In Death of a Nightingale, the melancholy and triumphant third installment in the Nina Borg series by Danish duo Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, desperation, extortion and murder push emotionally raw characters to their limits.

Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, has a compulsive sense of social justice that has left her haggard and estranged from her husband and children. She simply can’t say no, and she finds herself involved in an especially dangerous case concerning Natasha, an illegal Ukrainian immigrant, and her daughter Rina. Sent to jail for the attempted homicide of her fiancé, Natasha escapes custody and is concerned only with one thing: getting her little girl back. But Natasha isn’t the only one after Rina.

Natasha is the perfect example of an innocent pushed beyond her limits. After years of lies, abuse and time spent in jail, the once-naïve and compliant Natasha turns primal and ravenous in the hunt for her daughter. This time, nothing will get in her way.

As Nina becomes more invested in the case, she finds herself tangled in something much larger than she could have imagined. A bloody tale, beginning back in 1934 Stalinist Ukraine, has fatal consequences for those who unearth the secrets that were long put to rest.

Death of a Nightingale is a masterfully written mystery that seamlessly blends several stories from different time periods into one jaw-dropping standstill, giving the reader just enough time for a gasping breath before the story charges on.

Skulls, feathers, claws and winged flight—all are part of an ongoing scientific controversy about the evolution of birds that winds through the pages of Danish author S.J. Gazan’s absorbing debut thriller, The Dinosaur Feather. When the bones of this contentious argument get mixed up with the time-honored academic battles for tenure and research grants, it all leads to murder.

Postgraduate biology student Anna Bella Nor is ready to defend her Ph.D. thesis, one she hopes will add significantly to the argument in the science community about whether contemporary birds evolved from dinosaurs. But her thesis supervisor is found dead with a copy of Anna’s dissertation in his lap, while her second advisor, a brilliant but eccentric specialist at a Copenhagen museum, has taken to hiding from the world in his dark office full of fossils and avian bones.

The murder, committed by means of an ugly parasitic infection that took months to develop, introduces a lengthy timeline of premeditation and sends in police superintendent Søren Marhauge, who sets out to penetrate this academic world full of jealousies and murderous intent. Dubbed by Anna as the “World’s Most Irritating Detective,” he haunts the sacrosanct halls of academe, widening his search to include experts in parasitology. Another death, this time one of Anna’s young colleagues, throws her into a tailspin—and it seems she may be in danger as well, after neighbors report a strange man lurking near her apartment.

The Dinosaur Feather contains lengthy excursions into the characters’ backstories. In some books these flashbacks might make an unwelcome break in the action, but here the earlier frames provide substance and connections to bring this compelling story to life. Each character’s intriguing history rounds out the whole, and they combine for a spirited and satisfying conclusion.

Occasional odd cadences of language and mood are a reminder to readers that the book is translated from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund. Far from being a distraction, however, the sometimes-singular turns of phrase provide a distinctive slant that enhances readers' appreciation of the story—and make the reader refreshingly aware that the author created all this in a different language. The Dinosaur Feather was named the Danish Crime Novel of the Decade, and it seems sure to attract rave notices here.

“All love is desperate.” With this phrase, celebrated author Joyce Carol Oates manifests love gone wrong in Evil Eye, four novellas ringing of Gothic horror. Taking a page from du Maurier’s Rebecca, Oates puppeteers her childlike heroines through scenes of despondency set in the twisted, delusional reality that can be love, with the backdrop of oppressive circumstances and possessive men with gnarled secrets.

In the first novella, “Evil Eye,” Mariana has been subdued after her parents’ death and is tended to like a bird with a broken wing by a highbrow gentleman much her senior. His adoration and care result in her becoming his fourth wife. When his first wife visits, unsettling secrets come to light between his fits of rage, challenging both Mariana’s marriage and sanity.

