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Tropes are very common in genre books as they offer readers the “you know exactly what you are getting” feeling, in the best possible way. If you’re in the mood to solve a mystery, knowing that the killer must be one of a handful of characters, for example, you can reach for a closed-circle mystery. If you care more about the criminals’ motivations over their identity being investigated, pick up a whydunnit instead of a whodunnit.
Or, if you like lots of tropes and want to see them all packed into a book for some fun reading, I’ve got three different-from-each-other mysteries!
You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego
Tropes: remote mystery, revenge, author main character(s), Clue setup, book inside a book, puzzle mystery games, and being picked off one by one…
A group of authors are invited to a remote island in a Clue-type mystery where they think they are there for a writers’ retreat, but they don’t know the identity of the anonymous author who invited them and they all have a secret from their past they’d like kept hidden. And that’s just the start—someone else is also there for revenge and the invited authors are clueless (heh) to the traps until they start dying…
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How to Survive a Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans
Tropes: small town known for killings, final girl, anonymous manuscript predicting future murders, characters referencing horror tropes in pop culture (metafiction), and new serial killer mimicking old one…
This is a fun slasher mystery about CJ, a teen who witnessed their father’s murder by a serial killer. That alone should be traumatic with all of the exclamation marks, but their father had actually already survived one massacre killing by the Wolf Man (who wears a wolf mask) only to be murdered years later in a repeat massacre. Now CJ is the oldest of four kids, with a widowed mom who makes them do drills at the park to survive a serial killer attack. But is there enough training to help CJ—along with a new friend and a new crush—figure out what is happening when a manuscript predicting more murders (that come true!) is anonymously mailed to them?
The Plot is Murder (Mystery Bookshop #1) by V.M. Burns
Tropes: small town, bookstore owner, mystery author, book within a book, and the MC is the murder suspect who must prove their innocence by solving the crime.
Samantha Washington might be living her dream life in Washington as she opens a bookstore and writes her first mystery novel, but the universe has decided to make her the star in a cozy mystery: a developer is murdered, and all fingers point at Samantha! At least she won’t be alone since her grandma and a group of town folks are happy to step in and help her solve the case.
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2025 releases, and mysteries from 2024 and 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations! Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Goodreads, Litsy, and Substack.
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