You're listening to all the backlist, a weekly show about books that are not new.

I'm your host, Vanessa the Yes, and this is episode 480.5 airing on Friday, September 13th.

And today I'm going to tell you about mysteries with back to school vibes.

It is, of course, September and most folks of a school going age have probably been back in school

for a few weeks or days or maybe even a month depending on your school system.

And this is evidenced by how many more cars

I see on the street when driving through school zones

on my way to work.

Every year when this happens, I get a little bit nostalgic

for like school days, possibly because so many of the schools I drive by here in

Portland have these beautiful brick facades and just look like what I thought an idealized

version of the school should look like when I was young. So I might in fact really be getting

nostalgic for an experience I didn't actually have. Maybe I just miss buying school supplies. That could be the case. Anyway, let's talk about

mysteries with that back-to-school vibe set at at schools before we get into those.

Let's hear from our sponsor.

Today's episode is brought to you by W. W.Norton, publishers of Still Life by Catherine Packard Burke.

Everything in Evis life is approaching disaster.

Her writing career is stagnant, her love life is a hot mess,

her ex-Tessa is marrying a man man and her best friend Val is dead. Alone in Texas,

she is left loveless and exhausted as a saint slowly chips away at Trans Rights,

and she's wondering if Val's death was her fault.

Still life follies between the past and present,

...