Category: Unusual Suspects

I recently reviewed this true crime memoir, beautifully written with a constant spirit of hope, action, and determination. Brittany K. Barnett shares her experience growing up with a loving family, her first career, and her decision to go to law school. After discovering cases of people imprisoned for lengths of time that were grossly disproportionate to the crimes, Barnett took many of those cases on and examined the laws and systemic flaws that emerged from the war on drugs. This also gets my Must Read Now Award. (Review)

The voice of this book is fantastic and while I am always here for unlikeable women characters, I also love a character that is a beautiful human who I’m fiercely rooting for. Daunis Fontaine is absolutely the latter. (Review)

I loved Ophelia (Ophie) Harrison so much that I still find myself many months later thinking about her. She’s smart and thoughtful and can see ghosts, no biggie. Although biggie being that she does not understand how to navigate not only the difficult situations she’s in, but also how to help a ghost figure out how, why, and by who she was murdered. Your next favorite child character may also be Ophie, so go pick up this book! It’s a fantastic standalone but if Ireland ever wanted to turn this into a series, she could have all my money. (Review)

This is a great coming-of-age meets missing person mystery that did not get the attention it deserved–put this on your TBR immediately–and the audiobook has an excellent narrator. That’s a lot of wins for a book! (Review)

If you’re a fan of historical mysteries and want a time period most likely knew to you, you can travel to 1800, Joseon (Korea) for $2.99! (Review)

If you’re looking for community, murder-mystery, and an elderly group of amateur sleuths, start this series now for $2.99 in anticipation of the sequel, The Man Who Died Twice, releasing in fall. (Review)

If you’re a fan of PIs, action films, and communities playing a big part in stories, start this series for $2.99!

A Knock At Midnight reminded me of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Chanel Miller’s Know My Name in that it is exceptionally written about difficult topics while managing to somehow always keep a level of hope. So much so that I usually have to pace myself on this type of nonfiction, but I instead listened to the audiobook over two days; the narrator, Karen Chilton, is fantastic.

Brittany K. Barnett tells the story of growing up with a loving family, including her mom who dealt with drug addiction, her first career, deciding to go to law school, and then discovering cases of people imprisoned for lengths of time that were grossly disproportionate to the crimes. The war on drugs created a war against Black and brown communities disproportionate to white ones by creating a fixed sentencing that was different for powder cocaine to crack cocaine. This left many people with life sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Not only does Barnett take us through the cases that crossed her path and those she took on, but she also takes a look at the system and laws that were created during the war on drugs and also where things stand now.

Reading the cases in this book and how addiction was treated cruelly and criminally is heartbreaking, but Barnett always has hope and leads with action. A Knock At Midnight is a fantastic mix of memoir, history, law, legal cases, a love letter to Black communities, and how to turn outrage into action for change. I can’t recommend this book enough and have been kicking myself for taking so long to get to it.

(TW addiction/ partner abuse/ malpractice pregnancy loss/ brief suicide mention, detail/ racism/ prison abuse)

This is a shocking story to start with about a mother, Maryon Cooper Hewitt, who had her daughter, Ann Cooper Hewitt, sterilized without her consent or knowledge for an inheritance. It gives you the story of Maryon and Ann along with the court case that followed when Ann realized what had been done to her. But the book has a much wider and horrifying scope because laws that allowed this to happen are still in place and still function to control mostly people with uteruses by controlling their reproductive rights. Think of Britney Spears saying in court that she’s being forced to keep an IUD (it is worth the time to read Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare) and women coming forward last year to say hysterectomies were performed on them while in immigration custody.

The book takes a dive into the history of eugenics and how these laws were devised, the tests used to determine who was “unfit” to have children, and how certain communities—including disabled people and people of color—were targeted because white wealthy women went from having six children to three. This is not a history that we’re far removed from, this is a horrifying and terrifying practice in the here and now.

