| Into the Night by Sarah BaileyStarring: Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock, who's just moved to Melbourne and is struggling with the changes in her life after leaving her five-year-old son in the custody of his dad in her small hometown.
What happens: In this complex sequel to The Dark Lake, Gemma and her hostile new partner investigate the murder of a homeless man as well as the fatal stabbing of a movie star, whose death took place on camera while filming a zombie crowd scene.
For fans of: atmospheric, Australian mysteries and troubled-yet-smart heroines. |
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The Dead Ex: A Novel
by Jane Corry
What happens: A man's disappearance throws the lives of four women into chaos, including his ex-wife, who struggles to prove her innocence in spite of an unreliable memory.
What reviewers have to say: "Corry (Blood Sisters) delivers strong plot twists, a fast pace, and devious characters, making this a perfect blend of Liv Constantine's The Last Mrs. Parrish and Alafair Burke's The Wife that will keep readers guessing until the end." Library Journal
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A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder
by Victoria Hamilton
What it is about: When Sir Henry Claybourne is murdered, young spinster Miss Emmeline St. Germaine--who has a secret hobby of rescuing young girls from predatory nobility at knife point--fears that she will be suspected of the murder and resolves to solve it.
What the author says about 1810 England: "How would it have felt to be hemmed in on all sides with restrictions, rules, and a society that would have considered me insane? ... Widows were allowed a lot more latitude, but every unmarried lady had her male “keeper,” who had a great deal of control over her. So every woman just toed the line, right? Not true. Even with the potential for disastrous consequences, there were women—married and unmarried—who chose to defy convention, to speak and act out knowing the consequences." (Criminal Element)
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The Lost Man
by Jane Harper
What it is about: Meeting at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches on an isolated belt of the Australian outback, two brothers navigate the haunting realities of the isolation that ended their third brother's life.
Location: "The local town in this novel might be fictional, but the landscape is not. This is a strip of hot, semi-arid land that runs through central Queensland, Australia, where the temperatures hover at inhuman levels under a cloudless sky. This is not a welcoming or forgiving environment. It’s a place where healthy, vibrant young men in their mid-20s die without water after just six hours. " (Criminal Element)
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| Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack JonesWhat happens: In Detroit's Mexicantown neighborhood, August Snow, a half-Mexican and Half-African American ex-cop who won millions in a wrongful dismissal suit, investigates the death of an immigrant teen found dead in the river and dressed as Marie Antoinette.
Series alert: This is the second mystery novel, after the award-winning August Snow, by poet and playwright Stephen Mack Jones.
For fans of: Walter Mosley; Loren Estleman's hardboiled, Detroit-set novels; and David Housewright’s Rushmore McKenzie series. |
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Stalker
by Lars Kepler; translated by Neil Smith
What happens: Two sadistic murders by a killer who would play games with the police prompt Swedish detective Joona Linna and trauma hypnotherapist Erik Maria Bark to take the case, which has disturbing ties to a years-old conviction.
Series alert: This is the fifth book in the Joona Linna series, after last year's The Sandman. The series is written by the wife-and-husband team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril.
Is it for you: it is if you like fast-paced, menacing, Scandinavian crime fiction such as the Fredrika Berman mysteries by Kristina Ohlsson or the Intercrime series by Arne Dahl.
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The Widows
by Jess Montgomery
What it is about: Vowing revenge against her sheriff husband's killers in 1924 Ohio, Lily offers help to a fellow widow and uncovers dangerous evidence revealing her husband's corrupt secret life and the complexities that triggered his death.
For fans of: historic mysteries starring strong women such as Beatriz Williams' Cocoa Beach, Amy Stewart's Girl Waits With Gun, or Girl in Disguise by Greer Macallister.
What reviewers are saying: "Inspired by the true story of Maude Collins, Ohio's first female sheriff, and prominent labor and community organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Montgomery's debut novel features two tough-as-nails, strong-willed women whose empathy leaves a lasting impression. A simultaneous examination of women's rights, coal mining, prohibition, and Appalachian life, make this is a fantastic choice for historical fiction fans." Library Journal
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| A Murdered Peace by Candace RobbWhat it is: a historical mystery set in 1400 York, England, during the tense time after King Henry IV usurped the throne from Richard II.
What happens: Kate, a widow of some means who has three adopted children, offers shelter to a friend whose husband was involved in an uprising against the king and tries to clear her beloved cook's name when he's suspected of murder.
