Mystery Excerpt Sampler Spring 2016 contains extracts from Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry, Murder on the Quai by Cara Black, All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage, The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton, I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh, The Travelers by Chris Pavone, Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon and The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund. This sampler was a great way to discover more authors I might not have found otherwise.

Under the Harrow is a psychological thriller about Nora who finds her sister brutally murdered. Usually I love psychological thrillers and slightly unhinged narrators however in this extract I found Nora's thoughts slightly too chaotic which put me off reading the rest of the book.

Murder on the Quai is the 16th book in the Aimee Leduc series and explores how she became a detective. I thought the premise of this sounded really interesting however I felt I would've got more out of this extract if I had read the other books in the series so I may revisit this if I get around to reading this series.

All Things Cease to Appear is about a man who comes home to find his wife dead and his young daughter alone. Although the premise of this book didn't sound very original, I found that the extract hooked me in and I'm now desperate to know how this story unravels.

The Quality of Silence is about a mother and daughter who set off across northern Alaska trying to locate the girl's missing father. The premise of this book sounded very promising and I was excited about the setting of Alaska. The extract created a tense atmospheric and now I'm desperate to continue this story.

I Let You Go is about a woman who moves to Wales to escape her past but it begins to come back to haunt her. I read this sampler in 2023 where Clare Mackintosh has become an extremely popular author so I was very excited to read some of her work and this extract didn't disappoint.

The Travelers is a spy thriller about a travel writer who becomes a spy and travels the world. I haven't read much spy fiction in the past however both the synopsis and the extract from this book seem exciting and I would consider reading this at some point in the future.

Try Not to Breathe is about a journalist's struggles with alcoholism as she tries to solve a cold case. The title and the premise of this book sound really interesting so I was curious going into the extract. The extract gripped me right from the start and I'm now rapidly trying to get my hands on a copy of this book.

The Crow Girl is set in Sweden and is about a serial killer. After reading the Millennium Trilogy, I'm keen to read more Nordic noir crime fiction so was excited to see this included in the sampler. The extract was interesting and I may delve into this book at some point.

I’m so addicted to these I’ve even been hunting down the old ones to see if there’s any interesting books I’ve missed!

I wasn't familiar with any of these titles at all, so this sampler was especially helpful. Thank you!

I got this book hoping to have a couple of books added to my TBR file and I was so happy to note that these books were already out. And I could start reading them immediately. As I hoped I downloaded a few books from the sampler, so far my favorite is the crow girl and I am looking forward to reading the quality of silence and a few more whose titles I forget. I also found some great authors I would’ve never learned about otherwise. I highly recommend the sampler‘s they really give you a heads up of what’s out there and what are you like it or not. I love when I read a sampler and I come across a book that had I bought it I would’ve been so upset, but thank God publishers like Penguin Random House put out the samplers to benefit voracious readers like myself. I highly recommend this book and at the end you can sign up to get notified when Penguin Random House put out a new book an even get access to their library. I am so glad I read this book if you love mysteries you’ll love this book. I was given this book by NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. please forgive any grammatical a punctuation errors I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are my own.

I love book samplers because it gives me a chance to review a book before deciding to read. This particular set of books did not catch my eye but I still found it a great resource.

I like these sorts of samplers because I do think strong beginnings are important to build excitement about the story. The only book from this sampler that I went on to read was Under the Harrow, and really, it had some slow parts. The beginning really got me hooked. Maybe because I also have a sister with a close bond and that brutal scene and the dog and the beginning led me to go check the book out from the library. Although my sister and I are much different than Rachel and Nora, I find out. I kept reading to find out how all of it wrapped up, but many times it was hard to keep my interest until the end. And even then, the wrap up felt rushed and anti-climactic. Murder on the Quai was intriguing enough. I did think the suspense feeling of walking alone at night in the dark and the water was well done though. I think my husband will like The Traveler, and I will be recommending it to him. It's the sort of thing I enjoy watching, but not as much reading. I appreciate the opportunity to sample these titles!

Even though this sampler was put out in 2015, I had never read or even heard of most of these books. I love these samplers because I can read little bits of a lot of books and decide which ones I want to add to my TBR list.

I loved looking through the opening pages of these mystery titles. I'm excited to read more from these books and authors, and think any of the books included would be great reads. Many thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the sample of these books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read these excerpts!

I always forget that when I say I like mysteries, I like a very specific kind of mystery, tending toward cozy, historical, or noir -- anything that has a little bit of distance between us and the story. So a lot of these were much too scary for me.

