Category: Unusual Suspects

For fans of deadly games!

Adina Walker knows she has to be even better than the best as a Black teen in a mostly white wealthy school to make her dream of going to Yale come true. As valedictorian, she’s almost there, but then there’s a fight, and she loses everything she’s worked so hard for — including her spot at Yale. That’s how she ends up accepting a letter from the son of a very wealthy and influential family inviting her to participate in the Finish. It’s a mysterious game that pits her against other young women that she’ll soon learn has stakes as high as murder.

For fans of thrillers and watching how strangers’ stories come together!

In Salvation Point, Maine, a yacht adrift with seven murdered men on it is discovered by Israel Pike. Being that Pike has recently been paroled from his sentence for murdering his father, he becomes the suspect. Also on the island is an abandoned house where a woman with a hatchet is hiding out when a 12-year-old boy who has run away from an abusive home enters looking for a safe shelter…

For fans of Jennifer Crusie (Getting Rid of Bradley) i.e. “chick lit”/rom-com mixed with crime.

Simi Chopra isn’t necessarily where she wants to be in her life when her best friend gets scammed and ends up suspected of stealing a diamond necklace. Simi isn’t going to let her best friend go down like that and ends up promising to help. Enter jewel thief Jack: He can solve all their problems by helping them steal the necklace back if they’re willing to put together a crew to pull off a heist during a wedding. What could go wrong?!

I’m currently listening to the audiobook and am enjoying Soneela Nankani’s narration and humor timing!

For fans of genre blending books with dark humor, social commentary on motherhood, and multiple points of view.

Three mothers with children in a private preschool narrate this tale which starts with a new teacher, Erin Ollie, everyone is excited about. Except, are these young children suddenly biting and mesmerized by blood? When Ms. Ollie is found stabbed with a pair of scissors in the school, certainly a student or parent must be guilty…

The audiobook is narrated by January LaVoy, who you may recognize from narrating tons of mystery/thrillers and popular titles like The Ten Thousand Doors of January!

If you’re looking for a crime trilogy written by a literary author that really sets you in a specific place and time, absolutely pick this series up!

The first book, Harlem Shuffle, followed Ray Carne in the ’60s. Now we’ve entered the ’70s, and while he’s still trying to stay out of criminal activity, a request from his daughter puts that to the challenge when tickets to the sold-out Jackson 5 show lead him to an old police contact who now wants a favor in return…

Bonus: the audiobook is narrated by Dion Graham (Black Water Rising, Every Man A King)!

If you like twisty stories, you should be reading Samantha Downing!

I recommend going into this knowing nothing for maximum ride experience, but I know that’s not everyone’s thing, so I’ll tell you a bit about the book.

Wes and Ivy had an on-again, off-again relationship that wasn’t healthy (think passive-aggressive behavior and dumping trash in someone’s yard). But recently, Ivy has decided she wants to get back with Wes, so once again, they’re in each others’ lives. The problems on top of their already problematic history include a crime in their past they got away with, and Ivy just accidentally brought a detective into their lives whose sole mission is saving people from partner abuse. That’s exactly what she’s convinced is happening between Wes and Ivy…

I inhaled the audiobook narrated by Karissa Vacker, who has worked on a bunch of great mysteries like Night Will Find You and Take Your Breath Away.

(TW: attempted sexual assault/ nonconsensual photographs under a person’s skirt/ recounts emotional partner abuse, including the use of suicide as a threat)

For fans of speculative fiction, dark academia, dark comedies, and that “something is not right about the place I just joined” vibe.

Anisa Ellahi works in London mostly subtitling Bollywood films, but her dream is to be a literary translator of important works. That’s how she ends up at an institution that cuts you off from others for an intensive program that promises fluency in any language in 10 days. But certainly there will be a cost…

For fans of reunited friends and missing persons cases.

Three college friends have found themselves drifting apart over the years so it’s time for a fun trip to reunite, which becomes a lucky trip when they win a billion-dollar lottery. But things stop being lucky when they find themselves in a secluded mansion belonging to a wealth manager…

If you’re a fan of historical mysteries, you should be reading this series!

