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25 of the Best Murder Mystery Books

Here's a look at some of the best murder mystery books you can read. You won't be able to put them down until you find out who the killer is!

Rey Rowland

A daydreamer and a bit of a lost cause, Rey loves stories. Whether they're book shaped or you can see them on a screen, a story always hides in the corners of her mind. She's working on a few stories of her own, always accompanied by her trusty cat.

View All posts by Rey Rowland

As I mentioned, there are endless murder mysteries out there. From the beloved and classic Agatha Christie to the more modern mysteries. There are so many murder mysteries in literature. So which are the best ones? My aim with this list is to provide 25 of the best murder mystery books you can read! Of course this list will by no means be exhaustive. But it sure is a good place to start. 

One final disclaimer before we get into it. I divided the list by classic and modern murder mysteries. The modern section covers books that have been published in the past few years — about 2018 onwards. The classic mysteries were published before that, and they are some of the most well-known murder mysteries in literature. But without further ado, let’s get right to it!

Best Murder Mystery Books: The Classics

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The setting is everything in this murder mystery. What happens when you put a Sherlockian detective, a secretive abbey in the 14th century, and murder? You get a super intriguing historical story full of twists and turns! The Name of the Rose is the story of Brother William of Baskerville who arrives at a wealthy Italian abbey that is suspected of heresy. Not long after he gets there, seven people are found dead. So Brother William takes upon himself to play detective and find out what’s happening at the abbey. 

In the Woods by Tana French

Whenever I look for murder mysteries, Tana French’s name pops up. This is by far her most popular book, which is no wonder considering the deeply psychological atmosphere that permeates the book. In the Woods follows a detective named Rob Ryan. When he was young, the police found him covered in blood in the middle of the woods. Several children went missing that day, and only he was found. Now, he and his partner Cassie Maddox are investigating a murder case that is eerily similar to his own — which gives him the chance to not only solve this murder, but to find out what happened to him all those years ago.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino

This is a book in which the case takes decades to solve. It’s rare that you get to follow murder mysteries that are also cold cases. In this case it works perfectly towards creating a suspenseful and exciting atmosphere throughout this lengthy book. It’s also one of the more popular Japanese mystery books in translation! Journey Under the Midnight Sun follows Detective Sasagaki. In 1973, he was assigned to the case of a man found murdered in an abandoned building. Soon Sasagaki hits a dead end in his investigation. But he can’t let the case go, and for the next 20 years he will continue to chase answers to the point of obsession. 

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Night Film is one of the most unique mystery books I’ve ever read. The atmosphere is extremely eerie, which is enhanced by its ergodic format! The photographs, texts, and even extra digital content really enhance the reading experience — making it super unique. The story follows a man named Scott McGrath, who becomes obsessed with the death of Ashley Cordova. Officially, Ashley died by suicide. But Scott thinks that her father — a famed director of cult movies — is involved in her death, and he won’t stop until he unearths the truth.

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon

Cozy mysteries have been around for a long time ( thanks, Agatha Christie! ) and they’ve grown and expanded into the funnest and quirkiest sub-genres. Murder in G Major stands out because not only does it feature a ghost, but it incorporates music too! The story follows a classical African American musician named Gethsemane Brown. She lands a less-than-ideal job in the Irish countryside. One which has her house-sit a lovely cottage. Except the cottage is haunted by the former owner, who was falsely accused of killing his wife. Gethsemane agrees to help him investigate — which sets the dormant killer on her trail.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

There’s no way I talk about classic murder mysteries and not mention one of Agatha Christie’s books — especially this one. And Then There Were None has one of the twistiest and most intriguing plots. It’s a “locked-room” type of murder, so everyone’s a suspect — and the thrill to figure out who did it is unparalleled! The story follows ten strangers who find themselves on a private island. They only have two things in common. First, they are all guests of the eccentric millionaire who owns the place— and second, they all have secrets they’re unwilling to reveal. One by one, the strangers start to die in an eerily similar way to the nursery rhyme “Ten Little Soldiers.”

The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Magpie Murders is a clever murder mystery within another murder mystery. It’s such a layered and twisty story that keeps you guessing until the very end! Oh and did I mention it’s a story about books? It follows Susan, a book editor who works with famed crime writer Alan Conway. When she begins reading his latest tale of murder in a manor house, Susan becomes convinced that not everything is as it seems. Plus, the last chapters of the manuscript are missing and it’s up to her to find out what is happening both in the novel and to its writer.

