Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight

This playful story collection from Gran (the Claire DeWitt series) takes readers on a gleefully irreverent tour of classic crime tropes. “Choose Your Own Heartbreak” sees intrepid teen detective Cynthia Silverton pursuing her nemesis, criminal mastermind Hal Overton, in a brisk choose-your-own-adventure thriller. Cynthia appears again in “The Case of the Mysterious Dr. Crowley,” a riff on the five-minute mysteries from 1940s radio in which she investigates the theft of a professor’s space station plans. Gran’s best-known character, PI Claire DeWitt, is featured in a handful of stories, most notably “The Good Smell of New York City/The Ocean-Salted Air,” which links two crises in Claire’s life—one at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and one at the dawn of Covid-19. The collection’s excellent centerpiece is “The Mystery at Killington Manor,” a nearly 100-page Golden Age–style whodunit about a 16-year-old girl who’s forced to solve a country house murder. Gran’s characters always feel authentic, and the author infuses even her bleakest premises with a sly wit. This is an equally good bet for Gran’s longtime fans and newcomers to her work. (Feb.)