Women’s History Month: Mystery and Suspense Novels

Celebrate Women’s History Month with mystery and suspense novels by women writers. Each of these books will keep you on edge until the final page. These novels feature nuanced characters, complex plots, and clues to the reasons the characters behave as they do. It’s been a strange meteorological winter in South Suburban Chicago. In the last two weeks alone, we’ve had temperatures in the eighties, snow, heavy rains, high winds, and tornadoes felling trees on homes. When the weather forced me inside, I escaped the howling winds by falling into the suspense and intrigue of these mesmerizing stories. 

Guide Me Home: A Highway 59 Novel, Book 3, In this, the last in the stellar trilogy that began with the Edgar Award winner Bluebird, Bluebird highlighting conflicted Black Texas Ranger Darren Mathews, Darren drinks too much, quits his job, and has a fight with the woman he wants to marry. When his estranged mother shows up with a story about a Black girl, a member of an all-white college sorority, who his mother believes is missing, Darren must decide whether to trust his mother who he thinks is incapable of truth telling. While the plot is gripping, it’s Darren’s inner demons that make this special. Reading the first two in the series isn’t essential, but it will make this one richer. Attica Locke is one of America’s best fiction writers and all her novels are exceptional. GPR, BC (Publication date: 9.3.24)

The Lost House by Melissa Larsen is a chilling Nordic noir. After an accident that leaves her fighting to get off painkillers, Agnes travels to the small Icelandic town where her grandmother is believed to have been killed by Agnes’s beloved grandfather. The unsolved murder of the famous “Frozen Madonna” memorialized with her baby draws Agnes to meet with a true-crime podcast host with the hope of clearing her grandfather’s name. When she arrives, a college student has just disappeared in the snow and could be tied to the forty-year-old case. The eerie Icelandic winter landscape infuses this page-turner with atmosphere. CC (Publication date: 1.14.25)

Marcie R. Rendon is a 73-year-old, enrolled member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Her Cash Blackbear series is set in the early 1970s along the Red River in South Dakota and Minnesota. Finding this series and Cash enlivened my winter.

Murder on the Red River: A Cash Blackbear Mystery, Book 1, by Marcie R. Rendon introduces Cash, a 19-year-old Ojibwe beet truck driver, drinker, and pool hustler who works unofficially with Sheriff Wheaton, who helped rescue her from foster care, in this 1970 tale. When a Native man is stabbed to death, Cash’s visions and ideas help solve the case. This debut offers insight into Native culture. While the abrupt ending surprised me, it made me want to read the next book in the series as soon as possible.  GPR/PP/SN, BC (2017)

Girl Gone Missing: A Cash Blackbear Mystery, Book 2, by Marcie R. Rendon, Sheriff Wheaton has arranged for Cash to enroll at Moorhead State College. School is easy for her and she can continue driving a beet truck at night while trying to figure out the disappearance of a girl in one of her classes. When her older brother, who she can barely remember, shows up with PTSD, she faces a new challenge. Cash, with her intuitive vision, resilience, and intelligence finds her way out of this new dilemma. She is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Rendon brings authenticity to Cash’s story. GPR/PP/SN, BC (2019)

Sinister Graves: A Cash Blackbear Mystery, Book 3 by Marcie R. Rendon, Cash investigates the death of a Native woman in the flooding of the Red River Valley. Finding a torn piece of a hymn written in English and Ojibwe, Cash looks for clues at a rural, “speaking-in-tongues” church where two small graves lie in the cemetery. Cash connects with the Pastor’s wife and a Native woman dies after giving birth and there’s no sign of her child. Cash’s trauma from foster care and her new vulnerability with a kind caring man make a stellar tale. GPR/PP/SN, BC (2022)

Broken Fields: A Cash Blackbear Mystery: Book 4 by Marcie R. Rendon, Cash is an emotional wreck. She’s drinking too much as the emotional effects of her childhood in foster care and a recent shooting catch up with her. Her discovery of a dead man and a young Native child hiding in a tenant farmhouse leads her into new danger. Rendon compellingly illustrates racism toward Natives via a wealthy farm wife and others. Cash and Wheaton feel like family. I adore them. GPR/PP/SN, BC (Publication date: 3.4.25)

Coming out today is Mrs. Oliver’s Twist: A Quinn McFarland Mystery, Quinn returns from her honeymoon to her job in her family’s funeral home and police ask her to identify the body of her former teacher Mrs. Oliver, but the body isn’t her teacher’s. Soon Quinn gets trapped in Mrs. Oliver’s histrionics and possible criminal connections as Quinn’s husband’s concerns for her safety build. After another body connected to Mrs. Oliver shows up, tension mounts. Clever twists make this book impossible to put down. The second in this series stands alone. CC/GPR

