Hello mystery fans! I finished reading a thriller where the MC knew someone was in her home because the book she was reading had been moved and then I reached for the remote and it wasn’t where I left it, so of course I freaked and then spent two days reading romance novels because I am not a ridiculous person at all. How’d your week go?
Sponsored by Everything that Follows by Meg Little Reilly
Three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? For fans of Megan Abbott and Chris Bohjalian comes a novel of moral complexity about friends who must choose between self-preservation and doing the right thing in the wake of a fatal boating accident. Set in the moody off-season of Martha’s Vineyard, Everything That Follows is a plunge into the dark waters of secrets and flexible morals. The truth becomes whatever we say it is…
From Book Riot and the Internet
Moriarty Was an Afterthought “In real life, it came from Doyle’s desire to be rid of Sherlock Holmes, a character he’d grown tired of writing.”
On Hey YA Kelly and Eric talk about YA thrillers, what classifies a thriller, and give book recs.
The Perfect Crimes: Why Thrillers Are Leaving Other Books for Dead
The Wild True Stories Behind Some of the Most Epic Crime Movies Ever
Read an excerpt from the North Korea kidnapping tale Star of the North
11 Thrilling Facts About Dial M for Murder
Adaptations and News
In action/spy/thriller news–and muscly men: Dwayne Johnson has cast John Cena in his upcoming adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Directive. There’s a kidnapping, a U.S. covert agency, and a marked-for-death-running-for-his-life plot so pass the popcorn I’m in.
The CIA Cleared Her Book Twice. Then It Took It Back. Why? It’s a Secret. A former counterterror analyst—who’s written about Libya since leaving—plans to sue the CIA after it reversed itself to find her ‘entire manuscript reveals classified information.’
Apple picked up the series adaptation of Are You Sleeping (review) from Reese Witherspoon’s production company starring Octavia Spencer. I’m still not sure how viewing Apple series will work (membership? buy digitally?) BUT this is high on my must-watch list because the book’s examination of true crime podcasts is great for adaptation, Spencer is amazing, and so is Witherspoon.
If your life needed more Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes: Happy day, a third film in the franchise will be releasing in 2020. Jude Law will also be back as Watson, but a director has not yet been announced.
Okay, not an adaptation but I HAVE to mention that Jessica Chastain has put together an awesome all-woman cast for an international spy thriller film (Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, and Fan Bingbing)! Think Mission Impossible/Bourne but women–and yes, I very much want this film buuuuuut I also very much, pretty please, want a book series! *Stares at publishing
True Crime
15 True Crime Books to Read Once Your Podcast Queue Is Empty
You can now stream the Duplass brothers four-part docuseries about the 2003 “pizza bomber heist” in Pennsylvania: Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist. (Trailer)
Watch Now
Dark Crimes (based on a 2008 The New Yorker article True Crimes) is about a detective who becomes suspicious of an author when his novel hits too close to an unsolved case. It stars Jim Carrey and is now in theaters. (Trailer)
Kindle Deals
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura is $2.99
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis is $1.99
Night Film by Marisha Pessl is $1.99
Bit of My Week In Reading
The break from murder romances: Dating You/ Hating You and Truth or Beard. AND then I jumped right back into murder and mystery and am currently reading: The Boss (Crime/romance: Think Robin Hood if he were a group of sex workers stealing from crappy guys to fund a woman’s clinic); Purrder She Wrote (Cozy: That pun title spoke to me!); A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising (“Part social-political satire, part international mystery”: Vampires!)
I finished reading: Still Lives by Maria Hummel (A good mystery that uses art to speak about violence towards women.); The Lonely Witness by William Boyle (A good character driven crime novel I inhaled.)
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.
Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.
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