Crime Fiction Recommendations? We’re on the case!

*Cue haunting podcast intro*

Brian Griffin was the strictest, most demanding teacher at Del Norte High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His students knew he tolerated nothing the best from them, never accepting late work. And plagiarizing would yield the biggest penalties his classes could imagine: repeating the course the following year. In the late spring in 1987, Mr. Griffin bestowed this punishment to a small group of students, as he did every June. Except that, at the end of this school year, Mr. Griffin never made it home. And that summer, he was found buried in the mountains. What led to Mr. Griffin’s death feels like the plot of a John Grisham novel, however this was no book. Someone kept Mr. Griffin from his angina medication, and he suffered a massive coronary. But before Albuquerque police could find the murderer, a plot of intimidation and carelessness for life unfolds in the heart of Mr. Griffin’s classroom.

This, is Killing Mr. Griffin.

But first, a word about this book list.

That, of course, was the plot of one of the first crime novels I ever read, Lois Duncan’s Killing Mr. Griffin. And ever since I tasted that sweet, exhilarating bit of literary bloodlust, I proceeded to devour as many tomes in this genre as I could find. Today, I also indulge in the myriad of cold case, mystery, and serial killer podcasts that have flooded the internet, and it’s loads of fun reimagining my favorite tales narrated as a real case to be solved.

Below are a few must-reads about unsolved crimes that haunt our protagonists in a way that would make it perfect for our ‘airwaves.’ Can you solve the mystery before the hero does?

Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber focuses on Josie Buhrman, who has managed to keep her terrifying past a secret from everyone currently in her life, until an investigative reporter drudges it all back up in—wait for it—a podcast.

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constatine turns Dr. Kate English’s life upside down when her mother is brutally murdered, and Kate finds out she is the next target!

The Interpreter by Suki Kim shoves protagonist Suzy Park into the dangerous Korean underworld of New York City, searching for answers in her parents’ five-year-old murder.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith is the classic tale of boy meets boy, boy asks boy to ‘exchange murders’, boy complies. And even though we know who the murderers are, waiting to see how it all comes together is the best part.

Old Bones by Trudy Nan Boyce is the second in a series of Detective Sarah Alt novels. In it, Alt investigates a shooting at a student vigil at Spelman College in Atlanta, an event that pushes the racial tensions in the city over the edge.

For more ‘investigations’ to keep you up at night, be sure to check out this BookMatch Booklist of fast-paced thrillers and crime/spy novels, or request a list of your own through BKLYN BookMatch.