We'll be the first to admit that the words "skullduggery" and "heist" will immediately sell us on a book, so it shouldn't be any surprise what the lead-off title in this week's newsletter is. 
 

That's right. It's Patrick Radden Keefe's Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. It's a banker's dozen of, well, grifters, killers—you get the idea. Keefe's been writing stories about these sorts of folks for The New Yorker, and Rogues collects many of those tales into one handy volume so you can get a full dose of bad guys under one cover. Sign us up. 
 

And speaking of awkward relationships, here is Ashley Poston's The Dead Romantics, which is the story about a ghostwriter who has fallen out of love with love, her dead father, and a dreaded homecoming that is, in turn, hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Ah, yes, the quintessential summer RomCom read. 
 

And speaking of outrageous characters, Jess Walter has wandered back to the shelves with a collection of short fiction. The Angel of Rome and Other Stories is his second collection, and this is one of those rare volumes where each story is the perfect distillation of that key moment in someone's life where everything changes. These stories are perfectly polished. 
 

And speaking of polish, here's a new Hard Case Crime novel from Jason Starr. The Next Time I Die is about a fellow named Steven Blitz, who witnesses a man trying to force a woman into a car. He intervenes, gets stabbed in the gut for his trouble, and wakes up in a different reality where Steven Blitz is a bad, bad dude.  

Whoa! Hello, Philip K. Dick. The fine folks at Hard Case Crime are always playing around with noir conventions, and The Next Time I Die swings into territory first mapped by PKD. Starr, however, isn't doing the standard tourbus loop; he's heading down the side streets, looking for some serious action. Get your seatbelts on, dear readers, who knows where this bus is going!
 

And speaking of knowing the terrain, here's a marvelous new field guide to your favorite fungi. Niko Summers and June Lee have put together a comprehensive and marvelously illustrated pocket guide to the mushrooms of North America. Don't step off the trail without a copy of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Field Guide in your bag. 
 

And if you're in the mood for mushrooms, but don't want to deal with bug spray and sunscreen, may we suggest this new 500-piece puzzle from our friends at Galison? 

Pretty little things, aren't they? Probably half of them will kill you dead. Staying home is wise. 
 

And speaking of terror in the heartland, here is Louise Penny's and Hilary Clinton's collaboration, State of Terror. People Magazine calls it "a pulsating thriller." Time calls it "a heart-pounding mystery." We're just surprised that folks still go to People Magazine and Time for book reviews, but hey, if you are in the mood for some pulsating and heart-pounding, these two writers have you covered. 

To be fair, The New York Times calls it a "romp," and the Los Angeles Times calls it "taut." You may mix-and-match these words in any order. 
 

And speaking of paperback releases, Ada Ferrer's sweeping history of Cuba is out this week as well. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in History for its compelling exploration of the island nation's history. Ferrer covers the five-hundred years of Cuban history from the arrival of Columbus to the recent 2020 US presidential election, revealing a narrative that is still being written. 
 

Also out this week is Catherine Raven's Fox & I, her memoir about the time she spent in Montana, studying trees and applying for grants and stuff. Every afternoon, at 4:15, a mangy fox would wander through the property, and Raven—who was starting to feel a little isolated out there in the woods—decides she's going to chat with it every afternoon. Raven doesn't anthropomorphize the fox as much as we tend to do around here, but she does discover some meaningful insights into her relationship with the natural world.  

And finally, we're going to leave you with a curious question: why is it that cozy mysteries, the readership of which is predominantly female, all have Dad joke puns for their titles? Hmm? 
 

Anyway, here's Ellie Alexander's Donut Disturb, a clever tale of marriage, mayhem, and murder. Sure, you show up for a delightful outdoor wedding at a marvelously decorated park in Ashland, Oregon, and OF COURSE, there is going to be some drama on the way to the altar. The band can't play on when their bassist has been stabbed to death, and it falls on amateur sleuth and pastry chef Juliet Capshaw to crack the case before this party crashes hard.