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Unusual Suspects

You’ll Love These Books With Unreliable Narrators

Hello, mystery fans! I had a fun time watching Bottoms, and I’ll sum it up by saying, “Make more weird films and TV, you cowards!”

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a sticker sheet with 8 bookish stickers including of Black women reading and hugging books

Bookish chapter stickers by eboniismoon

A lovely sticker sheet for book lovers. ($5)

New Releases

cover image for Village in the Dark

Village in the Dark (Cara Kennedy #2) by Iris Yamashita

For fans of procedurals, multiple points of view, past and present cases — including a personal one for the lead detective!

First, a bit about the series as a whole: the first book, City Under One Roof, introduces us to Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy about a year after her son and husband died during a camping trip. She’s on a case in the remote Point Mettier that ends up having the access bridge closed during a snowstorm. This sequel takes us into the death of her husband and son, and it does tell you the solve from the first book, so you may want to start there if that matters to you. If it does not, you won’t be lost or confused starting here.

Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy now has questions about what happened to her husband and son when they went missing, later found dead, during a hike. She’s having their bodies exhumed, and she’s getting their DNA tested again after a gang member was found with photographs of her family from the trip. Even more WTF-y is that every other person in those photographs is missing or dead. One of the missing we get to know is a woman living in Unity, an isolated village that offers protection to women and children hiding from abuse. How does this all connect? And what actually happened to Kennedy’s husband and son?

If you enjoy multicast audiobooks, go with that format, narrated by Sophie Oda, Blaire Chandler, and Aspen Vincent.

(TW past child death/ domestic abuse/ mentions past sexual assault/ off page addiction, overdose death suspected/ past miscarriage mention/ traditional hunting/ terminal lung cancer, not main characters/ mentions past child abuse/ dementia)

cover image for The Framed Women of Ardemore House

The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Schillace

For fans of book editor amateur sleuths, inheritance, and English country estates!

Jo Jones, an autistic book editor working in NY, leaves her current life for an abandoned country estate in England following her mother’s death. It’s the perfect opportunity to start her life fresh and put her energy into restoring the estate. But it’s a mystery, so you know she’s going to instead happen upon a murder: Sid Randles, caretaker, dead in the cottage. She obviously reports this to the local police, along with a woman she saw disappear, but since she’s autistic and from NY, the police take the skeptical shitty approach to the case. So Jo, along with some people she’s befriended in town, get to sleuthing!

This is one of my most anticipated 2024 mystery reads, and the only reason I haven’t gotten to it yet was HarperCollins no longer has an ALC (Advanced Listening Copy) program, and I wanted to read this book in audiobook, so I had to wait until pub day. (Life, it is so hard.)

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Here are two crime books that have multiple POVs and a (fictional) true crime book/writer focusing on the unsolved case in the book.

The Aosawa Murders cover image

The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts

For fans of translated Japanese novels, multiple POVs, and a narrative structured as responses to an interviewer!

The unsolved case: In the 1970s, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, the Aosawa family hosted a party where almost 20 people died from cyanide poisoning, which was inside drinks delivered as gifts.

The (fictional) true crime writer: More than 30 years later, Makiko Saiga, who was a neighbor child at the time, wrote a book about the crimes and is now talking to an interviewer about the case.

cover image for The Nothing Man

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

For fans of cat-and-mouse thrillers, Irish settings, and dual-narrated audiobooks!

The unsolved case: A serial killer murdered a family with only a little girl escaping.

The (fictional) true crime writer: Eve Black is that little girl, now an adult, who has written a true crime book about her case. We read her book and also the serial killer’s POV as he reads it too…

If you’re always in need of a page-turning thriller, Howard has yet to disappoint me. In no particular order, also check out 56 Days, Run Time, The Trap, and The Liar’s Girl.

(TW rape/ domestic abuse/ mentions suicide, detail)

News and Roundups

Diary of an Abomination (an excerpt from My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two)

Unreliable narrators, food detectives, and more exciting February reads

Amazon Prime Video Ad Tier Sparks Class Action Lawsuit From Subscribers

Anthology in the darkness: True Detective: Night Country features some of Jodie Foster’s best work

15 Thrilling Movies Where the Mystery Doesn’t Get Solved

Trust Us: You’ll Love These Books With Unreliable Narrators

Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith Is The Reimagining You Didn’t Know That You Wanted

Over 600 writers have signed this open letter to PEN America.

Autauga-Prattville Library Board Bans LGBTQ+ Books for Under 17s; Red Labeling Queer Adult Books

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

WATSON Drama With Morris Chestnut a Go at CBS

Hello, mystery fans! The Marvels is now on Disney+ if you’re in need of something fun with a hilarious surprise. And streamers need to get their shit together because there really needs to be a season two of Ms. Marvel!

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a tote bag to look like "thank you" shopping bags but with text saying in repeat "sorry I'm late" and at the end "I didn't want to stop reading"

Sorry I’m late I didn’t want to stop reading tote by booksrbtrthanreality

If you’re looking for a new tote bag and don’t want to explain your late entrances, here you go. ($25)

New Releases

cover image for Cosplay Crime

Cosplay Crime by Marty Chan

For fans of middle grade mysteries that focus on a theft with a fun setting and friendship!

