The sunscreen is in the air, the mosquitoes are buzzing, and hopefully your AC is on at maximum speed. That’s right, we’re in the middle of summer. For many people, summer comes with memories of summer camp – from sleepaways to week-long art or sports-themed editions – and trips to the amusement park for all the delicious fried food, lemonade, and memories of those rides.
So why not combine nostalgic memories of summer fun with a mystery to solve! I mean, we’re fans of mystery and suspense after all. Depending on your summer mood, there’s a fictional serial killer thriller set in an amusement park, an unsolved missing persons case at a summer camp, and siblings fighting over a family estate that happens to be a family summer camp.
wonderland (Wonderland #1) by Jennifer Hillier
For fans of amusement parks, fantasy serial killers, and multiple POVs!
What begins with an amusement park employee breaking into the grounds to climb a Ferris wheel ends with a dead body being found… It’s a hell of a way for Vanessa – who moved her kids to Seaside, Washington to get away from her past – to start her new job as Deputy Police Chief. The day begins with an unidentified body, and then a missing teenage employee, and then a history of missing persons cases involving an amusement park with a dark past.
Bonus: follow up, heart of Glass, Release in August!
All Access members, read on for more summer camp + amusement park secrets!
I’ll never tell By Katherine McKenzie
For fans of family drama, summer camp setting, mysteries involving wills and estates, and previously unsolved mysteries!
The McAllister siblings aren’t surprised that they’ll need to decide (and fight) over what to do with the family summer camp after their parents’ deaths. Eventually, they are reunited at the camp to hear their parents’ wishes. However, he didn’t imagine that he would have to solve a 20-year-old mystery about what happened to one of his best friends. Nor will any of them be charged…
a killing camp By Nicholas Didomizio
For fans of family drama, summer camp setting, camp lore, and past murder mysteries!
Just shy of 30, Mickey is a rich kid whose father is shocked when he learns that Mickey has bought a New York apartment to house a friend (a complicated relationship Mickey must sort out). Mickey’s father decides he needs to learn responsibility and sends him to the family summer camp, where he has to 1) take care of his aunt (she is a child, Mickey’s former high school classmate married his grandfather), and 2) prove that he has contributed in some way. If he failed, there would be no inheritance for him. So Mickey goes to help his “aunt” befriend and guide a group of summer camp kids. It turns out, those kids are interested in solving some camp-related stories involving a murder mystery. Will having a crush on a fellow camp counselor help or make things worse?
browse books Recommended in previous newsletters of unusual suspects on this heLeft look more 2026 Release! until next timebring talk books with me blue sky, goodreads, litsiAnd Majority involved.
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