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

One of the things that makes this a very compelling book is that aside from a good ol’ murder mystery, Bluebird, Bluebird talks about the serious issues of systemic racism in the U.S. The story follows a Black Texas Ranger named Darren Matthews. He’s investigating a double homicide — one of the victims is a local white woman and the other is a Black lawyer from Chicago. The police have failed to solve the case, so Darren takes it upon himself to look into it. But in doing so, he’s kicked a hornet’s nest. Only by solving the case can he save his own life too.

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Next, another classic Japanese murder mystery! This one is considered a milestone in the country’s detective fiction — and is even credited with launching the shinhonkaku movement, which roughly translates to a “new orthodox” in the mystery genre. Originally published in 1987, The Decagon House Murders follows a group of university students who have a mystery club. They decide to visit an island where some grisly murders happened a year ago. Suddenly, they start to get picked off one by one. Is it a madman on the loose? Maybe. You’ll have to read it to find out!

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

The Honjin Murders features one of Japan’s oldest and most popular detectives — Kosuke Kindaichi! Yokomizo was incredibly prolific with his detective, and their journey begins with a historical murder mystery set in 1937. It all comes together to tell an exciting and unique story full of murder and mayhem. It all begins with a masked man asking sinister questions in the village of Okamura. Soon, on the night of the Ichiyanagi wedding, a body appears. The killer left no trace of his crime — except a bloodied samurai sword. It’s up to Kindaichi to solve this impossible and legendary case. Will he be able to do it?

Lay Your Sleeping Head (Henry Rios #1) by Michael Nava

Lay Your Sleeping Head is the revised version of the classic book The Little Death . It’s the first in a series following queer and Latine lawyer Henry Rios. Usually, murder mysteries involve detectives, law enforcers or amateur sleuths. But seeing things from the perspective of a lawyer is fascinating in and of itself! The story follows Henry as he begins an affair with an heir who tells him an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation. Not long after, the young man is found dead of an apparent overdose. But Henry doesn’t buy it, so he takes the investigation into his own hands — only to uncover a web of secrets that points to murder.

Best Murder Mystery Books: The Modern (2018– )

Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien

There’s a whole sub-genre of cozy mysteries that revolve around food and they’re an absolute delight to read! Despite its lower stakes, the characters are well-developed — and the mystery is very engaging too. Death by Dumpling is the first book in an ongoing series that follows Lana Lee, a woman who finds herself working at her family’s restaurant after a bad breakup and career disaster. In this book, she investigates the murder of Mr. Feng, the owner of the plaza where the restaurant is located. He died of anaphylactic shock after eating dumplings from Lana’s family’s restaurant. Because everyone knew of his allergies, the police suspect foul play. So Lana takes it upon herself to investigate and clear her name.

They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall

They All Fall Down is an exciting and more modern version of And Then There Were None — with strangers stranded on an island as they’re killed off one by one. The ending is shocking — but the less you know the better! The story follows a woman named Miriam Macy, who sails to a private island with six other strangers. They all have their secrets, ones they don’t want to see the light of day. When a storm leaves them stranded, and one by one they are murdered, the seven are forced to solve the mystery or die.

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

Historical murder mystery books are so unique and entertaining because on top of the suspense, they build this mesmerizing atmosphere that drags you into the story! Dead Dead Girls is set in Harlem 1926 and it follows a young Black girl named Louise Lloyd. She’s trying to maintain a normal life, ignoring the kidnapping ordeal she went through. She almost succeeds, except that several girls like her are ending up dead. The latest victim turned up in front of the café Louise works in — and after an altercation with a police officer she is given the choice to be made an example or help them solve the case. 

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 

Who said murder mystery books had to be totally serious? Well, they can also be quite funny — especially cozy mysteries — and this is definitely the case with this book! The Thursday Murder Club follows a group of friends who live in a retirement village and love discussing unsolved crimes. When a developer is found dead, the club puts their sleuthing skills to the test. Can the unorthodox group catch the killer? You’ll have to read it to find out!

Lightseekers by Femi Kayode

This is another murder mystery book that is more than what it seems. There’s the thriller bit, but it also does a wonderful job of talking about sociopolitical issues. Lightseekers follows a psychologist named Dr. Philip Taiwo, who is called on by a politician to help solve a horrible case. Three university students were tortured and murdered in Nigeria, and it’s up to Philip to figure out who killed them and why. Despite being more of an academic, he dives headfirst into a case that is more twisted than he ever imagined. 

Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes

The list of things to like about this book is honestly endless. It includes food, features Latine characters, and has an unconventional character that is also a mother. How often do you see that in murder mystery books? Mango, Mambo, and Murder follows food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith. She just moved to Coral Shores Miami for a new job as a TV cooking expert. But one day in a Women’s Club luncheon, one of the attendees drops dead. A second woman dies soon after — and clues point to Miriam’s best friend Alma. So in order to clear her bff’s name, Miriam agrees to help the detective solve the case.

