Ten top maternity leave noir titles

Molly Odintz is the Senior Editor for CrimeReads. She grew up in Austin and worked as a bookseller at BookPeople for years before her recent move up to New York City for a life in crime. She likes cats, crime novels, and coffee.

At CrimeReads, Odintz tagged ten titles that "were begun, polished, imagined, or perfected during the short window allotted to their authors to bond with their newborns." One title on the list:

The Upstairs House, Julia Fine

Julia Fine’s worn-out narrator is on indefinite maternity leave, stressing over her newborn and trying to finish her dissertation, when she finds her way to the ghost of Margaret Wise Brown through a mysterious door upstairs in her apartment building. Both a gothic tale of madwomen in the attic, and an erudite digression on mid-century American children’s literature, The Upstairs House is as fascinating to read as it is hard to describe, and an intriguing exploration of the boundaries between physical and intellectual creations.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue