Culinary Cozy, Journalist Thrillers, and More Mystery Books + News!
It’s time for your bi-weekly roundup of mystery goodness. Let’s dive into new releases, backlist with journalist leads, and plenty of mystery news—including things to watch now and in the future!
Bookish Goods
Hedgehogs Reading Jigsaw Puzzle on etsy by OpalandJuneShop
Hedgehogs reading jigsaw puzzle for the win! $29.
New Releases
Peking Duck and Cover (Noodle Shop Mystery #10) by Vivien Chien
For fans of cozy food mysteries and holiday settings!
Lana Lee manages her parent’s Chinese restaurant in a strip mall in Ohio and somehow always finds herself on a murder case, as one does in a cozy mystery. This time around, mall manager Ian Sung is celebrating Chinese New Year with the help of the shop owners, including Lee. Things go great until a lion dance performer is murdered and an omen of death is found on him. Now Lee must once again add detective to her to-do list!
You can start here, but if you want to read the series from the beginning, pick up Death by Dumpling.
Girls Who Burn by M.K. Pagano
For fans of YA thrillers, fictional serial killers, and enemies-to-lovers!
At 18, Addie Blackwood should be thinking about her upcoming college life, but her sister died a year before, and she refuses to accept that it was an accidental fall or suicide. She has a murder suspect, their neighbor Thatcher Montgomery, and Addie’s determined to see him pay. Then Thatcher is found dead from a fall, and Addie has to team up with Seth, her childhood nemesis who she was having a one-time hook-up with the night her sister died. These murder investigations are gonna get messy!
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
You can now start watching Apple TV+’s series adaptation of Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (trailer), which stars Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. Since the lead character in Lady in the Lake is trying to make a career for herself as a journalist I thought I’d recommend two more journalist lead mysteries.
Breathless by Amy McCulloch
Like Lady in the Lake, we have a lead desperately trying to make a career in journalism.
Cecily Wong feels like she’s in a make-or-break moment in her career. This leads her to summit Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, in order to get an interview with a world-famous mountaineer. Problem? She’s not really a climber. Bigger problem? People are dying around them the higher they climb up the mountain.
The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger
Like Lady in the Lake we get a focus on two women’s lives, although in this case, both are alive.
Marina Tourneau has just married into a political family and learned that they expect her to quit her career as a journalist. Ex-NY socialite Annabel is living in Switzerland when her husband dies in a plane crash. It’s a good and dangerous thing for both that Marina is a relentless journalist.
News and Roundups
- Liberty and Patricia chat new releases on All The Books! including A Hunger to Kill: A Serial Killer, a Determined Detective, and the Quest for a Confession That Changed a Small Town Forever by Kim Mager and Lisa Pulitzer
- I Know What You Did Last Summer Reboot: Camila Mendes, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King to Star
- Kickstarter: Yellow Peril Books is an AAPI-focused community bookstore and café in Brooklyn, New York.
- Nickel Boys to Open the 2024 New York Film Festival
- 5 best shows like Presumed Innocent to stream now
- Only Murders In The Building Season 4 Key Art Teases Hollywood Storyline & Celebrates Their Guest Stars
- Peacock’s Fight Night Trailer Showcases Kevin Hart, All-Star Cast
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!
Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy — you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
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