Get Me Out of Here!

I must admit, I’m not typically a mystery reader. I’m impatient and I scare easily, which makes a genre that often features violent deaths and long solving processes difficult for me. I’ve found solace, though, in locked room mysteries, where the why and the how of the crime is often more interesting than the who. Book Riot defines locked door (also called locked room) mysteries as “a crime is committed with no possible way for a murderer to get in or out of an area, or a locked room. But the beauty of the genre is in the details, and the writer provides the reader all the clues they need to solve the case at the very beginning, layering in evidence and red herrings in expertly plotted mysteries that keep readers guessing.” If you loved Knives Out or even the classic Clue, take this as your push to pick up a locked door mystery book and get solving!

As a former Teen Services Librarian, the best way for me to start a genre is with a YA title. I’ll admit that this one is more of a “mystery where there are a lot of locked rooms” than a locked room mystery per the definition, but I’ve been obsessed with The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Barnes since it first came out and the three (and counting!) more in the series have been just as good. It’s pitched as a YA Knives Out, set in a mansion filled with more twists and puzzles than you can possibly take in on the first read. Avery Kylie Grambs is living a difficult life as a high schooler when Texas billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and Avery is left his massive fortune—never mind that she’s never met the man. The catch? To collect her inheritance, she must live in his mansion with his disinherited family, including four very attractive, very smart, and very competitive grandsons, for a full year. Is Avery the final piece of the eccentric man’s last puzzle? Read it and find out!

Kate Racculia’s Bellweather Rhapsody was described as “part ghost story, part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part love sonnet to music” by Library Journal. If that doesn’t draw you in, I don’t know what will! Minnie Graves was the witness to a murder/suicide in room 712 at the Bellweather Hotel on the couple’s doomed wedding night. 15 years later, Minnie returns to face her demons, but the disappearance of a high school music prodigy from the very same hotel room sets off a new mystery.

Cozy Mysteries of the Magical Variety

In the wake of Halloween, All Saint’s Eve, Samhain, and Dia De Los Muertos, there’s quite a bit of magic lingering in the air. The leaves have turned, the weather is harsher, and the nights are chilling. Many peoples view this time of year as the time to honor their ancestors as the veil between this world and the world of the dead is thinner. We are in the liminal time between seasons as the days grow shorter and winter readies its cold, cold breath here in the PNW. The harvest is complete and we are ready to tuck in for the long, dark nights ahead. Cozy mysteries are a prefect genre to tuck in with: light and fluffy with little violence, no gore, and big hearts centered on community. If this sounds like your cup of tea, here are some very magical cozies to cozy up with this liminal season.

Samhain Secrets by Jennifer David Hesse is the perfect book to read this time of year. It touches on the sabbat of Samhain, a Wiccan celebration that coincides with Halloween, which often includes the honoring of ancestors. New junior partner Keli Milanni is disturbed to hear of her free-spirited aunt’s seeming disappearance, she is intrigued. Then a body is found in the woods and her missing aunt’s secrets come to haunt her in more ways than one. This is the 4^th book in the series, but it’s ok to read them out of order.

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon is a light mystery featuring African-American classical musician Dr. Gethsemane Brown who takes a teaching gig at a school in Dunmullach, Ireland after a major career letdown. With a delightfully creepy old house and a snarky ghost who wants his murder solved, this is a pitch-perfect first-in-the-series that continues with Death in D Minor.

Fall Into Reading: Beyond Halloween

The leaves are crunching beneath our boot heels, the sweaters are coming out of the corners of our closets, and cozying up with a book goes along with this season like a warm fire and fuzzy socks! Fall into the season with these reads celebrating all the various festivities the season has to offer!

The Progress of a Crime: a Fireworks Night Mystery by Julian Symons

After witnessing a murder of a local tavern owner on Guy Fawkes Night (Nov. 5), Hugh Bennet has trouble remembering what took place as he attempts to write the story for the paper. It doesn’t help that the witnesses aren’t very reliable as none can actually recall seeing the stabbing itself. Combining classic sleuthing with a concerned inquiry into troubled society, this 1960 crime classic by the grandmaster Julian Symonds is an excellent commentary of the Autumn of the year, and of the 20th Century.

#BookBingoNW2021: Mystery and Crime under 250 pages

As Summer Book Bingo 2021 comes down to the wire (deadline: Sept. 7), you may be looking to maximize your remaining reading time. To that end, here are a selection of mysteries that clock in under 250 pages, for rapid reading. Feeling more leisurely? Check out our longer list of suggested mystery/crime novels.

A guide to exploring new genres

Each year, groups of librarians from across the country hole up in a room (this year, a virtual room) to discuss and select the best books from the year before. The Notable Books List features literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; the Listen List is all about outstanding audiobooks; and The Reading List, which I want to tell you about today, highlights outstanding genre fiction in eight genres: Adrenaline (aka thrillers, adventure stories), Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, and Science Fiction.

While each genre has a winner, it also has a four-title shortlist of runners up. Taken together, the five books in each genre represent a range of the types of stories a reader can find in that genre, with the idea that both longtime fans and folks new to the genre can find a title of interest. If you are looking to branch out into new areas of fiction reading, it is a great place to start. Check out the 2021 winners (for books published in 2020) below, with annotations from the ALA Reading List Council, or in our catalog.

Adrenaline

The Holdout by Graham Moore
Ten years after Maya Seale convinced her fellow jurors to acquit a man of murder, a true crime documentary reunites the jury amid claims of new