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Unusual Suspects

True Crime Books With Historic Cases

Hi mystery fans! Let’s look at some new releases, backlist true crime, and a little bit of news and roundups.

an enamel pin of a hedgehog sitting on a book reading a book with the spine saying "Just one more page"

Hedgehog Book Pin by The Clever Cove

That hedgehog is clearly reading a mystery. ($12)

New Releases

cover image for The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding

The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding by Lydia Kang

I’ve really enjoyed all of Lydia Kang‘s novels and am so glad she has a new release. It’s a historical mystery set in 1942 Brooklyn, and follows brother and sister Maggie and Will Scripps. They find a mysterious woman hiding beneath their back stairs but with the war raging in Europe, the first atomic bomb being created, and the mystery woman’s obsession with poisons, should Maggie and Will fear this woman?

cover image for More Than You'll Ever Know

More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

I inhaled this audiobook, which has an excellent narration by Inés del Castillo and Yareli Arizmendi. In present day, Cassie Bowman has a true crime blog but wants to finally stop struggling to pay the bills. She decides to write a true crime book on a case from the ’80s by interviewing the woman at the center: Lore Rivera was married in Laredo, Texas to one man and in Mexico City to another until one husband was arrested for murdering the other.

This book tackles a lot (the ethics of true crime journalism, the effects of economic crisis, motherhood, marriage, family, one foot in two countries, what we owe others, can we ever really know a person…) while keeping the reader hooked not only in each woman’s life now and then, but also in their tug and pull with each other and their families.

(TW domestic abuse/ maternal mortality / mentions miscarriages, infertility/ ableism/ earthquake that killed many/ alcoholism)

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

This week I have two true crime books with historic cases with the sad reminder that history repeats itself if we allow it to.

cover image for From a Whisper To a Rallying Cry

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo

In Detroit in 1982 Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American was beaten to death by two white Americans. The fight started in a bar and the men then went searching for Chin and killed him outside of a McDonald’s. The court case rightfully enraged the Asian community when the men only received three years of probation and a $3,000 dollar fine. This book goes into the events the night Chin was killed, the court case, the protests, the following federal civil rights trial and the Asian American movement, through interviews, court transcripts, and news.

(TW mentions past suicidal thoughts, not detailed/ xenophobia, racism)

Columbine cover image

Columbine by Dave Cullen

I think the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado on April 20th 1999 remains to this day a horrific moment that most people still have wrong information about. It’s as much about the massacre as it is damning evidence against when the media gets it wrong and how it feels impossible to ever correct the information. And also how a select few in power have allowed this to continue happening in the US unlike comparable countries around the world.

(TW mass shooting/ homophobia/ ableism/ suicide, suicidal thoughts/ PTSD and survival guilt discussed)

News and Roundups

Rian Johnson Reveals ‘Knives Out 2’ Title

Novelist James Patterson says older white men experience ‘another form of racism’

Screen After Reading: Go behind the scenes of book adaptations like Anatomy of a Scandal

Tirzah Price revealed the cover for the third book in the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries: Manslaughter Park

This Summer’s Hottest Mystery Authors Tell (Almost) All

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2022 releases. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

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