December Mystery Releases

For fans of Japanese mysteries and classics–the series started in 1946! Investigator Kosuke Kindaichi’s newest case involves a new arrival to the The Village of Eight Graves, Tatsuya, who brings a lot of poisonings in his wake… So far I’ve found these to be standalones, but if you want to start at the beginning pick up The Honjin Murders.

Here’s a great crime book that starts with a wrongful conviction after a bank robbery and the race against time to stop an execution. During a reelection year, the governor announces that Langston Brown will suddenly be set to be executed in 30 days, along with others. His daughter Liza, a law school student gets her school to start an innocence project with the goal to stop the execution and finally free Langston. Eli Stone, a widow who has just opened a renovated club, has hired Liza and between hearing her talk about the case and watching the news he’s put in the difficult and dangerous position of finally having to do something about what he witnessed as a child…

And the audiobook is narrated by J.D. Jackson!

This is a great detective series for fans of how classic mysteries walk you through the entire case, ending with the reveal of everything at the end. They are all standalone mysteries–I promise, I know it says #9 but only 4 have even been translated to English because they are all standalone.

In this case you get a whodunnit, whydunnit, and howdunnit! Starting with the death of a young woman and the suspected murderer who goes free because he refuses to break under police interrogation. When the suspect ends up dead years later the suspects are APLENTY! Which is why Manabu Yukawa (AKA Detective Galileo), a physics professor will be needed to figure this all out.

Griffiths has the Dr Ruth Galloway series which is set in modern time and also this series which started in the 1950s with The Zig Zag Girl. Now the 6th release is still set in Brighton but we are now in 1965, with the murder mystery of a theatrical impresario.

This is one of those books I had to check like three times to make sure it is in fact a novel and not true crime because it’s written to appear real. Writing in the style of a true crime documentary where Knox has even written himself into the story, this follows the fictional case of a missing college student and the writer trying to uncover the truth behind the cold case.

If you’re looking for some armchair traveling to go with your armchair sleuthing, take a deadly five-day cruise to Cuba from the safety of your home. “If it sounds too good to be true, it is” seems to be a lesson Mercedes Spivey has yet to learn when she accepts a free cruise trip that doesn’t sound totally up and up. But she needs the vacation and her and her husband board, only to soon find that fellow passengers they know are about to meet their end…