Author: Jamie Canaves

Hello mystery fans! I’ve been watching Smallville for the first time and ever since Lex Luther said, “I’ll take it in the conservatory” (referring to a phone call) I’ve wanted a Smallville/Clue mashup. And I’m curious what you’d love to see get mashedup with Clue–or get a mystery treatment?

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Sponsored by What Are You Afraid Of? by Alexandra Ivy.

In New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Ivy’s gripping thriller spiced with romantic tension and diabolical twists, a true crime writer is targeted by a sinister psycho. She knows all about killers, but will he be the one to teach her how to die? “Ivy deftly charts a course between gruesome suspense and sudden romance as Carmen and Griff race to solve the whodunit before the predator kills again.” – Publishers Weekly

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Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant ‘Surrender-Not’ Banerjee are Back! (TW: suicide)

A Necessary Evil (Sam Wyndham #2) by Abir Mukherjee: I loved A Rising Man (review) and have since been eagerly awaiting more in the series. Being that my only “complaint” of the first in the series was that I would have wanted more Sergeant Banerjee, I am now a fully satisfied reader, as Wyndham uses Benerjee much more as a sidekick this time around. If you’re not familiar with the series, Sam Wyndham was a former Scotland Yard detective who is now working as a Captain in British ruled Calcutta (he’s brought along his opium addiction and PTSD from WWI), and Benerjee is one of the only Indian Sergeants. Traveling from Calcutta to Sambalpore, Wyndham and Banerjee try to solve the murder of a Prince but find it a difficult task due to politics and the whole “they’re not wanted there” thing. A great read for fans of historical fiction, and while the first in the series fit more for cozy mysteries (because of less violence) than this one, if you’re looking for a read where the violence isn’t towards women, here ya go. It also satisfies the itch for good-old-fashioned-detective-work-gets-the-killer mysteries.

Best Crime Thriller is Best!

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper: A fantastic crime thriller that reminded me of how much I loved Natalie Portman in The Professional. Right before being released from prison, Nate is marked by the Aryan Brotherhood to be killed. The problem is it’s not just him they’re taking out, it’s going to be his entire family. To keep his daughter Polly safe, he picks her up and they go on the run even though Polly really doesn’t know her father and isn’t sure she should be with him. At 11 she’s smart, precocious, feels different from other kids, and carries a teddy bear which she uses as an outlet to process her thoughts and feelings. There’s a quote *along the lines of “She had a teddy bear in her arms and murder in her eyes,” which pretty much sums up my love for this girl. If you’re looking for an intense read that you will not be able to put down, with a character you’ll fiercely love, read immediately! It’s a shame Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven on Stranger Things) is too old to play the role if this got adapted because she would be PERFECT. (*I listened to the audiobook so that’s my memory of the quote.)

Another Great Read from Australia!

Resurrection Bay (Caleb Zelic #1) by Emma Viskic: A page-turner thriller and great start to a series! PI Caleb Zelic finds his friend brutally murdered, leaving him a suspect. Not only does he need to clear his own name by finding who murdered his friend, but soon he’s looking into whether his friend was involved in shady dealings. Zelic has his work cut out for him: he’s deaf and with strangers relies on reading their lips; he’s attacked and needs to hide out with his ex-wife (loved her character!); his ex-cop friend offers to help his investigation but is struggling with her addiction. If you’re looking for a great, fast-paced PI mystery get thee this book.

Recent Releases:

A Front Page Affair (Kitty Weeks Mystery #1) by Radha Vatsal (Audiobook, narrated by Justine Eyre) (review)

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Paperback) (Two mysteries for the price of one! Full review)

Lucky (A Detective Jack Yu Investigation #5) by Henry Chang (Paperback)

Death by Dumpling (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1) by Vivien Chien (For cozy mystery fans. Review)

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Past and present mystery with a bit of a gothic feel. Full review)

The Window by Amelia Brunskill (Girl found dead outside her bedroom window thought to have fallen, twin refuses to stop looking into what may have happened…) (TW: suicide/ rape)

The Italian Party by Christina Lynch (Currently reading: MIX of genres, but one of the main characters is a CIA agent in 1950s Italy except his wife has no idea, and neither of them know any of the others secrets…) (TW: suicide)

No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run by Tyler Wetherall (In my TBR stack next to my bed: This isn’t true crime but I’m a huge fan of memoirs and crime and this is the memoir of a woman who spent her childhood unaware that they moved so much because her father was a fugitive. Well until Scotland Yard showed up, so color me super interested.)

Why Kill the Innocent (Sebastian St. Cyr #13) by C.S. Harris (Historical fic mystery that sounded really good and I just started reading.)

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! I have some exciting news to share: starting next week I’ll be bringing you all things mystery twice a week! Basically I’ll just have more room to actually tell you about recent releases and reviews in one newsletter and then at the end of the week I’ll share news, adaptations, Little Q&As, deals, and my week in reading. So here’s to more mysteries!

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Sponsored by Enigma by Catherine Coulter.

The highly anticipated twenty-first FBI thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter presents Agents Savich and Sherlock with two baffling mysteries. Working with Agent Cam Wittier (Insidious) and New York-based former Special Forces agent Jack Cabot, they must race against the clock to catch an international criminal and solve the enigma of the man called John Doe.

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I LOVE Japanese Crime Novels! (TW: child death/ suicide/ ableism)

The Master Key by Masako Togawa, Simon N.C. Grove (Translator): Two incidents begin the novel: a child being buried; a man dressed in women’s clothing is in an accident. From there the story moves to a Tokyo apartment building that houses single women in the 1950s which is about to be physically moved for road expansion. While most residents are focused on the actual building being moved others are on edge over the master key–which opens every apartment–having disappeared… Something that I love in Japanese crime novels is that it will easily morph between genres. In this case the novel starts by presenting two mysteries– which the reader doesn’t know why these events have happened nor fully what the events are–then it becomes a mix of lit fic and crime novel which follows random characters, and finally it ends with a wrap up the way many mysteries end.

