Author: Jamie Canaves

Hello mystery fans!

From Book Riot and Around the Internet

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Sponsored by Poisoned Pen Press

David Hazard wanted nothing more than to forget his renegade family and the foggy New England village “on the wrong side” of Narragansett Bay where he grew up. When sudden tragedy brings him back to Little Compton to care for his grandmother during her struggle with dementia, he discovers her fragile memories may hold the key to a bizarre mystery half a century old—and perhaps to the sudden and brutal murder right next door.

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Genre Kryptonite: Badass Female Revenge Thrillers

Quiz: Find Your Perfect June Mystery/Thriller Read!

Books About Obsessive Friendship For Fans of Killing Eve

(TW: suicide) On the latest Annotated podcast Rebecca and Jeff delve into the end of Truman Capote’s literary career brought on by a socialite’s death by suicide after Capote published a short story in Esquire magazine.

PopSugar has their best picks for Summer Thrillers

Authors Steph Cha, Alex Segura, and AA Dhand spoke with the Guardian about their detective novels and the lack of diversity in the crime genre. “For every PI novel with a protagonist of colour, there are about 10 books about gruff white cops falling in love with murdered white women, 10 ‘girl’ books about murderous white women, and 10 more about serial killers in Scandinavia,” says Cha.

Tiffany D. Jackson (Monday’s Not Coming; Allegedly) wrote about Why Aren’t Missing Black and Brown Children a National Priority? at Epic Reads

Read an excerpt from Andrew Shaffer’s Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery on EW.

Adaptations

Luther season 5 teaser is here which means Luther season 5 is almost here! If you’ve yet to see this dark, procedural BBC series you can catch up on Netflix–and then impatiently wait with me. (I know it’s not technically an adaptation but there are tie-in novels starting with The Calling (Luther #1) by Neil Cross.)

Watch the trailer for USA network’s The Sinner season 2. After the popularity of the adaptation of Petra Hammesfahr’s novel the USA network decided to continue by turning the show into an anthology and giving Detective Harry Ambrose another case similar to the first: why would an innocent appearing character, that no one would ever suspect of violence, commit such a horrific act?

True Crime

For the Los Angeles Times Megan Abbott asks Why do we — women in particular — love true crime books?: It’s been interesting to ponder the question of women and true crime in recent months amid our #Metoo moment. If, for decades now, true crime served as the collective unconscious of so many women, all the taboo topics the culture as a whole represses, what happens when the culture is unable to repress them any longer?

At Vulture Nicholas Quah’s podcast review: In the Dark Is a Scathing and Meticulous True-Crime Podcast

Teen in ‘Making a Murderer’ Asks Supreme Court to Take His Case: “But 16-year-old Brendan Dassey’s confession — seen by viewers nationwide as part of the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” — should never have been used to convict him, his lawyers say, and they’re hoping the Supreme Court agrees to take his case.”

Kindle Deals

ONE OF MY FAVORITE mysteries is only $2.99: Tell the Truth Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta (review) (I don’t remember the trigger warnings.)

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry (The Rabbi Small Mysteries Book 2) by Harry Kemelman is $1.13

 

 

Bit of My Week In Reading

I really enjoyed the graphic novel Dept. H Vol 1 (currently $1.99!), which is a locked-room mystery set undersea as a daughter tries to find her father’s killer amongst a crew of researchers.

I inhaled Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe, which is a scathing look at Hollywood and society’s treatment of girls/women as a former child star now tries to solve a case of missing girls to get her career back when her own sister has been missing for years. Should have a gigantic yellow sticker on the front that says WARNING: PAGE-TURNER! (TW: rape/ self harm/ eating disorder/ gaslighting / mentioned: suicide attempt)

In bitter-sweet reading I’ve been listening to Anthony Bourdain’s crime novel Bone in the Throat which is filled with kitchen scenes, FBI, and mafia.

And I’m so excited the galley for The Hollow of Fear (Sherry Thomas’ third novel in the Lady Sherlock series) landed on my doorstep and of course I had to immediately start it because Charlotte Sherlock is my favorite Sherlock. Don’t @ me!

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 Canaves.

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

Hello mystery fans! A little bit of everything this week with psychological suspense, the return of Nancy Drew, and a nonviolent page-turner true crime.