(TW child abuse/ suicide, detail/ attempted suicide treated as criminal case/ ableism/ eugenics–racism, misogyny, homophobia)

For readers of memoir mixed with true crime, this is Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey’s story, including the murder of her mother after her mother had left her second husband. You can pick it up for $2.99 right now. (Review)

If you’ve yet to pick up the sequel in the fantastic Lady Sherlock series, you can now read it for $1.99! (Review)

If you’re looking for a thriller where a girl raised by a con-artist finds herself in a bank hostage situation, and those hostage takers are about to regret all their life’s decisions, RUN to this book. It’s currently $2.99! (Review)

And I leave you with a nonviolent true crime book that looks at the question: who exactly owns dinosaur bones? Currently $3.99. (Review)

Here’s a great series for detective fans, which just released the sixth installment and follows a team of investigators in Detroit. You get not just one PI but a whole team! If you want to start at the beginning check out Bury Me When I’m Dead (Review).

If you’re a fan of dark academia, private school settings, secret societies, social thrillers, and twisty reads this is a great pickup. Bonus: the audiobook narrators, Jeanette Illidge and Tapiwa Mugweni, are excellent.

If you’re looking to start a new historical mystery series, like fictional serial killers, noir-ish, and want a Harlem Renaissance setting here’s your next read. (Review)

This is a rare case where this is the fourth book in a series but it is a standalone because the first three were written as a contained trilogy. The Box In The Woods is perfect for fans of the mystery genre and horror tropes as you race to try and solve the mystery! This book is the experience I’m always looking for when reading mysteries. (Review) If you want to read the trilogy start with Truly Devious.

For fans of Ruth Galloway’s series there’s a new release! The series follows a forensic archaeologist who lives near Norfolk in a salt marsh. If you want to start at the beginning pick up The Crossing Places, where Ruth helps with a missing child case and finds herself and her remote life put in grave danger. Griffiths is also the author of The Stranger Diaries (Review) and The Postscript Murders (Review) so there is plenty of great mysteries to read in her catalog.

If you like historical mysteries, this is a series you should absolutely be reading. Set in the early 1900s, it follows Perveen Mistry, India’s only female lawyer. If you want to start at the beginning, mostly for full character backstory, pick up The Widows of Malabar Hill. (Review)

For domestic thriller fans, here’s a page-turner that follows Oliver and Nathan and a night gone terribly wrong for Oliver at a bathhouse, and the need to keep Nathan from finding out, which only creates more problems and tension… The book has alternating narrations between Oliver and Nathan, and the audiobook selected two narrators, Michael Crouch and Daniel Henning, to portray them so if you audio pick up that format.

If you’re looking for a thriller and aren’t afraid to fly here’s a twisty one about a flight attendant on an inaugural groundbreaking flight who ends up having to choose between saving her daughter or everyone on the plane when she finds a threatening note…

Here’s the sequel to East of Hounslow (Review), which picks up after the cliffhanger ending and follows Jay Qasim, the most reluctant spy–because MI5 forced him into helping. If you want a character to root for and love, grab this series–it reminds me a lot in tone to a show I really enjoy, Man Like Mobeen.

Lippman has an extensive catalog to dive into–including a PI series and recent standalone releases Lady in the Lake (Review) and Sunburn (Review)–and has a new psychological suspense starring a novelist, which has some Misery vibes…

If you’re a fan of PI mysteries, this is the fourth in a Chicago set series you should absolutely be reading. If you want to start at the beginning, pick up Broken Places (Review), and if you want to jump into the series with Runner here’s my review.

The author of No Exit (Review) is back with a new thriller! (TW suicide) Lena Nguyen doesn’t believe that her estranged twin sister died by suicide, so she’s shown up to interview the state trooper whose story doesn’t seem to line up with the bit of facts that are known.