Young teens Bree and Alix are best friends having a great time at the Anime Expo. Bree is especially excited to meet the voice actor from her favorite series—she is after all dressed as Red Squirrel! But the panel is cancelled after an expensive print is stolen, so naturally, it’s time for Bree to put on her amateur sleuth hat! Not so easy, though, at a convention where everyone is in costumes and masks…

cover image for The Spy and I

The Spy and I by Tiana Smith

For fans of romantic thrillers—especially if you love “chick-lit,” action, and spies!

Dove Barkley has one of those cool-sounding jobs: she is paid to hack into companies’ networks to show them where their vulnerabilities are. That’s as much excitement as Dove would like in her life, so she’s not really thrilled when a man is murdered in front of her, and a CIA agent claims to be her sister’s partner—which is how Dove learns her twin is a spy! She’s roped into the mission, trying to find her sister and basically trying to stay alive. Oh, and her sister’s partner, Mendez, seems to be short-circuiting Dove’s brain, even though she’s certain this is not the time for romance and doubting everything he’s told her about himself…

Reach for this one when you need a fun action read that throws romance into the mix.

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Here are some mystery/thrillers with lawyer leads! Both are series starters, so if you read them when they were first published and have yet to continue, take this as a reminder to pick up the next in the series.

cover image for By Way Of Sorrow

By Way of Sorrow (Erin McCabe Mysteries #1) by Robyn Gigl

Erin McCabe has been hired to defend Sharise, who is accused of murdering a prominent New Jersey man’s son. Sharise, a Black transgender woman, is being held in a male prison and says the murder was in self-defense. McCabe knows firsthand the dangers transgender people face and also thinks there might be more to this case than has been shared with her. As McCabe manages her personal life and career, she and her ex-FBI partner realize Sharise’s life and their own lives are in danger as witnesses in their case start dropping dead.

Continue the series with Survivor’s Guilt and Remain Silent!

(TW transphobia/ misgendering/ mentions groping and sexual assault threats in prison/ child abuse scene/ murder made to look like suicide, detail/ brief mention past cancer death, not graphic)

cover of while justice sleeps by stacey abrams

While Justice Sleeps (Avery Keene #1) by Stacey Abrams

Avery Keene is the most shocked upon learning that Justice Howard Wynn is in a coma and he’s left her, his law clerk, power of attorney. His estranged family is also shocked and really not happy. To find out what happened to Howard, why he left her in charge, and to keep herself safe, she’ll have to dig into his cases, work, and personal life.

Pick up the sequel, Rogue Justice!

(TW attempted suicide, detail/ addiction/ briefly threatens sexual assault, doesn’t/ degenerative brain disorder/ genocide/ Islamophobia)

News and Roundups

Crime Writers of Color Podcast: Danielle Arceneaux, author of Glory Be is interviewed by Robert Justice.

Watson Drama With Morris Chestnut a Go at CBS

Iliad on the Strip: PW Talks with Don Winslow

Waunakee writer gets national attention for murder-mystery Northwoods

Watch every movie trailer that aired during Super Bowl 2024

The Final Days of Coyote vs. Acme: Offers, Rejections, and a Roadrunner Race Against Time | Exclusive

14 February 2024 Book Club Picks, From Reese’s Book Club To Sapph-Lit

Apple TV+’s 2024 lineup, including the Lady in the Lake adaptation (Laura Lippman)

LeVar Burton Responds to Book Bans with Reading Rainbow Video

Why Do We Even Read?

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

Idaho Murders Docuseries Reveals How Dangerous Internet Sleuths Can Be: THEY ARE NOT QUALIFIED

Hi, mystery fans! Carla Hall has a new food show on Max, Chasing Flavor, and it is as delightful and adventurous as she is! My only complaint is no one has designed TVs where I can grab and eat the food on the screen.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

6 stickers with watercolor style illustrations of bookmobiles in different weather

Mobile Bookshop Sticker Bundle by TerraVCo

I love bookmobiles, and I found these illustrations lovely. ($19 — they’re also sold individually if you prefer.)

New Releases

cover image for A Matrimonial Murder

A Matrimonial Murder (Temple Hill Mystery #2) by Meeti Shroff-Shah

For fans of armchair traveling while solving a murder mystery and novelist-turned-amateur sleuth MCs!

Novelist Radhi Zaveri is once again finding herself solving a murder mystery: the killing of a matchmaker’s assistant in Mumbai. With a long list of clients (any who could have motive), first, Radhi will have to figure out if the assistant was even the target or the actual matchmaker.

If you want to start at the beginning, pick up A Mumbai Murder Mystery.

cover image for The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

For fans of stories where wills leave someone a business and a mystery, British murder mysteries, and antiques (C.L. Miller is the daughter of the late Judith Miller of the BBC Antiques Roadshow)!

Divorced and with a kid in college, Freya Lockwood learns that the man she tracked down valuable antiques with 20 years ago has died and left her and her aunt his business in a small English village. But that’s not all he left: there’s also a cryptic letter for Freya that she’s about to realize puts her on the hunt for his murderer…

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Based on two new releases of things to watch, I thought I’d give “buddy” book recs.

