It’s Mid-Summer Murders Week, Part 3

A special all-mystery edition

Hi friends,

It’s the third annual Mid-Summer Murders week here at What to Read If.

As I wrote in the first edition, “For the uninitiated, “Midsommar Murders” is a long-running British TV show, based on a book series by the same name, about crimes in a wealthy English county. It is peak cozy British crime.

For Mid-Summer Murders, I’m spotlighting three mysteries spanning the genre. In keeping with the TV show, none of them are too gory or dark. Think puzzle books, not hard-boiled noir.”

This summer, I have three more submissions to add to your beach bag (check out the sophomore edition here). Quick programming note: I’m taking next week off. I’ll be back in your inboxes on July 28^th.

And, now, what to read if …

You Want to Play Detective

Can You Solve the Murder? by Antony Johnston

Anyone who read the “Chose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid will want to put Antony Johnston’s Can You Solve the Murder? at the top of their lists. Like those novels, it puts the reader in the driver’s seat, as you make decisions about who to interview, what leads to chase and which scenes to examine. Depending on the choices you make, the murderer will be brought to justice — or you’ll need to go back to page one to try again.

(Sidebar: The “Choose You Own Adventure” books were created by the grandfather of David Corenswet, the actor starring in the new “Superman. This is not relevant to the book; just a delightful bit of trivia I recently learned.)

It’s a bit difficult to describe the plot of Can You Solve the Murder? because it will be different for every reader. The only constant is the opening: A local businessman has been murdered at the Elysium, a floral-themed wellness retreat set in an English country manor. The victim appears to have been stabbed with a fork and then fallen from a balcony. Strangely, there’s a rose in his mouth. You quickly discover the balcony can only be reached through a locked door, and the key is missing. Every guest and employee is now a suspect.

I solved part but not all of the mystery at the core of Can You Solve the Murder?, but I still had a lot of fun with the unique reading experience it provided. If you read it, let me know how you do.

You’re a Fan of the “Queen of Crime”

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong

As the book opens, members of a university’s detective-fiction club are on a boat, about to be dropped off on a remote island where a gruesome murder occurred the year before. The group — who call each other by the names of famous mystery writers (Poe, Carr, Orczy, Van Queen, Leroux and, of course, Christie) — plans to spend the week in the island’s Decagon House, a creepy ten-sided residence.

But, instead of exploring the island or writing short stories for their magazine, the students are murdered one by one, by a killer who seems to be taunting them. The friends don’t want to believe that one of their own could be a murderer, but as the killings continue, the idea of an outsider hiding on the island starts to feel more and more unlikely.

I’ve wanted to read a Japanese mystery for a while (the country has a strong tradition of locked room mysteries, known as honaku) and was excited to learn The Decagon House Murders was finally available in English. It’s clearly an homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None — the characters even discuss the novel as they approach the island — but I was still genuinely surprised and impressed by the reveal. I’m looking forward to diving into more honaku, with Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders.

Reminder Rec: The Agathas is Agatha Christie meets “Veronica Mars.”

You Want a Classic

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I’ve written about my love of The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin’s classic middle-grade mystery, a few times, but haven’t featured it because, until recently, it had been years since I read it. But this summer, I returned to the novel and discovered it still, mostly, holds up.

On the Fourth of July, sixteen strangers receive personal invitations to rent luxury apartments, at a below-market rate, overlooking Lake Michigan and business scion Samuel Westing’s mansion. On Halloween, one of the building’s youngest residents, Turtle Wexler, finds Samuel dead in his home, and that is when the real mystery begins.

The sixteen renters — plus a few of their acquaintances — are invited to the will reading where they learn Westing believed he was murdered by one of them. Whoever finds his killer and solves his “puzzle” will receive his $200 million fortune.

Without spoiling too much, I can say The Westing Game engages in the kind of wordplay my brain loves. Reading it in elementary school, I remember being delighted by the reveals and now, in my thirties, I was impressed with what Raskin pulls off. This one could be a great option for a family book club this summer. (I will note that some of the language reflects the book was written in the ‘70s — as do the attitudes of the characters — so please know that going in, especially if you’re reading with kids.)

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