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I like a story driven by a female investigaor of a main protagonist, and in this small-town mystery and More Slaughter and More Bossy Mysteries I listened to this story as an audiobook. For other mysteries I've read and Bossily reviewed, please check out the titles at this link .

I've been continuing my cold-weather mystery-reading habits, and Lisa Jewell is always a good bet for More Mystery Love Lisa Jewell is also the author of The Family Upstairs , None of This Is True , and You might want to check out the lists and titles at this link for more Bossy mystery reviews.

There aren't significant subplots, so this is a straightforward-feeling story, a sort of "mystery light

investigators who reinvent methods of finding their culprit in a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery I believe I heard about this book in a roundup of mystery novels recommended by national security agents Bossy Love for Mysteries The next installment of this series, Inside Man , was recently published. For other Bossy reviews and mysteries I've loved, please check out the books at this link .

Harpman's slim novel poses a mysterious situation without promising concrete explanations. My friend Amy suggested that I read this one, and Harpman's slim novel is mysterious, eerie, and strange

playful tone and clever main protagonist in Olivia Waite's science-fiction novella make for an appealing mystery In Olivia Waite's slim science-fiction mystery, Dorothy wakes up...in a body that's not her own. In this outer-space-set mystery, Dorothy must figure out who's behind the destruction and how to save

Brown's dual-timeline debut novel concerns 16th-century prophecies and a modern-day murder mystery, linked

It's nominally a mystery, but it's mainly a heartwarming story about determination and honoring old loyalties We track back in time to her youth as pieces of the mystery are revealed. The story is nominally a mystery, but more so a tale of a pony who is thwarted at nearly all of its headstrong

This romance-laced mystery centered around a podcast and its host's disappearance includes some far-fetched-feeling been highly involved in the management of the podcast (and Benny and Joy's finances), go missing under mysterious When the full extent of the secrets and lies at the heart of the mystery are revealed, some of them feel Another mystery that invoves a podcaster is the great novel Listen for the Lie .

The author of the fantastic Wrong Place, Wrong Time is back with a smart, twisty mystery that's wonderfully Famous Last Words  is another smart, twisty mystery from Gillian McAllister. I loved this smart mystery that relies heavily on character development and mental agility for our narrator

Count me in for Irish-set novels--and for suspenseful, mysterious-past stories that hint at darkness, When she was old enough, Sarah ran from an emotionally cold childhood in Michigan and mysterious circumstances I also love a story involving a character's mysterious past, and I love a suspenseful story that I'm

sometimes running over) the local police chief to try to find a missing teen and untangle past unsolved mysteries In book two of the Martini Club, the mystery at hand--a missing teen--draws in local citizens as well

The second book in the series takes big swings with two large-scale mysteries (one that is hauntingly That first book was a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery. The two mysteries feel gigantic, with extensive ripples and effects. More Mystery Books to Check Out John McMahon is also the author of Head Cases , the first in this mystery And for more mysteries I've reviewed, check out these lists and titles .

The third in the Cal Hooper series is a slow-burn mystery in which Tana French serves up deep character That brings me to this third and final Cal Hooper mystery, which provides more of all of it: more details The Keeper is an almost 500-page slow burn mystery. After a time the mystery is no longer a mystery; the main unknown is which form the community's renegade But I love a mystery that leans into character development, and The Keeper delivers wonderfully on that

I hope you'll also check out the books on my first Greedy Reading List of Six Fantastic Dystopian and The tone of Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth was unlike any fantasy novel I’ve read, and the friendships

A mystery surrounds a deadly moment, and the book ends with a hopeful, imperfect, heartbreaking way forward story of young love blossoming, then shriveling under the first pressures of the outside world; it's a mystery

He's a fantastic character I loved. This great book by C.A. also want to read Carey's The Boy on the Bridge, which is a standalone book in the same series, is fantastic

Solid Mystery and Suspense Reads These six four-star mysteries are all so good and so different--they I'd love to hear about your favorite mystery reads! 01 The Witch Elm by Tana French A Tana French mystery is usually a pretty good bet for me, and I plowed settings are exquisitely wrought, with stark, rugged, lush landscapes serving as the backdrop for a mystery It isn't a police procedural; this is a starkly beautiful book that happens to be a mystery.

