It’s relaxing to read a stand-alone novel once in a while. Sometimes it feels like every famous mystery author writes series books. Fortunately for readers who enjoy not having to remember the history of all the characters in a mystery series, there are plenty of stand-alone mystery novels being written. Here are just a few that just came out.

 

Reading right now:

Layne Fargo’s stand-alone mystery “They Never Learn” welcomes a new type of serial killer:  a female English Professor who kills just once a year when she chooses the worst man at her university as her victim. Unfortunately, after a few years the body count has gotten a little too high for the authorities not to notice.

On hold right now:

“They’re Gone” is the stand alone debut novel from E.A. Barres. When two men are murdered in the same way on the same night, their wives look for answers. After they join forces to look for the truth, they find their own lives threatened.

Liz Nugent’s “Our Little Cruelties” is a stand-alone in which the fight for their Mother’s attention becomes a lifelong habit of three working class brothers which eventually brings about the death of one of the brothers. Sinister family relationships are taken to the extreme in this dark mystery novel.

“The Kingdom” is Jo Nesbo’s latest stand-alone which reunites two brothers. One brother stayed home after his parents died and built his life in his hometown while the other went in search of something more. Now the adventuring brother is back with an idea to build a spa which would make everyone rich. Unfortunately, there were deadly secrets that are now being unearthed and the body count is rising.

“The Hidden Hours” is Sara Foster’s new stand-alone about an office worker who is found dead in the Thames after her office Christmas Party. The new office temp cannot remember the hours leading up to her coworker’s death and must find the answers before she is arrested for the murder.

Other Mysterious Things:

Many authors who write famous series also sometimes write stand-alone novels. It seems like even when an author finds a character they like, they too probably want a little variety. David Baldacci has perhaps eight series going, but has also written a handful of stand-alone novels. Michael Connelly has Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer which seems like more than enough, yet he has other series going and a few stand-alone novels. Agatha Christie wrote everything including tons of short stories.  Dashiell Hammett also wrote a bit of everything. Raymond Chandler wrote his Philip Marlowe series and short stories. John Grisham predominately writes stand-alone novels. Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware have so far written stand-alone novels. I guess the important part for those of us who are readers is that they keep on writing great books. That’s all we need.

 

Historical mysteries are an amazing blend of mystery with a deep sense of a past time and place. There are many historical mystery authors that I love so much that I never want to miss their most recent additions including Jeri Westerson, C.S. Harris, Andrea Penrose, D.M. Quincy, M.L. Huie, Ambrose Parry, and so many more. We may have once thought of historical mysteries as being dominated by English authors, but that is far from the truth today where brilliant historical mysteries are coming from authors from all over the globe. Here are just a few historical mystery authors from the United States with books out this month.

 

Reading right now:

Somehow I missed Allen Eskens’ stand-alone novel “Nothing More Dangerous” which actually came out last year, but the paperback is now available. This timely novel is set in a small town in Missouri in 1976 when the disappearance of a black woman reveals the social and racial divides. Two teenagers, one black and one white, join forces to try to discover what happened to Lida Poe and uncover secrets that could tear their world apart.

On hold right now:

“The Silver Shooter” by Erin Lindsey is the third book in the Rose Gallagher mystery series. Pinkerton agent Gallagher and her partner are hired by Theodore Roosevelt to investigate attacks on animals and people that are taking place in the South Dakota Badlands where Roosevelt owns a ranch. The attacks are being blamed on the supernatural and Gallagher finds the Badlands really are the wild west.

Rosemary Simpson’s “Death, Diamonds, and Deception” is the fifth book in the Gilded Age Mystery series. Heiress Prudence MacKenzie and ex-Pinkerton Geoffrey Hunter are searching New York for stolen diamonds which once belonged to Marie Antionette.

