Books shelved under “Mystery”

Well ain’t this just the purdiest little novella you ever did see? I came across Tread of Angels at my library and was excited to see a new title from Rebecca Roanhorse. I love the premise and love that it is a mystery and, in some ways, a tragedy. In other words, this was a perfect distraction for a day.

Celeste is half Fallen, meaning she is descended from those who rebelled against Heaven back…

The downside of a book about a delicious pastry is that it made me want to eat pastry! Nancy Mauro is a dangerous temptress with The Sugar Thief. Set primarily in Mauro’s and my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario, this novel is a mystery wrapped in the warmth of family and iced with the frosting of betrayal and recrimination. It asks us what happens when people go to any lengths to establish the life…

Sometimes truth is more interesting than fiction. Sometimes fictionalizing the truth—books based on a true story, if you will—helps highlight true stories that have yet to receive their due. History is seldom boring. The Rose Code is that type of historical fiction. Set primarily in Bletchley Park during the Second World War, this book is not about the genius of Alan Turing or Dilly Knox. It’s about love and sex and betrayal. Kate Quinn follows…

What if you could take your feelings of sorrow, hurt, grief, loss, etc., and surrender them up? And if, in turn, the person to whom you surrendered these feelings could use them to nourish a beautiful, if capricious, garden? That’s what In the Shadow Garden explores. Liz Parker’s dark romance thriller, set in a small town in Kentucky, is about what we do with our worst memories. But it’s also about friendship, family, and who…

Truly I wish I had got my act together to read the eARC I received from NetGalley and Wednesday Books well before publication day so that I could then reread the copy I pre-ordered from my indie bookstore! Alas, procrastination got the better of me, so I dipped into the ebook the weekend prior and then finished I’m the Girl in all its hardcover glory. I braced myself for devastation, and I was not disappointed.…

Virtual reality in all its various imaginings always holds attraction for us. The idea that we can enter the world of dreams is as old as dreaming itself—many Indigenous cultures privilege the dreamworld and use it as a source of stories and even wayfinding. The Extractionist joins a very long line of science-fiction novels, then, that contemplate what happens if you get stuck in a dreamworld or virtual reality. Kimberly Unger imagines a world where…

Every once in a while, I dip my toes into a science-fiction thriller, like I did with Constance. The Paradox Hotel is another such blend of mystery, science fiction, and tension, but this time instead of human cloning, we get time travel! The question at the heart of Rob Hart’s story is actually asked by an artificially intelligent drone: why do humans deal with pain by lashing out at others?

January Cole is the…

Although I read fewer murder mysteries these days than I did in my youth, I still have a soft spot. Add in the allure of an alternative world in which Europeans never colonized what we call North America, and … yeah, I’m into it. The Peacekeeper is both a satisfying mystery and a thoughtful work of science fiction, and as such, it works for me on multiple levels.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher 47North for…

As I reflected in my recent review of Children of Time, I’m not really in the mood for grimdark science fiction these days. I get that humanity is facing yet another existential crisis, this time thanks to climate change, and that this makes authors eager to write about us evacuating the planet and whatnot. But I just find it so bleak, and I yearn for hope. So when I first heard about Arkhangelsk…

Ever read a book where the middle is the best part? Weird, I know. Usually we criticize a book for having a middle third that drags before the action picks up towards the end. But in the case of Constance, this was my experience: the first and final thirds of this book were fine but somewhat unremarkable; the middle third, on the other hand, was a fascinating exploration of the human condition. Overall these…

What feels like a long time ago, I read a book called The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Now she’s back with a standalone sequel of sorts, The Witness for the Dead. You don’t need to have read The Goblin Emperor to read this book: the protagonist, Thara Celehar, was a character in the first book, but otherwise there is no real connection between the two. This is an entirely different story—or rather, stories…

Have I ever remarked how much I appreciate books that have simple titles? Book titles can sometimes be so lengthy or convoluted. I appreciate the simplicity of each of the titles of C.L. Polk’s Kingston Cycle. Also, how did I not know Polk is Canadian until now?? Get a grip, Kara! I am pleased I procured Soulstar from my library not too long since I read Stormsong because I actually remember the ongoing story!

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As with many books, if you have good copy you can often hook me early. Far from the Light of Heaven promises a kind of locked room murder mystery aboard a sleeper ship far from Earth. Tade Thompson delivers on this premise in most senses of the word, and overall I enjoyed the book. Yet there are enough rough parts to the novel to make me hesitate to shout its praises or pick up a…

Every so often I run into an author who is good but who doesn’t click for me personally. Sometimes I enjoy specific works of theirs but don’t enjoy others. Sometimes I like their style in general, but their books start feeling very similar and less exciting. In the case of Ann Leckie, it seems like I’m just not all that interested in the stories she has to tell. I appreciated the skill evident in Ancillary…

Apparently 3 years was too long to wait between reading Witchmark and Stormsong because I have forgotten pretty much everything that happened in the first book, oops! As I started Stormsong, I was very confused: who are all these people? Who are the Amaranthines, and why do they care about Aeland or Laneer? What’s going on? Nevertheless, I did my best to forge on and trust that C.L. Polk would do their best to…

I don’t really know what I just read. The Accident Season is a supernatural YA thriller that purports to have a mystery at the heart of it. Yet the deeper we go into the story, the more that mystery unravels into almost a bait-and-switch. Populated by the barest hints of ghosts, fairies, changelings, and other such spirits, this book tugs at your brain in a pleasing way, but I’m not sure, in the end, it…

Empire of Wild is a supernatural thriller that combines the legend of the rogarou with a woman’s search for her missing husband. But it would be a mistake not to recognize that this is also a story about colonialism, about European/settler ideologies clashing with Indigenous ideas of hearth, home, and connection to one’s community and the land. Just as The Marrow Thieves showcases how settlers can go to any length to extract and exploit resources…

This was one of those books where I was afraid it would not live up to the hype, because people I follow on Twitter have not been able to stop talking about it. Fortunately, Cemetery Boys lived up to the hype—perhaps even exceeded it in some ways—and I went from being apprehensive about possibly not liking such a popular book to being really happy I took this chance. It’s great as a trans story, great…

When I learned after finishing this book that Kimberly Unger is a video game designer, much more about this book began to make sense. Nucleation is a science-fiction novel that wants to wow you with its video game–like aesthetic—this is a novel that craves the label of cinematic for its descriptions of how its protagonist virtually manipulates robots in another star system in high-stakes, high-pressure situations. Nevertheless, even if such moments capture your attention (I’m…

From women writing subversive TV now to women inventing time travel! The Psychology of Time Travel is a quirky part mystery, part love story. As the title suggests, Kate Mascarenhas focuses more so on what it would be like to be a time traveller rather than on the social, historical, or future repercussions of mucking about with a timeline. Along with bringing up the usual questions of free will versus determinism, etc., this book seeks…