All That Is Secret by Patricia Raybon

The Roaring Twenties is a super compelling historical setting for this murder mystery! Especially since it doesn’t take place in the usual New York. Set in Denver, All That Is Secret follows a college professor named Annalee Spain. Her estranged father just died, and she’s called back home to solve his murder. There she meets two surprising allies who might just be of romantic interest for her. Either way, with their help Annalee unravels the elite’s darkest secrets — despite it putting her in the path of danger.

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

Arsenic and Adobo is another culinary murder mystery book that will leave you craving Filipine cuisine. I mean, it even has recipes for some of the dishes the MC makes in the back! The story is exciting, sweet — and plain fun to read with the small romantic subplot. It follows Lila Macapagal, who has returned home to help out at her parent’s restaurant after a bad breakup. One day, she’s serving a nasty food critic, and her ex-boyfriend, when he suddenly drops dead. The police obviously blame Lila. Plus, the landlord sees this as the perfect excuse to kick her family out and resell the place. So Lila has no choice but to take on the case and find out who the real killer is.

Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

As I previously mentioned, murder mysteries can blend genres seamlessly. Such is the case with Far From the Light of Heaven — which is set on a colony spaceship! The story begins when Michelle — the Ragtime ’s first mate — discovers that some of her ship’s sleepers are dead. She sends out a call for help, and investigator Rasheed Fin answers it. He’s now tasked with finding out who killed all the sleepers — and he might just uncover a huge conspiracy that will have lasting repercussions for the entire Lagos system. 

The Conductors by Nicole Glover

The premise of The Conductors is so unique for a murder mystery book that I had to put it on this list! It’s a crossover between alternate history and fantasy, in which a magic-user solves crimes in post-Civil War Philadelphia. Her name is Hetty Rhodes, and she’s a former conductor of the Underground Railroad. She now solves murders with her husband in the city of Philadelphia, at least the cases which the police won’t touch. One day, one of their friends is found dead in an alley. Hetty and her husband bury the body and set out to find answers. But what they don’t know is that this case will put them face to face with the darkest secrets of the city’s elites — and their own.

The Red Palace by June Hur

June Hur is known for writing these amazing YA historical mysteries set in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea — and this is her latest release! The Red Palace follows 18-year-old Hyeon, who has managed to earn a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, but it’s not in the cards for her. Someone murders four women in a single night — and the main suspect is Hyeon’s closest friend. So she teams up with a police inspector named Eojin to solve the case, discover the palace’s secrets, and clear her friend’s name.

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

You know that trope in which a character wakes up with no memories and literal blood on their hands? There’s something so exciting and unsettling about it that it hooks you right into the story — and that’s exactly how Grown begins. This happens to a young woman named Enchanted. She dreams of becoming a singer, and as she meets legendary R&B artist Korey Fields, her dreams might become a reality. But it all comes crashing down when she wakes up the day after her audition covered in blood. Korey Fields is dead, and all signs point to Enchanted. But did she do it?

Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang

Lydia Kang is known for her historical mysteries set in New York — and this is her latest release! Her stories are always fascinating because her medical knowledge always seeps in (she’s a doctor). Plus, this one also has vampires! Opium and Absinthe is set in 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister was murdered, and she was found with two puncture wounds in her neck. Tillie is addicted to the truth, so she takes the investigation of her sister’s death into her own hands. But that’s not her only addiction — and with opium coursing through her veins she can’t tell what’s real. What really happened to her sister? You’ll have to read it to find out!

The Maid by Nita Prose

Last but not least, this is a quirky and fun book that dips into the cozy mystery genre! With an exciting case and an endearing main character, it’s one of those books you won’t be able to put down. The Maid follows Molly Gray, who has always struggled at reading social cues. Her grandmother used to help her out, but since her death Molly has been left to navigate the world on her own. So she throws herself into her job as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Things seem fine for Molly — until she finds a dead body in one of the rooms. Soon, Molly becomes the main suspect in the police investigation. With help from her new friends, Molly needs to find the real killer before it’s too late.

Want to read all about mystery books? Take a dive into our mystery archive ! It’s full of things like the best cozy mysteries , mystery books that will keep you up at night — or even the best mystery books you’ve never heard of .

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10 Greatest Murder Mystery Books Ever

If you’re a fan of a good whodunnit, there’s no shortage of fantastic options for you to choose from. 

I’ve read my fair share of mysteries over the years, and I’ve always been impressed by how versatile the genre can be. Sure, someone always dies, and someone always investigates, but mystery novels can transport you to alternate timelines, take you into the minds of frightening killers, and keep you up for hours with intensely compelling plots.