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson cover image

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Film: Lisa Frankenstein, written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) and directed by Zelda Williams (Robin Williams’s daughter), is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and is now playing in theaters. It’s a horror comedy following a teen girl struggling with her new family dynamic and hanging out in the cemetery when she accidentally brings a dead guy to life.

Book: While the film and this book have different plots, I immediately thought of this book when I heard about the film: misunderstood teen lead, bringing back a dead person, living teen + the “dead” teaming up, the Lisa Frank aesthetic, and the fun, smart, humor mix! Plus, in the book, you get the bonus of a mystery: the mean girls accidentally brought back to life were murdered, but by who?

furious hours cover image

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

Series: Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (an 8-episode limited series on FX that you can stream on Hulu) is based on the book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer. It’s about Truman Capote, known for his true crime book In Cold Blood, and his final novel, which he spent years talking about but never published, as he befriended a group of wealthy women he called his Swans, and the betrayal that led to them never speaking to him again. The series has a hell of a cast if you grew up when I did: Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, Diane Lane as Slim Keith, Chloë Sevigny as C. Z. Guest, Calista Flockhart as Lee Radziwill, Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson.

Book: This is a super interesting true crime + history + biography that delves into the story of a serial killer preacher, the lawyer who defended the preacher and then defended the man who killed the preacher (!), Harper Lee’s (To Kill a Mockingbird) research for Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and how Lee wrote about the preacher’s case because she wanted to write her own true crime book. Did you wonder how I was going to pull this all together? Always have faith in my twisty, turny brain!

News and Roundups

Missouri Secretary of State Candidate Promises to Burn Books

Anna Diop Joins Corey Hawkins, Willem Dafoe in The Man in My Basement (an adaptation of Walter Mosley’s The Man in My Basement)

Idaho Murders Docuseries Reveals How Dangerous Internet Sleuths Can Be: They Are Not Qualified

Downton Abbey and Line of Duty stars team up for new Netflix crime series – and it sounds gripping (based on The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen)

Legal Worlds Collide When the Suits Cast Meets Judge Judy in e.l.f. Cosmetics’ Super Bowl Spot

Breaking the Dark: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel Author Lisa Jewell Shatters the Promise of Perfection

Black-Owned Bookish Etsy Shops for You to Support

First Look at Sugar, Colin Farrell’s Slick Detective Series Inspired by ’40s Noir

Hijack, Starring Idris Elba, Renewed at Apple TV+

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

ARGYLLE Might Be Bombing, But at Least Its Fake Author Mystery Has Been Solved

Hello, mystery fans! I was so incredibly happy to see Tracy Chapman at the Grammys that I am still playing her performance with Luke Combs on repeat.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

two bookmarks one with an illustration of a white goose that says "you're on this page silly goose" and the other with just a bunch of white geese on a beige background

Silly goose bookmark by CuppaSeriously

I regularly get yelled at by geese and can confirm they are this cute but not this friendly if you’re in “their” territory. Still love them and would recommend. ($4)

New Releases

cover image for When She Left

When She Left by E.A. Aymar

For fans of a reluctant assassin, mob books, multiple POV, and people-on-the-run crime books!

Melissa Cruz commits no crime when she leaves her boyfriend, Chris, for Jake, a photographer she meets. But Chris is part of an organized crime family, so Melissa and Jake are forced on the run, and Chris hires the family’s assassin, Lucky Wilson, to go after them. But Lucky doesn’t want to be an assassin anymore; it’s greatly affecting him and has him in a cycle of panic attacks. So he strikes a deal with Chris: one last job, and he’s out. What could go wrong?

cover image for Prima Facie

Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

(TW rape)

This is based on the same-titled play which has been awarded an Olivier and Tony Award and starred Jodie Comer (from Killing Eve!). Comer also narrates the audiobook which is exceptional!

Tessa Ensler is a criminal defense barrister who tells us stories of hardship growing up, going to law school, and her current cases where she deeply believes that the justice system always works as it should—including when she defends clients accused of rape. Then she’s raped by a co-worker who she has begun dating, and she is put through what rape victims endure if they want to take their assaulter to trial.

This is a sharp legal novel—Comer deserves all the awards—and I highly recommend also reading the memoir versions of #MeToo stories, including Know My Name by Chanel Miller, Black Box by Shiori Itō, and Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke. And for nonfic/memoirs that aren’t specifically about sexual assault but do delve into the author’s experience with sexual assault, these are must-reads: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler, Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba, and Inverse Cowgirl by Alicia Roth Weigel, Jonathan Van Ness (Foreword).

(TW past domestic abuse/ sexual assault on page, rape culture, sexual assault cases)

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

A thing I am doing this year is catching up on some of my favorite series, which I am behind on for reasons that have nothing to do with the books: I was waiting for the format I wanted, I was spacing them out to not run out of them, and there are so many freaking books I want to read right this second but puny human brains don’t allow for reading multiple books at the exact same time. So, along with catching up with The Murderbot Diaries and finishing An Ember in the Ashes series, I’m working my way through the series below this year.

audibook cover for Bury Me When I'm Dead

Bury Me When I’m Dead by Cheryl A. Head

I love that this series features a team of PIs, which makes it feel like many of my favorite procedural TV shows that walk you through a case from beginning to end while putting them in danger and also having real relationships of friendship, partnership, and also major head-butting as happens in teams.