Over on Book Riot:

Rincey and Katie talk news, recent reads, AND an upcoming mystery that pairs Obama and Biden together–which I’ve marked as a must-read–on Read or Dead.

Speaking of podcasts: there’s a new one hosted by Rioters Kim and Alice called For Real which is fantastic–I swear I don’t have to say that, it is! I knew Kim was a true crime reader so I listened in hoping they’d talk about true crime reads sometimes and they did–in the first two episodes!

8 Great Reads with Unusual Detectives  (This should be a subgenre because I would read the hell out of this subgenre.)

Teen Girl Sleuths (Another of my favorites!)

News:

J.K. Rowling announced on Twitter that she finished writing Lethal White, the fourth book in her Cormoran Strike PI series.

Laura Dern posted first look images from the set of Big Little Lies 2.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, adapted from Douglas Adams series, will not have a season 3 after BBC America didn’t renew and the producers have been unable to find another network to pick it up.

A CIA Analyst In a Nightmare Scenario!

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland: The summary for this one doesn’t give anything away so neither will I! Vivian Miller is a CIA analyst and while combing through the computer of a possible Russian agent she comes across something that literally changes her entire life and everything she thought she knew. With a husband and four kids, one with a serious heart condition, she has no idea what to do with the information she’s discovered because no matter what direction she takes her world is sure to implode. This is a roller coaster thriller in that there are super fast paced chunks of the novel and moments I was yelling “ohmygod hurry up you’re going to get caught!” but at the same time it is very much inside Miller’s head as she tries to not only rationalize  what to do next but also she’s looking back over her life trying to assess how this happened. It isn’t Annie Walker from Covert Affairs (I miss that show!) but it’s a page-turner thriller for those who like getting into the minds of the main character.

Slow-burn Suspense with a Hell of a Payoff (TW: suicide)

Tangerine by Christine Mangan: There are so many things I want to say about this novel but I can’t because I would never deny you the experience of how this unfolds–if you like lit fic and suspense I’d read this without knowing anything about it. But here’s what I will tell you: Alice and Lucy were roommates at school, bonded over being orphans, and then didn’t see each other again for years. In 1956 Alice is living in Tangier, Morocco with her husband when Lucy surprise visits. Except Lucy doesn’t find Alice exactly as she’d remembered her. Instead, Alice is hesitant to leave the apartment, doesn’t seem that thrilled to see Lucy, and there’s a strain in Alice’s marriage. This starts like a literary novel and weaves suspense throughout in a way that by the end I felt itchy by what was happening/needing to see how it would finish. An excellent read where the backdrop of the turmoil of Morocco fighting for Independence perfectly compliments the unfolding plot.

Kindle Deal:

Flower Net (Red Princess, #1) by Lisa See is $1.99 (The first book in this trilogy that pairs an American lawyer with a Chinese lawyer who met while studying in the U.S.)

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie is $1.99 (Review)

 

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 just binged Netflix’s new show On My Block and it had a mystery/adventure story running through which I had not expected but loved, so if you’re looking for a new show to binge it totally worked for me–until I finished and now I don’t know what to watch. So, more reading!

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books

When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.

But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods.

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When Your Girlfriend is Murdered and the Government Takes Your Passport… (TW: rape/ transphobia & homophobia)

Death Comes in Through the Kitchen by Teresa Dovalpage: Matt is a writer/editor for a Spanish and English paper in San Diego who falls in love with Yarmilla, a food blogger living in Cuba. In 2003 he travels to Havana to propose to Yarmilla, but instead discovers her dead in her apartment. And that’s only the beginning of his problems since the Cuban government takes his passport, believes him to be an American spy, and he soon starts to realize he may not have know Yarmilla at all. Yarmilla’s coworkers take Matt in as the police and a Santero PI work on solving the case and we get to know Yarmilla through her published food blog posts. A satisfying mystery with multiple viewpoints, twists, and politics.

A Little Q&A: Tana French (I give authors I’m excited about six questions and let them answer any three they’d like.)

If you follow along with Book Riot posts/podcasts you probably already know French is a favorite amongst Rioters. It’s hard not to be: her Dublin Murder Squad series is amazing. There are six books so far that follow a new lead working in the Murder Squad, and while there’s a connection because of the Squad each novel also works perfectly as a standalone. The characters, the settings, the cases, the writing–it’s just all perfectly on point. It’s a must-read series for fans of procedurals as you’ll feel like you’re in the day-to-day operations of solving a case. Plus, I imagine every year that French has released a novel it’s been on that year’s Best of Lists. If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading her mysteries, I highly recommend you add them to the top of your reading pile, and you’re in luck because they’re equally fantastic in print and in audio and are all out in paperback. Okay, I’m done fangirling–for now.

Here’s Tana French:

What would you like to see more/less of in the mystery genre? I’d love more mysteries that are deeply rooted in a sense of place – stuff like Dennis Lehane’s stunning Mystic River. The greatest mysteries aren’t just whodunits; they use the mystery as a window into something bigger, an access point to a whole world. I’d also love more historical mysteries with a really strong sense of the time. Plantagenet/Tudor England, if I get to pick.

The last book you read that you loved? The Dry, by Jane Harper. Like I said, I like mysteries with a strong sense of place, and in this book the drought-ravaged Australian landscape is one of the most powerful characters.

Which non-mystery author would you love to see write a mystery? Louise Erdrich. She’s leaned towards mystery before, but I’d love to read what she’d do if she moved even further in that direction. That wonderful writing, that intense awareness of the intricate ways in which multiple lives and multiple stories interconnect, that sense of secrets waiting to be understood, just out of reach… They’d add up to an incredible mystery book.

