| Better the Blood by Michael BennettAuckland, New Zealand: Māori police detective Hana Westerman juggles job pressure, her teen activist daughter, and an imminent divorce from her cop husband (though they've been separated for years).
The past is prologue: Hana connects two new murders with the 1863 execution of a Māori chief by British colonizers and realizes there's a serial killer at work.
Author buzz: New Zealander Michael Bennett is an acclaimed Māori writer and filmmaker, and Better the Blood is his riveting, thoughtful debut crime novel, the 1st in a planned series. |
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| Everybody Knows by Jordan HarperCover-ups: Crisis manager Mae Pruett helps Hollywood's elite when they are down but not quite out. After her boss is murdered, she reconnects with her cop ex to investigate, but even cynical Mae is surprised by what they uncover.
Reviewers say: "A mesmerizing whodunit" (Kirkus Reviews); "don't be surprised if this utterly compelling thriller...is the noir of the year" (Booklist).
For fans of: gritty, atmospheric Los Angeles novels, like those by Walter Mosley, Rachel Howzell Hall, Michael Connolly, and James Ellroy. |
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| Now You See Us by Balli Kaur JaswalAll for one: When one of their own is arrested for murdering her wealthy employer, three Filipina domestic workers in Singapore, who vary greatly in age and personality, team up to prove the woman's innocence.
Why you might like it: Combining humor, heart, and timely social issues, Now You See Us has memorable characters and an intricate plot.
Read this next: If you'd like a cozier novel set in the island nation, pick up Ovidia Yu's Singaporean mysteries; or, while it's more literary fiction than mystery, try Christy Lefteri's Songbirds, which movingly depicts amateur sleuths searching for a missing domestic worker in Cyprus. |
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| Paris Requiem by Chris LloydParis, 1940: Police detective Eddie Giral tries to do his job under the Nazi occupiers he hates, but that gets more difficult when he is assigned a complex case involving a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Meanwhile, an old flame reappears wanting his help.
Reviewers say: "superbly atmospheric...oozes moral ambiguity" (Booklist).
For fans of: the 1940s Paris settings in crime novels like Mark Pryor's Die Around Sundown and Cara Black's Three Hours in Paris; or Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther mysteries, starring a World War II-era German detective. |
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| The Golden Spoon by Jessa MaxwellBake week: At the Vermont estate of "America's Grandmother" Betsy Martin (a cookbook author who's maybe not as sweet as she appears), a 10th annual televised baking contest begins, complete with white tent, six contestants, and a young new male co-host.
Sabotage and more: Someone substitutes ingredients, leaves a fridge door open, etc., and then adds murder to the menu.
Is it for you? If a traditional country house mystery mixed with The Great British Bake Off makes you salivate, you'll love this fun concoction. |
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| The Raven Thief by Gigi PandianStarring: Tempest Raj, a former stage magician who helps her dad run Secret Staircase Construction in their charming California hometown.
What happens: A client has a mock seance to symbolically rid her house of her ex-husband -- but then his body mysteriously appears during the event and the cops suspect Tempest's beloved grandfather of murder.
Who it's for: This 2nd in a series will entertain fans of classic author John Dickson Carr with its impossible crime plot as well as readers of Mia P. Manansala's Tita Rosie's Kitchen mysteries, who'll enjoy the close-knit family and small-town setting found here. |
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A Kid's Eye View of Crime
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| Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa AnapparaStarring: Jai, a nine-year-old fan of crime shows who turns detective when his classmate disappears from their unnamed Indian slum, plus the two friends he charms into helping him, Pari and Faiz.
Why you might like it: Main narrator Jai is cheeky and endearing and the other characters are engagingly complex; their poverty-stricken neighborhood is full of life; even though the book deals with tough social issues, the writing is witty, descriptive, and warm.
Book buzz: Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line was also a New York Times Notable Book. |
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| The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan BradleyIntroducing: 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison who lives in a small English village.
Summer 1950: Flavia spends her time tinkering in the old chemistry lab in her family's rundown manor house and plotting revenge on her annoying older sisters. But when a dying man is found in the cucumber patch and her father is named a murder suspect, she turns detective.
Series alert: If you enjoy this most charming of series debuts, which is sure to please fans of traditional mysteries, there are nine more novels. |
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| A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley CashWhat it is: a lyrical, award-winning Southern noir set in 1980s North Carolina and narrated by nine-year-old Jess Hall, middle-aged Sheriff Barefield, and elderly former midwife Addie, who's always trying to protect the children.
What happens: Tragedy strikes at a snake-handling church with an ex-con preacher, leaving Jess's mute 13-year-old brother dead.
Reviewers say: "As lean and spare as a mountain ballad... An evocative work about love, fate and redemption" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| All That's Bright and Gone by Eliza NellumsStarring: precocious six-year-old narrator Aoife Scott, whose mother had a breakdown at a Detroit mall; Aoife's imaginary friend, Teddy; and her neighbor, eight-year-old budding detective Hannah.
What happens: With her mom hospitalized and her Uncle Donny staying with her, Aoife's determined -- with help from Teddy and Hannah -- to sort out the mystery of her older brother's disappearance years ago.
Who it's for: This delightful first novel will please fans of young detectives as well as general fiction novels with juvenile narrators, such as Emma Donoghue's Room. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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