5 Addictive, New (and from Last Year) Mysteries We Can't Put Down

Claire DeWitt's one-who-got-away ex-boyfriend Paul has gotten very far away indeed—in that he's now dead. The San Francisco cops believe he was killed during a home invasion, but his wife believes otherwise, and so does Claire. Despite her struggles with drug addition (also detailed in the first book of the series), Claire decides to find out what happened. Her methodical, yet cocaine-fueled, search for Paul's murderer is utterly transfixing, mostly thanks to her soul-rakingly honest narration. This is a heroine who is so flawed—and so achingly desperate to be otherwise—that you can't help but relate. Her only way of negotiating the world is to follow the advice of a man she's never met, the far more famous detective, Jacques Silette, whose writing consists of equally honest commentary, such as, "Mysteries never end. And we solve them anyway, knowing we are solving both everything and nothing..." Claire's quest to avenge Paul is compelling, but her insistence on uncovering the mystery of her own self-destruction is what makes this book not just a compelling mystery, but a novel.