(TW parent early-stage Alzheimer’s/ ableism/ forced vasectomy on teen)

The Spellman Files cover image

The Spellman Files (The Spellmans #1) by Lisa Lutz

I love that this is a family of PIs—focusing on the middle child—that is full of shenanigans, dark humor, case-solving, and the kind of ridiculousness I love and appreciate.

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

News and Roundups

Attica Locke’s third book in the Highway 59 series comes out this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you’ve yet to read Bluebird, Bluebird, and Heaven, My Home, I am very much suggesting you go do that right now. I am a non-rereader am seriously debating doing both on audio before the third book.

Inside the Writer’s Studio: Charlie talks with British mystery writer Janice Hallett about her novel The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. They discuss writing in documentary form, cold cases, religion, cults, classic mysteries, journalistic ethics, and much more.

The 12 Best Thriller Movies of 2024 (So Far)

Tim Burton to Direct Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman Remake With Gone Girl Author Gillian Flynn

Police raided George Pelecanos’ home. 15 years later, he’s ready to write about it

Tirzah Price revealed the cover for her upcoming In Want of a Suspect, “out from @harperteen on November 12, 2024! This is a Lizzie and Darcy spin-off and features murder, mayhem, a cute dog, and more shenanigans! Cover art by Emma Condon and design by Corina Lupp!”

S.A. Cosby is one of the hottest authors in crime fiction, and his new novel, All The Sinners Bleed, continues his momentum. CBS News’ Jeff Glor talks with Cosby in his Virginia hometown to discuss his novels, career, and more.

Argylle might be bombing, but at least its fake author mystery has been solved.

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

HBO to Develop Gillian Flynn’s Novel DARK PLACES as a Limited Series

Hi, mystery fans! I hate that things like this have to exist, but here’s the great show Abbott Elementary (which returns in February with a new season!) being the helpers we need.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

illustrated sticker of a mint colored dinosaur with a giant stack of books that says Readosaurus

Reading dinosaur sticker by namicraftlove

Would follow this little pudding pop to its cave of books, no questions asked! ($5)

New Releases

cover image for Almost Surely Dead

Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar

For fans of psychological thrillers with a genre blend, fictional true crime podcasts, and past and present stories!

A pharmacist in NY, Dunia Ahmed, finds her life suddenly in danger multiple times — the first attempt is when someone tries to push her in front of a subway train. But now Dania is missing and considered dead. What happened? Will the answer lie in the true crime podcast transcripts?

cover image for The Expectant Detectives

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes

For fans of funny new cozy series, murder mysteries, rural settings, and amateur sleuths!

Alice and Joe are just weeks away from her due date when they up and move from London to a small village for a quiet life. But you don’t get quiet in cozy mysteries! During a birthing class, where a fellow student goes into labor, a shop owner downstairs dies. What’s Alice to do? Join forces with fellow birthing class ladies to solve the crime! Bonus: if you’re not a fan of waiting a long time for the sequel, you’ll only have to wait until the beginning of summer for Dead Tired.

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

I’m going to skip doing the third Read Harder prompt for middle grade horror because I’ve recently covered the books I’d select: The Keeper by Guadalupe García McCall and Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye by Tania del Rio and Will Staehle (Illustrator). Instead, here are two great options if you want to do the fourth prompt but add in true crime: Read a history book by a BIPOC author. Bonus: both have great audiobooks.

The Golden Thread cover image

The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld by Ravi Somaiya

History: The focus is on the history of the United Nations, but you also get a lot of other history, like of the Congo.

True crime: Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, died in a plane crash along with everyone on board in 1961. The case, fueled with plenty of theories (many conspiracies), has remained unsolved, with the UN waiting until 2014 for anyone to be appointed to look into the case.

I regularly think about a quote from this book and how sadly applicable it continues to be: “Nobody could call them off — only wind them up, set them off, and semi-legitimately deny any involvement in the destruction that followed.”

(TW attempted suicide recounted, detail/ mentions group rape not detailed or graphic)

cover image for Tremors in the Blood

Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector by Amit Katwala

History: The history of the lie detector, along with criminal justice/forensics, and the history of crime at the turn of the century.

True crime: Katwala takes readers into the courtroom for a dive into cases throughout history where the lie detector was used, including in deciding whether to execute a person or not.

(TW domestic violence/ brief mentions of past child sexual assault, no detail/ suicide, detail, including murder-suicide)

News and Roundups

The 2024 Audie Award Finalists (Lots of favorite authors and great books on this list — S.A. Cosby up for Audiobook of the Year AND best thriller.)