Thank you Tana! I love a novel rooted in a place, especially when it feels as important as a main character.

Psychological Thriller (TW: suicide/ rape/ cutting/ eating disorder)

They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen: I am always cautious when I go into mysteries/thrillers set in mental health centers because this genre usually doesn’t help with the already dangerous stigma people with mental illnesses face, but I was happy to find that this one felt to have been written with great care. Told in alternating point of view between Hannah (a patient), Corrine (Hannah’s mother), and Laura (an art therapist) there are multiple mysteries: Why is Hannah in this facility? Why does she believe two residents suicides were not suicides? Hannah is already struggling with getting her health back on tract in order to go back home to her husband but now she’s wrestling with whether her gut is right or her mind is giving her misinformation. While I felt there was one too many coincidences (just a personal reading taste) it was a page-turner I inhaled, and I really liked the relationships in it.

Kindle Deals:

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Sondra Silverston (Translator) is $3.99 (On my TBR, sounds like a great literary mystery.)

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach is $1.99 (Think a fractured family is forced to reunite literary novel that is held together by a mystery and sprinkled with suspense. Full review)

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is $1.99 (Modern Mystery Nodding at the Old School Mysteries. Full review)

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.

Hi mystery fans! I have two reviews, new releases, and a treat: Clare Mackintosh (I Let You Go; I See You) discussing her writing and her new book in an exclusive essay!

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

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Slow-Burn Suspense Reimagines the Donner Party (TW: child death/ suicide/ rape–including incestual)

The Hunger by Alma Katsu: An eerie, suspenseful reimagining of the already horrifying historical event of the Donner-Reed Party and their wagon train trek in 1846 heading to California. Katsu brilliantly fleshed out the fictional characters on their fateful trek while also giving some flashbacks to how and why they’d decided to join this ill-fated journey. I found it smart and interesting and now want to go play (i.e. die in) the Oregon Trail game. (Kirsten Potter does a fantastic narration on the audiobook!)

If You Wake Up Next To a Murdered Man Did You Do It?! (TW: date rape)

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian: Cassie Bowden is a flight attendant. An alcoholic. A woman who uses casual sex to get lost. But is she a murderer? This is what she needs to find out when she wakes up next to her murdered one-night stand in Dubai–dun dun dun! Told in alternating POV starting with Cassie, the suspense of what was going to happen and how had me glued to the audiobook.

Recent Releases:

Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber (Paperback) (review)

The Child by Fiona Barton (Paperback) (review)

I Found You by Lisa Jewell (Paperback) (review)

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Paperback) (review)

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper (Paperback) (podcast review by Liberty)

The Echo Killing (Harper McClain #1) by Christi Daugherty (next on TBR)

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney (currently reading: told in then and now as a woman is in a coma but doesn’t know why.)

Normandy Gold Vol. 1 by Megan Abbott, Alison Gaylin (Little Q&A)

This is How it Ends by Eva Dolan (currently reading: told in then and now, woman in a room with a dead man but why/how?)

Hiroshima Boy (Mas Arai #7) by Naomi Hirahara (Mas returns to Japan for 1st time in 40+ years with friend’s ashes, starts looking into drowned boy’s case.)

AND Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh (TW: suicide/ domestic abuse) which Clare Mackintosh will be discussing in this interesting essay about her writing:

Nothing fascinates me more than the interplay of family relationships. The secrets we keep, the lies we tell, the history that influences today, tomorrow and beyond. Twelve years in the British police service was the perfect training ground for domestic thriller writing, and much of what I write now has its basis in truth. The motivations of a man who kills a stranger are often mundane – he wanted money, he lost his temper – but the reasons for murder closer to home are nuanced and varied. What turns love into hate? How could a parent kill a child, or a child a parent? Society conditions us to believe that blood is thicker than water, but one spills as easily as the other…

All my books centre around relationships in some way, because I find them inherently interesting. As someone fortunate enough to come from a safe, happy, secure family background, I’m intrigued by estranged siblings and warring parents. In my latest book, Let Me Lie, I wanted to explore the relationship between parent and grown-up-child. I wondered how a loving relationship might be affected in the aftermath of suicide, and specifically, how one might come to terms with parents who had chosen to end their lives. In Let Me Lie Anna has a new baby of her own, and is coming to terms with motherhood whilst still struggling to understand how her parents could have abandoned her. The underlying question is: can you still love someone if they hurt you? As a police officer I saw this played out in domestic abuse situations, where victims returned to abusive spouses again and again, because love was often stronger than fear or hate. The battle between these emotions forms part of Anna’s journey in Let Me Lie.

Relationships change over time, and I found it interesting to contrast a brand new relationship – that of Anna, and her therapist partner Mark – with one several decades old. Retired detective Murray Mackenzie has been with his wife Sarah since he graduated from police training college in his early twenties. Their relationship is solid and steadfast, but not without its challenges. Sarah has mental health issues that impact on them both, changing the way they live their lives. Just as Anna tries to love her parents despite their final act, so Murray loves his wife despite of – and occasionally because of – her illness.

Writing about such everyday characters does not at first glance appear to lend itself to the psychological thriller genre, but I am not alone in choosing to set my books in the domestic arena. Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca – the tale of a young bride unsettled by the ever-present memory of her husband’s dead wife – is the perfect suspense-filled thriller, and Agatha Christie was the mistress of the genre. More recently, Paula Hawkins’ global hit The Girl on the Train put the mundane world of commuter trains front and centre, and Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door is as pedestrian a setting as the title suggests. Far from deterring thrill-seekers, it is precisely the normality of these settings and characters that appeals. They are plausible, familiar, relatable; there is nothing more (brilliantly) disturbing than the realisation that what’s happening between the pages could happen to you.