Here’s a fascinating read about the language of cults and how it’s used to not only get and keep power for cult purposes, but also how the language is used throughout our society, including in marketing. (Review)

I recently decided to actually try out a manga, and I absolutely loved it and now have a whole new world of reading opened up to me. This was my first and it’s a fun spy story with an assassin and a mind reader that create a “fake” family, but none know the others’ real identities. It’s $4.99 and I highly recommend it. (Review)

If you’re craving a cozy historical mystery smashed with a romance novel ,here’s a series starter that is currently $2.99! (Review)

PI fans should not miss this series which has so much to love. Not only is each book a solid mystery with a great PI lead, but there is also a nun best friend and a pickpocket klepto.

Cass Raines was a former homicide cop who quit after a traumatic incident to become a PI. Her father figure was a priest, murdered in the first book, and she has two childhood friends currently in her life: a nun and a no-longer-criminal who is acting suspicious. Add in dating a recent divorcé with a not-happy-kid and Cass is full up on personal life things considering she likes to keep everyone a good arm’s distance out. So she focuses on work.

The case involves a mother with a history of addiction who recently completed a program and is getting her life back in order. Her daughter, a teenager in foster care, has gone missing and no one is paying the case much attention; they’re just treating it as a runaway case and only see the mother as an addict who doesn’t have custody. But Cass takes the case and decides to look into it, trying her best to work with the assigned police detective on the case and the retired cop also helping out. And by that I mean that Cass is going to piss a lot of people off, because don’t tell her what to do and don’t stand in her way. I like her a lot.

This is one of the few series that I am always up to date with: I love the characters, am always treated to a great mystery that walks readers through an entire case, and I don’t feel so bad sweating during summer while reading about the brutal Chicago winter.

You can jump in here mid- series because anything you need explained is, but I do recommend enjoying the entire series and getting to know Cass and her small circle of peeps–including the diner she’s obsessed with: Broken Places (Review)

(TW side character brief mention of cancer/ suicide scene discovered/ suicide scene, detail/ mentions forced adoption without parent consent)

If you’ve been following me talking about books for a bit, you know I’m a big fan of picking up books knowing zero about them. Especially in the crime genre, it really gives maximum experience for all the turns, unfolding, and twists of the story. And this is one of those I was glad to have known nothing about because it really unfolds in a surprising way. So I’m going to skimp on the plot points and then just talk about what I liked most that made this really work for me.

A little over a decade ago three people went missing: a woman while out for a run; later a woman and her young daughter. In the present the young daughter has returned. But now there are even more questions than answers in this small suburban community.

The things I really liked: the way this flashed back to the time of the disappearances and to the present time; the multiple narrators which take us into many different lives all loosely to intimately connected; a look at the Doula profession not in the stereotypical “hippie” way but an interesting and eyeopening look at Obstetrics and the rights people with uteruses aren’t always told/given; the “escape” chapter which was 100% pure psychological thriller; the everyday drama and how it can just be momentary periods in everyday life or sometimes grow too big to feel manageable.

I went with the audiobook for this one–I love multicast narrations–and recommend it if you’re an audiobook listener who can track past and present chapter jumps. They’re clear, so I wasn’t lost, but if you’re a listener who misses things sometimes it can be tricky with the time and POV jumps.

(TW kidnapped child/ briefly mentions past miscarriage, few details/ rumors and assumptions of domestic violence/ fatphobia, diet culture mentions/ recounts past attempted suicide and suicide, both detailed/ topic of medical consent regarding pregnancy and labor)

Tiffany D. Jackson always delivers! The only reason it took me two sittings to read this novel instead of one was because I don’t actually get paid to read—rude, I know. This is a social thriller meets is-the-house-haunted?! that will keep you up all night either reading or checking your house. Maybe both. I freaking loved it and I can’t wait for you all to read it and meet Marigold (Mari) and her blended family who have just moved into a new house and neighborhood where nothing feel right… If you’re already a Jackson fan, 100% absolutely pre-buy/have your library get it because you’re going to love it. If you’ve yet to read Jackson, she has a fantastic backlist of mystery books that you should get to. (TW addiction/ past overdose mentions, not graphic/ obsessive thoughts/ past child murder, not graphic or detailed)