In “So Near Anytime Always,” unassuming Lizbeth begins an innocent courtship with charming Desmond, a man with an air of elegance and worldliness. Their promising romance turns menacing after Desmond’s delusional outbursts of control.

The book crescendoes with “The Execution,” a grotesque tale of a well-to-do family and their resentful son. Bart seeks bloody retribution against his parents, and his plan is perfect by design: the layout, the execution and the getaway. Only his mother’s resilient love threatens to get in the way.

In the last novella, “The Flatbed,” the sexual oppression Cecelia endured as a child haunts her and threatens her relationships as an adult, lacing any sexual experience with overpowering tremors and bouts of hysteria. It isn’t until she discloses her unfathomable past to the love of her life that justice is served.

Through gripping stories that entertain and chill, Oates breeds psychological horror in our most vulnerable emotion: love. A fantastically unnerving read, the dazing darkness in Evil Eye comes from the possible reality of the circumstances.

In Paula Daly’s debut novel, Just What Kind of Mother Are You?, a mother’s nightmare unfolds over the course of four days. Four days may seem short to the average person, but for Lisa Kallisto, they are sickening, worry-laden and guilt-ridden. She is responsible for the disappearance of her best friend’s only daughter, and this isn’t the first teenage girl to vanish in the quaint Lake District. The first girl resurfaced in a nightmarish state after a horrible ordeal.

How could this happen? The answer may lie in the blind spots created by a stress-filled life, as Lisa is the epitome of an overworked woman. She is stretched thin between managing a struggling animal shelter, being a mother of three and trying to sustain a marriage. Balancing an extra chaotic week is all it takes to set off a terrifying series of events.

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is a haunting, fast-paced suspense novel, outlined by a mother’s anxiety and a friend’s guilt. Subplots simmer to the surface, breaking characters’ boiling points and shattering porcelain perceptions, and leaving Lisa and the reader in a wide-eyed state of bewilderment and rage. The story becomes a disconcerting testament to domestic life and the potential deceit lying within every household.

Daly skillfully weighs the book with layers of emotion, seizing the reader’s empathy and ensuring the resounding effect of guilt, anger and fear. Daly binds insecurity with fear in this buzzing thriller to leave parents with a burning question at the forefront of their minds: Could this happen to me?

Readers who enjoy Laurie R. King's noteworthy Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery series are in for a surprise and a major departure in tone with her new novel. In The Bones of Paris, the sequel to King’s 2007 standalone novel Touchstone, not-to-be-messed-with American investigator Harris Stuyvesant returns and once again looms large: He’s determined, melancholy and attractive to women, but he’s also a liar and dissembler with a hair-trigger temper, and he just can’t seem to learn from his own mistakes.

Stuyvesant is living abroad in 1920s Paris, but don’t expect flowers and flappers and flighty entertainment. He is investigating the disappearance of a young American woman with whom he had a brief romantic affair several months prior. He soon learns that she’s one of many who have recently vanished from Paris without a trace and are now presumed dead, and it looks a lot like murder. The Bones of Paris takes readers on a deadly journey into the boneyards and catacombs beneath the streets of Paris, sparing us nothing and introducing a killer who dispatches his victims cruelly, without fanfare and without remorse.

Though he prefers working alone, Stuyvesant joins forces with Doucet, a Parisian detective in charge of missing persons, who has been working to discover a pattern in the unsolved disappearances. In searching for clues, both men are drawn to the denizens of the Paris art community and into its Surrealist shadows. They must investigate whether the missing persons cases are connected to a reclusive Paris artist who uses bones—both human and animal—in his disturbing works of art displayed throughout the city, and they seek to discover the role played by the Grand Guignol theater, where simulated horrors becomes titillating entertainment for the city’s sophisticates.

