Mystery and True Crime

A young police officer, Shea, is sent undercover to infiltrate a small college town where three freshman girls have disappeared without a trace. Shea herself is an immensely sympathetic protagonist who just survived another undercover case, which left her with PTSD and a distrust of her male handler, who doesn’t seem to care about her well-being. Written by a retired cold case homicide detective, this standalone mystery is a remarkable, superbly paced police procedural that kept me on the edge of my seat and is an ode to female strength, loyalty, and friendship. 

Tantalizing, dreamy, fresh, and absorbing, the newest installment of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series will be a welcome escape for Laurie R. King fans this summer. Set in the Riviera in the Jazz Age, Riviera Gold features real-life power couple Sara and Gerald Murphy, legendary hosts of many a sparkling party for the Lost Generation, as well as a fascinating cast of players. Longtime readers will love the dive into a familiar character’s past (never underestimate the white-haired ladies!), King’s enthralling portrayal of Holmes, and the clearheaded Russell’s continuous curiosity. 

Wright cowrote a 1998 movie about extremists attacking New York City. With his new novel about a viral pandemic, you might think he’s prophetic. But the real trick is that he writes about what’s most likely to actually happen, researches how it might play out, then writes a book. I’m afraid he isn’t a master of character in fiction, but he does have a heroic scientist trying to save the world and a president who is going to let it go down the drain. That’s pretty realistic. And I still think we should airdrop this to every home in Santa Cruz County.

Wendy Lesser obsessively read Nordic noir for four decades, which created a rather skewed representation of the Scandinavian countries in her imagination. To rectify her misconceptions, Lesser, for the first time in her life, set out to travel to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to talk to police officers and regular citizens alike about the culture that led to the birth of such a unique and internationally renowned genre. A mix of rigorous literary criticism and travel writing, Scandinavian Noir is a love letter to mystery books and a statement of the literature’s power to make state borders porous and even obsolete. And for those who are new to Nordic noir, Lesser provides a long list of book recommendations—all of which I, for one, am adding to my TBR.

Kate Aitken, a former journalist who has fled her native New York in order to archive the personal effects of the famous artist Miranda Brand, does not expect to become obsessed with the enigmatic woman and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death. Kate begins to uncover Miranda’s hidden secrets, secrets that contradict Miranda’s image as a rebellious feminist icon. Although the book is a psychological thriller about a potential murder, its most hair-raising aspect is the inability of the female characters to control their own stories, to seek relief from their demons, even to escape scrutiny. In Take Me Apart, Sarah Sligar implies that life in America is full of traps set for women, and it is the lucky ones who make it out alive.

Bronwyn Crewse inherited an ice cream shop from her grandmother and wants to bring it to its former glory, but a construction delay means opening her shop when the town is buried in snow. Ever the entrepreneur, Brownyn decides to collect said snow for an ice cream…only to stumble upon a dead body! A Deadly Inside Scoop hits the sweet spot with a perfect balance of ice cream shop shenanigans, amateur sleuthing, and strong family ties. Quirky and socially astute, this #ownvoices cozy mystery about a young black woman trying to help exonerate her father after he is suspected of murder is a rare treat.

The revenge narrative has gotten a bold new update with You-Jeong Jeong’s Seven Years of Darkness. This is a book driven by atmospheric setting and character development, and these features certainly deliver. The characters are endearingly flawed, and you feel for them as they attempt to right the wrongs that they have committed, and in some cases, inherited. As a reader, I was especially intrigued by Sowon, the son of a convicted mass murderer who grapples with the disparity between the loving memories he has of his father and the reality of his father’s crimes. The uncompromising yet sympathetic depiction of the characters’ moral ambiguities makes this book a one-of-a-kind read.

In 2018, NYPD robbery division detective Barry Sutton answers a “jumper” call. The woman has indeed been robbed—of her son, her husband, her entire life. She is suffering from FMS—False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious disease that makes those afflicted remember two different lifetimes simultaneously. Meanwhile, in 2008, the brilliant neuroscientist Helena Smith receives unlimited funding from a recluse billionaire to study memory to cure Alzheimer’s. Thus begins Crouch’s mind-blowing, convoluted, and surprisingly romantic science fiction thriller, which grapples with profound themes of memory, identity, and time, asking us what are we willing to sacrifice to rewrite the past—and what will remain of us if we do.