Category: Unusual Suspects

For fans of atmospheric crime novels, fictional missing person cases, estranged friendships, and past secrets!

Estranged exes Emlyn and Tyler find themselves on a road trip in search of a past friend, Janessa. Tyler is certain that something has happened to Janessa, especially since she’s stopped posting on social media, but since the cops don’t think that’s enough to investigate, he begs Emlyn, his former girlfriend and Janessa’s former best friend, to please help. Emlyn is currently basically babysitting tourists as a fishing and hunting guide in Idaho, but she relents and agrees to help Tyler. They set off in search of Janessa, which forces Emlyn to face her past as readers learn how she met both Janessa and Tyler and the unraveling of each relationship.

I got absorbed into the audiobook narrated by Emily Pike Stewart.

I remain a fan of Kimi Cunningham Grant’s atmospheric writing. Backlist readers should definitely pick up These Silent Woods and Fallen Mountains.

(TW attempted date rape with drug at bar/ addiction off-page, side character/ brief past miscarriage loss, no detail/ hunting/ animal cruelty)

For fans of heist crews, thrillers, and an undercover on the team!

An NYC firefighter squad has taken advantage of having the kind of job where they can create scenarios to give them access to buildings where they can case out the place for a future heist. Andy Nearland has been hired to go into the crew undercover to find out what happened to one of its member’s girlfriend and son, who have vanished…

For fans of a character returning home and legal thrillers!

Deena Wood has had a rough time as of late: her mother died, she’s divorced, and she lost her job at an Atlanta law firm. So she returns to her hometown of Brunswick, Georgia. Except things aren’t better there either: she’s not a fan of her new stepmother, and an elderly man points a shotgun at her, confusing her for a real estate agent trying to take his property. She later discovers that the man is now missing and there is a “for sale” sign on his property. She starts to investigate only to find that her community might be in danger…

Backlist readers should also definitely pick up All Her Little Secrets and Anywhere You Run.

For fans of neo-noir, Miami, suspense, and a character just released from prison!

While Iggy Guerra was in prison for selling drugs, his mom died, and it’s only one of the things he has to face now that he’s been released from prison. His dad is grieving and in debt, and the family might lose the butcher shop that’s been their business for generations. Iggy is forced to find a way to save the business and deal with his family problems, all while trying to build a life after being incarcerated…

The audiobook is narrated by actor Danny Pino, who you may know from ten years as Detective Nick Amaro on Law & Order SVU!

For fans of utopias, social thriller/horror, and books that examine the wellness industry!

Nicola Yoon is a popular YA author (Everything, Everything; The Sun Is Also A Star) who now jumped into writing adult books in the mystery genre.

Liberty is an all-Black community near L.A. which sure sounds like a utopia, especially with its wellness culture. To the Williams family—pregnant Jasmyn, husband King, and son Kamau—it sounds like exactly what they need, so they naturally move there. But can a utopia actually exist? Jasmyn starts to have questions, finding herself investigating the place they’ve moved to…

For fans of retired assassins, cat-and-mouse thrillers, and action!

Mark was a top assassin until he had a change of heart on the profession, quit, and now is in a 12-step program where other ex-assassins live a life without killing. The problem? Someone is after Mark, and as he tries to keep himself alive, without killing anyone, he finds himself on the run needing to uncover who wants him dead!

For fans of middle grade mystery, friendship, and baking competitions!

Laila and Lucy have been best friends since kindergarten so they’re naturally upset to find out that because of their home addresses, they’ll now be going to different schools for eighth grade. Laila thinks the prize of a scholarship to boarding school at a cookie competition will solve their problems, so she enters. Awesome plan! Except, Laila finds herself on a suspect list after a judge gets ill after eating her food, and a storm cuts them off from communication. Now she has to clear her name in order to still have a chance to win!

For fans of sisters, missing person cases, influencer/child social media stars, and family drama!

Hazel Davis was 10 years old when her younger sister, Evie, was born into a family that was blogged about by their mom. When a video of Evie dancing with her dad hours before he died went viral, the family (mostly Evie managed by her mom) became social media famous. That’s how Evie, who is now 18, grew up to use all the followers she had to become an influencer. When one of her social media videos cuts abruptly and she disappears, her sister Hazel is left to wonder what happened to Evie, forcing her to face her fraught relationship with their mom.

Told mostly from Hazel’s perspective with some chapters by Evie, the novel explores what it’s like to be a child whose entire life is documented for strangers online—something I suspect we’re going to see a lot more of now that many of the kids who spent their childhoods this way are becoming adults. My favorite part was the very end, which, unfortunately, I can’t talk about.

I read an egalley because I didn’t have access to the audiobook, but I saw that it has a full cast of narrators if that’s the kind of production you enjoy!

(TW diet culture, mentions eating disorder/ recounts statutory relationship over internet that is never in person)

For fans of PIs, historical mysteries, and the mob!

In 1970s L.A., PI Easy Rawlins decides to take Amethystine Stoller on as a client. It should be a simple case of looking into the missing person case of Stoller’s ex-husband, except he’s found dead with ties to mobsters and a casino. Making things even more difficult for Rawlins is the fact that his only help at the LAPD is currently in hiding…

If you want to start at the beginning, pick up the classic Devil in a Blue Dress. If you’re looking for a newer series that is set in the present, pick up Down the River Unto the Sea.

