100 Books Like Spells for Forgetting

How hard would it be to solve a crime in a society where, systemic inequalities aside, you can get away literally with murder thanks to magic? Well this is the question that Constable Reva Lunaria and her new partner Ansee will have to answer, while cutting through a lot of red tape, politics, an elusive killer, and the very foundations of their elven society.

This book (the first of a series) takes the old buddy cop /odd couple comedy set up, mixes with political intrigue, a whodunit thriller, and places it in a fantasy setting, where tensions run high, time runs short, criminals run away, and you are left with a pressing side question: will Reva ever manage to finish her freshly baked sweet roll?

House of Earth and Blood was the first new adult fantasy book that I read that made me fall back in love with the fantasy genre. I had rediscovered my love for reading in my late teens after not reading much for a few years. Bryce Quinlan reminded me a lot of myself. In that, she was the first lead female character who isn’t thin and petite. Rather, Bryce is curvy and different from other women that Sarah J. Maas has written. I instantly felt drawn in by Bryce and her carefree attitude in the first half of the book. Her strength is admirable and authentic. Her story and struggles captured me much like many readers.

Though Bryce does have her struggles as being defined as a “party girl,” she is so much more than the label. Beneath it all, Bryce is someone you can’t help but to root for,… show more.

Tapping into Edinburgh’s grim history of graverobbers (which, if you haven’t had the chance to play tourist in Scotland before, is absolutely fascinating), The Resurrectionist of Caligo uses the dark fantasy staples of blood magic and necromancy to explore the death industry, its role in urban environments, and its storied connection to academia and medicine. Following the trials of Caligo’s local “resurrectionist”, Roger, this book examines what happens to the dead in fantasy worlds, tracing the journeys of their cadavers from death to autopsy to burial to exhuming, taking a closer look at the ceremony and taboo surrounding death and how cities manage the nitty-gritty logistics of storing (or utilizing) their dead once the funerals are over.

Immediately following the events of Gideon the Ninth, the reader is thrust into the wreckage of Harrow just as lost as she is, both reader and character engaged in a mind-bending fight to unravel the mystery of who she is now and what she will become.

This is a sequel, and can’t be read without first reading Gideon the Ninth. And it is impossible to fully articulate this book’s place on this list without robbing the reader of the experience found in Harrow’s self-discovery. But I had to include it anyway; this book made me crazy (positive), it made me despair (as in I will never write something this cool), and it made me reflect on all the ways that queer people compartmentalize ourselves, the ways we perform normativity and queerness, and how mind-bending it can be when we try to sort the pieces of ourselves out into… show more.

The murder of the ‘Princes in the Tower’ is the most famous cold case in British history. Matthew Lewis delves into the context of the disappearance and the characters of the suspects and asks a crucial but often overlooked question: what if there was no murder? Lewis provides a rounded and complete assessment of this most fascinating historical mystery.

This is the first book in the Valorian Chronicles, and boy, I wish it was a tv series! I like to think of this book as CSI: Paranormal (or Otherworld Crime Unit as it is named in the book). It’s a dash of police procedural in a world much like ours but with vampires, werewolves, and more creatures that live in a society that goes by their own rules. This book is mixed with a dose of sexy chemistry between the leads wrapped in a happily ever after bow. It’s great for those nights where I’m looking for a bit of suspense and mystery with my romance featuring a vampire hero.

The Life I Left Behind is one of my favorite smoothies—a delicious mix of contemporary mystery, psychological thriller, and the paranormal, elevated with the finest spices of intrigue and exceptional writing. Two parallel lives intersect by way of one murderer. Melody barely survived his attack; only her mind has swallowed the memories. But when Eve is found strangled to death, clutching the same calling card left in Melody’s hand, fissures start to form. Of course, Eve knows who did it; she’s a ghost. Good thing Eve left a trail that could lead to the truth. Or, unlucky for Melody, lead to the murderer’s unfinished business. This masterpiece is narrated by Melody and Eve, successfully weaving together the world of the living with the afterlife. Plot, plausibility, characterization, and craft will mesmerize readers!

My all time fav Humorous Murder Mystery (now out of print but still available currently in the anthology He Do The Time Police In Different Voices) British author David Langford's The Spear of he Sun is set on a spaceship. This gem is simultaneously a terrific Locked Room murder mystery; the best Father Brown story I have ever read (and I've been a Father Brown fan for decades); a wonderful cozy mystery; and a fantastic parody-pastiche of GK Chesterton, The Roman Catholic Church imprints, and Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, all three at the same time. It's tears-of-laughter-pouring-down-your-cheeks funny, and a Hall-of-Fame-Quality of murder mystery if read straight. Don't miss it.

RL Stine's Switched isn't just a switching places story, it's a switching bodies story. And in this Fear Street installment, one of them is a killer. Yeah, it's intense. Nicole is a super normal teenager with pretty regular problems, like a boyfriend who can't get his act together and homework she can't manage, but a trip to the woods changes all of that. Next thing you know, people start to die. 

Things really take some strange twists and turns so you're in for a wild ride with this one. This is classic Stine and just a fun read, if your idea of fun is being shocked, confused and frightened with every page. What a great time!

Although this isn’t the first entry in the Peculiar Crimes Unit series, it’s the first that I read, and it hooked me. What a great idea for an offbeat police series, cleverly handled and featuring two eccentric London detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May. In this mystery, two cases initially appear unrelated, and it takes quite a bit of sleuthing before the links emerge. Bryant and May must unravel encrypted codes and symbols, discover secret rooms and dig through baffling clues as danger mounts. While this series has a darker tone than some of my preferences, it’s engaging and rewarding.