100 Books Like Call the Coroner

The first thing that drew me in with this book was Juliette’s unique voice; there’s a poetic cadence to the writing style that I found so compelling, especially in audiobook format! I’m a fan of a good dystopian book–especially if it has a romantic subplot–and this series delivered with rebellion, people with abilities, complicated relationships, and things not being quite as they first seemed.

Juliette’s inability to touch people without it being lethal added a lot of tension from the start. And the way memories were woven into the greater story? This brings a fun spin on the memory loss trope that expanded more and more as I read on. It’s easily my favorite aspect of the books! 

This book took me on an incredible adventure on the high seas. This historical pirate romance has everything—action, suspense, love, betrayal, bloody battles, and scorching hot steamy scenes. Rich and deep world-building, the depth of characters and storylines, and the beautiful descriptions pulled me into this story and kept me there the same way a riptide drags you under. I was left speechless during some scenes and will never be able to forgot this book as long as I live. The battle of wills between Bennett and Lord Ashley Cutler left me breathless and the scenes with her lover, pirate Priest Farrell, left me sweating. If you love swashbuckling historical romance with a modern twist, you must grab it. Not for the faint of heart or pearl-clutchers.

Oh, this one? It is everything. The villain is a virgin! Which deep down we all want. Seraphena is promised to him since childhood, groomed into marrying him and killing him in order to save her country. When the wedding night comes – he rejects her, leaving her behind. People blame her. If she hated him before, she loathes him even more. Until he reappears into her life to save her and they both fight this attraction. She still has a mission, and this is her excuse to try to seduce him. He is a tough nut to crack. He is actually more in control of himself than she is. As she grows to know him in his supernatural surroundings, hatred is hard to keep and so is distance…

This book introduced me to the forced proximity/enemies-to-lovers tropes and has haunted me ever since.

The pervading mystery of the story, punctuated by strong characters and a love that has a lot of yearning behind it, made this totally unputdownable.

The world-building is incredibly creative – focusing on a benevolent dictator with authoritative and intolerant rule for anything around magic or religion. It creates a fascinating landscape for the ensuing mystery, political intrigue, and romance that follows. 

Remember Mia is dark, emotional, and twisty. What I liked most about this book is how much the main character riled me up!

She’s an unsympathetic and unreliable narrator, and it propels the story forward. As this story unravelled, I questioned everything: Is the mother’s postpartum psychosis to blame for the missing child? Why didn’t she report the baby missing? Is there even a missing baby in the first place?

I enjoy when a novel makes me question what I thought I knew.

This novel is an invigorating thrill ride along the streets of “Old Brooklyn” in a modern-day setting. As a former New Yorker who once listed Brooklyn as a hangout, it is rather easy to empathize with Sydney Green while she witnesses her cherished neighborhood being overtaken by invader investors perusing the streets in the guise of tourists. Something strikes her as peculiar when For Sale signs continue popping up at the existing homes with long-time neighbors suspiciously relocating to the suburbs. 

Ironically, Sydney encounters an unlikely helpmate in the form of someone whom she considers one of the intruders; Theo, a new neighbor. There’s a mutual distrust between them but it is not enough to override their suspicions about the things that are taking place. Is it overly accentuated paranoia or a genuine fear that compels the unlikely pair of sleuths to discover what is actually happening? Will their homes… show more.

Lyndsay has strong ties with her family and, in the opening book of this series, I loved how all three generations, including her feisty grandmother, pitch in to help Lyndsay realize her dream of opening a Caribbean bakery and café in her local Brooklyn neighborhood.

And when a rival business owner is murdered, Lyndsay needs all the support she can get as the spotlight shines on her as a potential suspect. Despite any danger involved, she begins her own investigation. Things become further complicated when one of the detectives on the case turns out to be her high-school crush from the past.

With lots of determination, a warm heart, and an appreciation for what is important in life, I cheered her on right through the last page.

I once heard a friend of mine describe Last Exit to Brooklyn as “a significant minor novel.” He was wrong. It’s a good deal more than that.

Set in the same Brooklyn in which one will find Herschel Cain, the main character in my own novel, before he becomes professional wrestler Haystacks Kane, yet light years away, Last Exit is a searing portrayal of life in the raw amongst the American underclass, profoundly disturbing and terribly, terribly sad. It shook me to my core when I read it not long after it was published in the mid-1960s, and has remained with me ever since.

In countless ways, Selby’s novel thumbs its nose at traditional novel structure and the customary rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation in order to present virtually every moment of its bleak and upsetting narrative with a ferocious immediacy rarely found anywhere else.

In truth, it does… show more.

This book has everything a book club could ask for. Characters that you love, even when maybe you shouldn’t. Relationships that seem both familiar and endlessly fascinating. An epic dilemma that resonates and flourishes until the very end. It’ll definitely have you wondering, what would I do? At the end of the day, that question is all you really need for a lively book club discussion. 

It might ruffle some feathers to think of the early aughts era of hipster Williamsburg, NY as a “period piece,” but there’s no other setting for this dynamite novel. Cudmore evokes that perfect blend of cigarette smoke, eggs benedict, and the lingering scent of vinyl records in her mystery novel for those of us who grew up emulating High Fidelity but wish for it with a hidden track of murder. It takes me back to my own college days, when I was reading mystery novels… before it was cool. 😎