With Mindy Kaling in her corner, author Amina Akhtar sets out to shake rather than strangle stereotypes

Love streaming on Prime? Amazon will now force you to watch ads unless you pay more

Bookish Valentine’s Day Cards for Friends and Lovers

End of Story: Controversial Author A.J. Finally Set to Release His Second Novel

HBO to Develop Gillian Flynn’s Novel Dark Places as a Limited Series

Washington State Introduces, Advances School Anti-Book Ban Bill

No, Argylle won’t be on Netflix after theaters (but it will be on another streamer)

Rhode Island native Kali Reis on starring in True Detective: Night CountryThe Boston Globe

Julia Roberts Thriller Leave the World Behind Enters Netflix’s All-Time List of Most-Watched Films

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

Amanda Seyfried To Headline Limited Series ‘Long Bright River’ For Peacock

Hi, mystery fans! If you’re a Nintendo Switch player, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying playing Rayman® Legends Definitive Edition — it’s fun, just the right amount of increasingly challenging, and reminds me of a combo of the things I like about Nintendo’s Super Mario and Sega’s Sonic. My current life mission is beating this game! (“You gotta have a goal. Do you have a goal?”)

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

book stud earrings of three books stacked on each other

Book Stud Earrings by OliveAndIvyByWhitney

These are lovely stud earrings for book lovers — and make a great gift. ($10)

New Releases

cover image for Wander in the Dark

Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

For fans of YA murder mysteries, family drama, siblings (brothers), and amateur sleuths!

At the heart of this murder mystery are two half-brothers: Amir and Marcel Trudeau. They aren’t on speaking terms, rooted in their mothers’ dislike of each other and their father raising one son while essentially having left the other. Amir ultimately goes to Marcel’s 16th birthday party, though, because of a girl, which turns out terribly for everyone: the girl is murdered, Amir is the suspect, and now Marcel and Amir are forced to hash out their family issues and solve a murder.

I really enjoyed the balance of the family drama, Amir and Marcel fighting their way to a better relationship, Marcel investigating, the New Orleans setting, and the dive into the prejudice in our justice system and our current media.

I love that the audiobook gave each brother his own narrator: Kevin R. Free and Nile Bullock.

I also really enjoyed Emill’s previous YA murder mystery, The Black Queen, and look forward to future books.

(TW past animal cruelty)

cover image for Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (Ernest Cunningham #2) by Benjamin Stevenson

For fans of author main characters, bookish books, remote mysteries, and murder mysteries where a handful of people are all suspects with motives!

Author Ernest Cunningham is invited to attend the 50th Australian Mystery Writers’ Festival to be on writing panels, along with bestselling authors, while on a luxury train traveling the Australian desert. Surely (don’t call me Shirley!), you can see all the delicious mystery tropes ahead: an author is murdered, and the fellow authors become both prime suspects and essentially “detectives” to find out what actually happened!

You don’t need to read the first in the series — they can each be read as standalones — but it’s a fun, creative, remote mystery if you’re interested: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

If you’re a fan of adaptations, here are two January mystery/crime adaptations that are under the radar.

cover image for Eileen

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

The book: For fans of character-driven novels following a desperate, self-loathing woman who is slowly building up to an ending of crime/suspense! Eileen Dunlop explains how, in the 1960s, at age 24, she disappeared from the small town where she worked at a boy’s prison.

The adaptation: The film, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin Katherin, is available on VOD and DVD at the moment.

Watch the trailer!

cover image for The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The book: For fans of classic detective novels! A simple enough case at the start turns into anything, but when Miss Wonderley hires Detective Spade to locate her eloped sister, only Spade’s partner ends up shot, and Spade is now being hunted…

The adaptation: Monsieur Spade, starring Clive Owen, takes us into the detective’s retirement (30 years after the novel’s setting) for a “one more case” plot. It’s currently playing on AMC and streaming on AMC+.

Watch the trailer!

News and Roundups

5 of the Internet’s Theories About the Author of Argylle, From Most to Least Ridiculous

Congrats to all the finalists and the crime books Vengeance Is Mine by Marie NDiaye, Judgment and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs by Martin J. Siegel, and Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba: 2024 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced

Fascinating and soothing to watch: Syndetics Unbound’s year-end “Top Titles” list for all of 2023!

Amanda Seyfried To Headline Limited Series Long Bright River For Peacock

2023’s Most Influential Authors Reveal The 2024 Novels They’re Most Excited To Read

As Long As It Isn’t True: A Literary Scandals Podcast — Friends With the Monster: Truman Capote’s ANSWERED PRAYERS

Bookish Valentine’s Day Sweatshirts to Celebrate Your One True Love

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

Winter/Spring 2024 Adaptations Releasing

Hi, mystery fans! I will watch anything that Michelle Yeoh is in, so my weekend plans absolutely include watching her new movie on Netflix, which looks like a dark comedy crime family film: The Brothers Sun.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a red t-shirt with an opened book graphic illustration and text that says "read your heart out"

Read Your Heart Out tee by ChickenTee

This one comes in a ton of options, plus it has about 28 colors to choose from. ($15)

New Releases

cover image for Silent Judgement

Silent Judgment by Zaire Crown

For fans of urban thrillers, assassins, and plots that feel like they’re ripped from the headlines!

