A Family Affair: Crime Novels About Family

Nora O’Malley is the daughter of a con artist, and she feels compelled to escape from under her mother’s protection when her mother falls for the person she should be conning. Nora, her ex-boyfriend Wes, and her new girlfriend Iris go to the bank together to deposit money from a fundraiser, at the same moment the bank is being robbed. In a turn of events, Nora has to put normalcy aside and use some of her skills to protect those she loves the most.

How far is a family willing to go to protect the ones they love? In this novel by Herman Koch, two 15-year-old boys are connected by a terrible act that has led to a police investigation. The boys’ parents meet up for dinner, which starts off with normal, superficial conversation, until the mood changes, and you are shown the real face of each set of parents, and what they’re willing to do to protect their own offspring.

In 1920 India, Calcutta’s police force is investigating the murder of a Maharaja’s son, heir to the throne. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee are the ones in charge of the case, but they soon discover that the people they are trying to catch are not to be messed with.

At the age of 9, Mary allegedly killed a baby while she helped her mum babysit. Six years after the incident, Mary starts remembering details of the fateful evening, and with her own baby on the way, she wants to make sure she gets a chance of a future for her child, and for her life with the baby’s father, Ted. The only person who can help Mary to get to the bottom of this mystery is the person she distrusts the most, and the only other person present at the night of the death: her own mother.

Heroin has made its way into the Rosebud Indian reservation in South Dakota. It turns into a personal issue for Virgil Wounded Horse, the local enforcer, when the heroin reaches the grasp of his own nephew. Virgil and his ex-girlfriend go to Denver, to find out that drug cartels are growing at alarming rates. Back at the reservation, putting pieces together, Virgil starts to realise just how necessary – but also how costly – it can be to reclaim his own native identity.

If you like dark humour, you’ll enjoy this novel about sisters Korede and Ayoola. So far, Ayoola has taken care of (as in, killed) three boyfriends, claiming self-defense, and Korede has helped Ayoola clean the mess each time. But when Ayoola starts dating the doctor at the practice where Korede works as a nurse, she needs to act before her sister puts a knife through the man she herself is in love with.

This is another novel that touches the subject of how far parents are willing to go to protect their kids. Stella Sandell is 18 years old, and she is accused of murdering a man much older than her. Stella’s father, a pastor, refuses to believe anything but his daughter’s innocence, and her mother, a defense attorney, trusts no one. Stella thinks no one understands how far she is willing to go to get what she wants, but sometimes people pretend not to see what they don’t want to, especially when that means keeping those they love safe.

In the 1960s, Delfina and María de Jesús are two sisters who run a brothel called Las Poquianchis in Central Mexico. Their workers are kidnapped into the brothel, drugged and beaten. Ibargüengoitia tells about the discovery of the buried bodies of these young workers, and while the theme is as heavy as it can be, it is delivered in an almost sadistically funny way.

It’s been ten years since Aarav lost his mum, socialite Nina Rai. Aarav can’t remember much of the night his mother disappeared, but he is no longer a child, and he is willing to go to the bottom of the mystery to find out who killed her.

Enjoy an extra title because The Banks isn’t just a novel – it is a graphic novel, but it is also too good to be left out of this collection. This is the story of three generations, a family of Black women who love doing heists, and decide to get together for a last one. It includes thievery, drama, and revenge, with Latinx and queer representation, too.