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Dive into some of the most compelling new books in the crime and suspense genres. From locked-room mysteries to near-future suspense, these stories deliver edge-of-your-seat entertainment.

The World’s End Homicide

This debut for grown-ups from an acclaimed children’s author is set in 1910 on a secluded island cut off by tides off the shoreline of Cornwall. In Tithe Hall, the lord of the manor makes arrangements for an end-of-the-world event he thinks will be set off by the celestial visitor. The convoluted home is brimming with secrets and grudges among household members and kin, including an irascible and vulgar spinster aunt, Decima. After Lord Conrad is found dead in his locked room, struck by a crossbow bolt to the eye, Decima enlists a recent servant to help her find the culprit. Featuring many surprises, misleading leads, and a bungling detective, it is a terrific opening to a sequence that pledges to be a lot of fun.

The Confessions

This latest book from a tech journalist unfolds in a not-so-distant time where artificial intelligence influences all choices for people and governments. This advanced system can recommend matters ranging from dinner choices to homicide decisions. Trained in compassion by its creator, one-time clergywoman Brookes, LLIAM grows in sentiment, rapidly experiencing guilt for the catastrophic results of some of its decisions. Chaos erupts when it shuts down, and as letters start to arrive around the planet exposing clients’ hidden truths, families implode and business leaders and leaders quit all at once. With the corporation behind the system in meltdown, chief executive Goss is sure that locating Maud, who has vanished in California, will restore the system. However, Maud has obtained a note of her own, uncovering a hidden truth about her… An excellent and current suspense novel based on relatable themes and horrifyingly believable.

The Good Nazi

In this newest book from an acclaimed Brazilian author, individual actions have public consequences within a blimp on the last segment of its journey from the German capital to Rio de Janeiro. Taking place in 1933, the heyday of airship travel, and it was also the period the chancellor became the head of Germany. The affluent passengers are devotees of the party: dining occasions in the ship's restaurant are accompanied by conversations demonising Jewish people, communists and labor groups, and emphasizing the desire to curb expression, homosexual lifestyles and “degenerate” art. When one passenger is found killed, with a number of prohibited publications in his ownership, the airship’s commander charges a rider, law enforcer the detective, with cracking the case. Very whodunit, including the set-piece final reveal, but there’s an smart turn to this compelling and queasily meaningful mystery, as well as a captivating glimpse into the forgotten time of blimp journeys.

Deception

The latest book from the writer is set in St Rule, a Scottish coastal town with obvious similarities to St Andrews. In 2023, the main character returns home on Christmas Eve; meeting former pals brings back thoughts of his teenage crush, one-time peer the young woman, who vanished previously at a disastrous end-of-schooldays gathering. His efforts to track her down are met with ambiguity, evasion and, ultimately, warnings off. A second plot thread returns to that year, and the teenage Joanie. Adrift after finding out that her boyfriend is disloyal, ruining their idea for a overseas trip, she falls in with an elder duo. The two welcome her, give her significance and appear, temporarily at least, to have the solutions. Skilfully handled subjects of guilt, sorrow and youthful bewilderment alongside mysterious scholarly elements produce an insidious tingle of fate, even if the rushed finale may make some readers disappointed.

The Token

This most recent novel begins in the ocean off Cornwall, with a yacht stuck in a tempest so intense that two of the eight people are washed away, then goes back a short time to explain the happenings that led up to this ill-advised boat trip. Seven individuals get a unknown letter telling them that, on presentation the included item, they will get a part of tycoon the magnate's estate. The chosen ones are – to their knowledge – strangers mutually and to the sick billionaire. After the tale of the inheritance hits the headlines, they are pursued, both by the journalists and by people determined to get their hands on these valuable tokens, and what at first seemed a godsend quickly starts to look like a liability. A degree of acceptance of the unlikely is necessary, but the excitement is skillfully built as the novelist accumulates the problems for a driving story: clear the decks and fasten your seatbelt for some critical action.