Amelia Chess is a Black conservative TV personality who has made herself known for attacking marginalized communities, including her own. Now, after her most recent opinion on a police shooting, she is faced with death threats, and a bodyguard is brought in. Silence, known as a street executioner, has zero desire to be Amelia’s bodyguard, but he has no option when a kingpin calls in an owed favor…

not dead enough book cover

Not Dead Enough by Tyffany D. Neiheiser

For fans of YA thrillers and the how-is-the-dead-guy-messaging-me?! trope.

Charlotte is a high school junior with PTSD: her boyfriend Jerry, who was physically abusive, died in a car accident she survived on prom night. She’s doing her best to put her life back together while keeping the past abuse secret…until she suddenly starts receiving messages from Jerry’s phone and is forced to face the past and question: if the ghost of Jerry isn’t after her, then who is…?

For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.

Riot Recommendations

Danika Ellis, who is steering Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge, has also been offering helpful selections for other book challenges, including PopSugar’s 2024 reading challenge. Being that the first reading challenge I ever did (years back) was PopSugar’s, I thought it would be fun to offer some mystery book options for some of the first prompts.

Patron Saints of Nothing cover image

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

#2: a Bildungsroman / coming-of-age story

For the challenge: you have a teen boy navigating identity, culture, and finding his way and place when his roots can feel as if they conflict with his current daily life.

Adding a mystery: Jay Reguero is a senior in high school when he learns that his cousin Jun has died in the Philippines. Unable to comprehend how Jun died in relation to the Government’s current war on drugs, he plans on spending his spring break in the Philippines with family as a cover to investigate Jun’s death.

Bonus: the audiobook is narrated by Ramón de Ocampo (Red, White, and Royal Blue)!

(TW addiction/ discussions of sex trafficking/ past rape, not detailed)

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng book cover

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng

#5: a book about K-pop

For the challenge: An all-girl pop group disbanded after a member died by suicide. Now, one of the past members signs up for a K-pop workshop with the chance to train in Korea.

Adding a mystery (thriller/ psychological horror): While one past group member is in the workshop to become a K-pop star, another past group member has arrived to infiltrate and find out what really happened to the past member that died…

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing cover image

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Szymiczkowa

#13: A book originally published under a pen name

For the challenge: Maryla Szymiczkowa is the pen name for Jacek Dehnel and his partner Piotr Tarczyński, who currently live in Warsaw.

Adding a mystery: Zofia Turbotynska is bored with her life in 1893 Cracow, Poland. She’s 38 and married to a professor who doesn’t value all the help she’s given to his career. So when a woman disappears from a nursing home, Zofia naturally decides to investigate herself — she is smart and loves mystery novels, so why not!

(TW mentions infertility/ discussions of addiction/ past domestic abuse mentioned)

News and Roundups

Alex Segura returns to the scene of the comic book crime with the new novel Alter Ego (Secret Identity follow-up!)

Congrats to the mystery books that won at the ALA Youth Media Awards winners (and also all the other genre books): The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist (The Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children) and Promise Boys (The Odyssey Award for best audiobook production).

Monsieur Spade Makes Clive Owen a Classic Noir Hero in the Best Kind of Fanfiction: TV Review

Hey YA Extra Credit: Madcap Mysteries

Winter/Spring 2024 Adaptation Preview

(At least 5 adaptations!) Oscar Nominations 2024: Oppenheimer Dominates With 13 Nods, Poor Things Follows With 11

This British Miniseries Pairs Jane Austen With a Murder Mystery

Defunding liberal arts is dangerous for health care: “Through literature, poetry, theater, and visual arts, students acquire important professional capacities, such as tolerance of ambiguity, skillful clinical communication, and sensitivity in listening to and learning from patient stories.”

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Louise Penny’s 19th Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Announced

Hello, mystery fans! At the end of 2023, I ran out of new podcast episodes, so I started looking for new ones and also decided to start at the beginning of podcasts that I was only listening to current drops since I’d started. Which is all to say, it’s how I discovered a really interesting story on how Tom Clancy became a big-name author (hint: it involved a president) on this episode of the Book Riot podcast: Accountability Pants. It’s also really interesting to listen to podcasts that have been around a while (a decade in this case!) to see the then and now (in this case, in publishing!). It’s also nice to take a little break from everything being on fire in the current timeline.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a navy sweatshirt with pink graphic book and white text saying Books Are My Language

Books Are My Language sweatshirt by BellasCozyDesigns

I love when something works for a holiday and year-round. Also, you get options between sweatshirt and hoodie, and there are 11 colors to choose from. ($45)

New Releases

cover image for The Morning Show Murders

The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker, Dick Lochte

For fans of celebrities writing mysteries, amateur sleuths, food, and murder mysteries set in network TV!

Before having to become an amateur sleuth, Billy Blessing is already busy running a NY restaurant, regularly being on the morning show Wake Up, America!, and working on a new food competition show. That is, until he becomes the suspect of murdering the executive producer in his new show. What’s a suspect to do but become a sleuth and clear his name!

cover image for The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

For fans of stories about cults, past mysteries, and fictional true crime reporters!

