These Women

“This isn’t your typical whodunnit. This is a haunting look at a community of women—not just the victims, but the family, friends and neighbors surrounding the victims—their circumstances, and the setting in which their stories take place. It hops between 1999 and 2014, and is that rare crime novel that compels not just by its plot, which advances with its shifting points of view, but by its insight into gender, privilege, and power.” Read more...

The Best Thrillers of 2021

Tosca Lee, Novelist

***Shortlisted for the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards***

If you read mysteries for pure escapism, These Women by Ivy Pochoda is a tough one, with lots of drugs, streetwalking and seedy clubs. Set in LA, it’s the story of a group of mostly marginalized women, a number of whom end up murdered. The beauty of the book is that it’s really about them and their lives, and the mothers who mourn them, rather than the killer and the crimes. In terms of narrative structure,  the story is told from each of these women’s perspectives, which means you do have to adjust to the next narrator, but there’s enough overlap that it doesn’t break up the reading experience.

Best Mystery Books of 2021