I came to romance novels near the end of making a Burn Notice podcast and having spent the years recording that pod writing mystery procedural screenplays. As such, there’s a certain comfort that comes from reading romances where murder and mystery is a major theme or plot point! There are a lot of excellent historical murder mysteries which will absolutely come up soon, but this week I wanted to specifically focus on contemporary books that deal with violent death. I’m a romantic, you see.
My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey. Vacationing schoolteacher and bounty hunter doing a murder mystery together is a set up Tessa Bailey was born to write, and I’m so glad she did. For being an explicit murder investigation book, this story is actually a pretty breezy beach read, a contrast which amused and delighted me. Is it my favorite TB book ever? Nah, but she’s got so many, that’s bound to happen! However, it scratched my bubbly murder procedural with a solid dose of spice itch, and if you go in with expectations only for amusement, you will not be disappointed.
The set up is simple: Taylor is on a much needed vacation on Cape Cod with her brother, but upon arriving at their rental house, they discover a body in the laundry room. Myles is a bounty hunter hired by the dead guy’s sister to figure out wtf happened. He’s grumpy, older, and immediately obsessed with and annoyed by Taylor, who insists on contributing to the investigation.
When you look at the timeline of this book, it’s ridiculous, but we don’t read Tessa Bailey for slow burns, you Goodreads review freaks! I had fun, and you will probably also have fun if you have that gene. Don’t think too hard about it.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Leather and Lark by Brynne Weaver. I haven’t read book 1 in this series, recommended to me by a friend from my UCLA Extension romance writing class, because the library sent them to me out of order. I’m extra excited, though, since this follow up was really fun! I was concerned it wouldn’t be my thing, because I’m barely tolerant of mafia romances (your backwards ass society doesn’t make sense in a world where cell phones exist, my dudes) and this book is about a contract killer and a serial killer falling in love. But if you can suspend disbelief, and also stomach some fairly graphic on-page gore, this was surprisingly delightful?
Let’s set the stage. Two years ago, Lachlan Kane, assassin on-demand who desperately wants to retire, gets called to clean up a messy (death) situation for the daughter of a high profile client of his boss’s. He’s annoyed, he takes out that annoyance on the seemingly spoiled party princess (Lark Montague, in heavy Halloween makeup), and his rashness gets his “company” fired, which makes him even more annoyed at this anonymous girl. Who, two years later, turns out to be his new sister in law’s best friend… and, soon after, his only shot at saving him and his family’s lives.
Plot plot etc, they gotta get married-of-convenienced, turns out Lark’s not so spoiled and not so innocent (though my DIY expert husband has Thoughts about the long-term structural/smell stability of the epoxy murder coffee table, IYKYK) and has a darkness within her she keeps hidden from her loved ones so she can protect them. But it’s not so easy to keep that darkness at bay when you marry a surprisingly sensitive assassin who takes commitment seriously.
Plus, when you’re being threatened by a mysterious creep (which is saying something for two confirmed killers), two heads (still attached to bodies) are better than one.
A dark, DARK book about revenge, recovery, misconceptions, identity, and safety that I really did enjoy, even if I had to skim one or two passages to protect my delicate sensibilities.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson. A bit of a hard left turn from the other two books, this one involves (spoiler? I guess?) no actual murder! But our protagonist, PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh, is doing a dissertation on true crime, and like many enjoyers of that genre, is a little bit paranoid. She’s just moved back to her childhood home in Florida temporarily after her father died, ostensibly to split her time cleaning out the house and finishing her dissertation. But an alarming meet cute that happens in the dark sets her paranoia off, so of course she procrastinates from her actual to-do list in service of investigating her affable-appearing new neighbor Sam for serial killer tendencies.
If you’ve read Alicia Thompson before, you know what you’re about to be in store for: a sensational starting point to ease us into a deep character study about self sabotage and accepting change, even if it means taking a risk when you think you’re not nearly strong enough to withstand the consequences. This book is also about the oddities of grief when your relationship with the deceased was complicated, how vulnerability is scarier than murder, and being a good neighbor.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books about characters with hidden intent! Because it’s October so I’m trying to stay somewhat on theme (murder this week, disguises [of intent] next week, then DANGER DANGER the week after shhh spoilers).
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
Follow me on social: Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky
Available now: my debut marriage of convenience romance Rehabbing the Billionaire! Buy your copy on Amazon, or snag it on Kindle Unlimited! Then, rate it on Goodreads to help more people discover it!
I love My Killer Vacation—so underrated! It's exactly the kind of rom-com mystery I want to write in my next series :)