Hi, mystery fans! If you haven’t yet bought your Girl Scout cookies this year or have already eaten the ones you bought (raises hand!), you still have time and can easily order online. Two great options: Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s Troop 6000, which helps families living in temporary NY housing, and Erin Reed puts together an awesome list every year of trans girl scouts that you can buy from. And I’ll pass along a delicious tip I learned from a friend recently: Thin Mints are extra good straight from the freezer.
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
Bookshelf Library Sign on Etsy by AnchoredSoulCreate
If you’re looking for a library sign for your shelves and want one you can pick from various designs, colors, and customize with your name, here ya go. ($38)
New Releases
Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury
For fans of dark academia, family drama, and murder mysteries blended with social horror and a bit of slasher film!
Sunny Behre is one of five kids when her mom, owner of a private school, dies. Sunny had been taught she’d be taking over her mom’s role one day, but instead finds that the only thing her mom left as instructions is that she’s to watch out for her brother Dom. She’s not really close with Dom and would rather be an ambassador for the school her mom ran, but after a murder that implicates Dom as the killer, Sunny has to make difficult choices. Especially since she’s not even sure if Dom is innocent and the murders continue…
I’m currently listening to and enjoying the audiobook, which is narrated by Kimberly Woods.
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
For fans of home invasion thrillers!
A mother is with her two kids (eight and five) in a secret room in her home in New England. She’s hiding from an intruder and must keep the kids quiet so that he doesn’t figure out where they are. As they hide, petrified, debating what to do, there are flashbacks to her life as a child and her marriage. Who is the intruder, what does he want, and why is she hesitant to call the police…?
This is high on my list, and I’ve heard nothing but good things—I am just a chickenshit and have to pep myself up to read this and not sleep for a month! (I have gotten so far as downloading the audiobook, so wish me luck!)
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Can I summon spring by recommending some backlist mysteries with flowers on the cover? Worth a try!
The Frangipani Tree Mystery (Crown Colony #1) by Ovidia Yu
For fans of historical mysteries with an amateur sleuth partnering up with a detective!
In 1936 Singapore, SuLin is a teenager who was orphaned at a young age and has a limp from Polio. Thanks to her aunt, she received an education, and rather than allowing herself to be married off, she wants to work. Since the nanny in the Acting Governor’s house is murdered, a new nanny is needed, and that’s where SuLin goes. While navigating the upstairs, downstairs, and racial politics, there’s also the murder of the previous nanny to solve, so she finds herself working with Chief Inspector Thomas LeFroy. Then there’s another death…
(TW suicide)
The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
For fans of thrillers with doctor leads and missing person cases!
Alexis and Austin have recently started dating and take a trip together to Vietnam. Austin is a cyclist, doing a tour and also visiting where his father died. But Austin never returns from cycling. Alexis goes back to the US, where she’s an ER doctor. As the FBI looks into the case, Alexis discovers that maybe she didn’t know everything about Austin…
(TW Main character has history of self-harm, details/ mentions murder-suicide, details/ ER stories recounted/ recounts past war scenes)
News and Roundups
L.A. Times Book Prize finalists
Lux Pascal, Pedro’s Sister, Has Been Cast in the Upcoming Thriller Summer War
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Casts Eva Longoria
Pamela Salem: James Bond and Doctor Who star dies aged 80
Anti-trans bills keep citing The New York Times
If you love courtroom dramas, this Oscar-nominated film is not to be missed
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.