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Read it before (or after!) you see it

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Is the book always better than the movie or TV show? Better read these recent adaptations ASAP so you can decide.

Heartstopper

By Alice Oseman

October 3, 2024

The too-cute-for-words Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel recently returned for its third season, following darling teen couple Nick and Charlie as they confront the looming shadow of university and whether they’ll finally say “I love you”—in addition to staring heart-eyed at each other.

’Salem’s Lot

By Stephen King

October 3, 2024

Dracula is having a moment. Not only will there be a new take on Nosferatu this Christmas (ICYMI in . . . 1922, Nosferatu is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), but Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, widely seen as the Maine horror master’s take on the template-setting vampire tale, was adpated into a Max (HBO’s streaming service) original movie starring Lewis Pullman, Bill Camp and Alfre Woodard.

The Outrun

By Amy Liptrot

October 4, 2024

Based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, The Outrun follows the author (played by art house and Oscar darling Saoirse Ronan) as she returns home to the Orkney Islands in Scotland. There, she reestablishes her relationship with her parents, revels in the rugged landscape, and truly faces her alcoholism for the first time.

Disclaimer

By Renée Knight

October 11, 2024

This Apple TV+ adaptation of Renée Knight’s literary thriller stars the great Cate Blanchett and is helmed by Alfonso Caurón (Roma, Gravity, Y tu mamá también). The series will follow Blanchett as lauded documentary filmmaker Catherine, whose glamorous life may come tumbling down thanks to a mysterious book that not only seems to be inspired by a tragic incident in her past, but may be accusing her of something terrible.

Rivals

By Jilly Cooper

October 18, 2024

Jilly Cooper’s infamous 1988 “bonkbuster” (a truly superb ’70s and ’80s term for a blockbuster novel containing a whole lot of sex) has finally come to the small screen in a Hulu adaptation starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Katherine Parkinson. It sounds like exactly what the old money aesthetic needs: a shot of deliciously bad behavior.

Conclave

By Robert Harris

October 25, 2024

Every few years, there’s an Oscar-potential film that can basically be boiled down to “Great Actors in a Room or Rooms Arguing About Something.” Think Women Talking, The Post, Spotlight, etc. The starry adaptation of Robert Harris’ Vatican-set thriller (yes, you read that right) is yet another drama-filled, highly satisfying addition to this Acting with a Capital A-friendly subgenre. To wit: Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who has been tasked with overseeing the election of a new pope, with Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as some of the candidates and Isabella Rossellini as a nun lurking in the wings.

Book jacket image for The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

The Marlow Murder Club

By Robert Thorogood

October 27, 2024

Ever since Richard Osman released The Thursday Murder Club, readers have been inundated with similarly quirky, gentle mysteries starring older sleuths. It should surprise absolutely no one that the British absolutely rose to the occasion (unsurprising given their long history of producing lovable sleuths like Miss Marple, Aunt Dimity and Agatha Raisin), and have produced the greatest challengers to Osman’s throne. Robert Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club series is one of the chief contenders, and a TV adaptation of the books aired this fall as part of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery! slate. Read our review of Death Comes to Marlow, the second book in the series.

Like Water for Chocolate

By Laura Esquivel

November 3, 2024

Having already served as source material for the very successful 1992 film, Laura Esquivel’s magical realist classic about a downtrodden Mexican cook who can infuse her dishes with her own dreams and emotions was adapted to the small screen on Max.

Small Things Like These

By Claire Keegan

November 8, 2024

Apparently not content to rest on the laurels he gained for his towering work in Oppenheimer, actor Cillian Murphy has taken on another role that seems destined for awards and acclaim in Small Things Like These, the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel of the same name. Set in small-town Ireland in the 1980s, just before Christmas, the film follows Bill Furlong (Murphy) as he uncovers the abusive practices of a local convent, forcing him to make a choice between silent conformity and potentially ostracizing dissent. 

Say Nothing

By Patrick Radden Keefe

November 14, 2024

And speaking of Irish drama, Patrick Radden Keefe’s incredible true crime book-cum-history of the “troubles” has been transformed into a scripted miniseries on FX. The interesting choice paid off, with the parallel stories of Dolours Price, an IRA member, and Jean McConville, a woman who disappeared in 1972 after being accused of spying for the British, coming vividly to life.

Book jacket image for Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked

By Gregory Maguire

November 22, 2024

Seemingly in production ever since the original book was published, let alone the generation-defining musical, the Wicked film adaptation finally hit the big screen after years of casting rumors and false starts. Musicals are a tricky prospect for audiences these days: For every La La Land or Les Misérables, there’s a Dear Evan Hansen or, god forbid, a Cats. But Wicked assembled a truly impressive cast (Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey are perfect picks for Elphaba and Fiyero, and Ariana Grande as Glinda defied the naysayers with an inspired comic performance), and Jon M. Chu is one of the only directors in Hollywood who actually understands how to shoot musical numbers. So far, audiences have been utterly enchanted.

Nightbitch

By Rachel Yoder

December 6, 2024

Of the spate of recent novels dealing with motherhood and female rage, Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch is certainly one of the most distinctive: An unnamed narrator, overwhelmed with the demands of her toddler and mourning the loss of her art career, thinks she’s transforming into a dog. Adapting this novel for the big screen is certainly a huge swing, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Marielle Heller, the acclaimed director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and her star, the absurdly talented Amy Adams (who really should have won an Oscar by now).

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel García Márquez

December 11, 2024

And now for an even more challenging adaptation: Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece of magical realism, a multigenerational family saga that spans several decades and is generally considered one of the greatest books ever written. Márquez’s estate has been famously averse to any sort of screen version of the book: The author, rightfully, doubted a film could ever capture all the nuances of his work. It remains to be seen whether Netflix’s upcoming miniseries succeeds on this front, but the show is already notable for being shot on location in Columbia and being entirely in Spanish, which was Márquez’s hope for any adaptation.

The Nickel Boys

By Colson Whitehead

December 13, 2024

It seems risky to adapt Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, mainly due to the brutality of its subject matter (a heinous “reform school” in the Jim Crow South that abused and killed the Black children it was supposedly reforming). But advance reviews for Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ movie version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, are absolutely glowing, hailing documentarian Ross’ unique approach to the story. Filmed entirely from the point of views of two of the boys incarcerated at the school, Nickel Boys looks poised to be one of awards season’s biggest players.

