More Mysterious Mysteries (Part 2)
Get your thrill on: #39
Fine, here’s your actual mystery - where in blazes did 2021 go? How is it mid-August? Who actually dunnit and may I write a strongly worded letter to them?
Oh, but if you’re looking for actual written mysteries, you’ve come to the right place. This week offers Part Two selections in the rarified “best of the standalone mysteries*” category (Part One of “Mysteries I Love” from last week is here). Like so many genres, there’s a real blurring between mysteries, thrillers, and just … thrilling fiction? Which is fine with me, because I’m not one of those readers who spends the whole book trying to figure out who the culprit is. Like, serve me a red herring sandwich because I will usually fall for any misdirection. (Yes, I’m gullible. Please don’t try to swindle me.)
But even if you’re an eagle-eyed, sleuthy reader, I think both last week and this week’s selections have everything you want in a real mystery: fast-paced, some danger, obfuscation and sometimes even a little bit of thinking. Perfect for your adult summer reading, which beats high school summer reading in every way, because you don’t have to write a paper about it and it’s not Heart of Darkness (which I hated). Enjoy!
*If I’m being honest, apparently the sequel to The Thursday Murder Club comes out in a month, which blows up my “standalone” categorization but which tickles my readerly heart. Plus, honestly, mystery series are so satisfying because there’s always another one to come.
Taking it back almost 20 years (yes, I know, isn’t this a cutting edge review), did you ever read The Rule of Four? A little bit Da Vinci Code, a little bit Secret History, and a fun but erudite puzzle-mystery about four Princeton students trying to decipher an ancient text when a murder occurs on campus. Truth be told, there are flashes of very self-impressed writing and plotting (we get it, authors, you’re very smart), but you can overlook those in favor of this classics-meets-college students twister.
If you love a psychological thriller, you’ll probably love The Silent Patient, about a famous painter who shoots her seemingly picture-perfect husband and then refuses to say anything ever again. Forensic psychologist Theo is determined to work with her and get to the bottom of the crime, but over the course of the book, he (and we) increasingly question what is real and what is true, and why we act the way we do. Creepy, edgy, exciting and perfectly plotted.
![Lady in the Lake: A Novel by [Laura Lippman]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F28570d48-477f-4e47-bc65-46edc662e9b4_332x500.jpeg "Lady in the Lake: A Novel by [Laura Lippman]")
In many ways, Lady in the Lake has all the elements of your typical mystery - an unsolved crime with a protagonist who gets in way too deep to their own peril. Where it stands out for me was the setting - 1960’s Baltimore, which is richly detailed and vaguely noirish - and the protagonist: Maddie Schwartz, a housewife who leaves her husband, gets a job at a newspaper, and becomes obsessed with solving the crime of a Black woman found dead in a park fountain. These two elements let the author dive deep into the racial and gender politics of the era, while also giving us a character who is deeply naive and destructive even while you root for her to solve the crime. A good one!
Okay, just about everyone I know devoured The Plot and I did too (thanks to Mary for the recommendation) - this is an incredibly addicting read about the most compelling mystery plot in the world and the person who steals the idea. Ironically, I don’t think it’s the most imaginatively plotted mystery you’ll find but what makes it terrific is the thought-provoking concept overlaying the thrill - who owns ideas? What makes something your story to tell? Where are the boundaries of fiction writing and when does something become appropriation? All questions we grapple with in current literature and art, bound up with a little crime on the side. Let me know if you read it and what you think!
As always, all links go to Bookshop.org, a better way to support bookstores than buying from the Giant Retailer of Things. Of course, you can also just buy directly from your local indie bookstore or maybe get an ongoing but giant stack of books from your local library which just happens to be next door to your office making it convenient to feed your reading and writing fix. You know. Whatever works for you.