Not for me the secret agent with a briefcase of gadgets, or the special powers of a superhero. My literary heros are everyday men and women, their strengths tested to the full. Ordinary people, in extraordinary situations. What could be more suspenseful than that? —Clare Mackintosh

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 come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Hello mystery fans! I’ve listened to so many British audiobooks in a row that the voice in my head now has a new accent–please tell me this also happens to you?

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Sponsored by RATTLE by Fiona Cummins

If you see him, it’s already too late.

Fiona Cummins delves into the seam of darkness that runs through us all, the struggle between light and shadow, redemption and revenge, as a detective and a desperate father hunt down a twisted killer with a macabre obsession …

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Cozy Mystery with a Few Ghosts:

Killing in C Sharp (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #3) by Alexia Gordon: Gethsemane is an American living in an Irish cottage teaching music, but if she wants to keep her current living arrangement she’s gonna have to play nice with paranormal investigators–or so demands her landlord. The problem is she doesn’t want them actually spotting the ghost that lives there, nor does she want to have to deal with a terrible true crime writer, or a new ghost–but when a man is murdered Gethsemane is going to have to figure out who the murderer is while keeping the world from discovering her ghostly friend. The actual mystery was not at all the direction I would have thought this would take and I quite enjoyed it. A good read for fans of cozy mysteries–especially looking for less violence towards women– and a series I’ll keep picking up.

Great “PI” Pairing set in Australia (TW: child rape/ pedophilia )

Crimson Lake by Candice Fox: Ted Conkaffey was a Sydney detective until he happened to be the last person witnesses saw near a girl who was abducted, raped, and left for dead. He’s always maintained his innocence, and the charges have been dropped, but public opinion hasn’t changed. It’s why he’s relocated to Crimson Lake (which made me think of the Florida Everglades). His lawyer sets him up with a local PI, Amanda Pharrell, who was charged as a teen in the brutal stabbing of another teen and is now the only PI available in the area. Pharrell is quirky, a weird rhymer, troubled, and gifted in deducing things rather quickly. Conkaffey is just trying to survive the cops who are harassing him, and figure out a life outside of prison without his family–oh, and keeping a bunch of geese alive. But they work well together when it comes to solving the mystery of a missing local author whose ring was found inside a crocodile! A page-turning mystery, with great characters, and a vivid setting perfect for fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry. I look forward to more Pharrell and Conkaffey–and Australian wildlife!

Links:

Book Riot is giving away $500 Penguin clothbound books in the giveaway that has made all Rioters jealous they can’t enter!

Walter Mosley interview discussing Down the River Unto the Sea and writing.

Gillian Flynn interview–without the questions–where she talks about her next novel!

Rincey and Katie talk Noir on Read or Dead.

A new podcast discusses the making of Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. You can listen to a preview on iTunes here. And if you missed my review of the book here ya go.

Alex Segura and Gregg Hurwitz discuss the allure of cults in their own work.

Watch the trailer for In Ice Cold Blood, hosted by Ice-T, premiering April 1st on Oxygen.

“Du Maurier’s bestselling novel reveals much about the author’s fluid sexuality – her ‘Venetian tendencies’ – and about being a boy stuck in the wrong body, writes Olivia Laing” — Sex, jealousy and gender: Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca 80 years on

Over on Book Riot 7 Short Mystery Stories  and 7 Japanese Mystery novels.

Dynamite will have a new Nancy Drew comic in June created by women: “written by Kelly Thompson (Jem and the Holograms, Hawkeye), with art by Jenn St-Onge (Bingo Love, The Misfits), color by Triona Farrell (Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor), and letters by Ariana Maher (Ringside, 8House).”

Suspenseful Mystery That Also Works for Literary Fans (TW: suicide)

If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin: Gaylin successfully explores a lot of issues (without feeling heavy handed) while strumming the chord of suspense and running a mystery throughout. I got sucked in from the opening and ended up reading it in two sittings. At the core is the mystery of who is responsible for a hit-and-run. When all eyes start to turn towards Wade Reed– who’s recently become too thin and withdrawn–his mother immediately comes to his defense. But does she really know the teen he’s become? Or is a washed-up ’80s popstar lying about the night’s events? An interesting look at family, age, social media, vilifying…that will probably leave you thinking. (I don’t know why the summary says “a dose of Stranger Things” but you should not think this is like ST.)

Recent Releases:

The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3) by Brittany Cavallaro (I’m gonna have to put on my shelf just for the title!)

Death at the Durbar (Maharajah Mystery #2) by Arjun Raj Gaind (Historical mystery, 1911 India)

Agatha Christie by Laura Thompson (Biography)

They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen (Good psychological thriller set in mental health facility–written with care.) (TW: suicide/ rape/ cutting/ eating disorder)

Memento Mori (Medicus Investigation #8) by Ruth Downie (Greek mythology mystery)

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs

Plum Tea Crazy (A Tea Shop Mystery #19) by Laura Childs (Currently reading: great opening, tea shop owner sleuth in South Carolina.)

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (Tante Poldi #1) by Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn (Translation) (review)

Phoenix Burning (A Veranda Cruz Mystery #2) by Isabella Maldonado (Currently reading: Mexican American detective, with a whopper of a secret, takes on a Mexican cartel in Phoenix.) (TW: rape)

A Brush with Shadows (Lady Darby Mystery #6) by Anna Lee Huber (Historical mystery, 1831 England)

Kindle Deals:

The Lion’s Mouth (Hanne Wilhelmsen #4) by Anne Holt is 99 cents (Reads as standalone– great political thriller/mystery.) (Read it too long ago to remember trigger warnings but this series is dark so assume at least a few.)

 

 

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.

Hi fellow mystery fans! I’m overfloweth with words so I’m just diving in this week–hope you’re well and well-read!