S.M. Goodwin just introduced a brand new series with two detectives Jasper Lightner and Hieronymus Law in “Absence of Mercy.” A string of murders in Pre-Civil War New York bring Lightner and Law together to stop the murders while the city’s law enforcement is falling into the hands of dangerous gangs. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Other Mysterious Things:

I have to mention a few of the best known American historical mystery authors including Laurie R. King who has a new book coming out in December, Charles Todd who has two books coming out in 2021, and Deanna Raybourn. Not all American historical mystery authors set their historical mysteries in the United States for instance Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series is set in England. Nancy Herriman, however, has a San Francisco based mystery series which is worth reading. No matter what your taste you should be able to find something you will love when you look closely at historical mystery authors.

 

Plenty of Christmas themed mysteries are coming out right now and you may have to start right now to get through them all before Christmas. Of course, you can’t really go anywhere or do anything with others so you may have the time after all.

 

Reading right now:

 Donna Andrews has written two Christmas themed mysteries this year. I already read “Owl Be Home for Christmas” and am currently reading “The Gift of the Magpie.” Both of these books are additions to the Meg Langslow series (the 26^th and the 28^th book in the series). If you are a fan of this series, you already know what to expect from Meg and her amazing and amusing family. If you want humor with your murder, you cannot go wrong with this series.

On hold right now:

Nancy Coco’s “Have Yourself a Fudgy Little Christmas” finds Allie McMurphy being directed to a dead woman in a snowbank by a note she receives and just when she was making Christmas fudge. This is the eighth book in the Candy-Coated mystery series.

In Maya Corrigan’s “Gingerdead Man,” Val Deniston’s private Christmas tea is upended when Santa is killed by a poisoned gingerbread cookie. This is the seventh book in the Five-Ingredient mystery series.

Maddie Day’s “Candy Slain Murder” reveals a skeleton in the attic of a local home that had caught on fire which starts local café owner Robbie Jordan down the road of solving the mystery in this eighth book in the Country Store mystery series.

In “Hollyberry Homicide” by Sharon Farrow, a local shop owner agrees to be in a production of “A Christmas Carol,” but finds her life in danger. This is the fifth book in the Berry Basket Mystery series.

Joanne Fluke just released a set of three short Christmas-themed mysteries under the title “Christmas Sweets.” A second anthology of three holiday themed novellas by Leslie Meier, et al. is “Christmas Card Murder.”

“Mistletoe, Moussaka, and Murder” by Tina Kashian takes place on the Jersey Shore at the annual Polar Bear Plunge. This year, however, a local caterer with a lot of enemies is found dead in the water by restaurant manager Lucy Berberian. This is the fifth book in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery series.

Anne Perry just added the 18^th book to her Christmas series and it’s called “A Christmas Resolution.”

“Murder at an Irish Christmas” by Carlene O’Connor proves that large family parties can be murder. When Siobhan O’Sullivan’s family gets together for Christmas her grandfather ends up murdered and she steps in to discover the killer. This is the sixth book in the Irish Village mystery series.

Other Mysterious Things:

There are so many more available and I have only named a few for you to get started or just to stay busy this season. In addition, Isis Crawford writes a Mystery with Recipes series in which she often incorporates holidays and her two Christmas books were “A Catered Christmas” and “A Catered Christmas Cookie Exchange.” Other authors who have written Christmas themed mysteries are Joanne Fluke, Craig Johnson (“Christmas in Absaroka County”), Leslie Meier, Maxine Paetro (“19^th Christmas”), Vicki Delany (“Dying in a Winter Wonderland”), Karen White (“The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street”), Alex Pine (“The Christmas Killer”), David Rosenfelt (“The Twelve Dogs of Christmas”), and David Baldacci (“The Christmas Train”).

 

November brings cold weather and tons of mystery novels many of which are additions to what may be your personal favorite mystery series. From David Baldacci to Lynne Truss, there may just be something for everyone this month.

