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Explore some of the most exciting new titles in the crime and suspense genres. Including closed-circle mysteries to near-future suspense, these plots deliver heart-pounding excitement.

A Killing at World’s End

The initial grown-up book from an award-winning kids’ book writer is set in the early 20th century on a isolated coastal isle off the Cornish coast. In Tithe Hall, Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt makes arrangements for an end-of-the-world event he thinks will be triggered by the celestial visitor. The labyrinthine house is teeming with mysteries and grudges among household members and kin, including an irascible and vulgar spinster aunt, Decima. After Lord Conrad is found murdered in his locked room, struck by a projectile to the eye, Decima co-opts a young attendant to aid her solve the crime. Featuring many twists, red herrings, and a inept law enforcer, this is a superb beginning to a sequence that promises to be immensely enjoyable.

The Confessions

The second novel from a tech journalist is set in a not-so-distant time where artificial intelligence guides all choices for individuals and governments. This advanced system can suggest matters ranging from dinner choices to whether to commit murder. Trained in compassion by its creator, former nun Maud Brookes, the AI grows emotionally, rapidly feeling remorse for the disastrous outcomes of some of its decisions. Turmoil breaks out when it shuts down, and as messages begin appearing around the planet disclosing users’ darkest secrets, families implode and business leaders and leaders quit in droves. As LLIAM’s parent company in meltdown, chief executive Kaitlan Goss is sure that finding Brookes, who has disappeared in the West Coast, will revive the AI. However, Maud has received a note of her own, exposing a secret about her… A superb and topical mystery based on familiar concerns and frighteningly believable.

The Decent Nazi

In this newest novel from an acclaimed Brazilian author, individual actions have public consequences aboard a airship on the final leg of its trip from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. Taking place in that year, the peak of blimp transport, and it was also the year the leader assumed the role of the head of Germany. The well-heeled travelers are devotees of the regime: dining occasions in the ship's restaurant are accompanied by chats condemning the Jewish community, radicals and labor groups, and highlighting the wish to suppress open dialogue, gay culture and “degenerate” art. After a traveler is discovered poisoned, with a number of banned magazines in his possession, the vessel's leader tasks a passenger, law enforcer the detective, with cracking the case. So far, so whodunit, including the staged concluding assembly, but there’s an smart turn to this compelling and uncomfortably relevant thriller, as well as a fascinating look into the lost world of blimp journeys.

Bluff

This second novel from the writer is set in the location, a seaside Scottish community with clear similarities to the well-known city. During that year, the protagonist comes back home on Christmas Eve; seeing former pals rekindles recollections of his youthful infatuation, ex-schoolmate Joanie, last seen 10 years earlier at a disastrous graduation gathering. His efforts to find her are met with ambiguity, evasion and, finally, deterrents. A parallel plot thread goes back to that year, and the young the character. Lost after learning that her partner is unfaithful, ruining their idea for a foreign travel, she encounters an older couple. The two embrace her, boost her confidence and look, temporarily at least, to have the right advice. Skilfully handled topics of guilt, regret and teenage uncertainty combined with dark academia make for an subtle feeling of fate, although the rushed ending may make certain audiences feeling shortchanged.

The Pass

The most recent novel opens in the waters off the shoreline, with a vessel trapped in a gale so intense that two individuals of the eight people travellers are thrown into the sea, then goes back a short time to detail the incidents that caused this ill-advised sea journey. Seven people receive a unknown letter telling them that, by showing the attached object, they will get a share of billionaire Logan Quick’s fortune. The chosen ones are – to their knowledge – unacquainted both to each other and to the ailing plutocrat. After the news of the inheritance goes public, they are hounded, both by the media and by others set to acquire these lucrative passes, and what initially seemed a godsend rapidly starts to look like a liability. Some suspension of disbelief is needed, but the excitement is expertly constructed as the writer builds the problems for a propulsive plot: clear the decks and hold on tight for some high-stakes action.