Author: Jamie Canaves

Earth’s environment is collapsing so a program was created to send 80 people into deep space to birth a generation. Tiny problem: halfway to reaching the new livable planet, a bomb explodes killing three people. Asuka — who wasn’t thrilled to be here to begin with — is the only survivor and immediately becomes the suspect forcing her to have to prove her innocence!

The author kindly listed content warnings: “miscarriage, fertility issues, terrorism, death of a child, racism, violence and gore, strong language”

Here’s a locked-room murder in space! Clones awake on their ship to find their dead bodies, no memories, sabotage, and the realization that one of them is the murderer! They’ll have to fix the ship and solve the murders to stay alive…

I really enjoyed Mur Lafferty’s Station Eternity so I’m excited to go back and read this one while I wait for the sequel to Station Eternity, Chaos Terminal!

For fans of Japanese crime novels!

You may have heard of the thriller film, Bullet Train which was an adaptation of the book of the same title. While technically the second book in this series, it was translated to English first followed by Three Assassins last year. So what I’m saying is that if you’re a completionist or like things in the original order start here! But, the books can be read as standalones.

You follow three assassins — The Cicada, The Pusher, The Whale — and Suzuki, who is determined to infiltrate the crime gang and exact revenge. He was a teacher, but now he’s decided to follow no rules or laws as he seeks revenge for his wife’s murder.

If you want a fun, ladies-kicking-ass mystery!

In the ’70s Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie were recruited into an organization as assassins. In the present the women are now in their 60s and on a cruise celebrating retirement — except they discover they are now on the receiving end of a hit. Good thing they’ve been trained well and aren’t going down without a hell of a fight!

For fans of dark humor, crime novels, revenge tales, and My Sister the Serial Killer!

Geeta has been drowning in debt ever since her husband disappeared years ago. Everyone in her village thinks she murdered him, regardless of how many times she’s said she doesn’t know what happened to him. This is how she ends up being blackmailed into killing someone else’s husband — surely if she already did it once, why not make her do it again? As you can imagine, things don’t go well…

For audiobook readers: Soneela Nankani does an excellent narration.

(TW domestic violence/ mentions child abuse, no detail/ rape stories/ animal cruelty/ mentions past suicide, detail/ sexual assault/ infertility/ colorism/ fat shaming/ mentions past cancer death/ femicide/ pedophiles)

For fans of crime novels, seedy sides of businesses/industries, fixers, and morally gray characters.

Jordan Harper wrote one of my favorite crime novels, She Rides Shotgun, and followed it up with another five-star read!

Mae Pruett works for a firm as a fixer — basically ensuring powerful, terrible people have no consequences. Chris works in private security, is an ex-cop, and is an ex of Mae’s. Now they’re both in each other’s lives after a carjacking leaves a co-worker who was going to reveal something to Mae dead. Teamed up, they’ll be dragged into the underbelly of Hollywood, but more importantly, will be forced to question the lives they’ve been living…

(TW addiction/ mentions attempt to film sex without permission/ mentions partner abuse/ alludes to past suicidal thoughts/ mentions forced, induced miscarriage without knowledge or consent/ anxiety/ pregnant teen via rape/ predators of teens, not graphic/ brief mention eating disorders/ mentions suicide, detail)

I love the art, story, cleverness, and main character of this graphic novel which is written as 10-year-old Karen Reyes’ graphic diary. Each page looks like Karen drew out her day, memories, thoughts, and love of B-movie horror — she does, after all, love monsters so much she identifies as one. Set in Chicago in the 1960s, Karen uses her graphic diary to work out her personal life and also solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor…

I’ll note that this does have a higher price than most graphic novels, but it’s because it is 420ish pages — so I think of it like a few volumes in one!

I’m so excited that I already preordered book two, which is the conclusion and will release in April 2024: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Vol 2. The cover is perfect!

(I don’t remember TWs, and didn’t keep notes back when I read it.)

For fans of police procedurals with a twist: the remote location of a secret town with people in hiding.

This is a spinoff of the Rockton series, which takes the two leads from there and puts them in a brand-new place. You do not have to read the Rockton series to read this one, but you can if you want even more books in your life.

Married sheriff and detective Casey Duncan and Eric Dalton are moving to a new secret community that houses people that need hiding — sometimes good people, sometimes not. But before the project is completed, things go awry with two missing crew members, which soon become a dead crew member and a missing person…

(TW briefly mentions past suicide, not detailed/ Parkinson’s discussions past and present)

The sequel, The Boy Who Cried Bear, will be out in February 2024.

This is the sequel to Murder in Old Bombay, a historical mystery series that starts in 1892 Bombay, with Captain Jim Agnihotri recovering in a military hospital and ultimately investigating a case — with Sherlock as a hero. Now it’s a year later, and Captain Jim Agnihotri is a newlywed and living in Boston, Massachusetts. With the backdrop of the World’s Fair in Chicago, Captain Jim ends up missing, and his wife must investigate…

This is the sequel to Conviction, and while it gives a good summary of who the characters are so you won’t be lost, it does give the information on the first book’s mystery if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.

This has a fun odd-ish pairing of a woman whose husband left her for her best friend, obsessing on a true crime podcast and pairing up with her best friend’s famous husband to solve mysteries. The first book’s mystery is centered around a podcast she listened to, and this sequel is about a young woman who wants to be an influencer/popular YouTube star who disappears after breaking into an abandoned French Chateau.

