Mystery Suggestions for Summer Reading

One of my favourite CBC Radio programs is “The Next Chapter” with Shelagh Rogers. The show has introduced me to some great Canadian authors and reads. Twice a year (December and June) Rogers hosts the Mystery Book Panel made up of: Margaret Cannon, the mystery book columnist for the Globe and Mail, J.D. Singh, co-owner of the Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto, and P.K. Rangachari, Professor (Emeritus) of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Cannon recently said on the show that “Nothing goes better with warm, sunny, summer days than gory, urban mystery novels”. I couldn’t agree more! Here are some of their summer mystery reading suggestions. Some I’d heard of and others were new to me.

Margaret Cannon’s picks:

The Son by Jo Nesbo

“A serial killer is at work in Oslo, and a maverick cop with his share of personal demons is on his trail. But beneath that surface, there is a complex psychological thriller churning its way into the reader's nightmares. Sonny Lofthus is in prison for crimes he didn't commit but for which he has agreed to take the fall in exchange for an unending supply of heroin. The drugs are Sonny's way of dealing with the knowledge that his father, an apparent suicide, was a dirty cop. As the novel begins, however, Sonny has new information about his father's death and has engineered a daring escape from prison. His revenge-fueled plan is to kill those responsible for the crimes he was convicted of by re-creating the murders with the real killers now the victims. A terrific thriller but also a tragic, very moving story of intertwined characters swerving desperately to avoid the dead ends in their paths” Discover

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

Whirlwind by Rick Mofina

The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas


J.D. Singh’s picks:

Any Other Name by Craig Johnson

“Sheriff Walt Longmire had already rounded up a sizable posse of devoted readers when the A&E television series Longmire sent the Wyoming lawman's popularity skyrocketing. Now, with three consecutive New York Times bestsellers to his name and the second season of Longmire reaching an average of 5.4 million viewers per episode, Craig Johnson is reaching a fan base that is both fiercely loyal and ever growing. In Any Other Name, Walt is sinking into high-plains winter discontent when his former boss, Lucian Conally, asks him to take on a mercy case in an adjacent county. Detective Gerald Holman is dead and Lucian wants to know what drove his old friend to take his own life. With the clock ticking on the birth of his first grandchild, Walt learns that the by-the-book detective might have suppressed evidence concerning three missing women. Digging deeper, Walt uncovers an incriminating secret so dark that it threatens to claim other lives even before the sheriff can serve justice.” Discover

The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black



P.K. Rangachari’s picks:

Body Count by Barbara Nadel

“Any bloody death will lead Inspectors Ikmen and Skuleyman out onto the dark streets of Istanbul. On 21 January, a half-decapitated corpse in the poor multicultural district of Tarlabasi poses a particularly frustrating and gruesome mystery. But as the months pass and the violence increases, it turns into a hunt for that rare phenomenon in the golden city on the Bosphorus: a serial killer. Desperate to uncover the killer's twisted logic as the body count rises, Ikmen and Skuleyman find only more questions. How are the victims connected? What is the significance of the number 21? And how many people must die before they find the answers?” Discover

The Bride Box by Michael Pearce

Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt