Author: Jamie Canaves

This is a great genre mix of mystery/heist (second half) and YA contemporary (first half), that is set in the same universe as Firekeeper’s Daughter where Daunis is Perry Firekeeper-Birch’s aunt!

Perry, who has a twin sister with an opposite personality, is planning on doing nothing with her summer but fishing. Except she ends up in a car accident after dropping her twin off at her internship and has to pay her aunt for the repairs. So it’s working at a tribal museum for her instead, which is how she learns about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the way some people and organizations are getting around returning items, including ancestral remains, back to their rightful tribes. The museum is currently holding onto 13 Anishinaabe ancestors and while Perry is doing her best to try and locate sacred items being sold and bought on eBay to recover them, she needs something bigger to return her ancestors. And so a heist it will have to be, but things do not go as planned and Perry isn’t the only one in great danger…

I loved this book, especially Perry and her snarky and caring personality, the juxtaposition with her twin sister, and the past and current Native history explored. Highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc.

(TW victims of sexual assault name assaulter, brief general idea of what happened/ mentions past sexual assault, not graphic/ trichotillomania, anxiety)

For readers of true crime that focuses on a case to look at the broader issue.

Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind disappeared in Fargo, North Dakota during the summer of 2017 at the age of 22 while eight months pregnant. Savanna, a member of North Dakota Spirit Lake Nation, would be found murdered and her baby alive in her upstairs neighbor’s apartment. Gable uses this case to show the long history of violence targeted at Native Americans and the lack of police response.

For fans of domestic suspense with the trope of “do you know who you married?”

Alexis Roberts left the relationship she was in for Marcus, an attorney she met at a fundraiser. Those in her life had concerns: things were going too fast and there were rumors about what happened to his previous wife. But Alexis married the handsome, wealthy man anyways because that’s what you do when you meet the man of your dreams. Now, with Marcus away, Alexis is attacked in her home, barely escaping. Is it time she finally start taking a closer look at who she married?

For fans of domestic suspense.

The title refers to a seven-day retreat where couples go and get a daily question to discuss to work on their marriage. The idea is that you either end up strengthening, solving problem(s), or realizing it’s time to pull the plug on your marriage. It’s where Daisy has decided to take Craig. What neither knows about the other is that Daisy has been hiding since before their marriage and Craig has been having an affair and has his bags packed, ready to leave with his mistress. Now they have one week to figure out if the past will make or break them…

(TW stalker/ domestic violence/ past miscarriage remembered)

For fans of YA mysteries with school settings, and fictional podcasts.

Four high school students were in a car accident that left one of them dead. Spencer Sandoval survived but not without injuries, including no memory of the accident or most of the night. She doesn’t know why she was in the car with her ex Ethan, or what happened, but soon Ethan is accused of being the driver. Making matters worse is a gossip podcast that has plenty of snide to throw out about the students at an elite prep school in LA. So Spencer, with her new service dog in tow, teams up with Ethan’s best friend to get answers.

And the audiobook gives you a multicast: Lori Felipe-Barkin, Inés del Castillo, André Santana, Eunice Wong.

For fans of long running series, archeologist leads, and procedurals!

First, and don’t blame the bearer, this is being marketed as the final Ruth Galloway for now. Dr. Ruth Galloway is dealing with the university she works at threatening to close her department when she’s called to a cafe renovation turned crime scene because they unearthed a skeleton. It turns out the skeleton belongs to a missing archeology student, so Ruth is going to know those on the suspect list…

If you want to start at the beginning of the series pick up The Crossing Places.

For fans of history, music, the art enthused being threatened by shady peeps, and past and present storylines!

Frederick Delaney is a renowned 20th century composer whose legacy included a lost opera. Bern Hendricks, a music professor and an expert on the composer, could not run fast enough at the chance to authenticate what is believed to be the found opera. In the current timeline we watch Bern and Eboni work for the Delaney Foundation to authenticate the piece and learn its history. In the 1920s we watch Frank Delaney in Manhattan meet Josephine Reed, one is a struggling musician and the other is a musical prodigy living on the streets.

1. If the cover is giving you SFF vibes, it isn’t at all — it’s pure YA amateur sleuth mystery.

2. It’s so fun and funny, and one of my favorite characters that I’ve read this year.

Bianca Torre has a lot of anxieties. So many in fact that they have a list! What’s a teen with a lot of fears who is trying to figure out their gender to do? Join a bird watching group of course! And maybe do some spying on neighbors (people watching?) with their binoculars. That’s how Bianca sees a neighbor’s murder, and realizes that after the police label it a suicide, the case must be solved properly. Bianca goes into sleuth mode with their best friend — both anime lovers — even though neither are true crime enthusiasts.

This is one of those books that’s fun, has a large dose of friendship, and makes the mystery solve the right kind of ridiculous. And it looks like Justine Pucella Winans has a middle grade fantasy, The Otherwoods, releasing this fall which I am definitely looking forward to — along with any future books.

(TW suicide assumed in murder case/ anxiety, fears, panic attack/ animal cruelty, bird)

For fans of mystery/thriller with some horror elements, based on real social issues, missing person cases, and unsolved decade old murder.

Anna Horn is a high school student, working at the reservation casino, who has always felt like an entity is following her. To add to her plate, girls are disappearing from her tribe and she’s being bullied at school. She’s trying to find her own place in life and in her tribe when her sister becomes one of the missing girls. Anna has no choice: to bring home her sister she’ll have to figure out who is responsible for the missing girls.

