Others: Overwhelmingly positive Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life in the New Forest. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he likes his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he gets home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul: she doesn’t stay still long enough for a habit or routine. She’s currently on a private island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job... Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy mean an end to Steve’s quiet life. As an iconic new detective duo is born, a breakneck race around the world begins. But can they stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
Genres: mystery
Lists: …
Richard Osman
2020 · 374 pages · 15 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveIn a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?
What made the match, strongest first
Shannon A. Chakraborty
2023 · 492 pages · 18 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveShannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, launches a new trilogy of magic and mayhem with this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artefacts and ancient mysteries, and one woman's quest to seize a final chance at glory. A pirate of infamy and one of the most storied and scandalous captains to sail the seven seas. Amina al-Sirafi has survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she's offered a job no bandit could refuse, she jumps at the chance for one final adventure with her old crew that will make her a legend and offers a fortune that will secure her and her family's future forever. Yet the deeper Amina dives the higher the stakes. For there's always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savour just a bit more power.and the price might be your very soul.
What made the match, strongest first
Peter Swanson
2020 · 145 pages · 4 reviews
Others: MixedA chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders. Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History. But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife. To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.
What made the match, strongest first
Yukito Ayatsuji
2015 · 228 pages · 3 reviews
Others: PositiveStudents from a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly multiple murder the year before. Predictably, they get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer. Is there a madman on the loose? What connection is there to the earlier murders? The answer is a bombshell revelation which few readers will see coming. The Decagon House Murders is a milestone in the history of detective fiction. Published in 1987, it is credited with launching the shinhonkaku movement which restored Golden Age style plotting and fair-play clues to the Japanese mystery scene, which had been dominated by the social school of mystery for several decades. It is also said to have influenced the development of the wildly popular anime movement.
What made the match, strongest first
Jane Harper
2016 · 392 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive"Federal Agent Aaron Falk hasn't been back to the place where he grew up in twenty years. Not since he and his father were run out of town. Even when Falk gets word that his childhood best friend, Luke, is dead, his entire family murdered, Falk still isn't planning on going back. But then he gets a note: 'Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.' And just like that, Falk is swept back into the secrets of the place and people he left so long ago. Amid the worst drought in a century, long-buried mysteries will resurface. And Falk will discover anew what he's known all along -- sometimes you have to go back home in order to finally leave your past behind." -- Back cover.
What made the match, strongest first
S. A. Cosby
2021 · 328 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveA Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance. Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father's criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy. Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itI liked how the whole thing wrapped up. I feel like the strength of the story are the characters and the connections as I've sort of spoken about previously. The mystery was good. It's not the most mind-boggling, shocking, you know, mystery I've ever read, but I would for sure read more books centering these characters cuz I find them so like endearing with each other.
Loved itYou have these two great characters that felt fleshed out and like real people with great banter between them... This story in my mind struck that perfect balance of addressing it without it feeling cheesy, making it work, and not having it interfere with the story. So, I had such a good time with this one.
