The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, November 4.
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Hello, fellow bookworms!
I hope everyone had a happy Halloween and enjoyed that extra hour of sleep (or reading time!) we got over the weekend. These next few weeks bring us even more bookish offerings from UCSB Arts & Lectures, with the hilarious David Sedaris on November 7, National Book Award–winning poet Martín Espada on November 13, and contemporary-lit legend Colm Tóibín on November 19. See artsandlectures.ucsb.edu for information and tickets, and keep your eye out for more to come!
Now I’ll hand it over to Richelle Boyd to bring you a roundup of mysteries — for those of us who don’t want to let go of spooky season just yet!
Happy reading!
—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com
The mystery genre is one of my favorite’s to dive into — a little intrigue, a lot of twists, and at least a couple of kooks driving the story forward. And as it starts to get colder, I can’t help but crave a warm blanket and a page-turner that has me questioning, “What comes next?” Get ready for murder, mayhem, and mystery with these books.
The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag (2013)
If you’re like me and not quite ready to let go of the horror and gore of Halloween just yet, then The 9th Girl is a book for you. Starting on a frigid New Year’s Eve in Minneapolis, a young woman’s body falls from the trunk of a car into the street of oncoming traffic. With this being the ninth Jane Doe of the year — so badly disfigured and unidentifiable that the police nickname her Zombie Doe — the team dives into an investigation on her, wondering if she may be another victim of serial killer Doc Holiday. Hoag worries much less about the puzzle of the crime as she does unpacking the people surrounding it. Detectives Sam Kovac and Nikkis Liska (returners from Hoag’s other books) are more involved in the case than ever before as their personal lives begin to intertwine with the grim murder and their connection to the unidentified girl.
You don’t have to read the earlier books to understand the tension and steady hand that Kovac and Liska provide to each other throughout the story, committed fully to finding the ninth girl’s identity and giving her justice. When she is revealed to be a high school student, the major theme of social media use by teens and the angst surrounding teenagers shows how disconnected parents can be from their teens and how detrimental online activities and bullying can really be.
Adding an extra thriller element to the book is the question of Doc Holiday’s involvement in the crime, diving into the mind of the serial killer himself. Hoag plays with the “Did he or didn’t he?” question as the investigators dive deeper, revealing the killer to the reader but keeping you on the hook wondering if he was really involved. This is a bit of a slower read that makes you connect with all the characters for better or worse, but it’s filled with twists and turns that will keep you on your toes until the very end.
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols (2025)
It’s not easy to blend lighthearted humor and charming misfit characters into a murder mystery, but Jo Nichols, pen name of a wife-and-husband team, brings together a group of rambunctious neighbors to solve a murder in Santa Barbara. The landlady, Mrs. B, is the star of the show — overly eccentric, batty, and a stubborn idealist to boot, she only rents to people she cares about, which includes young playwright Sophie, agoraphobe Hamilton, single mother and sculptor Ocean, perfectionist Lily-Ann, finance bro Nicholas, and ex-con Anthony. Each is a seemingly perfect stereotype until a murder takes place outside of their circle of safe cottages.
Nichols gives depth and nuance to each character, slowly revealing more with each page and new perspective inserted into the mix, the story unfolding and becoming more complicated with each character’s point of view. When the newcomer Anthony is arrested for the crime, Mrs. B is convinced he’s innocent and confesses to the crime, throwing all the tenants into disarray.
To save her, the kooky band of tenants teams up to solve the mystery, and you can’t help but laugh as their personalities clash fiercely on the page. More than that, you get to dive into each character’s deeper secrets, fully explore their pasts, and watch as they shift their perspectives and work through their biases to figure out the murder for themselves while the police keep their eyes pointed at Anthony, the most likely suspect.
This is a quick, fun, and quirky read that will keep you on your toes until the very end, set in our own beautiful town of Santa Barbara, with fun references and character pitstops to all the familiar places we know. The little details of each character slowly revealed adds new layers to the plot and will keep you asking, “Who really committed the murder?” even after you’ve finished reading it.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934)
No one does mystery quite like Agatha Christie. Though I’ve read this novel many times and know the big twist ending that only Christie can provide, I love to come back to this book for its nostalgia and the perfect craft of each chapter. Murder on the Orient Express is a perfectly cut detective mystery novel and features one of Christie’s famed characters, Hercule Poirot. Isolated on a train and stuck in the snow, each character is given proper dissection and every detail is thoroughly examined.
Another book filled with quirky and eccentric characters, Poirot must maneuver through each version of the story he is told in the novel, picking apart and dissecting every detail he is given with M. Bouc on his side, quick to judge and the diametrical opposite of Poirot, and the help of coroner Dr. Constantine throughout the investigation. Characters such as Mary Debenham, Colonel Arbuthnot, Princess Dragomiroff, and Mrs. Hubbard throw the investigation for a loop, keeping you on your toes as to what really happened the night of the murder. Through diversions and interruptions, Poirot is as unmoved as the snow, steadily continuing his investigation without spurned judgement or quick conclusions.
