Author: Jamie Canaves

Noir set in Mexico City! I think I’ve read all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novels, and I love that she writes in basically all genres. I went with the audiobook for this one and was completely sucked into this world. I also remain obsessed with the cover!

Maite is a secretary in Mexico City in the ’70s who views herself as not enough. She reads a lot of romance comics and imagines the situations she’s in compared to the stories she reads, and thinks she fails at being as pretty and glamorous. She imagines her neighbor, Leonora, fits the bill, however. When Leonora asks Maite to feed her cat and watch her apartment, Maite accepts: not out of the goodness of her heart, but because she asks to be paid (she needs to get her car from the mechanic) and because she has a habit of stealing an item from everyone’s apartment and this will make that easy.

But Leonora never returns, and Maite is left with a cat she does not want and questions. Also looking for Leonora is Elvis, a criminal in training whose been put on the task of finding the missing woman. We follow these two very different personalities, with a common love of music and comics, as they search for the woman, leaving the reader wondering how and when will their paths meet…

I really enjoyed following Maite and Elvis as they navigate through the political climate of the time (highly recommend you read Silvia Moreno-Garcia afterward on the history), their desires, passions, and interactions. If you’re a fan of Megan Abbott’s noir titles, definitely pick this up.

If you’d told me I was not only going to really like a book set in the beginning of the pandemic but also not be able to put it down, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. Yet, here we are!

I’ve really liked Howard’s books. She always snags me at the start with a hook and keeps me invested. The setup is interesting: two people meet and are excited about each other. For different reasons, they’re in a city without many ties, so when the pandemic starts and they find out there will be a two week lockdown, they think “Why not? Let’s do it together”.

But one ends up dead.

You follow two pairs of people over 56 days. There are two detectives in the present day trying to solve what happened (you don’t get to know who is dead for a while) and get a lot of good banter between them, as they are quite different, while they try to solve the case. In the past chapters – starting 56 days before – you watch from both perspectives as Ciara and Oliver meet. Ciara has recently moved to the city, leaving behind her sister and her mom, who is entering hospice from a long illness. Oliver is starting fresh again, running away from some sort of past.

Oliver originally believes Ciara to be a journalist and only speaks to her to flush her out, but then finds that her answers are too good and maybe he’s being paranoid. Ciara is trying to overcome thoughts like “Was that ridiculous to say?” and “Wait, don’t let him get his feelings hurt” while hoping that she’s finally made a connection with a cute man. As they go on a few dates, the first cases of Covid-19 hit Ireland, and they learn that there will be a two week lockdown. So Ciara moves in with Oliver, which is exciting at first, but she quickly realizes maybe she doesn’t know him well enough, especially when a neighbor doesn’t have great things to say about him…

Because of the setting at the start of the pandemic, it took me a while of circling this book before being able to pick it up. And even then I thought, “I’ll just dip a toe in, and if it gives me anxiety, I’m out for now.” But it was completely fine for me, which kind of shocked me. In a strange way, it being set at the very start of the pandemic when there was no information made it feel okay, because I was reading those bits already knowing the information and how it turned out. Also, the mystery element was very much a page-turner that overrode any potential uncomfortable feelings from the pandemic for me. And it was interesting to compare how it unfolded in the US versus Ireland.

(TW brief suicidal thoughts, detail/brief mention past suicide, detail/tween murder/panic attack/terminally ill parent)

Looking for a novella starring a private detective? You can start the Ross Agency Mystery series for $2.99!

Escape our current world to solve a murder in a 1920s speakeasy in New Orleans’ French Quarter for $5.99! (Review)

This combines a few tropes that I like: the women that get called “unlikable”; returning home after “escaping”; and missing person cases. And it also reminded me of The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka in tone, the way it unfolds, and with the messy family. Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Mary wanted out, both to flee the bullying and the way she was looked at. Her chance at this came when she was accepted into an Ivy league school. She lost weight dangerously with an eating disorder and felt like she got to start with a blank slate, so she didn’t have to wear the unpopular label anymore. Until she was expelled her senior year.