In this engrossing tale, King brings to glittering life a decadent Paris roiling in the aftermath of World War I. She describes the seedy secrets of the Montparnasse art crowd, introducing cameos by well-known figures of the time—including a pugnacious Ernest Hemingway, American expat and bookstore proprietor Sylvia Beach, the notorious Surrealist Man Ray and his lover Lee Miller—cleverly weaving the characters into the book’s dark tapestry. The author provides illuminating historical details and nuances as Paris, sliding toward the brink of another great war, becomes one of the book’s most provocative characters.

Sarah and Jennifer believed that to be informed was to be prepared, so they became versed in all of the statistics of threatening situations and created a list of things to never do. They strictly followed the list until one night in college when they got in a car with a stranger—a devastating choice that led to five years of unspeakable torture, as Sarah and Jennifer were held captive with two other girls in an unforgiving cellar.

A former victim confronts old fears in this disturbing abduction thriller.

Ten years later, Sarah is trying to live with the realities of what happened, including the loss of her best friend and the fact that her former captor is up for parole in four months. He has been sending letters from jail to the three surviving girls, and Sarah believes that there is more to these letters than the mindless ramblings of a madman. She is determined to find evidence to keep her tormentor in jail and put her own mind to rest.

Following the directions of a maniac and piecing together pieces from the past, Sarah finds herself on a journey that is far removed from the sanctuary she has been hiding in for the last 10 years. Her search is interrupted by flashback chapters, slowly revealing the gruesome nature of Sarah’s years in captivity, and readers will experience the uneasy horrors of Sarah’s past as she works her way through a psychopath’s mind in search of her best friend's body. The fact that the evil man is still in jail slightly dilutes the story’s suspense, but all is not as it appears: Someone is doing his work for him, and Sarah risks getting in the way. Conflicts encountered along the way are quickly resolved, but the constant twists and turns will keep readers guessing until the end.

This story is a twisted tale of a courageous woman trying to make sense of a madman’s mind, but in her darkest moments, Sarah will be surprised by her own strengths and weaknesses. In addition to the terrifying moments, Sarah’s story is one of friendship, trust and the search for truth. For readers looking for a psychological thriller, The Never List will be hard to beat.

Close My Eyes, a new psychological thriller by Sophie McKenzie, poses the question of what happens when a woman loses a child at birth, and eight years later feels no letup in her sense of loss and bereavement. After all this time, a stranger arrives at Geniver Loxley’s door to say that her child was not stillborn, but in fact is very much alive. The stranger claims her sister, a nurse, attended the birth and saw the child alive and well. Still worse, she says that Gen’s husband knew about the deception, too. She’s short on details, but leaves her phone number so Gen can reach her once she absorbs the news.

When Gen’s husband, Art, hears this, he’s irate. He vehemently denies the stranger’s claim and speculates that it’s a horrible scam perpetrated as payback by a disgruntled business rival. He’s adamant against following up, but for Gen, the genie is out of the bottle. Inconsolable loss has turned into a kind of frantic hope, and with or without Art’s help, she decides to pursue the truth. Was her baby stillborn? If not, who was involved in what amounted to a horrific kidnapping? What could be the reason for such an unforgiveable act?

A mother will stop at nothing to discover the truth of her baby's death.

Gen remembers nothing of the birth, as she was deep under anesthesia, and must do her detective work from scratch. She searches through oddly incriminating bank records and newly discovered paperwork, talking with anyone who had a possible connection to the event. As grim and suggestive facts begin to emerge and a suspicious death impedes her efforts, she begins to suspect everyone—even Art. But luckily for Gen, and for the progress of the book, an amiable Irishman named Lorcan enters the action, and the balance of sanity begins to shift.

The book employs all the staples of this genre: a woman on an often lonely quest, fighting the odds as well as questions about her own sanity, and putting herself in danger to uncover the truth about something deeply personal. Is she just a gullible victim, or is there a conspiracy of silence among those nearest to her to shield her from some awful knowledge?

Author McKenzie pulls out all the stops in this tense shocker, including a surprising conclusion and a couple of final pages you won’t want to read in advance! Readers who like twists and page-turning surprises are in for a treat.