Category: Unusual Suspects

Mysteries For One, Please!

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date March 17, 2020

Conan Doyle Took Dictation For His Dying Friend’s Mystery Novel

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date March 12, 2020

Teen Sleuths And Revenge!

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date March 10, 2020

Sponsored by The Jerusalem Assassin by New York Times bestselling author Joel C. Rosenberg.

The fate of the Middle East and the American president is at stake in this heart-pounding race against time. CIA operative Marcus Ryker has spent his entire career studying killers. One thing he knows for sure: a peace summit is the ultimate stage for an assassination. With all eyes on Jerusalem and the president in the crosshairs, it’s up to Ryker to stop an international alliance from carrying out its chilling plot. The fate of the region depends on his success.

Hello mystery fans! I noticed a theme in a few of my last reads so I thought I’d share two great teen sleuths and a YA revenge fantasy.

Goldie Vance the Hotel Whodunit cover image Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Lilliam Rivera: Welcome to Florida where Goldie Vance works as a valet at the resort her father manages but really she’s always up in the in-house detectives business because Goldie has a one-track mind and it’s always focused on solving a mystery. For the first half of the book you get to know her and her friends, also working at the hotel, her mermaid performing mother, the in-house detective, how the hotel runs, and that there’s a monster movie being filmed there. The big case starts halfway through when a prized piece of costume jewelry is stolen! Nothing will get in Goldie’s way of figuring out what happened, especially when fingers point at her mother as the thief.

This is the first in a series and is based on the Goldie Vance comics–if you’ve already read those, the mystery is new but the book is introducing Goldie, her family, and friends to potentially new readers, which, as someone who loves Goldie, was a great re-welcome for me. If you’re excited for more Goldie and Diane, you’ll have to wait until the end of this one and the next book as Goldie 100% makes her crush known, but she stays focused on work and the mystery until the end when it’s solved. If you love young sleuths who charge ahead to help and solve mysteries, are kind, and fun you’ll love Goldie and her family and friends.

The Vanishing Girl cover image The Vanishing Girl (Daphne and Velma YA Novel #1) by Josephine Ruby: I didn’t know this existed until I saw it while scrolling on Hoopla and I pressed play immediately, which was a great decision on my part because it is so much fun! This takes two characters from the Scooby-Doo franchise, Velma and Daphne, and makes them lead characters with alternating chapters. They used to be best friends but had a falling out and Daphne, the popular one, got a new best friend, and Velma just stayed away from her. Until Daphne’s best friend goes missing and they join up to figure out what happened.

I really enjoyed the characters, which are based on the cartoon characters’ personalities but are further developed and given their own voices as they deal with family and friendship issues. You get the spooky town, appearances from other members of the Scooby gang–Scooby included!–a good mystery, friendships, and the is-it-a-monster-bad-guy reveal! It’s listed as the first in a series and I will do all the gimme hands for the next in the series.

Foul Is Fair cover image Foul Is Fair (Foul Is Fair #1) by Hannah Capin: The author kindly lists trigger warnings her work so I’ll link to that at the end, but the entire story hinges on something that I need to talk about so I’m starting with one trigger warning for date rape. That’s what happens to Elle when she goes out partying for her sixteenth birthday to a boy’s prep school party. Afterwards she tells her friends, her parents (withholding who the boys were), and transfers to the school the boys attend. Why? Revenge. All planned out. Every boy involved in her assault is going to die and her group of popular girlfriends, her coven, is going to help, along with one boy from the school she’s going to force to help. It isn’t going to be easy, but her mind is made up and these boys need to pay, and the school’s rape culture needs to come to an end at any cost.

This felt like a melodrama war cry meets Lady Macbeth meets Heathers and should be “fun” for fans of revenge fantasies that want to think of nothing more than revenge. It gets bloody! (TW Capin gives detailed notes here.)

Recent Releases

Hollywood Homicide cover image Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrette: Now available on audiobook and narrated by one of my favorite narrators Bahni Turpin (You know her from Dread Nation; The Hate U Give.) (Review)

The June Boys by Courtney C. Stevens: TBR YA mystery about The Gemini Thief who is a serial kidnapper that takes three boys and holds them captive for a year.