In no particular order, here are the best murder mysteries that you should consider adding to your reading list. 

Murder on the Orient Express

When it comes to mystery novels, Agatha Christie is the undisputed champion . It’d be perfectly fair to put any of her novels on this list (I’ve got a personal soft spot for Death in the Clouds ), but there’s really no better starting place than Murder on the Orient Express . The novel is a great introduction to Christie’s famous character detective Hercules Poirot, and it’s got an ingenious mystery plot. There’s a reason this one has been adapted into film multiple times. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Here’s another novel that, for very good reasons, has gotten multiple film adaptations. Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo kicks off a spectacular mystery series, introducing characters like investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist and the reclusive Lisbeth Salander. The two make unlikely allies as they investigate a cold case, and the book really digs into the procedural aspect of cracking an unsolved murder. It can be a bit slow at times, but the characters and plotting are absolutely excellent. 

A Study in Scarlet

Arthur Conan Doyle walked so Agatha Christie could run. Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson are the most recognizable detectives in the world today, but their story began with the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet . The book sees the pair solving two revenge-fueled murders, and along the way, it establishes just how brilliant and unorthodox Holmes’ methods are. A Study in Scarlet helped establish the murder mystery formula and reading it now, it’s easy to see why Doyle’s approach has been imitated for over a hundred years. 

The Girl on the Train

The best murder mysteries don’t just keep you guessing throughout the plot but also get you engaged in the personal stakes of all the characters involved. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a particularly personal story, and from the earliest pages, it’s impossible not to feel for the book’s main character, Rachel Watson. The story starts as an examination of Rachel’s alcoholism and obsession with her ex-husband, Tom, but slowly, she starts uncovering lost memories and stumbles into a dark secret. 

Sharp Objects

You probably know Gillian Flynn from her novel Gone Girl , which was adapted into a film by director David Fincher, but Flynn’s debut novel Sharp Objects is an equally well-thought-out murder mystery. The novel tells the story of journalist Camille Preaker returning to her hometown, Wind Gap, Minnesota, to report on a series of young girls who’ve been kidnapped and murdered. Being back home brings up some traumatic childhood experiences, and as Camille tries to deal with her past, she discovers that she has a personal connection to the grisly crimes playing out in the town. 

Magic for Liars

Murder mysteries tend to be wrapped up in gritty realism, but this novel by Sarah Gailey imagines what a murder investigation looks like at a school for young magic users. Magic for Liars is set at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, and when a faculty member gets killed, the school tasks a non-magical private investigator named Ivy Gamble to solve the bizarre case. Ivy dives into the mystery while navigating her strained relationship with her sister Tabitha, who teaches at the Academy. 

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is a classic hard-boiled detective novel by Raymond Chandler, and over 80 years after its first publication, the book still stands out because of its great characters and unequaled atmosphere. Philip Marlowe is a private detective who gets asked to investigate a blackmail case, but before long, the blackmail escalates to murder. Marlowe finds himself in a tangled web of mysteries, and the complex plot is entirely satisfying, even though it doesn’t answer every last question it raises. 

The Lovely Bones

Written by Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones changes up the typical murder mystery plot by telling the story from the victim’s point of view. Susie Salmon is just 14 years old when she’s brutally murdered by her next-door neighbor, George Harvey. Instead of passing on, Susie’s spirit remains on Earth to witness her family and friends become devastated by her loss, but she also sees them become deeply invested in solving her murder. Their investigation doesn’t work out as they hope, but by subverting the tropes of the genre, The Lovely Bones carves out a unique place for itself. 

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union 

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon is a spectacularly imaginative alternate-history novel and one of my personal favorite books. The novel is set in a fictionalized version of Sitka, Alaska, where Jewish refugees from World War II established a sprawling city. Meyer Landsman is a detective working on a strange murder case that takes him down a rabbit hole, which eventually unearths a global political conspiracy. Chabon is a master of genre fiction, and all his skills are on display in this one. 

Along Came a Spider

I’ve got to be honest here: I’m not really a James Patterson fan. That said, Along Came a Spider has inspired a whole series of films and more than two dozen sequels, so clearly, I’m in the minority here. This book is utterly over the top but also brilliantly plotted. Detective Alex Cross is stuck between two seemingly unrelated cases – a grisly family murder and the kidnapping of two children – but he has no idea just how deep the mysteries go. 

