Canticle Creek
By: Adrian Hyland
Release Date | December 1
Genre | Thriller
Two bodies. An open and shut case. One individual who won't stop asking questions. In Canticle Creek, the wrecked car was found a kilometre from the mangled body, the cause of death evident shutting the case immediately.
But for non-native Jesse, she has come to learn that not everything is always as it seems and that the truth behind things often hides in plain sight including the truth behind Daisy's dead body. All she has to do to find that truth is ask the right questions, questions that soon lead to contradictions, secrets, deceit, and with the temperature rising, all Canticle Creek needs to explode is one small spark.
Disclaimer (yippie!): Aster's Book Hour is an Amazon Associate. It earns a small commission from qualifying purchases attached to the Amazon affiliate links in this post.
I'm Not Hungry But I Could Eat
By: Christopher Gonzalez
Release Date | December 1
Genre | Fiction
Into the Sound
By: Cara Reinard
Release Date | December 1
Genre | Thriller
During a horrific storm, Holly Boswell receives a call. A panicked call from her sister begging Holly to pick her up, there is somebody coming except when Holly arrives to rescue Vivian, only her car remains.
A vanished sister is not unfamiliar to Holly, both of them having grown up playing hide-and-seek to escape from the research their parents conducted on them; research that for children, was abuse. The scene before her reminds Holly of those games and she knows it is up to her to find Vivian. But the question is, did she disappear on purpose or did something more sinister occur?
The Hawthorne School
By: Sylvie Perry
Release Date | December 7
Genre | Thriller
Claudia Morgan is at her wits end. Regardless of her status as a single parent, she still didn't expect the exhausting handful her son Henry would be and is why, when the news of a school with a unique learning style crosses her path, she just has to visit. The new school is everything Claudia dreamed of - convenient, beautiful, and affordable, that is if she volunteers her time to cover part of the tuition.
The effects of Henry's new school are soon reflected at home with a calmer demeanour but when Henry starts to tell her about the odd rules and ceremonies he follows, Claudia begins to suspect that the Hawthorne School is hiding something sinister and that both her and her son may now be caught in its clutches.
A History of Wild Places
By: Shea Ernshaw
Release Date | December 7
Genre | Suspense
Requiring only a single item, Travis Wren is unusually talented at finding the missing. Hired by the family of Maggie St. James, the author of a sinister children's series, Travis is drawn to a place of fantasy in order to find her. Founded in the 1970s, Pastoral is a town filled with like-minded people searching for a simple life and when Travis enters in search of Maggie, he too disappears.
Years later a member of Pastoral finds an abandoned truck bordering the community lines, a truck belonging to Travis. The discovery prompts Theo to ask how the disappearance occurred, revealing along the way secrets his wife, town, and friends are keeping proving the perfect world he believed he lived in, is anything but safe.
No Beauties or Monsters
By: Tara Goedjen
Release Date | December 7
Genre | Horror
Her past is buried in Twentynine Palms. The memories of her deceased father, her estranged grandfather, and her old friends are hidden underneath the sandy desert and Rylie has yet to return to retrieve them. When her mother's new work assignment arrives, Rylie is forced to move back to the place she wishes could also stay buried.
And Twentynine Palms is not what Rylie remembers, the town is stranger than before with whispers of a killer on the loose and her closest friend there having vanished into the desert. With all the strangeness surrounding her, Rylie cannot help but feel its affects and when she begins to see unexplainable things, she knows something is wrong and it all seems to be tied to her grandfather's home. Rylie needs to find the truth and make sure the monsters she sees are real otherwise the real danger in the desert could be herself.
Out of the Fire
By: Andrea Contos
Release Date | December 7
Genre | Young Adult
It is the letters afterwards that make Cass live in fear. Her kidnapping didn't ruin her but the promise from her captor he would return, that she wasn't truly free, did. The police claim they can't help leading Cass to believe the rest of her life would be one filled with fear, that is until she connects with three old friends.
Three girls like her who have been waiting to exact retribution on those who hurt them. But as Cass digs deeper, the truth is more unbelievable than she can fathom and the worst thing of all is that the only person who could save her life is the one who destroyed it.
Orphans of the Storn
By: Celia Imrie
Release Date | December 14
Genre | Historical Fiction
Orphans of the Storm by Celia Imrie tackles the lives of two young women and their fate aboard the Titanic. As mother of two and married to a vindicate man, Marcella Narvratil is ready for a new beginning - one that will be kickstarted with news that changes her life.
Margaret Hayes lives a vastly different life to the one of Marcella. She is a young socialite aching for the comfort of home and boards a steamer to make the journey back to the US. What the women don't know is that by boarding the ship, their lives will never be the same.
My Darling Husband
By: Kimberly Belle
Release Date | December 28
Genre | Thriller
The Sorority Murder
By: Allison Brennan
Release Date | December 28
Genre | Mystery
Lucas Vega is obsessed with the disappearance and death of Candace Swain, a young college student who left a sorority party and was found dead weeks later. Candace's case has never been solved and when Lucas stumbles upon new information during his internship, he heads directly to the police except, the police aren't interested.
Lucas is determined to not let the evidence go to waste. He knows the critical pieces of the case, just not how they fit together. So, he creates a podcast with guest lecturer, former US Marshal Regan Merritt, to analyse and hopefully solve the case. New tips are soon being called in with information that leads Regan and Lucas to believe they have found a new lead but when one caller turns up dead, another implicates Candace and her former lifestyle, and Lucas is discovered to be hiding secrets of his own - answers must be given before they are silenced forever.