Gone by Midnight (Crimson Lake #3) by Candice Fox: TBR the third in the series that follows an unlikely pair of detectives in Australia.

Mimi Lee Gets A Clue cover image Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (A Sassy Cat Mystery #1) by Jennifer J. Chow: The start to a cozy mystery series starring a pet grooming store owner who after reporting a puppy mill becomes a murder suspect. Oh, and a cat she’s watching talks to her and becomes helpful in clearing her name!

A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn: Currently reading one of my favorite historical mystery series with a will-they-won’t-they pairing that always delivers in adventure and laughs.

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

👻 Agatha Christie Haunts Museum

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date March 5, 2020

🔪 March’s Mystery & Thrillers

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date March 3, 2020

Sponsored by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group and publisher of Silent Shadows by Natalie Walters.

Pecca Gallegos moved to Walton, Georgia, to escape the dangerous lifestyle that once defined her. When a series of strange circumstances evolve into threats, Pecca finds herself confiding in an unlikely ally—her stubborn patient. Veteran Colton Crawford is desperate to recover from the undiagnosed disorder that is ruining his life, and his instincts are on high alert when threats against his nurse and her son force him to take action. But Colton’s involvement only ramps up the danger when he uncovers a family secret revealing that whoever is after Pecca is closer—and more deadly—than they realized.

Hello mystery fans! We’ve made it to March and here are a bunch of crime, mystery, and thriller books publishing this month to keep your bookish heart happily reading. (📚= I’ve read and recommend; 📖= currently reading and enjoying.)

Goldie Vance the Hotel Whodunit cover image Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Lilliam Rivera: 📚 A delightful middle-grade mystery based on the Goldie Vance comic series that brings us all our favorite characters with Goldie trying to solve a mystery while a monster movie is filmed at the hotel she works at.

Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen: Suspense novel set in Atlantic City where women are going missing and a boardwalk psychic and an art gallery woman team up to figure out what is happening.

Mimi Lee Gets A Clue cover image Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (A Sassy Cat Mystery #1) by Jennifer J. Chow: 📖 (For cozy mystery fans a groomer is accused of murdering the dude she reported for a puppy mill and discovers a cat with a bit of an attitude she’s caring for talks to her to help her clear her name.)

Execution In E (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #4) by Alexia Gordon: A fun cozy mystery series that follows an American musician living in Ireland who usually gets helped on her mystery adventures by a ghost!

Brown Girl Ghosted by Mintie Das: Small-town teen needs the help of the spirit world to find who killed the school’s queen bee!

The Eighth Girl cover image The Eighth Girl by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung: Super excited to read this one marketed as “an omnivorous examination of life with mental illness and the acute trauma of life in a misogynist world.”

City of Margins by William Boyle: I love Boyle’s crime novels and am really looking forward to this one set in ’90s Brooklyn following a slew of characters and how they’re lives intersect.

A Murderous Relation cover image A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn: 📖 I absolutely adore this fun historical mystery series that follows a smart, adventurous, mouthy woman who partners with a grumpy natural historian. You can always count on a great mystery, adventure, will-they-won’t-they tension, and hilarious scenes–I was cracking up in the opening of this one.

Santa Fe Noir edited by Ariel Gore: A Southwest US installment in the Akashic Noir Series which collects crime short stories–great way to find new authors.

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Szymiczkowa, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translation): Super excited for this one marketed as a Polish mystery “inspired by the work of Agatha Christie, following a bored socialite who becomes Cracow’s most cunning amateur sleuth.”

Victim 2117 (Afdeling Q #8) by Jussi Adler-Olsen, William Frost (Translation): For procedural fans this is a great series that follows Copenhagen’s cold cases division.

Darling Rose Gold cover image Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel: 📚 If you’re looking for a psychological mother vs daughter here’s a page-turner–I listened to the audiobook, with alternating narration, in one day! (TW past suicide, brief detail/ disordered eating/ talk of past PTSD, addiction, miscarriage/ child abuse)

A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan #19) by Kathy Reichs: Hello, fans of Bones, Temperance Brennan is back!

