure to the format that readers can follow. This gives them an idea of what to expect but also makes them anticipate how and whether the writer will change things up.

And lastly, it allows people to live, however briefly, the life of criminals. There’s a certain appeal to crime that makes people imagine what it would be like to be a criminal. And while most people are sensible enough not to act on these, there’s still a cathartic effect to imagining them.

Cole Salao

Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!

The post 15 Heist Books for High-Stakes Plots appeared first on killerthrillers.net.