The twist ending was a first for the detective fiction formula, testing the limits of justice and morality that people face. Christie begs the question: Is murder justifiable if the law has been unjust, and more than that, can murder be moral? This book is a fun, quick read full of charming oddballs and the all-too-perfect scheme at hand.
—Richelle Boyd
FROM OUR PAGES
We’ve had some great author visits and interviews recently, so don’t miss out. Here is some of our book-related coverage from the last two weeks! Read all this and more at Independent.com.
“Graphic Novel The Magic Fish Is 2025 S.B. Reads Book” by Izadora Hamm“Discussing the Complexities of Race, Faith, Politics, and Power with Alexis Okeowo” by Alice Dehghanzadeh
“From Hygge to Whodunits” by Shannon Brooks
UPCOMING BOOK EVENTS
Below, you will find a few bookish events coming up in Santa Barbara. If you are hosting a bookish event in Santa Barbara, be sure to submit the event to our online events calendar.
S.Y.V. Community Book Club Welcomes Author Joe Siple
Wednesday, November 5, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. | Various locations
S.B. Reads: Fiction Book Club
Wednesday, November 5, 5 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
S.B. Reads: Grupo de lectura en español (Spanish Reading Group)
Thursday, November, 6, 4 p.m. | Fox Wine
Guess Who’s in Town Reading Series: Poetry Reading: James Lenfestey and Chryss Yost
Thursday, November 6, 5:30 p.m. | Unity of S.B.
Book Talk and Signing: Michael Gurven: Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer
Thursday, November 6, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books
S.B. Reads: Refrescos y retratos (Refreshments and Portraits)
Friday, November 7, 6 p.m. | Eastside Library
UCSB Arts & Lectures Presents: An Evening with David Sedaris
Friday, November 7, 7:30 p.m. | Arlington Theatre
S.B. Reads: Vietnamese Stories and Crafts
Saturday, November 8, 11 a.m. | Montecito Library
Book Signing: John Holman: A Runaway LIfe
Saturday, November 8, 3 p.m. | Tecolote Book Shop
S.B. Museum of Art Storytime/Hora de cuento en el Museo de Arte de S.B.
Sunday, November 9, 11 a.m. | S.B. Museum of Art
Book Talk and Signing: Max Talley: Peace, Love & Haight
Tuesday, November 11, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books
S.B. Reads: Comic Chaos
Wednesday, November 12, 4 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
The Blue Whale Reading Series: Melinda Palacio & Diana Raab
Wednesday, November 12, 5:30 p.m. | Unity of S.B.
SBMM Book Club
Thursday, November 13, 10 a.m. | S.B. Maritime Museum
S.B. Reads Book Discussion: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
Thursday, November 13, 5:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
UCSB Arts & Lectures Presents Poet Martín Espada
Thursday, November 13, 7:30 p.m. | Campbell Hall, UCSB
Book Signing and Meditation: Ragan Thomson, Awakened Hearts: Stories of Embracing Light, Love, and Limitless Possibilities
Friday, November 14, 5:30 p.m. | Paradise Found
S.B. Speaks: Cultural Storytelling
Friday, November 14, 6 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
Book Signing: Christine Frisina: Lost in Silicon Valley
Saturday, November 15, 3 p.m. | Tecolote Book Shop
Goleta Valley Library Poetry Club
Sunday, November 16, 2 p.m. | Goleta Community Center
S.B. SPOTLIGHT
We at the Independent get many books sent to us by area authors, sometimes too many! It’s practically impossible for us to read and review them all, but just because we are busy bees does not mean that they aren’t worth the attention. In an attempt to not completely drop the ball, we have compiled a list of books here that are either written by a Santa Barbara author, feature someone in our community, or have another tie to Santa Barbara. I urge you to look through this list. Perhaps you will find your new favorite read!
The following are the most recent titles that have been sent to us.
Sparky the Brave Wildland Firefighter: Engine Slug Adventures by Jorge Hurtado
If you are a local author and would like us to feature your book in this section, please email allbooked@independent.com with the subject line “S.B. Spotlight.”
Book Reviews Courtesy of CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF BOOKS*
Thanks to the generous contributions of David Starkey, Brian Tanguay and their team of reviewers at California Review of Books, we are able to provide a steady stream of book reviews via our content partnership. Recent reviews at Independent.com include:
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis; review by George Yatchisin
*At the present time, all of the Independent’s book reviews are provided in collaboration with California Review of Books (calirb.com).
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