Years ago, three members of a cult died by suicide, and the baby they believed to be the Antichrist and its mother disappeared. The baby, now reaching its 18th birthday, gives a literary agent the idea to assign the case to a true crime reporter for a book deal. The problem is, no one knows anything about who the baby is, so Amanda Bailey has a massive investigation ahead of her, which we get to watch be pieced together with messages, interviews, recordings, screenplays, a diary, a novel…It’s all just one twist after another, starting with the fact that Amanda isn’t the only person on this assignment: Oliver Menzies, whom Amanda blames for ruining her career once, is also on the same case and writing his own book!

If you like inventive format and watching a case from beginning to end, I inhaled this one in a day.

This has a great multicast audiobook — which clearly states before each entry who is speaking and through what format — narrated by Annie Aldington, Nneka Okoye, Gareth Armstrong, Sid Sagar, and Kristin Atherton.

(TW past child endangerment, attempted harm/ past assumption of postpartum depression / past mass suicide, detail/ house fire/ past child abuse)

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Last year, two good deadly game YA novels were released — Thieves’ Gambit by Kayvion Lewis and Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington — which inspired me to write a post about dark academia and deadly games. Last week, I watched the new deadly game film Self Reliance, so naturally, my brain stayed in this space. With that in mind, here are two deadly game books.

cover image for A Killer's Game

A Killer’s Game by Isabella Maldonado

For fans of procedurals!

Dani Vega is an FBI agent who witnesses a murder in NY by an assassin for hire, Gustavo Toro. Rather than being taken into custody, Toro makes a deal that ropes Vega in. The problem is the operation they think they’re in charge of ends up luring 13 people, including Dani, into an isolated building where the puppet master promises only one will come out alive…

cover of hide by kiersten white

Hide by Kiersten White

For fans of horror!

Imagine being offered $50,000 to hide in an amusement park for a week and not get caught! This is the offer made to 14 people, including Mack, who is living in a homeless shelter. Mack is confident in her chances of winning — how hard is hide and seek anyways? — but soon, she’ll figure out that the stakes are her life…

News and Roundups

2024 Edgar Award Nominations

Andrew Scott is Talented Career Criminal Tom Ripley in First Teaser for Netflix’s Ripley

New Mysteries for a New Year

10 Best Harlan Coben Book Adaptations, Ranked

Louise Penny’s 19th Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Announced

Sparkly and Fun Stickers for Library Lovers

Anti-Book Ban Bill Introduced in Colorado

Ruth Wilson on her new series The Woman in the Wall

I’m Terrible At Murder Mystery Games, But I Love Murder Mystery Games

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

Readers’ Most Anticipated Mysteries & Thrillers of 2024

Hello, mystery fans! If you’re a fan of dark-ish comedies, a bit of WTF is going on, and deadly games, watch the new Hulu film Self Reliance, starring Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick.

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a sticker sheet with 12 stickers with illustrations of kittens and books and hearts

Valentine Sticker Sheet for Book Lovers by HMPaperStudio

If you put stickers in your Valentine cards or just love book lover and kitten-themed stickers, here’s a sweet set. ($3)

New Releases

cover image for The Perfect Affair

The Perfect Affair by Angela Henry

For fans of domestic thrillers and “did he or didn’t he” mysteries!

Paige and Aaron Nichols hit a big rough patch in their marriage when Paige correctly accuses Aaron of having an affair with a coworker. He promises he’ll end it and work on their marriage, except what happens next is that the coworker comes forward with information that could get Aaron fired, and then she disappears, leaving Aaron as the prime suspect…

cover image for The Heiress

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

For fans of alternating POV (including letters!), returning home to an estate, family fortunes, murder, and secrets!

Ruby McTavish, who is famous for surviving a childhood kidnapping, died a decade ago. Her fortune, including a family estate, was all left to her son Camden. He hasn’t wanted anything to do with it, now living with his wife in California and making a living as a teacher. But the past comes for everybody, and Camden finally relents and returns home to North Carolina to finally deal with his mother’s will. What could go wrong?!

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Here are two books if you’re looking for some humor in your reading while also offering a mystery!

cover image for To Have and To Heist

To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai

For fans of a rom-com meets crime — heist in this case — who love Jennifer Crusie (Getting Rid of Bradley)!

Simi Chopra may not be living her best life right now, but that isn’t going to stop her from being there for her bestie, who just got scammed and is now suspected of stealing a diamond necklace. No worries, jewel thief Jack can solve all their problems by helping them steal the necklace back. The catch? Simi and her bestie have to put together a crew to pull off a heist during a wedding. Will this be amateur hour, or will they pull this off?

Soneela Nankani has great humor timing in her narration of the audiobook!

cover image for Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn

For fans of the way The Princess Bride is narrated and older women speaking their minds while solving crimes!

Auntie Poldi is a Bavarian widow in her 60s who has just moved to Sicily. With her nephew visiting, she narrates to him the story — and the story breaks are for them to quibble and for him to lament on his writing career — where her handyman goes missing and Poldi puts herself on the case! Poldi marches to the beat of her own drum, does as she pleases, and makes for a fun lead in this series which currently has four translated releases.

