Five titles featuring reporter sleuths who dig too deep

Olesya Lyuzna is a historical fiction writer with a passion for queer noir.

Her debut novel Glitter in the Dark was selected for a 2020 Pitch Wars mentorship by Layne Fargo and Halley Sutton.

She lives in Toronto and spends her free time hosting murder mystery parties and scouring the archives for unsolved crimes.

At CrimeReads Lyuzna tagged five works featuring favorite reporter sleuths, including:

The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton

The murder of Marina Lu looks like a robbery gone bad. A teenage girl found dead in her car, her bridal gowns still in the backseat, her diamond ring catching the last of the LA sun. But Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond knows better.

She follows the story into the world of “parachute kids”—wealthy Asian teenagers sent to America for education and opportunity, left behind in mansions while their parents run businesses overseas. Money doesn’t keep them safe. Neither does privilege. Marina had both, and she still wound up dead.

Eve has a knack for spotting the cracks beneath the city’s surface. The deeper she digs, the darker the picture gets. What was Marina doing with a much older fiancé? Why won’t her father answer any questions? And why does the trail keep leading Eve into a far uglier subculture—where young women like Marina aren’t debutantes, but property?

This is Los Angeles noir at its sharpest—a world of power and isolation, a neon-lit dream that rots from the inside out. Hamilton writes LA like she owns it, laying bare the places most people don’t want to see: the empty mansions, the late-night diners where secrets trade hands, and the rooms where silence is bought and paid for.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about women and food

Hannah Selinger is a James Beard Award-nominated lifestyle writer and mother of two based in Boxford, MA. Her print and digital work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Her 2021 Bon Appétit essay, "In My Childhood Kitchen, I Learned Both Fear and Love," is anthologized in the 2022 Best American Food Writing collection.

Selinger's new book is Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven books about women and food, including:

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Rufi Thorpe’s latest novel–juicy, relatable, and simultaneously over-the-top–follows financially strapped Margo, a young woman with (you guessed it) no cash but plenty of other problems. One such problem: she’s pregnant, unexpectedly, with a child from an ill-advised romance with her professor. Like many young women with diminished options and an overdrawn bank account, Margo ends up in restaurant work. The rest is a story of wit and whimsy and a bit of exaggeration. Restaurant work fails Margo, but there is more out there for her, an arc of redemption for both her and for the people who have caused her harm.

Read about the other books on Selinger's list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top titles set in the wilderness

In addition to being a writer, Alice Henderson is a dedicated wildlife researcher, geographic information systems specialist, and bioacoustician. She documents wildlife on specialized recording equipment, checks remote cameras, creates maps, and undertakes wildlife surveys to determine what species are present on preserves, while ensuring there are no signs of poaching. She’s surveyed for the presence of grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, jaguars, endangered bats, and more.

Henderson's new novel, The Vanishing Kind, is the fourth book in the Alex Carter series.

At The Strand Magazine the author tagged ten stirring reads set in the wilderness. One title on the list:

The River of Souls by Robert McCammon

In 1703, detective Matthew Corbett journeys up the Solstice River in the Carolinas in search of an accused murderer. There he encounters strange settlements steeped in mysticism and eerie stories of a mythical beast hunting humans in the fetid landscape. But nothing will stop Corbett, an intelligent, resourceful, and honor-bound character, from seeing justice done.

Robert McCammon is one of our finest contemporary writers. He has the gift of transporting readers to the settings of his books, in this case to the swamps of the Carolinas in colonial America, where alligators and snakes prowl the dark waters.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles about the complicated history of U.S. citizenship

Katie Moench is a librarian, runner, and lover of baked goods. A school librarian in the Upper Midwest, Moench lives with her husband and dog and spends her free time drinking coffee, trying new recipes, and adding to her TBR list.

At Book Riot she tagged eight books that show "the idea of citizenship was not something once defined in the early years of the U.S. as a country, but it is rather a nebulous concept that has been defined and redefined over and over since the nation’s beginnings." One title on the list:

Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States by Hiroshi Motomura

In this expansive text, Professor Hiroshi Motomura compares and contrasts the experiences of immigrants to the United States across two centuries. Examining immigration statutes, deportation laws, and cultural conceptions of whether newcomers should assimilate to their new country, Motomura provides a comprehensive look at how American laws and American attitudes toward immigration and naturalization have shifted over time.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six YA reads in stunning locations

Rachel Ekstrom Courage is the author of the Young Adult thriller Nothing Bad Happens Here and Murder By Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery.

She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband (the children’s book author Nick Courage) and their dog, Chaely.