 

Reading right now:

Irish author Ken Bruen’s “A Galway Epiphany” is the 16^th novel in the Jack Taylor series. When PI Jack Taylor wakes up from a coma, he finds himself in the middle of a miracle. After he was hit by a truck, Taylor was helped by children who were filmed caring for him and who are being given credit for his escape from death. The Church wants them found in order to verify the miracle or expose the fraud.

On hold right now:

Cozy mystery writer Ellie Alexander’s fourth book in the Sloan Krause series is “Without a Brew.” This unusual series centers around the Bavarian village of Leavenworth, Washington with brew master Sloan Krause finding that working for a trendy Nano-brewery that suddenly decides to have guest rooms available in a town filled with tourists is challenging in ways she never could have predicted. When one of her guests disappears, Krause searches for answers.

Irish author John Connolly’s latest "The Dirty South" is a prequel to his Charlie Parker series. This is his 18^th book in the series and he has decided to go back to 1997 after former New York Police detective Charlie Parker is mourning the recent death of his wife and child and finds himself in Arkansas investigating a serial killer. Supposedly this is the case that takes Parker down the road to become a PI.

English author Lynne Truss adds to her cozy series with the third book in her Constable Twitten series “Murder by Milk Bottle.” These historical cozies take place in the 1950s and are pretty funny books with a hero  Constable who is always disappointed that he has to actually go to work and now that people are being killed with milk bottles, he not only has to work but has to deal with the attention such an odd murder weapon is generating.

Other Mysterious Things:

Several bestselling books that are coming out in November have already been mentioned by me since they are some of my favorite authors and I just couldn’t help but mention them early. David Baldacci’s third Atlee Pine mystery “Daylight,” “The Law of Innocence” which is Michael Connelly’s seven book in the Mickey Haller series, and “Moonflower Murders” the second in Anthony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland Magpie murders series. Alexander McCall Smith will also add his 21^st book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series “How to Raise an Elephant.” Janet Evanovich added her 27^th book to her Stephanie Plum series (“Fortune and Glory”). While Mary Higgins Clark died this year, her collaborative series with Alafair Burke has a seventh book coming out in the Under Suspicion series called “Piece of My Heart.” Last but not least, Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land continue the Murder She Wrote series with “Murder in Season.” If you are fan of series mysteries, you are in luck this month with much to enjoy while you are distancing from others and staying home for the holidays.

 

Would you kill to keep your secrets? Mystery authors seem to think you would and there are a lot of mystery novels based on lies and secrets being covered up by murder. Unfortunately for the killer, those secrets tend to come out as the investigation progresses. The following novels are not an exception to this, but instead fall right into this category. From a husband’s infidelity to a family hiding its ugly past, all of these books examine the dark side of keeping secrets.

Reading right now:

“Confessions on the 7:45” by Lisa Unger starts with the chance encounter of two female strangers on a train, one of which confesses to an affair with her boss while the other states that her husband is sleeping with their nanny. After the encounter, Selena’s nanny disappears and her marriage goes even farther downhill. She wonders about the woman on the train until one day she receives a text from her saying they should continue their conversation. Selene wonders how this stranger got her phone number which starts off a theme regarding the place technology holds in our life that runs throughout the book. Deception is another theme throughout the book which Unger exploits by introducing many characters who weave in and out of the novel until the end when we find out what links them together and gives the novel unexpected twists. This is an interesting addition to the domestic thriller subgenre and plays homage to “Strangers on a Train” by Patricia Highsmith.

On hold right now:

“Snow” is the first in a new series by the award winning John Banville who holds the place as Ireland’s leading author. This is an historical mystery set in 1957 in Ireland where the Catholic Church rules the countryside. When a parish priest is found dead in the home of an aristocratic family, Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is called in to investigate the death.  In this new novel, Banville takes Agatha Christie’s country house murders to the dark side. The Priest has been castrated, the owners of the manor house are much hated privileged Protestants, there is drug use and mental illness. There are many secrets to uncover and St. John Strafford is determined to search through them until he finds the murderer. Banville also writes very successful mystery novels under the name Benjamin Black.

“Still Life” is award winning Scottish author Val McDermid’s sixth book in her Inspector Karen Pirie series. In this addition to the series, Pirie juggles two cases at once. Pirie is already working to discover the killer of a skeleton that was discovered abandoned in a campervan when fishermen pull a dead man from the sea who is a suspect in a decade-old disappearance of a prominent civil servant. While solving both cases, Pirie uncovers lies and secrets which have been covered up far too long.

Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child have teamed up to write the 25^th Jack Reacher novel called “The Sentinel.” This book could not be more timely since it centers around Russian interference in our elections. Ironically Reacher is a character who knows nothing about technology and travels around the country with no phone and no computer, but that isn’t going to stop him from protecting the young IT guy he runs into in a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee, or uncovering a shocking secret element living in that small town.

Other Mysterious Things:

There is much to look forward to this month especially with David Baldacci’s third book in the Atlee Pine series (“Daylight”) coming out November 17 and Michael Connelly adding the sixth book to his Lincoln Lawyer series “The Law of Innocence.” October was a great month and so much came out that I will still be visiting those books. In fact just last week, Lisa Jackson’s third book in her San Francisco romantic suspense series came out (“You Betrayed Me”). Last week also saw the release of Nicci French’s “House of Correction.” With people having to stay home and hide from our pandemic, I have a feeling that we are soon going to reap the reward of having authors stuck in their house writing and writing and writing. At last something to look forward to.

Last week I talked about some cozy mysteries that might be fun as a Halloween read. Now it seems only fair to look at some scarier mysteries that could make Halloween even more fun and special. Usually when we think of being scared by a book, we think of Horror novels, but there are some pretty scary mystery novels. At one time, almost all mystery novels involved serial killers and now psychological thrillers and domestic thrillers dominate. If you think about it most of the serial killers that mystery novelists have written about are totally terrifying and domestic thrillers that convince you that you will never be safe in your home are also horrifying. Whatever you find scarier serial killers or domestic thrillers, there are a lot to choose from so take your pick and perhaps some of the books below will help you get started.

Reading right now:

C. J. Tudor’s “The Other People” has been called creepy and chilling.  Gabe is driving home one night when he sees his 5-year-old daughter’s face in the rear window of the car in front of him. He spends years looking for his daughter until one day the car he saw his daughter in is found with a body inside. British author Tudor became famous in 2018 with her first novel “The Chalk Man” and “The Burning Girls” comes out next February.

 

On hold right now:

 In August, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan combined forces to write a combination Mystery and Horror novel which is the first in a new series called the Blackwood Tapes series called "The Hallow Ones." FBI agent Odessa is forced to kill her partner when he turns violent while they are trying to arrest a murderer on a rampage. Odessa is convinced she saw a shadow flee her partner’s body after his death. It doesn’t take long for her to be on the trail of this evil being.

The latest and 19th novel in the Agent Pendergast series came out in February and was called “Crooked River.” This series started out with a Horror novel (“The Relic”) and morphed into an FBI mystery series with rather odd side stories. Pendergast always reminds me of Sherlock Holmes and is a series that I look forward to reading every time a new one comes out.

The 18^th book in the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly is coming out in November. His book may be a little late for Halloween, but if you haven’t read the series start with “Every Dead Thing.” Connolly has written Horror and Mystery novels, but his Charlie Parker series is always haunting and could well fit in for Halloween.

Laura Purcell has written both Horror and Mystery novels and her last “The House of Whispers” was a gothic historical mystery. This scary house by the sea where servants tell strange tales is reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, and Diane Setterfield.

Other Mysterious Things:

Personally I feel that Ruth Ware’s books fit into the Halloween theme: from “The Woman in Cabin 10” to her latest “One by One.” Her latest has been compared to “And then There Were None” by Agatha Christie which was full of creep factor with people disappearing and being murdered and no idea of who the killer is. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is a terrific Halloween book. All of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter books fall into the most terrifying serial killer books ever written and if you haven’t read the series start with “Red Dragon aka Manhunter.” Raphael Montes’ “Perfect Days” falls into the terrifying “man who loves a woman so much that he kidnaps her” category. Stephen King’s Bill Hodges mystery series is the perfect choice for a scary holiday season and begins with “Mr. Mercedes.” If you get too creeped out turn on all the lights and hide under the covers.