The Return of the King

By J.R.R. Tolkien

December 13, 2024

Among certain circles of nerds, it is common to proclaim that more adaptations—especially those of sci-fi or fantasy classics—should be animated. This winter, we’ll be able to see that maxim put to the test with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime film depicting an epic story found in Tolkien’s appendices at the end of The Return of the King. (If you are not a Tolkien person, this may not seem like enough to base an entire movie on. If you are a Tolkien fan, you know exactly how long those appendices are and presumably already skipped this parenthetical.) The War of the Rohirrim will tell the tale of the magnificently named Helm Hammerhand, a legendary king of Rohan, and his daughter, Hèra, as they defend their people from an invasion.

Mickey7

By Edward Ashton

January 31, 2025

Before it was even published, Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7 was announced as director Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite. The adaptation, Mickey 17, added a digit but otherwise seems to have the same plot: Mickey is an Expendable, a person sent to a dangerous planet who is 3D-printed anew each time he dies. But when a new Mickey returns home to find an old Mickey somehow still breathing, shenanigans ensue.

Jilly Cooper's Rivals and Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing are the latest book-to-screen adaptations you won’t want to miss.
Mystery & SuspenseThrillerMystery

Our mystery columnist has a new favorite Nordic noir—and it’s written by an American

Feature by Bruce Tierney

The Big Empty

Classic detective novels don’t need to be set in Los Angeles. The protagonist does not have to drive a vintage Corvette convertible, and they don’t necessarily require a loyal and lethal sidekick. It is not imperative that the narrative be spun in the first person. That said, it is a formula that has worked for the better part of 40 years for author Robert Crais, demonstrated ably in his latest installment in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, The Big Empty. When the antique Mickey Mouse phone rings on the desk of private investigator Elvis (self-described as “the world’s greatest detective”), he picks up and finds himself in a conversation with the somewhat harried assistant of Traci Beller, a hugely popular social media influencer. Traci is too busy to meet Cole at his office, but if he comes to her, she will give him $1,000 whether he accepts the case or not. It turns out that she wants to hire him to find out what happened to her father, who disappeared 10 years ago: “He called my mom after lunch, told her he was running late, and we never heard from him again. So it was like, poof, he vanished.” Cases don’t get much colder, but Cole agrees to look into it, cautioning Traci not to expect miracles. But before long, Cole can use a miracle or two of his own, as he is savagely beaten by a gang of criminals intent on derailing his investigation at any cost. Oh, and the big finish? It was such a shock and surprise that I went back and read it again.

The Note

Alafair Burke’s latest, The Note, follows three women: May, Lauren and Kelsey, who have been lifelong friends since attending the same summer camp ages ago. They decide to do a girls trip together, a few relaxing days in an Airbnb in the Hamptons. They need it—they have been embroiled in three separate and very public scandals, and they think a seaside vacation will be both fun and cathartic. They are so wrong. As they arrive at a local lunch spot, they discover that parking is at a premium. They patiently await a person exiting a space, only to have it snagged by a driver coming from the other direction. They are annoyed to the point where one of them leaves a note on the car’s windshield that says, “He’s cheating. He always does.” It certainly seems as if it might sow a bit of disharmony between the male driver and his attractive female passenger, some minor naughty payback for the stolen parking spot. It is all fun and games, as they say, until someone turns up dead: in this case, the driver. When the police discover the existence of the note, bit by bit the investigation leads them toward the three women. As their mutual trust begins to break down, alliances shift and reshift. One character is a murderer. Good luck figuring out which one.

Invisible Helix

Keigo Higashino’s beloved character Professor Galileo (aka Manabu Yukawa) returns in Invisible Helix, the latest from Japan’s preeminent suspense author. This book relies less on Yukawa’s detecting skills than some of the previous installments in the series, but is nonetheless a compelling read loaded with Japanese scenery and culture, with a storyline chock-full of secrets past and present. It starts with a baby being left on the doorstep of an orphanage by a young mother devoid of options. By means of a very twisty path, it winds forward two generations to the present, in which people are still shaped by, and acting on, events that happened in their parents’ and grandparents’ day. Professor Galileo gets involved after a murder takes place—no surprise there—and his longtime friend Chief Inspector Kusanagi summons him to assist. Invisible Helix is a very different book than I expected given its predecessors in the series, but I quite liked it all the same. (A brief aside: I lived in Tokyo when the first Professor Galileo book, The Devotion of Suspect X, was released in English. Oddly, as I was reading, I found myself predicting what would happen next at every turn. Some time later, I realized that I had actually seen the Japanese movie based on the book, well before the book’s translation into English.)

★ The Lost House

It’s no secret among BookPage mystery and suspense readers that I am a devotee of Nordic noir, as I often wax poetic about the subgenre. But who would have thought that a superb Nordic noir novel would emanate from the pen (or more likely, keyboard) of an American writer? Melissa Larsen’s The Lost House is that book. On the 40th anniversary of a double murder that rocked Iceland, Agnes, the American granddaughter of the presumed—but not convicted—killer, goes to the small town of Bifröst to participate in a podcast about the homicide. She has always believed her grandfather to be innocent, but she is in the distinct minority. Now, after her grandfather’s slow decline and death, Agnes has decided to visit her ancestral homeland for the first time in an attempt to get some closure. Then, as if in response to the grim anniversary, a local girl goes missing in the harsh Icelandic wilderness. Suspicions of foul play abound, and the buzz around the town is that it is at least peripherally connected to the 40-year-old cold case. The characters are all conflicted and vividly drawn, the milieu is pitch-perfect and the resolution is by turns heartbreaking and strangely uplifting. The Lost House is the first must-read thriller of 2025.

Melissa Larsen’s debut thriller is a chilly masterpiece, plus new cases for Elvis Cole and Professor Galileo in this month’s Whodunit.
RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

A 49-year-old Regency widow gets a second chance with her first love

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ Remember When

Mary Balogh offers a Regency-era, quietly enchanting story of second-chance love in Remember When. Nearing her 50th birthday, widow Clarissa Ware, the Dowager Countess of Stratton, returns to her family’s country estate alone, intent on contemplating the next phase of her life. With her children launched into society, she is seeking new meaning and begins by rekindling a friendship with Matthew Taylor, the village carpenter she loved when she was 17. No great drama ensues, but Balogh is a master at drawing readers in without it; the engrossing story unfolds through depth of emotion and long passages of introspection. Clarissa and Matthew are seasoned people with failings and successes behind them, yet they realize there is more ahead—a breadth of love that is a pleasure to discover through their eyes.

