Author: Jamie Canaves

Hi mystery fans! We’ve got a special edition of Unusual Suspects so we can gather around and blow out 159 candles for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday. Over on Book Riot, we’ve dedicated the day to Sherlock, Doyle, and mysteries (*throws confetti) with excellent posts from Sherlock Holmes Escape Rooms to Spiritualism and Fairies, and you’re gonna want to check them all out here.

---

sponsored by The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

The most inventive debut of 2018, this clever, mind-bending murder mystery will leave readers guessing until the very last page.

One of Stylist Magazine’s 20 Must-Read Books of 2018.
One of Harper’s Bazaar’s 10 Must-Read Books of 2018.
One of Marie Claire, Australia’s 10 Books You Absolutely Have to Read in 2018

 

At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed. Again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden’s only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder. However nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

---

I didn’t actually read Doyle’s work until my 30s, when I found my mom’s copy of A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes from 1955. I did what I always do when I randomly come across a book: I stopped what I was doing and read the first page. Before I knew it, I’d read A Study in Scarlet and understood how these two characters are still beloved.

If you’ve never read Doyle’s work, you can download almost all of his novels and short stories in different formats for free here: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Canon

If you’re an audiobook fan, LibriVox (also free) has a bunch of selections here. And my personal favorite is the entire collection narrated by Stephen Fry, who also has a little introduction before each piece: Sherlock Holmes. It’s perfect if you’ve always wanted to reread the works.

My favorite reimagining out of all of the reimaginings that I’ve read goes to Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series. It’s delightful, kickass, brilliant, and equally excellent in print and in audiobook. It starts with A Study in Scarlet Women and I hope the series goes on for-EV-er.

 

 

Another series I love that nods at Sherlock Holmes is Joe Ide’s IQ series. It’s a modern PI in East Long Beach who uses his intelligence and deduction skills to take on cases. He also has a somewhat sidekick named Dodson–which sure does seem to rhyme with Watson.

 

And I’m looking forward to reading the upcoming Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox (June 26, Random House). It tells the true story of when Doyle, already known for his Sherlock writing, used his own deduction skills to work on a case of a wrongly convicted man.

Well, that’s it for me today so now back to our regularly scheduled programing. Happy deducing!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! We have made it to the weekend and if you don’t work weekends I hope you have nice plans. I am hoping for one day–just one–of no rain so I can finally dip a toe in the pool while playing the don’t-drop-the-book-in-the-water game.

---

Sponsored by The Crossing by Jason Mott, new from Park Row Books.

Twins Virginia and Tommy Matthews have been on their own since they were orphaned at the age of five. Twelve years later, the world begins to collapse around them as a deadly contagion steadily wipes out entire populations and a devastating world war rages on. To avoid the draft, they set out in search of a new beginning. Armed with only a pistol and their fierce will to survive, the twins must navigate the dangers and wonders of this changed world as they try to outrun the demons of their past.

---

From Book Riot and the Internet

Samantha Irby’s By The Book is probably my favorite one so far. She talks about thrillers and is smart and hilarious (as always): “I was rooting for her to die the entire time.”

In ringing all my bells: On the Annotated podcast Jeff and Rebecca look into the real life eleven day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. And for all the wins the episode is titled The Original Gone Girl. <– (still laughing)

Now if you want to fall down a Christie disappearance rabbit hole: Drunk History did a Drunk Mystery episode where they also looked into Agatha Christie’s disappearance. AND of course there is the recent biography Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson.

25 Short Thrillers and Mysteries You Can’t Even Pretend You Don’t Have Time to Read

In this episode of Get Booked Amanda and Jenn answer listeners questions with book recs (like they always do) and there are quite a few mystery/thrillers. AND Rincey and Katie talk fun mysteries, recent news/releases, and what they’re reading on Read or Dead.

10 Murder Mystery Comics!

AWESOME GIVEAWAYS: You can win 1 of 10 copies of The Fact of a Body! (Fantastic true crime memoir–all the trigger warnings– review here) AND you can win FIVE Megan Abbott novels–and you want to because she’s fantastic!

Adaptations and News

Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn adaptation starring Amy Adams) has an official HBO premier date: July 8th, 9 p.m.

