Ann Cleeves’ The Dark Wives is a standout entry in her Vera Stanhope series, a crackerjack mystery with a clear political conscience.
A murder-mystery party blurs the lines between dramatic artifice and harsh reality in Kate Atkinson’s sixth Jackson Brodie mystery.
Attica Locke’s language is precise, refreshing and often beautiful in Guide Me Home, the final installment in the literary triumph that is her Highway 59 mystery series.
In Alan Bradley’s 11th mystery starring preteen sleuth Flavia de Luce, the chemistry prodigy faces murder by mushroom and her own impending adulthood.
In We Solve Murders, Richard Osman accomplishes the seemingly impossible: a cozy mystery-thriller mashup.
Rough Pages, Lev AC Rosen’s third postwar noir starring gay PI Andy Mills, is as unsettling as it is vital.
Gripping, disturbing and absolutely wild, The Sequel is a more than worthy, well, sequel, to Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot.
Taking up the mantle of the great John le Carré seems like an impossible task. The iconic espionage novel author’s style was unmistakable: seemingly simple sentences that were somehow stained with nicotine, le Carré’s gimlet-eyed cynicism seeping through on every page. Nick Harkaway, author of tech thrillers and essays on digital culture, might seem like a somewhat out-of-left-field choice. But Harkaway has another credential: He’s actually le Carré’s son. He might be the only writer in the world capable of not only continuing his father’s legacy, but taking it somewhere entirely new.
Regency romance author Vanessa Kelly hops genres but not time periods for this series starter, which follows Emma Knightley (née Woodhouse) as she solves crimes in her little town of Highbury, England. Mysteries inspired by or starring Jane Austen are certainly common, but Emma is an inspired choice for a sleuth: She loves gossip, has a great deal of freedom thanks to her status as Highbury’s queen bee, and is in desperate need of a meaningful hobby so she doesn’t fall back into old habits and start matchmaking again. Equally inspired is Kelly’s choice of first victim: the detestable Mrs. Elton.
If Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache is anything, he is unfailingly kind. So why does a phone call on a beautiful Sunday morning in Three Pines, Canada, send him into a rage? That is only the first ominous moment in what promises to be a dark entry in Penny’s masterful, bestselling series.
Plus, the latest from Ann Cleeves, William Kent Krueger and Ragnar Jónasson round out this month’s Whodunit column.
Whether it’s an underexplored setting, a genre mashup or a distinct voice, these unique books will satisfy those looking for something a little different.
Caroline Woods exposes the plight of Victorian women and transforms history into an intricately plotted mystery in The Mesmerist.
In Alan Bradley’s 11th mystery starring preteen sleuth Flavia de Luce, the chemistry prodigy faces murder by mushroom and her own impending adulthood.
A murder-mystery party blurs the lines between dramatic artifice and harsh reality in Kate Atkinson’s sixth Jackson Brodie mystery.
In When We Were Silent, India Mullen’s skillful narration brings out the complex emotions that surface when Lou Manson is convinced to testify against the prestigious Dublin private school she attended decades prior.