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Book Review: A retired small-town cop searches for missing girls in William Kent Krueger’s mystery

This cover image released by Atria shows “Spirit Crossing” by William Kent Krueger. (Atria via AP)

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Cork O’Connor, whose wife is a full-blooded Ojibwe and who is half Native American himself, retired from his job as Aurora, Minnesota, police chief a while back. He now runs a fast-food place, but when trouble comes to Minnesota’s Great North, Cork still is apt to end up in the middle of it.

In “Spirit Crossing,” William Kent Krueger’s 20th novel featuring Cork, there’s trouble aplenty.

For starters, the daughter of an influential politician is missing, and the FBI, state law enforcement agencies and the press are all over it. Oil pipeline construction is about to intrude on the wetlands of Spirit Crossing, an area sacred to the Native Americans, and the protesters and counter-protesters are gathering.

Meanwhile, Cork’s daughter, Annie, who worked as an aide worker in Central America for years, has just returned home. With her, she’s brought a Guatemalan nurse named Maria and a shattering secret she is reluctant to reveal to anyone.

The action begins innocently when Cork leads several members of his large family, including his 7-year-old grandson Waaboo (Little Rabbit) to a secret blueberry patch near an abandoned shack in the woods. As they near the patch, Waaboo discovers a shallow grave and says he can hear a sad girl’s spirit calling to him.

FBI and state law enforcement agencies descend, seizing control and ordering local authorities not to interfere. But when the body ends up being that of a Native American girl, they lose interest.

The investigation falls to Cork’s successor, Aurora Police Chief Marsha Dross, who enlists Cork and the Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. Soon they discover more bodies of Native American girls, Cork suspects they may be connected to the missing white girl, suspicion falls on pipeline workers, and someone fearful of Waaboo’s visions targets him for murder.

Krueger has no Native American blood himself, but as usual he treats native culture and mysticism with understanding and respect. His prose and character development are superb, and his vivid descriptions bring Minnesota’s north woods to life.

“Spirit Crossing” returns to three of the author’s familiar themes: the rape of the natural world in the pursuit of profit, the mistreatment of Native Americans, and, with emphasis this time, that thousands of Native American women and girls are missing and not much ever seems to be done about it.

The author puts this thought in the mouth of one of Cork’s relatives: “To be an Indian is to walk with loss. It goes before us and it follows us. It is our shadow self.”

Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.”

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New Mystery Books Newsletter - August 28, 2024

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THE MYSTERY WRITER

by Sulari Gentill ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024

A fizzy whodunit with pace, panache, and surprises galore.

The killing of a famous author turns a faithful protégé into a fanatic sleuth.

Australian college student Theodosia Benton has abruptly left her university in Sydney and moved to the United States with the intention of becoming a writer. When she shows up unannounced on the doorstep of her older brother, Gus, in Lawrence, Kansas, she interrupts a romantic moment he's having with a half-dressed woman named Pam, who beats a hasty retreat. Such rashness leads to the kind of sibling spats and banter that propel this story and make for a compellingly unpredictable protagonist. When she meets writer Dan Murdoch at a restaurant, Theo quickly manages to become his friend and avid writing student. Then Dan is murdered, and his agent, Veronica, hires Theo to find his killer, who also apparently snatched the manuscript of Dan’s latest novel. The tale presents two intertwined mysteries. First, who slew the renowned author? Second, who are all those people with quirky screen names who comment on the murder at the beginning of most chapters? This latter thread is introduced through Caleb, someone who vaguely touts the rise of something called The Shield and the revolutionary plans of its leader, Primus. Caleb’s quest to discover the identity of Primus proceeds in tandem with Theo’s. He comes to believe that Dan was Primus, but was he? Primus is just the tip of an identity iceberg that includes Space Monkey, Frodo 14, Patriot Warrior, and others. Fans will rejoice that the prolific Gentill, author of the Rowland Sinclair mysteries, maintains her record of packing stand-alone novels with devilish twists on genre conventions.

Pub Date: March 19, 2024

ISBN: 9781728285184

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Poisoned Pen

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

THRILLER | CRIME & LEGAL THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION

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New York Times Bestseller

IT STARTS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.

The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.

Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION

More by Colleen Hoover

by Colleen Hoover

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SEEN & HEARD

BY ANY OTHER NAME

by Jodi Picoult ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 2024

A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.

Who was Shakespeare?

Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name , “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024

ISBN: 9780593497210

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

More by Jodi Picoult

by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan

by Jodi Picoult

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A Review: Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers

On this episode of JetNation Radio, we give a short review of Ian O’ Connor’s new book  Out of the Darkness, the Mystery of Aaron Rodgers.

It’s a book that, while critical of Rodgers at times, at no point does it feel as there is an effort to smear the quarterback.