There’s an update to Sisters in Crime’s Eleanor Taylor Bland Award: “They have opened the award up to writers of color who have either self-published or traditionally published one or two books.” More info here.

New Nancy Drew coming our way and it’s feminist, has multiple characters of color, and gay characters–including George. Nancy Drew #1 will be out in June and is created by Kelly Thompson and Jenn St-Onge–and of course it’s already on my pull list. (If you’ve never dived into reading comics because you don’t even know where to begin with buying them here’s a great guide.)

Elementary has been renewed for a 7th season and I am so glad it didn’t end up in the network’s graveyard–which is super full this year! (If you’re a fan of procedurals I can’t recommend this one enough! New episodes are currently playing on CBS and you can binge the previous 5 seasons on Hulu.)

Dan Chaon’s Ill Will (Lit mystery– review) and Samantha Schweblin’s Fever Dream (Psychological suspense– review) are both nominees for The 2017 Shirley Jackson Awards.

And Bouchercon announced the nominees for the Anthony Awards and there are tons of great books on this list: The Last Place You Look (Review); Bluebird, Bluebird (Review); She Rides Shotgun (Review); The Dry (Review)–speaking of The Dry, it also won best crime and thriller for the British Book Awards.

In USA Network’s The Sinner season 2 news: Carrie Coon has been cast to play Vera a mysterious woman. The first season was an eight episode adaptation of Petra Hammesfahr’s novel and the network decided to continue with new material so it will now work as an anthology. I loved Coon in FX’s Fargo season 3 so this just became a must-watch for me.

True Crime

(From late last year) How One Woman’s Digital Life Was Weaponized Against Her: “But the most frustrating thing was how hard it all was to explain or prove. Courtney was beginning to feel trapped in a world of anonymous abuse. She didn’t know if she would be able to convince anyone that what she believed to be happening was real.” This story is terrifying, has ridiculous amounts of gaslighting, and had it been a novel readers would have abandoned it for being too much.

See a clip from What Haunts Us, a true crime documentary (on Starz and currently in limited theatrical release) that investigates a high school senior class that had multiple graduates commit suicide.

Kindle Deals

Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls is $2.99

Ben H. Winter’s The Last Policeman Trilogy (dystopian mystery) is $5.97 for ALL three books–OR $1.99 each: The Last Policeman; Countdown City; World of Trouble.

 

 

Some of The Galleys I Got My Hands on This Week:

Amber Tamblyn’s Any Man which is about a woman who preys on men and is written in a blend of prose and poetry.

Kate Morton has an upcoming historical fiction mystery (The Clockmaker’s Daughter) and I remember enjoying a few of her previous books for the atmosphere and mysteries so looking forward to this.

Kara Thomas’ The Cheerleaders sounds like it can be the awesome summer thriller.

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura, Kalau Almony (Translator) because I never say not to a Japanese crime novel.

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! I recently read a delightful memoir about a secretary who worked for MI5 in her late teens and I decided to recommend some true crime books for readers who shy away from the nonfiction crime section because of too much violence.

---

Sponsored by Poisoned Pen Press

In the second book in the Somebody’s Bound to Wind Up Dead Mystery series, Allie and Tom now reside in a rented nine-thousand-square-foot lakeside mansion and have started the T&A Detective Agency to solve “mysteries of the heart” by using Tom’s lottery winnings. Their first case is funny with lots of sparkle and includes a sinister, twisty plot. Fans of romantic, comic mysteries will be delighted.

---

Delightful Spy Memoir!

Mi5 and Me: A Coronet Among the Spooks by Charlotte Bingham: Most spy novels/films are dark, and at the very least, thriller-ish. This memoir is not that, in a completely surprising and delightful way. Charlotte Bingham was summoned into her father’s office when she was 18 and he revealed to her that he worked for MI5 as a spy. That was the first bomb he dropped. The second being that he was forcing her to work for MI5. Since this happened in England in the 1950s and Bingham was not 21 yetm she was forced to do as her parents said. Unlike me–who would have been thrilled to discover this news–Bingham became quite amusingly dramatic and tried to literally catch pneumonia to get out of the job. Her health remained in tact, and the book follows as she works for MI5, lives in a house regularly visited by spies, and wishes that communism would just stop so there would be no need for her father’s job and he could just be a normal wealthy father like her friend’s dads. This honestly read like a British comedy series to me and I adored every second of it–and it really should be turned into a series.

