Hello mystery fans! I have an excellent procedural, a remote town mystery, and a psychological thriller for you this week.
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2019 has some truly spine-tingling suspense novels to sink your teeth into. Everything from exciting debut authors to new releases from best-selling authors, these suspense titles will take readers to some new, unexpected places and hit readers with more twists and turns than you’ll ever see coming!
The Best In A Procedural Series I Love (TW stalking / mass shooting)
A Deadly Divide (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #5) by Ausma Zehanat Khan: This is one of my favorite procedural series because I’ve really enjoyed watching the two lead detectives grow and it travels around the world looking at important social issues. This was my favorite so far because of the pacing and how everyone was basically a suspect, so it really keeps you guessing and doubting throughout the entire book. Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty are Canadian detectives who work for a department that handles minority-sensitive cases. They’re currently tasked with a mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec. Khattak struggles with this case hitting too close to home and Getty finds herself having to make tough decisions while also constantly looking over her shoulder while working with the local police who seem to have bigots amongst their team. Between the priest found at the scene with a gun, a young Muslim at the scene who the police arrest, a local hate group, and a stalker, there are plenty of suspects to give Khattak and Getty tons of work, and the reader a heart-racing read. Khan is an excellent writer who explores all the nuances in communities and social issues without creating caricatures or stereotypes. I’m already looking forward to the next in the series!
Great Remote Mystery! (TW suicide attempt/ attempted rape/ mentions past domestic abuse)
Watcher in the Woods (Rockton #4) by Kelley Armstrong: I could not put this book down! This was one of those mysteries that grabbed me from the opening and kept getting super tense– making me grip the book hard–and then settled back down, and then cranked up the tension again throughout the whole book. It starts with Casey Duncan, a detective, and her boyfriend Sheriff Dalton visiting Duncan’s estranged sister to ask for a favor. A favor that leads them to bring back her sister into a secret, remote town in the Canadian Yukon. It’s called Rockton and it’s a community of people who are hiding–some are victims and some are criminals and no one knows which but Sheriff Dalton, and even his knowledge is limited. When a U.S. Marshall shows up looking for a member of the town to take back, everything goes sideways. Starting with how did he even find them? And who is he looking for? And why? This is the perfect setting for the everybody-is-a-suspect mystery! I loved the relationships, the setting, the characters, and the animals! Yes, I did once again jump into the middle of a series but this time it was accidental–I didn’t realize it was a series until I was halfway through because I like picking up books without knowing anything about them. It was awesome, and I’ve been told the series is super good, so I’m going back to read book one now: City of the Lost.
Psychological Thriller (TW suicide)
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides: This is going to be difficult because the things that made me really like this one I can’t discuss since I’d be ruining the book for you. When possible, I always go for the audiobook with psychological thrillers because it feels like you get to sink in even deeper into the whole being in someone else’s mind, and I think I ended up listening to this one in a day. The setup is a case of a woman, Alicia Berenson, who shot her husband dead but has refused to speak since. Enter a criminal psychotherapist who begins to work at the hospital Berenson is at, determined to be the person to crack the mystery of why this famous painter, with what appeared to be a great relationship, would murder her husband in cold blood. Since I can’t reveal anything else I will say that I have gotten burned out on psychological thrillers–not a knock on the subgenre but I read too many in a row–and this one finally reminded me why I love them. I also usually stay away from books written in mental health facilities because I can usually tell just from the summary that they’ll be problematic, but this one seemed to avoid the issues that usually bother me, so that was a pleasant surprise.
Recent Releases
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (Great character driven spy novel–Full review)
The Reckoning (Children’s House #2) by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Victoria Cribb (Translator) (The followup to The Legacy, which I enjoyed, follows a child psychologist and detective in Iceland.)
Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America by Kyle Swenson (True crime)
Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit by Patricia Marcantonio (Historical mystery– “Felicity Carrol is interested in everything―except being a proper young matron of Victorian society.”)
The Secretary by Renée Knight (Psychological suspense)
Goldstein (Gereon Rath #3) by Volker Kutscher,Niall Sellar (Translator) (Historical mystery)
Any Means Necessary (Leona #2) by Jenny Rogneby, Agnes Broome (Translation) (Thriller set in Stockholm)
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn (Translation) (Paperback) (Fun character I loved–Full review)
No Echo (Hanne Wilhelmsen #6) by Anne Holt (Paperback) (Good, dark procedural Scandinavian series.)
A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn (Paperback) (I absolutely adore this funny historical mystery series.) (TW suicide)
Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.
Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
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Death By Dumpling
The Craftsman
The Lost Man
Hong Kong Noir
Allegedly
Spin
Death Prefers Blondes
The Vanishing Season
The Dime
The Good Son
A Beautiful Poison
The Suspect
Lost Lake
The Vanishing Stair
The Burning Island
Meddling Kids
Broken Places
The Disappearing
No Exit
Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married
Two Girls Down
A Quiet Place