“Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie – An Open Heart to Evil

“Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Even the most dogged detectives deserve to rest and retire, but such is not the fate awaiting Hercule Poirot, on-duty until his last heartbeat. In Death on the Nile, one of Agatha Christie‘s most celebrated novels, we follow the now-retired detective as he gets pulled back into the thick of a murder while vacationing in Egypt and sailing down the Nile river. What’s worse, the murderer has no intention of stopping, and as the bodies keep piling up, so does the pressure on Poirot to solve the impossible scenario before him.

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“The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson – Fair of the New World

“The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Erik Larson has a knack for bringing history to life through his meticulously-researched books, and in The Devil in the White City, he takes us to 1890s Chicago, as it prepares to launch its own World Fair. However grandiose the plan to “out-Eiffel Eiffel” might be, it is rife with unpredictable challenges and complications, some of them deadly. Meanwhile, a now-notorious serial killer is busy setting up shop, using the fair and the booming city as his own hunting ground.

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“Island” by Aldous Huxley – A Life of Self-Realization

“Island” by Aldous Huxley (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Aldous Huxley has spent much of his intellectual power conceiving of utopic societies, seeing before him the heights humanity could one day reach, before promptly tearing them down and exposed their impossible flaws. In his last novel, Island, he tells the story of a journalist, Will Farnaby, who shipwrecks on the island of Pala, whose inhabitants have formed a bizarre and yet seemingly-idyllic society. Nevertheless, the threat of the outside world always looms large.

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“If You Tell” by Gregg Olsen – Out of Sight, Out of Mind

“If You Tell” by Gregg Olsen (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Many have perhaps forgotten the story of the Knoteks (or never heard of it, since it happened in the early 2000s), but Gregg Olsen is certainly here to rectify that with his true crime hit book, If You Tell. In it, he follows the lives of Nikki, Sami and Tori Knotek, who have the misfortune of being daughters to an insanely evil and psychotic mother, Michelle, whose crimes made all the national headlines back in 2004.

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“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury – Fire of Ignorance

“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Ray Bradbury has contributed more than he could have probably every hoped for to the realm of science-fiction, shaping it with his groundbreaking and unique stories containing profound meditations on modern society. Fahrenheit 451 is probably his best-known novel, telling the story of Guy Montag, a “fireman” whose job consists of burning books en masse, one day after the next, until a chance encounter challenges him to consider all he has ever known and believed.

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“The Hitchcock Hotel” by Stephanie Wrobel – A Reunion for the Ages

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Stephanie Wrobel is definitely making a nice little niche for herself in the realm of psychological thrillers, slowly building her resume upwards, as she did most recently with The Hitchcock Hotel. The novel follows a group of college friends attending a reunion organized by one of them, now the owner of a Hitchcock-themed hotel. However, it doesn’t take long for strange occurrences to begin taking place, leading to the revelation of some dark secrets, and for one of them, perhaps even murder.

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“The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides – An Honest Word

“The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Alex Michaelides entered the world of literature more or less out of nowhere with a real bang, titled The Silent Patient, earning him recognition as an international bestselling author. The story following a criminal psychotherapist who tries to extract the truth from an artist who never spoke a word after deciding to shoot her husband five times in the face without offering any sort of explanation to anyone.

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“The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson – Bridging the Human-Machine Gap

“The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Neal Stephenson looks like he’ll never tire from painting portraits of the future, something he’s being doing quite successfully for a while, though I think some would argue one of his best efforts in that regard was all the way back in 1995 when he wrote The Diamond Age. Taking us decades into the future, it tells the story of a young girl whose life was nothing but hopeless ruin, until she finds “The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” perhaps the most consequential and advanced piece of nanotechnology in her time. In one fell swoop, the little girl’s fate changed forever.

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“The Crying of Lot 49” by Thomas Pynchon – A Hysterical Stumble into Mania

“The Crying of Lot 49” by Thomas Pynchon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Thomas Pynchon has been responsible for some of the more original works of writing in the last few decades, some of them even earning the accolade of bestsellers. In The Crying of Lot 49, he takes a relatively innocuous-looking Californian housewife, Oedipa Maas, and thrusts her deep into a truly mad, complex and winding conspiracy involving anything from a mad scientist to stamp collecting.

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“Remnant Population” by Elizabeth Moon – The Planet of One

“Remnant Population” by Elizabeth Moon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Elizabeth Moon is no stranger to writing memorable and original pieces of literature (for which she has been recognized time and time again), and with Remnant Population she certainly keeps up her stride, to say the least. It tells the story of Ofelia, a woman who chooses to stay behind in her space colony after all the others get shipped off elsewhere, with the fantasy of living her days out in blissful solitude… however, such lofty dreams are hardly meant to be.

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“God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” by Kurt Vonnegut – The Shame of Poverty

“God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” by Kurt Vonnegut (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Kurt Vonnegut has given us no shortage of piercing and poignant stories getting right to the heart of what’s wrong in modern American society, but among them, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater flew a little under the radar (in relative terms). It follow the life of Elliot Rosewater, a disillusioned millionaire whose conscience leads him to move the headquarters of his Rosewater Foundation to his former family home, Rosewater, Indiana, where he does all he can for the poor people living there.

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“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski – Enter the Maze of the Mind

“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Mark Z. Danielewski may have written a few highly-acclaimed novels (with more to come, hopefully), but it seems none have managed to capture the public’s imagination like his debut, House of Leaves. In short, it follows a family who, shortly after moving into a new house, see a doorway appear in their living room, leading to an impossible labyrinth… which of course, some are only too keen to explore.

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“Fear is the Key” by Alistair MacLean – The Art of Pulling Teeth

“Fear is the Key” by Alistair MacLean (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Alistair MacLean has written so many bestsellers later on in his career, it is easy to forget he had some earlier novels too which are well worth a read despite being flying under the radar, a prime example being Fear is the Key. Turned into a movie approximately ten years after its publication, the novel tells the story of multiple parties chasing after a mysteriously-sunken treasure, but not without their own nefarious hidden agendas.

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“Listen for the Lie” by Amy Tintera – The Ghost that Never Sleeps

“Listen for the Lie” by Amy Tintera (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Amy Tintera has, until now, been largely known for writing superb young adult novels, many of which have become bestsellers and earned her prizes. With her latest novel, Listen for the Lie, she decided to leave her comfort zone and go into adult territory by penning a murder mystery. It follows a young woman, Lucy, who is forced to uncover the truth behind her best friend’s murder. The catch is that everyone, including Lucy herself, believe she’s the one responsible for it.

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“Marathon Man” by William Goldman – Diamonds of Demons Past

“Marathon Man” by William Goldman (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

William Goldman is responsible for a few movies and novels considered classics today, and to many people, Marathon Man remains his greatest achievement as an author. It tells the story of Thomas “Babe” Levy, a post-graduate history student at Columbia University, and how he unwittingly gets sucked into a long-standing Nazi conspiracy, at the centre of which stands Dr. Christian Szell, infamously known as the “White Angel of Auschwitz”.

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