McKenna Jordan, Store Owner at Murder By The Book since 2003
Having read crime fiction almost exclusively for the last fifteen years at MBTB, this “staff stack” was incredibly challenging to narrow down. I decided to go with an approach of which books represent both my reading taste as well as my history - to this point - with the bookstore. Every one of this holds a special place in my heart and has a story to go along with it.
I have a real respect for the genre and its icons, and I love unique characters. That’s basically all I can find as a thread of similarity throughout my reading taste. I’m happy to read across the genre as long as it’s well-written, and there’s nothing that beats a fresh new voice that grabs you from the first line.
A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, Nora Murphy's thrilling The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.
"A thrilling debut—I couldn’t put it down!"—Shari Lapena, #1 internationally bestselling author of Not a Happy Family and The Couple Next Door
People are dying for the new computer game by the software company Monkeewrench. Literally. With Serial Killer Detective out in limited release, the real-life murders of a jogger and a young woman have already mimicked the first two scenarios in the game.
But Grace McBride and her eccentric Monkeewrench partners are caught in a vise.
Best Book of the Year
NPR • Wall Street Journal • Boston Globe • Library Journal • CrimeReads • LitReactor • Air MailLonglisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick An Instant New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel from the Crime Writers’ Association (UK)
Winner for Best International Crime Fiction from Australian Crime Writers Association
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
“Riveting, fearless, and vividly original” (Emily St.
Friday Night Lights meets Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen.
Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas.
From Edgar® -nominated novelist Megan Abbott, who makes “devotees of Cain and Chandler fall down and beg for mercy” (The Hollywood Reporter), The Song Is You imagines a thrilling conclusion to the still unsolved since 1949 Black Dahlia murder case.
On October 7, 1949, dark-haired starlet Jean Spangler kissed her five-year-old daughter good-bye and left