Open Books Challenge 2025: BIPOC Mystery Author

Updated December 31, 2024
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Dead dead girls
Afia, Nekesa
Paper Book
"In this terrific series opener, Afia evokes the women's lives in all their wayward and beautiful glory, especially the abruptness with which their dreams, hopes and fears cease to exist."--TheNew York Times The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the...
The man in the McIntosh suit
Ayuyang, Rina
Paper Book
A Filipino-American take on Depression-era noir featuring mistaken identities, speakeasies, and lost love. The year is 1929 and Bobot is just another migrant worker in rural California. Or rather, a migrant worker with a law degree from the Philippines reduced to manual labor...
Firekeeper's daughter
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! A Printz Medal AND Morris Award Winner! Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.
The family Chao : a novel
Chang, Lan Samantha
Paper Book
One of Literary Hub's and The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2022 A Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Mystery of 2022 An acclaimed storyteller returns with "a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery" that explores "family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American...
Runner
Clark, Tracy
Paper Book
"Lapel-grabbing and provocative...Clark writes with purpose, her sense of social justice never venturing into dogma but remaining fully rooted in Raines's actions and personality." - The New York Times Book Review "Clark has a unique voice in the P.I. genre, one that us...
Looking for smoke
Cobell, K. A.
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by...
Behind her lives
Cole, Briana
Paper Book
'That's not my sister.' Overwhelmed by shock and relief, those are the only words Deven can muster when she is called to identify the body of a suicide victim. A body she was informed was her sister, Kennedy. But as she stares at the lifeless stranger, she's filled with questions: Who is this woman?...
A deadly inside scoop
Collette, Abby
Paper Book
This book kicks off a charming cozy mystery series set in an ice cream shop-with a fabulous cast of quirky characters. Recent MBA grad Bronwyn Crewse has just taken over her family's ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and she's going back to basics. Win is renovating Crewse...
Razorblade tears
Cosby, S. A.
Paper Book
*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* One of Barack Obama's Recommended Reads for Summer * New York Times Notable Book * NPR's Best Books of 2021 * Washington Post's Best Thriller and Mystery Books of the Year * TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books...
Missing white woman
Garrett, Kellye
Paper Book
A "propulsive page-turner" (Alyssa Cole) and "thriller not to be missed" (Michael Connelly) from the award-winning author of Like a Sister, in which a woman thinks she's waking up to a romantic vacation--only to find a body in her rental home and her boyfriend gone. ...
Clark and Division
Hirahara, Naomi
Paper Book
Inspired by historical events, Clark and Division infuses an atmospheric and heartbreakingly real crime fiction plot with rich period details and delicately wrought personal stories Naomi Hirahara has gleaned from thirty years of research and archival work in Japanese American history.
The storyteller
Hobson, Brandon
Paper Book
From National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson, a kaleidoscopic middle-grade adventure that mixes the anxieties, friendships, and wonders of a Cherokee boy's life with Cherokee history and lore. Ziggy has ANXIETY. Partly this is because of the way his mind works, and how overwhelmed he...
Blackwater Falls
Khan, Ausma Zehanat
Paper Book
From critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, Blackwater Falls is the first in a timely and powerful crime series, introducing Detective Inaya Rahman. "A gripping and compulsive mystery, but much more than that: an exploration of faith, prejudice and fear of...
Sheine Lende : a prequel to Elatsoe
Little Badger, Darcie
Paper Book
Best of the Year: NPR - Common Sense Media - BookPage - Kirkus Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago...
Guide me home
Locke, Attica
Paper Book
In this stunning culmination of the award-winning Highway 59 trilogy, Detective Darren Mathews is pulled out of an early retirement to investigate the case of a missing black college student from an all-white sorority--and soon finds a town that will stop at nothing to keep its secrets hidden&...
Arsenic and adobo
Manansala, Mia P.
Paper Book
In the small town of Shady Palms, Illinois, Lila Macapagal and her relatives run Tita Rosie's Kitchen, serve delicious Flipino dishes, and solve crimes on the side.
The widows of Malabar Hill
Massey, Sujata
Paper Book
Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and...
The Bangalore Detectives Club
Nagendra, Harini
Paper Book
A "">New York Times Notable Book of the Year The first in a charming, joyful crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband Ramu. Perfect for fans of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies...
Sugar Town queens
Nunn, Malla
Paper Book
From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals. When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her...
Under lock & skeleton key
Pandian, Gigi
Paper Book
"Wildly entertaining." --The New York Times Book Review A Lefty Nominee for Best Mystery Novel Known for her wonderfully addictive characters, multiple award-winning author Gigi Pandian introduces her newest heroine in this heartfelt series debut. Under Lock...
The verifiers
Pek, Jane
Paper Book
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF THE YEAR * Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people's online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until...
Murder on the Red River
Rendon, Marcie R.
Paper Book
A murdered man in a field. The sheriff needs Cash--a twenty-something tough, smart Indian woman with special seeing powers. Cash and Sheriff Wheaton make for a strange partnership. He pulled her from her mother's wrecked car when she was three. He's kept an eye out for her ever since. It's...
Mango, mambo, and murder
Reyes, Raquel V.
Paper Book
Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quinones-Smith becomes a seasoned sleuth in Raquel V. Reyes's Caribbean Kitchen Mystery debut, a savory treat for fans of Joanne Fluke and Jenn McKinlay. Food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith's move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami,...
Harvest house
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith delivers a thrilling cross-genre follow-up to the acclaimed Hearts Unbroken. Deftly leading readers to the literary crossroads of contemporary realism and haunting mystery, Cynthia...
This town sleeps : a novel
Staples, Dennis E.
Ebook
A "tender, suspenseful, irresistible first novel" that explores Indigenous legend, queer relationship, and the power of landscape and lineage to shape our lives (Louise Erdrich, author of The Round House). An unsolved murder becomes the fixation of an Indigenous...
Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers
Sutanto, Jesse Q.
Paper Book
A USA Today bestseller Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback Audie Award Winner for Mystery Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by...
Public enemy #1
Swinson, Kiki
Paper Book
National bestselling author Kiki Swinson amps up the action and suspense with unpredictable characters, breakneck twists, and a gut-punch portrait of Southern surviving--and dying. Now the odds are straight-up killer when a private eye gets in way over her head... Too much to...

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