In the first book of Blake Crouch's haunting mystery trilogy, secret agent Ethan Burke tries to grasp plans for Wayward Pines--while trying to avoid being killed by murderous small-town vigilantes or by mysterious reeling--was to locate two missing federal agents who were dispatched a month earlier to investigate a mysterious Theresa's mysterious encounter with an odd man makes it even more clear that time is not passing in a

Smith was inspired by the real-life Victorian England case of a cockney impostor attempting to wrest an inheritance from the nobility, but I was most captivated by the unmarried, aging, complex character of Eliza and how she found unorthodox avenues by which to find fulfillment. What really interested her in it all was the presumption. Of recognition, of respect, of attention itself. Why did he assume such things as his due? Was this what men assumed? My friend John convinced me to read this, my first Zadie Smith novel, and I'm so glad he did. In her first historical fiction novel, Smith offers a Victorian England tableau featuring a wonderfully complex female character in Eliza Touchet, the unmarried, aging housekeeper, cousin, and confidante to the terrible but prolific, well-to-do novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. Smith builds a subplot from the real-life, much-publicized case of the Tichborne Claimant, in which Arthur Orton, a cockney butcher, returned from an extended stay in Australia and attempted to lay claim to the Tichborne family fortune, insisting that he was a long-lost noble son much changed by his time away--and with the actual Tichborne heir's former slave as his key witness. Along with the nation (which in real life was captivated and divided by the case), the novel's disparate characters become obsessed with the court proceedings and whether the man professing to be the heir to a title and fortune might possibly be the actual man after all--or whether the former slave standing up for him has been coerced or convinced of a falsehood. But I was far more interested in the character of Eliza and the shape of her life. Her voice and point of view are sometimes testy, often incisive, and at other times diminished--a product of the limitations of single women in that time. She becomes intent upon advancing racial equality, but is hamstrung by her sex, her financial dependence, and her unmarried state. She plays housekeeper and is a mother figure to her cousin's children--while he behaves as an unencumbered, silly, selfish fool producing work that is only coherent when Eliza is able to edit it into something workable. When she comes into a financial windfall, she dispenses with it in an unorthodox, secret, wonderful fashion that serves to advance her cause for two specific young children of color--a limited but effective measure for a woman with few freedoms and little agency. I found Eliza irresistible. In The Fraud , characters lie to themselves. Men drink and show themselves to be privileged fools. Women pick up the pieces, creatively fashioning avenues in which they may achieve what they wish within the significant confines of Victorian expectations. The title refers to the impostor butcher Arthur Orton, but also applies to the failed, grasping author, Eliza's cousin William. In the story, much of the populace lines up with the pretend heir, against all known facts and likelihood, clamoring for his recognition and wailing about injustices and being wronged by the snobbery of the elite. The situation parallels in haunting fashion with the modern-day rejection by factions of our society of facts, sense, and reality; of negating science and evidence; and of dismissing educated, indispensable, trained experts and their knowledge. More from Zadie Smith Zadie Smith is also the author of the novels White Teeth , The Autograph Man , On Beauty , NW , and Swing Time , as well as essays and short stories.

Taylor Brown offers up a suspenseful, adventure-filled story in Wolvers. Trace is an angry young man who sets out on an ill-advised, illegal revenge journey, but he's not the only wolf tracker in the New Mexico forest. He's starting to rethink his mission and be headed toward a fresh start--if he can survive that long. Trace Temple is a disillusioned, angry young man whose family lost its ranch after hard times. Then Trace, a gifted tracker who knows the woods better than almost anyone around, is hired by a shadowy, powerful militia group to take out One-Eleven, the female leader of the most famous wolf pack in New Mexico, the Dark Canyons. But One-Eleven is uncannily gifted in eluding human pursuit, and Trace is far from the only outdoorsman in these woods. And the longer Trace tracks One-Eleven, the more he begins to second-guess everything about his life. This is an outdoor adventure story that explores tensions between the preservation of nature and development, and between power and vulnerability. But it’s also layered with elements of redemption, love, unlikely loyalties, and character growth. I was surprised by Trace's slow, powerful transformation and by the arc of this beautiful story. I loved this book. The wilderness setting and suspenseful story reminded me of Peter Heller’s books like The River, The Last Ranger, and The Guide. I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. Taylor Brown Bossy Adoration I'm a huge Taylor Brown fan. Check out my Bossy reviews of his novels Rednecks, Wingwalkers, The Gods of Howl Mountain, and Fallen Land, a title I loved and included in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War.

