Author: Jamie Canaves

Hello mystery fans! I’ve got a bunch of May releases you’ll want on your radar including translated crime, a legal thriller, cozy, and plenty of mysteries to solve. (📚= I’ve read and recommend; 📖= currently reading and enjoying.)

Shooting Down Heaven by Jorge Franco, Andrea Rosenberg (Translator): 📖 For literary fans, this follows a group of kids in the ’90s during the height of Colombia’s drug cartels–and the death of Escobar– and their reunion now as adults when one of them returns home.

This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf: 📚 This is a procedural where the cop assigned to the cold case is now working on her childhood best friend’s unsolved murder. It’s told in past and present chapters, both timelines rushing to reveal what happened on that fateful night and who is responsible–everyone is a suspect!

A Deadly Inside Scoop (An Ice Cream Parlor Mystery #1) by Abby Collette: 📖 Really enjoying this cozy mystery that is a return to small-town to run the family business. The business being an ice cream shop (yum!) and the mystery being a dead person that won’t be good for business.

My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir: A dark and unsettling read that uses a house with living feelings and thoughts to tell the tale of the Haitian immigrant family living inside and one man’s abusive behavior.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas: 📖 A school with experimental curriculum in the rural Pennsylvania woods is the setting for this gothic suspense that of course has a group of friends and secrets to be uncovered…

A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight: A friend back from law school calls Lizzie Kitsakis from Rikers needing her help. He’s the main suspect in his wife’s death…

 

Death in the East (Sam Wyndham #4) by Abir Mukherjee: I adore this historical mystery series about a Scottish detective working in 1922 Calcutta, India. This time around his British past comes to find him twenty years later… The only reason I haven’t already inhaled this book is I don’t have a galley–seriously, I love this series.

I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me by Juan Pablo Villalobos, Daniel Hahn (Translator): Labeled as part campus novel and part gangster thriller, this Spanish prize-winning novel follows Juan Pablo Villalobos, a Mexican student on his way to Spain, who gets kidnapped and forced by gangsters to make a corrupt politician’s daughter fall in love with him–or his cousin will die…

The Boy in the Red Dress by Kristin Lambert: Historical fic set in 1920’s New Orleans with a murder mystery for fans of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery.

Sister Dear by Hannah Mary McKinnon: This sounds like a revenge thriller–when Eleanor’s dad dies she finds out he wasn’t her biological father and the man that is, instead chose another family. With a daughter that is Eleanor’s half-sister, and that half-sister is going to pay apparently.

What You Don’t See (Cass Raines, #3) by Tracy Clark: 📚 This is a great recent PI series set in Chicago, following a former cop with a great support system reluctantly taking on cases that are usually annoying to her–this time an abrasive media empire owner needs protection from a stalker…

Silence on Cold River by Casey Dunn: Ama Chaplin is a defense attorney in Georgia who left her life behind and previous name behind in Atlanta. Now a sociopath who was a teen she defended seventeen years ago is in front of her and has plans…And only one person, a grieving suicidal father, believes something happened to her and goes into the woods with a shotgun to find out.

The Silence by Susan Allott: 📖 Here’s an Australian mystery, part historical, about two neighboring families, a woman that disappeared in the ’60s, and the man now suspected of having something to do with the disappearance. You know I’m always in for any mystery that is going to have all the secrets coming out.

The Scotland Yard Puzzle Book: Test Your Inner Detective by Solving Some of the World’s Most Difficult Cases by Sinclair McKay: You read all the mystery books, but are you ready to be a detective? Find out by trying to solve these cases!

These Women by Ivy Pochoda: For fans of literary novels, fictional serial killers where the victims are the ones given voice, and gritty L.A novels.

The Last Trial (Kindle County Legal Thriller #11) by Scott Turow: A legal thriller where an 85-year-old defense lawyer takes on a final case of a friend charged with insider trading, fraud, and murder and this final case will put his career in jeopardy and challenge whether he ever knew his friend…

Hard Cash Valley (Bull Mountain #3) by Brian Panowich: This is a gritty southern noir series that has been optioned for television so you’ll want to get the books read before the adaptation.

Hunting November (Killing November #2) by Adriana Mather: The sequel to Killing November, about an elite boarding school training the elite’s kids to be the next generation of assassins and spies. This is one you need to start at the beginning with.

Westside Saints (Westside #2) by W.M. Akers: The sequel to Westside which is a genre blend of detective fic, historical fic, and fantasy set in a reimagined Jazz Age New York!

America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster by Mary Kay McBrayer: Fellow Rioter, and writer of our horror newsletter, McBrayer novelizes 19th-century serial poisoner Jane Toppan.

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

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

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 made it to May of this century that is 2020 and another weekend–if weekends are still a thing for you. Anyhoo, I’ve got some distractions in the form of interesting things to read, watch, and I’ve loaded you up on great Kindle deals.

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

A Brief Tour into the World of Cozy Mystery Authors

While they are self-quarantining, Rincey and Katie tackle some of the oldest mystery and true crime books on their TBR in the latest Read or Dead.