There is plenty of praise for Rodgers and the work he did from the time he first picked up a football, through his incredible attempt to come back early from a torn achilles tendon in 2023.

Rodgers’ well-known fallout with his family and an attempt to reconcile is discussed at length and O’ Connor did speak to Rodgers and all parties involved to piece together what transpired.  Yes, there are a some claims that led Rodgers to tell O’ Connor that he didn’t feel the writer had enough information to comment, but the author is up front about this.  He even tells his readers which stories Rodgers refuted.

It seems some expected the book to be a hit pieced designed to tear Rodgers down, that wasn’t the case at all.

Are there some portions that could have been presented differently or that didn’t show Rodgers in the best light?  Naturally, there are.

Does that mean it was riddled with lies in an attempted Rodgers take-down?  Far from it.

In the end, O’ Connor walks the reader through many of Rodgers’ greatest failures and triumphs, ending by pointing out that the NFL is a better league when Aaron Rodgers is a part of it.

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This Article Was Written By Glenn Naughton

Glenn was Born in the Bronx, New York and has followed the Jets religiously despite being stationed in several different countries and time zones around the world. He now resides in England and has been a JetNation member since 2005. Glenn will bleed green with the rest of us through the highs and lows.

This week we discusses Ian O' Connor's new book "Out of the Darkness, the Mystery of Aaron Rodgers"

Reviewing "Out of the Darkness, the Mystery of Aaron Rodgers" with a bit of wk 1 college football

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Trump Isn’t the Only One H.R. McMaster Takes to Task in His New Book

H.R. McMaster’s At War With Ourselves , a memoir of his 13 months as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has aroused much attention for its stinging criticism of the former (and, God help us, possibly future) president. But the publicity and TV interviews have been too narrowly focused. McMaster also takes dead aim at a vast cast of others who got in his way or disagreed with his views: Secretaries of Defense and State Jim Mattis and Rex Tillerson; Trump’s mischief-makers, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus; his successor, John Bolton; White House chief of staff John Kelly; and, not least, Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

The hero of this well-written and entertaining tale is H.R. McMaster himself, and its grand theme is what a great shame it was that the president didn’t take his advice more often. It is an oddly presumptuous theme for a three-star general—a hero of both Iraq wars—who was, and is, more intellectual than most of his Army brethren but who had never worked in Washington or engaged in any policy issues outside the Middle East.

During the Iraq war, McMaster thoroughly studied the history and theory of counterinsurgency warfare , then applied his learnings as regiment commander in the province of Tal Afar with remarkable success. Entering Trump’s White House, he studied the guidebooks and protocols on the division of responsibilities between the national security adviser and the various Cabinet secretaries—and thought his mastery would once again guide him to dominance.

He never grasped—and still doesn’t, not completely anyway—the vast divide between theory and reality in the minefields of Washington politics.

McMaster led teams of talented analysts in the NSC staff to write impressive documents on geopolitics, a new approach to China, and other weighty matters. Trump, of course, never read them (few presidents peruse such documents); his bureaucratic rivalries had their own priorities, which he was ill-equipped to reconcile. A deputy warns him early on in his tenure that Washington is “nothing like your experience in the military.” Here, she warns, “friends stab you in the chest.”

McMaster does emerge from his adventure with shrewd insights into the commander in chief’s failures, and it is these insights that have (rightly) boosted the book’s appeal. For instance: “Trump’s ego and insecurities” left him vulnerable to “flattery,” a fact easily exploited by Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-il, the Saudi royal family, and his own lackeys, who viewed White House meetings as “exercises in competitive sycophancy,” where common phrases included “Your instincts are always right” and “You are the only one who,” which encouraged Trump to “stray from the topic at hand or to say something outlandish—like ‘Why don’t we just bomb the drugs’ in Mexico or ‘Why don’t we take out the whole North Korean army during one of their parades.’ ”

Trump’s “lack of historical knowledge” made him susceptible to Xi Jinping’s self-serving account of Beijing’s rights to the South China Sea. The “fragility of his ego and his deep sense of aggrievement” made it particularly easy for Putin to “play him like a fiddle.”

Still, McMaster saw his role as helping to execute the president’s policies—a role bolstered by his insistence on remaining an active-duty officer (who has a legal obligation to carry out the president’s legal orders). And in this sense, he misunderstood the hostility mounted against him and the president by Mattis and Tillerson.

Both men—Mattis a retired Marine four-star general, Tillerson a former Exxon CEO—were supremely self-confident. They both expected McMaster to roll over to their demands; McMaster resisted, thinking his job was to coordinate administration policy. Mattis was especially condescending toward McMaster, viewing the relationship as that of a four-star to a three-star—and, in military culture, the supremacy of a four-star over a three-star is enormous.

