Literary murders to distract you from the news cycle

Also this week: Annabelle Gurwitch, critics' picks and more by Petra Mayer [The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths]( Ready for a good mystery to distract you from the news? Yup, us too. Elly Griffiths' new The Postscript Murders kicks off with an old woman found dead -- sad but hardly unexpected. Until her caretaker finds a shelf stuffed with mystery novels all personally inscribed ... and then the authors of those novels start dying. Turns out the woman worked as a "murder consultant," thinking up macabre deaths for mystery authors. "I slightly got the inspiration from my own aunt," [Griffiths tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly](. "She would ring me up and say, 'Oh 'ello, love, I've thought of another good murder for you.'" --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- [You're Leaving When? by Annabelle Gurwitch]( For author and actress Annabelle Gurwitch, the blows just kept coming: She found herself divorced after a 22-year marriage, she lost her health insurance, her parents died, her cat died, the pandemic hit ... and then she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. She writes about it all in her latest comedic memoir, You're Leaving When? ""There have been so many experiences that come with downward mobility," [she tells NPR's Mandalit del Barco](. "I'm not saying financial insecurity is good or desirable, but there are silver linings, things that I have found that have been so redemptive." [Shaking the Gates of Hell, by John Archibald]( Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed his famed Letter from Birmingham Jail to his fellow clergy -- especially white clergy who stayed silent on racism and injustice, telling them they'd have to repent "for the appaling silence of the good people." That's what Birmingham News columnist John Archibald is trying to do in his new book Shaking the Gates of Hell; his father, a Methodist preacher in Alabama, had never spoken out on race. "I needed to hold my father accountable for this silence — but I also wanted to show the fullness of him, someone who was, in his private life, very committed to civil rights," [he tells All Things Considered's Michel Martin](. And a sad note this week -- Norton Juster, author of the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth, died of complications of a stroke at the age of 91. Reporter Andrew Limbong [has an appreciation here]( (and just between you and me, he told me reporting this story was what made him truly begin to appreciate the Tollbooth.) Photo courtesy of Scholastic [Norton Juster]( Finally this week, Imbolo Mbue's new novel [How Beautiful We Were]( is set in an unnamed African country where villagers are battling a multinational oil company. Critic Tochi Onyebuchi says "Mbue, gloriously, avoids the trap of depicting the Story of Africa as pure and unmitigated exploitation and slow-moving calamity." Critic Ilana Masad says Elon Green's [Last Call]( "reads like the hardboiled true crime book that it is," but that it also firmly centers the forgotten victims of a serial killer who stalked gay men in New York in the early '90s -- rather than mythologizing the killer. Nadia Hashimi's [Sparks Like Stars]( tells the story of a woman who escaped her family's murder in Afghanistan as a child to make a life in New York. When the soldier who saved her turns up at her medical practice, she decides to go back to Afghanistan to reclaim that lost heritage. Critic Marcela Davison Avilés says "I found myself eagerly following her adventure in a way I hadn't remembered in a long time." [How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue]( [Last Call, by Elon Green]( [Sparks Like Stars, by Nadia Hashimi]( I hope books bring you what you need this week! -- Petra --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [books@npr.org](mailto:books@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Pop Culture, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Books emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]