Terrifying and Heartbreaking Search for a Serial Killer that has Gone Far Too Long Without Capture (TW: rape)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn (Forward), Patton Oswalt (Afterword): This book is the hard work and research born from McNamara’s obsession with discovering who the Golden State Killer was–originally known as the East Area Rapist who preyed in California during the ’70s and ’80s. If you digest a lot of true crime you know that the eye behind it is important because it’s the difference between a gross obsession with the perpetrator/violent acts and shows little or no regard for the victim(s), or a careful look into social behavior that understands there are victims and families destroyed by this person. McNamara wasn’t obsessed with him, or his crimes, but rather her obsession was with refusing to allow him to get away with his horrific crimes–she explains in the book how an unsolved murder from her childhood created her need to seek justice when it came to unsolved cases.

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Sponsored by Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson

Alice Hill was only fourteen when she was viciously stabbed by two of her classmates and left to die. Her friends told authorities that Alice was supposed to be a sacrifice for a man called Mister Tender – but that’s insane. Mister Tender isn’t even real. He’s just a sinister character in a series of popular graphic novels. Isn’t he?

Over a decade later, Alice is trying to move on. But someone is watching her. They know more about Alice than any stranger could: her scars, her fears, and the secrets she keeps locked away. She can try to escape her past, but the threat of Mister Tender is never far behind.

Inspired by the Slender Man crime, this gripping thriller plunges you into a world of haunting memories and unseen threats, leaving you guessing until the harrowing end.

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Sadly, McNamara passed away while working on this book. The majority of the book is written by her, some chapters start with a note that it’s been pieced together from her notes or previously published articles of hers, and then it ends with Billy Jensen and Paul Haynes (also working on solving this case) finishing the book by analyzing all the information, research, and notes McNamara had been working on. The afterword is written by her widower Patton Oswalt, so yeah have the tissues ready.

The book is excellent, but my favorite part is McNamara’s memoir chapter. She talks about her childhood and relationship with her mom, and it shows that not only was she a great crime journalist but she was also a gifted writer. Her honesty and her beautiful ability to analyze herself and the past, seeing the things we all miss when we’re in the present, has stuck with me the most out of everything in this book. (The audiobook is narrated by Gabra Zackman with a calm, smooth voice and Oswalt and Flynn narrate their own parts.)

A Little Q&A: Rachel Howzell Hall (I give authors I’m excited about six questions and let them answer any three they’d like.)

I love a good detective series with a character that I know I’m going to want to follow for a long time, and that’s how I immediately felt about Elouise “Lou” Norton, a homicide detective in L.A. While Lou carries the disappearance of her sister with her, her current marital problems, and a new partner, nothing keeps her from solving her cases. Lou is a perfectly snarky, awesome woman who is one of my favorite detectives. If you’ve yet to discover this series start with Land of Shadows and read on!

And here’s Rachel Howzell Hall:

What would you like to see more/less of in the mystery genre? I want to see more women of color writing noir and crime. We have so many interesting, tragic, insightful stories. This comes from our weird place in America–to be black and female in this world today… There are so many mysteries with plenty of great characters, some of them that tell our story when we should be the ones doing that. And to go further, I want to see more writers getting attention than the one writer that is deemed to represent us and our experiences.

If you were to blurb your most recent/upcoming book (à la James Patterson): City of Saviors takes everything you love about LAPD Homicide Detective Lou Norton, then throws in cats, hording, peach cobbler, church and addiction, just in case you weren’t convinced that this story is unlike any other you’ve read.

Which non-mystery author would you love to see write a mystery? OMG, if Jon Krakauer wrote a mystery, I’d read it three times just like I read Into Thin Air. His writing leaves me breathless, anxious of ‘what’s gonna happen next cuz something is gonna happen next cuz that’s what he does.’ His stories are plotted and beautiful and tragic, and using his powers of storytelling for fiction would be some next-level s@*!

Thanks Rachel!

Over on Book Riot:

Book Riot is giving away $500 worth of Penguin clothbound books to 1 lucky–luckiest ever!–winner on Instagram.

Mysteries written by LGBTQ+ authors and People of Color

10 YA thrillers for fans of One of Us is Lying

8 Thrillers About Family

10 Suspense Novels

Recent Releases:

Dead Joker by Anne Holt (Paperback) (Dark series starring a Lesbian Norwegian Detective.)

Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben (Paperback) (review)

The Last Night at Tremore Beach by Mikel Santiago, Carlos Frías (translator) (Paperback) (On my TBR)

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott (Girl who disappeared is now found dead, someone in a group of friends must have done it.) (TW: suicide) (I inhaled the audiobook in one day.)

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Sondra Silverston (Translator) (On my TBR, sounds like literary crime.)

Curses, Boiled Again! (A Lobster Shack Mystery #1) by Shari Randall (currently reading: cozy mystery where a judge may have been murdered during a food festival.)

Kindle Deals:

A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis is $4.99 (review) (TW: cutting/ child abuse)

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbot is $2.99 (review)

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner is $1.99 (character focused procedural)

Meddling and Murder (Singaporean Mystery #4) by Ovidia Yu is .99 cents (restaurant owning amateur sleuth)

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.

Hello fellow mystery fans! If you will be in NY on the 28th (currently wishing I still lived there–remembers it’s cold, forgets wish) Megan Abbott and Patton Oswalt will be at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights presenting Michelle McNamara’s true crime I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. (To buy tickets) No, you’re crying already!

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

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Walter Mosley Has a New Novel and I Hope It Becomes a Series (Trigger Warning: rape)

Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley: Joe King Oliver was an NYPD cop until he was accused of rape and went to jail. Years later, after being released, his life now basically revolves around his PI work and his teenage daughter who helps out in his office. King finds himself needing to solve two cases: his own, after the woman who accused him of rape sends him an apology (this does not go down the route of women are psycho and vindictive so they falsely accuse); trying to find justice for a journalist convicted of killing two cops. As always, Mosley does a great job navigating between law and justice, and exposing racism–my favorite part of the book though was King’s relationship with his daughter and her character. I hope if this is the beginning of this series that we get to see a lot more of that. (If you’ve never read Mosley before and are overwhelmed by his immense catalog, here’s a Reading Pathways.)