Now, back home, she’s lying to everyone about why she’s back, working at a grocery store, and being reminded of what a huge disappointment she is by her father. Then a frenemy from childhood goes missing, and Mary thinks the case has to be connected to another missing young woman who disappearance hasn’t gotten much attention because she’s a Black woman. With no one listening to her, she decides to look into it herself, including pretending to be a reporter to get access to family members.

Struggling with her own issues and pointing her energy into finding these women, she finds herself making more enemies as she inches closer to the truth and placing herself in danger…

(TW eating disorder/ fatphobia, bullying/ racism/ attempted suicide not completed, detail/ sharing of nude pic without permission)

This is a great nonviolent true crime that will leave you thinking about it long after you finish it. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up to become an identity theft expert after her family became victims of identity theft back before there were laws and information on the crime.

Betz-Hamilton takes you into her lonely childhood, her parents cutting them off from family and friends after their identity was stolen over a fear of not being able to trust anyone–a fear that she internalized–and into her college years where she became a victim of identity theft again. It’s a memoir about her life that centers the never being able to escape the damage from the crime that began when she was little, a crime that wasn’t actually solved until she was a grown adult.

Spoiler-y: The book unfolds giving you the information the way Betz-Hamilton grew up receiving it with the discovery of the crime’s perpetrator being a “twist” because that’s how it happened in her life. It wasn’t necessary though for the purpose of the book to be successful because 1. it’s a true story and 2. the impact is the same whether you know beforehand or not because the action stays the same.

(TW cancer/ disordered eating/ brief mention of past domestic abuse, miscarriage/ gaslighting)

For fans of Courtney Summers’ Sadie who want a mystery told out of order, pick this one up for $6.99! (Review)

If you want something fun, here’s a new series, with the first two books on sale for $5.99, that stars Daphne and Velma from Scooby-Doo. (Review)

If you want a thriller set on a train that is being adapted, starring Brad Pitt, into a film releasing in 2022, this is your book! A bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka has criminals and victims on board, and a suitcase that they come to realize they are all after…

If you’re looking for dark academia–with a cover I’m obsessed with–here you go! After a recent death of a high school student that leaves everyone shocked, things take an even more shocking turn when a group of friends are accused of causing her death. The accuser is anonymous and will be releasing what they know about each “friend” slowly and publicly…

(The author provides TWs on her website and at the beginning of the book: “Please note that this book contains depictions of abuse, self-harm, violence, parental neglect, panic attacks, drug use, mental illness, an inappropriate student/teacher relationship, racism, and suicidal thoughts.”)

I will read anything Schaffhausen writes as she always writes darkish mysteries with great lead characters that feel like the procedural shows that I love and inhale. This is the start to a new series and the first case is a serial killer that went dark until a group of amateur sleuths started poking around, Now there’s either a copycat or the real killer is back… Pick this one up if you need something that will suck you in and keep you turning pages, and then grab her first series The Vanishing Season (Review). Also, please someone adapt her two series into TV series, they are perfect for it!

(TW: parent with Parkinson’s/ mentions past rape case, not graphic/ date rape scene recounted/ discussions of domestic and partner abuse/ past murder suicide recounted, detail/ ableism)

The author of The Girl On the Train is back with a new thriller. We have a dead man on a houseboat and three women connected starting with the one-night stand. There’s gonna be so many secrets–I love secrets as much as Marie Kondo loves mess!

If you’re a fan of historical mysteries, this is a great series set in Syonan, Japanese-occupied Singapore, which follows an orphaned girl who survived Polio, SuLin. This time around she finds a relative who’d been blackmailing her dead, and well that’s not the only death to come that benefits her… If you want to start at the beginning pickup The Frangipani Tree Mystery (Review).

Mmmmm, a new delicious Megan Abbott book about obsession, family, and not being able to find your place in the present because of the past, set in a family-owned ballet studio. (Review)

The author of The Herd is back with a mystery thriller about best friends and a trip gone horribly wrong–again! I mean how many times is too many times for a backpacker being murdered in self-defense while you’re on vacation?

