Books like Lila — picked by fans

This book is everything I love—an atmospheric setting, a fiercely independent heroine, and a slow-burning partnership filled with tension and intrigue. Charlotte Sloane’s sharp wit and refusal to conform had me hooked from the start.

I devoured this book in a single weekend, completely absorbed in the richly drawn world of Regency London and the dark secrets lurking beneath its surface. I love mysteries that blend history, strong characters, and intricate plotting, and this one delivered all of that and more.

Now, I’m not a fan of gory movies, so to begin with, when Eeny Meeny gave me Saw vibes I almost closed the book.

I’m glad I didn’t because not only did I enjoy the building tension, but I loved the character of DI Helen Grace in this, her first outing.

The victims in the sadistic game being played in this novel are pitted against each other in a ‘you’ or ‘me’ scenario, with their captor forcing them to make a decision. I’m intrigued with how people who are ultimately trying to survive a situation make morally tough choices, so this was a fascinating exploration and made me question: what would I do?

Christian Klaver is a relatively new writer on my Sherlock Holmes radar, but his book Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula is an entertaining one.

The style of this book is fascinating, as it’s less a novel and more a collection of interconnected short stories. As I said, I’m a big fan of Holmes and Horror, so the promise of Count Dracula was too difficult to resist. And I wasn’t disappointed.

The stories are a fun imagining of a meeting between the Great Detective and the Count and there’s even a little H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure.

James Lovegrove’s pastiches are among the best I’ve ever read!

I happen to be a horror and mystery fan, and Lovegrove’s stories are not only fun, they’re frightening. In this book, Holmes and Watson must solve a mystery involving an evil Christmas spirit called the Black Thurrick. They also must contend with a family who wants them to return to London above all else.

I received this book as a Christmas gift from my husband a few years ago, and it was my introduction to Lovegrove, who also writes The Cthulhu Casebooks, a series of Sherlock Holmes books concerning H.P. Lovecraft’s creations.

Fun Fact: James Lovegrove and Nicholas Meyer (author of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution) share the same birthday, December 24th.

I loved the main character of this book from the very first: Sgt Cribb of Scotland Yard. I came across this book through a television adaptation. I watched, then went scouring the shelves of my local library, finding, to my delight, that the book was the first in a series.

This was the first Cribb novel, and I found it charming, with a great mystery at its core. I love the fact that the background is a little-known Victorian sport: pedestrianism or endurance walking.

Three things landed this book on my list.

First, I love the ol’ book-within-a-book mystery trope, and this is probably the finest example I’ve encountered. Again, an editor reads her dead author’s book for clues, and I got to experience that in real-time with her. Second, the central clue around which the story revolves—the dead author’s note explaining why he ostensibly committed suicide—and its role in resolving the mystery was one of the most original formulations I can remember in recent years. It was nicely done. Finally, the story within the story hearkens back to the Golden Age of detective fiction, an era for which I have a soft spot (as a glance at the amount of Agatha Christie on my bookshelves will attest).

Since finishing it, I’ve recommended this book to a half-dozen people and have yet to have somebody tell me later that they weren’t happy with the… show more.

The Mother-in-Law is a funny mystery about a mother-in-law who is found dead and the likely suspect is the main character, Lucy who had a challenging relationship with her mother-in-law.

The main reason I recommend this book is not so much because Sally Hepworth is an amazing writer (she is!) and she keeps you turning the pages (she does!), but because this book ended up being so much more than a “whodunit” story.

As the story builds and we see the relationship between daughter and mother-in-law develop, we come to love both characters because they are so real, and their relationship is deeply complex. How do you love a difficult person? It’s not easy, but Lucy shows us how. I loved this book, and in fact, I want to read it again.

The complicated and wonderful characters in Mia’s family really drew me in. They all have enough to deal with: the pandemic; Mia’s first breakup; her complicated relationship with her twin, who seems to do everything right; their brother Eugene’s disabilities, which mean he’s often discriminated against or underestimated; and their parents’ struggles to keep it all together and move on from heartbreaking false hopes.

When her father disappears, Mia doesn’t let her other problems or even the fear and heartbreak get in the way of her determination to find out the truth–no matter how painful–and protect Eugene from unjust suspicion.

I loved the role the complex bonds between the various family members came to play in unraveling this case and coping with its ramifications.

A Japanese ghost story, set in an imaginary, contemporary, Japanese town by a Singaporean first novelist.

I picked this out at Brighton Library because I liked the cover, but Clarissa Goenawan's Rainbirds has survived the goodreads treatment, so hopefully she's a writer to watch (I mean, there will be more of these).

Readers have recalled Haruki Murakami, because it's allegedly Japanese, and a bit off-kilter, but to me this dreamlike narrative seemed fresh and floating: ungrounded, not alienated. I thought of another Japanese writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, & The Buried Giant: a misty, off-kilter take on Arthurian Britain, in which everyone seems either asleep, or else making the journey the dead make to wherever they go, while dreaming the novel's action...

No, I give up, I can't explain the charm, you'd have to try it and see, & yes, those are goldfish, not any kind of birds on the cover, and… show more.

Who wouldn’t want to go to a quaint town where the streets are lined with bookstores? Sign me up! Lorna Barrett’s series features mystery bookshop owner Tricia Miles ending up solving her own crimes, including one featuring a rare cookbook.

The idea of owning a bookstore, sharing a love of mysteries, and being part of such a special community really grabbed me as a reader. Since I can’t actually move to Booktown—aka Stoneham, New Hampshire—I’m glad I can read so many books about it!