At The Nerd Daily Courage tagged six "young adult thrillers and romances [that] will transport you to beautiful and unique locales from the comfort of your favorite reading nook." One title on the list:

Hop a train from France to Italy and fall in love with All Roads Lead To Rome by Sabrina Fedel, a Roman Holiday-esque YA romance featuring an anxious introvert who thinks she knows all the gelato shops and picturesque ruins of the Eternal City. But when she meets a Scottish hottie and gets embroiled in a fake-dating scheme, will it be her heart that’s left in ruins?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve titles that center work & working-class lives

Dustin M. Hoffman writes stories about working people. His newest story collection is Such a Good Man. He’s also the author of the story collectionNo Good for Digging and the fiction chapbook Secrets of the Wild. His first book One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist won the 2015 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. He’s published more than one hundred stories in journals including Black Warrior Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ninth Letter, Masters Review, Witness, Wigleaf, The Threepenny Review, Gulf Coast, and One Story. Before getting his MFA in fiction from Bowling Green State University and his PhD in creative writing from Western Michigan University, he spent ten years painting houses in Michigan. Now he lives in South Carolina and teaches creative writing at Winthrop University.

At Electric Lit Hoffman tagged "twelve books of poetry and prose that depict not just working-class people but that foreground work as the feature." One title on the list:

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

I also adore Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, which depicts low-wage restaurant work in some of Orwell’s most scene-driven narrative. But The Road to Wigan Pier is an absolutely brilliant and insightful investigative piece into the work and conditions of coal miners. When I first read this, the television show Dirty Jobs was quite popular, and Orwell was doing something similar yet much more in-depth—full immersion into this very dangerous, dirty job. He depicts the human lives at the center of this work with great sensitivity, while also capturing the sensory pain of forever crouching so as not to bang your head on a rocky roof. The book goes on to discuss class consciousness and socialism in ways that still feel valid and important today. Beyond being fascinating and important, this is such an entertaining read. I’m a huge Orwell fan, but I actually find Animal Farm and 1984 overly didactic to the point of being a bit obvious. In my opinion, Orwell’s nonfiction is his most interesting work.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Road to Wigan Pier is among Ben Highmore's ten best books about houses and Robert McCrum's books to inspire busy public figures.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four mystery titles that explore legacy

Benjamin Bradley is a member of both Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He's the author of the Shepard & Kelly Mystery series through Indies United Publishing House and his short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Reckon Review and Flash Fiction Magazine. He works in public health and homelessness and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, their cat Fox, and their dog Harper.

Bradley's new novel is What He Left Behind.

At CrimeReads he tagged four mystery novels that explore legacy. One entry on the list:

What You Leave Behind by Wanda Morris

Set on the coast of Georgia, Morris’ novel brings protagonist Deena Wood into the world of Holcomb, who is fighting desperately to keep land that has been in his family for generations. Holcomb’s story is a grim one, with strained familial relationships and a lonely existence, and it’s apparent that one of his last great hopes is to keep the land safe. Morris sprinkles these life-and-death questions throughout, keeping Holcomb and their legacy as a common thread through a great mystery.

Read about the other mysteries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine horror titles about monstrous women

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged nine books featuring monstrous yet deeply complicated women and girls. One title on the list:

Motheater by Linda H. Codega

Bennie is sick and tired of the Appalachian mining company where she works putting its employees in danger. After her best friend dies in a coal mine, Bennie quits her job and starts investigating the deaths of local miners to prove the company is at fault. She soon finds a nearly-drowned woman in a mine slough who turns out to be a frightening ancient witch named Motheater, destined to protect the mountains from being exploited. Together, Bennie and Motheater find unexpected power to change the future for their mountain home.

With eerily beautiful prose, mystical characters, and an immersive natural setting, it’s a powerful story about the sacrifices we make to protect the places and people we love.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top horror novels set in small towns

Allison Gunn is a professional researcher, writer, and podcaster with a penchant for all things whimsical and strange. An alum of the University of Maryland, she has extensively studied marginalized communities as well as Appalachian folklore and the occult. She currently resides in the wonderfully weird land of West Virginia with her twin daughters, a precocious pup, and one seriously troubled tabby.

Nowhere is her first novel.