Good Ol’ Fashion Detective Work to Catch the Killer! (Trigger Warnings: child murder/ suicide)

A Grave Talent (Kate Martinelli, #1) by Laurie R. King: Recently promoted to Homicide Detective, Kate Martinelli is paired with veteran Al Hawkins on a difficult case: a string of child murders. The case only gets more complicated once they think they’ve got a huge break in the case in finding a once convicted child murderer hiding out in a small community outside San Francisco. This is really my favorite type of mystery: psychology and human behavior are explored; the detectives are interesting with great chemistry (not romantic in nature, Martinelli is a lesbian); the clues slowly build up; there’s an “obsession”– in this case painting. I was left wanting to immediately grab the next in the series and I really enjoyed Alyssa Bresnahan’s calm, smooth narration on the audiobook.

Links:

If a giveaway for $500 of Penguin clothbound classics sounds amazing to you then head on over to Book Riot’s Instagram to enter!

Rincey and Katie talk about suspenseful romance novels on the latest Read or Dead.

Amazon’s Bosch series (adapted from Michael Connely‘s novels) has been renewed for a 5th season and here’s the trailer for season 4 which premieres April 13th.

Alicia Vikander will star in the thriller adaptation of Karen Dionne’s The Marsh King’s Daughter.

The true crime podcast Criminal is doing a six-part series This Is Love which started on Valentine’s Day.

Another book (McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny) saw a huge jump in sales thanks to a popular adaptation: The real McMasterminds behind McMafia: The BBC thriller isn’t just must-see TV, it’s a scarily realistic portrayal of international crime – and these are the villains it’s based on.

The Onion onioned: the ‘Onion’ skewers the true-crime podcast.

I don’t necessarily agree with all the points, but I’ve been thinking about this one a bit: Why Our True Crime Obsession is Bad For Society. ( My Friend Dahmer didn’t read like an obsession about the serial killer so much as a look at the time before he began killing, showing so many ways in which help was never offered or even attempted. And I think there is a lot of bad work regarding true crime but I think there needs to be a space to study how our society creates problems in order to do the work of doing better.)

Suspenseful Noir (Trigger Warnings: domestic abuse/ rape)

Sunburn by Laura Lippman: I kind of want to just say that if you’re a fan of the exploration of the “unlikable woman” and Megan Abbott, go read this without knowing anything about it. But here’s more info: Polly leaves her husband and child for good, without any notice, while on vacation. While debating her next life move she takes a job as a waitress in a small Delaware town. That’s where she meets Adam, who’s passing through. But soon their lives begin to meld, which really isn’t great for a woman trying to reveal as little about herself as possible. The suspense grows from all that we realize we don’t know about characters with the little reveals we get… (Susan Bennett narrates the audiobook in a calm, slightly monotone-ish voice which is exactly the voice I’d heard when reading the book.)

Kindle Deals:

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson is $1.99 (review)

Dragon Bones (Red Princess #3) by Lisa See is $1.99 (The last book in this trilogy that pairs an American lawyer with a Chinese lawyer who met while studying in the U.S.)

 

 

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, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Hi fellow mystery fans! Happy Valentine’s Day or Greeting-Cards-Invented holiday. Whichever you do, you do you! Now let’s add some mystery to the day:

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Sponsored by Buried Truth Jannine Gallant.

Jannine Gallant debuts her new romantic suspense trilogy that combines themes of second chances and reunited lovers…with dangerous serial killers and hidden agendas. When Leah Grayson organizes a reunion for her fifth-grade classmates to open a time capsule, they discover a roll of film and unleash a series of strange incidents. Amid the chaos, Leah begins a romance with Ryan Alexander, her first love who just returned to town. Their chemistry is as strong as ever, but the nostalgic fling turns deadly when someone is convinced Leah has the key to secrets long buried.

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Love this Series! (Trigger Warnings: child deaths/ rape/ torture)

A Dangerous Crossing (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #4) by Ausma Zehanat Khan: I’m a big fan of this series for a bunch of reasons, but the biggest is that I get to travel the world while learning about important social issues. Khan has once again written a smart and thoughtful detective mystery which creates a bunch of characters in a way that steers far away from creating stereotypes or monoliths. Canadian detectives Getty and Esa find themselves looking into the disappearance of a friend’s sister who vanished while helping Syrian refugees in Greece. Being that there are two dead bodies the immediate questions are: Is she a murderer on the run? Hiding from danger? Or also dead?… If you’re debating the audiobook Peter Ganim does a lovely job and gives you proper pronunciation with some words you may not know.

New Dark-ish Icelandic Series (Trigger Warning: incestuous rape)

The Legacy (Children’s House #1) by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Victoria Cribb (Translator): A mother is murdered with her children in the house, one possibly having witnessed the crime. The young daughter is refusing to say what, if anything, she may have seen or heard. Being a strange and brutal attack, the police are trying to solve the case quickly and detective Huldar needs the girl to speak. Freya, a psychologist, acting as the child’s advocate, won’t allow the police to interview her as they want and takes over the questioning in the manner she thinks protects the child, regardless of the case… This was a page-turner for me that followed numerous characters, and their personal lives, all seemingly on a collision course somehow tied to this case. Definitely looking forward to another in this series, especially with Freya. (For audiobook fans I enjoyed Lucy Paterson’s narration, and personally found her reading as the child to not go into dramatic voice altering annoying territory–so win!)

Links:

BR keeps killing it with amazing giveaways: You could win $500 of Penguin clothbound classics over on our Instagram account.

After the announcement of the Staunch Book Prize for a thriller that doesn’t contain violence towards women–and Rebecca and Jeff’s discussion on The Podcast–I did a little dive into collecting some data: Violence Towards Women In Thrillers: Some Numbers.