Into the Woods

A stay at a summer camp gives a dance teacher and a rock star a new start in Jenny Holiday’s Into the Woods. After years of bad dates and approaching 40, dance teacher Gretchen Miller decides to embrace her impending crone status by giving up men and focusing on her dance studio. But while filling in as a mentor at a camp for artistic teens, she meets rocker Teddy Knight, a lauded songwriter whose band recently broke up. Sparks fly, so maybe Teddy can be her last—blazing—sexual hurrah? Teddy is all for it, since he’s flailing professionally and new songs aren’t yet coming. These two bicker at first and banter throughout, yet in the end are understanding and kind to each other, just what they both needed all along. A story of two modern, authentic and endearing characters at a crossroads, Into the Woods is funny, emotional and even a bit inspirational as Gretchen and Teddy grapple with issues both personal and social.

Stuck in the Country With You

Zuri Day takes readers on an entertaining, emotional roller-coaster ride in Stuck in the Country With You. Genesis Washington is surprised when she inherits her great-uncle’s Tennessee farm, but surprise turns to chagrin when she learns her next-door neighbor is her one-time hookup, former pro football player Jaxson King. Though their night together stirred up trouble in her family that Genesis doesn’t want to repeat, she can’t avoid the sexy Jaxson, who steps in to help her again and again. Despite the fire between them, which singes the sheets in love scenes hotter than Jaxson’s chili, trust between the pair is hard-won. However, both find time for self-reflection on the way to their Happily Ever After, and Day shows how they grow as individuals before they completely commit as a couple. Stalwart friends and neighbors round out a cast of likable characters that adds to the satisfying fun.

Mary Balogh’s latest is utterly enchanting, plus new releases from Jenny Holiday and Zuri Day in this month’s romance column.
NonfictionPop CultureLGBTQ+Film

5 books to get the biggest movie & TV fans in your life

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

★ Believe         

Fans of beloved hit television series Ted Lasso will delightedly embrace Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts.

Part oral history, part cultural analysis, Believe is an entertaining and insightful behind-the-scenes tour in which New York Times television editor Jeremy Egner offers a wealth of interviews with key players as he reflects on Ted Lasso’s origins as a 2013 commercial; standout influences and episodes (e.g., the divisively trippy “Beard After Hours”); and its rocket-like ascension to national-treasure status.

Like Ted Lasso, Believe brims with enthusiasm, sports-talk and fun. As Egner writes, “It’s a story, appropriately enough, of teamwork, of hidden talent, of a group of friends looking around at the world’s increasingly nasty discourse and deciding that, as corny as it sounds, maybe simple decency and a few laughs still had the power to bring people together.” Believe is a winning read about a stellar show.   

★ Steven Spielberg     

Steven Spielberg: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work is an upbeat, photo-packed tribute to the famous filmmaker, written with wit and warmth by British film critic Ian Nathan.

Nathan believes Spielberg is “the medium’s defining artist. Indeed, the embodiment of the Hollywood ideal: the commercial potential of film married to its creative possibilities. Art and commerce.” He proves his point as he traces the filmmaker’s development as director, producer and writer over his 50-plus year career, from his earliest films (1971’s Duel, his first feature-length film) to his most personal work to date, 2022’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. 

Analysis of the auteur’s favorite collaborators and common themes offers illuminating context, and reveals a bounty of nitty-gritty details about Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hook, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Lincoln and more. Photos and movie posters amp up the fun, and even Nathan’s captions offer fresh insight. Steven Spielberg will absolutely intrigue and enchant fans of “the man with the universal touch.”

Box Office Poison       

There’s always high drama on movie sets, thanks to the studio politics, budget-busting sets and creative intensity that swirls around them. Sometimes a hit is born, but other times, as film critic Tim Robey writes in Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops, one must wonder, “What the hell were they thinking?”

Robey spotlights 26 cinematic “weirdos, outcasts, misfits, [and] freaks” via well-informed, gleefully snarky takes on what went wrong and what we might learn from flops. Intolerance (1916) exemplifies the “giant folly of trying to be a one-man film studio”; Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) was waterlogged; and Cats (2019) suffered from “the buttholes” and endless production problems.

Robey notes that many flops become cult classics or are eventually recognized as misunderstood, and due to streaming, it’s become difficult to quantify losses and thereby designate a new ultimate bomb. But on the upside, our cord-cutting world has also made it easier than ever for cinephiles riding high on the spirited Box Office Poison to experience the movies Robey deems “turkeys.” 

★ Hollywood Pride

In his wonderfully wide-ranging encyclopedia of 130 years of movie history, Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film, film critic Alonso Duralde “hope[s] to pay tribute to artists whose contributions on both sides of the camera have been essential to cinema history while also spotlighting films that have told queer stories and/or had special resonance with queer audiences.” 

Mission accomplished: This chronological compendium examines filmic LGBTQ+ representation in key eras like the years after World War II, when “gay men were among the biggest stars in Hollywood, even if almost no one outside the industry knew it”; and the “opening of the floodgates” after 2005’s Brokeback Mountain. There are vivid photos and sidebars galore, and lists of notable films and artists, too. 

Hollywood Pride is a well-written, visually appealing cultural history: a book to learn from, gaze at and celebrate that “as long as there is a cinema . . . we will continue to exist and to thrive and to create.”

The Worlds of George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin fans—especially those who wish they lived in Westeros—will clamor for Tom Huddleston’s The Worlds of George R.R. Martin: The Inspirations Behind Game of Thrones, which illuminates the creative process of the much-loved author of the Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.

Huddleston ponders “What sources—historical, literary and personal—did [Martin] draw upon in the writing, and what inspiration did they give him?” He notes that Martin’s writing has a “sprawling, breathtaking sense of scale” that draws readers in, and certainly echoes that scope and intensity here as he delves into the creation of the hugely popular series, considers how it was translated into TV shows Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and assesses its place in pop culture.

Fans who want to spend even more time in Martin’s medieval-esque world will treasure The Worlds of George R.R. Martin: It’s a well-researched, engagingly written and visually immersive experience.

