Category: Unusual Suspects

This is the start to a cozy mystery series that has a sprinkling of magic. While it’s perfect to read at any time, if you’re looking for a cozy to slide into fall with, here you go.

After her mother passed, Alexandra Daniels was raised by her father in NY and was forbidden from visiting her family in a seaside North Carolina town. Now that her father has passed, she decides to finally visit them. Not only is she going to learn about her family–descendants from mermaids that are now human with some magical powers!–and work in their herbal apothecary, but she’s also going to learn how to investigate a murder. I mean what else would you do when your aunt is arrested for the poisoning murder of a customer who she JUST fought with?!

You get family, folklore, some magic, town secrets, rivalries, a very good doggo, and a murder-mystery! And the sequel, A Hex For Danger, is already out.

Whitney Dagner spent summers in Santa Catalina Island with her grandparents as a child and has just moved to the island to join her brother Nick in running the family tourism business. And she’s greeted by two things: the discovery of the dead body of Catalina’s Person of the Year award recipient and her brother being the number one suspect.

When Nick runs from the police and hides, Whitney decides it’s up to her to figure out who is responsible–surely, don’t call me Shirley, her brother can’t be responsible–in order to clear his name. But between the business of their tourist boat, running the gift shop, her grandmother’s shenanigans, her ex-boyfriend, and a town filled with lively characters and tourists, many things are sure to get in her way.

If you like a bit of humor, family, misdirection, non-talking animal friends that sometimes go along for the fun, pick up this new cozy series starter.

I loved this book and if you enjoyed Harlem Shuffle, or have it on your TBR list, totally pick this one up too which is currently $2.99! (Review)

For the ridiculous price of less than a dolla,r you can read this historical mystery from an author whose entire catalog I’ve enjoyed. (Review)

Here’s a great brand new murder mystery release for $5.99! (Review)

First, I have to say I went with the audiobook because it’s narrated by Dion Graham who is one of my all time favorite narrators and I will absolutely listen to anything with his voice.

This is a crime story and historical fiction. I don’t know why lately things keep getting the “thriller” label which makes people think of a certain speed/intensity when “crime story” is what they mean. This reminded me a lot of Deacon King Kong by James McBride in both author’s incredible ability to bring to life a time period and community to the point of literally feeling like you were there watching it all.

This centers on Ray Carne, a husband, father with a second baby on the way, and furniture store owner in 1960s Harlem. He is doing well, but there is always better to be doing and aspire to. While he does not consider himself a criminal–looking the other way when his cousin Freddie brings in stolen goods he knows nothing about isn’t really being a criminal, that’s what his cousin is–he starts to find himself in a lot of trouble. Family, am I right?

This is written in three parts that deal with all kinds of crime (including a heist, but again this is not a thriller) following Carney as he gets deeper into his own doings and those that Freddie has roped him into. NY is incredibly brought to life along with the events of the time. There are so many interesting characters and it’s written with nuance and depth, making it not only a wonderful story to get lost in but something that leaves you thinking.

I am not a rereader but I already feel like I’m going to want to read this again at some point to be submerged in this world and watch it all unfold again.

(TW mentions past child abuse)

This has a similar set-up to Big Little Lies while being a totally different novel, which I really enjoyed. You get the mystery at the beginning, and then you follow the main characters, and then it all comes together at the end. The mystery is strong throughout (did he or didn’t he?), and there are even detectives added in along with the family members.

The Big Little Lies adaptation being filmed in California seems to make my brain forget that I love that Moriarty’s novels are set in Australia. This time we have a tennis family. The parents were coaches, including of a player that went pro, and the four kids were all coached and placed in competitions growing up. Now they’re all grown doing separate things with varying views of growing up in a tennis family.