Nicole Cooley wrote a piece about Frances Glessner Lee’s dioramas–models she built of crime scenes. I’ve been left thinking about the last line in this quote since I read the article: “Just like in the models, in the US women are much more likely to be killed by intimate partners than by strangers. The grim reality is that the world is full of violence. The models are a reminder that domestic space can be safe as well as terrifying.”

Rioter Aisling Twomey on Reliving Agatha Christie at Witness For The Prosecution

Sara Shepard, author of the series Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game, has an adult mystery coming out: The Elizas. You can read an excerpt at EW.

An interesting read in The New Yorker: “Italian prosecutors conceded that ’Ndrangheta women led tragic lives. But many didn’t consider the women to be of much use in their fight; they were just more victims. “The women don’t matter,” the prosecutors told Cerreti.” —The Women Who Took on the Mafia: Family loyalty made the Calabrian Mob strong, but its treatment of women was its undoing.

For True Crime fans: Audible has a new original series based on the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Ireland. Currently you can download the series for free! Here –> West Cork

Nothing Good Comes From Playing at a Spooky Barn! (Trigger Warning: suicide)

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas: Kacey has left the life she shared with her mom when the fighting was too much and is now living in a new town with a dad she doesn’t really know, a stepmother, stepbrother, and half-sister. All those changes is a lot to take in. Thankfully Kacey has two friends: Jade and Bailey. Except after a night of sneaking out–to call a ghost in an abandoned barn–Kacey finds her friends are acting weird and her little sister seems traumatized. Then a friend turns out to be missing! But if Kacey helps with the investigation–admiting to their night of sneaking out–she’ll be in serious trouble which leaves her instead looking like she has a lot more to hide… I like the way the events unfolded in this YA psychological thriller which has just the right amount of twists. Phoebe Strole and Brittany Pressley do a great narration on the audiobook. (And yes, every time I write this title I do think of the unrelated ’80s movie!)

Recent Releases:

The Possessions by Sara Flannery Murphy (Paperback) (review)

Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent (Paperback)

Prettyboy Must Die by Kimberly Reid (Currently reading: CIA thriller.)

The Plea (Eddie Flynn #2) by Steve Cavanagh (Currently reading: Con artist turned lawyer thriller, starts with a shooting and then takes you back to go through the events that lead up to that end.)

Olympus Bound (Olympus Bound #3) by Jordanna Max Brodsky (The final installment in this fun, kickass series that mixes Greek mythology and mystery.)

Kindle Deal!

Attica Locke’s 1st novel about a small time lawyer in Texas who finds himself at the wrong place, wrong time, is literally a steal for $1.99: Black Water Rising.

 

 

 

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, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Hi fellow mystery fans! I hope you’re drowning in holiday candy and books–solving mysteries to your hearts content. Here’s to another month packed with great reads!

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Sponsored by Walking The Bones by Randall Silvis

The bones of seven young girls, picked clean and carefully preserved… that’s all Sergeant Ryan DeMarco knows about the unsolved crime he has unwittingly been roped into investigating during what is supposed to be a healing road trip with his new love, Jayme.

DeMarco is still reeling from the case that led to death of his best friend months ago and wants nothing more than to lay low. Unfortunately, the small southern town of Jayme’s idyllic youth is not exactly a place that lets strangers go unnoticed—especially strangers who have a history of solving violent crimes. And if there’s anything DeMarco knows, it’s that a killer always leaves clues behind just waiting for the right person to come along and put all the pieces together.

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For Fans of Get Out! (Trigger Warning: rape/ suicide)

Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith, Andre Blake (Narrator): I honestly want to tell you nothing about this book so that you get hit by every level of this story like I did! I’ll say it’s a social thriller that very smartly places the reader in super uncomfortable territory as a black lawyer jumps at the opportunity to go on a trip with influential and wealthy black men. A secret society if you will… I enjoyed the narrator, Andrew Blake, on the audiobook and spent two days with headphones on ignoring everyone–and internally freaking out.

The Sequel to The Dry is Finally Here!! (Trigger Warning: eating disorder)

Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2) by Jane Harper: Harper yet again delivers a very satisfying mystery from beginning to end, perfect to curl up with. This time around, Federal Police Agent Falk has left the desperately dry small town elements from the first in the series to find himself in the Giralang Ranges along with partner Carmen Cooper. They’ve been called because Alice Russell has gone missing in the forest while on a work retreat. Alice who was helping with a corruption case and is now missing on land a serial killer once lived on… A great story that gives you the detailed present investigation along with flashbacks of the time leading up to the disappearance. If you’re wondering if you want the audiobook, Stephen Shanahan does an excellent narration with his calm, deep, Australian accented voice–so yes! (AND if you need a refresher on what happened in The Dry, here’s a Previously On post.)

Links

Rincey and Katie discuss Edgar Awards nominees and books by black authors on Read or Dead!

Quiz: What Thriller Protagonist Are You?

Over on Wired:  7 True Crime Docs You Should Stream Right Now

Dennis Lehan’s Gone, Baby, Gone will get a second adaptation (the 1st being the 2017 film directed by Ben Affleck) as a television series.

The drowning death of Natalie Wood in 1981 is now considered a “suspicious death” after the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reopened the investigation. And Robert Wagner, her husband at the time, is a person of interest in the case.

The new thriller Need to Know by Karen Cleveland is being adapted and Charlize Theron is attached as producer and star. You can read the opening excerpt on EW.

Psychological Suspense (Trigger Warning: suicide/ molestation)

Girl Unknown by Karen Perry: Told in alternating chapters from David and Caroline’s perspective, we watch as a family reacts to a stranger being dropped into the mix when Zoey, a college student, tells David she’s his daughter from a long ago relationship. David brings her into the family (she is his daughter after all) but Caroline is hesitant–she has questions. The kids are split: one begins to bond with his new sister while the other wants her gone. This is a page-turner that slowly builds suspense one brick at a time, but will the wall be the strength of a new family or is it all going to come crashing down?