These books are just the thing for screen buffs who want to revel in their favorite stories and auteurs, with deeply knowledgeable experts as their enthusiastic guides.
Mystery & SuspenseThrillerSuspenseMystery

An 81-year-old woman versus a little boy: It sounds wholesome, but just wait till the bodies start to pile up

Feature by Bruce Tierney

You Better Watch Out

In the checkout line of an upstate New York convenience store, opportunistic small-time thief Eddie Parker spots a purse overflowing with cash. As the elderly owner finishes her transaction, Eddie maneuvers himself into position to relieve her of her stash. It does not go according to plan; within arm’s reach of his prize, Eddie feels a sharp scratch on his neck and, moments later, his world goes black. He wakes up in a small deserted town that looks like a movie set: buildings with false fronts, shops filled with empty containers, no food or water in sight and Christmastime temperatures dropping below freezing. The title of this thriller by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth is almost prophetic: You Better Watch Out. Eddie soon discovers that a handful of other folks have met a similar fate. And although they don’t entirely trust one another, they know that their lives depend on getting out of this place, and the best means to that end is teamwork. But, in true Agatha Christie fashion, one by one they meet their untimely demise, and most graphically. Here is the funny part, though (to me, at least): Fairly early in the book, I thought I had figured out who the villain was. Turns out, I was right—but I had no inkling whatsoever of the diabolical twist that would reveal itself in the final pages. 

Havoc

In Christopher Bollen’s Havoc, octogenarian and self-confessed do-gooder Maggie Burkhardt narrates a tale of obsession, deceit and worse at a riverside hotel in Luxor, Egypt, during the height of COVID-19 restrictions. Following the death of her husband, Maggie is far afield from her Wisconsin homeland. Egypt was not her first choice for her retirement, but it is one of the few places welcoming tourists, and she has grown acclimated to the heat and the easy pace of life in the Royal Karnak, a hotel that exemplifies the term “faded glory.” Over time, she has become something of a fixture there, reveling in her role as “doyenne of all she surveys.” And then Otto shows up with his mother, and quickly establishes himself as Chief Nemesis to Maggie and all she holds dear. His childish pranks escalate to blackmail after he surprises Maggie doing something she clearly should not have been doing, and his demands seem to have no end in sight. That said, Maggie is rather duplicitous herself, both in her interactions with other characters and with the reader, as she tries to play the virtuous victim. The narrative is by turns creepy, snarky, humorous and every bit as atmospheric as you would expect from a story set somewhere like the Valley of the Kings. Oh, and there are a couple of murders: nothing too graphic, but quite definitely an affectionate nod to the sweeping, international mysteries of the 1940s.  

Robert B. Parker’s Hot Property

After a popular series writer passes away, they often leave legions of fans clamoring for more adventures of their fictional heroes. Ian Fleming’s James Bond and Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander jump to mind. Other writers often take up the challenge, albeit with decidedly mixed results. But when Mike Lupica took over Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, it was a seamless transition. It’s as if he channels Parker from beyond the grave: setting, prose, dialogue—the works. In the latest installment, Robert B. Parker’s Hot Property, an attempted murder hits close to home. Ace criminal defense attorney Rita Fiore has been shot and is clinging to life but tenuously. She had been romantically involved with a young up-and-coming politician until his recent accidental (?) death, and now it appears that he may have been involved in some property shenanigans with mob overtones. For Spenser, Rita Fiore is family, as surely as if they had been related by blood, and he will leave no stone unturned in bringing her assailant to justice. Speaking of stones, another Parker protagonist, Police Chief Jesse Stone, makes a cameo appearance, and the two play off each other exceptionally well. Hot Property is a must for longtime Spenser fans and a terrific entry point for newcomers as well.

The Collaborators

If you are in the mood for a high-stakes global espionage novel, with secret agents jet-setting all over the world, you have come to the right place. Michael Idov’s The Collaborators doesn’t waste any time setting up locations or easing into the narrative. In the first sentence, a Russian MiG-29 fighter jet pulls up alongside an Antalya Airlines commercial flight from Istanbul to Riga, Latvia. They are in Belarusian airspace, and the MiG pilot clearly plans to force the Antalya 737 down or shoot it down. On board are a dissident blogger, a pair of fugitives in disguise and heaven only knows what other manner of dodgy characters. Meanwhile, in Riga, CIA agent Aria Falk waits anxiously for the blogger, initially unaware of the flight’s unplanned stop in Minsk. In other news, a financier who has been laundering Russian money for years has apparently killed himself by leaping off a yacht in the open sea, and the multibillion dollar fund he managed seems to have vanished along with him. The connection point for all these disparate events is Falk. Soon enough, he will become involved with Maya Chou, the daughter of the missing (and presumed dead) financier, and things will get very convoluted indeed. The Collaborators devotes little space to pyrotechnics, chase scenes and the like, but cleverness and subterfuge abound, followed by a believable, real-world sort of denouement. PS: Idov is a screenwriter in addition to being a novelist, and this book has silver screen written all over it.

Plus, a wicked holiday delight and a ripped-from-the-headlines espionage thriller in this month’s Whodunit column.
RomanceRomantic SuspenseHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

The 5 best holiday romances of 2024

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Ally Carter does it again with the delightful The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year. An anonymous invitation lures rival mystery writers Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt to a secluded and nearly snowbound English mansion for Christmas. Upon arrival, they encounter a series of surprises: the identity of their hostess, her almost immediate disappearance and the dynamic sleuthing duo they become. Alternating between Maggie’s and Ethan’s viewpoints, this romantic comedy packs in plot and smiles on every page as the two work to unravel the puzzles they encounter during their stay. The characters’ emotional backstories add authentic heft, and Ethan’s heartfelt and outspoken devotion for Maggie will warm the coldest winter night. Readers will be more than willing to put off any pending holiday tasks to indulge in this vastly entertaining read.

