Summer reading: mysteries and middle grade.

It is officially summer in Boston. We’re not quite at the solstice yet, but we’ve survived our first official heat wave and a couple of downpours, not to mention a few perfect porch-sitting nights. Unsurprisingly, my reading inclinations are going where they always go in the summer: mysteries featuring whip-smart female sleuths, and middle-grade novels.

I love both of these genres year-round, but there’s something about sitting on the patio or in the park (I don’t get to the pool very often) with a fast-paced, twisty mystery or a story about kids discovering the world for the first time. Both genres also take me right back to my own childhood summer reading days, devouring books by Beverly Cleary and Patricia MacLachlan, and (on the mystery side) piles of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden stories, some of them picked up in used bookstores on trips to visit my grandparents.

I still own a few of those childhood faves (maybe it’s time for a reread this summer?), but my reading is skewing toward slightly newer stories these days. I’ve discovered a few great middle-grade authors recently, like Gillian McDunn (Caterpillar Summer), Jasmine Warga (Other Words for Home), Kelly Yang (the Front Desk books), and Renee Watson (Ways to Make Sunshine). I am a huge fan of Karina Yan Glaser’s Vanderbeekers series (and the antics of her corgi puppy, Lalo, are my favorite thing on Instagram). I adore Lauren Wolk’s thoughtful novels and Lena Jones’ quirky Agatha Oddly series. And for the perfect summer-camp story, I recommend Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer’s To Night Owl from Dogfish.

Regular readers may remember that I spent last summer obsessed with Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series, set in Chicago. I loved Vic and her adventures, but got a little burnt out after more than a dozen books, so I took a break for a while. This summer, there’s a new sleuth in town for me: Lane Winslow, a British ex-intelligence agent who has moved to rural Canada after World War II for some peace and quiet. Unsurprisingly, she starts finding mysteries to solve, in the company of the local enigmatic police inspector and his cheerful young constable. I adore Lane and her supporting cast, and am already halfway through the series. Iona Whishaw’s writing is both thoughtful and compelling, and the mystery plots are fascinating.

I’ve also read a couple of fun standalone mysteries recently: SJ Bennett’s The Windsor Knot and Stephen Spotswood’s Fortune Favors the Dead. I loved the latest Maisie Dobbs and am looking forward to a new Mary Russell adventure by Laurie R. King this summer. (Clearly my taste, as ever, runs to the Anglophilic.)

What’s your summer reading looking like this year?

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