Angie Kim's sophomore novel is a mystery, but Happiness Falls is primarily an exploration of a complicated Kim's missing-person novel is a mystery and is structured around the discovery and exploration of what I was totally hooked on the mystery aspect and the delving into Eugene's potential communication.

The mystery bookends feel largely unimportant to the story, the cast of characters sometimes feels endless overlap, and their challenges intersect when a young boy is taken from the community, culminating in a mysterious The mystery that bookends the story is not essential to the novel. By the time the story ended, I had forgotten about the mystery's brief introduction at the beginning

community and the emotionally closed-off former FBI agent and current police chief trying to solve the mystery

I love a frigid setting, and Rene Denfeld's The Child Finder immerses the reader in an icy, wild forest as instinctive, savvy, and haunted private investigator Naomi Cottle seeks the truth about a young girl's disappearance. This book is dark and beautiful, with such expansive descriptions of the mountains, the closed-in forests, and the traps and dangers of the winter and the wild that I could almost feel the cold. The elements that feel potentially familiar or could have felt overused from use in other stories (a tough, closed-off investigator, broken by her past; a strong, kind man’s singular, devoted but unrequited love for her; the general outline of the disturbing situation at the heart of the book’s main case) are cushioned by Denfeld’s skillful setting of the scene and lovely shaping of the story. This was a fast and engrossing read. There's a second book in this Naomi Cottle series, The Butterfly Girl , which I haven't yet read, and Denfeld also wrote The Enchanted , which I found haunting and arresting, as well as Sleeping Giants . I mentioned The Child Finder in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer . More missing-person stories If you like unlikely heroines and missing-person plots, you might also like Before She Disappeared . And check out this link for more Bossy reviews of novels with missing-persons plots.

Historical Fiction Mysteries I adore historical fiction and mystery books, and I love the intersection Something about detailed settings from the past just sets off a mystery beautifully for me. Here's a greedy reading question: What other historical fiction mysteries should I read? I’m glad the circumstances of what led to the mystery—yikes! The Jackaby story is dark, mysterious, and feels Gothic, yet there's humor too.

When his sister tries to solve the mystery of his death, she and her own unlikely companion unravel secrets neat fashion at the close of the story, but I didn't mind because of the justice being served and the mysteries

Six Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Mystery Reads If you want more favorite-mystery lists, check out round 1 Reads I Loved Last Year and Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year. You can click here for other mysteries I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. And here's a link to my Greedy Reading Lists featuring mystery titles. What are some of your favorite mystery reads?

This third book in McManus's young-adult mystery series keeps the surprises coming, ties new twists into I listened to this third installment in Karen McManus's young adult One of Us Is Lying mystery series Over the course of the past two books, the Bayview Four solved mysteries and established their own innocence Knox from book one--along with other old favorites and some fresh faces--in a new set of intertwined, mysterious someone unexpected comes to town, our sleuths realize that not everyone is who they say they are; old mysteries

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a historical fiction art-focused mystery told in two timelines wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos) offers a gorgeously wrought historical fiction mystery The mysterious appearance of what seems to be a Juliette Willoughby original, followed by a tragic death You can click here for lists of more historical fiction novels and historical fiction mysteries I've

