Forsyth County Public Library: Mystery: January 2026

Recent Releases

The Botanist's Assistant
by Peggy Townsend

Routine-loving 50-something Margaret Finch is dedicated to her job helping a talented botanist at a small university. But when he dies and it's said to be natural causes, Margaret disagrees, noticing small things that make her sure it was murder. With the help of a former journalist turned custodian, Margaret investigates, turning her precise world upside down. For fans of: Zoe B. Wallbrook's History Lessons; Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

The Queen Who Came in from the Cold
by S.J. Bennett

In 1961 England, Queen Elizabeth II and her private secretary Joan discreetly investigate after a lady-in-waiting claims she saw men disposing of a body on the royal train. Before it's all sorted, the queen travels on the royal yacht around the Mediterranean and helps a Soviet defector. This fun 5th outing for the queen and Joan works for newcomers. Try this next: Allison Montclair's A Royal Affair.

The Bookbinder's Secret
by A. D. Bell

In 1901 Oxford, a young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder. Try this next: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

The Murder at World's End
by Ross Montgomery

On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is found dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow. Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall's newest under-butler, fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn't commit, teams up with Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges, and rising terror to unmask the killer before it's too late...For more locked room mysteries try these next: The Crime Brulee Bake Off by Rebecca Connolly and The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict.

Books You May Have Missed

Karma Doll
by Jonathan Ames

Recovering from injuries, ex-cop turned PI Happy Doll has been laying low in a Mexican beach shack with his dog and studying Buddhism. But after witnessing a murder that he's then framed for, he's on the run from the authorities and the cartels while looking for the real killer and trying to get back to Los Angeles with an expired passport. Atmospheric, violent, and darkly humorous, this 3rd in the Happy Doll series works fine for newcomers.

Fever Beach
by Carl Hiaasen

Dale Figgo has been kicked out of the Proud Boys for stupidity (he mistakenly vandalized a Confederate statue), but propped up by a congressman and a couple of billionaires, he aims to make the new far-right Strokers for Liberty a success. Mix in money laundering, child labor, a disgruntled wealth director, a rich social justice warrior, fake dating, and more, and you've got "Hiaasen at his finest" (Publishers Weekly).

How to Seal Your Own Fate
by Kristen Perrin

Annie Adams moves into the English country house she inherited from her great aunt Frances, which also contains Frances' diaries notating village secrets. Fortune teller Peony Lane mysteriously visits Annie, then is found murdered inside the locked home, leading Annie to investigate. This sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder once again uses dual timelines with parts set in the 1960s. Try this next: Brandy Schillace's The Framed Women of Ardemore House.

Beartooth
by Callan Wink

In Montana's rugged Beartooth mountains, two brothers, 27-year-old Thad and 26-year-old Hazen, try to survive while burdened by their dead father's medical bills and a falling-apart off-the-grid house. Luckily, they know how to hunt and deal with the elements. Not so luckily, their long-gone mom reappears and a local man tempts Hazen into illegally gathering elk horns in this gritty, evocative crime novel. For fans of: Peter Heller; the 2016 film Hell or High Water; TV's Yellowstone.

Contact your librarian for more great books!