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As part of Season 2 of our podcast series Annotated, we are giving away 10 of the best books about books of 2017. Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the image below:

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Great Slow-Burn Psychological Suspense (TW: stalking/ suicide)

The Good Son by You-jeong Jeong, Chi-Young Kim (Translator): I love a novel that starts with someone covered in blood and with no memory, as Yu-jin does. Once he discovers his mother’s body he’s forced to try and piece together the missing gaps in his memory. This turns quickly into a whydunnit that takes you into the life of a twenty-year-old man whose mother treated him like a child as he suffered seizures and blackouts, but slowly, as everything begins to unravel, Yu-jin finds himself uncovering long held secrets… The audiobook had a great narrator that really made you feel like you were in Yu-jin’s mind.

FANTASTIC Nonviolent True Crime

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson: I had wanted to read this one for the nonviolent true crime roundup I’d done but hadn’t been able to get a copy until now. Now if you’re thinking “But really how interesting can bird specimen theft be?” let me just tell you this book was super interesting from beginning to end, and read like a thriller that I couldn’t put down. Just 10% into the book I felt as if I’d read 10 books worth of information and adventure. You start with a museum heist by a 20-year-old flutist, and then go on historical expeditions with everything from thieving ants, to Charles Darwin, and blackmail. And that’s just the very beginning of this very banana pants true story because why would a university student steal HUNDREDS of rare bird specimens? Well, you see, there is a community of fly tiers which uses, and obsessively covet, the rarest bird feathers. And there’s also the author, a refugee advocate, who got involved in this story and needed to know after the trial what was still unknown and began to investigate himself–because of course this book had plot twists! It’s a fascinating look at a crime (which not only stole property but potential knowledge from the museum), obsession, and man’s destructive need to conquer and own nature.

Nancy Drew Is Back!

Nancy Drew #1 by Kelly Thompson, Jenn St-Onge, Triona Farrell, Ariana Maher: This had a great Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars vibe from the get-go that I loved. As we’re introduced to all the characters, given a little mystery case Drew is currently solving, and then given a bit of the big mystery à la I-know-what-you-did-last-summer. It was definitely more getting to know the characters–Hardy Boys included–than anything else, but I really liked the characters and look forward to seeing what they get into. I’m especially looking forward to more George: “You’re still Nancy Freaking Drew. And it’s ALWAYS something with you.” (Here’s a great post on How to Buy Comics.)

Recently Released

A Cast of Vultures (Sam Clair #3) by Judith Flanders (Witty cozy mystery series perfect for chick lit fans.)

Slowly We Die (Jana Berzelius #3) by Emelie Schepp (TBR: Medical thriller.)

You Were Made for This by Michelle Sacks (TBR: Dark, twisty, suspense.)

Providence by Caroline Kepnes (From Lenny Books, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s publishing imprint.)

The Rooster Bar by John Grisham (Paperback)

AND Book Riot is giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here you lucky people!

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 Canaves.

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

Hi fellow mystery fans! If you’re looking for a dark, super-intense, procedural binge, Marcella season 2 is now on Netflix. It’s been giving me a heart attack all week so clearly I must share that feeling. (ALL the trigger warnings.)

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We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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From Book Riot and Around the Internet

Great diverse mystery reads that published April – June for all crime reading tastes.

5 Literary Mysteries That Have Never Been Solved But Are Seriously Fascinating

Listen to Rincey and Katie’s one year anniversary episode of their Read or Dead podcast.

Here’s an audiobook excerpt of Liz Nugent’s Lying in Wait. (Review)

Rot The Eyes Right Out of Your Head with This Collection of 60 Free Film Noir Classics

Giveaways (Hug a Luck Dragon and enter):

Win one of 10 copies of Still Lives by Maria Hummel (Review)

Book Riot is giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice!

Penguin Random House is giving away 12 thrillers!

 

News and Adaptations

Karen McManus, author of One of Us is Lying, revealed her second stand-alone novel Two Can Keep a Secret. More deets here.

Watch the trailer for Titan Comics upcoming Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini by Cynthia von Buhler.

Gillian Flynn talks about the struggle with getting Sharp Objects published and why she wrote it: At the time, Flynn said she was seeing a lot of stories about men and how they handle violence and rage, but there weren’t many stories about “how women handled their anger and their violence and what that looked like.” 

