Our writers recommend the best humorous mystery books by both new and established writers.
The Bottom Line: Murder, fashion and romance converge in T.K. Ambers’ most satisfying romp yet. The third installment in T.K. Ambers’ Runway Dreams series finds siblings Bernie, Alex and Bell Price in San Diego for a swimwear photo shoot. The family is also trying to score backstage access to meet Antoine Lamour, an LGBTQ rock […]
The Bottom Line: A darkly comic and original whodunnit featuring a truly memorable amateur sleuth. Is there a serial killer at work in Los Angeles, or just someone particularly motivated by greed, jealousy or love? Whichever the case, why has the killer chosen the LA art scene as his hunting ground? LA homicide detective Cisco […]
The Bottom Line: An irreverent, offbeat crime thriller featuring a memorable protagonist and a quirky cast of gangsters. For a man whose primary job is delivering packages for an LA law firm, Monk Buttman lives a complicated life. He owns the Moonlight Arms, a complex of bungalows that he purchased with what might be found […]
Since the 1996 novel One For the Money, Janet Evanovich has been the gold standard among humorous mystery novelists. The book featured Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. Plum often finds herself in hilarious conundrums as she goes about her business. There […]
The Bottom Line: Devastatingly funny, dark and unputdownable. One of the Year’s Best Thrillers. As Cooking for Cannibals opens, 35-year-old gerontologist Carrie Cromer is committing her first crime. Carrie works in a lab that seems to have created nothing less than the fountain of youth. The miraculous drug has reversed aging in her lab rats, […]
The Bottom Line: A witty whodunnit that fans of Janet Evanovich will love. Saving Grace opens with a bang as hacker Joe “Hack” Hackford is on the phone with his sister, novelist Lynn Andrews. Both are mixed up in a wacky extortion scheme with paranoid heiress Grace Pierrepoint Rendell, who has recently gone off a […]
The Bottom Line: Janet Evanovich fans should flock to this hilarious small town mystery. Set in the mountains of upstate New York, Blues of Autumn is the story of Police Chief Norris Tanager, who moved to tiny Glen Echo to avoid the headaches of big city crime fighting. When not moonlighting as a bar band […]
The Bottom Line: A deftly-plotted, highly entertaining island murder mystery that is sure to broaden author Ronald S. Barak’s burgeoning fan base. Eloise Brooks, the wife of retired Superior Court Judge Cyrus Brooks, surprises her husband with an island adventure to celebrate their 55th anniversary. Her intentions, however, are far from romantic. In Cyrus Brooks’ […]
The Bottom Line: A thriller about greed, gluttony and murder that is destined for the big screen. The promise of inheritance has divided families since the beginning of time, and from time to time has ended in murder. But novelist Jill Hand’s White Oaks has introduced an ingenious new twist on the time-old tale, as […]
The Bottom Line: T.K. Ambers is a fresh, fun voice in the mystery genre, and her sophomore effort is a must-read for fans of the Runway Dreams series. Count us among fans hoping that T.K. Ambers would return the cast of her addictive mystery Runway Dreams for a sequel, and we’re delighted to find that our wish has been granted. […]