I’m a big fan of Moreno-Garcia and always pick up her books. I love that she writes in so many genres but especially get excited when it’s crime. Here’s her take on noir set in Mexico City in the 1970s, following a secretary looking into the suspicious disappearance of her neighbor…

This reads like a Liane Moriarty mystery where you get the mystery at the beginning and then take a deep dive into character’s everyday lives before it all comes together at the end. A hanging-by-a-thread full time lawyer and full time mom decides to investigate an arson in an exclusive neighborhood she wants to move to. What could go wrong? You’re in a crime book, woman! PS: If you don’t like spoilers, stay away from the summary and comps for this one.

(TW domestic abuse)

Here’s a historical mystery set in 1944 Chicago where Aki Ito and her parents have been resettled after being released from interment camps in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Set to reunite with her older sister Rose, Aki is shocked to discover she’d been killed and her death ruled a suicide. Knowing that isn’t the full story, Aki sets out to find out what happened to Rose.

Spy thriller! Jill Bailey is a CIA analyst who was just given a choice: save her son who has been kidnapped or do what the kidnappers want. Also involved is a journalist whose been given a career-making tip about the CIA…

Imagine taking a job for an elite fishing lodge in Colorado to escape life and deal with grief. One would think nature could help heal, except what if things aren’t as they seem and that scream you heard in the middle of the night means danger?

If you’re looking for a Swedish procedural, here’s one that hits the tropes of returns-home-after-tragedy (father convicted of murder) and trying to settle into a new job with a new partner and solve a whopper of a case: a teen’s murder.

I really liked Howard’s previous novels The Liar’s Girl and The Nothing Man so I’m excited for this one. Set in Dublin, Ciara and Oliver meet at the very beginning of the pandemic and decide to move in together in order to avoid lockdown keeping them apart. Except this is not a romance novel but rather a crime novel, and at the end there’s a body discovered and a difficult case: did the lockdown provide the perfect situation to get away with a crime?

For Inspector Gamache fans, you have a new book! If you’re looking to sink into a great series set in the Québec village of Three Pines and want to start at the beginning of this procedural, pick up Still Life and work your way forward.

I’m starting with two GREAT middle grade mystery novels. Before you skip over because you don’t read middle grade ,at these prices it’s a great way to try one and realize they are fantastic reads for all ages. For $1.99 you can read all about a 7th grader who applies to be on a baking competition (think GBBO) and finds out at the same time that her bio dad, who she’s always known is in prison for murdering a woman, still says he’s innocent which is the part she didn’t know. Thus begins the mystery. Get this book! (Review)

And your second middle grade read is also $1.99, but this one has a puzzle mystery and has past and present mystery. It follows a girl who’s just moved after her parents divorce and is trying to find her place, and also solve a mystery. For readers who don’t read middle grade because they think it’s too juvenile, here’s one that may surprise you at how well they can handle real topics with nuance. (Review)

Spooky season is almost here so for anyone looking for a dark mystery for horror fans, here’s one for $4.99. (Review)

If you like comedy of errors, big messy families full of love, food, and some romance, this will delight you. It starts with a very ill-advised setup date that ends in accidental murder (you won’t feel bad!) and the family that is trying to cover it up while throwing a lavish wedding. Gotta hide the cooler with the body!

Before Vandiver (under the name Abby Collette), published A Deadly Inside Scoop, she had this cozy series which follows a returned home medical-examiner who gets stuck solving a murder with Auntie Zanne, who owns a funeral home and is the zany funny kind of side character always leading them into trouble.

Here’s an entire family of PIs that are ridiculous, do not understand personal boundaries, and are always finding trouble. The series focuses on the middle child, who is in her ’20s, and is filled with dark humor and shenanigans. I don’t want to be a member of this family but I would like to be a neighbor–far enough to not be a target–to just sit back and watch for all the entertainment and laughs.

(TW alcoholism/ suicide attempt mentioned/ molestation incident mentioned)

If you’re a fan of funny inner monologues and ridiculous situations, this is a lot of fun. Donovan is having a really hard time: her ex-husband is being a jerk; she has two young kids and her babysitter is missing; and she’s not only past due on all bills—she’s also past due on handing in her manuscript. So when a coffee house patron hears her recount the plot to her book and thinks she’s actually a hired hit woman and tries to hire her, Donovan briefly thinks well, it is a lot of money…

(TW date raper/ stalker)

This is another series where ridiculous things happening keeps the series feeling light. For starters, Vicram literally becomes the Sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico without her knowledge. How? Her parents entered her in the election. So now she’s back home, with a young daughter, the mystery of her teenage kidnapping still circling, her childhood love, and all the ridiculous people she deals with. If you’re a fan of Stephanie Plum, Kinsey Millhone, and Gilmore Girls, you’ll love this series.