More Spying, But This Time: “Welp, That Didn’t Work Out!”

The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI’s Hunt for America’s Stolen Secrets by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee: This is a true story about a man who’d spent his life feeling like he had to prove his intelligence and ends up coming up with an ill-advised plan as a response to feeling suffocated by his life. I was really interested in how the book shows what the FBI process really is when they suspect a traitor amongst them–spoiler: not what TV/film shows. And no, no one jumped from one roof building to another to get away. I also loved the puzzle solving and the bits about the history of codes.

Especially For Bibliophiles!

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett: This was super interesting for me in the details about rare books and the people Bartlett got to know, like a bookstore owner obsessed with stopping book thieves. The main thief in question is John Charles Gilkey, who it seems steals rare books because of his love of books–I suspect he just feels entitled to the things he wants more than anything. The “detective” is really a bookstore owner, Ken Sanders, who takes it upon himself to play detective and catch book thieves–if you’ve ever worked retail you know how frustrating it is to deal with merchandise loss. Gilkey and Sanders make for a great cat-and-mouse narrative–that really happened.

Recent Releases

A Howl of Wolves (Sam Clair, #4) by Judith Flanders (Currently reading: A witty, murder mystery starring an amateur sleuth dating a Scotland Yard detective.)

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll (Author of Luckiest Girl Alive –listen to excerpts from the audiobook here)

Pairing a Deception (A Sommelier Mystery #3) by Nadine Nettmann (Cozy mystery)

Odd Numbers (Hanne Wilhelmsen #9) by Anne Holt, Anne Bruce (Translator) (Paperback) (Great, dark Norwegian procedural series.)

Mister Memory by Marcus Sedgwick (Paperback) (Historical fiction mystery)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! I finished reading a thriller where the MC knew someone was in her home because the book she was reading had been moved and then I reached for the remote and it wasn’t where I left it, so of course I freaked and then spent two days reading romance novels because I am not a ridiculous person at all. How’d your week go?

---

Sponsored by Everything that Follows by Meg Little Reilly

Three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? For fans of Megan Abbott and Chris Bohjalian comes a novel of moral complexity about friends who must choose between self-preservation and doing the right thing in the wake of a fatal boating accident. Set in the moody off-season of Martha’s Vineyard, Everything That Follows is a plunge into the dark waters of secrets and flexible morals. The truth becomes whatever we say it is…

---

From Book Riot and the Internet

Moriarty Was an Afterthought “In real life, it came from Doyle’s desire to be rid of Sherlock Holmes, a character he’d grown tired of writing.”

On Hey YA Kelly and Eric talk about YA thrillers, what classifies a thriller, and give book recs.

The Perfect Crimes: Why Thrillers Are Leaving Other Books for Dead

The Wild True Stories Behind Some of the Most Epic Crime Movies Ever

Read an excerpt from the North Korea kidnapping tale Star of the North

11 Thrilling Facts About Dial M for Murder

Adaptations and News

In action/spy/thriller news–and muscly men: Dwayne Johnson has cast John Cena in his upcoming adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Directive. There’s a kidnapping, a U.S. covert agency, and a marked-for-death-running-for-his-life plot so pass the popcorn I’m in.

The CIA Cleared Her Book Twice. Then It Took It Back. Why? It’s a Secret. A former counterterror analyst—who’s written about Libya since leaving—plans to sue the CIA after it reversed itself to find her ‘entire manuscript reveals classified information.’

Apple picked up the series adaptation of Are You Sleeping (review) from Reese Witherspoon’s production company starring Octavia Spencer. I’m still not sure how viewing Apple series will work (membership? buy digitally?) BUT this is high on my must-watch list because the book’s examination of true crime podcasts is great for adaptation, Spencer is amazing, and so is Witherspoon.

If your life needed more Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes: Happy day, a third film in the franchise will be releasing in 2020. Jude Law will also be back as Watson, but a director has not yet been announced.

