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I am currently really enjoying the series Ready, Set, Love (Netflix), which is a Thai dystopian romcom. It’s very much our world with the tiny blip that, because of a pandemic in the ’70s, there aren’t many males left in the population. The rare time they are born, they are taken to the Farm where they are raised, and then, as adults, a government-sponsored reality show competition uses them as bait to find a woman to marry. I don’t want to give anything away, so that’s all I’ll say, but it has a great balance of being fun and funny while also using the dystopian genre to throw up societal and governmental red flags and the importance of fighting back.
Bookish Goods
Book Lovers HB Pencil Set by Everythingcraftyuk
I’m one of those people who can’t ever have enough stationary, pens, pencils, and stickers — and I found these lovely. They’d also make a nice gift. ($13: pastel or bright color option)
New Releases
Sounds Like a Plan by Pamela Samuels Young, Dwayne Alexander Smith
For fans of PIs, dual POV, action, and romance!
Mackenzie Cunningham and Jackson Jones are PIs in L.A. who are separately hired in a missing person case. After realizing this case is unsafe, and the other has also been hired, they decide to team up to figure out what exactly is happening. They might also put their different personalities and lives aside for some making out between trying to stay alive…
There’s No Murder Like Show Murder by M.S. Greene
For fans of cozy mysteries, murder mysteries, and theater!
The community theater Eastbrook Playhouse is putting on Annie Get Your Gun (I saw it with Reba McEntire!), and they’ve brought in Broadway actors because they need to generate enough money to stop a developer. But one of the actors is really difficult and ends up being shot dead on stage. Now costume designer Tasha Weaver, who spent her teen years in the playhouse, throws herself into saving the playhouse by solving the murder — even if it means it’s one of the actors!
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Here are two wildly differently toned books with “family” in the title that revolve around a family and contain a murder mystery.
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
This is a family drama mashed with a murder mystery and a reimagining of a classic (The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky)!
The story centers a Chinese restaurant in northern Wisconsin and the family Chao — three adult sons, mother Winnie who has joined a Buddhist home, and father Leo who is awful. When Leo is presumed murdered, all eyes in the town turn to the family — especially the three sons — as suspects…
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson
For fans of remote murder mysteries, fun asides, breaking the fourth wall, and the MC being a writer!
Ernest Cunningham writes books about how to write mysteries, and he’s our narrator. He’s stuck at a family retreat and decides to explain how every single member of his family has killed someone at some point. All while there is a current murder mystery.
Bonus: there is now a sequel with the murder-on-a-train trope (traveling in Australia): Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect.
(TW recounts past child death, murder/ mentions past infertility issues/ mentions past maternal mortality/ mentions past child emotional abuse/ addiction/ suicide)
News and Roundups
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2024 releases and mysteries from 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations!
Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Litsy — you can find me under Jamie Canavés.
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