The iconic actor Sydney Poitier once said, “So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” Peter Swanson’s new mystery, Nine Lives, provides a perfect example of this sentiment as it doles out a series of inexplicable murders.

Nine individuals, ranging from an actor to a professor, from a father to a nurse, receive a cryptic one-page letter in the mail containing a list of their names. None of the people on the list are familiar with one another or have any apparent connection, past or present. Most don’t even live in the same state. Swanson swiftly moves from one character’s point of view to another’s, establishing the core cast in short chapters that provide compelling sketches of all nine intended targets. 

Since the letter had no return address or other instructions within, several of the recipients naturally dismiss it. But then people on the list suddenly start dying: A retired bar owner is drowned while another man is shot in the back while jogging near his home. FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is one of the names on the list, races against the clock to identify the other recipients and the killer before she too becomes a victim.

Nine Lives is in many ways an heir to Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit And Then There Were None, in which eight random individuals are invited to a remote island only to be stalked by a killer. But where Christie made clear that her characters had all committed crimes and the killer was out for revenge, the motives and location of Swanson’s killer are terrifyingly opaque. Swanson creates a rollercoaster for readers, offering clues only to upend everything that was supposedly certain moments earlier. And all the while, the number of remaining victims is counting down, from nine to zero.

Under Lock & Skeleton Key, the enchanting first book in Gigi Pandian’s Secret Staircase mystery series, flawlessly balances magic, misdirection and murder.

Tempest Raj is a gifted stage magician who’s forced to move home to Hidden Creek, California, after a performance in Las Vegas goes horribly wrong. Tempest is convinced her stage double, Cassidy, sabotaged her—but with no way to prove it, the down-on-her-luck magician must return to her family home, Fiddler’s Folly.

Fiddler’s Folly is a showcase for Tempest’s father’s own brand of magic. Darius Raj’s company, Secret Staircase Construction, specializes in adding whimsical details like sliding bookcases, hidden staircases and secret rooms to homes. When Tempest meets him at his latest job site, a body is discovered inside a wall that’s supposedly been sealed for more than a century. To make things even worse, the victim is Cassidy. Was Cassidy mistaken for Tempest and killed in her place? Is someone trying to frame Tempest? Could the death somehow be connected to the ominous family curse that the eldest Raj of each generation will be killed, supposedly by magic? Tempest sets out to bring Cassidy’s killer to justice and figure out if the curse is real—and if she’s its next target.

Hidden Creek is a truly delightful setting for a cozy mystery series. Not only does Fiddler’s Folly abound with hidden rooms and intricate locks, but the property also includes the dreamy treehouse where Tempest’s grandparents live. And then there’s the Locked Room Library, a mystery lover’s dream destination that readers will fervently wish truly existed. The world’s most famous crime novels line its shelves, and the library also sports a train car meeting room, skeleton keys and even a suit of armor. Pandian recently wrote an Agatha Award-nominated short story about the Locked Room Library, and her fans will be happy to recognize beloved characters from her other works, like Sanjay Rai, the Hindi Houdini, in Under Lock & Skeleton Key.

The mystery is engaging and full of misdirection (sometimes literally, in the form of sleight-of-hand tricks), and undergirding it all is Tempest’s anxiety around her family curse. But despite the high stakes, Under Lock & Skeleton Key is bursting with heart and hope.

“Goodnight, pretty girl.”

Those are the last words Ella remembers before she blacked out on the night she became the lone survivor of an attempted quadruple murder at a Blockbuster Video on the eve of the new millennium. Fifteen years later, another survivor of a similar murderous spree recalls the killer saying the exact same words to her.

Ella, now a physical therapist, is enlisted to help the latest victim, Jesse, but in doing so must face her own memories of her horrific past. Ella works alongside FBI agent Sarah Keller, who is tasked with uncovering the connection between the two cases, and Chris Whitaker, the brother of the man initially accused of the 1999 slayings, to piece together the clues that will lead them to the murderer—or is it murderers?

Author Alex Finlay, whose breakout debut novel, Every Last Fear, enticed readers and critics alike, returns with the tense, edge-of-your seat thriller The Night Shift. Keller, who first appeared in Every Last Fear, shares narration duties with Ella and Chris, and Finlay does a masterful job of diving deep into each character’s thoughts and emotions in tight, fast-paced chapters. Ella’s and Jesse’s trauma is especially poignant, as is Chris’ inner turmoil over his brother’s possible involvement.

Keller works on the fringes of the local police investigation, interviewing witnesses past and present in her search for clues. The novel takes a straightforward path, and Finlay wisely does not overcomplicate an already compelling plot. Everyone from the local high school principal to the victims’ families holds potential clues, and The Night Shift’s trio of sleuths must discern what is true, who is holding back information and if (or when) the killer will strike again.