At Electric Lit Gunn tagged "seven terrifying horror novels set in small towns." One title on the list:

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

A terrifying examination of broken families, Sharp Objects slices through the thin veneer of congeniality that covers a multitude of sins in small-town culture. Journalist Camille Preaker returns to her Missourian hometown to investigate the recent murders of two young girls. Flynn takes readers on a wild ride, evoking a visceral pain as Camille battles horrific memories of her past before crashing into a jaw-dropping ending.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

Sharp Objects is among Lucy Foley's six top stories of folk horror, Katherine Higgs-Coulthard's top six crime-in-the-family thrillers, Zach Vasquez's seven dark novels about motherhood, Christina Dalcher's seven crime books that challenge the idea of inherent female goodness, Nicole Trope's six domestic suspense novels where nothing is really ever what it seems, Heather Gudenkauf's ten great thrillers centered on psychology, and Peter Swanson's ten top thrillers that explore mental health.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top books that combine mystery & romance

Bellamy Rose has never solved an actual murder. When she’s not writing about them, she spends her time trying to taste every cuisine in the world, befriending all the animals she meets, and publishing non-murdery rom-coms as the USA Today bestselling author Amanda Elliot. She lives with her husband and daughter in New York City.

Roses's new novel is Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder.

At CrimeReads she tagged seven favorite books that combine mystery and romance. One title on the list:

Royal Blood by Aimée Carter

This absolutely delightful young adult mystery follows Evan, the illegitimate daughter of the king of England left reeling when her identity is suddenly revealed in the press. The press turns even more bloodthirsty when she becomes the primary suspect in a murder investigation. The only way to clear her name and regain a shred of normalcy is for Evan to team up with a hot royal insider and find the real killer. I loved this book not just for its fun fusion of romance and mystery but for its inclusion of family drama – Evan has a lot of (understandably) complicated feelings toward her father the king, her stepmother the queen, and her half-sister the crown princess, and watching those feelings change and evolve over the book was incredibly rewarding.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best fantasy journeys

Grace Curtis is a freeroaming writer from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Her debut Frontier, a queer space western about climate change (really), came out in March last year.

The follow up Floating Hotel was a bestseller in the UK.

When she’s not dreaming up stories, Curtis can usually be found up a hill somewhere, climbing or hiking or lolling idly in the grass.

Idolfire is her first work of fantasy.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged five top fantasy journeys, including:

N.K. Jemisin – The Fifth Season

Proceed with caution: The Fifth Season is fairy food. Once you’ve tried it, all other fantasy will seem tasteless by comparison. It’s a bargain worth making, though. Jemisin assembles a fascinating, terrifying world, caught in an endless cycle of disasters, and sets three different women out across it. A mind-altering novel that puts twee sword n’ sorcery contemporaries to shame.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Fifth Season is among Tochi Onyebuchi's seven books about surviving political and environmental disasters, Lit Hub's twenty best novels of the decade, Mark Skinner's eleven top works of science fiction & fantasy by black authors and Emily Temple's ten best road trip books. The Broken Earth series is among John Scalzi's six best examples of sci-fi worldbuilding and Joel Cunningham's eleven top sci-fi & fantasy books or series with a powerful message of social justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels that will change the way you think about divorce

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novels Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far is the Ocean From Here. She has worked as an editor for Medium, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Oprah, Coastal Living, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, and many other publications.

Shearn has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and currently lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Her new novel is Animal Instinct.

[The Page 99 Test: How Far Is the Ocean from Here; Writers Read: Amy Shearn (March 2013); Q&A with Amy Shearn; My Book, The Movie: Dear Edna Sloane; The Page 69 Test: Dear Edna Sloane; The Page 69 Test: Animal Instinct; Writers Read: Amy Shearn (March 2025); My Book, The Movie: Animal Instinct]

At Electric Lit Shearn tagged "seven novels that each made me think about divorce—and life—a little differently." One title on the list:

The Not Wives by Carley Moore

So many of the great divorce novels ask the question, What if divorce isn’t the end, but the beginning? This is the thrust of The Not-Wives, a wild, sexy, queer book about restarting and revolution. Set against the backdrop of Occupy-era NYC, this poetic novel tells the story of three women who are decidedly Not Wives—one bisexual woman who is looking for love and hoping to start a family (while being constantly sexually harassed by men she works with); one young unhoused woman who needs to wrench free of her addict partner; and one queer mother who is still getting her footing after a recent divorce. Liberated sex lives are intertwined with political resistance here; the book opens, “Perhaps fucking was a road map for those of us who no longer believed in directions.” Each of these women is looking for new road maps, paths that don’t necessarily hew to the white-picket-fence-heterosexual-nuclear-family blueprint we’re all meant to desire. As the divorced mother says: “I used to think my job was to stay whole, to keep it all humming along like the vaudeville act with the spinning plates, every plate just about to fall and break, but still miraculously whirling. But I was wrong, my job was to let the plates crash and shatter. My job was to fall apart spectacularly, and then to make a new self out of fragments.”

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue