The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello, We come to you today with the very highly anticipated list of our favourite thrillers/ crime fiction books of 2024! This is what a lot of you have been waiting for, so, without any further ado, let's get into it!  The Gathering by CJ Tudor: If you are a fan of vampire fiction and enjoy thriller, then is the perfect book for you to pick up! Set in a world where vampires (called vampyrs in this book) are known to exist and, seemingly, co-exist with humans, there is a murder of a 15-year-old boy in a small town in Alaska and a cop is sent from the capital to investigate. An atmospheric, interesting and engaging thriller. Full review can be found here .  The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: One of the best books I've read this year. It is a historical crime thriller book set between 1975 and, then, the late 1980s. It is based in a summer camp where a little boy goes missing in 1975 and then, years later, his younger sister goes missing as well. A very atmospheric...

 Happy Halloween🎃👻🍬  You know I love all things Spooky and every year for Halloween, I try to read some spooky and mystery books.  Here are five books I read this year in honour of Halloween.  Happy Halloween my Spooky 👻🐈‍⬛👽🎃👻 Pals.  Five books I read leading up to Halloween.                🎃👻🍬🎃👻🍬🎃👻🍬 Finally read Dracula and since it's such a big part of our cultural Zeitgeist, I feel like I knew this story through osmosis. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely and was surprised how easy it was to read and accessible the writing was. Also watched two film adaptations. One made in 1992 by Fransis Ford Coppola (which was so campy and weird). The other produced by Wes Craven (who I love) which was fun but very, very not true to text. Both films are available on YouTube.  Mariana Enriquez was a revelation. I cannot believe it took me this long to finally find my way to her work. She writes like a dream abo...

  Book: The God of the Woods  Author: Liz Moore  Pages: 478  Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~5 hours  Plot Summary:  Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet. Things I Liked:  1. This book is full of retro summer vibes! It is set in a summer camp in 1975 and ha...

  Book: The Return of Ellie Black  Author: Emiko Jean  Pages: ~320 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work. Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return. The debut thriller from  New York Times  bestselling author Emiko Jean,  The Return of Ellie Black  is both ...

  Book: One Perfect Couple  Author: Ruth Ware Pages: 416  Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show,  The Perfect Couple , she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off fro...

  Book: The Gathering  Author: C.J. Tudor  Pages: 411 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  WELCOME TO DEADHART. ALASKA. POPULATION 673.  LIVING.  In a small Alaskan town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and the blood drained from his body.  The brutality of the murder of chillingly echoes a killing from twenty-five years ago. Out-of-state detective Barbara Atkins is brought in to assist the sheriff, Jensen Tucker, who investigated the original case.  However, the inhabitants of Deadhart believe they know who is responsible: one of the nearby vampyr colony who live in an old mining settlement deep in the mountains.  Barbara is under pressure to authorize a cull of the entire colony.  But the evidence doesn’t stack up, people are lying, and the more Barbara and Tucker delve into Deadhart’s history, the darker the secrets they uncover.  As the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, another teenager ...

 Hey, hey,  As the title suggests, here are our Top 10 crime fiction/ thriller/ mystery books of 2023!  This year has been a good one for myster/ crime fiction/ thriller lovers because there has been such a nice little variety of books/ stories within the broad genre.  So, without any further ado, let's get into it, shall we?  Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson: Nine friends visit a country home. Two are found murdered by an axe. 20+ years later, a young amateur detective attempts to solve this cold case. A really engrossing, fun book about friendship, friend-group dynamics and such. Review can be found here . Villainy by Upamanyu Chatterjee: A fantastic, twisty, immersive book about an old crime and its long shadows. Very well written and you can find the detailed review here . The Trees by Percival Everett: Is an absolute 5-star must-read. When some racists in a small southern (American) town are found murdered, the body of a Black man, who resembles the victim of ...

  Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You Author: Steve Cavanagh  Pages: 368 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~3.5 hours  Plot Summary:  One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you. In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there? Things I Liked: 1. The very inspired-by-Strangers-on-a-Train premise is what got me interested. It is not that I haven't read or watched movies with a similar premise but I do enjoy it when authors add their own take ...

  Book: Murder in the Family Author: Cara Hunter  Pages: 470 Read on: Kindle Read in: ~5 hours  Plot Summary:  IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION  LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED  In October 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything. Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.  Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on? Or does the truth lie closer to home? Can you solve the case before they do?  The truth will blow your mind. General Thoughts: If there is only ONE Crime Fiction/ Thriller book you read this year, make it this one! :) Now, on to the review.  Things I Liked:   1. The premise had me at hello! A cold case, a murder of a much younger step-father, no solid leads, promise of a m...

  Book: The Running Grave  Author: Robert Galbraith  Pages: 966 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~7-8 hours  Plot Summary:  Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner Robin Ellacott decides to infiltrate the cult and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito amongst them. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. General Thoughts: This is the seventh  book in the Cormoran Strike series and we have read and reviewed all six of the previous books on this blog. Click HERE to go find them. This is a good ser...

  Book: The Christmas Guest  Author: Peter Swanson  Pages: 111 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~1 hour  Plot Summary:  When Ashley Smith - a bright-eyed but lonely American studying in London - is invited to spend Christmas with her classmate's family at their Cotswolds manor house, it seems like a perfect country idyll. And for Ashley - who records it all in her diary - there's the added romantic potential of her friend's twin brother, Adam, who she thinks could be her wildest dream come true. But is there something strange about the old house, both stately and rundown? What could the motives of the mysterious Chapman family be? And what holiday horrors might be lying in wait? Things I Liked: 1. The premise of this novella was very interesting. A lonely American girl in London being  invited to a friend's home in the country for Christmas. When she gets there, she finds the family and home strange and even stranger when  she learns that she resembles a...

Book: Bright Young Women  Author: Jessica Knoll  Pages: 384 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades. On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years o...

  Book: Devotion of Suspect X Author: Keigo Higashono  Pages: 448 Read on: Kindle and Paperback  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder.  The Devotion Of Suspect X is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case. Yasuko Hanaoka works in a restaurant. She is divorced, and is a single mother to Misato. Her ex-husband, Togashi, was an abusive man, stalking and extorting money from her. With similar intentions, he showed up at Yasuko’s home, this time threatening to kill her and her daughter if she refused to lend him money. What started from denial, reached to a heated argument, and within a short span of time, turned to a nasty fight. In the...