And their mother is missing. After their parents took in a stranger to live with them. And there are confusing things that make it sound like maybe their father was involved with their mother’s disappearance…

I love that the mystery was very much a page-turner to find out what happened but the characters were equally interesting–including the exploration of how we’re pigeon-holed as children and how even if we’re different adults, those who knew us as kids hold on to that childhood behavior. This book reminded me that Moriarty has a great ability of sucking me into a story and writing these asides for all the characters that are always the interesting thing about a person without weighing the reader down with unnecessary details. If you’re looking for something absorbing with equal detail to characters and plot, grab this one.

(TW domestic violence/ briefly mentions past date rape, not detailed/ eating disorder/ mentions past teen having suicidal thoughts with no details/ anxiety)

If you like angsty romances absolutely grab this missing persons mystery set in New Zealand for $4.99!

Love Japanese detective mysteries? You should absolutely be reading this series (it was translated out of order, they all read as standalones I promise!) and you can start with this one for $2.99! (Review)

You absolutely want to read this fun mystery that imagines Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy solving a mystery which you can grab for $1.99!

Noir set in Mexico City! I think I’ve read all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novels, and I love that she writes in basically all genres. I went with the audiobook for this one and was completely sucked into this world. I also remain obsessed with the cover!

Maite is a secretary in Mexico City in the ’70s who views herself as not enough. She reads a lot of romance comics and imagines the situations she’s in compared to the stories she reads, and thinks she fails at being as pretty and glamorous. She imagines her neighbor, Leonora, fits the bill, however. When Leonora asks Maite to feed her cat and watch her apartment, Maite accepts: not out of the goodness of her heart, but because she asks to be paid (she needs to get her car from the mechanic) and because she has a habit of stealing an item from everyone’s apartment and this will make that easy.

But Leonora never returns, and Maite is left with a cat she does not want and questions. Also looking for Leonora is Elvis, a criminal in training whose been put on the task of finding the missing woman. We follow these two very different personalities, with a common love of music and comics, as they search for the woman, leaving the reader wondering how and when will their paths meet…

I really enjoyed following Maite and Elvis as they navigate through the political climate of the time (highly recommend you read Silvia Moreno-Garcia afterward on the history), their desires, passions, and interactions. If you’re a fan of Megan Abbott’s noir titles, definitely pick this up.

If you’d told me I was not only going to really like a book set in the beginning of the pandemic but also not be able to put it down, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. Yet, here we are!

I’ve really liked Howard’s books. She always snags me at the start with a hook and keeps me invested. The setup is interesting: two people meet and are excited about each other. For different reasons, they’re in a city without many ties, so when the pandemic starts and they find out there will be a two week lockdown, they think “Why not? Let’s do it together”.

But one ends up dead.

You follow two pairs of people over 56 days. There are two detectives in the present day trying to solve what happened (you don’t get to know who is dead for a while) and get a lot of good banter between them, as they are quite different, while they try to solve the case. In the past chapters – starting 56 days before – you watch from both perspectives as Ciara and Oliver meet. Ciara has recently moved to the city, leaving behind her sister and her mom, who is entering hospice from a long illness. Oliver is starting fresh again, running away from some sort of past.

Oliver originally believes Ciara to be a journalist and only speaks to her to flush her out, but then finds that her answers are too good and maybe he’s being paranoid. Ciara is trying to overcome thoughts like “Was that ridiculous to say?” and “Wait, don’t let him get his feelings hurt” while hoping that she’s finally made a connection with a cute man. As they go on a few dates, the first cases of Covid-19 hit Ireland, and they learn that there will be a two week lockdown. So Ciara moves in with Oliver, which is exciting at first, but she quickly realizes maybe she doesn’t know him well enough, especially when a neighbor doesn’t have great things to say about him…

Because of the setting at the start of the pandemic, it took me a while of circling this book before being able to pick it up. And even then I thought, “I’ll just dip a toe in, and if it gives me anxiety, I’m out for now.” But it was completely fine for me, which kind of shocked me. In a strange way, it being set at the very start of the pandemic when there was no information made it feel okay, because I was reading those bits already knowing the information and how it turned out. Also, the mystery element was very much a page-turner that overrode any potential uncomfortable feelings from the pandemic for me. And it was interesting to compare how it unfolded in the US versus Ireland.

