SINGAPORE - The Sunday Times rounds up 10 new thrillers - from a tale of gothic horror in 19th century Mexico, to an Agatha Christie-inspired murder on a tiny island in Cornwall.
1. Bad Fruit by Ella King
Fiction/HarperCollins/Paperback/312 pages/$25.24/Buy here
Lily's mother will only drink expired juice. To make sure it is to her taste, she has Lily test it first. Every night, Lily swills rancid juice, gags and spits it down the sink plughole. Blood orange juice, three days off. Perfect.
There are plenty of toxic mother-daughter relationships in fiction, but Britain-based Singaporean Ella King's debut Bad Fruit squeezes out something especially rotten.
2. Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Fiction/Macmillan/Paperback/352 pages/$32.95/Buy here
On the eve of Halloween, members of the Darker family arrive on a small island to celebrate their Nana's 80th birthday.
After she dies that same night, they find an enigmatic poem on the kitchen wall: "Daisy Darker's family were as dark as dark can be./ When one of them died, all of them lied, and pretended not to see..."
A killer is coming for every member of the family, and they are cut off from the mainland till the tide goes out.
3. The Hacienda by Isabel Canas
Fiction/Penguin Random House/Hardcover/352 pages/$46.58/Buy here
In 1823, Beatriz arrives at her new home, Hacienda San Isidro. The large estate in the Mexican countryside belongs to her husband Don Rodolfo Solorzano, whom she married - out of security - after her father died in the Mexican War of Independence.
When Rodolfo returns to the capital for work, Beatriz realises the house is not the refuge she had been hoping for. Unsettled by supernatural forces and dark secrets, she seeks help from the local church and its young priest Andres, who is also a witch.
This is a lush and haunting Gothic horror debut.
4. Upgrade by Blake Crouch
Fiction/Macmillan/Paperback/352 pages/$30.98/Buy here/Borrow here
A man's genome has been hacked in an "upgrade" that transforms him into a stronger and more intelligent version of himself. This is the latest novel from American writer Blake Crouch, who is known for Dark Matter (2016) and the Wayward Pines Trilogy (2012 to 2014).
5. The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
Fiction/Anchor Books/Paperback/352 pages/$27.18/Buy here
The day before a prestigious music competition, Ray McMillian's Stradivarius violin - an heirloom from his great-great-grandfather - is stolen and held ransom for $5 million.
The up-and-coming classical violinist sets out to recover it in this debut by American author Brendan Slocumb, who is a musician himself.
6. The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
Fiction/Macmillan/Paperback/432 pages/$27.82/Buy here/Borrow here
Travis Devine, a former military man who has taken up a job in finance, rides the morning train to work every day. One day, he receives a mysterious message that reads: "She is dead."
The woman in question is his co-worker Sara Ewes, whom he once slept with, against company protocol. He investigates the mystery as more deaths pile up.
7. Too Far From Antibes by Bede Scott
Fiction/Penguin Random House South-east Asia/Paperback/256 pages/$27.71/Buy here
In early 1950s Saigon, reporter Jean-Luc Guery - an alcoholic, gambler and failed writer - decides to investigate his brother's murder after his body is found floating in a river.
This is a tale of intrigue from Bede Scott, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University's School of Humanities.
8. The Party House by Lin Anderson
Fiction/Macmillan/Paperback/368 pages/$29.12/Buy here
The latest novel from the Tartan Noir crime novelist revolves around a small community in the Scottish Highlands.
Blackrig has been hard hit by a pandemic brought in by outsiders, so its villagers are furious when a nearby estate decides to open its "party house" to tourists again.
During the commotion that ensues, the body of a missing teenage girl is unearthed - and with it, old suspicions concerning some men in the community.
9. Trapped by Camilla Lackberg and Henrik Fexeus, translated by Ian Giles
Fiction/HarperCollins/Paperback/544 pages/$29.96/Buy here
This door-stopper of a novel by two well-known Swedes - crime writer Camilla Lackberg and mentalist Henrik Fexeus - was first published in Swedish last year.
It begins, of course, with murder. After a woman trapped inside a magician's box is pierced to death by swords, detective Mina Dabiri and celebrity mentalist Vincent Walder team up to find the killer.
10. The Force Of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland
Fiction/Dutton/Hardcover/400 pages/$46.58/Buy here/Borrow here
Barbara Bourland, inspired by the stories of real-life royals longing for escape, has written a cautionary tale about a former marathon runner who marries the prince of a small European kingdom. As a princess, Caroline uses her once-athletic body in service of such duties as smiling, waving and bearing children.
This novel is not just a thriller, but also a domestic drama and a dark fairy tale about the subjugation of female bodies.
