Category: Unusual Suspects

For fans of past and present stories, dual POV, fictional true crime writer, and murder mystery.

We follow two women, past and present, when Cassie Bowman, a true crime blogger, decides to write about Lore Rivera to finally make it big. The case: Rivera was secretly married to two men, until one shot the other dead…

(TW domestic abuse/ maternal mortality / mentions miscarriages, infertility/ ableism/ earthquake that killed many/ alcoholism)

This book should have been a hit — it nails so many tropes and is a real page-turning thriller. I’m not sure if the cover image or the comma in the title threw things off from readers finding this but if you read fictional serial killers, like true crime podcasts, and/or were a fan of Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, you should run to this novel.

Elle Castillo went from being a social worker to really popular true crime podcaster. For her new season she’s decided to tackle a serial killer case that has haunted her for a long time. But things start off bad when she follows a tip from a listener and finds the listener dead…

(TW infertility briefly recounted/ child murders/ child abuse/ sex offender investigated, crime not on page/ panic attacks/ past murder faked as suicide recounted, detail)

For fans of murder mysteries, school settings, and multiple POVs for right before the murder and right after!

Kenneth, Trey, and Ramón attend a charter school in D.C., The Urban Promise Prep School, that uses cruelty and punishment as it prides itself on being a great education for raising boys into men. When the school principal is murdered, all three boys become suspects as we follow each one’s life right before the murder and since, and also get to hear community members chime in on their opinions on the boys.

The audiobook has a great full cast and well-produced production that adds, without distraction, atmospheric sounds. The narrators are Alfred Vines, Anthony Lopez, Brad Sanders, Christopher Hampton, Eliana Marianes, Hannah Church, Henriette Zoutomou, Jaime Lincoln Smith, Maria Liatis, Renier Cortes, Suehyla El-Attar, and Xenia Willacey.

(TW child abuse/ mentions alcoholism)

For fans of returning to past school, a past murder mystery being questioned, and a true crime podcast host!

Bodie Kane doesn’t have the fondest memories of attending Granby School, a boarding school in New England, where her roommate was murdered. However, that doesn’t stop her from taking a job to teach a film class there. One of her students decides to focus her assignment on the past murder, believing the man in prison may be innocent, forcing Kane to reconcile with her present and her past…

Audiobook fans get a great production that is mostly narrated by Julia Whelan with a bit narrated by JD Jackson.

(TW brief mention past drug overdose, brief mention past addiction and death unknown if suicide, detail/ brief mention past domestic abuse/ mentions sexual assault case/ eating disorder/ rumors of statutory student teacher/ past memory possible suicide attempt/ recounts past groping/ mentions suicide cases, method mentioned/ mentions of terminal cancer diagnosis and death)

For fans of wait-for-it crime novels and contemporary novels!

Ava Wong is frustrated in life, having given up her career and currently with a toddler going through a tantrum phase. So when someone from college reaches out to help her with her counterfeit designer handbag business, Ava agrees. What could go wrong?

For fans of true crime!

This is a collection of 12 articles previously published in The New Yorker that all focus on crime. It’s a great way to get in some reading when you don’t have a lot of time and read a broad range of true crime stories. It starts with a dive into rare wine, collectors, and the elaborate con of selling Thomas Jefferson’s wine bottles — some criminal activity and history!

And if you’ve yet to read his full backlist Patrick Radden Keefe has two fantastic true crime books: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

For fans of fun thrillers and shows like Castle and Dexter where it’s just ridiculous enough to make it entertaining and not real or stressful!

Martin Reese has created a really unique profession for himself: he pays a cop to give him unsolved cases and then he solves the case, finds the body, and anonymously calls it into the police. It’s all fun and games until a killer is pissed his bodies are being found and the crooked cop starts to question this arrangement…

(TW child abuse/ stalking/ suicide/ past domestic abuse mentioned)

For fans of twisty mysteries that want something that feels slightly out of the box!

This has a few interesting angles: it is not about catching a serial killer, nor focused on them; it also has a tiny sci-fi blip of people brought back to life.

Lou was the victim of a serial killer. She is dead. Well her first body is. She was brought back to life by a program that grew a new her from a sampling of her murdered self known as Replication Commission. She knows she was murdered by a serial killer but since short term memory and trauma don’t come through in the procedure, she knows everything about her life except her murder. The serial killer has been caught. She’s in a serial killers survivor group, and home with her husband and her baby. But there are questions that are starting to come up about her murder and, well, maybe things didn’t happen exactly as is believed…

This doesn’t focus on any sci-fi stuff, it’s very much our world with this one twist. So if you normally shy away from sci-fi, this could be a good toe-dip-in-water if you’re feeling a bit adventurous.

For audiobook readers: Rebecca Lowman, who has a lot of thrillers under her belt, narrates.

(TW brief recount of past emotional abuse, domestic murder/ mentions stalking/ past postpartum)

This is a YA contemporary with romance but it’s also very much centered around the fallout of a crime (sexual assault) and fighting to get some form of justice and for people to hear you. I think readers who read sexual assault memoirs and also YA contemporary/romance will like this one.

High schooler Ariana Ruiz is autistic with selective mutism which fellow student Luis Ortega exploits in order to assault her. In the fallout of Ariana trying to make sense of what happened, she ends up finding a group of friends and a crush, who she bonds with at first in their goal to take down Luis Ortega and make people realize he’s a predator.

Sonora Reyes writers characters I love and root for, including The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, and I will always immediately buy and read her work. I enjoyed having Elisa Meléndez narrating in my ears the day I inhaled this one.

(TWs the author provides these in the opening of the book, and you can also see the approved content warnings here.

For fans of Australian crime, missing person cases, and PIs.

