If you would like a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, try these stories of suspense. Call them what you want, as long as readers keep turning the pages until all the questions are answered. Enjoy!

THE AMALFI CURSE by Sarah Penner takes place in Positano, an Italian coastal village that is the site of ancient shipwrecks. Haven Ambrose, nautical archeologist, is ready to begin documenting some of the wrecks when her project is upended by an older colleague who is also documenting the ocean bed, but secretly searching for treasure. Two hundred years earlier, a select group of magical women of Positano controlled the ocean currents with the legendary art of stregheria. Mari narrates their tale while trying to escape the attention of a sinister suitor in order to elope with a sailor she loves. As the story unfolds, alternating chapters between 1821 and present day, readers will be holding their breath in anticipation of what Mari and Haven will do next. Penner creates an excellent tale that incorporates ancient lore into a modern setting.

JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET by Joy Fielding takes place mostly in a memory care facility for the elderly. While visiting her lifelong friend who has dementia, Linda Davidson has a chance meeting with Jenny Cooper, another resident of the facility who has memory problems of her own, but may also have developed a special recipe to kill the abusive men in her life. Meanwhile, Linda’s homelife is tense as her daughter and son-in-law who live with her find their marriage crumbling. Despite everything in her own life, she is obsessively drawn to Jenny Cooper’s stories.

MARGUERITE BY THE LAKE by Mary Dixie Carter starts out with a flirtation between Phoenix, the gardener for the Rosecliff estate, and Geoffrey Gray who owns the place with his famous wife, Marguerite. The story begins to unravel when Marguerite falls off a cliff near her home and drowns in the lake. Investigations skirt around everyone who lives and works at Rosecliff, including Phoenix, who may be feeling guilty for her close proximity to Marguerite before she fell and for sleeping with her husband. Against everyone’s advice, she moves into the mansion and has visions of replacing Marguerite. Worse than that is her fear of being discovered as a fraud, leading to paranoia that takes over her everyday activities. However, Phoenix isn’t the only person at Rosecliff protecting their own secrets.

THE MISSING HALF by Ashley Flowers introduces Nic and Jenna, two young women who both survived when their sisters disappeared two weeks apart in 2012 – from the same small Indiana town. Neither of them can push on with their own lives, as they remain obsessed with the death of their sisters. They start to dig for information, but the locals appear frightened and refuse to talk to them about the disappearances. Nic and Jenna work to construct a timeline, until Jenna stops talking to Nic. Not to be deterred, Nic investigates her also, leading to the truth and a double twist in the story that readers won’t see coming.

THE TENANT by Freida McFadden will get your heart beating with ever increasing suspense and a double twist in the plotline. Blake Porter is living well with a top marketing job and a nice apartment that he shares with his fiance, Krista; until he abruptly loses his job and has to take in a tenant to make ends meet. Blake’s world continues to turn upside down as the tenant moves in and strange things begin to happen in the house. He finds himself being framed for the death of a neighbor, and has the feeling of being watched – making him doubt his sanity. This is a thriller for the ages.

By LYNETTE SUCKOW

Peter White Public Library