The Alibi Book Club #37 {3 Books Full Of Mystery You Need To Read}

I've been busy.

Reading books that is.

To fit the theme of this week - because it's officially spooky week woooooo. I'm going to share with you guys the books you should pick up if you're looking for a mix of horror and mystery...

Just don't blame me if you can't sleep. Mwahahahahaaa...

(And if you want to keep up to date with the books I'm reading, why not follow me on goodreads?)

001: stephen king - IT:
This is my first experience of reading a Stephen King novel and it only seemed right to start with the one that has the most current film accompanying it ~~ so I can watch it on Halloween.

1067 pages of pure gripping fiction is what this is. It’s no wonder why King is one of the most celebrated authors for horror. I really enjoyed imagining all the scenes as if it was a horror film while reading this book. I’ve not seen the film of ‘IT’ yet so I’m wondering how close my imagination was to it...

You have your usual twists and turns and I found it really interesting that the book switched between 1958 and 1985 (the first and second time they come to face IT) and seeing the comparisons.

"To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.

It is the children who see - and feel - what makes the small town of Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing ...

Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality."

002: kate morton - the secret keeper:
Every time I think I’ve sussed out the plot in the book, there’s another twist that makes me ask myself more questions.

These are the kinds of books I love and Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper is just as brilliant as the other ones I’ve read from her.

Switching between present day and previous decades, Laurel sets herself on solving a mystery involving her mother and the meaning of what she witnessed in an event that took place in the 1960s when she was sixteen. It leads to questions about how the event links to her mother’s friendships, lover and personal choices in the 1940s.

It’s a gripping family mystery and one that will make for a cosy autumn read! (Especially with a coffee and a blanket!)

"1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything.

2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds - Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy - who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined."

003: carlos ruis zafon - the labyrinth of the spirits:
What a beautiful literature journey this was.

This novel cannot be pinpointed as a certain genre but I can tell you, there’s more mystery, magic and romance than you can shake a stick at!!

The Labyrinth of the Spirits is part of a series of books called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and has plot and character links to each other. So you can read them whichever way you want.

I’ll certainly be doing that myself and picking up the others in the future as what I’ve just finished is something that’s been crafted with wit and care, and that also draws you in so deep you feel like you’re living the plot yourself.

"As a child, Daniel Sempere discovered among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books an extraordinary novel that would change the course of his life. Now a young man in the Barcelona of the late 1950s, Daniel runs the Sempere & Sons bookshop and enjoys a seemingly fulfilling life with his loving wife and son. Yet the mystery surrounding the death of his mother continues to plague his soul despite the moving efforts of his wife Bea and his faithful friend Fermin to save him.

Just when Daniel believes he is close to solving this enigma, a conspiracy more sinister than he could have imagined spreads its tentacles from the hellish regime. That is when Alicia Gris appears, a soul born out of the nightmare of the war.

She is the one who will lead Daniel to the edge of the abyss and reveal the secret history of his family, although at a terrifying price."