Hello, mystery fans! I’ve been ping-ponging from catching up on movies, reading all the things (add The Dead Cat Tail Assassins to my best of 2024 list!), and listening to podcasts. In the latter category, here are some great new ones if anyone else needs some podcasts: Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice; ArchPenemies; What Now? with Trevor Noah; and Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Are you looking for the perfect gift for that bookish special someone in your life this holiday season? Tailored Book Recommendations is here to help! Here at TBR, we pair our customers with a professional book nerd (aka bibliologist) who just gets them. They fill out a survey and then sit back and relax as we pick books just for them. We’ve got three levels — recs-only, paperback, and hardcover — and you can gift a full year or one time, so there are options for every budget! Get all the details at mybtro.com/gift.
Bookish Goods
Ghost Pride Parade Bookmark by MilkyTomato
I really enjoyed a bunch of the illustrations in this shop and settled on this bookmark with adorable ghosts, of course. ($7)
New Releases
Coconut Drop Dead (Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries #3) by Olivia Matthews
For fans of foodie cozy mysteries!
Lyndsay Murray is really excited that her Spice Isle Bakery is a vendor in this year’s Caribbean American Heritage Festival. It should be great for business and full of delicious food, fun, and dancing! And it is until the lead singer of a reggae band dies and the police determine it to be an accident. Case closed? Not so fast: Lyndsay’s cousin knew the singer and is not convinced the police got it right, so Lyndsay is brought in for proper sleuthing!
If you want to start at the delicious beginning, pick up Against the Currant.
The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
For fans of historical and gothic mysteries!
Ruby Vaughn — an American heiress expat in Devon, England, working as a bookseller at the end of WWI — is sent to a Cornish village with rare books for a folk healer. There, she connects with an old, now estranged friend: Tamsyn is happy to see Ruby again, miserable in her marriage, but things take a deadly turn — it’s a mystery! — when Edward, Tamsyn’s husband, is found murdered. The town believes it’s based on a curse, and Ruby decides to start poking around, because she’s going to prove the murder was committed by a human!
Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!
Riot Recommendations
I’ve been watching the newest season of Slow Horses (Apple TV+), so I have spies on the brain — hence more spy books! One is fiction, and one is nonfiction.
The Spy Coast (The Martini Club #1) by Tess Gerritsen
For fans of spy thrillers, teams of spies, and plots around the world!
Maggie Bird was forced into retirement from the CIA because of a tragic case. While living, hopefully in anonymity, in a seaside village in Maine, she finds the past coming for her: there’s a dead body in her driveway, and someone shoots at her! So she calls in her fellow retired ex-CIA operatives to help.
Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis
For fans of narrative nonfiction and biographies!
Odette Sansom pretty much became a spy in WWII because when the SOE was trying to recruit her, she decided to take the test to prove she wouldn’t pass. Clearly, she passed. The book takes you into her training, her mission, and her capture. It’s a great read about a woman who immediately got the nickname Angry Gazelle while working as a courier because she was delightfully stubborn.
If you audiobook, Kate Reading does a fantastic narration.
(TW suicide/ torture/ concentration camps)
News and Roundups
Discover the World: AudioFile’s Best Mystery Audiobooks of 202
How Christmas Murder Mysteries Became a UK Holiday Tradition
Fed up with that Hallmark good cheer? Escape with a classic mystery.
Books Save Lives Act Introduced To US Congress
Book Bans Encourage More Book Bans: New PEN Report
Best Movies Based on John le Carré Novels, Ranked
Cover reveal for Sarah Pearse’s next thriller: The Wilds
8 Awesome Book Recs For Totally Killer ’80s Slasher Film Fans
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2023 releases and upcoming 2024 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 Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy — you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
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