Kiss Me at Christmas

Describing Kiss Me at Christmas by Jenny Bayliss as “feel-good” would be a colossal understatement: The entire package is practically wrapped in a sparkly Christmas bow. Right before the holidays, 40-something main characters Harriet Smith and James Knight have a one-night stand . . . and then learn that they’ll be working on a production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol together. Single mom and private school counselor Harriet overcomes the awkwardness by focusing on her students: She agreed to manage the production to shield some of them from the consequences of breaking into the decrepit theater. The owner of the theater is one of serious lawyer James’ clients, and James isn’t happy about the play or how his night with Harriet ended. However, nothing’s more fun than let’s-put-on-a-show enthusiasm, which in this case brings together an entire English village as well as Harriet and James. Bayliss’ mature main characters are refreshing stars, even as they fall into the usual romantic insecurities and miscommunication that cause lovers of all ages to stumble. In the end, James loosens up with Harriet’s aid, and his regard helps her value herself more. Along the way, readers will revel in the cute and sometimes rebellious kids, the wise and charming oldsters, and the descriptions of scrumptious foods from all over the world.

The Duke’s Christmas Bride

Revenge leads to romance in Anna Bradley’s Regency-set The Duke’s Christmas Bride. Maxwell Burke, the Duke of Grantham, desperately wishes to recover Hammond Court, the family home his father lost long ago in a foolish wager with Ambrose St. Clair. When Ambrose dies, Max discovers the man left Hammond Court to him—but also to stubborn Rose St. Claire, Ambrose’s ward, who has no intention of moving out. What’s a ruthless duke to do to get her going on her way? Why, bribe an eligible London gentleman to romance and marry the chit, of course. A holiday house party is arranged, and the brooding Max finds himself ice-skating, sleigh-riding and arranging a Christmas ball . . . all while falling for the enchanting woman he’s scheming to hand over to someone else. Brooding won’t help him now, and Max must find a way to solve the very dilemma he created while his amused friends—main characters from other entries in Bradley’s Drop Dead Dukes series—look on. A closed-off aristocrat and a warmhearted heroine who bakes the best Christmas treats? That’s a recipe for love story satisfaction.

The Christmas You Found Me

Prepare for a few tears along with your hot chocolate while reading The Christmas You Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler, which follows two total strangers who enter into a “marriage of purpose” to provide for a 4-year-old with a life-threatening illness. Sienna Naples may be busy maintaining her family ranch in the Idaho wilderness, but she can’t look away from the dire dilemma of Guy Maple and his daughter, Emma, who has Stage 5 chronic kidney disease. Sienna’s generosity in taking in the small family provides a boon to her, too, as she’s lonely post-divorce and with her dad in acute elder care. Providing Emma with some needed fun is imperative despite her hovering illness, and Sienna steps up to make memories for them all. Cue small-town holiday events in between emergency medical visits, and two people who fall in love despite their vulnerability and grief. Told in Sienna’s first-person voice, this story provides a roller-coaster of emotions as well as an enthralling look at winter life on a remote ranch. Have a hankie at hand.

Christmas Is All Around

A curmudgeon unearths her holiday spirit in Christmas Is All Around by Martha Waters. Charlotte Lane has been over the season since starring in the now-classic film Christmas, Truly as a child. When her refusal to join a reboot of the film goes viral, she escapes to her sister’s in London. There, she’s roped into holiday escapades, including a country house tour where she meets the owner, attractive Englishman Graham Calloway. Now an artist, Charlotte can’t resist his idea that she create a series of Christmas-themed illustrations around London . . . with Graham as her guide to several iconic locations. While there’s an initial spark, these two are slow to succumb to the burn of passion as they’re dealing with—or more accurately, not dealing with—family issues that hold them back. But love truly finds its way on this fun tour through a London holiday, which is peopled with amusing secondary characters and has a satisfying happy ending that ticks all the boxes.

The year’s most delightful Christmas love stories are full of mistletoe and merriment—with just a dash of potential murder to spice things up.
NonfictionWomen's HistoryMusicLiteratureHistoryFood & DrinkBlack HistoryBiographyAmerican History

The 12 best biographies of 2024

List by Editors
STARRED REVIEW
December 11, 2024

The 12 best biographies of 2024

Throughout 2024, biographies consistently stole the show. From renowned authors to heads of state, game-changing activists and cultural icons, these 12 illuminating profiles delighted and inspired us.
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Ira Gershwin

By Michael Owen

Michael Owen’s thoughtful, engaging biography illuminates the life and work of Ira Gershwin.

Michael Owen’s thoughtful, engaging biography illuminates the life and work of Ira Gershwin.

The Icon and the Idealist

By Stephanie Gorton

The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling, warts-and-all dual biography of the warring leaders of the early 20th-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett.

The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling, warts-and-all dual biography of the warring leaders of the early 20th-century birth control movement: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett.

Survival Is a Promise

By Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Audre Lorde gets her flowers in Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Survival Is a Promise, a masterful, poetic biography of the literar and feminist icon.

Audre Lorde gets her flowers in Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Survival Is a Promise, a masterful, poetic biography of the literar and feminist icon.

Night Flyer

By Tiya Miles

With the exquisite Night Flyer, Tiya Miles looks at Harriet Tubman from an entirely new perspective: her spirituality.

With the exquisite Night Flyer, Tiya Miles looks at Harriet Tubman from an entirely new perspective: her spirituality.

Loving Sylvia Plath

By Emily Van Duyne

Unearthed letters from Sylvia Plath may have shocked the world in 2017, but Loving Sylvia Plath shows we’ve long had all the evidence we needed to condemn her abuser, poet Ted Hughes.

Unearthed letters from Sylvia Plath may have shocked the world in 2017, but Loving Sylvia Plath shows we’ve long had all the evidence we needed to condemn her abuser, poet Ted Hughes.

Ascent to Power

By David L. Roll

Ascent to Power is a carefully crafted biography that superbly captures the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

Ascent to Power is a carefully crafted biography that superbly captures the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

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Throughout 2024, biographies consistently stole the show. From renowned authors to heads of state, game-changing activists and cultural icons, these 12 illuminating profiles delighted and inspired us.
NonfictionArtPhotographyLifestylesLGBTQ+Art

4 gift-worthy art books bound to inspire

List by Laura Hutson Hunter
STARRED REVIEW
November 27, 2024

4 gift-worthy art books bound to inspire

Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.
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Luncheons on the Grass

By Jeffrey Deitch

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.

The illuminating Luncheons on the Grass asks 30 artists to create new works inspired by Manet’s eponymous masterpiece.

About Face

By Jonathan D. Katz

Jonathan D. Katz’s About Face celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with deep scholarship and thrilling artworks.

Jonathan D. Katz’s About Face celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with deep scholarship and thrilling artworks.