Rachel Hartman's young adult story follows irresistible, hardheaded, wonderfully faulted Tess as she breaks from rigid medieval gender roles in favor of adventure and discovery. It's captivating, sometimes weighty, and often playful, but never silly. She felt like she was seeing with two different eyes: an eye full of stars that still saw the romance, and a new eye, one she'd acquired while walking, an eye full of... It was full of fire, she decided. Her second eye saw the flesh of this story burned away, held the bones up to her own story, and saw the injustice. In Hartman's Tess of the Road, Tess doesn't fit the mold of an obedient, quiet young woman in her medieval kingdom of Goredd, where men rule the land and each household within it. Without airing out all of the family's dirty laundry, let's just say that this time Tess has really taken things too far for fine society, and she's not a young lady who can be subdued. So Tess's family decides to send her to a nunnery. But Tess has other plans. On the day she's scheduled to report for the beginning of her cloistered life, she cuts her hair, pulls on walking boots, and runs away, determined to craft a life for herself outside of the narrow parameters set upon her. Tess's long-held ability to get into trouble leads her on an adventure of a lifetime. Tess is irresistibly faulted and headstrong; she is full of wonder and desperate for adventure; she is pushing at the edge of the disappointingly limited possibilities for young women; and she finds herself increasingly frustrated, then furious, about the double standards, injustices, and power inequality between men and women. There are various complex serpent- and dragon-like creatures within the story, and the longtime, unorthodox friendship between Tess and a dragon-adjacent creature (called a quigutl) helps root the story. Yet the heart of this book is based upon timeless issues, a search for justice, and pushing traditional boundaries. There's a "woman dresses as a man to escape gender limitations" trope; the story emphasizes loyalty, duty, and bravery; and there's some dabbling in faith issues as well as feelings of disillusionment related to certain religious conventions. Tess experiences unexpected, touching, and never-cheesy romance. We witness some of Tess's sobering realizations about the dark truths in the world--as well as her sometimes overly simplified, bull-headed, endearing insistence on interjecting herself to try to help others...or advance her own interests. Hartman's 521-page story is immensely satisfying. Tess of the Road is playful yet never silly. The story zigzags in an appealing way through phases of Tess's young explorations. The tale is full of captivating discoveries of all kinds while also addressing deep issues about gender, power, and possibility. It addresses female empowerment within the frustrating constraints of the time, laying out some hopeful, plausible baby steps toward progress. I'm excited to read the sequel. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rachel Hartman is also the author of the Seraphina series. The second book in the Tess of the Road series, In the Serpent's Wake, was published last month. I can't wait to read this one!

But the year-old mysterious disappearance of Kim Gillespie, a young woman from the area, hooks Falk and Exiles was the right mystery at the right time for me.

#youngadult, #mystery 02 The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly ​ In Meredith Tate's newest book, Ivy #youngadult, #mystery, #siblings 03 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder ​ It's been years since a local young As Khayyam eagerly discovers more of Leila's mysterious history, she begins to grow and change in this #youngadult, #mystery, #series Any young adult mysteries you've enjoyed lately? Where was this embarrassment of young-adult-mystery riches when I was actually a young adult?

Solid Mystery and Suspense Reads These six four-star mysteries are all so good and so different--they I'd love to hear about your favorite mystery reads! 01 The Witch Elm by Tana French A Tana French mystery is usually a pretty good bet for me, and I plowed settings are exquisitely wrought, with stark, rugged, lush landscapes serving as the backdrop for a mystery It isn't a police procedural; this is a starkly beautiful book that happens to be a mystery.

The mystery of the book centers around a post-war haven for soldiers mentally and physically harmed by But the mystery takes a back seat in the book to Maisie's explorations of human motivations, her interest Check out this Greedy Reading List for Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You.

Janice Hallett's The Twyford Code explores a mysterious potential connection between a teacher's disappearance But he's got a hunch that the mystery of the code in deceased author Edith Twyford's largely condemned You can find reviews of mysteries I've read and enjoyed here.