The Body Double by Emily Beyda: Dark, suspense about a woman asked by a stranger to give up her current life to impersonate a Hollywood recluse.

The Herd cover image The Herd by Andrea Bartz: “Why did the founder of a glamorous coworking space for women disappear? Her best friends will risk everything to uncover the truth.” Yup, I’m in!

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen: The authors of The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl are back with a new thriller!

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian: I found The Flight Attendant and The Guest Room to be interesting, page-turning thrillers so I’m looking forward to this global thriller about deceit.

Hour of the Assassin by Matthew Quirk: An action thriller that follows a former Secret Service agent framed for the murder of the former director of the CIA…

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

7 Mysteries from the Past 🔪

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date February 27, 2020

Sponsored by Blindside by James Patterson.

The mayor of New York’s daughter is missing. Detective Michael Bennett’s son is in prison. The two strike a deal. Bennett and the mayor have always had a tense relationship, but now the mayor sees in Bennett a discreet investigator with family worries of his own. The detective leaps into the case and finds himself at the center of a dangerous triangle anchored by the NYPD, the FBI, and a transnational criminal organization. Michael Bennett is an honorable man, but when the lives of innocents are at stake, honor has to take a back seat. Survival comes first.

Hello mystery fans! You’re here for the mystery links, Kindle deals, and something crime-y to watch (hopefully) so here we go:

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

15 Best True Crime Authors Who Are Must-Reads For Genre Fans

Patricia and Liberty talk about Walter Mosley’s latest Trouble Is What I Do on All The Books!

11 Mystery and Suspense Authors Like Gillian Flynn

THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS: A Retrospective

The Best Small Presses Publishing Crime Fiction Today

Exclusive preview: This sizzling debut unfolds a murder-mystery at a Long Island prep school

Watch Out Behind You: 7 Mysteries from the Past

Agatha Christie: Her 10 best novels, from Death on the Nile to The ABC Murders

The Secret of the 25 Chapters in Nancy Drew Books

The best-selling author of Before I Let Go is headed to a haunting cabin-set thriller for her next book. Get a first look.

News And Adaptations

Deanna Raybourn, author of the great Veronica Speedwell series, has sold an upcoming book about elite female assassins being forced to retire and it sounds amazing give it to me RIGHT now!

The Mystery Surrounding Rami Malek’s James Bond Villain Is Deepening With A ‘No Time To Die’ Featurette

If a murder mystery meets Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a gimme-hands for you (me!) than Karen M. McManus has got you with her upcoming book!

“Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy) set as a series regular opposite David Oyelowo in The President Is Missing, Showtime’s drama pilot based on the novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson.”

Watch Now

The film adaptation of Joan Didion’s The Last Thing He Wanted, starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Rosie Perez and directed by Dee Rees, is streaming on Netflix. It’s one of those journalist won’t let the story go stories and it hasn’t gotten great reviews, but that literally never stops me from watching something I’m interested in. Here’s the trailer.

Kindle Deals

The Good Son by You-jeong jeong cover image The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong is $1.99 if you’re looking for a wakes-up-covered-in-blood-what-happened slow-burn psychological suspense! (Review) (TW: stalking/ suicide)

If you’re looking to start a long running procedural series that started in the ’80s Indemnity Only (V.I. Warshawski #1) by Sara Paretsky is $2.99!

The sequel to Stillhouse Lake (Review) by Rachel Caine, Killman Creek is $1.99!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

Murder, Blackmail, & Unsolved Mystery

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date February 25, 2020

Sponsored by Crooked River, the new Agent Pendergast novel from Preston & Child.

Ordinary-looking shoes float in on the tide and wash up on a Florida beach—each one with a crudely severed human foot inside. FBI Special Agent Pendergast—a “modern-day Sherlock Holmes (Associated Press)—gets called away from his own Florida vacation and reluctantly agrees to visit the crime scene, but is quickly drawn in by the incomprehensible puzzle. An early pathology report only adds to the mystery. With an ocean of possibilities confronting the investigation, no one is sure what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And they desperately need to know: are the victims still alive?