Casa Susanna

By Sophie Hackett, By Isabelle Bonnet

Casa Susanna is a sumptuous volume of photography that chronicles a midcentury trans enclave.

Casa Susanna is a sumptuous volume of photography that chronicles a midcentury trans enclave.

The Work of Art

By Adam Moss

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.

The Work of Art is a visionary compendium of ephemera that makes visible the bridge between idea and artwork.

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Get inside the mind of an artist, revisit Manet and celebrate queer life in some of 2024’s best art and photography books.
NonfictionLifestylesFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

4 books to help you ace your next (or first!) dinner party

Feature by Alice Cary

★ The Hostess Handbook

According to Maria Zizka (The Newlywed Table), the three pillars of party planning are “the desire to host, some reliably excellent go-to recipes, and a bit of party know-how.” You’ll get a hefty dose of all three in The Hostess Handbook: A Modern Guide to Entertaining. It’s filled with a wide variety of truly enticing recipes that will make you want to start cooking, including vegetarian summer rolls with peanut sauce, saffron couscous with cauliflower, chickpeas and pomegranate, and—wait for it—churro doughnuts with chocolate glaze. These are included in a variety of menus, ranging from a Sunday supper to a holiday dinner party. Zizka also advises on flower arranging, expelling lingering fishy smells and—importantly—navigating dietary restrictions of guests.

Zizka’s writing style is entertaining in itself, as well as informative. The flavor of salt-and-vinegar potato-peel chips with chive dip is as if “a regular potato chip went on vacation to a tiny British coastal village and had a fling with a fisherman.” Along with numerous elegant recipes, Zizka offers helpful basics, such as a list of 10 Simple Nearly No-Cook Appetizers, including my personal favorite: “potato chips served in a pretty bowl.” As Lewin notes, “They never disappoint.”

Big Night

Katherine Lewin is the sort of entertainment goddess everyone needs. An introvert who sometimes recharges with short naps while hosting, Lewin owns a dinner party essentials shop in New York City. She shares boatloads of tips in Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties, a guide to making “any night you choose . . . a little more special,” whether it’s an elegant gathering or casual weekday meal. Four chapters—one for each season—include 85 recipes along with bartending, preparation and pairing suggestions galore, presented with photos and graphics that pop.

Lewin notes, “You know it’s a party when pigs arrive in blankets,” so she includes a sweet-salty “grown-up” recipe for the eponymous appetizer. Her recipe titles alone will make readers smile, with names like A Noodle Soup to Get People Excited and A Big Chopped Salad (to Go With Takeout Pizza). Lewin’s encouraging humor shines through on every page, giving would-be hosts the confidence to plan their own big night.

Swing By!

If you really want to step up your entertaining game, dig into Swing By! Entertaining Recipes and the New Art of Gathering. Stephanie Nass has been called the “millennial Martha Stewart,” and this is by far the largest, lushest, most over-the-top of these entertaining books. Nass, who earned the nickname “Chefanie” as a child and uses it as her brand name today, caught the entertaining bug early: “All my life,” she writes, “I have been at greatest peace in the middle of a party.” The book’s winsome cover features Nass perched atop a dinner table, dressed in a drapey pantsuit that matches the place settings.

Thumbing through these colorful pages will make you feel as though you’ve been to a fun, fabulous fete. Innovative takes on standards, like her King Midas Pizza with edible gold leaf, shine. Nass is a gifted baker, and her show-stopping chocolate-meringue cake will surely inspire readers to muster their culinary courage.

★ Victorian Parlour Games

Liven up any gathering with Victorian Parlour Games: A Modern Host’s Guide to Classic Fun for Everyone. Ned Wolfe’s charming treatise is chock-full of easy-to-play games “that have stood the test of time for good reason.” Featuring competition games like Smells, Endless Story and German Whist, its compact size makes it an ideal stocking stuffer or hostess gift. Did you know, for instance, that it’s Blind Man’s Buff, not Bluff? Or that the game Hot Boiled Beans and Bacon was featured in both The Big Bang Theory and Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood?

These amusements are suitable for a variety of ages and occasions, from children’s birthday parties (Musical Chairs and a variation, Musical Potatoes), long car trips (Crambo), family get-togethers (pillow fights, with rules) and romantic evenings (kissing games!). Don’t miss Wolfe’s colorful cautions—including “nothing ruins a game night quite like a visit to the hospital.”

Whether you’re an accomplished or aspiring dinner party host, these books brim with ideas that will add sizzle to your soirees.
NonfictionMemoirFood & Drink

4 culinary memoirs will bring flavor and festivity to your book club

Feature by Julie Hale

Dwight Garner’s The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading is an irresistible blend of memoir, literary history and culinary journalism. Garner, a longtime New York Times Book Review critic who is married to chef Cree LeFavour, shares memories of meals from his Southern upbringing and food-related anecdotes from a host of famous figures, literary and otherwise, including Toni Morrison and David Sedaris. As he contemplates his favorite pursuits (yes, those would be reading and eating), he highlights the wonderful idiosyncrasies of personal taste. For Garner, the two pastimes nourish each other—with rich results.

In her moving memoir, Tastes Like War, Grace M. Cho looks back on her childhood in Washington state, where she lived with her Korean mother and American father after the family migrated from Korea. Grace was a teenager when her mother began to show signs of schizophrenia. As a doctoral student researching Korean history, Cho started cooking for her mother, drawing on recipes from the family’s past. Themes like colonialism and the unifying power of food will inspire spirited book club discussions.

Anya von Bremzen investigates the role that place plays in food culture in National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home. Over the course of the book, von Bremzen visits foodie dream destinations like Turkey, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Italy and France. Along the way, she talks with chefs and influencers, historians and scientists to find out why particular dishes—pizza, rice, ramen—end up representing a country’s culture. An acclaimed food and travel writer, von Bremzen whisks up a brisk, lively narrative that’s brimming with culinary history.

Kwame Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef chronicles the author’s remarkable journey from the flavor-packed but dangerous streets of the Bronx to the heights of the culinary world. As a youngster, Onwuachi suffered at the hands of his violent father and flirted with gang life. But he learned about cooking from his caterer mother and went on to become a James Beard Award-winning chef, even as racism in the culinary industry threatened to derail his dreams. Written with Joshua David Stein, this invigorating memoir offers many talking points, including the value of failing and getting up again.

