Some interesting short mysteries collected here. The stories felt a bit too short and there wasn't much to keep us tied to the characters throughout them or the mystery. I would definitely read Sara Gran again, but this wasn't quite for me. I think anyone looking for quick little mysteries just for fun, might enjoy these.

I really like mysteries, especially ones that you have to truly think about to understand how and why the case exists. However, Sara Gran was trying to create critiques on society in short mystery vignettes and I just couldn't enjoy it.

Thank you to the author, Dreamland Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My apologies for the delay in posting, I had several familial health challenges to contend with in the past months.

I was not familiar with this author and expected something a bit different. In reference to the title, I was often confused, but seldom enthralled. As with all collections of short stories/essays, some appealed more than others. I found the teen detective annoying, other selections enigmatic - the last story was however delightful and I can see where the author's strengths lie. That last story made me want to search out more by this author.

The mystery at the center of these short stories is what it means to be human. Each story examines the complexities of humanness and how we deal with them and connect with each other despite them.

“Make Your Own Tool of Psychospiritual Divination” is a one page paper fortune teller origami kid’s game. I found this one gimmicky but entertaining as I loved making and playing with paper fortune tellers when I was a kid.

In “Five-Minute Mystery: The Case of the Mysterious Dr. Crowley,” teen detective Cynthia Silverton solves a case involving a break in. Breaks the rules of fair play, but maybe that’s the point.

“The Mystery of the Mycelial Net That Will Sometimes, Somehow, If We're Lucky, Catch Us When We Fall” features Claire DeWitt’s assistant who solves his first case. Seeing a secondary character as a protagonist makes for a fun ride.

In “The Good Smell of New York City/ The Ocean-Salted Air” In 1988 and 2020,” Claire DeWitt navigates the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively, encountering the same woman in both timelines. One of my favorite stories in the collection due to the powerful parallels.

In “The Case of the Jewel in the Lotus Or The Mystery You Will Never Quite Solve, but If You're Lucky, Will Come a Little Closer to Every Day Until Death,” Claire DeWitt solves a case involving a woman named April and encounters her multiple times in the future. April made a fascinating character.

“One-Minute Mystery: The Case of the Razor's Edge Between Life and Death:” While Claire and Claude are at a restaurant, she detects another patron desperately needs her help. This is my favorite of the “minute mysteries” in this collection.

“The Case of the Blood on the Snow” involves an acquaintance who visits Claire in the hospital and shares a moving story. This one tugs at the heartstrings.

“Choose Your Own Heartbreak” is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-esque story featuring an adult Cynthia Silverton and her nemesis Hal Overton. I liked the experimental concept, but the story itself fell a touch short for me.

In “Cynthia Silverton & The Charnel House Grounds” teenaged Cynthia Silverton attempts to solve the mystery of her identity. Like the previous story, I wanted more from this story.

“The Mystery at Killington Manor Or The Feeling of Seeing Clear Blue Sky After Being Lost in the Woods” In 1949 teenager Poppy Killington-Wade discovers that her dear great-grandmother Mrs. Kitty has been murdered. This is one of my favorites of the collection. Poppy’s character arc is fantastic.

“Ten-Second Mystery: How You Never Seem to Get Exactly What You Want, but Somehow Time Moves Monstrously Forward Anyway” A mystery that might never be truly solved. The “mystery” is much shorter than the “solution” but maybe that’s the point.

This collection falls firmly on the side of literary fiction. Some of the stories were misses for me, but a few knocked it out of the park.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Atria Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first time I’ve read Sara Gran and she has a really unique writing style. I think this might not have been the best place for me to start and I decided to dnf but will want to try something else from her. Thank you to the publisher for the free ebook to review.

4 stars

Several short stories come together to titillate the typical crime-solver's brain in this small compendium by author Sara Gran. I was not familiar with the Claire Dewitt detective series before, but this felt like a good jumping-in point to this unusual detective, her distinctive style, and her world of revolving secondary characters. Plus, in between interconnected stories there were some standalone whodunnits and weirdly written mysteries that gave the book a playful, meandering quality that I enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley, author Sara Gran, and Dreamland Books for giving me free access to a digital ARC of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided here voluntarily.

This cool collection redefines the detective genre! It’s a treasure trove of character-driven tales which makes each mystery more than just a puzzle to solve. I found myself thoroughly impressed by every story, but Choose Your Own Heartbreak and The Mystery at Killington Manor were my favourites.

Gran’s storytelling is refreshingly inventive, featuring everything from the nostalgic paper MASH game to strong female protagonists who navigate their own intricate mysteries. The collection is a perfect mix of playful narratives and deep emotional themes - there’s definitely something for everyone.

Thanks to @thedreamlandbooks and @netgalley for providing the ARC!

This was not what I expected. I had never read anything by popular author Sara Gran, and I was looking forward to this introduction to her work. I thought this would be a selection of miniature mysteries with clues so the reader could try to solve the crimes. However, not enough clues were given. One selection, which contained two timelines on one page, was challenging to read on my Kindle. Its title, Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, was suitable (but I would omit the Enthrall and Delight wording).