Okay, not an adaptation but I HAVE to mention that Jessica Chastain has put together an awesome all-woman cast for an international spy thriller film (Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, and Fan Bingbing)! Think Mission Impossible/Bourne but women–and yes, I very much want this film buuuuuut I also very much, pretty please, want a book series! *Stares at publishing

True Crime

15 True Crime Books to Read Once Your Podcast Queue Is Empty

This Is Your Brain On True Crime Stories: There may be psychological reasons these accounts are so compelling.

You can now stream the Duplass brothers four-part docuseries about the 2003 “pizza bomber heist” in Pennsylvania: Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist.  (Trailer)

Watch Now

Dark Crimes (based on a 2008 The New Yorker article True Crimes) is about a detective who becomes suspicious of an author when his novel hits too close to an unsolved case. It stars Jim Carrey and is now in theaters. (Trailer)

 

 

Kindle Deals

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura is $2.99

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis is $1.99

Night Film by Marisha Pessl is $1.99

 

 

Bit of My Week In Reading

The break from murder romances: Dating You/ Hating You and Truth or Beard. AND then I jumped right back into murder and mystery and am currently reading: The Boss (Crime/romance: Think Robin Hood if he were a group of sex workers stealing from crappy guys to fund a woman’s clinic); Purrder She Wrote (Cozy: That pun title spoke to me!); A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising (“Part social-political satire, part international mystery”: Vampires!)

I finished reading: Still Lives by Maria Hummel (A good mystery that uses art to speak about violence towards women.); The Lonely Witness by William Boyle (A good character driven crime novel I inhaled.)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hi mystery fans! Lately I’ve been craving fun mystery series. While I’m a huge fan of super dark and twisted–which publishing keeps me filled on–I’ve found that funny, laugh-out-loud, mysteries don’t come along often, at least for me. It’s definitely something I would like more of so I thought I’d share three series I’ve found myself enjoying and laughing along to. And I’d love to hear your favorite fun/funny mysteries!

---

Flatiron Books and The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, THE FACT OF A BODY is a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed — but about how we grapple with our own personal histories.

---

Ridiculous Characters And Physical Comedy = Constant Laughs!

An Otter Lake Mystery series by Auralee Wallace: Every character in this series is ridiculous, there is physical comedy, hilarious conversations, and everything is constantly going wrong (in a humorous way). The series follows Erica Bloom, who doesn’t want to return to her hometown of Otter Lake but keeps finding herself in the town where her crush is the town sheriff and her hippie mom lives/runs a retreat. It’s also where her best friend is, and he wants to investigate all the murders–which of course keep happening every time Bloom returns home. Like a delicious candy treat, I inhaled this series of 5 books. It starts with Skinny Dipping With Murder and just published Down the Aisle with Murder. There’s even a marooned-on-an-island-with-a-murderer for fans of Clue: Snowed in with Murder.

Witty Banter For The Win!

Trouble series by Stephanie Tromly: This series of three books is the closest I’ve found to fulfilling my need for more Veronica Mars. And by that I mean the Trouble series has really quick and witty dialogue, a romance for #TeamLogan/Veronica, and the character Digby matches Logan in annoyance (but I can’t not love him). Also, it has a mystery plot that runs through the entire series–Digby investigating his sister’s disappearance– while also having a separate main mystery in each book which works like the seasons/series did. The laughs are in the witty banter between the characters–mostly Zoe and Digby–which feels smart, and fresh, and of course funny. It’s also a series that works equally great in print and in audiobook and with only three books it’s a quick, satisfying binge: Trouble is a Friend of Mine; Trouble Makes a Comeback; Trouble Never Sleeps.

Long Fun Binge!

Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich: While this series isn’t cozy and does deal with dark matter– the first in the series definitely has trigger warnings for rape/stalking–the main character Stephanie Plum is sarcastic, smart-mouthed, and fast with a joke. She has an opinion about everything and throws herself head first at problems–which is how she became a bounty hunter in the first place–and brings her quick wit into all the situations she gets herself into. This one is a loooooong binge, with 24 books. It starts with One for the Money and the latest release is Hardcore Twenty-Four. On the plus side, you won’t have trouble keeping track of where you are in the series since the book number is always in the title.

Recent Releases

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (Paperback) (All the trigger warnings) (Fantastic true crime memoir– Review)

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall (TBR: psychological thriller told from male stalker pov.)