Gather ’round the table to dish about these mouthwatering memoirs.
Science Fiction & FantasyNonfictionMystery & SuspenseTravelPop CultureMysteryLiteratureLifestylesFantasyCrafts, Hobbies & Home

5 gifts that will shoot to the top of any reader’s TBR

Feature by Julie Hale

Book Nooks

The question of how best to set up a personal library has confounded many a book collector. When it comes time to arrange them, all those wonderful volumes can seem like the pieces of an unsolvable puzzle. The literature lover who’s searching for solutions will welcome Book Nooks: Inspired Ideas for Cozy Reading Corners and Stylish Book Displays by Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly.

Packed with easy-to-execute design schemes and Antonis Achilleos’ fabulous photographs, Book Nooks offers tips on how to group books according to color and size, as well as strategies for using personal effects in an arrangement. For establishing a comfy reading area, there are options to suit every style, space and taste. The book also addresses the art of stacking (Yes, it can be a creative act!), suggests methods for bringing plants into the picture, organizing those prize cookbooks and integrating analog reading material into a teen’s room. With reading recs from noted authors and a look at Little Free Libraries, Book Nooks is a bibliophile’s best friend.

Hidden Libraries

DC Helmuth’s Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories is a perfectly on-point present for any reader, but especially one who loves to travel. This wide-ranging title profiles 50 remarkable libraries in locations across the globe. Staff stories, fascinating facts, spectacular imagery and a foreword from critic and librarian Nancy Pearl make it a winning tribute to the mission of libraries everywhere.

Hidden Libraries surveys a range of amazing physical spaces. The Kurkku Fields’ Underground Library in Kisarazu, Japan, is a book-lined grotto covered in grass, while the cocoon-shaped Heydar Aliyev International Airport Library near Baku, Azerbaijan, projects sheer architectural awesomeness. Examples of inspired resourcefulness regarding book circulation abound: In China, the Shenzhen library system distributes titles via vending machine. And Helmuth doesn’t dismiss even the most miniature of libraries. A handsome wooden cabinet filled with colorful books, the Little Free Library at the South Pole—startling against Antarctica’s unrelieved whiteness—seems to defy its frozen surroundings. Big or small, grand or humble, each library serves as a singular point of enrichment and connection, and Helmuth’s stirring volume honors these efforts.

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

With its quick-witted heroine Rory Gilmore, a voracious reader with dreams of attending Harvard, Gilmore Girls could very well be classified as a TV show for bookworms. The series, which aired from 2000 to 2007, made numerous allusions (339, to be exact) to books of all genres—titles favored by Rory and her friends. In The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: The Official Guide to All the Books, Erika Berlin explores the novels, plays and poetry cited on the show, providing episode information and details on who read what. 

Inspired by Buzzfeed’s 2014 list of all the books mentioned in Gilmore Girls, Berlin’s breezy volume takes a nostalgic look back at Rory’s world while sharing reading recommendations (Frankenstein, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, One Hundred Years of Solitude, the list goes on) and invaluable book-related advice, including approaches for becoming a more focused reader and easy ways to impose order on a chaotic book collection. Filled with photos from the show, this book is a sunny retrospective and a buoyant tribute to the reading life.

Buried Deep and Other Stories

For the fantasy fan, there’s no better gift than Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik, bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, Uprooted and Spinning Silver. As this collection proves, Novik is a natural conjurer whose stories—rich with allusion and detail—feel effortlessly authentic. Each provides an escape into an alternative world that’s wholly realized. 

“Dragons & Decorum”—a fantastical recasting of Pride and Prejudice, set in the Regency England of Novik’s Temeraire series—finds Elizabeth Bennet riding a winged dragon named Wollstonecraft. In “The Long Way Round,” Novik offers a taste of her next work (tentatively titled Folly) and introduces spirited protagonist Intessa Roh. “Vici,” another Temeraire tale, but this time set in ancient Rome, chronicles the unexpected camaraderie that arises between Marc Antony and a valiant dragon. Introductions from Novik accompany the anthology’s 13 stories, and readers will relish the context they give to her work. This is a transportive collection from an author who maps her narrative milieus with extraordinary precision.

The Man in Black and Other Stories

Crime fiction maven Elly Griffiths is known as a prolific writer, having penned the Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur and Brighton mysteries series. But did anyone suspect she was writing short stories on the side? That’s right—Griffiths has long played around with short-form work, and her intriguing new volume, The Man in Black and Other Stories, spotlights this aspect of her artistry. 

The atmospheric anthology brings together 19 pieces, in which, fans will be delighted to learn, Griffiths expands the backstories of some of her most popular characters. The volume’s eponymous story is a spooky sketch set just before Halloween that features Ruth Galloway. “Harbinger” tracks Harbinder Kaur’s all-too-eventful first day at Shoreham Criminal Investigation Department. And in “Ruth Galloway and the Ghost of Max Mephisto,” all three of Griffiths’ sleuths converge, as it were. Ingeniously plotted and leavened with humor, the pieces are brief but satisfying. From sinister tales to twisty whodunits, Griffith’s short stories deliver as much spellbinding suspense as a full-blown novel.

Got a serious bibliophile on your list? Tick that box with one of these titles.
RomanceRomantic SuspenseParanormal RomanceContemporary Romance

Long live the amnesia plot

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells

With The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells, Rachel Greenlaw offers a haunting romantic fantasy. After a decade away, English artist Carrie Morgan returns to her hometown of Woodsmoke. She had reasons to run, including her family’s witchy reputation. But her grandmother left Carrie her cottage, and she decides to refurbish it before selling the property and leaving again. The lure of the mountain town is almost as irresistible as Matthieu, a handsome stranger who offers his help with the renovation. However, Carrie’s Great-Aunt Cora, the keeper of the family’s book of spells, is convinced Carrie is headed for heartbreak: Morgan lore tells of magical, beautiful strangers who appear out of the mountains as winter begins, but disappear with the spring. Told in alternating viewpoints, the story follows Carrie, Cora and Carrie’s best friend, Ivy, as they confront their pasts and find love. Readers will lose themselves in this engrossing, atmospheric and emotional tale.

