My 5 most anticipated detective/mystery releases for September (2018)

Being a mystery buff, I’m always super excited for new releases in the detective/mystery genre. I’m hoping to make these posts a regular thing, where at the beginning of each month I list five releases I’m looking forward to the most.

Given that September is the beginning of a new TV season, three of those things involve new TV shows. Additionally, I’ve picked one book, and one computer game to list below.

FBI (September 25th @9pm EST on CBS)

This is a new series from Dick Wolf, the creator behind the Law & Order franchise. As the name suggests, the series centres around a group of FBI special agents. The trailers/previews I saw make the show look more like an action/drama, so I’ll have to wait and see before I call this a detective/mystery show.

Magnum P.I. (September 24th @9pm EST on CBS)

Yes, they’re rebooting Magnum, P.I. but this time without the comma and without the mustache. The previews make it look more like an action/drama, with a bit of humour thrown in. But frankly, that’s what the old show was like, too. As I wrote in a previous post, a lot of the old Magnum, P.I. episodes weren’t necessarily mysteries. But this is certainly a detective show, given that Magnum’s name-sake is still a private investigator. I know there’s a lot of fans out there that are pretty upset by this reboot, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

The Good Cop (September 21st on Netflix)

I’m actually extremely excited about this show. For one, you’ve got Tony Danza as “a disgraced, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules”. Add to that Josh Groban as his NYPD officer son, but with an opposite attitude to his father. Better yet, the series was created by Andy Breckman, who also created Monk. Andy Breckman has said in a statement that he wants the show to be “playful, family-friendly, and a celebration of old-fashioned puzzle-solving.” So do I, Andy, so do I.

[Update: September 30th 2018]

I’ve now watched all episodes of The Good Cop. The series started a bit slow, but became more and more enjoyable with every passing episode. The actors became more comfortable in their roles, the characters became more fleshed out — particularly the supporting cast. I say watch up through episode 3 and if you still don’t like it then for sure it’s not for you. But if you like Monk, then chances are you’ll also like this show.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (September 18th)

The fourth book in the J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series is coming out this month. Now, I have to admit that I hadn’t read any of the series, although I did get the first two books for Christmas last year. (I’m more of a library-book person, so when I have my own books I end up postponing reading them because it’s not like I have to finish them by a certain date.) I am a fan of the Harry Potter series, however, and knowing that there are now four books in this mystery series is giving me the impetus to start sooner rather than later.

Lamplight City (available September 13th on Steam)

This computer game calls itself a “steampunk-ish detective adventure”, and follows a 19th century detective who’s trying to solve cases for his clients while also trying to track down his partner’s killer. From what I can see from the previews, the graphics and gameplay harken back to 1990s style point-and-click adventure games. In particular, it’s very reminiscent of The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: the Case of the Serrated Scalpel — which was my favourite game as a kid and one I still play through every couple of years. So I’m super excited for a chance to play something similar.

Honourable mention: Murder, She Drank (September 14th @9pm EST)

Did you know that there are people on Twitter that virtually get together every month to watch the same two episodes of Murder, She Wrote at a predesignated time, and then get drunk and tweet about about it and play bingo? I didn’t know either until a month ago. I took part in it in August and had so much fun that I’m looking forward to taking part in it again in September. It’s scheduled for September 14th, which also happens to be my husband’s last day working in retail, so it’ll be nice for him to come home from work and do something so ridiculous to celebrate.