For fans of high school settings, stories about accidental death being investigated as murder, and a sarcastic MC with a friend group!

Gigi Ricci was close with one teacher: Mr. Ford, her math teacher, who pushed her to be her best. Naturally, she’s shocked when he dies from a fall while putting up a punny cat poster in his classroom. The police automatically rule it an accident, but Gigi sees too many problems to be convinced: Mr. Ford hated both puns and cats, and two members of the Mystery and Thriller Literary Scholars club got a strange email telling them to go to Mr. Ford’s classroom when he was dead. This prompts Gigi to finally join the mystery club and start sleuthing with a group of teens that includes her brother, friend, and crush!

If you’re looking for backlist, pick up the fun murder mystery starring a bird-watching teen who swears they witnessed a murder: Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything.

For fans of locked room mysteries, mystery writer MCs, and Japanese crime novels!

Akimitsu Takagi is a mystery writer who is sent to investigate the Chizurui family mansion, where someone wearing a sinister Hannya mask stalks around at night. But the fun is over quickly when it turns into a murder investigation: the head of the family was murdered in the locked study and a Hannya mask was left on the floor…

For fans of historical mysteries, multiple POV, and amateur sleuths!

Set during the Lavender Scare, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson are amateur sleuths who recently befriended Roger Raymond, a mystery author. After he’s been found dead in his burned apartment the police rule it a suicide and close the case. But Judy and Philippa aren’t convinced, questioning if it even is Raymond. So they get to sleuthing along with Raymond’s partner, Lionel Kane, only to discover a serial killer from their past may be involved…

If you want to start at the beginning of the series, pick up The Savage Kind.

For fans of former detectives back on a case and murder mysteries set in New Zealand!

Hana Westerman has quit the force and moved back home with her father, Eru, in Tātā Bay. Decades ago, a Māori man was convicted of the murder of a fellow classmate of Hana’s, and Eru has always believed they convicted the wrong person. Now another skeleton is found in the same dunes where Hana’s classmate was found dead, and even though Hana is no longer officially a detective, she’s drawn back into a murder investigation…

If you want to start at the beginning of the series, pick up Better The Blood!

For fans of remote island mysteries and reality TV shows!

Because Lyla’s life is in a not great place, she decides to join her actor boyfriend on a reality TV show. Set to compete against other couples on an island, things quickly take a turn for worse when a storm knocks out power and the contestants don’t have cell phones. Now these competing strangers have to work together to survive…

Ware has consistently been publishing a mystery/thriller a year since her 2015 debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, so backlist readers have plenty to read.

For fans of crime graphic novels, love of monsters, and clever middle grade sleuths!

This completes the two part story, so you’re going to want to start with My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book One. If, like me, you’ve been eagerly and impatiently awaiting the completion of the story, yay, it’s finally here!

The overall story: This book is the graphic diary of ten-year-old Karen Reyes, who is obsessed with monsters and is trying to figure out life in her uptown Chicago neighborhood during the ’60s. Living with her mom, who is ill, and her brother, who is artistic and always in trouble, Reyes escapes into pulp magazines and B-movie horror. When an upstairs neighbor is murdered, Reyes puts herself on the case!

For fans of vigilantes, desserts, and a tiny sprinkle of magic!

Daisy Ellery has the gift of being able to infuse food with emotion, which allows her to create deadly pies for awful men — her side business. She’s not a monster and gives the abusers an opportunity to right their ways before eating the pies, but if they don’t, she lets them eat the poisoned pies—with the benefit that if anyone else eats the pie, no harm will come to them. Daisy’s new case has her hesitating to take it: while the woman says she’s in an abusive relationship, Daisy thinks there is a chance she’s being set up by the police instead — until the woman goes missing and Daisy sets off to find her, placing herself in danger!

If you’d like to start at the beginning, pick up Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies.

For fans of multiple POVs of family members, sisters, past and present storylines, and a documentary shaking out the truth!

Twenty-five years ago, Fiona and Violet Seng were in a private plane crash as kids with their parents. As the only survivors, the sisters spent months in the wilderness alone, which became a huge news story once they were rescued. Now the sisters are estranged but forced to deal with the past when a documentary leads to questions about what really happened — from the cause of the crash to the aftermath…

For fans of YA thrillers and a fictional serial killer’s child as the lead!

Sid Atkinson’s father is in prison for murdering five girls ten years ago. Sid changed their last name and lives with their grandmother trying to escape the horror of being the kid of a serial killer. Except now, with their dad in prison, there’s a new wave of bodies that has to be a copycat — something Sid is determined to solve, even at great risk to themself…

For fans of heist thrillers, cat-and-mouse chases, and opening at the end of the story and then going back to tell the lead-up to that scene!

Rune Sarasin steals a bag of rubies in Bangkok from Charles Lemaire, a smuggler. She and her boyfriend Kit get away, but everything goes wrong, including Kit’s sister disappearing, Rune losing the bag of Rubies, and Lemaire coming for them…

For fans of genre blends, gothic mystery, historical fiction (mid-1800s Paris), and sisters (told from each perspective)!

Sylvie and Charlotte Mothe used to con people by pretending to be mediums. Then they grew estranged after their mother died and Sylvie decided finding a rich husband was her future. Now they’re brought back together again with the idea of one last con: a wealthy family thinks they’re being haunted by their murdered aunt…