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (Wicca teen brings back dead teens to solve their murder–I am loving this so far but had to pause to get a print copy to read because my eyes went on strike from reading an egalley on my laptop.)

Blackout (Pete Fernandez Mystery #4) by Alex Segura (Currently reading: Fernandez ends up on a case from his high school days when a classmate disappeared, leaving her dead ex-boyfriend behind and no other clues.) (A Little Q&A: Alex Segura)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! We survived the end of April and the beginning of May so I’ve written us all a note and we can go sit in our book forts and read for a while.

From Book Riot and the Internet

Liberty gives some true crime recs on All The Backlist. If you normally don’t have time for podcasts this one is perfect for you since it’s usually about 10 minutes.

---

Sponsored by Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus, new from Hanover Square Press.

For crooked politicians and white-collar criminals looking to escape, there’s Exit Strategy. With just one call, Exit Strategy helps these wealthy but wanted types disappear completely. They can fake your death, give you a new name and face, and launder whatever ill-gotten funds you may need to establish a new life anywhere in the world. When Jordan Parrish, the brilliant founder of a medical technology start-up, made the call, he thought he had no other way out. But after his exit, he began to wonder; was he just a victim of bad luck or was someone working against him?

---

Dames Are the New Dicks (Why yes, I did laugh for a solid minute at that headline.)

The CIA Writes Movie Reviews Complaining About How It’s Portrayed

You can win a shelf of Megan Abbott books!

Enter to win 15 of this years mystery and thriller releases–there’s only a few days left and who doesn’t want to win fifteen books?!

Adaptations and News

The Mystery Writers of America announced the Winners of the 2018 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Two of my favorite, favorite, favorite crime novels from last year won: Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Review) won “best novel” and She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper (Review) won “best first novel by an American author.” You can see all the winners here. And Rincey and Katie talked about the nominees they’d read, along with mystery news (the capturing of the suspected Golden State Killer) and what they’re reading on Read or Dead.

And then two days later in Bethesda, MD Malice Domestic announced the Agatha Christie Award winners. Kellye Garrett won “best first novel” for Hollywood Homicide (Review)! You can check out the other 5 winners here.

Alex Segura’s Pete Fernandez series is getting adapted: “I can confirm that the books have been optioned by television writers Eduardo Javier Canto and Ryan Maldonado (Chicago PD, Code Black).”  A crime series following a Miami PI rings many of my bells, I am very excited for this. (You can read the beginning of Blackout, the 4th in the series, on EW.)

The Cormoran Strikes Cinemax trailer is here. The British miniseries, adapted from Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s) The Cuckoo’s Calling, will premiere on Cinemax June 1st.

The legal drama Just Mercy, adapted from social justice activist Bryan Stevenson’s memoir, starring Michael B. Jordan has been given its release date: January 1, 2020.

True Crime

French Museum Discovers More Than Half Its Collection Is Forged “Forcada, the art historian who first sounded the alarm, noticed buildings that appear in some of the paintings didn’t actually exist in Terrus’ time.”

Paste Magazine: The Best True Crime Documentaries on Netflix

A serial killer/rapist who had gone unknown for 40 years was caught by a genealogy site’s DNA.

University Paid Researcher $50,000 Believing He Was Working From Home. He Was Dead (Murdered, actually.)

Watch Now

The fantastic pairing of Jonny Lee Miller (Sherlock) and Lucy Lui (Watson) is back!!!!!! You can catch new episodes of Elementary on CBS Mondays at 10/9c and you can binge the show’s 5 seasons on Hulu.

And not an adaptation but if you’re a fan of shows like Castle–procedurals that are ridiculous, fun, and super enjoyable–check out the new show Deception on ABC. It’s an illusionist working with the FBI and it’s completely unbelievable but tons of fun and addicting to watch.

Kindle Deals

The Last Day of Emily Lindsey by Nic Joseph is $2.51 (Controversial blogger found covered in blood and holding a knife– Full review)

The Verdict by Nick Stone is $1.99 (A legal thriller- Liberty’s review)

Ten Dead Comedians by Fred Van Lente is $2.99 (Think And Then There Were None but with comedians– Full review)

Galleys That Recently Landed on My Doorstep

Our House by Louise Candlish

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Lies by T.M. Logan

An Act of Villainy by Ashley Weaver

Hitting the Books (A Library Lover’s Mystery) by Jenn McKinlay

Dressed for Death in Burgundy (A French Village Mystery) by Susan C. Shea

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! You can download a free audiobook of A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro until 5/3 courtesy of AudioFile’s Sync program. (And make sure you go back every week because they have fantastic books coming up like Solo, Being Jazz, When Dimple Met Rishi.)

