I’m not sure what it is about the winter months that has publishers releasing so many Mysteries and Thrillers- maybe the cold and dark atmosphere of the days? Whatever it is, there are several books out recently that will please fans of those genres.
True Crime is all over the media these days- popular podcasts, multi-part documentaries, and the three major networks with their popular 20/20, 48 Hours, Dateline series. Stacy Horn’s
The Killing Fields of East New York combines true crime with investigative journalism.
East New York in Brooklyn was once a thriving tight-knit community in the 1960s. In 1968, President Johnson passed the Housing and Urban Development Act which was intended to help low-income families of color become homeowners.
What actually happened was that banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt city and Fair Housing Authority officials saw an opportunity to take advantage of the program and low-income people of color, which ended up decimating East New York. Their greed and white-collar criminal activity left East New York with abandoned buildings and empty lots.
Horn details the steps that led to the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history and destroyed a vibrant community, leaving poverty and violence in its wake. It’s a powerful read.
On the fiction side, Joseph Finder’s newest thriller is The Oligarch’s Daughter. Billed as a cross between “Succession” and “The Americans” , this heart-pounding book tells the story of Paul Brightman, who is hiding out in a small New England town under an assumed name.
Six years prior, Paul was working on Wall Street when he fell in love with Tatyana, a photographer- and the daughter of a Russian oligarch, a fact she hid from Paul. Several U.S. intelligence agencies were interested in Tatyana’s father, which means they became interested in Paul as well- and so were the Russians.
When Russian operatives discover Paul in New England, he must go on the run and unravel a conspiracy with deep roots in the government. If spy novels are your go-to reads,
The Oligarch’s Daughter should be on your To-Be-Read list.
Scott Turow brings back a favorite character from his earlier popular novels- former prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Presumed Innocent) returns in Presumed Guilty. Rusty is now 70 years old and living in rural Michigan with his younger soon-to-be wife Bea.
Bea has a 20-something son Aaron, whom she and her previous husband adopted when he was a baby. Aaron lives with Bea and Rusty, and he spent some time in jail on a drug charge a few years back.
Aaron has an on-again off-again relationship with Mae, a brilliant but troubled young woman. Mae has the ability to make everyone around her angry, including her parents and Aaron.
Aaron and Mae go “off the grid” camping to discuss getting married, they get into a fight, and Aaron takes Mae’s phone and hitchhikes home. When Mae doesn’t return home, her parents, including her prosecuting attorney father, blame Aaron.
There are many twists and turns in this legal thriller, and fans of John Grisham’s novels and the streaming series Presumed Innocent with Jake Gyllenhaal will want to read this one.
Alafair Burke’s new novel, The Note has an intriguing story. Three longtime friends plan a reunion weekend in the Hamptons. When they get cutoff for a parking spot, they leave a note on the car as a prank.
But the prank turns into something that leads the three friends to become involved in a police investigation, and soon one of the friends discovers something from their past that she never knew. It will have you furiously turning the pages to see what happens next.
Locked-room mysteries are having a moment in two recent books. First, cookbook writer Orlando Murrin turns novelist in Knife Skills For Beginners. Set in a London cooking school, it’s called The Maid meets Knives Out with a dash of Top Chef. Will there be a Gordon Ramsey-like character in it? Read it to see.
