Author: Jamie Canaves

Hi mystery fans!

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Sponsored by Forge Books

When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting Claire Bingley, he tried to disappear in the tiny town of Crimson Lake. But now Claire’s devastated father shows up with a choice for Ted: help find the real abductor or die. Meanwhile, two young bartenders have been murdered, and private detective Amanda Pharrell is assisting on the case. Amanda’s decade-old conviction for murder left her with odd behavioral traits, but a keen eye for killers. As they hunt for the truth, redemption is on the cards for Ted and Amanda―but it could cost them their lives…

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From Book Riot And Around The Internet

50 More Must-Read YA Mysteries

Rincey and Katie talk news, creepy books, and what they’re reading on the latest Read or Dead.

Quiz: Which Kickass Literary Investigator Are You?

15 Biographies That Tell The True Stories Of Infamous Women Killers

News And Adaptations

Rachel Howzell Hall’s Land of Shadows has an audiobook narrated by Je Nie Fleming and you can hear a sample here. I love this series and am happy to see it have audiobooks–Review. (TW rape/suicide)

This book announcement sounds awesome: Delighted to announce that Ecco/HarperCollins will publish my thriller WINTER COUNTS. An examination of the broken criminal justice system on the rez and a meditation on Native identity. 

An Anonymous Girl to Become Known As a TV Series

Lisa Jewell previews her intoxicating domestic thriller The Family Upstairs

Here’s an Exclusive First Look at Gaby Dunn’s New Graphic Novel, “Bury the Lede”

Watch Now

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley is now streaming on HBO Go if you didn’t get enough of this bananapants story from reading Bad Blood. I will say that John Carreyrou did a hell of a job describing Elizabeth Holmes in the book because in the documentary she is exactly what I imagined when I read the book. You can watch the trailer here. (TW suicide)

Kindle Deals

A Front Page Affair (Kitty Weeks Mystery #1) by Radha Vatsal is $3.82 and a good start to a series I love for fans of historical mysteries and cozy mysteries.

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway #1) by Elly Griffiths is $4.99 and follows an archeologist living in a remote area in Virginia who is assisting the police in a murder case.

The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French is $1.99 and if you still haven’t read this fantastic procedural series do yourself a favor and get on that.

A Bit Of My Week In Reading

If you’re wondering how my beat-the-clock-because-all-my-library-holds-came-in-at-once game is going, I’ve read four of the six and then two more holds came in: Duped by Abby Ellin and The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas. My two favorite reads were The Night Tiger which isn’t a mystery but has a murder mystery throughout and I loved it, and City of the Lost is a great start to a detective in remote area series.

And because I’m me and all those books aren’t enough here’s the pile of books I’m eyeing for starting this weekend:

Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark; Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh; A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss; Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman; Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson; Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak; Folio Society’s The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, Illustrated by Ben Jones; Folio Society’s Thunderball by Ian Fleming, Illustrated by Fay Dalton

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest 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 Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hello mystery fans! This week I have for you a ghostly cozy, a book within a book, and a psychological thriller!

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Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Save Me From Dangerous Men by S.A. Lelchuk.

Nikki Griffin isn’t your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore’s shelves and stacks, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. She seeks justice for those who need her help in Save Me From Dangerous Men, the debut by S.A. Lelchuk.

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Cozy Mystery With A Ghost

Fatality in F (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #4) by Alexia Gordon: I’m terrible at reading every book released in a cozy mystery series with the exception of a few, and this is one. It centers around Gethsemane Brown, an American classical musician living in a small Irish town, who can’t stop finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting into trouble. The trouble obviously means she needs to solve a murder. This time around we get gardens and rose bush competitions and a Flower Shop Killer–Gethsemane Brown to the rescue of course. What always draws me into this series is Gethsemane’s no-nonsense, sarcastic personality and her friendship with a ghost. Yup, as in now-dead-still-haunting-around spirit that helps her solve mysteries when he can–he can only visit places he was at when alive. I especially enjoy their bickering in public since no one else can see who in the world she’s talking to.

Book Within A Book!