Halloween reading doesn’t have to be scary Horror novels. There are many cozy mystery authors who have written fun and entertaining books that take place over Halloween or during the fall. There are also authors who write great paranormal mystery books and series that also take place over Halloween or have fall themes. These books are paranormal light. They aren’t really scary. The books just accept the paranormal as a part of life. If you feel that you might enjoy some cozy mystery novels with fun characters and a little twist, these authors are worth your time and won’t scare you to death. So take your pick of these entertaining Halloween or fall mysteries and enjoy.

Reading right now:

Kacey Gene’s first book in her cozy mystery series was “The Slay of the Santas” where we were introduced to second-grade teacher Jennifer Hunter’s amateur sleuthing and her friend Lieutenant Jake Hollow. Her fifth book in the series which just came out is “Pumpkin Spyce” which takes place during the Pumpkin Festival which turns totally and unexpectedly murderous.

On hold right now:

Kathi Daley writes cozy mysteries and has all kinds of series going, many of which seem to include holidays. The first book in her Zoe Donovan series was “Halloween Hijinks” and her most recent book in the series (which is the 34^th book in the series) is “Deja Diva” which is also written around the Halloween season. Her most recent and fifth book in the Cat in the Attic mystery series is “The Magic of Halloween Night.”

Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery mystery series includes a couple of Halloween or fall themed books from “Pumpkin Spice Peril” to “Dark Chocolate Demise.”

Most of Kathleen Suzette’s mystery cozy series include pumpkins. Her Pumpkin Hollow mystery series book 16 which just came out is “Pumpkin Spice Lies.” Her 14^th book in the Rainey Daye cozy mystery series is “Pumpkin Spice Donuts and a Murder.”

J. A. Whiting’s third book in her Tipperary Carriage Company mystery series is “The Halloween Coachman.” Whiting has other series books which include mysteries with a paranormal twist which would be fun for Halloween especially the ghostly ones.

Another author that writes a couple of paranormal mystery series is Kennedy Layne whose most recent and fourteenth book in her Paramour Bay Cozy paranormal mystery series is “Pumpkin Blend.” Author Morgana Best’s Miss Spelled paranormal kitchen witch series started with “Miss Spelled” and her 15^th book in the series “The Halloween Truth Spell” just came out.

There is a brand new paranormal mystery series coming out this month which involves a magical town and witches. This first book in the Melting Pot Café series by Polly Holmes is “Pumpkin Pies & Potions.”

Other Mysterious Things:

Many famous authors have used holidays as a background to their mystery novels and haven’t left out Halloween which seems a perfect backdrop to murder. Leslie Meier’s cozy mystery series about Maine housewife Lucy Stone has hit almost every holiday including Halloween in the “Candy Corn Murder” and the “Trick or Treat Murder.” Isis Crawford’s mystery with recipes series also includes a lot of holidays like “A Catered Halloween.” Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series included “Witches’ Bane,” for the Halloween element. Donna Andrews also likes to include holidays in her books and her “Lord of the Wings” was an Halloween addition to her Meg Langslow series. There are so many paranormal mystery authors (many of which I have mentioned previously), but two that I want to mention again are Bailey Cates and Bobbi Holmes both of whom would make great Halloween reads. I love Halloween any and every year, but maybe this year it is even more important. Our pandemic has changed so much that it becomes even more important to find a way to enjoy everything we can including Halloween. Despite our limitations there are so many parts of Halloween you can enjoy without endangering or infecting yourself or others including going crazy with the decorations, buying special treats to enjoy, carving pumpkins, and definitely reading Halloween related books.