The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Published by Viking, 2016

I loved The Thursday Murder Club. Osman really hit it out of the park with his first installment, but I found the second volume a bit klunky at the start. By the time he found his footing again, I felt the story was overly thin. 

I thought I might just be having an off day as a reader, and talked with some other fans of the first volume who told me that the second does pale, and that, unfortunately, it seems the third and fourth are each worse by degrees in turn.

Read the first one, but feel free to skip the rest in the series. 

The Hunter by Tana French

Published by Viking, 2024

I’ve loved Tana French’s writing since I first read Into the Woods in 2010. The Hunter is the second in her Cal Hooper series, which I like just as much as any of the Dublin Murder Squad. 

I was so engrossed in the characters she created that I was 300 pages in before I remembered that this was supposed to be a murder mystery and wondered when the body would show up. 

I’m very much looking forward to the next installment. Cal Hooper and crew have taken up space in my personal canon.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Published in 2025 by Tor.

The River Has Roots is immersive, lyrical, and mystical. It’s a fairy tale for grown-ups, and I loved everything about it. The interior illustrations by Kathleen Neeley only make the experience richer. 

I fell in love with El-Motar’s collaboration with Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose the Time War, and couldn’t put my hands on this standalone debut fast enough. It didn’t disappoint. 

Warning: Reading this raised the bar for all the books that I would read after it.

Reading this was like getting a gift.