For fans of the trope where former schoolmates reunite years after a deadly accident, only to have bad things happen in the present…

The past: a decade ago, high school students on a trip were in an accident and only nine students survived when the vans they were in ended up in a river. One of the survivors died by suicide a year later.

The present: the eight survivors are going to have their annual reunion in a secluded North Carolina beach, except the day of there’s an obituary and they are now only seven.

The timeline cranks up the suspense between past and present, revealing secrets…

For historical mystery fans!

Kaveri Murthy has already learned what it’s like to be an amateur sleuth, so she shouldn’t be surprised to find herself on another murder mystery when looking into a potential embezzling case for her mother-in-law!

I adored the characters in the first book, The Bangalore Detectives Club, where Kaveri is a wiz at math and a recent newlywed figuring out her life who stumbles upon a murder mystery. I was only bummed out by the use of the mental illness boogeyman trope, but look forward to following Kaveri on another mystery set in 1921 Bangalore!

For fans of thrillers, revenge, and a party setting!

The opening setting is a New Year’s Eve party in Edinburgh. Instead of everyone happily ringing in the new year, two people are found impaled on a railing. Readers then go back in time to follow two women and their friendship through time, building up to get answers, secrets, and revenge for the present…

For fans of domestic suspense!

Sophie and her husband Tariq are on very different career paths. Sophie would like to be known as a famous British Pakistani actress except she’s currently only known on a B-movie level by some and it’s for the unplanned on-camera birth of her son. And she’s being blackmailed, something she’s keeping from her husband by moving around money to pay. Tariq is a pillar of Bradford’s Muslim community when he goes missing, later presumed dead in a car accident that makes identification difficult. Between Sophie’s past, the blackmail, and this being her third marriage, is someone she knows responsible?

For fans of spy novels!

This is a new James Bond trilogy that isn’t really about Bond — while being a nod to and having favorite characters appear — that starts with Bond missing after having been captured by a private military company. We get to know new double-0 MI6 agents: Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. And of course the fate of the world is in their hands and they need to figure out if their current mission is in any way tied to what may have happened to Bond.

For fans of past murder mysteries, coming-of-age stories, and a dash of sci-fi time travel! In the current world, Justin Warren feels like his life has been shaped by his grandparents’ suspicious deaths which Justin wasn’t alive for. But he’s about to get an up close look at the past finding himself in 1985 – 20 years before his birth. Not only are his grandparents alive in this time, but he meets and teams up with Rose Yin – a fellow high schooler, but you know decades apart – because Rose and Justin’s future, and his ability to go back to his time period, rely on them solving the murder of his grandparents before it happens.

For readers of true crime, history, and narrative nonfiction! This is a look at the history of the Ku Klux Klan, D.C. Stephenson’s rise to Grand Dragon in Indiana, and how judges, politicians, ministers, and many in power joined as members controlling the state. Until Stephenson assaulted Madge Oberholtzer, and her deathbed confessional and court case led to Stephenson being sentenced to life in prison.

For fans of past and present stories, multiple POV, small town, and secrets! Three women, one dead: Ciara Dunphy is an influencer with the perfect life; Mishti Guha is stuck in an arranged marriage with an absentee husband/father; Lauren Doyle is the Irish village outcast. Ciara being found dead in her home quickly reveals that the “perfect life” she lived was a lie, as many had reasons to gain from her death…

For fans of past mysteries, snarky humor, and fictional podcasts! Lydia Chass’s entire life plan is immediately endangered when she finds out the school’s counselor messed up and she doesn’t have the credits she needs for college. So the school lets her do a podcast with a focus on the history of the town to make it up. Her focus becomes the town’s Long Stretch of Bad Days: a week that saw a flash flood, tornado, and an unsolved murder. Partnered up with Bristal Jamison, the two teens represent the opposites of the town. Chass is believed to be the wealthy kid, and every Jamison is painted with a wide brush, assumed to be a criminal. At first, their biggest problem is getting along, but soon they’ve added a missing young woman, fallout from Chass’s father representing a defendant the town wants punished, and a lot of things not adding up to the unsolved murder…

I was fully immersed in the audiobook, which is narrated by Brittany Pressley.

(TW mentions of alcoholism/ mentions attempted parental child kidnapping case/ past animal deaths caused by natural disaster/ past domestic violence, brief detail)

For fans of YA mysteries that explore grief, being Asian American, the pressure to succeed in high school, and mental illness. Chase Ohara and Lia Vestiano were best friends who became girlfriends and then broke up six months ago. Lia ended up with a new girlfriend, before she went missing. Now Chase is rattled with guilt because Lia sent her a text she never answered. When Lia’s body is found and her death ruled a suicide, Chase refuses to accept it. Battling her grief, pressure in school, and the loss of her best friend and ex-friend, she resorts to roping Lia’s last girlfriend into helping her find out what happened.

The audiobook is narrated by Natalie Naudus who you may know from many mystery (Mimi Lee Gets a Clue) and romance (One Last Stop) narrations!

(TW addiction to Adderall type drugs/ suicidal thoughts/ past attempted suicide, detail/ panic attack/ mental hospital/ suicide pact, suicide)

For fans of multiple POVs, “revenge” fantasies, and following the killers! Iris, Sissy, and Moody are identical triplets who grew up apart in the foster care system. Now, 25 year olds, Iris and Moody are bringing Sissy into their world of “revenge murder.” They’ve taken all the abuse from growing up and pick a man to have fall in love with them as they plot their murder. Sissy has to pick someone, which she’s all for in her mind as she plans out revenge fantasies. But reality can be different from fantasy and Sissy finds herself having to pick between the man she loves and her sisters…