Category: Unusual Suspects

If you like comedy of errors, big messy families full of love, food, and some romance, this will delight you. It starts with a very ill-advised setup date that ends in accidental murder (you won’t feel bad!) and the family that is trying to cover it up while throwing a lavish wedding. Gotta hide the cooler with the body!

Before Vandiver (under the name Abby Collette), published A Deadly Inside Scoop, she had this cozy series which follows a returned home medical-examiner who gets stuck solving a murder with Auntie Zanne, who owns a funeral home and is the zany funny kind of side character always leading them into trouble.

Here’s an entire family of PIs that are ridiculous, do not understand personal boundaries, and are always finding trouble. The series focuses on the middle child, who is in her ’20s, and is filled with dark humor and shenanigans. I don’t want to be a member of this family but I would like to be a neighbor–far enough to not be a target–to just sit back and watch for all the entertainment and laughs.

(TW alcoholism/ suicide attempt mentioned/ molestation incident mentioned)

If you’re a fan of funny inner monologues and ridiculous situations, this is a lot of fun. Donovan is having a really hard time: her ex-husband is being a jerk; she has two young kids and her babysitter is missing; and she’s not only past due on all bills—she’s also past due on handing in her manuscript. So when a coffee house patron hears her recount the plot to her book and thinks she’s actually a hired hit woman and tries to hire her, Donovan briefly thinks well, it is a lot of money…

(TW date raper/ stalker)

This is another series where ridiculous things happening keeps the series feeling light. For starters, Vicram literally becomes the Sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico without her knowledge. How? Her parents entered her in the election. So now she’s back home, with a young daughter, the mystery of her teenage kidnapping still circling, her childhood love, and all the ridiculous people she deals with. If you’re a fan of Stephanie Plum, Kinsey Millhone, and Gilmore Girls, you’ll love this series.

(TW past child suicide thoughts and attempt, detail/ past date rape, kidnapping)

Start a cozy mystery ($3.99!) with dog lovers (no talking pooches) that has four more books in the series to marathon for some pup loving comfort. (Review)

For readers of true crime and memoir, here’s one about a forty year old murder mystery that had become a “rumor” and the Harvard undergrad that heard about it and decided to investigate how a past student’s murder had gone so long unsolved–on sale for $3.99. (Review)

A nonfiction biography that reads like a spy novel for $3.99! (Review)

This is a story we’ve seen before, the “desperate” social climber, but finally with a voice that isn’t a white girl/woman like we are so used to.

From a young age Ivy Lin picks up the habit of stealing things while growing up near Boston and coveting the wealthier things including the son of a political family, Gideon Speyer. That is until her life takes a swift change and she’s shipped off to China, again to face the vast difference between wealth and poverty.

Now as an adult, still wanting the things she believes she deserves, she has an opportunity to once again make her way into Gideon Speyer’s life and have what she covets. But can she be what she pretends long enough to have it?

This does a great job of exploring class, race, obsession, and an antihero within an interesting story as you wonder: will anyone come away from this better?

(TW child abuse/ brief mention of eating disorder, detail/ partner abuse scene/ brief suicidal thought)

A new Megan Abbott book is always something to celebrate! And once again we have an obsession (ballet) and a constant pulsing tension throughout the book that is impossible to ignore. It’s a story about sisters and family and being haunted by the past when you can’t find a footing in the present. A ballet studio was left to two sisters, Dara and Marie, when their parents died in a car accident. Rounding out their family is also Dara’s husband Charlie, who grew up with them and moved in with the family as a teenager. After a fire in the dance studio, they hire a contractor for extensive renovations. But not everyone is on board, and the timing with the ever chaotic and stressful yearly show of The Nutcracker cranks the tension even higher. We watch the constant push and pull of Marie and Dara’s relationship as everything around them, including a new person in their tight-knit group, throws everything off balance. Something is going to give…

Abbott is a master at taking high intensity settings–in this case a ballet studio–and showing all its cracks as the toll on, mostly, girls and women is explored. If you’re looking for a suspenseful crime novel that will stay with you, here’s your next read. Bonus: Abbott has an extensive and fantastic backlist of titles (cheerleading; gymnastics; science; organized crime). Double bonus: her novel Dare Me has a great adaptation that really brought the novel to life and it’s currently streaming on Netflix.

(TW disordered eating and eating disorders/ past alcoholism/ sexual abuse of teen/ suicide scene, detail/ past domestic abuse)

This blends genres and also walks the line of social horror, with the emphasis on social and a sprinkling of horror. I’ve seen a lot of early marketing with “thriller” attached to this and while social thriller can work, for those who hear thriller and think action packed, plot driven, or everything-goes-boom, this is not intended to be that.

