70 books like Buzz Killer

Matt Goldman has led an interesting career. His roots are in comedy, having been a successful Hollywood TV writer on shows like Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Ellen. But he made the unlikely career shift becoming a successful crime writer with his Nils Shapiro detective series. Carolina Moonset, his latest, is a standalone novel that tells the story of a young man who visits his family in his childhood home, Beaufort, South Carolina. His father suffers from Lewy Body dementia. He has trouble remembering what he had for breakfast but still connects to rich, childhood memories, some of which concern both a past and present-day crime.

Goldman is especially strong when it comes to depicting a family torn apart by the ravages of this insidious disease. But Goldman skillfully creates a mystery that grabs the reader and won’t let go. As someone who… show more.

Reed Farrel Coleman, called “a hard-boiled poet,” and a “noir laureate” has written somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty crime novels, including a number of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone novels. One of my favorites is Where it Hurts, which features divorced, retired cop Gus Murphy who’s picked up part-time work as a courtesy van driver for a run-down hotel. The only thing that interrupts his mindless routine comes when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks Gus to investigate the mysterious death of his son. Coleman is particularly strong when it comes to character. This book especially resonates with me because of Coleman’s ability to dig deep inside his character’s psyche, not only examining how they tick but why they tick. His books, especially this one, are tightly plotted but for me the real attraction is his examination of personal, moral dilemmas. I’m especially attracted to and admiring of Coleman’s books,… show more.

This is the first in the Franky Dast series and it was nominated for a Shamus Award. Dast was convicted and sentenced to Death Row when he was 18, for the rape and murder of two adolescent boys. Eight years later, the verdict is overturned, in part as a result of the relationship Dast has established with the Justice Now Initiative, an organization specializing in cases of wrongful imprisonment. On his release, Dast joins the group and becomes involved in a case that hits close to home: the cop who arrested and coerced a confession from him is accused of shooting the son of a prominent judge. In Dast, Wiley has created the kind of complex character I’m drawn to, both as a writer and a reader. Wiley’s ability to dive deep into the psyche of complicated characters is something I’m always striving for.

David Joy, an Edgar Award finalist for his first novel, Where All the Light Tends to Go, is a master of character, mood, and setting. This novel is set in Appalachia and immediately we’re pulled into a dangerous world that has its own set of fierce rules for survival. The novel opens with Darl Moody hunting for a monster buck which if snagged can mean the difference between meat for the winter and an empty freezer. Hunting for men like Moody is not about sport but survival. Unfortunately, he’s followed his prey onto private land, where not only shouldn’t he be but where he certainly be hunting. When he accidentally kills not a buck but a man—it turns out he’s killed a Brewer, a member of a family notorious for vengeance and violence—his life is turned upside down and it’s touch and go as to whether he’ll survive. From… show more.

Do you ever have those books that, no matter how late it is or how tired you are, you just can’t stop reading? That was me with this book. 

This is the second book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and since the first book was extremely boring, I was hesitant to start this one. I'm so glad I did, however, because it quite literally changed my life.

The characters feel like family and fill a growing hole in my heart to replace what I've lost. The main character, Feyre, is so resilient with her past trauma, and it helps me conquer mine. I also adored the romance between Feyre and Rhys–I will forever ship them. 

If you like something with a little less spice and a lot of spunk, you want to read KM Shea.

Crown of Shadows is the second trilogy in her Magiford world and in my humble opinion, the best. This world is wonderfully built, with wickedly funny characters and romances that don’t reduce the heroine into quivering limp puddles. Instead, she races around on hellish looking horses and demands to marry an assassin. What a woman. 

I would classify this book as mainly fantasy, but it has a strong romantic subplot, so I’m counting it for this list! It is book 5 in the ACOTAR series and while it is told from a new character's POV it would definitely help in understanding the world to start at the beginning (you won’t regret it). Nesta, our heroine, starts this book broken and alone. She has pushed away everyone who loves her. Nesta’s character arc in this book is one of the best I’ve ever read. It is slow and painful, but watching her overcome her past trauma and emerge triumphant is amazing. In the end, Nesta saves herself by finally accepting help from her friends and family and especially the sexy warrior who loves her, Cassian. It would be a mistake to think a heroine needs to stand alone to save herself. Sometimes real strength means knowing… show more.

This richly illustrated account of the century in which Manhattan was the preeminent metropolitan city at night is written by a scholar I admire enormously, who has become a friend since I first read this book. Sharpe has an encyclopedic knowledge of the art and literature of the modern city, and New York Nocturne is in consequence a treasure trove of cultural-historical information. But it is also beautifully written. It reads not only the paintings, photographs, poems, and novels about New York with sensitivity and insight, but the sometimes glamorous, sometimes painfully arduous lives of those who lived in it. 

In A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, Lawrence Block’s alcoholic and unlicensed PI, Matthew Scudder, investigates two cases. Scudder is introduced to the first when shown a copy of the movie The Dirty Dozen, over which someone has taped a gruesome crime involving a child. The second involves sex games and a potential murder for hire. Scudder is a PI who often skirts the law, and sometimes strays into brutality. His friend Mick Ballou, churchgoing butcher and Irish mobster, and his lover call-girl Elaine, help him sort things out. This book includes superb characterizations, interesting insight into the world of alcoholism, and a very dark nature. The book also delves into the world of vigilante justice. In this arena, the worse the bad guy, the more satisfying the justice, and in this case, Block is spot on.”   

One of the many wistful and beautiful photos in this book caught my eye in an exhibit at the New York Historical Society in 2021.

Her photography, and the attendant essays, evoke not only the isolation of quarantine, but the ways we rediscovered the desire for human connection. What could be easier than meeting a friend, careful to stay 6’ apart? Or sadder?