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5 Recommended Christmas Mysteries

December 11, 2022

Christmas is around the corner, and if you’re a reader who likes to theme your reads to the season, today’s blog post is for you! I honestly never used to read crime novels specifically themed to particular holidays, but last year (for I think the first time in my reading life?!) I intentionally read a couple of Christmas mysteries during the Christmas season… and I absolutely loved it. Today I wanted to round up 5 mysteries I personally love that all involve Christmas—but this blog post has a little twist! Today’s recommendations are organized by how much Christmas actually factors into the book’s plot. Ranked from Christmas level 1 - 5 (with Level 1 being Christmas in the background of the story, and Level 5 being a full-on, 100% Christmas-y plot!), this list will help you find your perfect Christmas season mystery read!

CBTB’s Recommended Locked Room Mysteries

February 19, 2021

It’s one of crime fiction’s oldest tropes, and one of its most perennially-appealing, too: a group of individuals find themselves locked in a hotel (or on an island, or in a house… you get the idea!), a murderer in their midst. Who among them is the killer? The locked room mystery is an unfailingly entertaining crime fiction subgenre. Clever plots, impossible solutions, red herrings a plenty—there is so much to love about books that fall into this category, and they’ve been a longtime favorite for me ever since I began reading Agatha Christie novels back in the day! With the recent popularity of locked room-style mysteries including THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley and THE SANATORIUM by Sarah Pearse, I’ve been receiving more requests than ever for a blog post dedicated to my personal favorite locked room mystery recommendations. Well, the day is finally here! I’m thrilled to share my list of Recommended Locked Room Mysteries with CBTB readers today. From Nordic mysteries to modern-day twists on the genre to classics and more, I hope that every reader will find a little something to catch their eye in today’s blog post.

Wintry Mysteries & Thrillers for Your End-Of-Year TBR

November 24, 2020

Winter is the perfect time to cozy up with a crime book. For me personally, my holiday break from work is always my time to dig into some slow-burning and immersive detective novels—there’s nothing more blissful to me than a quiet morning cozied up under a blanket, sipping some coffee, and reading a murder mystery while the snow falls outside. If that sounds like your idea of a perfect winter morning too, today’s blog post is for you! In today’s blog post, I’ve rounded up a whole bunch of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels with wintertime vibes for your end-of-2020 reading list! Whether you’re in the mood for chilling psychological suspense, Nordic Noir, or a good old fashioned detective story, there’s a little something for everyone in this reading list. (I’m even sharing one of the books I bought for myself this year at the end of the list, too!) So grab your coziest blanket, put on a pot of coffee, and dig in to find your perfect winter read.

Book Review: EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson

February 29, 2020

What makes for the perfect murder? If you’re as crime fiction obsessed as I am, it’s probably a question that’s popped into your head once or twice in the context of the murder mysteries you are devouring. I’ve been a mystery reader since I was a little kid (I owe a debt of gratitude to Carolyn Keene and Nancy Drew for that!), and over the years certain books - and certain murders found in the pages of those books - have stuck out as “perfect.” In Peter Swanson’s EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS, fictional crimes become a blueprint for real-life violence. Following the owner of a mystery-dedicated bookstore in Boston, EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS imagines what happens when a person with a desire to do harm gets his or her hands on a guide to some of the most infallible murders in the crime fiction genre. Will these crimes prove as impossible to solve in the real world as they are on the page? In his newest release, Swanson delivers a shocking, addictive mystery with a classic crime twist. EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS is a love letter to the crime fiction genre. It’s a story steeped in genre history and present-day in-jokes, and it’s one that no crime fiction reader will want to miss. I haven’t had this much fun reading a crime novel in ages. Put on your amateur sleuth hat and join Peter Swanson on this delightfully nostalgic, utterly clever journey through the greatest murders in crime fiction.

Book Review: DEATH IN THE FAMILY by Tessa Wegert

February 8, 2020

Show me a “locked room”-style mystery, and I’ll show you a book I simply have to read. Luckily for me (and, I suspect, for many of you!), Tessa Wegert has crafted an utterly irresistible modern-day mystery that is deeply indebted to the great “locked room” puzzles of the past. In DEATH IN THE FAMILY, a complex protagonist - a female police officer who has just moved out of the big city to escape a recent trauma - is called to a private island where a crime has occurred, and the favorite grandson of a wealthy matriarch has gone missing. Investigators descend on the island, and find themselves smack in the middle of a complex web of family secrets and hidden motivations. When a nor’easter descends, the investigators are trapped on the private island with their suspects--and a killer on the loose. DEATH IN THE FAMILY has all the best elements of Agatha Christie-inspired crime fiction: a clever puzzle, a cast of eccentric characters, and a moody atmosphere. But this is not just a Christie homage: it’s also a smart, decidedly modern crime novel that puts a woman’s inner fight with past trauma front and center. This immersive, engaging murder mystery will fill the Agatha Christie-sized hole in your heart, and in your TBR list.

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