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Welcome to the June round of new mystery and thriller adaptations to watch! Jane Harper had her Aaron Falk film adaptation listed in my March roundup, and now Jane Harper is back with an adaptation for one of her standalone books! There’s also a blockbuster YA adaptation, a Hallmark movie with “pie” in the title, and a K-drama set to revenge, so get your popcorn ready!
Gwangjang by Oh Se-Hyeong and illustrated by Kim Kyun-Tae
I’ll start with a 2020 serialized Korean webcomic adaptation, though there doesn’t appear to be an English manga. Hopefully, if the adaptation is popular, that will be in the works.
The 8-episode K-drama Mercy for None will stream on June 6th on Netflix. The series follows Ki-jun into the crime underworld as he’s 100% set to avenge his brother’s murder. Not only is he planning to kill anyone involved, he also has the mystery to solve of why his brother was murdered, since both him and his brother had a deal to be left alone after leaving their gang life. This looks like a great watch for fans of revenge, crime, action, and John Wick.
You can watch the trailer here.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
E. Lockhart’s YA novel won the Goodreads 2014 Readers’ Favorite Young Adult Fiction award, and, at the time, the marketing and many reviewers remained tight-lipped on details, wanting not to spoil anything. It follows Cadence (Cady), who grew up wealthy and spent summers on her grandfather’s island with her cousins until a tragedy…
The 8-episode Amazon Prime video series will drop on June 18th. It starts on an island off Martha’s Vineyard where Cadence and three generations of her family reunite again. Except this time it’s after an accident and Cadence wants to know what really happened…
Watch the trailer here.
The Survivors by Jane Harper
In 2021, I started my review of The Survivors by saying, “I love that I can count on Harper to deliver an immersive, page-turning, atmospheric mystery every single time,” and I still stand by it. The standalone novel follows Kieran Elliott, who returns to his hometown—with his wife and infant—to help pack up his childhood home, as his father has dementia. That’s enough to deal with, but his return also pokes at old wounds, a tragedy, a missing person case, and all the accusations that come with it…
The 6-episode limited series will drop on June 6th on Netflix. It’s a family drama murder mystery exploring grief and secrets, 15 years after two people drowned and one person went missing.
You can watch the trailer here.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)
Joanne Fluke
If you’d like to see previous roundups for 2025’s mystery, thriller, and true crime adaptations, here’s a month-by-month list:
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf and see upcoming 2025 releases. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations! Until next time, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Goodreads, Litsy, and Substack.
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The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
It’s Pride Month, and while we celebrate queer literature here all year long, we go especially rainbow bold in June. This week, we’re excited to take a look at the favorite queer books of beloved queer authors.
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It’s Pride month, which is the perfect excuse to buy and read a bunch of queer books. One method I really enjoy for finding new books is to take the recommendations of my favorite authors. Carmen Maria Machado hasn’t led me astray yet. Unfortunately, I don’t have these authors on speed dial, but luckily, they usually have shared their recommendations publicly.
Below I’ve put together queer book recommendations from 11 beloved queer authors. Some are from interviews where they discussed their favorite books, and others are book blurbs. Both the authors’ works and the books they recommend cover a wide spectrum of genres and formats, including graphic novels, literary fiction, poetry, biographies, horror, sci-fi, YA fantasy, and more, so there’s something for every kind of reader.
Akwaeke Emezi recommends…
Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde
“Some of the most spectacular writing I’ve ever encountered in my life… Vagabonds! brought me to tears because it gave me a world in which my country could be home again.”
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