(TW brief suicidal thoughts, detail/brief mention past suicide, detail/tween murder/panic attack/terminally ill parent)

Looking for a novella starring a private detective? You can start the Ross Agency Mystery series for $2.99!

Escape our current world to solve a murder in a 1920s speakeasy in New Orleans’ French Quarter for $5.99! (Review)

This combines a few tropes that I like: the women that get called “unlikable”; returning home after “escaping”; and missing person cases. And it also reminded me of The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka in tone, the way it unfolds, and with the messy family. Growing up in a small Minnesota town, Mary wanted out, both to flee the bullying and the way she was looked at. Her chance at this came when she was accepted into an Ivy league school. She lost weight dangerously with an eating disorder and felt like she got to start with a blank slate, so she didn’t have to wear the unpopular label anymore. Until she was expelled her senior year.

Now, back home, she’s lying to everyone about why she’s back, working at a grocery store, and being reminded of what a huge disappointment she is by her father. Then a frenemy from childhood goes missing, and Mary thinks the case has to be connected to another missing young woman who disappearance hasn’t gotten much attention because she’s a Black woman. With no one listening to her, she decides to look into it herself, including pretending to be a reporter to get access to family members.

Struggling with her own issues and pointing her energy into finding these women, she finds herself making more enemies as she inches closer to the truth and placing herself in danger…

(TW eating disorder/ fatphobia, bullying/ racism/ attempted suicide not completed, detail/ sharing of nude pic without permission)

This is a great nonviolent true crime that will leave you thinking about it long after you finish it. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up to become an identity theft expert after her family became victims of identity theft back before there were laws and information on the crime.

Betz-Hamilton takes you into her lonely childhood, her parents cutting them off from family and friends after their identity was stolen over a fear of not being able to trust anyone–a fear that she internalized–and into her college years where she became a victim of identity theft again. It’s a memoir about her life that centers the never being able to escape the damage from the crime that began when she was little, a crime that wasn’t actually solved until she was a grown adult.

Spoiler-y: The book unfolds giving you the information the way Betz-Hamilton grew up receiving it with the discovery of the crime’s perpetrator being a “twist” because that’s how it happened in her life. It wasn’t necessary though for the purpose of the book to be successful because 1. it’s a true story and 2. the impact is the same whether you know beforehand or not because the action stays the same.

(TW cancer/ disordered eating/ brief mention of past domestic abuse, miscarriage/ gaslighting)

For fans of Courtney Summers’ Sadie who want a mystery told out of order, pick this one up for $6.99! (Review)

If you want something fun, here’s a new series, with the first two books on sale for $5.99, that stars Daphne and Velma from Scooby-Doo. (Review)

If you want a thriller set on a train that is being adapted, starring Brad Pitt, into a film releasing in 2022, this is your book! A bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka has criminals and victims on board, and a suitcase that they come to realize they are all after…

If you’re looking for dark academia–with a cover I’m obsessed with–here you go! After a recent death of a high school student that leaves everyone shocked, things take an even more shocking turn when a group of friends are accused of causing her death. The accuser is anonymous and will be releasing what they know about each “friend” slowly and publicly…

(The author provides TWs on her website and at the beginning of the book: “Please note that this book contains depictions of abuse, self-harm, violence, parental neglect, panic attacks, drug use, mental illness, an inappropriate student/teacher relationship, racism, and suicidal thoughts.”)

I will read anything Schaffhausen writes as she always writes darkish mysteries with great lead characters that feel like the procedural shows that I love and inhale. This is the start to a new series and the first case is a serial killer that went dark until a group of amateur sleuths started poking around, Now there’s either a copycat or the real killer is back… Pick this one up if you need something that will suck you in and keep you turning pages, and then grab her first series The Vanishing Season (Review). Also, please someone adapt her two series into TV series, they are perfect for it!