Hello mystery fans! What do I have for you this week? A slow-burn suspense, a NY procedural, and a modern Nancy Drew. Something for everyone!

Untamed Shore cover image Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: This is a great slow-burn suspense novel that, depending on your relationship with Jaws, may have an eerie setting. And by that I mean it’s set in 1979 Baja California, and there are a lot of dead sharks, guts included.

Eighteen-year-old Viridiana wants out of the town because her mom expects her to work in her shop and marry a man Viridiana has broken up with and has zero interest in getting back with. She also grew up aware that she’s the reason her mom got anchored to her father and stuck with a life she didn’t want, something Viridiana refuses to let happen to her. And so when wealthy tourists show up with a writer looking for an assistant Viridiana takes the job, including moving into a room in their rented home. You know this tale, and you know someone is going to die in an accident, or maybe not an accident… As the cracks widen and the secrets begin to spill who will protect themselves and who will come out on top?

If you like character driven suspense, and are looking for an interesting setting you’ve probably never read before, definitely pick this one up! (TW domestic abuse/ past suicide mentioned, detail)

Don't Look Down cover image Don’t Look Down (Shadows of New York #2) by Hilary Davidson: This is the sequel procedural to One Small Sacrifice (Review) which I enjoyed so much last year I grabbed this one ASAP. It’s a great new series for fans of procedurals, detective partners, multiple point of view, and books that focus on the case at hand.

We open with Jo Greaver, a victim of blackmail, going to drop off the money at an apartment, but nothing goes as planned–does it ever?–and she ends up shot and shooting her blackmailer. She doesn’t stick around to find out what happens next, and goes back to work, and her life, as if a bullet in the arm won’t stop her. When NYPD detectives, Sheryn Sterling and Rafael Mendoza, show up on the scene, the evidence and witness accounts don’t make sense. And it also doesn’t add up with what we saw happen with Jo, which leads the detectives and readers to have to piece together not only who the blackmailer is, but what they’re blackmailing Jo with, and what really happened in that apartment?!

If you like page-turning, twisty procedurals that give you character depth but stay focused on the case and mystery at hand you’ll love escaping into this series. (TW sex trafficking/ past domestic abuse mentioned/ past drug overdose/ suicide, detail)

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder cover image A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #1) by Holly Jackson: Pip, a high school girl, decides to do a research paper on finding out what really happened to Andie Bell five years ago. The problem is that Andie Bell has already been declared dead, even if her body was never found, and her boyfriend, even though he died by suicide, has already been proven guilty of murdering her in the court of public opinion. Pip thinks there are too many what-ifs, questions, lack of evidence, and that there was racist reporting that never actually closed this case for her. So she’s asking questions–barred from speaking to the Bell family and told the project will immediately be cancelled if she doesn’t do this delicately–and trying to figure out what really happened to Andie Bell. Pip is naive in a lot of ways, not having been one to attend parties, date, rebel in any way and she’s going to find herself wading into school secrets, family secrets, friend secrets, and the age-old question: do you ever really know anyone?

This is a great, twisty read for fans of YA and I’m definitely picking up the sequel–this reads like a standalone so don’t worry if you don’t like series. And bonus: the audiobook has an awesome multicast which bravo to the publishers for doing. (TW past suicide, with detail/ mentions self harming/ cyber exploitation/ talk of statutory, date rapes discussed/ dog dies)

Recent Releases

Egg Drop Dead cover image Egg Drop Dead (A Noodle Shop Mystery #5) by Vivien Chien (A really good cozy series following a young woman working at her family’s restaurant in an Asian mall who constantly finds herself solving crime.)

Watching from the Dark (DCI Jonah Sheens #2) by Gytha Lodge (If you’re looking for another good recent procedural series here’s the sequel to She Lies In Wait.)

Firewatching (Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler #1) by Russ Thomas (A procedural following the only detective in the South Yorkshire Cold Case Unit!)

