Crime-fighting families have been with us since the Hardy Boys and Trixie Belden. This fall, generations are teaming up to put away the bad guys in mysteries ranging from the cozy to the decidedly not.
Grandchildren are being summoned to help grandparents deal with blackmailers. Grandfathers are having to summon reserves of strength to save grandsons from terrible parents. Aunts are heading into the wilderness to help nieces they didn’t know existed, while small-town cops are getting assists from relatives they thought were dead. Then there’s the nephew trying to cash in on his aunt’s and uncle’s misfortunes, but we can’t all be altruists.
Truly, the level of family bonding is both high-stakes and aspirational. In our house, Easter egg hunts were about the extent of the sleuthing. We could barely get our kid to play Clue with us. (I am happy to report the classic board game makes an appearance in at least one mystery.)
Why We Wrote This
Is crime-fighting all in the family? The kin in this autumn’s crop of mysteries are caught up in everything from blackmail to homicide.
The Coopers Chase gang helps out kin
Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club is back in “The Impossible Fortune,” and just in time, too. The younger generations are in dire need of an assist from Elizabeth and the Coopers Chase Retirement Village gang. Joyce’s daughter is getting married, and the best man is afraid someone is trying to kill him for his half of a bitcoin fortune. Meanwhile, Ron’s daughter forces her abusive husband from their home at gunpoint, and the husband is not happy about it. She and her brother are trying to shield Ron from that knowledge while he’s trying to figure out how to protect his children and grandchild from his dreadful son-in-law.
At Ibrahim’s behest, convicted drug dealer Connie begins mentoring a smart and driven teen, but her job advice takes “go big or go home” to extremes that the gentle psychiatrist never contemplated. Osman knows exactly why readers love his quartet, and the fifth outing features plenty of narrative asides from Joyce, next-level conniving from Elizabeth, and the unexpected delight of Ibrahim on the dance floor. And then of course, there is page 343. I never get through one of these without tearing up. This is, however, the first time Ron made me cry.
Three generations of cops
Fans of the ABC series “Will Trent” – and to glimpse Betty the Chihuahua is to love her – take note. The writer of the books on which the show is based, Karin Slaughter, has a new series. Two girls go missing from North Falls’ Fourth of July celebration in “We Are All Guilty Here.” Emmy Clifton, a deputy, blames herself for brushing off one of the girls (the girl was crying after a fight). Emmy’s best friend, the girl’s stepmom, blames Emmy, too. Like many Gen Xers, Emmy is squeezed between caring for parents, dealing with her ex, and helping her son launch his own policing career.
The one thing she thought she was good at was her job, since she was trained by the best – her dad. Then a podcast comes out questioning whether they caught the right person, and a retired FBI profiler comes to town. Slaughter offers an intriguing series premise of three generations of family members united in a quest for justice and correct grammar. “Does no one understand possessive apostrophes anymore?” one asks, when confronted with a sign reading (alas) “The Walkers.’” But fair warning: There is nothing cozy about Clifton County. There are no adorable pups in checked sweaters here. Terrible things happen to teenagers, and police who pride themselves on their instincts are wrong in devastating ways. Slaughter keeps the predation off the page, but if you’re looking for lighthearted fun, move on to some of our other entries.
Deep in the New Zealand woods
Effie left New Zealand for Scotland as a 15-year-old and never looked back. Then, in the present day, a young girl wanders out of the bush covered in blood, refusing to speak. The girl has red hair and green eyes and is a dead ringer for Effie as a little girl. Zoë Rankin’s debut novel “The Vanishing Place” jumps back and forth in time between 2025 and Effie’s childhood deep in the woods of New Zealand’s South Island, as the oldest of four children with a father who disappears for days at a time.
The grown-up Effie, now a police officer and mountain rescue volunteer, finds herself returning to the wilderness to find out what became of her family. Was her father a serial killer, or a misguided “Mosquito Coast”-type figure? Or was there a very good reason her family members hid themselves away? Rankin builds a strong sense of dread with her parallel timelines – although she relies too heavily on reports of deaths that wind up being exaggerated. While the time-hopping takes patience, Rankin has a good command of both her rich setting and where her story is heading.
Nothing trivial about crime
In “The Killer Question,” quiz night at the pub takes a lethal turn when a trivia cheat turns up under a pier. (“Beware the orange puffer” winds up being truly prophetic advice.) An enterprising young man thinks the story of his aunt and uncle’s pub (now closed) would make a terrific Netflix true-crime documentary. And he just so happens to have access to all the evidence. Janice Hallett (“The Appeal”) writes epistolary novels, which include emails, texts, group chats, and the occasional statement to police. “The Killer Question” also features one-star reviews of local pubs and a list of every week’s competitors and trivia categories.
Our setting, The Case Is Altered, is named after a 17th-century Ben Jonson play and refers to the unearthing of evidence that completely changes a legal outcome. The slower pace may not work for all readers, but Hallett lives up to the promise of the pub’s moniker. Her fiendishly clever plot offers several twists that upend readers’ understanding of what has gone before.
Blackmail on Mackinac Island
Michigan’s Mackinac Island could almost have been purpose-built for locked-room mysteries. And author Kelly Mullen isn’t the first to capitalize on the lack of cars, abundance of snow, and so many fudge shops the air permanently smells like chocolate. But her mystery, “This Is Not a Game,” is a particularly clever outing starring a Midwestern grandmother who refused to pretend a weak chin wasn’t a warning sign and a granddaughter who is trying to reclaim her life after said weak-chinned fiancé dumped her and took credit for the Murderscape video game she designed.
Mimi and Addie haven’t talked in months, until a socialite neighbor starts blackmailing Mimi and she sends for backup. Then the socialite is killed during a charity auction at her estate (which comes complete with a drawbridge). And the snow starts piling up, leaving all the suspects having to participate in what one calls “the pajama party from hell.”
Librarians with secrets
For those who prefer found family and to be surrounded at all times by books, Sherry Thomas (the Lady Sherlock series) has written an absolute romp of a novel with “The Librarians.” A murder mystery-themed game night at a branch library in Austin, Texas, ends with two attendees dead. This is especially unfortunate for librarian Hazel Lee, who just started work that week and is already known to police in another country. Branch manager Sophie also has really good reasons not to have her background closely examined by law enforcement. The librarians are all tall and stunning, and every last one of them is hiding a secret. (Except Astrid, who is a cute little chipmunk of a person. But she, too, has a secret. And once dated one of the deceased.)
In addition to library science degrees, several of our heroes have Special Forces or martial arts training. A knowledge of antiquarian books and the ability to handle creepy patrons asking about “Fifty Shades” are also de rigueur. There are perhaps a couple of coincidences too many, but I was frankly having too much fun to care.