It is disquieting and there is a crime, but you’ll have to wait for it. The story takes place in publishing, literally, as Nella Rogers is an editorial assistant. She’s also the only Black woman at work so she’s excited when a new Black woman, Hazel, is hired. But she doesn’t seem to immediately gel with Hazel even though she tries and she can’t help but wonder why. Many of her issues at work and now with Hazel make her think “it could be something or it could be explained away as nothing” which leaves Nella never sure about what is happening. And then she finds a note telling her to leave…

For fans of inside publishing works and past-and-present narratives who like character-driven stories, this should deliver and surprise.

If you’re looking for a cozy mystery series to marathon, want to travel to an Irish village, and like a little bit of a friendly ghost in your murder mystery, pick this one up for $4.99!

I’m currently reading a galley of this book and loving it, which doesn’t actually publish until September. However, it looks like Amazon has added it to Amazon First Reads for $1.99.

If you like past and present mysteries, fictional podcasts, and are looking for an author who has an extensive catalog to dive into, pick up this one for $1.99! (Review)

“Celebrity” written fiction can easily be a miss for a few reasons, including expectations and that they may have gotten the deal based on the likelihood that the book will sell regardless because of their popularity. Abrams was already an author before her political career and popularity, and for me this delivered what I wanted: a political thriller with legal knowledge, a lead I’d want to follow beyond one book, and a wider scope than just one case.

While this focuses in a way on the Supreme Court of the United States, it isn’t set in the court listening to arguments. Instead the catalyst for the book is Justice Howard Wynn being in a coma and his law clerk Avery Keene shockingly learning that she has been left his power of attorney rather than his estranged family—super shocking to them too. And that’s how Keene finds herself digging into Wynn’s work, personal life, and getting to know his son. Oh, and it’s a political thriller so: being in danger.

This balanced well for me Keene’s personal life bits with a main focus on her figuring out how and why she’s been thrust into this mess, starting with a political case that unfolds into far reaches.

The audiobook has a great narrator, Adenrele Ojo and unlike some political thrillers, this one never felt like it had so many pieces to know at once that you could get lost with on audio. I’m really glad this got “renewed” and there are more books in the series to come. I look forward to what Avery Keene will be up to next.

(TW attempted suicide, detail/ addiction/ briefly threatens sexual assault, doesn’t/ degenerative brain disorder/ genocide/ Islamophobia)

I am 100%, absolutely no nonsense about how many books do not need to be the length they are because at least 100 pages needed to be edited out. I say this because this book is long and I was expecting to feel massively this way about it, but honestly it felt more like a duology got printed in one volume and saved us from having to wait at least a year after a cliff hanger.

This was so good. It was exactly what I love in a legal thriller: did they or didn’t they do it; the entire process from the start of the crime all the way to the end of the trial. Give me all the details, clue collecting, and inside firm politics, please and thank you. And then the massive bonus was a really nice hook. One of the lawyers assigned to the case–did this man who just accepted a humanitarian award murder a random woman in his hotel room–knows the accused from childhood and hates him as his sworn lifelong enemy!

Yes, delicious. Because on top of all the “did he do it/if not who did,” now we get to watch a lawyer and wonder whether he’ll always do right by his client or get so angry that his life was ruined once, and you know, get revenge? Oh, and he can’t let his job know he knows the client nor that he lied on his CV when he was hired. Drama. Thriller. Legal case. Did he do it?! I want more legal thrillers like this!

(TW alcoholism/ attempted sexual assault scene, discusses S&M turned to assault, including partner abuse/ mentions death questioned as murder or suicide, detail/ past child and domestic abuse mentioned/ cancer/ discusses date rape drug during court case)

Start a new cozy mystery with magic for $1.99!

The only thing I know about this is that it is a historical romance mystery and that I snagged it RUL quick for $3.99!

If you’re a fan of reading about cults and like character driven mysteries, grab this one for $2.99!

(TW brief on-page suicide, detail/ past child abuse recounted, details)

Bienvenidos a Miami where one young woman finally learns the identity of the woman who ruined her life years before and sets out to destroy her and her perfect socialite world.

Revenge, regret, and the dismantling of the hate we’re taught in a page-turning thriller reminiscent of the ’90s buddy action films where two opposites get paired together on a mission.

(TW child abuse/ racism, homophobia, transphobia, dead naming/ alcoholism/ ableism)

If you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls and Stephanie Plum, this series is made for you! Start with A Bad Day For Sunshine (Review) if you don’t want the ending of the first book spoiled and want to be up to date with all the personal background info.