Recent Releases:

The Unforgotten by Laura Powell (Currently reading: 1950s historical mystery.)

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies (Paperback) (review)

Resurrection Bay (Caleb Zelic #1) by Emma Viskic (Currently reading: so far a must-solve-mystery-while-being-a-suspect.)

The Storm King by Brendan Duffy (Past and present small town mystery. Jon Lindstrom does a good audiobook narration.) (Trigger Warnings: child abuse/ revenge porn/ sexual assault)

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by T. Christian Miller, Ken Armstrong (on my TBR and Rioter Liberty marked it as a book she loved in New Books newsletter.)

Kindle Deals:

A Negro and an Ofay by Danny Gardner is $2.99 (For fans of Walter Mosley and Attica Locke when it comes to dissecting racism.) (review)

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio is $3.99 (Especially for fans of Shakespeare.) (review)

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, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

Hello mystery fans! I’ve got delightful, noir, and morbid for you this week thanks to my reading being all over the place. Hope you’re well, reading tons, and ready for February! And if you’re feeling lucky don’t forget to enter to win a library cart!

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Sponsored by Page Street Publishing

Living in her sister’s shadow has never been more dangerous.

Five months ago, Clara Seibert’s twin sister was murdered. Struggling under the weight of newfound and unwanted attention, the only thing that makes Clara feel normal is ghostwriting an advice column for her school’s newspaper—until she starts receiving threatening emails in her staff inbox.

“It should have been you…but soon.”

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Neo-Noir! (Trigger Warning: domestic abuse/ rape/ suicide)

Dragonfish by Vu Tran: If you’re looking for noir that explores modern issues and/or are a fan of dark literary works, this was a great read. There are two running stories at once, past and present: one of a woman explaining her immigration from Vietnam through a series of letters, and the other is Robert, a cop obsessed with his ex-wife Suzy. He’s obsessed enough to drive to Vegas to threaten her current husband, but nothing goes as planned and soon the reader is plunged into the dark world these characters navigate in. The exploration of Suzy through the eyes of the men in her life who never quite understand her is one of those things I’ve been unable to shake since reading this novel.

Links

*Oprah you-get-a-car voice* Meryl Streep joins Big Little Lies season 2! Dying to find out what kind of mother-in-law she’ll be… (If you haven’t seen the show or read the book probably stay away from news for spoiler reasons.)

Rioter Tirzah Price has 10 Short Mystery Audiobooks for you.

I added to my Feminist Historical Mysteries list.

Sabella Nitti was saved from the death penalty in the 1920s thanks in part to a bob haircut. And if you didn’t know that characters in Chicago were based on real women–including Nitti–here’s another read. If Nitti’s story interests you: Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago by Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi

Stana Katic talks about her exit from Castle and her new Amazon show Absentia.

Bridget Lawless has created the Staunch Book Prize to award a thriller novel “in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.” (That may leave a real small pool of entries!) In related news author Amy Bloom seems to be writing a thriller next.

The drama/thriller Killing Eve, based on Luke Jennings’ novellas and starring Sandra Oh, will be premiering in April on BBC America. Here are the first look photos.

See the trailer for the graphic novel Babylon Berlin by Arne Jysch, Volker Kutscher (adaptation of the novel Babylon Berlin) AND THEN watch the trailer for the European television series adaptation that is now streaming on Netflix. (1930s Noir detective)

For fans of ’70s detectives, Megan Abbott, and/or Alison Gaylin here’s the trailer for the graphic novel Normandy Gold. (A Little Q&A with the authors)

Modern Mystery Nodding at the Old School Mysteries:

Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson:  Set in an elite school, Ellingham Academy, where the brightest and most creative students are invited to learn. Stevie Bell is thrilled to attend her first year. She’s there to escape the family she has nothing in common with and, most importantly, to put her mystery solving passion to work by solving the case from the ’30s where the school’s founder’s wife and daughter were kidnapped. Except, Bell may have gotten in over her head seeing as she’s now got a recent death at the school to also solve! Entertaining while cleverly nodding at old school mysteries– but be forewarned–you’ll be left standing on a cliff until the next in the series releases. (If you like video reviews here’s Rincey on Rincey Reads)

If Your Favorite Scenes in Procedurals Is The Morgue and You Enjoy Morbid Things (Trigger Warning: suicide/ child death)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty: After witnessing a traumatic event at the age of eight, Doughty became terrified of death which manifested into OCD as she tried to ensure her and her family would never die. This eventually lead to her path of working in a crematorium and trying to change the way we talk about, and fear, death. Her dark humor, frankness, curiosity, and facts of death throughout history and different cultures makes this morbid topic eye opening, fascinating, and interesting. And she does a fantastic job narrating the audiobook.

Recent Releases:

Among the Ruins (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #3) by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Paperback) (review)

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (Paperback) (review)

August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones (Paperback) (review)

Final Girls by Riley Sager (pseudonym for Todd Ritter) (Paperback) (review)

The Thirst (Harry Hole #11) by Jo Nesbø (Paperback)

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (Paperback) (Literary Mystery)

Abbott #1 by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivelä (Awesome start to a new series about a journalist in ’70s Detroit fighting sexism and racism to get the truth reported.)

Two Nights by Kathy Reichs (Paperback) (Author of the books Bones was adapted from.)

Spy Seal Vol 1 by Rich Tommaso (MI5 but with anthropomorphic animals)

The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place (Flavia de Luce #9) by Alan Bradley (Great series starring a smart, precocious girl who loves chemistry and doesn’t fear dead things.)

Killer Choice by Tom Hunt (Currently reading: would you kill a “bad guy” for a stranger offering you the money you need to save your wife’s life?)

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, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.