(TW past child suicide thoughts and attempt, detail/ past date rape, kidnapping)

Start a cozy mystery ($3.99!) with dog lovers (no talking pooches) that has four more books in the series to marathon for some pup loving comfort. (Review)

For readers of true crime and memoir, here’s one about a forty year old murder mystery that had become a “rumor” and the Harvard undergrad that heard about it and decided to investigate how a past student’s murder had gone so long unsolved–on sale for $3.99. (Review)

A nonfiction biography that reads like a spy novel for $3.99! (Review)

This is a story we’ve seen before, the “desperate” social climber, but finally with a voice that isn’t a white girl/woman like we are so used to.

From a young age Ivy Lin picks up the habit of stealing things while growing up near Boston and coveting the wealthier things including the son of a political family, Gideon Speyer. That is until her life takes a swift change and she’s shipped off to China, again to face the vast difference between wealth and poverty.

Now as an adult, still wanting the things she believes she deserves, she has an opportunity to once again make her way into Gideon Speyer’s life and have what she covets. But can she be what she pretends long enough to have it?

This does a great job of exploring class, race, obsession, and an antihero within an interesting story as you wonder: will anyone come away from this better?

(TW child abuse/ brief mention of eating disorder, detail/ partner abuse scene/ brief suicidal thought)

A new Megan Abbott book is always something to celebrate! And once again we have an obsession (ballet) and a constant pulsing tension throughout the book that is impossible to ignore. It’s a story about sisters and family and being haunted by the past when you can’t find a footing in the present. A ballet studio was left to two sisters, Dara and Marie, when their parents died in a car accident. Rounding out their family is also Dara’s husband Charlie, who grew up with them and moved in with the family as a teenager. After a fire in the dance studio, they hire a contractor for extensive renovations. But not everyone is on board, and the timing with the ever chaotic and stressful yearly show of The Nutcracker cranks the tension even higher. We watch the constant push and pull of Marie and Dara’s relationship as everything around them, including a new person in their tight-knit group, throws everything off balance. Something is going to give…

Abbott is a master at taking high intensity settings–in this case a ballet studio–and showing all its cracks as the toll on, mostly, girls and women is explored. If you’re looking for a suspenseful crime novel that will stay with you, here’s your next read. Bonus: Abbott has an extensive and fantastic backlist of titles (cheerleading; gymnastics; science; organized crime). Double bonus: her novel Dare Me has a great adaptation that really brought the novel to life and it’s currently streaming on Netflix.

(TW disordered eating and eating disorders/ past alcoholism/ sexual abuse of teen/ suicide scene, detail/ past domestic abuse)

This blends genres and also walks the line of social horror, with the emphasis on social and a sprinkling of horror. I’ve seen a lot of early marketing with “thriller” attached to this and while social thriller can work, for those who hear thriller and think action packed, plot driven, or everything-goes-boom, this is not intended to be that.

It is disquieting and there is a crime, but you’ll have to wait for it. The story takes place in publishing, literally, as Nella Rogers is an editorial assistant. She’s also the only Black woman at work so she’s excited when a new Black woman, Hazel, is hired. But she doesn’t seem to immediately gel with Hazel even though she tries and she can’t help but wonder why. Many of her issues at work and now with Hazel make her think “it could be something or it could be explained away as nothing” which leaves Nella never sure about what is happening. And then she finds a note telling her to leave…

For fans of inside publishing works and past-and-present narratives who like character-driven stories, this should deliver and surprise.

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery series to marathon, want to travel to an Irish village, and like a little bit of a friendly ghost in your murder mystery, pick this one up for $4.99!

I’m currently reading a galley of this book and loving it, which doesn’t actually publish until September. However, it looks like Amazon has added it to Amazon First Reads for $1.99.

If you like past and present mysteries, fictional podcasts, and are looking for an author who has an extensive catalog to dive into, pick up this one for $1.99! (Review)