Being a female solicitor in 1920s Bombay is not an easy task but Perveen Mistry is always charging forward. This time around Perveen takes on the case of a disgraced servant — accused of causing an accident that burned an aristocrat’s son — going so far as to move her into Perveen’s family home. With so much stacked against her, can she prove her client is being framed?

If you’d like to start at the beginning, pick up The Widows of Malabar Hill.

For fans of YA missing person mysteries, moving to a new town, an MC who is a huge fan of horror films, and the ’80s satanic panic but set in our time!

Teenager Audre’s family has just moved to a rural town where her mom inherited a mortuary. When a girl goes missing, Audre’s dad — a historian who joined a satanic group in the past for research purposes — becomes a suspect. Audre struggles to find her place in the town, one rooted in religious extremism, and finds herself looking for the missing girl, the preacher’s daughter, when no one else seems to be really looking beyond blaming satan for the disappearance.

(TW fake suicide “performance” by church group/ child abuse/ racism, xenophobia, homophobia/ panic attack/ religious extremism)

For fans of old school-type detective mystery solving, classic whodunnits, translated works, and great series!

The first in this series is The Honjin Murders but you can start anywhere you’d like since technically the newest U.S. release is the eighth book in the series, but only the fifth translated to English.

In late 1940s post-war Tokyo, a composer, Tsubaki, is believed to have died by suicide. Except two family members think the body was not his so the family gathers for a divination to bring back his spirit, but — wait for it — ultimately it leads to a murder! Now private investigator Kosuke Kindaichi will need to find out what is going on, including what happened to Tsubaki and who is murdering people.

For fans of gritty crime novels, with comps to No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve, and told from multiple POV.

The characters you get to hear from in this tale include Florida and Dios, two prisoners released early due to COVID-19. They were cellmates, not friends, and now upon release Dios is determined to make Florida admit she’s no better than the rest of them, and just as violent. Kace, still an inmate, hears the voices of past inmates and their victims. And Lobos, a detective investigating a murder, has turned her attention to Florida and Dios…

Definitely pick up the audiobook if you’re a fan of multicast narrations: it’s read by Frankie Corzo, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Sophie Amoss, and Victoria Villarreal.

For fans of cozy mysteries, bakery settings, and dogs!

In the series beginning (Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder), Maddy Montgomery’s life fell apart and so she moved to the small town of New Bison, Michigan where her Great Aunt left her a bakery, home, and dog (English Mastiff!) in her will. Now she’s working on keeping her Great Aunt’s legacy going strong in the Spring Baking Festival. One of the problems though is a new bakery has opened and the owner is known for sabotaging others. Which would be bad enough if he wasn’t found murdered, with a knife from Maddy’s bakery as the weapon…

For fans of nonfiction and art heists!

This takes you into the decade where Stéphane Breitwieser, with his girlfriend as the lookout, stole hundreds of works of art across Europe. He kept them all for himself to admire, but couldn’t stop trying to pull off more heists leading to finally getting caught.

For fans of delicious cozy mystery series!

Lana has come a long way since returning back to her Ohio hometown and is now managing her family’s Chinese restaurant. But she’s also always solving murders as one does in a cozy. This time around Lana and her sister Anna May travel to see an aunt in Cali and attend a restaurant convention. After witnessing a fight between a journalist and a food vendor, the journalist dies. The police ruling may be “accident” but Lana, spurred by her aunt, goes in to investigate!

Want to start at the beginning? Pick up Death by Dumpling.

For fans of historical mysteries, Jane Austen (but you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy these!), and series with standalone books!

Fanny Price’s uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, really cares for her and is letting her stay at his estate. The rest of his family is not kind to Fanny, and would very much like to throw her out. It’s a complicated situation made worse when her uncle dies in his art emporium and what Fanny discovers points to foul play, but saying so could jeopardize her life…She’ll just have to work out who the murderer amongst them is and work out that secret crush on her best friend too!

