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“Chase Darkness with Me” by Billy Jensen – The Real Citizen Detective

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Billy Jensen is without a doubt one of the more special and influential investigative journalists in the domain of true crime, having essentially pioneered the modern citizen detective movement.

In his non-fiction book titled Chase Darkness with Me, he takes us with him on his journey to finding the truth behind some unsolved murders, namely identifying the Halloween Mask Murderer, finding a missing girl in the Redwoods, and investigating the one other murder which happened in New York City on 9/11.

“Say Nothing” by Patrick Radden Keefe – The Never-ending Irish Troubles

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Patrick Radden Keefe has never shied away from exploring the tragedies in the world lesser-known to the Western realms, and in Say Nothing he takes us on an excursion into Northern Ireland.

More precisely, he explores the lethal and suffocating conflict which has raged in the country for decades, centred on the I.R.A. terrorist organization, beginning with the infamous kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville, mother of ten.

“Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” by Olga Tokarczuk – The Village of the Dying

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Olga Tokarczuk may not be all too famous in the Western world, but she has certainly earned her stripes over in Europe, earning many prestigious awards along the way.

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead might be one of her more interesting novels, following the trials and tribulations of an older reclusive woman living in a small Polish village where people are turning up dead under strange circumstances.

She tries to insert herself into the investigation, certain she knows who the culprit is… but much to the chagrin of new victims, nobody seems interested in her ideas.

“The Wall” by John Lanchester – Surviving the Grand Divide

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John Lanchester is a man closely engaged in following the modern sociopolitical landscape, and in The Wall he attempts to imagine what it would be like if taken to its absolute extreme.

The story begins by presenting us with an island nation, England, which built a giant wall around itself as a means of protection against a dying world.

Enter John Kavanagh, a new Defender of the wall, tasked with keeping the desperate souls outside from getting in, under penance of death if he were to fail.

“The Turn of the Key” by Ruth Ware – The Imperfect Victim

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Ruth Ware’s career may not have started long ago, but she has so far maintained a high standard for herself, one she does her absolute best to live up to in her fifth novel, The Turn of the Key.

In it, we follow the story of Rowan Caine who took up a “too good to be true” nanny job at a luxurious estate, only to end up being accused of murdering a child. From her prison cell, she writes to her lawyer, trying to unravel to complexity of all she has been through, consistently adamant she is no killer… but then who is?