8 'cozy' mystery novels to curl up with this winter
Canadian authors Angela Misri and Sam Wiebe recommend their favourite mystery novels
'Tis the season to sneak away from the dinner table and cozy up by the fire with a suspenseful novel. That's what The Next Chapter's mystery panel, writers Angela Misri and Sam Wiebe intend to do over the holidays.
Misri, based in Toronto, is the author of the Portia Adams Adventure series, including The Detective and the Spy, and Vancouver-based Wiebe wrote the Wakeland detective series, featuring Sunset and Jericho.
They joined Antonio Michael Downing to share eight transporting mystery novels they recommend for this season.
Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin
Midnight and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Novel is the 25th instalment in the detective series following Scotland's John Rebus. In this latest adventure, the detective finds himself convicted of homicide and holed up in prison across from another convict, who is then murdered. Isolated from the police he once called friends and stripped of his title, Rebus is lost. And yet, he still feels compelled to find the murderer in a prison full of criminals.
Ian Rankin is a Scottish crime writer most renowned for his mystery series following Inspector Rebus. He won the Edgar Award in 2004 for his novel Resurrection Men.
Sam Wiebe says: "I just love that Sir Ian, probably the most well regarded mystery writer in the world at this point, is really reckoning with that history of the police procedural and making the cops like heroes for breaking the rules … So if you love detective novels like I do, if you think that the detective novel needs to evolve as I do, Midnight and Blue is just terrific.
Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai
Catfish Rolling is a debut coming-of-age YA novel by Clara Kumagai with magical realism elements. There is a catfish that lives under Japan, and when it rolls the land rises and falls. Sora is 17 years old and living with her father after losing her mother to a powerful earthquake, which she blames on the catfish. The catfish doesn't just affect the land — it also affects time, leaving Japan divided into zones, with some moving fast and some moving slow. When Sora's father disappears, Sora must head into the abandoned time zones to find him.
Catfish Rolling is for ages 14 and up.
Clara Kumagai is from Vancouver and has lived in Japan and Ireland. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Kyoto Journal, Cicada, Room and The Irish Times. Catfish Rolling is her debut novel.
Angela Misri says: "The mystery is part of the story, but really the most powerful part is how she deals with grief in different zones of time movement."
Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino
Invisible Helix follows Detective Galileo, a physicist and consultant of the police department known for chasing tangled threads. After a young man's body is found shot in Tokyo Bay, the Homicide Squad suspects his girlfriend, Sonoka Shimauchi, who's now gone missing. Is her alibi really airtight? Can Detective Galileo unravel the histories of the victim, the suspect and himself?
Keigo Higashino is a Japanese mystery writer of over 20 novels. His other books include The Devotion of Suspect X, Malice and Newcomer.
Sam Wiebe says: "It deals with adoption and the legacy of family and really questioning, some of the stigmas that are put on orphans, on mothers who give up their children. It's just a wonderful book, it's very human."
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Jackson Brodie is a middle-aged ex-detective who now finds himself in Yorkshire to investigate a stolen painting in Death at the Sign of the Rook. While the crime seems tame, Brodie uncovers it may be related to a wealth of art thievery tied to a grand estate that hosts socialites for Murder Mystery weekends in this witty cozy mystery novel.
Kate Atkinson is an English writer of several novels including the Jackson Brodie mysteries which were adapted into the BBC series, Case Histories.
Angela Misri says: "This book felt like a mix of an Agatha Christie trapped in a mansion with a corpse story with the characters of Downton Abbey. And I'm not just saying that because it's set in Yorkshire – there's a very upstairs-downstairs feel."
The Dave Brandstetter Mystery Series by Joseph Hansen
Originally published between 1965 and the mid-90s, the Dave Brandstetter Mystery Series is a collection of 12 novels about a gay private investigator in California. The classic crime series was re-issued for its 50 year anniversary by Soho Syndicate.
Joseph Hansen was an American crime writer best known for his Dave Vrandstetter novels. He died in California in 2004 at the age of 81.
Sam Wiebe says: " It's a groundbreaking series about a gay P.I. The way he describes things is very Chandler-esque and also it has this amazing look at the sort of subculture and how that changed from the 70s up to the present day."
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is a funny mystery novel about a tea shop owner in San Francisco's Chinatown. When Vera finds a dead man in her tea shop with a flash drive in his hand, she alerts the police but decides she's better qualified to crack the case. Staked out in her tea shop, she carefully watches all her customers for who the murderous culprit may be.
Jesse Q. Sutanto is a Chinese-Indonesian writer currently based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She writes mystery, romance and books for kids. Her other titles include Dial A for Aunties and The New Girl.
Angela Misri says: "She is hilarious, she is annoying to the police and she's chasing [them] down. Obviously, the murderer is going to come back to her tea shop and she's going to figure out who he or she is."
Lightning Strikes the Silence by Iona Whishaw
In this Lane Winslow mystery, an explosion shakes King's Cove. Lane goes to check out what's going on and finds a young girl injured and mute, but alive. At the same time, Inspector Darling hears about a nighttime break at a local jeweller and finds the jeweller dead. Lightning Strikes the Silence follows Lane as she tries to find the girl's family and Inspector Darling as he tries to find the murderer.
Whishaw is a Vancouver-based author and teacher. She has published works of short fiction, poetry and the children's book Henry and the Cow Problem. Whishaw has published 11 novels in the Lane Winslow Mystery series.
Sam Wiebe says: "I think if people like Louise Penny, they're going to love her Lane Winslow series. The main character has an espionage background, as Wishaw's own mother did during the war and they're very unique."
Misery Hates Company by Elizabeth Hobbs
A murder mystery in a grand estate, Misery Hates Company is a historical novel set in eerie New England. When Miss Marigold Manners goes to meet her old-money relatives in Boston the last thing she expects is to be entangled in the case of a dead body found in the garden. In this whodunit, Manners must gather the help of her quirky new family and may uncover shocking truths about herself and her lineage.
Elizabeth Hobbs is a New England-born writer and former archaeologist. She currently lives in Texas and Misery Hates Company is her first novel.
Angela Misri says: "It's the first book about her Detective Marigold Manners, another great name. It's a period piece with a detective and I write those kinds of pieces, so I thought, 'this is the one.'"
Misri and Wiebe's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
