Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: What’s Your Favorite Mystery?

Amanda Nelson

Staff Writer

Amanda Nelson is an Executive Director of Book Riot. She lives in Richmond, VA.

This week’s Riot Recommendation is sponsored by The Bones of You by Debbie Howells.

the bones of you“I have a gardener’s inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft-petaled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons. Children who don’t die before their parents.”

So go the thoughts of Kate, as she becomes obsessed with the mystery of who brutally killed 18-year-old Rosie in their idyllic, quiet village in England. The police investigation provokes various leads but Kate is convinced that they are missing something, something vital.

The more she entwines herself with the lives of Rosie’s parents , the more she is convinced that Rosie’s kind, loving family may not be as it had seemed just a few short weeks ago. When she begins to receive threatening anonymous notes, she believes the truth is just within her grasp – but someone will do anything to protect it.

The Bones of You is told from two perspectives. We follow Kate as she comes to terms with Rosie’s murder, but we also see Rosie’s life as it flashes before her eyes when she is killed. The suspense is powerful as we watch Rosie grow up, and see the decisions she made which led her to that point. Through Rosie’s flashbacks we discover that everyone has secrets.

But some of them are more deadly than others.

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We’re in full-on summer here in Richmond, and it’s so hot I can’t think about anything beyond where my next iced coffee is coming from. From June-August, all I want to read is mysteries: I want to be pulled along, I want the author to unwrap the whodunit like a present, I want to be surprised and terrorized and amazed. So give me (and each other) a solid summer reading list: what’s your favorite mystery novel?

Tell us in the comments below and check back next week for a reading list!