I’ve loved stories with a horror/thriller focus ever since I can remember. Yes, I was that creepy kid who read all of Goosebumps, as well as checked out a copy of Draculafrom the library at the tender age of eleven, much to the chagrin of the elderly librarian. My own books are multi-genre, but tend to include a thriller or horror element—it’s such fun to write a page-turner that ends with a bang. I truly hope you enjoy these picks as much as I did. They are some of my very favorites!
Swipe Right for Murder is a thriller with LGBT themes that will gobble up every moment you can spare for reading. Set in 2019, the book nonetheless has a raucous, cyberpunk feel. Main character Aidan, through the use of a Grindr-style hook-up app on his senior Spring Break, stumbles into an unfortunate series of events that lead him into close contact with a domestic terrorist organization bent on killing homophobes.Swipe Right for Murder is a page-turner if there ever was one, and it’s fucking funny. Seriously, there are some legit laugh-out-loud moments in this book—generally a tough order for a written medium. If you’re looking for a smart thriller that is turned up to eleven at all points, then this book is an absolute must-read.
An epic case of mistaken identity puts a teen looking for a hookup on the run from both the FBI and a murderous cult in this compulsively readable thriller.
Finding himself alone in a posh New York City hotel room for the night, Aidan does what any red-blooded seventeen-year-old would do--tries to hook up with someone new. But that lapse in judgement leads him to a room with a dead guy and a mysterious flash drive...two things that spark an epic case of mistaken identity that puts Aidan on the run--from the authorities, his friends, his family, the people who…
My passion is writing crime fiction and more. William J. Warner is my name. I am a retired FBI Agent who worked violent crime cases. I developed a wealth of experience interviewing seedy people around the globe. As such, I love writing their dialogue and incorporating it with those of good intentions. I’ve written seven books. My degrees are in business, forensic psychology, and law. My novels include Holdup Number Six, Appalachian Impasse, Gold Line to Lenox, Going Knee to Knee with FBI Polygraph, Ohio Boys, Hoosier Fields, and Jewels In The Sand where I digressed into a love & war saga with a tear-jerking finish.
My Clive Cussler favorite, The Chase kept me in pursuit of the villain with all the suspense and adventurous imagination I’ve come to expect from Cussler’s long line of good guy/bad guy novels. I identified with Detective Isaac Bell as I, too, once pursued bank robbers and killers from one State to another while employed as an FBI agent. In this story, Bell is put to the challenge in an audacious plot of robbery and murder. To identify this despicable felon, Bell finds that a woman plays into it adding intrigue to the outcome.
Turn-of-the-century detective Isaac Bell pursues a blood-thirsty bank robber-and perhaps one of the world's first sociopaths-in the first novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.
In 1906, the western states of America suffer a string of bank robberies by a single man who then cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of "The Butcher Bandit," the U.S. government brings in the best man it can find: a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers from coast to coast.
I’ve always loved crime books and I love writing YA so why not combine the two! It makes fun school talks (I get to do a lot – so much more enjoyable than talking to adults!), especially when you get to discuss crimes with teenagers before the teachers realise! Most of them are amazed the kids are getting into reading before they actually realise we’re discussing ways to kill people! And this is what books should be about (not necessarily violence of course) but thrilling, page turning, who did it, what happened stories. If I can get kids reading – then job done!
Ellie is an Australian writer and we share the same publisher so I’ve got to know her a little. This is her first book set in the States (us antipodean writers need bigger readerships!) and I think she’s done great. I can’t even start to imagine the research that’s gone into it to make every fact right. And the blood! I love this book. I think it’s the perfect introduction for teenagers into the world of crime fiction. Go Ellie!
In 1982, two teenagers-serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell-are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases. From the start, Emma and Travis develop a quick friendship, gaining information from juvenile murderers that even the FBI can't crack. But when the team is called in to give advice on an active case-a serial killer who exclusively hunts teenagers-things begin to unravel. Working against the clock, they must turn to one of the country's most notorious incarcerated murderers for help: teenage sociopath Simon Gutmunsson.
I
picked this book up because I’d read and loved other books by Julie Buxbaum and was looking for a book I’d fall in love with. And boom! From page one, when
Chloe opens her front door expecting an Amazon package but finds instead a
phalanx of armed FBI agents, I am completely engaged.
I
also loved the depth of the story and the twists it takes, unfolding into an
exploration of privilege, parental love, and what it means to trust your child.
Chloe, her parents, her brilliant sister, and her best friend are all richly
drawn and complex characters.
Although this story of a privileged young woman
and her family caught up in a college admission bribery scandal could have
clear villains, it doesn’t, and that was probably what I loved most.
Lie. Cheat. Bribe. How far would you go to get into your dream school? How far would your parents go? Inspired by the recent college admissions scandal, this ripped-from-the-headlines YA novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things sees one teenage girl's privileged world shatter when her family's lies are exposed.
It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer--she has it all--money, privilege, and a ticket to the college of her dreams. Or at least she did until the FBI came knocking on her front door, guns at the ready, and her future went up in…
I’m a screenwriter and novelist who loves writing stories for kids! (And long-suffering parents.) I mostly write and produce animated movies and TV shows, am currently executive producer of The Chicken Squad for Disney, and won an Emmy® Award for children’s TV writing in 2020. A few years ago, my nephew stopped me in my tracks with a question: “Uncle T, what’s the big deal about 9/11?” His confusion opened my eyes to the fact that many schools don’t teach about this momentous event. “Never forget” has been our national refrain, but how will future generations remember if we don’t tell them the story?
As Nora Baskin’s book takes us backward in time, Kerry moves forward to capture the mood of the country after the attacks, as told through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy whose best friend becomes the target of anti-Muslim rage. Like Alex in my book, protagonist Jake Green grapples with intense feelings of anger, confusion, and frustration as he tries to figure out how to be a patriot and what it means to be a hero, when everything he thought he understood about how the world should work has been shattered. I struggled with the same things after 9/11—still do, to be honest—and enjoyed this page-turner for both its gripping plot and its challenging moral complexity.
Winner of the Crystal Kite Award, this touching story explores what it mean to be a good friend, how you should react to a bully, and makes the events of September 11th, 2001 personal.
In this story about growing up in a difficult part of America's history, Jake Green is introduced as a cross country runner who wants to be a soldier and an American hero when he grows up.
Before he can work far towards these goals, September 11th happens, and it is discovered that one of the hijackers lives in Jake's town. The children in Jake's town try…
