7 Summer Mysteries to Sizzle This Season

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’Tis the season for a superb mystery novel. Visit an English coastal luxury hotel, a Caribbean ship captained by a woman pirate, or a lush Portuguese forest, all without leaving your lounge chair. Sometimes the murders are spooky (see: Foley’s new book), sometimes they’re spiteful (see: Maxwell’s new book), and occasionally, as in Copenhaver’s 1950s setting, they're triggered by government interference.

The Wilds, by Sarah Pearse

Detective Elin Warner wants nothing more from her trip to Portugal’s Parque Nacional than peace and distance from her recent past. She doesn’t have the “wanderlust gene,” DRD4 7R, that influences some humans down to their dopamine levels. But she does have keen crime-solving instincts. When her hiking companion Isaac reveals that he’d promised a friend he’d look into Kier’s disappearance in the same park, Warner has reservations, but ultimately agrees to help. Short, dialogue-rich chapters heighten the suspense, with Warner barely a step ahead of anyone else—including the reader.

The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley

Pitting rich kids against poor kids is a classic setup, but Foley ups the ante in her latest mystery when one of those poor kids in a Dorset, England, town attempts revenge on her teenaged frenemy 15 years after a shocking disappearance. That frenemy, Francesca, has turned her family’s estate into a high-end resort, promising special experiences for the rich and famous. Foley mixes perspectives and time periods to keep readers guessing until the tense finale, distracted as they’ll be with goosebumps from the inclusion of local legends and magical traditions (think creepy corvids and vigilante justice).

Hall of Mirrors, by John Copenhaver

The “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s, during which gay men and women were targeted by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI as un-American, led to countless tragedies, lost jobs, lost loved ones, and lost lives. Copenhaver employs the noir atmosphere of the time to great effect in his second installment in his Nightingale and Watson series. Lovers Philippa and Judy struggle to find out who set the fire that killed their friend Roger, while also struggling to keep their relationship strong and loving in the face of government and societal threats, including the danger Philippa’s Black family faces due to her ability to pass as white.

This Great Hemisphere, by Mateo Askaripour

Askaripour’s debut novel, Black Buck, was a comic take on Manhattan tech sales and innate racism. Although the dystopian This Great Hemisphere still takes on racism, it has a new approach to bigotry: People who aren’t part of the Dominant Population (DPs) are called Invisibles. When a young Invisible named Sweetmint gets the opportunity to work for a DP mogul named Croger Tenmase, you can sadly anticipate the trouble that will ensue, but you’ll be so busy hoping that Sweetmint can save her brother from almost certain imprisonment after he assassinates the DP leader that you won’t have time to worry.

I Need You to Read This, by Jessa Maxwell

While the heyday of advice columnists was back in the 20th century, many of us still read Dear Prudence, Carolyn Hax, Dear Abby, and the New York Times’ Ethicist. In Jessa Maxwell’s second mystery (her debut was The Golden Spoon ), a 30-something woman named Alexis works as the successor of a New York newspaper columnist known as Dear Francis. Bit by bit, Alexis becomes convinced that Francis didn’t die of natural causes, and soon she begins to receive unsettling missives about her own past. Aided by her local diner pals Janet and Ray, she decides to solve the case before she winds up dead, too. Atmospheric, quirky, and delightful.

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye, by Briony Cameron

Based loosely on a historical character, Cameron’s debut follows the titular shipwright who is forced to leave her Santo Domingo home and, eventually, become an indentured servant to a ruthless pirate known as Blackhand. As she and her friend Teresa develop a romantic relationship, Jacquotte realizes that gaining power as a pirate will be their best chance of one day living in freedom. Unfortunately, she also uncovers a truly loathsome web of corruption that her principles will not allow her to ignore. Look out for amazing fight scenes, including the one near the end that proves the pirates to be more enlightened that the supposedly moral townspeople.

Scrap, by Calla Henkel

Henkel, the author of Other People’s Clothes, delivers an edgy mystery based on the art/cult of scrapbooking. Esther, an artist, works for crazy-rich Naomi Duncan, who wants to give her husband, Bryce, several albums of mementos for their silver wedding anniversary. Esther discovers weird hints of foul play in the various materials she’s given, which signal trouble in paradise. So much so that when Naomi dies in a skiing accident, Esther wonders if Bryce was responsible. The question is: How to prove it?

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