McMaster viewed their connivances as purely a competition for “control.” But much more was going on. As we now know—and knew to a large extent at the time — Mattis and Tillerson viewed Trump as a danger who needed to be contained. Mattis spent much time traveling abroad, downplaying Trump’s America-first ramblings, assuring allies that the United States will always have their back; some thought his title should have been “Secretary of Reassurance.”

McMaster complains in the book that Mattis “slow-rolled” Trump’s requests for “contingency planning on North Korea and Iran.” What he omits from his account is that Trump wanted contingency planning for a military strike on those two countries; they thought that he really wanted to initiate a strike and that slow-rolling the request would slow down his impulse toward war. When White House chief of staff John Kelly, another retired general, started joining the private meetings with Mattis and Tillerson, McMaster thought, “Tillerson and Mattis have gotten to him. ” But in fact, what Kelly got was the supreme danger of Trump. And the three men left McMaster out of their cabal because they knew—in part because he still wore the uniform—that he’d sworn to take Trump’s side. McMaster reveals that, at one point, Kelly told an aide to let him know whenever McMaster was meeting alone with Trump.

McMaster understands all this to some degree. “Tillerson and Mattis were not just confident in themselves,” he writes near the end of the book. “They often lacked confidence in a president they regarded as impulsive, erratic, and dangerous to the republic.”

In a particularly revealing passage, McMaster writes that Trump’s incitement of resurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, “might be invoked as an ex post facto justification for their [Mattis’ and Tillerson’s] behavior. But in August 2017, I was just trying to help the elected president set his course.” In fact, Jan. 6 can be seen as evidence that the two Cabinet secretaries were right—and that, by helping Trump set his course, McMaster was sharpening the danger.

Still, McMaster is correct that Mattis and Tillerson were incompetent plotters. “The more independent of the president and the White House they became,” he writes, “the less effective they would be.” And that is what happened. Tillerson was fired even before McMaster was (he was a terrible secretary of state who, among other things, put the interests of ExxonMobil above those of the United States, perhaps in part because he saw them as identical). Mattis was an insular defense secretary —he surrounded himself with fellow Marine officers, many of whom had served with him abroad—and had no idea how to deal either with the Pentagon’s civilians or with the people in the White House, whom he held in contempt, to his ultimate self-defeat.

It’s a shame: On the issues, Mattis and McMaster agreed on much. Had they worked together, they might have steered Trump in a more sustainably sensible direction. That they didn’t is more Mattis’ fault than McMaster’s. John Bolton had plenty of high-level bureaucratic experience; when he replaced McMaster at the White House, he shut Mattis out completely. (In a remarkable exchange in the book, which takes place when McMaster knew he was on the way out, he tells Mattis, “I hope you get John Bolton, because you deserve John Bolton.” A red-faced Mattis replies, “At ease, Lieutenant General”—“at ease” being a phrase that senior officers invoke to put subordinates in their place—“you can’t talk to me that way.”)

Still, in the book’s postscript, McMaster hopes “that young people who have persevered through these pages will conclude that, even under challenging circumstances, there are tremendous rewards associated with service under any administration.”

Alas, the case he presents for a rewarding experience, at least in the Trump administration, is flimsy. Earlier in the book, he notes, “Despite the frictions I was encountering,” he and his team “were helping Trump make sound decisions.” He cites as examples Trump’s “long-overdue correctives to unwise policies” toward China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Iran.

He makes something of a point on China, where the administration was fairly unified in dropping the long-standing hope—held, to some extent, by every president since Nixon—that engagement would lure Beijing into the Western-dominated global system. But Trump’s correctives—mainly levying tariffs and launching a trade war—had little effect other than to hurt American consumers.

On the other areas, McMaster’s boast rings hollow. On Russia, Trump caved to Putin at every opportunity. On North Korea, after McMaster’s departure, and to Bolton’s frustration, Trump commenced a bromance with Kim Jong-il, again to no effect. His reimposition of sanctions on Cuba—which Obama had started to lift—helped nothing. Scuttling the nuclear deal with Iran had no effect on Tehran’s mullahs, except to spur them to revive their uranium-enrichment program, which the deal had halted.

It is worth delving a bit into McMaster’s comments on Cuba and Iran because they reveal, despite his harsh critique of Trump, a deeply partisan analyst.

He states that Obama pursued a policy of “accommodating Iran,” which had the effect of strengthening Hezbollah. He avoids noting that Obama retained several sanctions having to do with Iran’s missile program and its ties to terrorist groups. Nor does he note that, under the nuclear deal, Iran was well on its way to dismantling its nuclear program under tight international inspections—until Trump scuttled the deal. As a result , Iran is now closer to building an atom bomb than it ever was. (McMaster, by the way, writes in agreement with Trump that the accord was “the worst deal ever.”)