While once a thriving town, Nannine — an outback town in Australia — has lost much of its businesses due to drought. It’s also where almost 20 years ago, Evelyn McCreery disappeared as a child. Now PI Lane Holland wants to solve the case — for the reward money he’s desperate for in order to pay for his sister’s college. But he’s not as upfront with information when he tries to get to know Mina McCreery, the missing girl’s now grown sister. She knows about the rumors that she must have had something to do with it or know more than she does, and she may not trust Holland but she wants to know what happened…

This is one of those well done mysteries that suck you into a place and keep you gathering evidence, desperate to solve what happened!

If you’re a fan of Australian accents, go with the audiobook narrated by Jacquie Brennan.

Fifteen years ago, a wedding at the grand Bellweather Hotel was disrupted by a gory crime. The hotel is now said to be haunted, but it doesn’t keep the guests away. But when a high school student at a music festival disappears from the very room where the crime occurred 15 years ago, people are beginning to wonder if the stories are true. They will have to hang in there until help arrives because of course a giant blizzard has descended on the hotel, stranding them all together. As they search for the missing student, what they don’t know is that someone who was at that wedding all those years ago is locked in the hotel with them…This is delicious, spine-tingling fun!

And for a read more on the puzzle-solving side of things, check out this mystery, which is part of the fun mystery sub-genre “stranger’s fortune is up for grabs.” In Boston, famed billionaire Vincent Pryce has died. The city is abuzz with the news because Pryce created a treasure hunt around Boston and invites the city to participate. Whoever can find all the clues and solve the mystery first will get his fortune. And Tuesday Mooney thinks she might just be the person for the job. A puzzle-loving loner, Tuesday didn’t realize she has been training for this challenge her whole life! But getting the money isn’t going to be easy. Pryce had a clever, dark sense of humor. And when finding clues proves challenging, Tuesday joins up with a motley crew of fortune seekers, including her best friend, Dex. Together they will hopefully sniff out the riches, while also facing up to their fears and learning about themselves. It’s The Westing Game for grownups! (I also have a UK edition of this novel, titled Tuesday Mooney Wore Black, which is also cool.)

This one is out next week! It’s perfect for fans of The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste. In this supernatural mystery, 12-year-old Serenity Noah’s younger brother Peace is sent away to Duppy Island for help with his sleep issues. But Serenity has a bad feeling about the treatment center and its head doctor, which is confirmed when she sees something from her recurring nightmares in the woods on the island. Serenity will have to face her fears and use her smarts to save Peace before he joins the ranks of faceless children who haunt the island!

And I have been enjoying this series of middle grade mysteries, which I picked up after reading Hide, White’s scary first horror novel for adults. This is the fourth book in this series. In the past, the Sinister-Winterbottom twins have escaped waterparks, camps, and castles. And as they continue to search for their missing parents, this time they must face the scary home of Mr. Frank and Dr. Stein! These books are a little Scooby-Doo and a whole lot of fun.

I’m also in the middle of The Winterton Deception 1: Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson, which comes out October 24. So far, so good. It’s a bit like The Westing Game, in that it is several teams in one hotel who are competing to win a spelling bee in order to acquire the late benefactor’s money. But of course, there are other mysteries, alliances, and double-dealings going on.

For fans of food show competitions, family, and trying to prove someone incarcerated is innocent.

The summer before 7th grade, Zoe Washington gets a baking internship, a condition her parents required to allow her to apply to a baking competition. She also ends up embarking on the mission to get her imprisoned bio dad’s case before an organization that works to free wrongly incarcerated people. And if you audiobook, Bahni Turpin narrates!

And there’s now a sequel, On Air with Zoe Washington.

For fans of mystery competitions and detectives!

Toby Montrose is a 10-year-old who has had many homes since his parents’ disappearances. Now he’s living with his detective uncle on Detectives’ Row hoping that winning a detective competition (which he lied to get in) will win him cash to solve his problems. But Ivy is also in the competition and she loves finding trouble and donning disguises. They might clash in many ways, but soon they’ll realize they need to partner up to win…I am forEVer hoping that this turns into a series!

For fans of recent-ish historical fiction, crime, character-driven stories, and excellent audiobook narrators.

Ray Carne is a husband and father in 1960s Harlem who owns a furniture store. He does not consider himself a criminal, certainly not like his cousin Freddie and his stolen goods. But while Ray is doing well, he is always aspiring for more and soon he finds himself in a lot of trouble… This is told in three parts with all kinds of crime, including a heist.

The sequel, Crook Manifesto, releases July 18th.

(TW mentions past child abuse)

For fans of procedurals, fictional serial killers, and family drama.

Schaffhausen is an author I count on to give me page-turners that always suck me in with her hooks and characters. This series starter begins with a serial killer that had gone dark until a group of amateur sleuths started poking around. Question is: did they revive the original, or create a copycat?

The sequel, Long Gone, is already out and the third book, Dead and Gone, releases August 8th.

(TW: parent with Parkinson’s/ mentions past rape case, not graphic/ date rape scene recounted/ discussions of domestic and partner abuse/ past murder suicide recounted, detail/ ableism)

For fans of procedurals!

Ellie Rush aspires to be a detective while currently working as an LAPD bicycle cop. Her first murder case involves someone she knows: a former college classmate. Since Ellie’s aunt is a higher-up in the department, she becomes involved in the case, bringing in her extended family which includes her best friend and ex-boyfriend.

For fans of cozy mysteries and septuagenarian MCs!

Peg Turnbull and Rose Donovan — a former nun — don’t get along and since they’re sister-in-laws it’s hard to avoid each other. But the bickering will have to mostly be put on ice — they’ll try — because there is a murder to solve at their local bridge club…