The Jane Austen Murder Mystery series is a fun “retelling” of Jane Austin classics that adds in murder and mystery in a fun way, and it’s by Book Riot Contributing Editor Tirzah Price! Each book does read as a standalone so you can read in order, or bounce around based on “trope” mood: Pride and Premeditation; Sense & Second-Degree Murder. Bonus: each audiobook is narrated by Morag Sims who has an impressive list of narrated books.

For fans of YA mysteries, social justice, contemporary stories of trying to get your life on track, and When You Look Like Us.

This is one of my favorite reads this year and I absolutely judged this cover because I loved it so much – it’s why I pressed play on the audiobook, knowing nothing about the book.

Andre Jackson has just been released from juvie but the life he was excited to get back to is no longer the same: the public has just learned about Covid-19; he has an ankle monitor, restrictions on his release, and six months of probation; there are protests against police brutality, and his friend is the reason he was in jail and now he is missing.

Andre is a sweet kid close to his family – his mom is a nurse, his dad owns a bookstore, he lives with his grandparents – and now finds himself needing to navigate a few things, including the pandemic and the reality of the danger vs. what is being said; his crush on his best friend’s sister; figuring out how he got framed with his friend’s backpack of stolen goods; and why his friend has just disappeared with only his sister worried?

The audiobook is narrated by Guy Lockard who has a great voice, and really made me feel like Andre was beside me at all times. Even though I am very much a person who avoids entertainment with pandemic stuff at the moment I loved Andrew so much that I stuck with this book and was glad I did. I’ll definitely be sure to read Kim Johnson’s previous novel, This Is My America, and all future work.

(TW grandparent death/ pandemic/ mentions of teen girl sexually assaulting teen boy, no graphic detail/ child abuse, not on page/ mentions past attempted murder-suicide, detail)

For fans of main characters returning back home to deal with the past, murder mysteries, past told through diary entries, and cults.

Lay Your Body Down keeps readers turning pages to solve the mystery as the danger ramps up into a thriller ending. Del Walker fled her upbringing with a town that worships an Evangelical pastor and while she may not have the best life she at least got out. Until she finds out that her ex-boyfriend, who ended up marrying her best friend, has died in a hunting accident leading her to return to the town. We get to know Del and her past relationships through her diary entries and in the present as she feels something is off with the story of how her ex died. Not only will she force her way into sleuthing but she’ll have to face her difficult childhood, abuse, and finally deal with her ex-best friend, now widow of the man Del loved – the same man who left her a strange voicemail right before his death…

(TW mentions finding a suicide scene, detail/ mentions stories of past physical domestic abuse, not graphic nor on page/ stories of past emotional abuse/ non-consensual sharing of intimate images/ fatphobia recounted/ recounts non-physical sexual assault of teen girl/ women recount abuse stories, not graphic/ brief mention past molester)

For fans of recent-ish historical fiction (1970s), murder mysteries, and returning back home.

West Mills, North Carolina is still segregated in the mid 1970s when the first murder in decades occurs and is of three siblings: Marian, Marva, and Lazarus. While the town is filled with gossip and accusations, the white authorities don’t care to solve the case. Moving back home to marry her childhood sweetheart after living in NY, Ms. Jo Wright discovers her fiancée is on the list of culprits as the victim’s half-sibling and decides to clear his name. But what she finds is a town full of dark secrets.

For fans of atmospheric historical mysteries, amateur sleuths, and speakeasies.

Vivian Kelly lives in NY with her sister in the mid 1920s and has just gone from patron at a local speakeasy to serving drinks — on top of her job at a dress shop. But the feeling of things looking up quickly changes when Vivian learns that her friend’s Uncle Pearlie has died. Because he was the doorman at the club, and thanks to her friend’s insistence, Vivian decides to ignore the police having ruled it a non suspicious death and decides to look into the case…

If you want to start at the beginning pick up Last Call at the Nightingale.