Trouble Is What I Do cover image Trouble Is What I Do (Leonid McGill #06) by Walter Mosley (The PI who is always walking the line of staying clean and falling into the dark underbelly of NY is back! The audiobook has a fantastic narrator: Dion Graham, whose voice you know from The Wire, The First 48, Dear Martin and Black Leopard, Red Wolf.)

Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little (A remote island with a film editor working on a project gets drawn into the sets rumors and accidents and the film’s previous editor’s disappearance. Oh, and the real-life murder mystery the movie is based on!)

On the Lamb (Kebab Kitchen Mystery #4) by Tina Kashian (A cozy mystery series set in a Mediterranean restaurant on the Jersey Shore!)

Follow Me by Kathleen Barber (The author of Are You Sleeping is back with a stalker book.)

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe cover image Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (Fantastic true crime history now in paperback.)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

5 New Thrillers and Mysteries To Help Escape Reality

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date February 20, 2020

Sponsored by award-winning novel Justice Gone, by N. Lombardi Jr, Roundfire Books.

Winner of four awards. New York City Big Book Award. 2019 American Fiction Award. National Indie Excellency Award. Silver Medal Winner 2019 Readers’ Favorites Awards. Chosen by Wiki.ezvid.com among their list of 10 Gripping and Intelligent Legal Thrillers. “One of my favorite suspense novels of the year.” –The Eclectic Review. “The courtroom action is excellent, trimmed to the most gripping parts of the trial, with plenty of emotional impact…a fairly realistic portrayal of the way small-town US society works…a fast-moving story with plenty of dramatic moments, and a big twist in the final pages.” –Crime Review

Hello mystery fans! I have a ton of clickable things, some Kindle deals, and I went old school with this week’s “watch now.”

From Book Riot And Around The Internet

Rincey and Katie talk mystery news, recent releases, what they’re reading, and a couple mystery books with a romantic element in the latest Read or Dead.

Liberty and Tirzah talk about The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James, The Holdout by Graham Moore, and Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert on the latest All The Books.

‘The most boring part’: why the killer didn’t matter to Georges Simenon

Two authors—working from opposite ends of Florida—bring epic noir series to a close, and live to tell the tale.

The Summer Scares Reading List is Here, The Other Mrs. Leads Holds, My Dark Vanessa Tops the Indie Next List | Book Pulse

6 books Erik Larson keeps returning to

Five new thrillers and mysteries to help escape reality — or see it in another light

This is not an Onion article: Weinstein Juror Almost Kicked Off Trial for Reading My Dark Vanessa

Christopher Bollen’s A Beautiful Crime Is a Cold-Blooded Yet Seductive Novel

Discover the Swatch X 007 Tribute Collection and gear up for some 007-action with six exclusive models.

Congrats to the L.A. Times Book Prize finalists!

News And Adaptations

“A distant, equally talented yet more playful cousin of Agatha Christie surely haunted the creation of six-part Taiwanese-Malaysian thriller The Ghost Bride, now streaming on Netflix.”

Why Cozy Mysteries Are The Hottest TV Genre Of 2020

The 1920s book series by Leslie Charteris was adapted into the film 1997 The Saint starring Val Kilmer and will now get another adaptation by Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher.

Remember when I said Graham Moore’s The Holdout was “A legal thriller for fans of procedural shows and films“? I wasn’t the only one who thought so, Hulu is turning it into a series!

Watch Now

Going old-school this week with the 1986 adaptation The Great Mouse Detective, which is on Disney+ and based on Eve Titus’ the Basil of Baker Street series which reimagines Sherlock and Watson as mice. Adorable, funny, and entertaining. I love mice!

Kindle Deals

For my nonfiction fans: Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter is $3.99!!!

If you’re looking to start a series with a forensic archeologist: The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths is $4.99!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

Eerie Mystery, Legal Thriller, and 2020 Favorite Read

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date February 18, 2020

Sponsored by William Morrow Paperbacks, publisher of The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day.

Most people who go missing are never found. But Alice was the lucky one… From the author of the Edgar Award®-nominated novel Under A Dark Sky comes an unforgettable, chilling new story about a young woman who recognizes the man who kidnapped her as a child, setting off a search for justice, and into danger. Twisting and compulsively readable, The Lucky One explores the lies we tell ourselves to feel safe.