He also writes that Biden would “resurrect the Obama policy of accommodating Iran”—and this is simply puzzling. Biden did not revive the Iran nuclear deal ( though I was among many who urged him to do so ), nor did he relax the sanctions against Iran that Trump reimposed. Biden has also helped Israel defend and retaliate against Iran’s attempted attacks. Where is the accommodation?

In another utterly mystifying (and uncharacteristically far-right) jeremiad, McMaster writes that Obama’s attempt to normalize relations with Cuba stemmed from a “New Left interpretation of history at America’s top universities, where students learned that the world is divided into oppressors and oppressed and that geopolitics is a choice between socialist revolution and servitude under ‘capitalist imperialism.’ ” This is ridiculous. Obama’s policy was driven by a realization that America’s half-century-long isolation of Cuba had done nothing to change the regime and was only hurting the tiny island’s people. McMaster also writes, “Obama, like Trump, evinced an unseemly affinity for authoritarians”—which is truly bizarre.

And so, while McMaster certainly won’t endorse Trump in the November elections or go work for him again (though there’s no chance, especially after this book, that he’d be asked), it’s also unlikely that he’ll endorse Kamala Harris. (He has said he’s not endorsing any candidate.)

One point of this book, I suspect, is rehabilitation. Back when he was an Army major, McMaster wrote a Ph.D. dissertation–turned–book called Dereliction of Duty , about how senior officers in the 1960s deliberately misled President Lyndon B. Johnson on the war in Vietnam, telling him what he wanted to hear rather than giving him their honest military advice, thus betraying their constitutional obligations.

A few months into his term in Trump’s White House, McMaster was ordered to go talk to the press about reports that, at a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump had revealed classified information to top Russian officials. McMaster recited a carefully written, very misleading script—a “non-denial denial.” One of his former colleagues told me at the time that the statement left him “heartbroken.” A fellow retired Army officer mused, “I wonder what title will be given to the book written about him .” I should add that, in the book, McMaster refers to the column I wrote at the time :

The journalist Fred Kaplan, who wrote an essay entitled “The Tarnishing of H.R. McMaster,” stated that I “had been all but incapable of guile” but was “now soaked in the swamp of deceit in the service of Trump.” I was more amused than offended at his hyperbolic criticism.

The book doesn’t come clean about what really happened; most readers, who won’t remember the incident, will be left confused.

Still, At War With Ourselves provides McMaster—now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University—a chance to cut all ties with Trump, to point out the many times that he openly disagreed with Trump and tried to push Trump in the right direction, sometimes successfully. It’s an attempt to set the record straight and to fix for himself an honorable legacy, very different from that of the generals and admirals who abetted Lyndon Johnson’s horrors in Vietnam. In that, he has, for the most part, succeeded.

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7 New Books We Recommend This Week

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“Glitter and doom.” That phrase appears in the subtitle of one of the books we recommend this week (Guy Trebay’s memoir of 1970s New York, “Do Something”), but it also serves nicely as a catchall theme for the list as a whole, which sparkles darkly: a witty horror novel, an exciting debut story collection probing the scarier side of the human psyche, a novel about a man whose unresolved daddy issues leave him at loose ends. In nonfiction, we recommend a group biography of the women who challenged social strictures in 18th-century England (that one’s more glitter than doom), a serious study of the people who helped prop up Hitler and his genocidal reign (more doom than glitter) and a true-crime history about a high-society jewel thief. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

SOMEONE LIKE US Dinaw Mengestu

Mengestu’s brilliantly slippery and destabilized fourth novel centers on Mamush, a journalist in Paris who is supposed to spend Christmas with his wife and young son in the Virginia suburb where his Ethiopian immigrant mother lives; instead, he ends up in Chicago investigating the criminal record of the man he assumes is his father.

“Mamush might be hapless, but this book is not; it’s meticulously constructed and its genius doesn’t falter even slightly under scrutiny. … Ought to cement Mengestu’s reputation as a major literary force.”

From Rebecca Makkai’s review

Knopf | $28

BEAUTIFUL DAYS: Stories Zach Williams

The stories in this striking debut collection tend toward the grimly surreal, with characters facing spiritual crises, random violence and meaningless work. Two or three of the stories are so good that they announce a genuine young talent, one who deftly palpates the dark areas of human psyches.

“His sentences are smooth, clean and approachable. He pushes you slowly off into the night, then down long embankments.”

From Dwight Garner’s review

Doubleday | $28

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