New Mysteries to Read This Fall

10 hours ago 3

partial cover of Murder at the Black Cat Café by Seishi Yokomizo

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Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack. Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

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Good news for writers and literature in California!

There’s a new organization forming to support the literary arts throughout the state of California. It’s called The Center for California Literature, and Christopher Soto is its Executive Director and Founder. Its advisory board includes Adriana Noemí Sánchez, the Latino Community Foundation Director of Community Organizing; William Johnson, the Director of PEN America Florida; award-winning author Roxane Gay; and others. We need all the possible protections for the arts right now, so this is wonderful to see.

And now for the mystery books to read this fall. First, I feel I must begin with a bit of a disclaimer. For some, I know I may come across as a little premature in talking about fall now, especially as it may still be a little toasty in some parts of North America, but the third week of August is when I usually start gearing up for a new season. The new season being, of course, essentially the best season for readers.

The new BIPOC mystery books below will take you through the south side of Chicago to postwar Tokyo, and include everyone from chefs as amateur sleuths to legendary detectives.

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

On the south side of Chicago, Savvy Summers is running a soul food café when the 75-year-old neighborhood f-boi drops dead, and suddenly her bestselling sweet potato pie is at the center of a homicide investigation.

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki

This YA graphic novel comes courtesy of an award-winning writer and illustrator. It uses comics, diary entries, and news articles to tell the story of what happened to Wilberton Academy’s resident It Girl, Elizabeth Woodward, when she’s found dead the morning after the school’s opening night of Romeo and Juliet. Her death is ruled a suicide, but transfer student Abby Kita knows better. She was the last to see Elizabeth alive, and she knows the girl had secrets. Question is, were they enough to get her killed?

Murder at the Black Cat Café by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Bryan Karetnyk

Though this is part of the Detective Kosuke Kindaichi stories, it’s also a stand-alone mystery, full of jealousy and betrayal. It has animal death, so heads up on that.

In a Tokyo still recovering from the war, a policeman finds two bodies—a woman’s and a black cat’s—in a sloppily dug hole near The Black Cat Café. The woman’s face is so disfigured as to make her unrecognizable, and the cat is not the one that belongs to the café, so its presence only adds to the mystery. The scruffy Detective Kosuke Kindaichi is put on the case, and it isn’t long before he finds out about the café’s mistress, Oshima, and her super-secret past. What is she hiding? And what is her relationship with the owner?

Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley

The latest by Angeline Boulley, Indigenous YA author of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed, follows a teen who was put into the foster care system once her father died five years ago. Ever since then, Lucy Smith hasn’t felt at home anywhere. But then there’s Mr. Jameson, who seems truly kind, and who takes an interest in her case. He and his friend, a woman also concerned for Lucy, tell her that she is Ojibwe, and that she had a sister (“had” being the keyword here). They even tell her of a grandmother who would care for her, but she’s being followed, and the secrets she’s running from may stop her from finding the home she’s been looking for.