Also just finished: The Collective by Alison Gaylin (Nov 2). I inhaled this thriller–it’s so well plotted and is perfect for revenge fans. Gaylin is another author with a great backlist of mystery/suspense. (TW panic attacks, anxiety/ use of dead name / brief ableist language/ hate crime mentions and rape cases, not graphic/ recounts past suicide attempt, detail/ murders staged as suicides)

And I just loaded my phone with even more audiobooks I’m excited about: Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela (I’m especially obsessed with that cover); The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian (Rioters rave about Sebastian a lot so time for me to finally read her work); Get Good With Money by Tiffany Aliche (self explanatory)

The sequel to East of Hounslow is ridiculously priced at $0.99 and literally just published in the US. It starts after the cliffhanger of the first book so I do recommend reading East of Hounslow first. (Review) This is a series I really love, about the most reluctant spy EVER recruited by MI5.

Love historical novels and want a crime novel where the lead can’t remember the crime they’re accused of? Good news: you can read one for $1.99! (TW baby death/ rape/ slavery/ addiction/ abuse/ suicide)

If you’re looking for a fun domestic thriller and still haven’t read Downing’s first novel, it’s currently $1.99! (Review)

This classic detective novel, written in the 1930s, should have been the start to a great crime writing career but was sadly cut short by the author’s death at age 37.

This is worth reading just for the fact that it’s a novel set in the 1930s written by Rudolph Fisher, an African American doctor, musician, and writer–making it the first-known detective novel written by an African American author. It’s also worth reading for the actual story. I find a lot of times when reading classic mystery books that they aren’t “surprising” through today’s eyes because of the amount of books that have since done the same thing. In this case, I found that the twist still held up even today.

The story starts with Frimbo, an African immigrant mystic living and working in Harlem, being found dead by two local friends, Bubber Brown and Jinx Jenkins. They call Dr. John Archer who later ends up assisting the Harlem detective, Perry Dart, on the case. I won’t give away anything in the plot so instead I’ll say the time and setting are brought to life through many of the characters’ conversations, and you’ll get an interesting look at where things stood with forensics (fingerprints!) and medicine at the time.

If you’re a listener, I highly recommend the audiobook which is narrated by J. D. Jackson, who you may know from his excellent voice work on Bluebird, Bluebird and Three-Fifths.

(TW: brief mentions of domestic abuse/ colorism and ableism in banter between 2 characters throughout)

Montell takes a deep dive into cults, specifically the language used in order to gain and sustain power, and has written a book that is fascinating, eye-opening, and just a dash terrifying. It’s written in a completely accessible way—perfect for any reader who loves playing the “did you know” game—since Montell seems to be a person who is just herself fascinated by cults. That fascination stems from learning as a young child that her father escaped a cult his parents raised him in.

You get histories on some of the most known cults—and the realization that you may have been holding onto incorrect information all this time—but the book casts a wider net in looking at how that same language is also used by companies and in social media marketing. The question then becomes: when is it used for good, bad, or a middle ground?

A few things I found particularly interesting that are still bouncing around in my brain: brainwashing doesn’t exist and is widely not accepted by experts; the beginning key element of cults is creating an “us vs them” dichotomy, something playing out very loudly recently in U.S. politics; the cult member who survived the mass killing in one cult then later joined another cult. If your brain has been craving an engrossing read lately, this is your book.

(TW mass suicide cult case/ guru who uses triggering language related to suicide discussed in detail/ mentions suicide case, detail/ mentions cult leaders and doctrines allowing all types of abuse, including sexual assault, not detailed)

If you’re looking for a great historical mystery with a lead who loves Sherlock, and a dash of romance, grab this one on sale for $2.99! (Review)

This was one of my favorite novels last year and it recently won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. It’s an adult crime book that follows children looking into the disappearance of a friend, and moves from a coming-of-age feel to noir. You can pick it up on sale for $1.99! (Review)

I love this series and am a fan of Griffiths’ previous work too. If you love books within books and a nod to gothic works, you’ll want to pick this one up, especially with the current sale price of $2.99! (Review)