Coming out on Tuesday, April 1 is Heartwood by Amity Gaige, a suspense-filled, literary page-turner that begins when hiker Valerie disappears just 200 miles short of her destination on the Appalachian Trail deep in the woods of Maine. As the novel follows Valerie’s struggles, it picks up the story of Beverly, the trailblazing Maine State Game Warden heading up the search-and-rescue effort, and weaves in the insights of Lena, a wheelchair-bound Connecticut retirement community resident. This novel, like Gaige’s engaging Sea Wife, explores marriage and parental relationships. As Valerie jots down her thoughts while fighting to survive, Gaige shows the healing power of nature and community. The characters’s kindness, strength, and resilience make this a rich and compelling read. GPR/SF/SN, BC

 

California Bear by Duane Swierczynski

California Bear by twice Edgar-nominated Duane Swierczynski is my first of Swierczynski’s books, but it won't be my last. I can't wait to read everything he’s written. The mystery begins when Jack Queen, who’s served ten years in prison for a supposed revenge killing of running over a man implicated in Queen’s wife's death, is released from prison. Cato Hightower, a wild ex-cop, spearheaded the effort to overturn Jack’s conviction and Hightower expects Queen to reward him by helping him blackmail the infamous “California Bear.”

The book begins with the Bear himself ruminating: 

“The California Bear, a serial torturer-murderer who had eluded justice for close to four decades, wanted a cookie.

He really shouldn't. Not with the diabetes and all. And he knew his wife would kill him if she found out he had raided her secret stash. But what was life without the little indulgences?

The man was seventy-two years old. Back when he was the Bear, he liked to bind his victims with ligatures he found around their homes (extension cords, shoe laces, medical tubing) and beat them senseless with his meaty fists. But right now, all this man cared about was pushing aside the rows of grease-flecked cookbooks on the top shelf over the fridge to gain access to the motherlode: a family-size package of Nutter Butters—his wife’s favorite.”

Jack Queen’s only desire is to see his fourteen-year-old daughter Matilda who’s in the hospital after recently being diagnosed with leukemia. Matilda, a genius who refers to herself as “The Girl Detective,” doesn't know if her dad is a killer:

“And when the Girl Detective looked him in the eyes in a couple of days, she would ask him the question she’d been too young (and too frightened) to ask at the time of his trial:

Did you do it?

To truly believe him, however, and repair their fractured relationship, the Girl Detective would have to discover the truth for herself.”

Queen and Hightower are inept blackmailers and the California Bear seems likely to escape their “gang that can't shoot straight” attempts to get the money Hightower thinks the Bear possesses until a twist that only someone with Swierczynski’s talent and creativity could imagine takes place. 

Summing it Up:

Each character in this tour de force is unique, entertaining, and like no other you've encountered. This phenomenal, intelligent mystery has enough plot twists, engaging characters, and “aha” moments filled with both compassion and desert-dry humor to please even the most discerning reader. And that ending: it's clever, kind, and exceptional. I’m begging Mr. Swierczynski for a sequel with Matilda in the starring role. 

Rating: 5 Stars 

Publication Date: January 9, 2024

Category: Fiction, Five Stars, Mysteries and Thrillers, Sushi with Green Tea Sorbet, Book Club

Author Blog: http://secretdead.blogspot.com/

What Others are Saying:

Library Journal: https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/california-bear-1802499 

Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/9780316382977

“This book was written straight from the heart and I won't ever forget it.” Eli Cranor, author of Don’t Know Tough and Ozark Dogs 

Murder Outside the Box by Saralyn Richard

 

Murder Outside the Box is the fourth entry in the Detective Parrott mystery series that began with Murder in the One Percent. Set in the Brandywine area near Philadelphia, the mystery begins when Detective Oliver Parrott responds to a call about a baby left in a cardboard box with two bottles of breast milk on the doorstep of a caretaker’s cottage on a sprawling estate. When Parrott sees the longing in the reaction to the baby from the childless young woman who lives with her caretaker husband in the cottage, he wonders if her desire for a child might have anything to do with the baby. He later ponders whether he might be viewing the scene through his own circumstances as he has recently learned that a possible fertility problem may interfere with his wife’s and his ability to have children. 

The plot intensifies when a young woman who’d recently given birth is found dead in a remote area on a nearby estate owned by a billionaire Scotch whiskey baron. DNA evidence shows that the baby and the woman are not related and Parrott seeks clues in the breast milk left with the baby. Parrott and the forensic team supporting him engage with sophisticated tools and a clever collaborative effort to determine the identities of the woman and child and to find the woman’s killer.