The chapters were well-written and should appeal to fans of her books, but they didn't work for me. I did not read all the short stories. I think reading one of her books would be a better introduction to this author's works.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. Little Mysteries is due to be published today. 2.5 Stars.

Enjoyed this thoroughly! Was different than anything I have read. Wasn’t my first choice, but did like.

Little Mysteries by Sara Gran contained definitely more than nine titles within it. Most of the stories was written around Claire DeWitt (I have to be honest I have never read a book by Sara Gran prior to this one), her assistant Claude, or teen detective extraordinaire Cynthia Silverton. I was initially very impressed that the first couple of stories managed to have a certain melancholic quality to them, they were more like literary stories where someone happened to solve a mystery. By the 6th or 7th story I felt quite jaded, because ALL the stories were very bleak and had the same sad human condition (loneliness) as the main thing the characters ruminate about. I think only the second to last story was a real, proper murder mystery, instead of a sad detective story. Not to say that I didn't enjoy this book. I had a good time reading it and it was very well-written. It was just a bit one-note when read directly from start to finish.

eARC provided by NetGalley and Dreamland Books.

Sara Gran’s Little Mysteries is a collection of detective stories that are more character-driven than the average whodunnit. The detective stories we’re most familiar with are crafted with intricate plot twists and stock characters that serve as eye-catching ornaments in an elaborate narrative maze. Gran primarily contends with how mysteries affect human emotion and connection.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dreamland for this digital e-arc.*

I was quite confused with this read. I understand that it was different short stories but then some of them were intertwined? It might've been better of they were all intertwined or all stand-alones.

This book is pretty much nonsense. I guess you might call it literary fiction. It’s stream of consciousness with no actual clues to the mysteries..

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

“Some days it feels like people just exist to break your heart, and other days and other people exist just to pour salt in the open flesh; sometimes it feels like entire months, years, whole decades exist just to hurt us like it’s their fucking hobby.”

I am a big fan of Sara Gran and her weird fiction - Come Closer and The Book of the Most Precious Substance are two of the most memorable novels that I've read in recent years. But I don't know how I felt about Little Mysteries! I enjoyed it when I was reading it, but had next to no desire to pick it up most of the time. A lot of the stories are inspired by detective novels, which are just... extremely not my thing, so to be honest, it's a testament to Gran's writing that I enjoyed this at all.

Structurally, I had no idea what was going on for a lot of the time here. It’s a short story collection that reflects on the author's previous work, written in simple, almost childlike language, and incoporating puzzles, games and Big Existential Questions About Life. I don't think I got it; I am not sure many people will. That said, I found the stories uniquely structured and some of these really worked for me (the beach one, showing eerie parallels in both the narrator’s life, and the AIDS crisis and COVID-19). I’m not a big mystery girl so a lot of the stories that didn’t play with form fell a bit flat for me. There are real gems in here; I loved The Good Smell of New York City/The Ocean-Salted Air, specifically. It's an innovative and compelling short story that has two timelines running parallel to one another. Both feature Claire DeWitt, teen detective, and one is set against the backdrop of AIDS, the other, COVID.

Overall, Little Mysteries is a fascinating experiment, one I'm glad I read even if I didn't enjoy all the stories.

Loved this immensely; the best of the Claire DeWitt sensibility and constantly surprising/affecting mysteries.

I first got to know this author through her Claire DeWitt mysteries. Claire felt like an original, something one does not always find in crime fiction. Knowing of the DeWitt stories, I was interested in taking a look at Little Mysteries. I am glad that I did.

Here is a quirky collection. For example the book opens with an entry entitled "Make Your Own Tool of Psychospiritual Divination. The illustration looks a lot like those old paper fortune tellers that kids make but with Gran's own take.

In the first story, a sheriff has trouble detecting due to a hangover. This leads to calling in "the best teen detective in the world." She arrives in a canary-yellow Cadillac and solves the case in a story that is just a few pages long.

The above gives a flavor of the author's nimble mind and her original ways of thinking. Her work may not be for everyone but those looking for an original read may want to pick this one up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamland Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Sara Gran’s Little Mysteries are as large, human, philosophical, confounding, reassuring, mystifying and delightful as her previous books. Very excited to once again be in the world of Claire Dewitt!

Little Mysteries by Sara Gran is a collection of short stories that all have different mysteries to them. Most of the were inspired by classic whodunnit style stories and some of them feel more original.

I have loved books by this author so when I saw it available to request, I was on it! I didn’t know that this would lean a lot more on the cozy side so that was a surprise. I found this to be a mostly endearing little collection that I had a good time with but it wasn’t anything super impactful.

I can see why some readers would love this and I know exactly who I would recommend this to so I don’t think it is any way a bad book, just not exactly my thing. I do think the eARC was hard to read because of the way the story telling was done so I encourage anyone picking this up to try the physical book.

I love short story collections. Usually, I read them before novels. I haven't read any previous books by Sara Gran. This book was interesting book, filled with stories of mystery and quirky characters. I enjoyed this, but found my mind wondering as I tried to focus on the stories. Not a bad book, but not for me.