---

Sponsored by White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.”

Then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. He and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox, but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence . . . or die trying.

---

Locked-Room Mystery With A Whydunnit (TW: rape/ suicide)

Malice by Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator): Kunihiko Hidaka, an author, is found murdered inside his locked office inside his locked home. While there is suspicion on three characters–the wife, the friend, the neighbor–a confession comes rather quickly in the novel. However, the why plays out as a bit of cat and mouse between the Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga and the murderer, making this a very interesting novel, with a very interesting structure. Each part revealing more and more… I’m also always a sucker for main characters that are authors and it was interesting to read the little bits about characters/society’s views on writing/publishing in Japan.

Series With an Evolving PI I Love

What You Want To See (Roxane Weary #2) by Kristen Lepionka: This is one of those PI series where I immediately became attached to the main character and I am really enjoying watching her grow (along with solve mysteries). Roxane Weary was a hot mess in the first book, (The Last Place You Look) dealing with her father’s death, her family, a toxic relationship with an ex-girlfriend and sleeping with a guy that was just a bad idea, and pissing off cops left and right. Now Weary is back with a new case–still stubborn and determined when it comes to solving it, but she’s also working on her relationships and finding ways to struggle less in a way that is both very real and very hopeful amongst all the darkness in the world. A simple case of “is my fiancée cheating on me” turns very complicated quickly, and Weary chooses once again to listen to her intuition over all the advice of police, family, and friends. I would 100% hire Weary, because at the end of the day I know she’d at the very least always be in my corner. (I recommend reading the previous book to watch Weary’s growth–and it’s a great mystery/thriller–but you can jump into the series here without feeling like you’re lost.)

Coming of Age Memoir + True Crime (TW: child predator/ stalking/ suicide/ cutting)

You All Grow Up and Leave Me by Piper Weiss: Memoir/true crime has become a favorite read for me. When done well it really allows for an exploration of the impact of crimes with an emotional component that usually focuses more on the victims. In this case, this is very much a memoir about a woman coming to terms with her teen years when she was a student of a fun, larger-than life tennis instructor who turned out to be a predator. If you don’t actually know the crime, or about Gary Wilensky, you don’t learn about what happened until the end of the book. Instead we see how easily a predator was able to teach the children of New York’s elite. We watch now realizing that all the fun games, and his ability to let the girls feel not judged and like adults in his presence, was not because he was cool. Weiss is a great writer–I highlighted so many sentences about being a teen girl, the kind I usually find in Megan Abbott’s work–that really brings to life a very specific time when female tennis players were becoming stars and shows the very complicated emotions, and damage predators leave behind.

Recent Releases:

Down the Aisle with Murder (An Otter Lake Mystery #5) by Auralee Wallace (Another great read in this hilarious series I adore.)

The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central by Christine Pelisek (Paperback) (TW: rape) (Good true crime about a serial rapist that focused and gave voice to the victims that usually aren’t heard.)

Murder on Union Square (Gaslight Mystery #21) by Victoria Thompson (TBR: Historical fiction mystery.)

Saving Sin City: William Travers Jerome, Stanford White, and the Original Crime of the Century by Mary Cummings (TBR: True crime about the murder of an architect in 1906.)

Dressed for Death in Burgundy (French Village Mysteries #2) by Susan C. Shea (TBR: Cozy mystery set in France.)

Isabella’s Painting by Ellen Butler (TBR: Amateur sleuth catches father-in-law with what she discovers may be a stolen painting–I saw someone say this was like a Hallmark mystery movie and I was like yes, please.)

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy (Currently reading: During a Mommy Group night out one of the women’s baby disappears from his crib.)

YOU CAN WIN A SHELF OF MEGAN ABBOTT’S BOOKS! I’d be totally jealous if I didn’t already own them. AND remember Book Riot is giving away 15 awesome mysteries and thrillers from this year!!!!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

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

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.