Book picks similar to
Not Telling by Cindy Vine
fiction
young-adult
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Down Solo
Earl Javorsky - 2014
His work as a private investigator involves him with an endless roster of shady characters. His ex-wife is borderline crazy. And he hasn't been getting to spend anywhere near enough time with his teenage daughter Mindy, the one person in his life who truly matters to him.When he wakes up on a slab in the morgue with a hole in his head, though, things get even worse.Just before the shooting, Charlie was investigating a case involving fraud, gold, religious zealots, and a gorgeous woman who seemed to be at the center of everything. Even with a fatal bullet wound, Charlie can connect the dots from the case to his attack. And when his daughter is abducted by someone involved, the stakes get exponentially higher. Charlie needs to find Mindy before the criminals do the same thing to her that they did to him.After that, maybe he'll try to figure out how he's walking around dead.Irreverent, circuitous, and surprisingly touching, Down Solo introduces a crisp new voice to suspense fiction.
Adventures in Funeral Crashing
Milda Harris - 2011
At one of these, Kait is outted by the most popular guy in school, Ethan Ripley. Yet, instead of humiliating her for all the world to see, he asks for her help, and Kait finds herself entangled in a murder mystery. Not only is the thrill of the mystery exciting, but more importantly Ethan knows her name! A little sleuthing is well worth that!
The Intangible
C.J. Washington - 2022
Washington’s riveting debut novel dives into the raw emotions of a grieving mother whose quest to heal from a mysterious condition threatens to unravel the lives of those around her.Amanda Jackson has always longed to be a mother. The early weeks of her first pregnancy are a mixture of joy, anticipation, and uncertainty as she and her husband prepare for the journey ahead.Then comes a devastating loss. Even though her doctors tell her otherwise, Amanda believes she’s still pregnant. Her diagnosis is a rare, mysterious condition called pseudocyesis. Betrayed by her mind and body and her marriage strained, Amanda turns to neuroscientist Patrick Davis for answers.Patrick understands the strange twists and turns of the human mind better than anyone. But as he spirals ever deeper into Amanda’s illness, his own homelife crumbles as his wife, Marissa, struggles to cope with her own loss. Marissa’s unique and, some may think, macabre work is her salvation, but it’s pulling her further and further away from Patrick.As the two couples confront the fraught intersection of science, death, and human emotion, they venture into the darkest corners of each other’s lives. What they find there could change them forever.
A Familiar Shore
Jennifer Fromke - 2012
An anonymous client hires her to arrange his will, then sends her to meet his estranged family at their lake home in northern Michigan.After a shocking discovery, she finds herself caught between his suspicious family and a deathbed promise her conscience demands that she keep.Will she seek revenge? Or something more?
The Cuckoo's Gift
Anne Steinberg - 2014
Her last visit here was twelve years ago when, through whispering mangroves, past flocks of exotic birds, skirting bobcat trails and precious mounds of turtle eggs, four children played in this earthly paradise – as explorers, naturalists, boat-builders... and eventually, as lovers. Over the intervening years, Carrie has tried to forget those summer idylls and the children who were her friends – Phoebe, who believed herself to be a mermaid, her aloof older brother Bradley, and Tristan, son of the Native American wisewoman, Tanta. Now two of them are dead and gone. In the cemetery, however, there is only one grave; in Tanta’s backyard, a mourning cradle hangs, stuffed with black raven feathers; and over at Bud’s Landing lives a small boy who has mysteriously been struck dumb. Legend says that pirates buried treasure on a sister island, but here on Sanibel, where a great storm is gathering, Carries is about to unearth some treasure of her own.
First Degree Innocence
Ginger Simpson - 2010
Her arrest comes on the day she’s called in sick and stayed inside, so she can’t explain how an eye-witness describes her in great detail, down to the make and model of her car.A terrible mistake has been made, and her insistence of innocence falls on deaf ears. Even her fellow inmates don’t believe her as it’s a claim they all make. Alone in the world, she has no one to turn to for help, and not a single soul to campaign for her freedom…at least until she makes a valuable friend. In the meantime, a plan for retribution is brewing, and naïve Carrie finds herself smack dab in the middle of an evil scheme concocted by the prison bully. A ten year sentence seems mild when she’s threatened with death for refusing to participate. Can Carrie find a way out of this horrible nightmare, or is she destined to spend her days locked in terror, isolation, and the cold gray interior of prison walls?
The Accident
C.L. Taylor - 2014
In her hunt for evidence, Sue begins to mistrust everyone close to her daughter and she’s forced to look further, into the depths of her own past.There is a lot that Sue doesn’t know about Charlotte’s life. But then there’s a lot that Charlotte doesn’t know about Sue’s …
Silence
Natasha Preston - 2012
At the age of five, she stopped talking, and no one seems to know why. Refusing to communicate beyond a few physical actions, Oakley remains in her own little world. Bullied at school, she has just one friend, Cole Benson. Cole stands by her, refusing to believe that she is not perfect the way she is. Over the years, they have developed their own version of a normal friendship. However, will it still work as they start to grow even closer? When Oakley is forced to face someone from her past, can she hold her secret in any longer?
