Fun Mysteries for a Long Weekend!
YWR #128
Yes, IT IS I, blasting into your inboxes on a Friday! It’s like I’m calling without texting first! Pure sociopathy!
Why have I broken this sacred Sunday newsletter compact that you didn’t know we had? Two reasons:
In the States, we have a nice long weekend wherein many of us celebrate the labor movement by not working, and I thought maybe you’d want some reading suggestions for said non-work. #solidarity
I know you don’t open this newsletter on long holiday weekend Sundays. I only have to learn that lesson 8 - 10 times before I try to change it up.
But MOSTLY the first one. And I love me some fun mysteries - it might be the most frequent genre I share here (see exhibits A, B, C and who am I exhaustively listing out exhibits, Fani Willis? You can check the archive for many, many more.) I love a murder that’s off-page rather than in your face, I love some witty banter with our sleuthing, I love memorable character building. And I especially love this for a long weekend where you want to read something but it probably isn’t a treatise on our crumbling democracy or 13 volumes on the stoics, though, you know, more power and so on.
So let’s get to it so you can visit your local indie bookstore or download it from your Libby app in time for barbecues or college football or the first snappy scents of fall!
Sidebar - is it a testament or a shame to my person that whenever someone mentions a serious book they’re reading, they reflexively say,"it’s not a book you’d read”? Whatever. We can read serious books AND fun mysteries, people. We contain multitudes. We can do hard things!
Power summary: Church-goer, Louisiana bookie, and heavyset woman of a certain age Glory Broussard finds herself investigating her best friend’s death when everyone but her is convinced it’s a suicide. The deeper Glory gets in the world of oil tycoons, voodoo, and the local gossips, the more dangerous it becomes.
Why I loved it: Longtime readers will know that Glory Be was written by my dear friend and your co-newsletter reader Danielle. That’s not the only reason I loved it. And you will love it because of the irrepressible character Glory Broussard. Funny as hell (when she’s not trying to be), maddeningly obstreperous, devout while also living a life of casual crime, she bursts off the page and you’ll wish she was … well, if not your friend, then someone you could sit with at a wedding and really get the tea.
The Louisiana setting sings here with perfectly lived-in details, from the drive-through drinks to the Halloween parish festival (a nice change of pace from, like, Baltimore police precincts). Plus just the right amount of crime and tension for a cozy mystery. And if you don’t believe me, trust legendary New York bookstore The Strand, which has chosen it as its October Mystery of the Month, from the all the mysteries that are mysterying in the whole month! (yes I am a proud friend.) For fans of Flavia de Luce or The Thursday Murder Club.
Confession: Glory Be is actually not available until October 3rd, meaning you’ll have to read it for the Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day long weekend. And for two lucky newsletter readers, I personally will pre-order you a copy to be delivered on pub day. Just heart, comment, or respond to this newsletter and you’ll be eligible to win. You won’t be sorry.
Power summary: Widowed teashop owner Vera Wong lives a lonely existence until the day she finds a dead body on her shop floor with a flash drive in his hand. Convinced that she can do a better job than the police, Vera sets out to solve the case, while bringing together a community in the process.
Why I liked it: I mean, it hardly matters if I like Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, because everyone from Mindy Kaling to Reese Witherspoon to probably Barack Obama loves this, it’s very popular. Nevertheless I did enjoy it - Vera’s a fun character and I’m a sucker for a “bring together a disparate group of people” kind of mystery (see: Anxious People.) I didn’t think this was such a great mystery (there weren’t enough characters to really keep you guessing and the stakes were never really that high) and maybe it was the tiniest bit condescending to an older character? But it was cute - warm and lighthearted.
Power summary: Ever since mystery writer and divorced mother of two Finlay Donovan accidentally got mistaken for a contract killer, she’s been embroiled in danger. In the third installment of this series, a local mob boss to whom she owes a favor has asked her to find the real contract killer - or else.
Why I liked it: I know we’ve talked about the Finlay Donovan series before, but this is unusual in that I think it’s actually getting better as the series goes. If Emily Henry wrote a murder series, it would be this, where there’s as much development of Finlay’s relationship with her nanny and friend, Vero, and of her smoldering, dangerous romance with a police officer, as there is of the crime and the plot. Witty, a little madcap, tense when it should be, with kids and family constantly popping up at the most inconvenient times. I’m officially a fan.
A MacGuffin of Thoughts
All links this week go either to the Mysterious Bookshop in New York, self-described as “The World's Oldest Mystery Fiction Specialty Store,” or to Kramer’s Bookstore in DC (recommended by David R., thank you so kindly, David!) Because we stan an indie bookstore. Don’t forget to send me your indie bookstore faves for future newsletters.
All lambs this week are, as usual, representative of the Gentle Lamb Emotional Index. Almost all the books reviewed in my newsletter series are recommended, but will they break your heart? Only the lambs can say for sure.
All other recommendations from 127 past weeks can be found in the archive, along with romances, memoirs, non-fiction, sports books … you name it, kittens, you can probably find it in there. (And if you can’t? Tell me what you’re looking for so I can create a newsletter just! for! you!)
All of you in the US, have a nice long weekend! All of you not in the US, have a nice regular weekend! And I’m taking a cheeky little vacation in the coming weeks, so you’ll have to store up all your book thoughts for when I get back. (Oh wait, no, that’s what I have to do for you. Very well, challenge accepted.) See you on the flippety-flip, reading friends!
Sign me up for Glory Be!