(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)

The author of The Girl On the Train is back with a new thriller. We have a dead man on a houseboat and three women connected starting with the one-night stand. There’s gonna be so many secrets–I love secrets as much as Marie Kondo loves mess!

If you’re a fan of historical mysteries, this is a great series set in Syonan, Japanese-occupied Singapore, which follows an orphaned girl who survived Polio, SuLin. This time around she finds a relative who’d been blackmailing her dead, and well that’s not the only death to come that benefits her… If you want to start at the beginning pickup The Frangipani Tree Mystery (Review).

Mmmmm, a new delicious Megan Abbott book about obsession, family, and not being able to find your place in the present because of the past, set in a family-owned ballet studio. (Review)

The author of The Herd is back with a mystery thriller about best friends and a trip gone horribly wrong–again! I mean how many times is too many times for a backpacker being murdered in self-defense while you’re on vacation?

I’m a big fan of Moreno-Garcia and always pick up her books. I love that she writes in so many genres but especially get excited when it’s crime. Here’s her take on noir set in Mexico City in the 1970s, following a secretary looking into the suspicious disappearance of her neighbor…

This reads like a Liane Moriarty mystery where you get the mystery at the beginning and then take a deep dive into character’s everyday lives before it all comes together at the end. A hanging-by-a-thread full time lawyer and full time mom decides to investigate an arson in an exclusive neighborhood she wants to move to. What could go wrong? You’re in a crime book, woman! PS: If you don’t like spoilers, stay away from the summary and comps for this one.

(TW domestic abuse)

Here’s a historical mystery set in 1944 Chicago where Aki Ito and her parents have been resettled after being released from interment camps in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Set to reunite with her older sister Rose, Aki is shocked to discover she’d been killed and her death ruled a suicide. Knowing that isn’t the full story, Aki sets out to find out what happened to Rose.

Spy thriller! Jill Bailey is a CIA analyst who was just given a choice: save her son who has been kidnapped or do what the kidnappers want. Also involved is a journalist whose been given a career-making tip about the CIA…

Imagine taking a job for an elite fishing lodge in Colorado to escape life and deal with grief. One would think nature could help heal, except what if things aren’t as they seem and that scream you heard in the middle of the night means danger?

If you’re looking for a Swedish procedural, here’s one that hits the tropes of returns-home-after-tragedy (father convicted of murder) and trying to settle into a new job with a new partner and solve a whopper of a case: a teen’s murder.

I really liked Howard’s previous novels The Liar’s Girl and The Nothing Man so I’m excited for this one. Set in Dublin, Ciara and Oliver meet at the very beginning of the pandemic and decide to move in together in order to avoid lockdown keeping them apart. Except this is not a romance novel but rather a crime novel, and at the end there’s a body discovered and a difficult case: did the lockdown provide the perfect situation to get away with a crime?

For Inspector Gamache fans, you have a new book! If you’re looking to sink into a great series set in the Québec village of Three Pines and want to start at the beginning of this procedural, pick up Still Life and work your way forward.

I’m starting with two GREAT middle grade mystery novels. Before you skip over because you don’t read middle grade ,at these prices it’s a great way to try one and realize they are fantastic reads for all ages. For $1.99 you can read all about a 7th grader who applies to be on a baking competition (think GBBO) and finds out at the same time that her bio dad, who she’s always known is in prison for murdering a woman, still says he’s innocent which is the part she didn’t know. Thus begins the mystery. Get this book! (Review)

And your second middle grade read is also $1.99, but this one has a puzzle mystery and has past and present mystery. It follows a girl who’s just moved after her parents divorce and is trying to find her place, and also solve a mystery. For readers who don’t read middle grade because they think it’s too juvenile, here’s one that may surprise you at how well they can handle real topics with nuance. (Review)

Spooky season is almost here so for anyone looking for a dark mystery for horror fans, here’s one for $4.99. (Review)