Hello fellow mystery lovers! We’ve made it to November–I can smell the seasonal pies. Since the publishing industry hits the brakes during the end of the year when it comes to new releases, I’m going to do as much catch up and back catalog reading as I can–also, give a few books I put down a second (or third) try. Do you have any end of year reading goals?
Sponsored by Bethany House
When a terrorist investigation leads FBI agent Declan Grey to a closed immigrant community, he turns to crisis counselor Tanner Shaw for help. Despite the tension between them, he needs the best of the best on this case. Under imminent threat, they’ll have to race against the clock to stop a plot that could cost thousands of lives—including theirs.
There’s a baby elephant!
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra (Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation #1) by Vaseem Khan: I 100% picked up this book because Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits a baby elephant and I wanted to know how to get in on an inheritance like that. Sadly, I am no closer to inheriting one, but I did end up reading a delightful mystery. Inspector Chopra is retiring due to health, and ends up with a case of a drowned boy and (unrelated) a baby elephant. He may be retired, but he is not letting go of the boy’s death–which he refuses to accept as a drowning. He’s also having to figure out how to care for a baby elephant while living in an apartment complex. And you get to know Chopra’s wife, who has been unable to conceive all these years but finds herself coming up with an elaborate plan to finally have a child. Mystery, Mumbai, and a baby elephant–what more can you ask for?! (KINDLE DEAL ALERT: As of me writing this the kindle ebook is on sale for $2.99!)
Links:
There’s still time to enter Book Riot’s $500 dollar giveaway to a bookstore of YOUR choosing!
Rioter Nicole Mulhausen on reading Nancy Drew for the first time as an adult.
Attica Locke (and Joe Hill) are on this week’s Recommended!
Rincey and Katie discuss the trainwreck that is The Snowman adaptation publicity tour (and the film) and the mysteries they’re reading on Read or Dead.
“The only thing I want before I die is for the world to know the truth, that Pablo Neruda was murdered,” Araya told the Mexican magazine.” According to a 16-member panel Neruda did not die of cancer…
Hopefully the adaptation of this Dutch memoir will mean there will be an English translation release because it sounds really interesting: Astrid had to decide whether to turn against her mob boss brother after the murder of their brother-in-law.
Dear Nathan Fillion fans: He’ll be back at ABC with a “light crime drama” based on a true story of a rookie cop about twenty years older than all the other rookies.
Lorenzo Carcaterra’s Chasers has been put into development at CBS as a police drama series.
All the squeals for Megan Abbott’s next novel Give Me Your Hand which will release in July 2018.
Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham (creators of Girls) will adapt Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart.
A Cult, A Mystery, A Pinch of Orange is the New Black:
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes: Seventeen-year-old Minnow Bly is in juvenile detention for assault and if she wants to get out, rather than transferred to prison, she’s going to have to cooperate with an FBI agent who keeps randomly showing up. He’s got some questions about the Kevinian cult she was raised in. The one whose leader just died. Camp burned to the ground. Does Bly know who was responsible? And is she willing to reveal what she knows for her own freedom? Told in the present and with flashbacks that take you through Bly’s life growing up in the cult, how she lost her hands (graphic), and the night she lost everything she’d known and how that possibly can finally give her freedom. Beautifully written, this one stayed with me.
Twisty With Bite:
The Hanging Girl by Eileen Cook: Skye Thorn “is in over her head” is an understatement. Needing money for college, she decides to use her tarot-card-reading-girl persona to help sell a fake kidnapping to the cops by claiming to have visions. The problem is everything goes wrong with the kidnapping, her accomplice has an agenda Thorn was unaware of and did not sign up for, and now Thorn’s psychic mother has decided she’ll also help the police with her visions. Soon Thorn doesn’t even care about the money anymore, she’d just like to get out of this entire mess alive and hopefully not arrested. I liked Thorn, as much as she’s screwing up and making some awful decisions, she’s aware and does have introspection and the desire to do better. The question is, is it too late?
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And if you like to put a pin in things here’s an Unusual Suspects 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.