Fans of Grady Hendrix and Riley Sager will tear into this sophomore-slump-defying thriller.

In the Cape Cod town of Westham, Massachusetts, Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida gets a nightmarish wake-up call. It’s her friend and fellow Cozy Capers Book Group member Tulia Peters on the line. When Tulia arrived at her restaurant early that morning, she found more than just tubs of lobster bisque stock waiting to be boiled and buckets of shrimp needing to be peeled. On the floor of her walk-in freezer, former beauty queen Annette DiCicero was lying dead among the pickle jars.

Despite Westham’s quaint, touristy glow, this is not Mac’s first rodeo. Twice before, her Cozy Capers book club has put what they know from reading cozy mysteries into action to solve real-life murders in their small town. Despite the police’s insistence that they stay out of things this time, Mac and her friends are ready to use their considerable sleuthing skills to come to Tulia’s aid in Murder at the Lobstah Shack by Maddie Day.

Tulia, who is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, had recently been seen arguing with Annette about changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. This makes her person of interest numero uno in the investigation—but as Mac starts digging, she discovers plenty of other townspeople have surprising connections to the victim. As the list of suspects lengthens, readers get an around-the-Cape tour of Westham’s other charming-but-deadly locales: the pet store across the alley with the cranky owner; the free food market in the basement of the local Unitarian Universalist Church; the historic Quaker meetinghouse where members say things like, “Believe thee me”; and Greta’s Grains, the bakery where Mac’s new fiance works as a baker, just to name a few.

Short chapters keep the action moving at a good clip, and new revelations about Annette’s ill-tempered widower and past life as Miss New Bedford keep turning up the heat beneath the proverbial stock pot. When Westham’s more menacing inhabitants catch wind of Mac’s snooping, the danger threatens to boil this little seaside town alive.

Murder at the Lobstah Shack mixes up a satisfying recipe of good-hearted characters, brain-teasing mysteries and evocative writing. As readers work to put the clues together, they’ll enjoy all the details that makes a good cozy mystery so cozy: a community of close-knit neighbors, thriving small businesses, love interests who can make a mean lobster quiche and an easygoing pace of life—except, that is, for the occasional murder.

Many novels conclude with the wedding of characters we care about, but Crimes and Covers, the fifth book in Amanda Flower’s Magical Bookshop Mystery series, begins with one: the Christmastime union of Violet Waverly, the charming owner of Charming Books in the charming village of Cascade Springs in upstate New York, to the drop-dead gorgeous police chief, David Rainwater.

Among the guests are Violet’s energetic Grandma Daisy, the village mayor and former “caretaker” of the magic-infused bookshop; Violet’s warmhearted friend Sadie; and, to the bride’s astonishment, her elusive dad, Fenimore. But alas, the newlyweds don’t get to make merry post-ceremony because murder most rude pushes all else aside.

Blame Henry David Thoreau. As in previous volumes in this series, a literary classic lies at the mystery’s center. The murder victim is a strange woman who tried to sell Violet a signed first edition of Walden. Violet is an English professor, Thoreau scholar and bookseller, so she was able to discern that the book actually belonged to someone else, Imogene “Thoreau,” whose life is devoted to establishing her blood relationship to the author. Would Imogene spill blood to prove her claim?

Violet puts her honeymoon on hold and dives into a search for answers, some of which come from “the essence,” the magic that oozes from the ancient birch towering in the middle of the bookshop. Along with ensuring that the right books land in just the right hands (Violet’s customers are always so impressed with her recommendations!), the essence conveys clues to help Violet in her amateur sleuthing. (The bookshop’s star tenants, Faulkner the sharp-tongued crow and Emerson the tuxedo cat, also help.) Copies of Walden periodically float through the air, opening to pages that offer transcendental words of wisdom.

Crimes and Covers hits the right cozy notes: an appealing setting (with snow to boot!), a close community and a credible yet unchallenging plot that includes romance and deaths that break few hearts. Although not all the characters are fully drawn, threads occasionally dangle in ways that don’t feel intentional, and moments of tension or heart-stopping thrills are few, this is a satisfying read, providing hours of quiet pleasure rather than the “quiet desperation” Thoreau speaks of. The whimsical touches of bookshop magic are skillfully balanced by plot lines with more gravitas, like the publish-or-perish element in Violet’s academic community and the challenges of relationships, particularly between parents and children. Most importantly, Violet herself is a winning character and narrator: warm, witty, principled and smart, someone you’d enjoy meeting again. So if the tall birch in my backyard, stubbornly short on essence, were to toss another Magical Bookshop Mystery my way, I would be, well—charmed.