The Best Recent Mysteries for Your Book Club
After you’ve checked out the finalists for the 59th Nebula Awards, I’ve got some recent mystery/thrillers for you to discuss with your book club.
These mysteries will take you everywhere, from Nigeria to Japan and Ireland, and are written by established faves and newcomers alike.
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The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray
This is the final book in a popular Japanese detective series, the nature of which means you don’t really need to have read the other books. Here, a Tokyo detective reaches out to detective Kyoichiro Kaga about two cases — one involving a woman mysteriously far from home using a fake name and the other a houseless man. Turns out there is a connection to the death of Kaga’s mother, who ran away from her family and died over a decade ago.
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh
In this gothic locked room mystery, a group of friends who first met when they were teens meet up again as adults under a cloud of grief. Their friend Bea died nine years ago, and now that the group has gathered at Bea’s family’s estate to remember the good times, the story surrounding her death is questioned. And the truth will come out after they get snowed in, no matter what.
Gaslight by Femi Kayode
Here’s a murder mystery set in a place I don’t usually see with murder mysteries: Nigeria. Philip Taiwo starts working on a case based around a megachurch in Ogun State, where a bishop’s wife was murdered, and a young woman went missing. As Taiwo will soon learn, there are secrets that, if uncovered, will threaten the entire church.
The Hunter by Tana French
The Queen of Irish detective fiction is back with another Cal Hooper entry, but as with a lot of other detective fiction, I don’t think you necessarily have to have read the first in the series to enjoy this one. Here, Cal retires from the Chicago PD early and moves to the Irish countryside to find quiet. He gets the peace he’s looking for and more — he, local woman Lena, and Lena’s troubled teen daughter Trey start to form what feels like a supportive family. But then Trey’s trifling biological father, Johnny, shows up with a scheme to get rich, and everything goes south. The delicate, newly formed connections of Cal’s family are threatened by a search for gold that turns into a search for a killer.
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Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Àbíké-Íyímídé is following up her smash hit Ace of Spades with another dark academia mystery. This time, the protagonist, Sade Hussein, has just started her third year of high school when her boarding school roommate Elizabeth disappears. And, for some reason, people think she was involved. In between studying for classes, becoming close to the most popular girls in school, and trying to find Elizabeth, Sade uncovers dark secrets about what’s been happening to the female students at the prestigious academy.
Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux
I think the world would be a better place with more charming crime series that take place in Louisiana. Just saying. Here, the church-going, small-time bookie Glory overhears how her best friend has been found dead. Though police initially label the nun’s death a suicide, Glory’s doubts set her on a sleuthing path that includes a voodoo priestess, messy church gossipers, oil tycoons, and other colorful characters.
A Song Over Miskwaa Rapids by Linda LeGarde Grover
Grover shows just how close the past is to the present when mischievous Ojibwe ancestors dislodge a 50-year-old mystery by moving a rock from its slope. Now Margie Robineau is left uncovering a mystery involving two almost-forgotten crimes as she struggles to keep her family’s land out of a casino’s grubby hands.
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng
In this YA mystery/thriller, a couple of years ago, Sunday, Mina, and Candice made up an all-girl Asian American pop music group. But then a scandal leads to Mina’s death. Now, Sunday keeps tabs on Candice since the two girls have become estranged. When she sees that Candice is going to attend a K-pop workshop, she decides to go herself and finally get some closure. What she gets instead is ghostly visions, fellow competitors who are getting mutilated, and the mystery of who is behind it all.
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