News and Roundups

Murder, They Wrote

This is what your favourite book genre says about you

Apple TV Plus has a brand-new crime thriller — and it’s a must-watch

How a Sherlock Holmes obsession and personal loss informed Issa López’s True Detective

Readers’ Most Anticipated Mysteries & Thrillers of 2024

Why Armando Lucas Correa Went From Historical Fiction to Writing a Thriller

Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen Is Getting the Franchise Treatment

One Piece Creator Spotlights Detective Conan With Anniversary Tribute

Power Ranking the Books of 2019

Black Crime and Mystery Novels We Love

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.

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Unusual Suspects

Start 2024 off on a thrilling note with these 4 crime fiction novels

Hi, mystery fans! Hulu is chasing the success of Only Murders in the Building with a new mystery show: Death and Other Details is set on a cruise ship, has Agatha Christie vibes, and stars Mandy Patinkin (“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”).

2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!

Bookish Goods

a hoodie sweatshirt with a printed graphic on the back of a woman with an open book and text saying "born to read forced to work"

Born to Read bookish hoodie by ChapterCatchers

The accuracy hurts! ($37+, available in a handful of colors)

New Releases

cover image for The Night of the Storm

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh

For fans of intergenerational family drama, being in the MC’s head, remote mysteries, and slowly getting past and present reveals!

Jia Shah is struggling as a single mom when her son gets into a fight in school, and she thinks her ex is ready to take him away. When a hurricane evacuation happens, she ends up going to her sister’s house, only to arrive and find out that the whole neighborhood — minus one neighbor — has left. Between the stress of the storm, her stress with her ex, being a mom, and her issues with her brother-in-law, the last thing she needs is a dead body…

The narrator, Soneela Nankani, does a fantastic job on the audiobook.

(TW fertility issues/ assumes domestic abuse, nothing on page/ past statutory involving 17-year-old)

cover image for The Search Party

The Search Party by Hannah Richell

For fans of remote mysteries, past friends coming together, secrets bubbling over, multiple POVs from adults and kids, and not knowing who the victim is at the beginning!

A married couple of architects left their city life for a quiet, remote life in hopes of helping their adopted son, who has PTSD because of his early childhood. They’re opening up a camping site and have invited their college friends for a weekend retreat reunion. Sounds fun, right? Except this is a remote mystery, and humans are gonna human. There’s a fight between the kids, in which the parents take sides, a teen who was forced to come along and is miserable, a loan amongst friends that is going sour, an arguing couple, and secrets amongst the friend group that start to accidentally be revealed. We begin with a scene that appears like someone is being forced to jump to their death, then you start getting DCI interviews and go back and forth between the arrival and reunion weekend and the investigation, which includes a missing person and a murder…

The audiobook has dual narrators, Beth Eyre and Jamie Parker, who kept me fully invested in this mystery!

(TW past child abuse/ past suicide)

Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!

Riot Recommendations

Since there are 24 tasks for this year’s Read Harder, which breaks down to two per month, I thought after doing the first task, I’d knock out the second one by finding the mystery versions: “Read a YA book by a trans author.”

cover image for No One Left But You

No One Left But You by Tash McAdam

For fans of past and preset murder mysteries with a lead who has no memory of the night in question!

Two timelines careen towards each other with a before-the-murder storyline and an after-the-murder storyline. Max has recently transitioned, which led his best friend and hookup partner to turn into his bully; his mom is an alcoholic who keeps misgendering him; and the only thing he has is his music and song lyrics he writes. That is until Gloss, an uber-popular and shiny cool new girl, shows up and takes Max under her wing. But the veneer starts to crack, and a murder at a party lands Max in an interrogation room with someone confessing to the crime and Max still not remembering what exactly happened…

(TW alcoholic parent, child abuse/ misgendering, transphobia / mentions past suicidal ideation)

Cover of Saint Juniper's Folly by Alex Crespo

Saint Juniper’s Folly by Alex Crespo

For fans of horror-lite, found family, and haunted house mysteries!

We follow three teenagers in small town Saint Juniper, Vermont. Jaime ran away from his past but is now back in his hometown, and after going into the woods, he disappears! Theo is a senior who feels totally stuck in life until he goes into the woods and finds a haunted house with Jaime trapped inside! Naturally, Theo turns to a local teen, Taylor, for her witchy powers and help to free Jaime. But Taylor is grieving her mother and is banned from using magic by her father. How did Jaime get stuck, what is this haunted house, can they all solve a mystery together, and can Taylor and Theo save Jaime?!

News and Roundups

Book Banning Will Not Stop at Schools

The Most Anticipated Books of 2024

10 New January 2024 Book Club Picks, From GMA Book Club To Amor en Páginas

Start 2024 off on a thrilling note with these 4 crime fiction novels

The Year of the Female Creep

Line of Duty’s Anna Maxwell Martin teams up with David Mitchell in new BBC crime drama

International Family Mystery Thabo and the Rhino Case Comes to US and Canada Theaters Nationwide Starting Feb 23rd

Giancarlo Esposito’s Crime Thriller Parish Gets Teaser From AMC

Another Round of Public Library Bomb Threats

ChatGPT Owner Admits to Needing Copyrighted Material to Train Its AI Tools

Winter Bookmarks for Cozy Reading

Proposed Anti-Book Ban Bills Presented in Massachusetts

Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, 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.