Hello fellow mystery fans! Vision for Baltimore was created to bring eye exams and glasses to kids in need because kids who can see, read better and perform better in school. Hopefully programs like this will be created in all needed areas.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land.
Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.
But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.
When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother’s daughter.
Best 2017 Mystery
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke: This is Locke’s best work, which is saying something since she wrote for the hit TV show Empire AND has three great previous novels. This time around, Locke introduces us to a black Texas Ranger who is technically on suspension after an attempt to be a good samaritan backfired on him. That doesn’t stop him, though, from needing to figure out how a black man and white woman were murdered in a small Texas town. It’s the kind of town that holds dearly to its racism and secrets and wants no outside help, especially from a black man. We may be leaving the heat behind for fall weather, but Locke’s amazing writing will have you slicked in sweat as she places you in Texas. A fantastic mystery from beginning to end that unfortunately could not be more timely in its look at race and the justice system in the U.S.
Over on Book Riot: Mya Nunnally put together a list of Books For Fans of How to Get Away With Murder
On the Oxygen Channel website (because they’re all true crime now): New Netflix Doc Tells Amazing True Story Of How ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Saved Innocent Man From Death Penalty (Longshot will be on Netflix on September 30: watch trailer.)
Watch the trailer for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s comic book Mycroft Holmes and The Apocalypse Handbook.
I never got around to watching season two of True Detective but I’m 100% watching season 3 since it’ll be starring Mahershala Ali!
Fall Mystery & Thrillers via Bookish
Watch the trailer for Alias Grace: Netflix’s upcoming mini-series based on Margaret Atwood’s novel about an Irish immigrant in Canada and a stable hand who were convicted of murdering their employers in 1843.
Funny!
March of Crime (The Murder-by-Month Mysteries) by Jess Lourey: Packed with charmingly ridiculous characters, I laughed my way through this small town mystery. Mira James has a few jobs, including being a librarian—she took a serious pay cut in hopes of keeping the library open—and PI. The PI part she’s still working on, since Minnesota mandates that before using a PI license you have to work 6,000 hours of supervised investigation. She’ll probably get through those hours quickly, though, since she seems to have the I-keep-finding-dead-bodies syndrome. This time around, one of the life-size creepy dolls a town resident has been making has a hidden surprise: A very bad surprise of a dead body. Now James, who either loves or hates you, is trying to figure out who committed murder, while working at the library, and taking on a side job as a phone sex operator for those looking for a Minnesota accent—hilarious. If I had to pick a favorite thing about this novel, it would be James’s octogenarian best friend, who is a kiss-my-grits, tells it like it is, lives life to the fullest, thong bikini-wearing lady. All the emoji-heart eyes. (You can jump into the series here, like I did, and not feel lost, but it does give away the ending of the previous book. I’m fine with that because I plan on starting at the beginning of the serious and will have forgotten by the time I get to it.)
Also Out This Week:
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (Millennium #5) by David Lagercrantz, George Goulding (Translator) (The newest in the Lisbeth Salander series which was taken over by Lagercrantz after the creator, Stieg Larsson, passed away.)
Trell by Dick Lehr (YA inspired by a true story of a wrongful conviction)
Dark Chapter by Winnie M Li (TW: rape. Follows the victim and the rapist before, during, and after the assault.)
Lies She Told by Cate Holahan (While on deadline writing a thriller it appears the writer’s life starts to blur with her writing.)
More Kindle Deals!
The Zig Zag Girl
and Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths are each $2.99 (The first two in the Magic Men series)
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré is $1.99
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And if you like to put a pin in things here’s an Unusual Suspects board.
Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime come talk books with me on Twitter and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.