Don't miss: the atmospheric descriptions in this well-researched third Kate Clifford mystery; Kate's delightful Irish wolfhounds. |
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No Mercy
by Joanna Schaffhausen
Starring: Police officer Ellery Hathaway who is on involuntary leave from her job because she shot a murderer in cold blood and refuses to apologize for it. Forced into group therapy for victims of violent crime, Ellery immediately finds higher priorities than "getting in touch with her feelings."
What it is: a follow-up to The Vanishing Season that finds Hathaway and FBI profiler Reed Markham tackling two difficult cases involving a brutally elusive rapist and a support-group member who may have helped convict an innocent man.
Want a taste? "You kill one guy, one time, and suddenly everyone thinks you need therapy."
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| The Blood by E.S. ThomsonFeaturing: Jem Flockhart, a young woman who disguises herself as a man in order to work as an apothecary in Victorian London, and Will Quartermain, an engineer and friend of Jem, who knows her secret.
What happens: Called to a floating seaman's hospital on the Thames, the friends learn about deaths and disappearances of people connected to the hospital and uncover a secret society that may play a role.
For fans of: Victorian mysteries, like Will Thomas' Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn mysteries, Alex Grecian's Walter Day novels, and Charles Finch's (less gritty) Charles Lennox novels. |
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| Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg CabotWhat happens: When New York College hosts the first ever Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp, assistant residence hall director (and former teen singing sensation) Heather Wells finds herself trying to stay alive while surrounded by teenage divas in training and working with her P.I. fiancé Cooper Cartwright to catch a killer on the loose.
Read it for: Like the other books in the series, this frothy fourth Heather Wells mystery has a chick-lit feel and plenty of humor. |
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| Fall of Angels by Barbara CleverlyWhat happens: Handsome, well-bred young World War I vet DI John Redfyre begins work with the Cambridge CID in 1923 and attends a holiday concert scandalously headlined by a female trumpeter, who later suffers a suspicious, near-fatal accident.
Series alert: This is the first in a new series by the bestselling author of the Joe Sandilands mysteries; the second John Redfyre book, Invitation to Die, comes out in August.
Read this next: If you enjoy this look at Cambridge in the 1920s, try Dorothy L. Sayer's Gaudy Night, which is set at Oxford in the 1930s and also deals with women's rights and poison-pen letters. |
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Bombshell
by Catherine Coulter
Series Alert: This, the 17th book in the FBI Series, serves up two mysteries to solve.
First Mystery: Recruited by Dillon Savich for his uncanny criminal-tracking instincts, FBI Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith investigates a perplexing attack involving his music-student sister.
Second Mystery: Meanwhile, back in D.C., Savich and his wife Lacy Sherlock have their hands full when the grandson of former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is found murdered, every bone in his body broken, and frozen at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.
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| A Free Man of Color by Barbara HamblyWhat it's about: In 1833, Benjamin January, a doctor and free man of color, has returned to New Orleans after years in Paris, and must earn his living in the racially divided city as a piano player. But after doing a favor for a former piano student -- a white woman -- he's suspected of murder and turns sleuth to clear his name.
Series alert: Originally published in 1997, A Free Man of Color is the 1st in a 16-book series (the latest, Cold Bayou, came out in October).
Want a taste? "January knew the man would hit him the moment he let go and knew also that he'd better not hit back." |
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| The Prague Sonata by Bradford MorrowWhat happens: In New York, musicologist and former concert pianist Meta Taverner is given a partial manuscript of a mysterious 18th-century sonata. The dying old woman who gave it to her requests that Meta find its true owner...who hasn't been seen since World War II. This leads Meta to Prague, where she looks for answers and the rest of sonata.
Is it for you? Pick it up if you appreciate complex historical stories with multiple perspectives and timelines, missing-item mysteries, and lyrical language. |
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| The Beautiful Mystery by Louise PennyThe setup: In a remote monastery, 24 monks should be contemplating nature and God, but one brother's mind -- and hand -- turns to murder.
What happens: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec arrive to investigate the murder of the order's choir director and meet with the monks, who've taken vows of silence but are the voices on a bestselling album of Gregorian chants.
Series alert: This is the 8th in an elegant, award-winning series; since the well-drawn characters evolve over time, newcomers may want to pick up the 1st in the series, Still Life. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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