Hi, mystery fans! Welcome to 2024.
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
Personalized wooden book stand and tray by BlueberryCreekHom
If you’re looking for a tray that doubles as a book stand, here’s a nice one. I, however, would not keep a drink there, because I keep seeing myself lifting the book and hitting the cup and then cursing. ($47)
New Releases
Midnight by Amy McCulloch
For fans of remote mysteries on a ship!
Olivia Campbell is an actuary who recently had a nervous breakdown because of work. Her boyfriend, Aaron, is an art curator who is planning a recently deceased artist’s exhibition on a luxury cruise. Hoping to reset herself, Liv decides to go on the cruise to Antarctica. Problem? Many! Liv is terrified of being out on the water since her father’s death; Aaron doesn’t make it onto the ship, Liv has to run the exhibition, and it’s a remote mystery, so there’s gonna be a lot of accidents, anxiety, and deaths…
Author’s backlist: Breathless.
The audiobook is narrated by Cathleen McCarron, who you may know from Conviction and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.
(TW suspected suicide death/ recounts past desire for self-harm that could be triggering for suicidal ideation)
Borgata Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia by Louis Ferrante
For readers of true crime, mafia, and history!
This is a deep dive that traces Italian organized crime throughout history, including the control of labor in Sicily, the American Mafia in lawless New Orleans, and the relationship with Jewish gangsters before prohibition.
Looking for more new releases? Check out our New Books newsletter!
Riot Recommendations
Let’s start the year with great mysteries from last year that are now out in paperback!
The Black Queen by Jumata Emill
For fans of YA mysteries with school settings and multiple POV!
Lovett High’s first Black homecoming queen has been murdered. Duchess Simmons, her best friend and daughter of a cop, can’t get anyone to believe her that she knows who the murderer is: Tinsley McArthur, who felt entitled to be this year’s winner instead because all the women in her family have been homecoming queens. Except Tinsley swears she’s not responsible and isn’t going to let people accuse her…
(TW past parent death from cancer/ mentions past suicide/ mentions past date rape, not graphic/ mentions past child molestation, not graphic/ statutory)
Nine Liars (Truly Devious #5) by Maureen Johnson
First, a bit of background on the series: The first three books, beginning with Truly Devious, are a trilogy and need to be read as such. Book 4 and 5, however, can be read as standalones and without having read the trilogy.
Now a senior in high school, Stevie Bell convinces her principal to let her do a study abroad trip with her friends in London. Why London? Because that’s where Stevie’s boyfriend is. Except who has time for romance or studying when there’s a murder to solve? (The only thing Stevie thinks about.) In the ’90s, nine Cambridge friends were staying at a friend’s home playing drunk hide-n-seek in the middle of the night when two were murdered with an ax. And Stevie is certain the original robbery-gone-wrong is incorrect, so she’s going to prove it…
News and Roundups
Every TV Series Coming to Apple TV+ in January 2024
Father Brown is back for series eleven
Barnes & Noble virtual event: Wednesday, February 07, 2024, 3:00 PM ET—Jordan Harper, Everybody Knows, will be in conversation with New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby. (Two of our current best crime writers!)
To Mick Herron, failure is more interesting than success
Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders Mystery Novel Gets Live-Action Adaptation (Really hope this will come over to the US!)
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.
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