Hi mystery fans! This week I have for you a favorite crime read of this year (already!), an eerie past and present mystery, and a legal thriller for fans of procedural shows.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara: This will definitely be one of my favorite reads of the year. It was hard to read this and not think about all the discussions happening surrounding American Dirt and its issues, including it being trauma porn because Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is the complete opposite of trauma porn. Yes, it follows children navigating through slums in India to find a missing friend as children are going missing and the police are not putting in much effort, but underserved communities are still communities filled with different types of people with lives and desires and this novel shows that.

Jai is a nine-year-old boy who has watched so much procedural shows that he believes himself able to find out what happened to his missing classmate and enlists schoolmates Faiz and Pari to help. They’re determined to find out if a bad djinn is responsible for the disappearance, or a bad person, and they set out through the city to get their answers.

The novel shines a light on the underserved communities, treatment of women, and the voices ignored by those in power while keeping focus on the victims and those silenced rather than the perpetrators. Anappara brings to life beautiful characters who keep things upbeat while exploring the darkness of the world in a story that starts with a coming-of-age mystery that travels along into noir territory. If you’re an audiobook listener I can not recommend it enough in that format. The narrators, Indira Varma, Himesh Patel, and Antonio Aakeel, are fantastic! (TW child, domestic abuse/ child deaths)

The Sun Down Motel cover image The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James: A ghostly mystery!

Thirty-five years after her aunt Viv disappeared from her shift at a motel Carly decides to take the same job at the same motel and figure out what happened to her aunt, along with who her aunt was, being that she grew up really not hearing much. The thing about this motel is that it’s definitely creepy and haunted. Doors open and slam on their own, customers are either walking red flags or shrouded in mystery, someone keeps smoking but there is no one there…

Told in past and present chapters we follow as Carly in the present tries to piece together what her aunt was doing and what happened to her, and we watch Viv in the past doing her own detective work as the two storylines begin barreling towards each other.

A great past and present mystery with an eerie setting and some spooks. (TW mentions past rape, not graphic)

The Holdout cover image The Holdout by Graham Moore: A legal thriller for fans of procedural shows and films.

This had the implausibility feeling to it that I really enjoy because it let me sit back and just be entertained. The premise is that a group of jurors from a case that got national attention reunite for a true-crime docuseries because one juror is convinced they got it wrong the first time. Maya Seale, who after the case went to law school, was the juror who convinced everyone that the Black teacher was innocent in the disappearance of his white student. There has never been a body, the teacher has since disappeared, and the girl’s father is still certain a guilty man walked away when one of the past jurors is murdered and Maya becomes the prime suspect.

Basically everyone’s secrets are gonna come out! (TW mentions past PTSD/ past statutory, not graphic/ talk of pedophile and sex offenders/ attempted rape, partially on page/ past child, domestic abuse/ suicide)

Recent Releases

The Aosawa Murders cover image The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, Alison Watts (Translator) (Really looking forward to this one about a mass cyanide poisoning and a little girl that survives and is suspected…)

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, Jeremy Tiang (Translator) (Currently reading: Young woman hires a Sherlock hacker type detective to find out who was responsible for her sister’s death by suicide.) (TW public groping/ suicide, detail/ date rape)

The Other Mrs cover image The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica (An author who I always pick up is back with a psychological thriller about a murdered neighbor in a small-town in Maine.)

Foul Is Fair (Foul Is Fair #1) by Hannah Capin (A revenge fantasy where a teen girl and her friends go after the boys that raped her.)

Death in the Family (Shana Merchant #1) by Tessa Wegert (Trapped on an island murder-mystery!)

A Dangerous Collaboration (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #4) by Deanna Raybourn (Paperback release of one of my favorite series.)

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. See 2020 upcoming releases. An Unusual Suspects Pinterest board. Get Tailored Book Recommendations!

Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Unusual Suspects

Marathoning A 50 Book Crime Series 🔪

Post author By Jamie Canaves
Post date February 13, 2020