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths: This is a modern murder mystery with wonderful nods to Gothic tales, including a short story layered within. Clare Cassidy is an English school teacher writing a book about R. M. Holland, a fictional Gothic author who once lived in the school she works at. When a coworker, and friend, is murdered, Cassidy finds strange things happening that have her and the police believing she too is in danger. That’s all I’m giving you on plot, because I really enjoyed feeling the tension of how this unfolds since I knew nothing about it. The story changes point of view between Cassidy, her 15-year-old daughter Georgie, and police detective Harbinder Kaur, while also weaving in R. M. Holland’s short story. It’s a great read for fans of The Magpie Murders, books within books, literary nods inside mysteries, Gothic tales, and anyone looking for a good mystery with great characters where you feel the emotions but never get plunged into dark and gruesome waters. The book also left me 100% wanting a series that follows detective Harbinder Kaur because I loved her, and being in her head as she puts together evidence in a case.

Psychological Thriller (TW domestic abuse/ PTSD)

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward: This opens up with a crime, a bloody kitchen, without revealing the who or why, and then mostly takes you back to two time periods before the reveal. In the few months leading up to the crime you get to know Maddie and her toddler Charlie as she’s in therapy after an accident that scarred her face and left her with memory issues. The police think her accident was domestic abuse, but she thinks she just fell while camping and that her husband Ian wouldn’t have hurt her. But she’s using the writing therapy to try and work it out. We also go years further into the past to when Ian, a British soldier, met Maddie and her best friend Joanna in war-torn Southeast Europe to see how their love story came to be… While told mostly from Maddie’s point of view, we also get to hear Ian’s stories, especially of war, and Diane Varga the Kansas police officer that shows up to find the bloody kitchen… Even though I had this one figured out, which is usually the case for me, the audiobook kept me sufficiently glued to being in Maddie’s head and wanting to see how everything would be put together.

Recent Releases

Catch Me When I’m Falling (A Charlie Mack Motown Mystery)by Cheryl A. Head (Detroit PI series that I am super excited to start reading–the paperback is out now, the ebook next week.)

Redemption Point (Crimson Lake #2) by Candice Fox (Really looking forward to starting since I really liked the first in this Australian crime series.) (Review for first in series.)

Run Away by Harlan Coben (TBR: A father gets sucked into a dark world while trying to bring home his daughter who is an addict and in an abusive relationship–You can generally count on Coben for a page-turner and lots of twists.)

Murder Once Removed (Ancestry Detective #1) by S.C. Perkins (Cozy mystery following a Texas genealogist.)

If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser (TBR: A best friend is convinced she hasn’t been ghosted and needs to find out what happened to her friend.)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest 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 Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Hi mystery fans! If you’re a fan of heist films I recommend Logan Lucky: It has a great cast, was funny, and totally scratched my itch for a heist movie. Now on to books!

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Sponsored by Putnam Books

For the past two weeks, seventeen-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town—brought there by a mysterious man named Jim. Part captor, part benefactor, Jim calls her Evie and tells her he’s hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne—something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can’t remember the night in question.

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From Book Riot And Around The Internet

The Future of Indie Crime Fiction Belongs to Female Authors of Color

Talking about The Feather Thief with Dawn Roberts of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

For Your Consideration…Mystery Books on One Anthony Awards Ballot

Lady Spies And Other Favorite Mysteries And Thrillers

Liberty recommended some great mysteries on All The Backlist.

News And Adaptations

Steph Cha’s upcoming novel, Your House Will Pay, has a cover!

FX Grabs Don Winslow’s Cartel Novels to Develop for TV

Russell Hornsby To Headline ‘Lincoln’ NBC Pilot Based On ‘The Bone Collector’ Books

Kindle Deals

Run to this deal: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is $3.99!!!! (Review) (TW child and domestic abuse/ rape)

Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator) was one of my favorite reads of 2016 and is $1.99! (Review) (I don’t remember TW, sorry.)

Dervla McTiernan’s The Ruin is $1.99 and it’s a super good Irish crime novel. (Review) (TW child abuse/ suicide/ rape)

Watch Now

In theaters: Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase has a new adaptation and she’s investigating a haunted house. Check out the trailer here.

On TV: Prosecutor and author Marcia Clark executive produces and co-writes a new legal drama show on ABC starting March 18th titled The Fix. It stars Robin Tunney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Breckin Meyer and you can see the trailer here.

A Bit Of My Week In Reading

So that thing where ALL your library holds come in at once happened to me and now I’m playing beat-the-clock reading edition with: Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis; The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo; City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong; The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson; Code Name: Lise by Larry Loftis; Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward. Wish me luck!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest 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 Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.