The gothic story King Nyx offers haunting imagery, sinister mysteries, unreliable memories, resurfacing imagery of King Nyx is striking, with (oddly specific and elaborate) automatons, gas masks, looming, mysterious until she realizes that all of the events on the island seem to be the mastermind of an unhinged puppet master Meanwhile mysteries from Anna's experiences in the Fort household seem held together by crucial gaps

Nell has left her a book of dark fairy tales by the reclusive Victorian author Eliza Makepeace, who mysteriously Morton is masterful at weaving together several timelines, rich family history, intriguing discoveries , an overarching mystery, and a female protagonist who discovers she's made of stronger stuff than she felt like a Secret Garden (a book I was obsessed with as a child) for grown-ups, with intertwined, mysterious

This is another whodunit winner from Wendy Walker: a character-driven mystery with a neurodivergent main But it becomes clear that Clay was in deep with some seedy characters, and key elements of the mystery wonderful, character-driven suspense that keeps me hooked as she guides the reader through a twisty mystery

ICYMI: Morton offers a strong historical fiction mystery, with assumed identities, dual timelines, twists A hundred and fifty years later, a young archivist, Elodie Winslow, is drawn to the mystery. I’m glad the circumstances of what led to the mystery—yikes! I mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You

two timelines, a decades-old tragedy, and a modern-day descendant's discovery of her family's link to mysterious There are two mysteries surrounding the Turner Tragedy: the whodunit aspect and the unexplained disappearance This is a long (it's almost 550 pages), winding story with complicated connections and mysterious motivations Morton's story explores secrets, loyalties, mysteries, and the complicated matter of family--those you

melded into another: young friendship, serial killer, outlaw search, small-town intrigue, and longtime mysteries There are deep betrayals, long-term mysteries, and, finally, many revealed truths (some of which you

Six Four-Star Bossy Mystery Reads Doesn't the cold winter feel like the perfect time to cozy up with a mystery that hooks you with its twists and turns? Here are six of my favorite mystery and suspense reads of last year--with another list to come! A couple of these are historical fiction mysteries, one was jointly written by two authors, one was set And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your favorite mystery reads?

The mystery of what happened to the man is a subplot that winds through the story.

In Eason's science fiction mystery, an unlikely pair who get on each other's nerves work together to Eason's science fiction mystery Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, a templar, Iari, and a spy, Gaer, have Iari and Gaer band together to solve the mystery of a murder committed by a riev, a decommissioned battle-mecha And I was wholly charmed by the rievs (former battle robots) who mysteriously show sentience and surprising Eason is also the author of the On the Bones of Gods fantasy series.

This first book in Sherry Thomas's gender-flipped Sherlock Holmes mystery series offers not only an irresistible makeshift situation in which she is able to solve puzzles, use her quick thinking, ask questions, and solve mysteries Sherry Thomas also writes young adult fantasy books as well as historical romances.

Desolate settings, mysterious deaths, darkness, hauntings--Halloween, here we come! In Things in Jars, Jess Kidd offers a creepy, dark mystery tale gloriously steeped in details of Victorian Oh, and a mysterious, dangerous, but tragic child-creature-mermaid necessitates detective work and a by Allison Saft I adored the romantic setup and seemingly ill-fated attraction in Saft's young adult fantasy-mystery But the great young adult fantasy elements are all in place here: magic, healing, a defiant main protagonist

dialogue, an unorthodox partnership, will-they/won't-they tension, and the solving of dark Victorian-era mysteries characters, and dialogue that makes me laugh out loud--all set against the backdrop of a Victorian-age mystery In this fifth book of the series, Veronica and Stoker become involved in a mystery involving a house this as an audiobook, which is wonderfully narrated, as the rest of the series has been, by Angele Masters Beginning, the first book in Deanna Raybourn's feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical fiction mysteries

In this installment of Veronica and Stoker's Victorian England mystery-solving, they enter a sinister Beginning, the first book in Deanna Raybourn's feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical fiction mysteries a tease, and dialogue that makes me laugh out loud--all set against the backdrop of a Victorian-age mystery And ahem, there's also a mystery to solve. It wasn't my favorite of the series mysteries thus far, but I enjoyed the dark, gothic feel of twisting

Finlay dips her toe into a criminal underworld in the second in Cosimano's campy mystery series. Various misunderstandings during a publishing meeting about Finlay's upcoming mystery novel result in her receipt of a mysterious note implying that Finlay is involved in something sinister--and offering Cosimano is also the author of the young adult mystery series Nearly Gone, the young adult fantasy series