Author Saralyn Richard offers convincing red herrings that add to the suspense while providing the reader with information leading to the determination of whodunit without sacrificing character development or insight into why the murder was committed. The book also shares fascinating information about fertility, DNA, and databases.

Summing it Up: Read Murder Outside the Box to follow one of my favorite characters, Detective Oliver Parrott, as he solves another mystery. Settle in on a long winter’s night to a tale that will challenge your detecting ability while offering an escape from the dreary days. Play along with Detective Parrott as he looks for evidence and clues “outside the box” to solve a murder that seems impossible to resolve.

A note: I first met Saralyn Richard on a baseball field when both our sons were young. She later moved to Texas and I became reacquainted with her when a favorite publicist sent me a review copy of Murder in the One Percent believing I would enjoy it, which I did. I share that and the fact that when I begin reading a book, I immerse myself in the characters and setting and rarely think about the author or anything else. So, when I came across a minor character, a journalist named Trina Hayes, in Murder Outside the Box, I first considered it a simple coincidence. A paragraph later, I recalled that Saralyn was the book’s author and realized that she had most likely used my name with intention. I am grateful for the honor. I also applaud her sharing information about fertility in the novel. As one of many grandparents of children who exist because of science and the team at Northwestern Medicine Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine Chicago, I am most appreciative.

Rating: 5 Stars 

Publication Date: January 5, 2024

Category: Fiction, Five Stars, Mysteries and Thrillers, Book Club

Author Website: http://www.saralynrichard.com/index.html 

Author Insight: https://blackbirdwriters.com/saralyn-richard-on-all-about-babies/ 

Interview with the Author: https://youtu.be/Up-ogLNc9g8?si=sJo_bZ8jcM5an440 

What Others are Saying:

“A masterful mystery. move it to the top of your reading list.” Avanti Centrae, best-selling author of the VanOps thriller series

“When an abandoned baby is found outside a cottage, not far from where a woman who might be the mother lies dead, Detective Parrott displays out-of-the-box thinking, as he endeavors to solve the murder and determine the baby’s parentage. Richard keeps the reader guessing while conveying the meticulous nature of police work. Reproduction and parenthood are just a few issues Parrott must deal with in the case and in his own marriage. Full of twists and surprises, Murder Outside the Box is a great addition to this series.” Debbie Mack, New York Times best-selling author of the Sam McRae and Erica Jensen mystery series

Spring Mysteries, Suspense Novels, and Thrillers

 

Spring in Chicago this year has felt like whiplash as it took us from days of sun and temps in the eighties last week to this week with a touch of snow, lower temperatures, and rain. Those ups and downs are similar to the twists and turns found in mysteries, suspense novels, and thrillers. Rainy weather calls for time inside reading. After washing the lawn furniture, cleaning the grill, and sweeping out the garage, we need books that grab us and pull us in from the first page. Mysteries, suspense novels, and thrillers do just that. Here are some delicious, newly published titles along with one that came out last year. Hard Rain and Symphony of Secrets are out today and With My Little Eye publishes next Tuesday.

*Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor is Friday Night Lights meets Ron Rash in a rural Arkansas suspense thriller portraying high school football star Billy Lowe, an angry kid who’s constantly terrorized by his mother’s boyfriend. When Billy snaps on the field, his new, born-again Christian, fresh-from-California, coach thinks he can save Billy. When the boyfriend is found murdered in the Lowe’s trailer, Billy is the prime suspect and the town’s playoff hopes may be over. This stellar Edgar-nominated debut is tough and tender. CC/GS/GPR, BC (2022)

+Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen

is a stand-alone mystery, the second in the Annie McIntyre series focusing on Annie’s new career as a private investigator when she returns to her small Texas town after college. A horrific flood destroys several homes where low-income families live. Annie’s high school classmate Bethany survived the flood after a man in a tree pulled her to safety. She fears he may have died but wants to find him to thank him so she hires Annie. Annie’s search leads her to discover a body in a car in the river and that leads to a connection to Bethany’s church. Samantha Jayne Allen has proven that she can capture rural Texas and is a master of propulsive action. Reading Pay Dirt Road, Allen’s first in the series, a book shortlisted for the Hammett Prize, will offer insight into Annie, but this sharp, twisty, suspense thriller is stellar on its own. CC

*I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai takes Podcaster Bodie Kane back to the 1990s murder of Thalia, her boarding school roommate. Bodie returns to campus to teach students how to create podcasts and one pupil finds information that could free the man convicted of the crime. Makkai’s brilliant use of a list to highlight the seemingly endless sexual assaults of young girls is reminiscent of the best work by Julie Otsuka. I couldn’t stop thinking about Brett Cavanaugh and others as I read. Makkai is one of the best authors writing today. Perfect for book clubs. GPR/CC/SN, BC