I have really enjoyed both the entries in this series and was very surprised that this sequel got lower ratings. If there’s ever another entry, I will absolutely be picking it up.

(TW mentions self-harm/ eating disorder/ recounts past sexual assault/ mentions past suicide ideation, not detailed/ mentions past murder-suicide)

For fans of horror films set at camp!

Camp Mirror Lake is where a horror movie was once filmed and is now the business of a full-contact terror game. Basically people pay to come get scared and try to be the final survivor. It’s where Charity Curtis works as a “final girl”. She loves her job–until the last weekend of her summer job when real life starts blending too much with the pretend horror.

For fans of amateur sleuths and slasher film tropes!

First, let’s chat a bit about the series: This book is a standalone because the first three books in the series are a trilogy with a contained mystery. Maureen Johnson kindly doesn’t spoil the solve of the trilogy in this book–I would read the trilogy because it’s great (Truly Devious) but if this book is your catnip, you can totally start here with no problem!

High schooler Stevie Bell finds herself sucked into another cold case: four camp counselors murdered in the ’70s in the woods. Now Stevie is hired by a dude who wants to talk about it for his true crime podcast. Stevie has no desire for podcasts, but she just can’t help needing to solve cold cases. So she shows up at the camp with two friends ready to investigate.

For fans of PI mysteries and missing person cases.

Yolanda Ávila is going through a lot: she left the LAPD because of harassment, blames herself for her mother’s death, and is trying to make sense of her prophetic dreams, which she calls juju. But now her most recent dream was about her godson being kidnapped, and it’s actually happened. She’ll have to find him, which will entail talking to union organizers, dealing with her wife getting threatening messages, and working through her guilt, grief, and maybe finally accepting her prophetic dreams.

(TW child abduction/ active pedophile case in the city, no graphic details/ anxiety attack)

For fans of amateur sleuths, characters trying to find their way in life, good friendships, and mysteries that aren’t dark/graphic.

Charlotte Illes grew up known as Lottie, a child detective. Now she’s in her mid-20s and floundering. She’s avoiding her friends and brother’s calls/texts, going on mindless first dates, and refusing to be a detective anymore — until her brother comes to her with a case involving his girlfriend. Now she’s suddenly forced to do what she does best (solving mysteries), reconnect with her besties, and figure out what she really wants to do with her life. And there’s also murder, a missing person, and union organizing.

Bonus: the audiobook is narrated by the author!

For fans of British police procedurals, fictional serial killers, and thrillers!

DI Angelica Henley was injured on her last case so her husband doesn’t want her to go back to work. But there’s an active serial killer somehow killing in the same way as a serial killer already in prison, so Henley is back and having to get to know a new partner.

(TW side character with early onset dementia/ mentions flasher case/ past rape case discussed, detail/ past suicide discussed, not detailed/ mentions suicide cases, brief detail/ panic attacks/ PTSD/ attempted rape)

The third title, The Kill List, is listed to publish in April 2024.

This is a fun series I think fans of humorous characters like Stephanie Plum will enjoy.

Finlay Donovan manages to accidentally stumble into becoming a hitwoman thanks to having a lousy ex, two young children, and a way past-due manuscript. Watching her and her babysitter’s friendship evolve over the series as they continue their “Whoopsie we crimed again” journey is a delight.

(TW date raper/ stalker)

The fourth title, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice, is listed to publish in March 2024.

I love this series, which will publish the final Detective Kaga book this December: The Final Curtain (aptly named).

In Japan the series has 10 books, but only four will be translated into English so you can easily catch up before the end (though reading the first three in order is not necessary).

In the first one from this series to be translated into English, you get a lot of catnip: a locked room mystery, a whydunnit, and the main character is a Japanese author!

For fans of completed book series, here’s some Sherlock-inspired historical fiction (late 1800s) with a serial killer mystery, and a mix of fantastic critters.

Abigail Rook’s dream of being an archeologist didn’t pan out and instead, she’s now working for the socially oblivious investigator Jackaby. Jackaby can see nonhuman creatures, even if he can’t convince others of such, and so he and Abigail are on the hunt for a serial killer thinking maybe the police have missed the culprit because they aren’t human…

And if you’re looking to marathon the series here’s the order: Beastly Bones; Ghostly Echoes; The Dire King.

This starts with a “theft” and really reads in part like a thriller where I was on the edge of my “is she going to get caught?!” seat. Basically, it’s like a literary thriller.

Athena Liu is a very popular author, working on the draft for a new novel when she dies unexpectedly after choking. Her literary frenemy June Hayward has not found much success and thus swipes Liu’s draft without anyone knowing. She finishes the novel — a historical fiction about WWI focused on Chinese workers in the British army — and changes her name to June Song, using her middle name. Now she starts to get the attention as an author she believes she deserves, but she’s a white author who stole an Asian author’s work, and questions are starting to come for her…

I really enjoyed Helen Laser’s narration of the audiobook — which I inhaled. It ruined me for other books for a solid week.

The mindfckry of reading this book during our current time gave me the same feeling of reading a suspense novel, or social horror, where things are just cranking up worse and worse — but with humor.

This story is told through letters about an island off the coast of South Caroline. This (fictional) island was named after Nevin Nollop, who created a famous sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet (a pangram): “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” When a letter falls off the Nevin Nollop statue, the Council bans that letter from being used by anyone. But this is just the beginning of the Council’s dive into dictator behavior as more and more letters become problematic and also banned.