4 of the Most Suspenseful Celia Fremlin Books You’ll Ever Read (Giveaway)

This mystery books for adults article is brought to you by Dover Publications to celebrate the reprinting of Celia Fremlin’s line of mysteries! All opinions are our own.
Ready to get lost in a few good mystery books for adults? Celia Fremlin is your new best friend when it comes to mysteries that you can’t put down. Read on for a review of The Trouble Makers, plus learn more about her other books on Dover Mystery Classics!
Ready to get lost in a good mystery book? You’re going to love Celia Fremlin! Hailed as the British version of Patricia Highsmith, Fremlin is your new best friend when it comes to mysteries that you can’t put down. Read on for a review of The Trouble Makers, plus learn more about her other books on Dover Mystery Classics!

4 Suspenseful Celia Fremlin Mystery Books for Adults

Who is Celia Fremlin

First, let’s talk about the author a bit! Celia Fremlin is amazing. I honestly had never heard of her until Dover brought her to our shores. I was expecting something along the lines of a light mystery, not exactly a cozy, but also not really too deep. While her books are relatively quick weekend reads, they pack a lot of depth between the covers. Since they were written in the 1960s, you’ll not only be entertained by a stellar mystery, but you’ll also get a peek at what life was life for women in England during that time.

Mystery 1: The Trouble Makers Book Review

Ready to get lost in a few good mystery books for adults? Celia Fremlin is your new best friend when it comes to mysteries that you can’t put down. Read on for a review of The Trouble Makers, plus learn more about her other books on Dover Mystery Classics!
The story takes place in England, during the early 60s, a time period where women did all of the chores with little help. While America was painting pictures of happy housewives ironing their husband’s shirts and cooking 12-course meals, Celia Fremlin paints a slightly more realistic- and bleaker- picture.

Mary Prescott is a woman with a less than stellar husband. He’s cheap and critical. Put lightly, he makes all the other husbands that the wives complain about in her neighbor seem like Prince Charming. He’s so bad that the other women in her group feel sorry for her. Considering their own husbands aren’t exactly winning awards for “spouse of the year,” that’s saying something!

During one of the women’s gossip sessions (their only source of entertainment), Mary shares her concerns about a shadowy man in a raincoat stalking around the neighborhood. Her concerns turn to an obsession as the tension in the story builds. Is the mystery man behind the attacks in the neighborhood (including an attack on Mr. Prescott)? Is he just a scapegoat? And just what is Auntie Peg up to? You have to read the story to find out!

I don’t want to give too much away because this is a story where you want the atmosphere to build up naturally, rather than going into it knowing the facts. I will tell you one thing, though: you definitely want to read up to the last lines of the book. Freaky!

The whole story kind of reminded me of those old 1960s psychological thriller movies. It’s all in the atmosphere, I think. Times were simpler back then, and mysteries focused more on the chills than the thrills. You have to remember that this was a time before we were desensitized to horror. Movies and books weren’t constantly trying to one-up each other with gore and scarier jump scenes. “A dark and stormy night” was still a scary setting and not a cliché. It’s a nice change of pace to read a mystery that keeps me guessing without giving me nightmares.

Since you will love The Trouble Makers so much, you’ll definitely want to pick up Celia Fremlin’s other books from Dover!

Ready to get lost in a few good mystery books for adults? Celia Fremlin is your new best friend when it comes to mysteries that you can’t put down. Read on for a review of The Trouble Makers, plus learn more about her other books on Dover Mystery Classics!

Mystery Book 2:  The Jealous One

Rosamund and Geoffrey’s new neighbor, Lindy, is smart, good-looking, friendly, and delightful in every way. The problem is Geoffrey’s a little too delighted with her, and his wife is not happy about it. While Rosamund is in a feverish state from a bout of the flu, she dreams of murdering Lindy — and upon waking is horrified to discover that she has inexplicably disappeared. What could possibly have happened? Was it more than just a terrible nightmare? Head over to Pretty Opinionated for a complete review of The Jealous One!

Mystery Book 3: The Hours Before Dawn

In this Edgar Award–winning thriller, a young housewife with two lively daughters and an endlessly crying baby battles domestic chaos as well as growing suspicions of the household’s new lodger. Are Louise’s fears the product of sleep deprivation, as her unsympathetic husband suggests, or is there really something sinister about the respectable-seeming schoolmistress?

After reading The Trouble Makers, I did a little more research on Fremlin. While The Hours Before Dawn wasn’t her first book (that would be War Factory, a totally different type of book), many consider it to be the beginning of Fremlin’s mystery career.

Mystery book 4: Uncle Paul

Meg and Isabel were just girls when “Uncle Paul” married their older half-sister, Mildred, and he soon vanished from their lives upon his exposure as a bigamist and a murderer. Fifteen years later, Uncle Paul is about to be released from prison, and all three sisters are seized with dread at the prospect of his return. Their family holiday at the seaside village where Mildred and Uncle Paul once honeymooned becomes the setting for a tense drama of suspicion, betrayal, and revenge.

SAVE 25% OFF DOVER MYSTERIES

All four books are currently available on Dover Publications. Right now, you can save 25% off Dover Mysteries and Thrillers with coupon code WLBL! Coupon expires April 30, 2018.

GIVEAWAY

Enter below for a chance to win all four of the Celia Fremlin books! Giveaway is open to US residents and ends on April 5th!

Dover Mystery Books (OFW)

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE BOOKS

 

Have you read Celia Fremlin’s books?  Which one these mystery books for adults is your favorite?

30 thoughts on “4 of the Most Suspenseful Celia Fremlin Books You’ll Ever Read (Giveaway)”

  1. The first book Mystery 1: The Trouble Makers sounds very good, like I would be on the edge of my seat while reading it. I wish I had more time during my weekends to read. I will keep all of these in ming, in fact, I pinned this post for later.

  2. My mom loves suspense stories. Happy to add this to my list of considerations for a bi basket I am putting together for her.

  3. I love suspense and mystery novels and I’ve been looking for new ones to read these days. I think these are great recommendations and it’s nice that they’re all from one author.

  4. I am an avid reader but haven’t heard of Celia Fremline before. I will look her up and check The Hours Before Dawn, it sounds very interesting from your review!

  5. Jonalyn Macandili-Mendoza

    Wow, this is my first time to learn about the author and the books. I love reading and I am glad I have learned about new books to try on. Probably adding this to my next to read books.

  6. Those are my kind of books! Packed with suspense and mysteries it’s tough not to like these. InI definitely going to check these out.

  7. I just finish the book I was reading for the month of March and I would love any of these. Uncle Paul sounds like a great one.

  8. All of these look like really good books. I’m getting ready to go on vacation and getting my Spring vacation reads together. I may just have to add The Hours Before Dawn to my reading list. Looks interesting.

  9. I love to read and keep promising myself I’ll give myself more time to do it this year. I am not familiar with this author but do enjoy some mysteries.

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