Five True Crime Books You Should Read This Month

Goodreads Employees Recommend Their Favorite Mysteries

Suspense, Mystery and Thriller Must-Read Books by Women Writers of Color to Read in 2020

Win a Copy of FIGHT CLUB 3 by Chuck Palahniuk!

News And Adaptations

Lambda Literary is asking for donations in order to continue operations.

Move over Veruca Salt, I NEED THIS NOW: exclusive preview of The Searcher by Tana French!

HBO Max sets launch date, unveils first look at new shows: Kaley Cuoco’s The Flight Attendant, and more.

Free YA audiobooks through summer! (I love this program and look forward to it every year and there are fantastic crime books you should run to if you haven’t already: The 57 Bus; Monday’s Not Coming; Burn Baby Burn)

Matthew Rhys as Perry Mason is coming to HBO in a new series–focusing on the attorney’s early career, based on Erle Stanley Gardner detective fiction. For fans of Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany will also star, and John Lithgow who has been in a million things. And here’s the trailer.

How Much of ‘Home Before Dark’ Is Based On The Real Hilde Lysiak?

Watch Now

On HBO Go: The Kitchen, adapted from the same titled graphic novel by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle, stars Tiffany Haddish, Melissa McCarthy, and Elisabeth Moss as mobsters’ wives who take over when their husbands end up in prison. Watch the trailer.

Kindle Deals

If you’re looking for slow burn suspense with a bite: Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is $4.99! (Review) (TW domestic abuse/past suicide mentioned, detail)

Indian Summer Meets Agatha Christie: I’ll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie is $1.99! (Review) (TW suicide)

For a great British procedural that launches a great new series: The Birdwatcher by William Shaw is $2.99! (Review) (TW suicide, detail)

If you’re looking for a super good legal thriller + mystery + everyone’s got secrets: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim is $3.99 (Review) (TW child abuse/ suicide/ sexual assault)

And for a creepy-ish British serial killer read: The Whisper Man by Alex North is $2.99! (Review) (TW addiction/ child abuse, murder/ pedophile)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

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

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 a translated slowburn suspense from Korea, con women, and a graphic novel thriller where the cat and mouse game is literally up Mount Everest. Hopefully you’ll find some distraction in these books.

The Only Child by Mi-ae Seo, Jung Yewon (Translator): This is a slowburn suspense novel, with low grade creep factor, that doesn’t feel written for shock value but rather is an exploration of nature vs nurture. Seonkyeong is a recently married young criminal psychologist who finds her work and home life upended in different ways: an imprisoned serial killer suddenly decides he wants to talk, but only to Seonkyeong–this is why the book has comps to Silence Of The Lambs, which is the only similarity since tone and violence are all very different from each other. As she starts meeting with the serial killer, her home life suddenly changes when her husband’s young daughter, who she didn’t know of, has to come live with them. It seems that after the young girl’s mother died, and her grandparents took her in, her grandparents also died…

Readers follow as Seonkyeong tries to understand why the serial killer chose her, why her husband never mentioned a child, and questionable behavior from her stepdaughter. This is a great pick for fans of Kanae Minato and I really wish more crime novels would be translated. I love seeing the difference in society, investigation methods, laws, and even just the difference in what may be considered shocking or dark. (TW suicide mention/ child abuse/ animal cruelty)

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown: A layered crime novel that follows a con woman, Nina, and her mark, Vanessa, while exploring family, resentment, loyalty, and revenge. Nina grew up with a con woman mom who placed all her hope in her daughter never having to live that life and instead go to college and get a proper career. What Nina’s mom doesn’t know is Nina’s already a con woman. With a partner. So after her mom’s cancer returns and the treatment is too costly, Nina decides to pull a con that will solve their financial problems. Her mark? The sister of a high school boyfriend whose wealthy family ran her and her mom out of town years ago.

I’d say “let the games begin” but really this novel is more on the side of why people do what they do, giving us first row seats to the inner thoughts, behavior and life of Nina and Vanessa, alternating point of view between the two women now and their lives growing up. If you need something solid to sink into, this story will take you deep into the class war between these characters, while adding interesting things like what the life of a con woman and Instagram influencer are like. I recommend the multicast audiobook if you really want to be submerged into these women’s lives, dramas, and crimes. (TW parents with cancer, including death/ past child abuse/ mentions past molestation / past suicide, detail)

High Crimes by Christopher Sebela, Ibrahim Moustafa (Illustrations): This graphic novel has a hell of a premise and certainly one I’d never read before: two people who find dead climbers on Everest, chop off their hands to identify the person, then offer the person’s family a chance to get their loved one’s body back–for a fee of course. This is a crime thriller so, naturally, something goes wrong. The wrong just happens to be that a body they identify is from a secret agency and that agency is coming for the body and the retrievers. The cat and mouse game takes place mostly up Everest while you get flashbacks of the dead agent, slowly revealing more about the agency, and Zan Jensen, one of the “grave robbers”, who happens to be a disgraced Olympic snowboarder with a lot of baggage and demons that she’s kind of working through but definitely full-on struggling with.

I love graphic novels and find that even when I’m struggling to read ebooks/print I can always read a graphic novel. Plus, you get human and environmental dangers if you’re looking to get out of your head and your living quarters for a while. (TW torture/ addiction, overdose/ suicide, including thoughts, details)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

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

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