The Forgetting
Nicole Maggi - 2015
Why does she have a sudden urge for strawberries when she's been allergic for years? Why can't she remember last Christmas?Driven to find her donor, Georgie discovers her heart belonged to a girl her own age who fell out of the foster care system and into a rough life on the streets. Everyone thinks she committed suicide, but Georgie is compelled to find the truth - before she loses herself completely.
Good Behavior
Blake Crouch - 2013
While on the job, she overhears a man hiring a hit man to kill his wife. Letty may not be winning any morality awards, but even she has limits. Unable to go to the police, Letty sets out to derail the job, putting herself on a collision course with the killer that entangles the two of them in a dangerous, seductive relationship.Good Behavior comprises three interlinked novellas (The Pain of Others, Sunset Key, and Grab), which together form a novel-length portrait of Blake Crouch’s all-time favorite character creation, Letty Dobesh. This edition is the complete Letty Dobesh collection.
Sisters One, Two, Three
Nancy Star - 2017
With memories locked away, the sisters take divergent paths. Callie disappears, Mimi keeps so busy she has no time to think, and Ginger develops a lifelong aversion to risk that threatens the relationships she holds most dear.When a whispered comment overheard by her rebellious teenage daughter forces Ginger to reveal a long-held family secret, the Tangles’ carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. Upon the death of Glory, the family’s colorful matriarch, and the return of long-estranged Callie, Ginger resolves to return to Martha’s Vineyard and piece together what really happened on that calamitous day when a shadow fell over four sun-kissed siblings playing at the shore. Along with Ginger’s newfound understanding come the keys to reconciliation: with her mother, with her sisters, and with her daughter.At turns heartbreaking, humorous, and hopeful, Sisters One, Two, Three explores not only the consequences of secrets—even secrets kept out of love—but also the courage it takes to speak the truth, to forgive, and to let go.
Don't Try to Find Me
Holly Brown - 2014
Though the message on the kitchen white board is written in Marley's hand, her mother Rachel knows there has to be some other explanation. Marley would never run away.As the days pass and it sinks in that the impossible has occurred, Rachel and her husband Paul are informed that the police have "limited resources." If they want their 14-year-old daughter back, they will have to find her themselves. Desperation becomes determination when Paul turns to Facebook and Twitter, and launches FindMarley.com.But Marley isn't the only one with secrets.With public exposure comes scrutiny, and when Rachel blows a television interview, the dirty speculation begins. Now, the blogosphere is convinced Rachel is hiding something. It's not what they think; Rachel would never hurt Marley. Not intentionally, anyway. But when it's discovered that she's lied, even to the police, the devoted mother becomes a suspect in Marley's disappearance.Is Marley out there somewhere, watching it all happen, or is the truth something far worse?
[sic]
Scott Kelly - 2012
The better the player, the bigger the change. One might give their car away, or punch the school bully. Another might change identities or sacrifice their virginity. Anything to keep evolving, to avoid fitting into a label or caring about the junk they own. But their quest for enlightenment has taken a rotten final turn - one of the players has murdered the game's creator, the teen prophet (cult leader?) David Bloom. Our narrator is being framed for the crime; can he clear his name and discover which of his lifelong friends is the murderer before he takes the fall?[sic] is a gritty teen murder mystery that delves into the psychology of enlightenment among the criminally dysfunctional. It is a winner of WEBook's Page2Fame award and a cult classic among its thousands of teen fans on Wattpad, some of whom have actually applied Kelly's fictional game to their own lives.
Mice
Gordon Reece - 2001
Shelley and her mom have been menaced long enough. Excused from high school where a trio of bullies nearly killed her, and still reeling from her parents' humiliating divorce, Shelley has retreated with her mother to the quiet of Honeysuckle Cottage in the countryside. Thinking their troubles are over, they revel in their cozy, secure life of gardening and books, hot chocolate and Brahms by the fire. But on the eve of Shelley's sixteenth birthday, an unwelcome guest disturbs their peace and something inside Shelley snaps. What happens next will shatter all their certainties-about their safety, their moral convictions, the limits of what they are willing to accept, and what they're capable of. Debut novelist Gordon Reece has written a taut tale of gripping suspense, packed with action both comic and terrifying. Shelley is a spellbinding narrator, and her delectable mix of wit, irony, and innocence transforms the major current issue of bullying into an edge- of-your-seat story of fear, violence, family loyalty, and the outer reaches of right and wrong.
Cold Echo
C.J. Carver - 2019
Should you trust your best friend with your life?
Harry, Lucas and Guy were best friends when they were kids. But then they made a terrible mistake and their friendship shattered, forcing them to cut all ties.Years later, a man’s head is discovered in the woods, skinned and with the tongue cut out. The police call on Harry, a psychologist, to help with the case, and when it turns out the victim is his childhood friend Guy, old skeletons begin to surface.Then one of Harry’s clients goes missing.
Forced into a desperate hunt to save the boy, Harry finds himself closing in on a shocking secret, a secret someone will do anything to keep safe…