+The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda,

Ten years ago they were the nine survivors of a deadly crash killing several of their high school classmates and two teachers. They gather every year on the anniversary of the accident in a cottage on the Outer Banks. One of them died by suicide on an anniversary and Cassidy has cut herself off from them until she receives a text with the obituary of another survivor so she joins the others at the cottage. They’re down to seven when another disappears. With flashbacks to the aftermath of the wreck and multiple twists and turns, this builds to a strong climax. Megan Miranda never disappoints. CC/GS

+Reef Road by Deborah Goodrich Royce showcases Royce’s ability to infuse a story with twists that grab the reader. The plot hinges on the unsolved murder of a 12-year-old girl in 1948, but the action takes place at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when two unreliable narrators, a wife whose family has disappeared and a writer, meet. The writer befriends the wife and then stalks and spies on her. This taut, haunting thriller is both elegant and creepy. Royce is becoming a uniquely talented master of the unexpected. CC

+Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb

Slocumb follows his blockbuster The Violin Conspiracy with a tale weaving classical music and prejudice against Black scholars in the field. Frederic Delaney is Bern Hendrick’s favorite composer. Bern has devoted most of his academic career in musicology to studying Delaney’s masterpieces. The last of Delaney’s operas has been lost for decades so when the Delaney Foundation, the organization that funded Hendrick’s schooling, offers Bern the chance to work on the newly discovered lost opera manuscript, he's ecstatic. He brings in his friend Eboni, a computer analyst who’s worked on other operas, and together they find evidence of a Black woman who lived with Delaney who might have written some of his work. A clever mystery. CC/GS/SN

+With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson

is the suspense-filled tale of Meribel Mills, a former sitcom celebrity being stalked by “Marker Man” who sends her creepy, threatening letters using scented markers. She and Honor, her twelve-year-old neurodivergent daughter, escape LA for Atlanta. Could the stalker be her ex-husband, her new boyfriend, her helpful neighbor, or someone else? Jackson’s foray into suspense produces anxiety-inducing moments and memorable characters. Honor is a fabulous, multi-dimensional charmer. Kudos to Jackson for including her in this fast-paced drama. CC/GS (Publication date: April 25.)

F.Y.I.: A reader noticed that several of these authors have appeared at the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book. Five of them are Festival alums. I first encountered Samantha Jayne Allen, Megan Miranda, and Deborah Goodrich Royce at the festival. Joshilyn Jackson and Rebecca Makkai, whose books I’d previously read and loved, have also appeared at the festival. It's a great place to hear both new authors and those you already love. This year’s festival is September 22-24. 

The Best Books of 2022

I’m testing the adage “Better Late than Never” with this listing of the Best Books of 2022 coming in mid January rather than in the last week of 2022. Since there’s never a bad time for a good book, I hope these titles find you when you’re hungry for a good book. The illustration atop this post is part of a series I love called “Ideal Bookshelf” by Jane Mount. This one titled “Banned Books” seems especially appropriate this year as book banning increased in schools and libraries across the U.S. Mount’s prints are available at https://www.etsy.com/shop/janemount

All of the books listed below are also listed on my Annual List with complete descriptions of each title.

The Best Fiction of 2022:

Geographies of the Heart by Caitlin Hamilton Summie was the best novel I read in 2022 that was published in 2022.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan was the best novel I read in 2022 that was published in 2021.

The Runners-Up for Best Fiction:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Lark Ascending by Silas House

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Recitatif by Toni Morrison (1983, new release with introduction by Zadie Smith 2022)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka 

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

The Best Historical Fiction, also known as Pigeon Pie:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 

The Runners-Up for Best Historical Fiction:

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara 

Cora’s Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown

The Final Revival of Opal and Ned by Dawnie Walton

The Foundling by Anne Leary

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins Valdez

The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West

The Best Debut Novels of 2022:

Geographies of the Heart by Caitlin Hamilton Summie

and 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 

The Runners-Up for Best Debut Novels of 2022:

Cora’s Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole

Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

The Best Dessert, Happy, Pick-Me-Up Book of 2022:

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

The Runners-Up for Best Dessert, Happy, Pick-Me-Up Books of 2022:

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

The Best Mysteries, Suspense, and Thriller of 2022:

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Runners-Up for Best Mysteries, Suspense, and Thrillers of 2022:

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara 

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper (2017)

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

The Best Nonfiction Book of 2022:

Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz 

The Runners-Up for Best Nonfiction Books of 2022:

Beautiful Country by Julie Qian Wang (2021)

The River You Touch by Chris Dombrowski 

Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley Day (2021)

Up North in Michigan by Jerry Dennis (2021)

Widowland by Rachel Brougham