
The Killer Question
A Novel
Atria Books · Print & ebook · September 23, 2025
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall by The New York Times, LitHub, BookBub, Goodreads, and many more!
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- Who it’s for
- A neatly tangled mystery with conversation bait and a polished, watch-the-pieces-shift feel.
- Genres
- Cozy Mysteries, Suspense, Amateur Sleuths
- Published
- Atria Books, September 23, 2025
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For younger readers: Death at Morning House, They're Watching You, The One That Got Away With Murder
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Start with this bookAbout this book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall by The New York Times, LitHub, BookBub, Goodreads, and many more! Janice Hallett, “the new queen of crime” (Electric Literature), returns with a fresh, edge-of-your-seat mystery that takes place at a pub’s weekly trivia night, revealed through quiz categories, phone messages, and email correspondence.
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Sue and Mal Eastwood run an isolated rural pub called The Case is Altered where a weekly trivia game has revived its flagging fortunes—that is, until a body is found in the nearby river. Soon after, a mysterious new team arrives and shakes up the diverse field of regulars by scoring top marks in every round...every week. Meanwhile, Sue and Mal have a secret of their own. Before arriving here, they were caught up in a secret police operation which meant they had to leave town—and whatever happened back then seems to have finally caught up with them. Five years later, the pub lies derelict, and their nephew Dominic is determined to make a documentary about their story. What happened at this unassuming pub? And can a single question really kill?
A Neat Puzzle
A neatly tangled mystery with conversation bait and a polished, watch-the-pieces-shift feel.
Come here for
- book-club catnip
- serious-mannered sleuthing
Expect
- cozy-crime pacing
- plenty to argue over
Where it sits
| Cozy Mysteries | 90% |
|---|---|
| Suspense | 26% |
| Amateur Sleuths | 14% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Amateur Sleuths
- Suspense
- Crime Fiction
- Authors
- Janice Hallett
- Publisher
- Atria Books
- Published
- September 23, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Amateur Sleuths