As half the country prepares for the winter storm, and the other half makes jokes about snow tires, I thought I’d put together a list of essential January reads to keep folks reading through the long, cold days ahead. With a good enough book, we can make it through anything! And what a great set of books this month has brought, particularly in regards to historicals, noirs, and psychological thrillers. All blurbs are by me, unless otherwise stated.
Isabelle Schuler, The House of Barbary
(Raven Books)
Setting: 17th Century Switzerland
The House of Barbary is a clever reimagining of the Bluebeard fairytale, set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War, in Bern, Switzerland, where the women are powerless, the poor are oppressed, and the city’s elites are profiting mightily from the neighboring conflict. In Schuler’s tale, a young woman raised to believe in scientific reasoning decides to investigate her father’s murder, only to find herself facing the kind of depravity that challenges even the most logical of minds. Also, there are bears! And they are, not to spoil too much, Chekhov’s bears…
Andromeda Romano-Lax, What Boys Learn
(Soho)
Andromeda Romano-Lax’s latest packs a punch, featuring a complex set-up and a fully realized denouement. At the start of What Boys Learn, two girls on the cusp of adulthood are found dead in rapid succession, throwing their sleepy Chicago neighborhood into turmoil, and a single mother finds herself torn between protection and suspicion as more and more clues point to her son’s involvement. An urgent and uncompromising take on parenting in the age of the manosphere.
Tim Sullivan, The Cyclist
(Atlantic Crime)
In the newest DS George Cross, the ever-ingenious detective is on the trail once a body is discovered in a demolition site. The case takes him deep into a world of cyclists and drugs, a journey that exposes a surprising underbelly. –DM
Deepa Anappara, The Last of Earth
(Random House)
Setting: Tibet, mid-19th Century
Set in the mid-19th century, soon after the Indian Mutiny, The Last of Earth follows two groups of travelers as they cross the Himalayas and go deep into the forbidden-to-the-British territory of Tibet. One group seeks naturalist glory through a search for a river’s headwaters; the other finds purpose in Buddhist philosophy and landmarks. Outlaws, spies, explorers, and colonialists all collide for a work as epic as its mountainous setting (and just as breath-taking).
Lori Rader-Day, Wreck Your Heart
(Minotaur)
I am so psyched (or perhaps, rockabillied) for this country music mystery from queen of Chicago crime Lori Rader-Day, featuring a scrappy hustler trying to make it as a spangle-clad star in a cutthroat city full of harsh rivalries and plenty of baggage. It’s hard enough writing songs and flogging bars, and a missing persons case that hits too close to home only makes this hard-working musician’s life harder. As a long-time fan of Bloodshot Records and the Chicago alt-country scene, I can’t wait to dive into this one. Maybe I’ll have some Dolly playing in the background.
Lauren Schott, Very Slowly All at Once
(Harper)
In Lauren Schott’s blistering take on status anxiety and suburban excess, the characters are as nasty and unredeemable as that house they can’t seem to sell (or stop renovating). A sudden windfall’s arrival saves them from impending financial ruin, but as Schott’s central characters quickly begin to understand, they’ll have to sing for their supper… So deliciously crafted, and so disturbing!
Don Winslow, The Final Score
(William Morrow)
The fact there’s a new Boone Daniels story in this collection of six short novels by crime legend Don Winslow is enough for me to dive in without looking, and “The Lunch Break” is a highlight, but as ever, Winslow really shines in the title story about a master thief facing the end of the road. Winslow has written epics that stand among the best crime fiction in recent decades (not least of all The Cartel trilogy), but he has a deft and memorable touch with the shorter forms, too. This new book is a delight. –DM
May Cobb, All the Little Houses
(Sourcebooks)
May Cobb’s new novel showcases all the setting and sass we’ve come to expect from the author of The Hunting Wives. In All the Little Houses, a status war escalates between a hometown queen bee and the popular newcomers threatening her hard-won throne, serving as a method to delve into wider truths about gender and class in small-town Texas.
Margot Douaihy, Divine Ruin
(Gillian Flynn Books)
Everyone’s favorite nun-detective is back in Divine Ruin, tracking down fentanyl dealers preying on Sister Holiday’s New Orleans students. Douaihy’s hero is one of the most original creations in many years, and any mystery readers who haven’t already jumped on board with this series should plan to start now, with this stellar new installment. –DM
Thrity Umrigar, Missing Sam
(Algonquin)
Happily married lesbian couple Ali and Sam, an interior designer and a writing professor, find their relationship tested to the extreme in this moving and meditative thriller. When Sam vanishes on a morning run, sparking the obsessive attention of internet sleuths, Ali finds herself facing the slings and arrows of public opinion as a Muslim gay woman, the crisis revealing the limits of her acceptance into white society and the fault lines within her marriage.
