July MysteryKit: Cross Genre Mysteries

The topic for July is cross genre mysteries. These novels blend themes and elements from two or more different genres. Think of these "genre blending" suggestions:

*Romantic suspense: The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt
*Historical mysteries: Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St Stephen by Emily Brightwell
*Regency romance mysteries: Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries by Ashley Gardner
*Paranormal mysteries: The Great Witches Baking Show by Nancy Warren
*Fantasy/sci-fi mysteries: Thursday Next Mysteries by Jasper FForde

Check out Goodreads, Book Riot, or our own LibraryThing for some ideas, and be sure to post your own suggestions here in this thread!

Remember to update the wiki! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2024_MysteryKIT

I may read A Point of Law, a historical mystery set in ancient Rome, in memory of the author, John Maddox Roberts, who died recently.

I'm planning on Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty.

I'm planning to read The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu, an SF/mystery riff on Hamlet.

I just started Time to Depart (Marcus Didius Falco #7; by Lindsey Davis) - Historical-Fiction Mystery

I read Sick of Shadows by Marion Chesney a cross of mystery and historical.

Starting Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard, the first in what she describes as a trilogy of "Aztec noir fantasy featuring priest-investigator Acatl".

COMPLETED Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard, a mix of historical mystery and fantasy set at the height of the pre-Columban Aztec Empire.

Starting the next in the series, Harbinger of the Storm

I read Dark, Witch & Creamy by HY Hanna for this month's challenge. It is a cozy mystery that includes witches and an aging vampire.

I read The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett which is a fantasy/mystery with a Holmes and Watson detective and assistant dynamic. This was excellent. Highly recommend.

I finished Time to Depart (Marcus Didius Falco #7; by Lindsey Davis) yesterday afternoon. I've been away from this historical mystery series set in Ancient Rome for a couple months and it was nice to go back! These are cozy mysteries set during Vespasian's rule and feature Marcus Didius Falco, an informer (combination detective and spy) for the Caesar but also available for general hire.

The story opens on a quay just outside of Rome with the crime lord Balbinus taking advantage of a loophole in Roman law: Like all Roman citizens who have been convicted of capital offenses, he is being giving the opportunity to leave the Empire forever. Should he return, however, he can be executed where he stands. Falco, just returned from Palmyra, bears witness to this event, the culmination of his friend Petronius’s investigation. However, after Babinus' departure, a power vacuum develops in Rome with high stakes heists and kidnappings keeping the Fourth Cohort (combination fire department and law enforcement unit of which Petro is the head) busy. Given limited jurisdiction beyond the Fourth Precinct, Petro and Falco, sometimes working in tandem and other times at odds, work out who could be responsible.

This is a solid mystery, fairly clean of an over-abundance of research of which the author is sometimes guilty. I thought I might have trouble tracking the number of characters (cf Last Act in Palmyra) but I was pleased to discover that I did not need a cast list.

>11 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I am glad to see I am not the only one who needs to make lists of characters when I am reading. It is especially difficult sometimes to get back to the beginning of a book when reading on my Kindle/tablet. Those paper lists come in handy!

>12 LadyoftheLodge: I may need to start doing that for treebooks. It's easier with ebooks, I just bookmark where I am and then search for the character's name.

COMPLETED Aliette de Bodard's Obsidian and Blood trilogy, historical mysteries set in Tenochtitlan at the end of Axayacatl-tzin's reign and the beginning of Tizoc-tzin's reign. The books also have a strong fantasy element, in that priests can wield supernatural/magical power and visit the gods.

Servant of the Underworld
Harbinger of the Storm
Master of the House of Darts

Starting another historical fiction/mystery, The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters, set amongst Egyptologists in 1911/2

Also currently reading a short SF mystery, The Possession of Paavo Deshin by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

>16 Robertgreaves: I just picked that one up during last month's Audible sale, plus The Recovery Man's Bargain. I should see if I can squeeze them in this month since they are both pretty short.

Finished Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood, historical mystery set in the 1940s.

COMPLETED The Possession of Paavo Deshin by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Lost Girls of Paris / Pam Jenoff
4 stars

In 1946 in New York City, Grace comes across an abandoned suitcase and finds pictures of 12 young women in the suitcase. Who were these women and who does the suitcase belong to?

In 1943, Eleanor in London starts a women’s unit of the SOE (Special Operations Executive). Women are recruited and trained to head over to France to help the resistance there. They will transmit (coded) information by radio, they might even help blow up bridges. It is a dangerous mission and the women are risking their lives.

In 1944, Marie, who has recently sent her daughter outside London to live with an aunt and keep her safe, is recruited because she is fluent in French. But there is so much secrecy, it takes a while to figure out what they are asking of her.

I really liked this. Though the women weren’t spies, they were often referred to that way, with no other “good” word to describe what they were doing. It was very dangerous work, and not something I knew about before now. I enjoyed all three storylines. Of course, it was loosely based on real women who did this work (though men did it, too).

COMPLETED The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters, a historical mystery set in 1911/12

The August MysteryKIT thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/362016.

I read Poseidon's Gold by Lindsey Davis, number 5 in the Marcus Didius Falco series.

I just finished The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, which is a historical mystery and an Austen pastiche. I'd definitely recommend this series to my fellow Janeites!

I read a paranormal mystery A Body in 3B by Eryn Scott

I have finished Le carrefour des Écrasés, which is a historical mystery set in Paris in 1891. There's also much talk about the arts.

I was able to fit in one more historical mystery for this month, The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, book 1 in the Enola Holmes series.

This was one KIT I still wanted to fulfil and I had several other options for it, but I found that Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen was a perfect choice. It is a murder mystery set in the Regency period, and it also has strong elements of romance and the Gothic novel.