À la carte (April 21, 2025)

Cozy mysteries, a rebuttal to RFK's autism falsehoods, and who wants to discuss the latest Kitamura novel??

It has been a really dark couple of weeks. Spring refuses to be sprung in Chicago, and I am clinging, emotionally, to the blooming magnolia tree outside of my bedroom window as evidence that spring will one day arrive. As a result, there has been a lot of consumption of comfort culture in my house. And a lot of consumption of macaroons. Without further ado, here is what has been offering interstitial distraction from the crumbling of the rule of law.

A surprisingly delightful TV show

Over the last two weeks, I found myself counting down the hours until I could collapse on the couch in the evening and switch on the next episode of The Residence, Shondaland’s new White House murder mystery series. Set at the White House, The Residence follows renowned detective Cordelia Cupp’s (played by Uzo Aduba) investigation of the murder of White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (played by Giancarlo Esposito) during a State Dinner. The result is not just a delightful and (little before seen?) portrayal of the inner workings of the White House residence, but a laugh-out-loud comedy and a genuinely well-paced and well-plotted mystery.

I love a closed circle mystery — a subset of the mystery genre in which it is quickly determined that the murderer is one of a limited, known number of suspects. These are the cozy types of mysteries often set at country houses or other luxurious locations with an eccentric cast of characters— Knives Out or Only Murders in the Building or Murder on the Orient Express. The Residence delights because it takes this well-worn but beloved convention, places it at the White House, and tells a fresh story in which the threat to the White House is not terrorism or an extremist nutjob, but interpersonal workplace drama.