(TW mentions flasher/ mentions past child suicidal thought, detail/ backstory involves teen abduction and assumption of rape with no details)

I’ve been a fan of Miranda since I read her twisty mostly told backwards mystery All The Missing Girls and she always delivers for me with an entertaining mystery. This time around it’s a neighborhood where one member sent to prison is back and all the drama and secrets–and murder–are gonna come out.

(TW rumors of a statutory guy, not graphic)

If you’re a fan of revenge (so much revenge!), want something that unfolds a little differently, and like dark humor ,do not miss this page-turner! (Review)

The absolute very last bit of this book is my favorite–don’t worry, I won’t spoil it, I just love that level of “gonna get ya”! Anyhoo, if you are in the mood for a great murder mystery where you will spend the ENTIRE book accusing EVERY single person of being the murderer, plop yourself in your favorite place and enjoy!

(TW emotional abuse/ past child and domestic abuse, not graphic/ past suicide, detail)

Here’s a French novel partly based on a 2003 murder in the Alps region. You have a small French village and two different families that see tensions boil over when financial troubles arise…

For true crime and history readers, here’s the case of a doctor who poisoned people and his 1892 murder trial that also looks at the Victorian society.

If you’re looking for backlist series you may have never gotten around to here’s a great time to start for $2.99!

Another backlist series you may have had on your TBR list that you can now jump in for $2.99!

If you’re looking for a sci-fi novel set in our world, just with some time travel, with a locked-room murder mystery here’s one for $1.99! (Review)

This is not a fantasy! No shade to the fantasy genre, which I love, but I think many readers assumed because of the cover that this was a fantasy novel and it is not. It is squarely a crime, mystery, thriller. I generally avoid comps for many reasons but this one seems to really fit nicely: Gossip Girl, with a dash of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and a dose of Get Out.

Chiamaka and Devon don’t have much in common, but they both attend Niveus Private Academy. Chiamaka is ultra wealthy and a queen bee and Devon is neither. Chiamaka is in love with her best friend, who is down for hookups, but she’s hoping for more soon. Devon is in a secret relationship and still not ready to tell his mom he’s gay, and struggling to watch how hard she works to try and provide for them.

What they do suddenly have in common is that a person referring to themselves as Aces has decided to mess with both of them by slowly texting out private things about each of them to the whole school. Who is behind this? And what could Chiamaka and Devon have ever done to suddenly be targeted?…

This is told in alternating POV between Chiamaka and Devon, taking you both into their different experiences in school and their private lives, and the audiobook has dual narrators (Jeanette Illidge, Tapiwa Mugweni) which paired really nicely. If you want a bit of fun drama with some very real social commentary, pick this one up. I will absolutely pick up Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s next book no questions asked.

(TW homophobia, hate crime/ gaslighting/ alludes to date rape/ mentions past suicide attempt, brief detail)

The genius of this book for me was in its delivery. Basically, the way it unfolds. Most thrillers or crime books wait for a moment to throw a twist at you that’s meant to either shock or feel out of left field. This is twisty but in a totally different way.

Imagine sitting in front of a long stage and only the center is lit as actors perform their story. Then as they come to the end of their performance, another part of the stage is lit and suddenly you see a much larger picture of this story. That’s the brilliance of what reading this was like. Plus, revenge!

Because I’m a big fan of the feeling of a fun surprise that this genre can deliver, I’m going to be light on the actual plot points beside how it starts: Teddy Crutcher teaches English Lit at Belmont Academy. He’s finally reached his goal of being awarded Teacher of the Year but it’s just not enough for him. You see, Teddy is the kind of person who thinks he always knows better and no one else is ever behaving the way he would approve. And so between secret wars with teachers, students, and parents, he finds ways to “correct” their behavior or just punish them. But a body at the school throws a wrench in his plans…

It’s twisty and sharp with a dark thread of humor packaged in a way that feels fresh. Absolutely one of my favorite reads this year, and I love that Downing’s three books have all felt written by her while also all being completely different. Count me as a fan always awaiting her next release.

(TW past suicide mentioned, brief detail/ diet culture)

Agatha Christie meets a Tour de France memoir in this interesting novel you can snag for $4.99! (Review)

Grave robbing! Suspicious deaths! And an author with a great backlist to read! Pick this one up for $1.99. (Review)

Want to start a great Italian police procedural trilogy with a lead in her sixties hiding early signs of dementia? You can for $2.99! (Review)