Mini reviews of two new Nordic thrillers I recently read and loved: THE ICE COVEN by Max Seeck and THE CORPSE FLOWER by Anne Mette Hancock! These dark, chilling tales both put their own unique spin on the Nordic crime novel, and both deliver thrilling stories perfect for your fall to-read list.
Read More5 Nordic Thrillers to Read This Halloween
It’s the best time of year: spooky season!! The stretch of the year from Halloween through Christmas is always my favorite, and, coincidentally, I also think it’s the perfect time of year to dig into a great Scandinavian crime novel. While we may gravitate towards the chilling, snowy atmosphere of Scandinavian crime fiction during the winter months, the genre also has a lot to offer when it comes to sinister, supernatural-ish books that make for great Halloween reading! In today’s blog post, I wanted to combine two of my favorite things—Nordic Noir and Halloween—into one reading list perfect for spooky season. All the books featured in today’s blog post have an element of supernatural-ish chills to them, whether hints of ghosts and hauntings or elements of the occult and more. If you’re a fan of dark, brooding, slow-burning crime fiction and are looking for a book that ups the chill factor for your Halloween reading list, these books will be right up your alley. Read on for my picks for Nordic thrillers perfect for your spooky season to-read pile!
Read MoreBook Excerpt: THE ICE COVEN by Max Seeck
Nordic Noir fans, listen up: if you haven’t yet explored bestselling Finnish crime writer Max Seeck’s page-turning thrillers, today’s post is for you! Last fall, I devoured Seeck’s gripping debut THE WITCH HUNTER, and this month, he’s back with his next dark crime novel featuring investigator Jessica Niemi. In THE ICE COVEN, available in the US today, protagonist Jessica finds herself caught in a race against time to find a link between a body bearing cryptic markings that has washed up on the shore in Finland, and the puzzling disappearances of two Instagram influencers. Seeck’s first thriller THE WITCH HUNTER blended page-turning plotting with a dark serial killer plot and elements of the occult—it was one of my personal favorite Nordic thrillers I read last year, and I’m so excited to see what his next crime novel has in store for us! Fans of Nordic crime writers like Lars Kepler and Søren Sveistrup, as well as any reader who’s in the market for extra-chilling serial killer stories, won’t want to miss Max Seeck’s dark and engrossing work. In today’s blog post, I’m thrilled to give CBTB readers the chance to read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Max Seeck’s newest thriller, THE ICE COVEN! I’ll be digging into this new thriller today, and I’m so excited to give you the chance to start reading along with me. For more information on Seeck’s first thriller THE WITCH HUNTER, you can find my full review on the CBTB blog here. Read on for more information on THE ICE COVEN, and to sample an excerpt from the book’s first chapter!
Read MoreSeptember 2021 Most-Anticipated Crime Books
September is here, and what an incredible month it is for us crime fiction readers! This month is bringing with it an almost too-good-to-be-true lineup of new crime, mystery, and thriller books for readers to devour—and in today’s blog post, I’m rounding up the (many!) books releasing this month that are on my personal most-anticipated list. This month sees the return of fan-favorite authors including Lisa Jewell, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Alice Feeney, and it also includes a number of my most-anticipated debut crime novels of the entire year (of particular note: debuts by authors Amanda Jayatissa and Catherine Dang, among many more!). It’s got chilling Nordic crime novels, stories involving serial killers, psychological suspense that will make you suspicious of everyone, dark revenge stories, and lots more—in short, this September is a crime fiction reader’s dream. Many of the books on today’s list I’ve already been fortunate enough to read, and others are still on my TBR list for the fall season, but all of them look exceptional. Dig into today’s blog post and clear your calendar—we’ve got some amazing books in store for us this month!
Read MoreCBTB's Frequently Recommended Supernatural-ish Mysteries & Chillers
If you had told me when I started this blog that I would someday be writing a blog post recommending a few of my personal favorite crime books with some supernatural elements to them, I would have never believed you. I used to be staunchly opposed to crime books with any supernatural touches, but as time has gone on, and thanks to the work of very talented authors including Yrsa Sigurdardottir, C.J. Tudor, and many more, I’ve not only become open to books in this category… I’ve actually begun actively seeking them out. While I think it will always be important to me as a reader that the crime novels I read, even the supernatural-ish ones, have an earthly, logical solution to the mysteries at their core, I’ve come to discover just how much fun a thriller with a dash of the supernatural can be. Today, I’m so excited to share a roundup of my frequently recommended supernatural-ish mysteries and thrillers! Some of these books have true supernatural elements to them, while in others, the supernatural is more of a suggestion or a question to be answered over the course of the story. No matter what, all of these books have an extra-creepy edge to them that will have you reading with all the lights on. To help you guide you through this list and narrow down which books might be of interest to you, I’ve divvied this list up into three categories: Ghosts & Haunted Houses, Folklore & The Occult, and Possessions & Inexplicable Events. The books in this list exemplify that delicious blend of earthly mystery and supernatural touches that I’ve come to love so much, and I’m so excited to share this rundown of books in this category that I recommend most frequently with you today! Grab your coziest blanket, turn on all the lights, and dive in to my frequently-recommended supernatural-ish mysteries & thrillers.
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