Pictures of You

Twenty-nine-year-old Evie Hudson awakens in a hospital with no memories past the age of 16 in Pictures of You by Emma Grey. Evie’s youthful voice lends a Freaky Friday/13 Going on 30 vibe to the beginning of the novel, but the can’t-look-away plot is ultimately much more serious, and the tone soon changes to match. Evie struggles to integrate what she learns of her recent past with her teenage vision of who she would become. Then an old friend, Drew, reluctantly steps in to help her discover why she broke ties with her family and best friend. Grey jumps back in time to fill in gaps for the reader, and Evie’s tale becomes darker and ever more riveting as layers are peeled back and sacrifices revealed. There’s nonstop drama and surprise after surprise in this twisty tearjerker.

Perfect Fit

A couple re-meets-cute in Perfect Fit by Clare Gilmore. Josephine Davis runs her own clothing company in Austin, Texas, and is shocked when her largest investor hires business consultant Will Grant. Not only is Will the twin brother of Jo’s ex-best friend, but the pair also made out as teenagers. Can they work together even though they haven’t spoken in nine years? Gilmore writes in a fresh, modern voice, and fills the world around Josie and Will with cool friends with cool jobs and cool attitudes who support their burgeoning romance. It seems impossible for them not to end up together . . . if only they can overcome their insecurities and act like the adults they are now. Fun food, fun drinks and fun parties put this squarely in the rom-com lane, with an added coming-of-age element thanks to Josie’s first-person perspective.

Emma Grey’s Pictures of You highlights everything that’s great about one of romance’s most soapy tropes.
Mystery & SuspenseMysteryHistorical MysteryCozy Mystery

Inspector Gamache, John Rebus and Bruno Courrèges are back—and they’re all in top form

Feature by Bruce Tierney

A Grave in the Woods

The typically unflappable Bruno Courrèges is annoyed. While he was on medical leave, his position as chief of police was taken over by an overbearing new hire, and she has no intention of vacating it until he has been cleared to return to service. Moreover, she has lectured him regarding his general untidiness and inept record-keeping. For the time being, it is better for everyone concerned if Bruno beats a hasty retreat to somewhere else, anywhere else. So, for A Grave in the Woods, Martin Walker’s 17th installment in the popular series, Bruno is tasked with investigating (wait for it . . .) a grave in the woods. Three bodies are in the grave, all dating back to World War II: two German women and one man, an Italian submarine captain, oddly distant from his expected undersea context. Oh, and while we are on the topic of water, Bruno’s hometown of St. Denis—a sadly fictional village in the Périgord region of France—is bracing for an epic, climate change-fueled flood. The dams have held thus far, but it’s getting dicey. As Bruno digs deeper into the grave situation (sorry), questions dating back some 80 years are unearthed. Thus, there is perhaps more history than mystery in this episode of Bruno’s adventures, but there is nothing wrong with that. There is plenty of what readers come to St. Denis for: the food and wine; the camaraderie; and of course, Balzac the basset hound, surely one of the most engaging four-legged supporting characters ever to grace the pages of a mystery novel.

Midnight and Blue

Wow, you miss one book in a series, and the protagonist transforms from the number one cop in Scotland to a prison inmate. As Ian Rankin’s latest mystery, Midnight and Blue, opens, John Rebus is cooling his heels in the slammer. His crime: attempted murder, which is under appeal, but the wheels of justice are turning slowly. At first, he is incarcerated in the relatively safe Separation and Reintegration unit, where prisoners in danger (such as ex-cops) are assigned, but he is soon to be rehoused in the general prison population, in part thanks to a safe-passage guarantee from Edinburgh’s reigning crime lord, who credits Rebus for his ascent to the underworld throne. When a murder takes place in a nearby two-person cell, Rebus’ detecting instincts bubble to the surface, although he must be somewhat more circumspect than if he was out on the streets. In a parallel narrative, Rebus’ onetime colleague Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl, a case that will come to have a tangential—or perhaps more than tangential—connection with the aforementioned prison murder. Author Rankin is in top form as he reinvents his flawed hero by having him navigate an equally flawed milieu, in what must be one of the most original locked-room mysteries ever.

Murder Takes the Stage

One of my favorite plot devices for a mystery—or really any sort of novel—is the revisiting of a familiar tale through the perspective of a different character, such as Gregory Maguire’s retelling of the Cinderella story, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Colleen Cambridge has mined this vein exceptionally well with her series featuring Phyllida Bright, housekeeper to Agatha Christie. This time out, the Christie entourage moves to London for Murder Takes the Stage, in which one of the author’s stories has been made into a West End play. Unfortunately, however, an actor whose surname began with the letter A turns up dead at a theater beginning with the letter A. Then, the body of an actor playing Benvolio is discovered at a theater beginning with a B. You can see where this is going, right? It’s a clever and delicious spin on one of Christie’s better known works, The A.B.C. Murders. Exactly one year ago, I opined that Cambridge’s previous installment in the series, Murder by Invitation Only, “straddles the line between historical fiction and intricate, Christie-esque suspense quite well, without the cloying cutesiness that can sometimes plague mysteries on the cozier side of things. And Phyllida Bright is simply a gem.” I stand by that assertion 100%.

★ The Grey Wolf 

An old legend tells of two wolves that battle inside each of us: a black wolf that represents anger, greed, arrogance, resentment, envy and ego; and a gray wolf that represents kindness, generosity, compassion, empathy, love and hope. Which one will win, you may ask? The answer is simple, yet profound: The one you feed. The Grey Wolf also serves as the title of Louise Penny’s 19th entry in her critically acclaimed series featuring Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sureté du Québec. The Grey Wolf is far and away Penny’s most ambitious novel to date, landing Gamache and his team squarely into the middle of ecoterrorism on a scale hitherto unimaginable in typically tranquil Canada. But as data begins to trickle in, it becomes apparent that the plot’s tentacles are farther reaching than anyone could reasonably have predicted, involving an order of Québécois monks who have taken a vow of silence, the highest levels of the Canadian federal government and even the Vatican. Equally troubling is evidence suggesting that key members of the Sureté may have been compromised, leaving the core team of Gamache, Beauvoir and Lacoste twisting in the wind as the stopwatch ticks away the minutes. The Grey Wolf is 432 pages long, and I read it in one sitting, because I could not put it down.

Plus, Colleen Cambridge gifts readers with another clever mystery starring Phyllida Bright, housekeeper to none other than Agatha Christie.

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