Like solving puzzles? Want to know whodunit? Then mysteries are for you! Mysteries hold your hand and guide you through twists and turns, leading you to resolutions you won’t see coming, or will you? Today, mysteries are becoming more diverse, including with many women authors writing about main characters, who are also women. Here, we celebrate some of the modern queens of the mystery: Linda Castillo, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Megan Miranda. Try one of these titles, and see if you can guess what happens!
In the first of her Kate Burkholder Mystery series, Castillo introduces readers to Painters Mill, Ohio, where both the Amish and English live. Kate Burkholder returns here to become the Chief of Police, even though she tried to run from it. It’s hard enough for her to come back, let alone hunt for a serial killer stalking and murdering young women in brutal fashion. Grappling with her past in the Amish community and her current English lifestyle, will she be able to crack the case before it’s too late for her and Painter’s Mill? This book is as captivating as it is gruesome, beautiful as it is disturbing. It has the power to pull you in, making it impossible not to continue to read more in this series (14 books and counting).
Megan Miranda is turning mysteries on their heads, and The Perfect Stranger is no exception. We follow Leah Stevens, a former journalist who must quickly escape her job. She decides her best bet is buying a house with her roommate from eight years ago, Emmy, in the Pennsylvania country. That is, until Emmy goes missing. Through surprising revelations, secrets, and lies, will Leah find out the truth of what happened to Emmy, that is, if she really existed in the first place? This novel will keep you guessing to the very end – worth every minute of your reading time!
In a retelling of And Then There Were None by the matriarch of modern mystery, Agatha Christie, Howzell Hall brings readers on a trip to a deserted island with seven interesting characters that each harbor a secret. They’re lured to this island under intriguing circumstances, only to discover that they were brought here for a very different reason. The main character, Miriam, is both unreliable as she is fascinating, so much that you can’t help but look away at all that she sees on the island as they all fall down, one by one, by suspicious ways. Will she be able to catch a killer before she falls down? Brining a diverse take on a celebrated story, this novel is sure to keep you guessing until the very end.
-Kelsey B.
