Books like 'The Mill River Recluse'
Readers who enjoyed The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery small town psychological thriller historical-fiction drama suspense domestic-drama friendship
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Poison at the Village Show: The start of a BRAND NEW cozy murder mystery series from Catherine Coles for 2022 by Catherine Coles
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWestleham Village 1947. It’s the Westleham village show and with the war finally over, everyone is looking forward to a pleasant day.But newcomer, Martha Miller doesn’t share the excitement. Because since her husband Stan left for work one day and never returned, Martha has been treated as somewhat of an outsider in Westleham. The village gossip is that Martha must be to blame…...Categorized as:
animals crime domestic-drama family female-mc friendship historical-fiction suspense -
![The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart]()
The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsYoung, beautiful, and adventurous Nicola Ferris loves her life as a secretary at the British Embassy on the lush island of Crete. Then on her day off, she links up with two hiking companions who have inadvertently stumbledupon a scene of blood vengeance. And suddenly the life Nicola adores is in danger of coming to an abrupt, brutal, and terrifying end . -
![Litani by Jess Lourey]()
Litani by Jess Lourey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.In the summer of ’84, fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows... -
![The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor]()
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAn unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here... -
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![A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan]()
A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet just after the Civil War, A Prayer for the Dying is the story of a small Wisconsin town gripped by a mysterious, deadly epidemic, and one man desperate to save it. Torn between his loyalty to his family, his faith in God, and his terror of this vicious disease, Jacob Hansen struggles to preserve his sanity amid the chaos and violence around him... -
![Bloodline by Jess Lourey]()
Bloodline by Jess Lourey
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPerfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad…In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down... -
![The Silence by Susan Allott]()
The Silence by Susan Allott
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCombining the emotional power and dual narrative style of Before We Were Yours with the nuanced, layered, and atmospheric mystery of The Dry, a powerful debut novel revolving around a shocking disappearance, two neighbor families, and shameful secrets from the past that refuse to stay buried...Categorized as:
crime domestic-drama family female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller -
![Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom]()
Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Lizzie Borden took an axe . . ". Or did she? One hundred years ago, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered. Their youngest daughter Lizzie was arrested and tried for the killings and--shockingly to many--was found innocent...Categorized as:
crime domestic-drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book -
![Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey]()
Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsInspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems.Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class... -
![Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris]()
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe novels of Joanne Harris are a literary feast for the senses. Five Quarters of the Orange represents Harris's most complex and sophisticated work yet - a novel in which darkness and fierce joy come together to create an unforgettable story...Categorized as:
drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
![Spider Light by Sarah Rayne]()
Spider Light by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"The dangerous thing about spider light is that it hides things - things you never knew existed. But once you have seen those things, you can never afterwards forget them..."Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy market town of Amberwood in search of peace and anonymity after a shattering and all-too-public tragedy in her life... -
![Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley]()
Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsTormented by horrific nightmares since the death of her baby five years before, literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw agrees to accompany an author to Wales, where she encounters an eccentric young widow desperately afraid for her own infant's safety and a reclusive playwright who could be her only salvation...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult arthurian audiobook -
![Maynard's House by Herman Raucher]()
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAustin Fletcher, a disturbed young Vietnam War vet, is willed a small house deep in the woods of northern Maine. He comes to own it by the generosity of a brother-in-arms—a fellow soldier and confidante, Maynard Whittier, killed in action by a wayward mortar shell. The rugged landscape of Maine is an intoxicating blend of claustrophobic interiors and endless frozen wastelands... -
![Five Mile House by Karen Novak]()
Five Mile House by Karen Novak
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA modern day mystery haunted by a 19th Century ghost.Eleanor Bly haunts Five Mile House, looking for someone to tell her story to. Jumping from a window to her death in 1889, Eleanor's soul is at unrest until the truth is told about her life and death. She finally finds Leslie, one hundred years later... -
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![Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy]()
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the spellbinding and suspenseful Let Me Die in His Footsteps, Edgar Award–winner Lori Roy wrests from a Southern town the secrets of two families touched by an evil that has passed between generations. On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory... -
![Bent Road by Lori Roy, Marguerite Gavin]()
Bent Road by Lori Roy, Marguerite Gavin
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFor twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve's death. As a young man, Arthur fled his small Kansas hometown, moved to Detroit, married Celia, and never looked back...Categorized as:
crime domestic-drama drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century -
![The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey]()
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Rated: 3.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOakham, near Bruton, is a tiny village by a big river without a bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found. Was it murder, or suicide, or an accident? The whole story is relayed by the village priest, John Reve, who in his role as confessor is privy to a lot of information that others have not...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller 21st-century adult audiobook -
![All These Bodies by Kendare Blake]()
All These Bodies by Kendare Blake
Rated: 3.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSixteen bloodless bodies. Two teenagers. One impossible explanation.It starts with a lone victim, found on his front porch with his throat cut and his body drained of blood. By the time it’s over, the Bloodless Murders leave a trail of sixteen bodies littered across the Midwest, with no suspects and no witnesses... -
![American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse]()
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsShocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick...
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