UNDER THE HARROW by Flynn Berry -- too gruesome and serial killer-y. Plus, just like the book knows the public would, I'm fixated on the dog death which really gets me.

MURDER ON THE QUAI by Cara Black -- the cover mentions it is a prequel, though I've never heard of the series. But it is good to know that our heroine will abandon her disgustingly cutthroat premed program and embrace her true love, investigating. (I got some Veronica Mars vibes.) I really enjoyed the walk through the process, and all the little gadgets tucked into her purse and disguise as lipstick or blush or whatever, and I look forward to reading more.

ALL THINGS CEASE TO APPEAR by Elizabeth Brundage -- too psychological for me, with the did-he-or-didn't-he vibe of the husband, and the super-stylized prose that forgoes quotation marks.

THE QUALITY OF SILENCE by Rosamund Lupton -- I liked Ruby (though the Twitter account is a bit much), and there's clearly something fishy going on with the police dismissing Yasmin's questions, but the extreme location ("places that can kill you") I just know is going to be too stressful for me.

I LET YOU GO by Clare Mackintosh -- death of a child and guilt of a mother is way more than I can handle

THE CROW GIRL by Erik Axl Sund -- nice and creepy setup, with some woman who kidnaps an immigrant man, imprisons him, and then mutilates and mummifies him, and the police are baffled. I suspected it was going to be too dark for me, then looked at the cover again and decided, yes, definitely.

So all in all, I'm too wimpy for most of these, although I will check out MURDER ON THE QUAI (and dream of Paris).

I can’t review this listing on GR as it’s a sampler, but I really enjoyed all the excerpts I read! Super stoked to read the full length versions.

4 stars.

As a huge mystery reader, I really enjoyed this sampler collection. It had a little bit of everything in each chapter, from thrills to creepy vibes.

I received a complimentary review copy of the Mystery Excerpt Sampler (Springl 2015) from NetGalley.

This sampler includes extended previews of 8 novels. I really enjoyed being able to preview enough of the book to know whether I'd be interested enough to read the whole thing. Each excerpt starts with a full-page book cover, and the publication date can be found in the table of contents.

I was only familiar with two of the title for this sampler: I let you go, and (of course) The Travelers. I am looking forward to discovering the other ones!

I appreciate the opportunity to read excerpts from popular, cutting edge authors to allow me to familiarize myself with them and their work in a short period of time.

This was an interesting sampler that I wanted to check out since I do not usually read too many mystery books and wanted to see if there was something for me. But I wasn't really feeling the genre or the books, I may try again another time.

Even though this is from 2016, I enjoyed reading it. I love Flynn Berry, so I was very excited to read an excerpt of a book I hadn't read yet! I like samplers because I can get an idea of a books tone and subject before purchasing.

Oh my, how fun it is to get an early look at such excellent books in the MYSTERY EXCERPT SAMPLER SPRING 2016! I love mysteries and this sampler will help me select my top next reads. Loke Christmas and my birthday rolled into one!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a look at MYSTERY EXCERPT SAMPLER SPRING 2016.

Although we are more than year later, I downloaded and read this as I love Mystery, Thrillers and Suspense and the like and felt that I may find another great book to add to my TBR pile! Another big reason which links in to the last is that I hadn't really heard of some of the Mystery books sampled in this resource.

Penguin Random House are one of my favourite publishers - they always have some fabulous novels from excellent authors. The samples were extremely helpful in determining which to read and which to leave. I hope that there will be some more of these samplers in the future as they give readers an idea which books are worth their time and money.

This is a sampler that contains a collection of excerpts of thrillers for 2016.

The book has samplers for Under the Harrow by by Flynn Berry (Penguin Books, June 2016), Murder on the Quai by by Cara Black (Soho Crime, June 2016), All Things Cease to Appear by by Elizabeth Brundage (Knopf, March 2016), The Quality of Silence by by Rosamund Lupton (Crown, February 2016), I Let You Go by by Clare Mackintosh (Berkley, May 2016), The Travelers by by Chris Pavone (Crown, March 2016), Try Not to Breathe by by Holly Seddon (Ballantine Books, February 2016), and The Crow Girl by by Erik Axl Sund (Knopf, June 2016).

The samples will give you a feel of the story and the author's style. I particularly enjoyed the excerpt for The Travelers by by Chris Pavone.

Again, an absolute corker of choices for books to read. Have read The Quality of Silence and All Things Cease to Appear, both brilliant reads which I devoured. Fantastic that us readers are given these insights into books. Many thanks.