Extra exciting for This is Us and Breaking Bad fans: Ron Cephas Jones (William) and Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) have just joined the already excellent cast for Apple’s upcoming series Are You Sleeping, an adaptation of Kathleen Barber’s same titled novel. (Review)

True Crime

Watch the trailer for White Boy Rick: Starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh, based on Richard Wershe Jr.’s real life story of being a fourteen-year-old FBI informant and drug king pin in the ’80s. Wershe Jr.’s autobiography White Boy Rick: My Years as a Teenage Drug Informant for the FBI releases in August.

How a True-life Heist Movie Used the Real Criminals and Victim to Bring the Story to Life: “American Animals” looks at the audacious attempted heist of priceless books from Transylvania University’s special collections library in 2004 by childhood friends Warren Lipka and Spencer Reinhard.

(A story from 2016 because “this sickening trend with no sign of stopping“–Hawon Jung) These Women Hunt Hi-tech Peeping Toms in South Korea Where Secret Camera Porn is Rampant.

Kindle Deals

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes is $2.99 (If you cause a death, you get a companion animal in this parallel world, so Zinzi has a sloth on her back as she delves into the dark crime world after being hired to find a missing pop star.– Beuekes is one of my favorite authors.)

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson is $1.99 (Has been on my TBR for-EV-er. A woman’s memories are lost every night when she sleeps and her husband fills her in in the morning. But now her latest journal entry tells her not to trust her husband…)

Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley is $2.99 (This is the 11th book in his Easy Rawlins detectives series which started with Devil in a Blue Dress.)

And Recent Galleys That Have Landed On My Doorstep!

The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World  by Sarah Weinmen

Some Die Nameless by Wallace Stroby

Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe

Bimini Twist by Linda Greenlaw

City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai  by Paul French

What Remains of Her by Eric Rickstad

Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Buried in Books by Kate Carlisle

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 Canaves.

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 mystery that punched me in the gut, a great procedural, and a vicious thriller.

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Sponsored by Hangman by Jack Heath, new from Hanover Square Press.

An addictive debut thriller starring an FBI consultant with a peculiar taste for crime and punishment…

A boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a ransom call: pay or else. Enter Timothy Blake, an FBI consultant with a knack for solving impossible cases but whose expertise comes at a price: every time he saves a life, he also takes one. But this kidnapper is more cunning and ruthless than any he’s faced before. And he’s been assigned a new partner within the Bureau: a woman linked to the past he’s so desperate to forget.

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Impactful Missing Girl Story (TW: child abuse/ sexual assault)

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson: Claudia doesn’t understand where Monday Charles can be. Junior High has started and Monday isn’t there. Nor did she reply to Claudia over the summer, which is strange because they are best friends. They rely on each other for a lot and are inseparable. So what is happening? Claudia keeps getting answers that seem like lies from Monday’s family… Told in multiple timelines you get to know Claudia and Monday as friendship, class, girlhood, abuse, and the secrets we keep even from our best friends are explored. (The timelines are told in chapters labeled like “before before” “after” etc so it may feel confusing but don’t worry about getting confused just go along for the ride.)

Great Procedural (TW: stalking / suicide)

Dead Loudmouth (Loon Lake Mystery #16) by Victoria Houston: Let’s start with: don’t be scared about the #16. You can 100% jump in here and not feel lost at all, it reads as a standalone. Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris is called when two people are found dead in a strip club. The question is whether this was an accident that lead to a pretty embarrassing way to die, or murder. At just over 200 pages this is a quick, satisfying procedural that not only takes you into the process of solving the case but also follows the community. I rank this read as highly successful considering I have zero interest in fishing, and I loved the fishing community setting.

Cruel AF (TW: revenge porn/ Heads-up a character deals with fat shaming throughout the entire novel.)

Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent: This one starts off with the crime: “My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.” And my brain went EXCUSE ME?! And then I read the entire novel in one sitting, which may not have been the wisest move since I needed to wash my brain out with unicorn rainbows after. You get the crime right out of the gate and then watch characters affected by said crime like the victim’s family, the murderer’s son… The novel is basically a page-turner of trains careening towards each other as you wonder what the wreck is going to look like–I was unable to look away! That’s all I’m giving you because if you like vicious thrillers you want to know as little as possible beforehand.

