This post started out as a book review, ended up being a mini rant & a ranking of recent mysteries and thrillers I have listened to. Join me for this rambling post!
In recent months I haven’t had an excessive amount of time to sit down to read a physical book. When time doesn’t allow physical books, I try to listen to more audiobooks. The caveat? For some reason, I can only listen to thrillers or mysteries on audio. Basically, it has to be a book set in the real world because anything with fantasy elements I get totally lost and don’t know what the heck is going on. So, I’ve listened to a small handful over the last few months. I wanted to write a review for each until I realized…I either don’t remember much or I didn’t really love any of them.
Enter the rambling mini discussion of sorts: Why do I listen to thrillers and mysteries if they are always disappointing me? I don’t really have an answer for that. I love true crime – I listen to podcasts all the time. I have a morbid curiosity and will seek out the information that podcasters always say “don’t look this up, it will traumatize you” about. I’m fascinated by serial killers and survivor stories. But I’ve realized that nothing in fiction is as disturbing and crazy as real life. When it comes to the mysteries I’ve been reading, at least.
Maybe I’m reading the wrong genre? Should I look into true crime books? Should I read more horror? Is there some sort of subgenre of murder mystery fiction that is more like a true crime story that I don’t know about? These are all legit questions, so if you have an answer for me, please share! Because I got pretty bummed while looking at my recent reads and only one of them really stood out as even a book I’d recommend.
Anyways, with all that said, here are all the trillers, mysteries, and cozy mysteries I’ve read recently that are all mediocre and I don’t have a whole lot to say about them. Because meh.
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FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT by Elle Cosimano
This was the first book I read in 2022 so I’m glad I kicked off the year with something I really enjoyed. This is the only one in the bunch that I feel I could give a stellar rating to. I loved the miscommunication/misunderstanding trope of it, it had me cackling while listening to it. I had to tell my entire family about the premise because it was just so great. The whole book I was asking “how the heck is this mom going to get out of this pickle?” It’s definitely a lighter read, but still had a great mystery to it.
THE COUSINS by Karen McManus
If I’m being honest, I don’t remember everything about this book. But I did finish it rather quickly. I also remember enjoying the end – I thought it was rather morbid for a YA thriller. It’s probably the one that threw me off the most out of all of the ones on the list, which is amazing to me because it’s classified as Young Adult.
FINLAY DONOVAN KNOCKS ‘EM DEAD by Elle Cosimano
Ok, you might be wondering why this isn’t number two. This one just wasn’t as good. It lost a lot of that misunderstanding charm and humor. It felt like it tried to take itself a little too seriously and was too unbelievable. I also just really don’t enjoy things that have to do with the mob/mafia. At least in the mystery department.
ARSENIC AND ADOBO by Mia Manansala
I didn’t love this as much as everyone else did. I found the MC to have an immature voice. This didn’t bother me when it came to the mystery, but when the romance was present, it was a little awkward because I would forget that the MC was an actual adult and not a teenager. It was also rather predictable, but the premise was fun.
THESE SILENT WOODS by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Maybe it’s my fault, maybe it was the marketing, but I was expecting something totally different. I thought this was going to be about something sinister happening in the woods, a true thriller – it was not. This is more about the characters with a slight mystery sprinkled in. I found it awfully boring, I almost DNF’d it. Also, the MC clearly suffers from PTSD from the military, and it did a terrible job at discussing it.
FOR YOUR OWN GOOD by Samantha Downing
& HER DARK LIES by J.T. ELLISON
These don’t even get ranked because…look, I don’t remember a damn thing about either of these except For Your Own Good was confusing to listen to and Her Dark Lies is just another secluded island wedding mystery. I’m sorry!
Is there a genre you feel keeps disappointing you? Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts?
5 Comments
I did love the Finlay Donovan series! Nice choices.
The first one was great!
Almost none of these fit into what I read as a mystery-thriller or they are mostly not ones I would read. I have read the Kimi Cunnigham Grant book (not audio) and enjoyed it but I’m not sure I’d call it mystery exactly. I would suggest Allison Brennan, Karin Slaughter, David Baldacci, as examples of very well written mystery / thriller. I also LOVE Allen Eskens and William Kent Krueger. I have listened to all the authors mentioned on audio and they are all modern day.
Anne – Books of My Heart
ahhh, thank you for all the recommendations! I usually just go off whats popular at the time haah
[…] one doesn’t surprise me, though. While I adored Finlay Donovan is Killing It, Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead was not a hit for me. So, I went into this one with very low […]