Mystery
January 2023
Recent Releases
A Trace of Poison
by Colleen Cambridge

Welcome to... Mallowan Hall, home of famed mystery writer Agatha Christie as well as housekeeper Phyllida Bright.

What happens: At a charity fete and amateur mystery writing competition, a guest drinks a poisoned cocktail, which might have been intended for someone else, and Phyllida investigates.

Don't miss: This fun 2nd Phyllida Bright novel following Murder at Mallowan Hall features cameos by G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Anthony Berkeley.
The fields
by Erin Young

Newly promoted to head of investigations of the black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, Sergeant Riley Fisher, when the body of a young woman is found dead in an Iowa cornfield, discovers that this case is connected to a dark past she thought she’d left behind. 150,000 first printing.
The Cloisters : a novel
by Katy Hays

"The Secret History meets Ninth House in this sinister, atmospheric novel following a circle of researchers as they uncover a mysterious deck of tarot cards and shocking secrets in New York's famed Met Cloisters. When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination. Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers' more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. As the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs. A haunting and magical blend of genres, The Cloisters is a gripping debut that will keep you on the edge of your seat"
No Strangers Here
by Carlene O'Connor

Introducing: Dimpna Wilde, a veterinarian who returns home after a wealthy racehorse owner is murdered, his body staged on the beach; DI Cormac O'Brien, who's sent to Dingle, County Kerry, to investigate the death.

What happens: When Dimpna's father, also a vet, is accused of the crime, she races against O'Brien to find the truth even as she takes over her dad's practice due to his memory issues.

Is it for you? Not cozy like Carlene O'Connor's other Irish mysteries, this 1st in her new County Kerry series retains the evocative setting, smart plotting, and appealing characters. 
Racing the light : a novel
by Robert Crais

When Adele Schumacher arrives in his office with a bag of cash, bizarre tales of government conspiracies and a squad of professional bodyguards, Elvis must find her missing son, a controversial podcaster, before someone else does, bringing him and Joe face-to-face with corrupt politicians and vicious drug cartels.
Books You May Have Missed
The Family Chao
by Lan Samantha Chang

The setup: In small-town Wisconsin, locals have eaten at the Chao family's restaurant for decades, but there's trouble at home for patriarch Leo as his wife has finally left him and become a Buddhist nun.

What happens: Leo's three very different grown sons gather at the restaurant for a Christmas party. When Leo is murdered, his children fall under suspicion of the town and police, even as they reckon with the legacy of their father's outsized appetites.

Why you might like it: The Family Chao is a modern take on Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic The Brothers Karamazov and offers "a disruptive, sardonic take on the assimilation story" (Kirkus Reviews).
Death by Bubble Tea
by Jennifer J. Chow

Introducing: Yale Yee, who's just lost her bookstore job and is helping out at her family's Los Angeles restaurant; Celine, Yale's rich influencer cousin from Hong Kong whom she hasn't seen in years.

What happens: Yale's dad has the cousins run a food stall at the Eastwood Village Night Market. All goes well and their bubble tea is a big hit, but then a customer turns up dead, fatally poisoned.

For fans of: fun series starters; cozy food-themed mysteries (recipes included) featuring vibrant young women sleuths, like Mia P. Manansala's Tita Rosie's Kitchen mysteries. 
Fox Creek
by William Kent Krueger

What happens: Sometime-PI Cork O'Connor gets hired by a man who's not who he says he is. It's all related to Cork's wife, who accompanies a stranger to visit to her 100-year-old uncle, Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux, before all three go missing.

Series alert: Like other entries, this compelling 19th Cork O'Connor mystery has an intricate plot and a vividly described northern Minnesota. 

Reviewers say:  "A must for fans of beautifully written crime fiction" (Library Journal); the author "skillfully blends an evocative look at nature’s beauty and peril with Native American lore" (Publishers Weekly).
Real Easy
by Marie Rutkoski

Missing and dead: In 1999, a dancer at the Lovely Lady strip club outside of Chicago gives a co-worker a ride home. But they don't make it; the car is found with one woman killed and the other gone, her seatbelt cut. 

What happens: The cops investigate, including Harvard-educated detective Holly Meylin, who recruits one of the other dancers to help with the case, which looks more and more like the work of a serial killer. 

Why you might like it: Narrated by various characters, this gritty crime novel offers "moving portraits of desperate lives on both sides of the law" (Publishers Weekly). 
Nine Lives
by Peter Swanson

What it is: a clever, modern take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None featuring nine people scattered across the United States who all receive a cryptic list of names that includes their own.

Among them is... a father, a professor, a nurse, and FBI agent Jessica Winslow. Though some dismiss it as a joke, bad things start happening to listees, prompting Jessica to search for the link that binds them all together.

Read this next: Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders, Gilly Macmillan's The Long Weekend, Rachel Howzell Hall's They All Fall Down, or Lucy Foley's The Guest List.
Contact your librarian for more great books!