Recent Releases

Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation #4) by Vaseem Khan (TBR: A delightful series about a retired detective and his baby elephant sidekick!)

Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (TBR: Historical fiction with a female spy.)

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier (TBR: I downloaded the audiobook after seeing “dark, twisted, thriller.”)

Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (Just started reading: So far feels like a gritty crime novel where the MC’s past is probably gonna come find him while he tries to solve a mystery in a remote forest preserve.)

Secrets, Lies, & Crawfish Pies (A Romaine Wilder Mystery #1) by Abby L. Vandiver (Humorous, good start to a cozy mystery series: Review)

Run for Your Life by Silvana Gandolfi, Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Translator) (I’m a huge fan of Restless Books and I’ve been looking forward to this thriller about a Sicilian boy and the Mafia.)

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Paperback) (Lizzie Borden retelling: Liberty’s podcast review and written review.)

 

AND Book Riot is giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Eat a four-leaf clover and enter here.

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 Canaves.

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

Hello mystery fans! Hope you have a good book to read this weekend!

From Book Riot and Around the Internet

The Best Mystery Audiobooks for Road Trips

7 Books About Cults That Demonstrate How Dangerous Groupthink Really Is

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Sponsored By The Shimmer by Carsten Stroud, from MIRA Books

A police pursuit kicks Sergeant Redding and his trainee, Julie Karras, into a shoot-out that ends with one girl dead and the driver of the SUV fleeing. Redding stays on the hunt, driven by the trace memory that he knows that running woman.

Redding and his partner chase a seductive serial killer who can ride ‘The Shimmer’ across decades. The stakes turn brutal when Jack, whose wife and child died in a crash the previous year, faces a terrible choice: help catch the killer, or change time itself and try to save his wife and child.

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Catapult has a monthly column that explores out of print African-American authors and last month the spotlight was on Charlotte Carter and her noir novel Rhode Island Red. (While the paperback/hardcover are out of print you can still read it in ebook.)

Giveaway: Book Riot is giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice! Enter here you lucky people!

News and Adaptations

Here’s the official trailer for the adaptation of The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which will be in theaters November 9th.

Rea Frey’s Not Her Daughter, releasing in August, has sold its film and television rights. The novel is “The story of a child kidnapped away from a mother who isn’t sure she wants her back.” Well now I’ve got to read it to find out why…

Kelley Armstong’s popular Canadian Rockton crime thriller trilogy has sold TV rights to Temple Street Productions (Orphan Black and Queer As Folk). If you like to read the books first: City of the Lost; A Darkness Absolute; This Fallen Prey.

The Lambda Literary Awards were announced and here are the crime winners: The Fact of A Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (Review); Night Drop by Marshall Thornton; Huntress by A.E. Radley.

After Hulu decided not to go forward with its adaptation series of Joe Hill’s crime graphic novel Locke & Key, it seems Netflix has swooped in and is locking in that deal. But it won’t be the Hulu series– apparently Netflix’s deal is for the rights and there will be redevelopment and recasting. Guess we’ll have to stay tuned.

Not an adaptation but if you’ve been wanting more Gillian Flynn in your life she co-wrote the upcoming thriller Windows with Steve McQueen. Watch the trailer here.

The BBC’s fantastic Killing Eve (adapted from Luke Jennings’ Codename Villanelle) will stream later this year on Hulu.

True Crime

California judge unsealed suspected Golden State Killer’s search and arrest warrants.

An editor from The Staircase apparently fell for the doc’s subject and I swear Twitter always gives me the news I don’t want to know. Here’s the thread.

And in fake news: The Twitter Crime Mystery that Gripped Spain “Police! I have just resolved a crime via Twitter! You need to deal with it immediately,” wrote a Spanish social media user going by the name of Mr Brightside on Saturday afternoon.

Kindle Deals

Penance by Kanae Minato, Philip Gabriel (translation) is $2.99! (Dark, character driven crime novel: full review)

All three books in Marcia Clark’s (yes, that one) Samantha Brinkman series are each $1.99: Blood Defense; Moral Defense; Snap Judgement. (review)

 

Currently Reading:

I really enjoyed William Shaw’s procedural The Birdwatcher (review) and had wanted more of one of the side characters. And my wish was granted with Salt Lane which follows DS Cupidi as the main character. So far it’s really scratching my itch for a good procedural.

After Blackout I was left with wanting more cults so I’m making my way through Cult X which has the bonus for fans of university lectures as it also goes into religious/philosophical/scientific lectures.

And I’ve been craving more YA mysteries lately so I started, and am really enjoying, Marisha Pessl’s Neverworld Wake. It has a super strong voice from the beginning.

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 Canaves.

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

Hi mystery fans! I’ve got a vigilante, a missing artist, and toxic friendship for you this week in the world of crime novels. Plus, a ton of recent releases.

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Sponsored By Murder In Greenwich Village, by Liz Freeland

After fleeing rural Pennsylvania for the bright lights of New York City, starry-eyed twenty-year old Louis Faulk finds herself investigating a big-city murder mystery when she comes home to the sight of her roommate’s cousin with a ten-inch butcher knife in her back in Liz Freeland’s historical mystery debut.

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Great Cat-and-Mouse Game! (TW suicide/ rape)

Death Notice by Zhou Haohui, Zac Haluza (Translator): The BBC show Killing Eve has definitely reinvigorated my love for a great cat-and-mouse game, and this novel delivered. Eumenides (or so he calls himself) is a vigilante out to make sure those who have escaped punishment get what’s coming to them. The police are racing to stop Eumenides from his next target, as he’s stated in his death notice, but Eumenides is always one step ahead. And there are more death notices to come. Will the police ever catch-up?… A great thriller with interesting characters that is filled with tension and action. And the audiobook had a good narrator, Joel De La Fuente, who changed his voice for characters without doing a weird high and low, plus you get the proper pronunciation of names.

A Mystery in the Modern Art World (TW suicide/ rape/ stalking)

Still Lives by Maria Hummel: An interesting read which used art to speak about violence towards women. Maggie Richter is an editor for an LA museum who is currently working with the rest of the staff to save their museum with this one, hopefully great, art show. The artist of the show is Kim Lord whose exhibit is paintings of famous crime scenes where women were murdered that she has painted herself into. The problem is Kim Lord has disappeared on opening night. I’d say the first half of the book explores the art world and violence towards women–including how our society obsesses over the crimes–and the second half focuses on the mystery and solving it, which totally worked for me.

Slow-Burn With Bite! (TW suicide/ rape)

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton: This had almost a wonderful frenzied mood that takes you into a friendship where one woman isn’t necessarily who she says she is, and the other is a larger-than-life selfish woman. What could go wrong? Lavinia’s family is wealthy, and she’s living off this money while basically partying her life away. Louise struggles to make ends meet and has never felt like the beautiful social butterfly. Until Lavinia takes her under her wing. The problem is we’re told from the beginning that Lavinia is going to die soon… If you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn/Megan Abbott, and the novels Green Girl, Paulina & Fran this should definitely be on your must-read list.

Recent Releases

The Good Son by You-jeong Jeong (Good psychological thriller that is more of a whydunnit.) (TW stalking/ suicide)

The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (There weren’t galleys so this thriller is currently high on my TBR list.)

Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto (Great way to find new crime writers with these bites of mystery stories.)

Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt (Currently reading: I think historical fic slow-burn mystery told through diary and letters.)

The Good Mothers: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World’s Most Powerful Mafia by Alex Perry (My next true crime read)

A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal (Currently reading: labeled as “part International thriller,” so far I’m at the mystery part where the physician for the CDC is trying to figure out how the dead body in the morgue got up and left and has left a wake of dead bodies and missing people.)

Lagos Noir edited by Chris Abani (Abani wrote the literary mystery The Secret History of Las Vegas which I love so this is automatically on my TBR list.)

Santa Cruz Noir edited by Susie Bright

São Paulo Noir edited by Tony Bellotto

Dreams of Falling by Karen White (Currently reading: Think this is mostly a family novel with the mother-missing-secrets-to-come-out element.)

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (Author of Magpie Murders which I really enjoyed.)

White Bodies by Jane Robins (Paperback) (Suspense with bite: Full review) (TW: domestic abuse)

Sunburn by Laura Lippman (Paperback) (Suspenseful noir: Full review) (TW: domestic abuse/ rape)

Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica (Paperback) (Domestic suspense: Full Review)

AND Book Riot is still giving away $500 to the bookstore of your choice!

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 Canaves.

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