Category: Unusual Suspects

If you’re looking for a murder mystery set IN a library here you go! After a woman screams inside the Boston Public Library, it goes on lockdown so the threat can be assessed. This is how four strangers have ended up sitting at the same table in the library chatting to pass the time. But this is a mystery book so one of the four is a murderer…

For fans of cozy mysteries and home renovation reality shows. Peter and JP have a renovation show, Domestic Partners, and have found their next project: a local Tudor Revival inherited by identical twin brothers. And of course one of the twins is found dead at the house! The police eventually end up ruling it not an accident, putting Peter and JP’s detecting skills (mystery writer and once acted on a cop show) to the test!

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For fans of historical mysteries and Walter Mosley. In 1963 Los Angeles, Harry Ingram, a Korean War veteran, is making a living as a photographer and taking jobs as a process server. On the eve of Martin Luther King’s Freedom Rally, Ingram recognizes a friend’s car mentioned on a police scanner; he ends up showing up to photograph the accident and later realizes when developing the photos that he’ll have to take on a new role of detective to prove it was not an accident.

Armstrong writes one of my favorite series: the Rockton Series. It’s like blending a procedural with a thriller and giving it an interesting setting (remote AF) and premise (a place where people who need to disappear go but you don’t know who is a victim and who is not). Now she’s starting a brand new series which feels like a blend again, this time a procedural with a dash of time travel. In 2019 Mallory is a Vancouver homicide detective visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh. But soon she’ll find herself herself in 1869 in the body of Catriona Mitchell, a housemaid to an undertaker. Obviously she’s gonna have to solve a murder while trying to figure out where she is and how…

For fans of gothic mysteries and historical fiction, here’s a great new one. Beatriz’s father is executed after an overthrowing of the Mexican government, so she accepts Don Rodolfo Solórzano’s marriage proposal, even if there’s some rumors about his previous wife, because she needs the security. But it’s a gothic mystery, so “you in danger, girl!”

Have you ever wondered what a party turned murder mystery would be like starring a slew of Jane Austen’s characters? Claudia Gray did, and it’s this book! Hence the title, in which Mr. Wickham is dead and the mystery of how must be solved with everyone at Mr. Knightley and Emma’s house party being suspects!

I’m so excited that we get a sequel to Iced in Paradise (Review). If you like mysterious person mysteries, an amateur sleuth who must clear their friend’s name, want to armchair travel to Hawai’i, and were looking for a new cozy series, here you go.

And now we travel to an Italian island! Who needs the police when you can have Nonna Maria, an elderly Italian widow who knows everyone and is known by everyone, help you. In this case the help needed is a woman who suddenly questions who her fiance really is…

Here’s a new legal thriller that follows an entire case from beginning to end. The case is not simple: Gabriel Soto is accused of murdering Melina Mora, but the remains recovered weren’t enough to tell much of what happened to her.

Readers are taken directly into the jury room, into the prosecution’s side as they build their case out of court, into the defense side as they build their case and meet with the defendant, inside the judge’s chamber, and of course inside the courtroom as the case is tried. There is discovery that happens during the actual trial throwing both the prosecutor and defense into loops trying to right their case again.

A thing I really liked about this one was how we get backstories for everyone showing how there is no such thing as being impartial, since we carry around with us our experiences.

(TW presumed sexual assault case discussed in prep, trial, interrogations/ police racial profiling, racism/ homophobia/ domestic abuse/ mentions child death case/ alcoholism, addiction / murder suicide case/ Sept 11th on news)

I need more popcorn thrillers in my life! And by that I mean books that hook me immediately with a premise that makes me want to sit with a tub of popcorn, inhaling both the book and the treat, as I race to find out what happened. Barclay has become a consistent writer of popcorn thrillers for me and his recent release was no exception. I listened to the audiobook in less than 2 days (if you’re a fan of multicast narrations, pick up the audio format).

The premise: a wife disappears while her husband is on a weekend fishing trip with his best friend. Years later the husband has changed his name and moved because he’s remained a suspect when the woman is seen returning to where her home had been, freaking out and running away. And so what is happening?! Where has she been? Why did she disappear again?!

These are all questions the police have, and her husband appears to also have (he is now living with his girlfriend and her teenage brother who she has custody of). You get to follow along different points of view starting with the night of the disappearance (there is a moment that legit scared the daylights out of me!) as we slowly come to find out all the answers to what happened then, and what is happening now…

(TW quick mention past parent death, car accident, heart attack/ past alcoholism/ a mother with terminal cancer, death)

If you’re looking for an amateur sleuth, like doctor leads and writer leads, here’s a new series. Dr. Myaisha Douglas’ goal to write a novel leads her to join a writing group, but the writing advice comes with a murder! As an armchair detective she decides she’s the best option to help assist the police in solving the case.

For fans of amateur teen sleuths and Agatha Christie (references to Poirot and Miss Marple and you even gets quotes between chapters), here’s a new YA murder mystery. This is one of those fun trope-y books. Alternating between the stories of Alice and Iris, who’ve been paired together for tutoring by the school, you get opposites that join together to solve a murder. Toss in a group of other kids that help with their hijinks in figuring out why the kid they think didn’t commit the murder just confessed, and why the murdered girl’s stepdad is acting so strange? If you like multiple narrators, pickup the audiobook format.

(TW domestic abuse/ drugging without consent/ stalking)

Like cozy mysteries and want to do some traveling from your arm chair? Travel to 1920s Bangalore where recently married Kaveri attends a party that turns into a murder case. Clearly she’ll need to investigate when she’s certain the accused is not guilty. Good thing she’s got a brain for mathematics and a doctor husband to help.

For fans of elderly detectives! Judith Potts lives alone happily, and designs crossword puzzles. After witnessing a murder, and the police not taking her seriously, she decides to take matters into her own hands and investigate herself. But one needs help in these endeavors which she gets from the wife of a Vicar and a dog-walker.