8 thrilling new mysteries for summer 2021 reading Razorblade Tears
If, like me, you’re not planning to spend much time inside a movie theater (for obvious reasons) this summer. No worries. Grab your popcorn and your lawn chair and sit outside with one of these blockbuster books instead.
Quiet in Her Bones
by Nalini Singh (Berkley)
This twisty psychological mystery is a seriously wicked take on the locked room mystery. Instead of a room, the setting is a private cul-de-sac on the cusp of New Zealand’s Waitãkere Ranges National Park. The forest rises “dark and ancient beyond the flimsy barrier” of the fence around this “cluster of quiet wealth.” There’s a fence around their lives too, one into which the narrator, Aarav Rai, a best-selling thriller writer, punches ragged holes until the truth about who killed his mother, the “flashiest member of the enclave,” is revealed.
The Bombay Prince
by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime, June
1)
During a parade in honor of Prince Edward VIII’s visit to Bombay in 1921, a female college student is murdered. Lawyer Perveen Mistry investigates with her usual measured, outspoken manner. Set against the backdrop of protests for independence from British colonial rule, Mistry takes on India’s patriarchal beliefs and more on behalf of the young co-ed. Massey’s lush descriptions and rich historical details are thoroughly transporting.
Massey will speak with Shauna Singh Baldwin during a Zoom event at 7 p.m. June 17. To register, visit boswell books.com/upcoming-events.
Bad Moon Rising
by John Galligan (Atria, June 29) Sheriff Heidi Kick is once again trying to bring some order and a semblance of law to Bad Axe County. Madison author Galligan has written another gritty, gripping addition to his series set in rural Wisconsin. Kick, as her name implies, strikes hard when she’s forced to. During a sweltering heat wave and a scorching re-election campaign, a homeless man is found dead after being buried alive. Kick must sidestep all kinds of nasty to solve the case.
Dead Before Dawn
by Paul Doiron (Minotaur, June 29)
Maine game warden Mike Bowditch plummets into the frozen Androscoggin River in a breathtaking opening scene in this gripping thriller. The rest of the novel is just as relentless in pace and plotting. As Bowditch flees across the frozen landscape, trying to hold hypothermia and gunmen at bay, he flashes back to
the events of the days before, hoping to understand why he’s being hunted.
The Hollywood Spy
by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam, July 6)
Elia MacNeal’s latest mystery featuring my favorite British spy, the valiant Maggie Hope, is an ambitious and accomplished novel. It’s 1943 and Hope is in Hollywood at the request of her exfiancé, John Sterling, a “living, breathing, battle scared embodiment of the British fighting spirit.” Los Angeles is a cauldron of racism, riots, and the rise of American Nazism. Hope navigates all of it with compassion and valor. by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron, July 6) Cosby’s second novel is a tour de force – poignant, action-packed, and profound. Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee
Jenkins are grieving fathers of gay sons who are married to each other. The couple has been murdered in Richmond, Va. Ike’s homophobia shaped his non-existent relationship with his son. Buddy Lee believes his son was ashamed of him. When the official investigation stops cold, the two fathers come together to seek revenge for their sons. Maybe justice too. Maybe.
Cosby will speak with Carole E. Barrowman during a Zoom event at 7 p.m. July 20. To register, visit boswellbooks. com/upcoming-events.
For Your Own Good
by Samantha Downing (Berkley, July 20)
Ted Crutcher teaches at a private high school out east. He insists everything he does is for his students’ own good. Think “Dexter,” not “To Sir with Love.” When Crutcher instigates a plan to punish a student for his parents’ relentless pressure to change their son’s grade, Crutcher is pitched against three students out to uncover his demented schemes with a few of their own. This is a devilishly entertaining read.
Mrs. March
by Virginia Feito (Liveright, Aug. 10) I delighted in every page of this clever, twisted debut. Mrs. March lives in an expensive brownstone in New York. Mrs. March’s husband is a best-selling novelist. Mrs. March has no first name until the very last line of the novel because Mrs. March’s identity is dissolving in front of our eyes. Feito’s fiendish narrator presents Mrs. March to readers like a fine wine, uncorked, zooming in and out of Mrs. March’s paranoia as her psyche unravels. This book is an intoxicating experience.
Carole E. Barrowman is a professor of English at Alverno College and co-author of several novels, including the “Hollow Earth” trilogy and the “Orion Chronicles.” Info: www.barrowman books.com.