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| Death of a Master Chef by Jean-Luc BannalecVisiting the historic walled city of Saint-Malo for a police training seminar, Commissaire Georges Dupin is exploring the local market when a woman is killed, seemingly by her sister. But while she's in jail, the victim's husband is murdered, throwing the case into disarray. This evocative, intricately plotted 9th outing for the French detective works for newcomers as well as fans of the charming series, which began with Death in Brittany. |
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A Dangerous Business
by Jane Smiley
Young widow Eliza Ripple works at a well-run brothel in 1851 Monterey, California, where the women are protected and customers screened. Nevertheless, a killer is targeting sex workers in town, so Eliza and her friend Jean, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin, decide to investigate. Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. Read-alikes: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue; Missy by Chris Hannan.
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A Midnight Puzzle
by Gigi Pandian
Julian Rhodes blames Secret Staircase Construction for the fall that put his wife in a coma. But California magician Tempest Raj believes Rhodes tried to murder his wife and is using her family's business as a scapegoat. This "fiendishly clever, intricately constructed" (Publishers Weekly) 3rd outing for Tempest also delves into her mom's mysterious disappearance and her family curse.
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| The Last Word by Elly GriffithsA romance writer's daughters think their mother was murdered and hire West Sussex PIs Natalka, a math whiz, and Edwin, an octogenarian, to look into things, which leads to Edwin going undercover at a writing retreat. Though this is the 4th DI Harbinder Kaur mystery, this outing focuses more on Natalka and Edwin, who also appear in The Postscript Murders. Read-alikes: Richard Thorogood's Marlow Murder Club novels; Susan Fletcher's The Night in Question. |
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| Cold to the Touch by Kerri HakodaAnchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans tries to find the killer of his favorite barista, who, like him, grew up a multiracial kid in small-town Alaska. When another barista dies, Beans' ex is also assigned to the case, and then the FBI show up. For other suspenseful Alaskan crime novels, try Iris Yamashita's City Under One Roof, Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak novels, and Page Shelton's Alaska mysteries. |
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| Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine MackBestselling mystery writer Eleanor Dash is on an Italian book tour with other authors, fans, and her greedy ex (whom one of her fictional sleuths is based on). When a murder occurs, Eleanor investigates in this series starter that features funny footnotes addressing the reader. Read-alikes: G.M. Malliet's Augusta Hawke mysteries; V.M. Burns' Mystery Bookshop novels. |
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Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord
by Celeste Connally
In this banter-filled Regency-era series starter, independent-minded Lady Petra Forsyth announces she'll remain unmarried after the death of her fiancé. This shocks the ton but frees Petra to look into the disappearance of a friend (whose husband seems unconcerned) and, later, find a murderer. Read-alikes: Murder in Westminster by Vanessa Riley; The Body in the Garden by Katharine Schellman.
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Ash Dark as Night
by Gary Phillips
In 1965 Los Angeles, Black freelance news photographer Harry Ingram covers the Watts riots, capturing police brutality on film. He's arrested, but with the help of his girlfriend, the photos get printed. In addition, Harry's hired to look for a man who went missing during the riots. This atmospheric follow-up to One-Shot Harry will please fans of Walter Mosley's crime novels.
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| The Last Note of Warning by Katharine SchellmanIn Prohibition-era New York City, dressmaker's assistant Vivian makes a delivery and ends up accused of murder. Having a week to prove her innocence, Vivian uses connections from the speakeasy where she works nights in order to find the truth. This intricately plotted 3rd outing for Vivian works for newcomers. Read-alikes: Stephen Spotswood's Pentecost and Parker novels; Nekesa Afia's Harlem Renaissance mysteries; Sara DiVello's Broadway Butterfly. |
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Cleveland noir
by Michael Ruhlman
"Cleveland is a working-class town, though its great institutions were founded by twentieth-century robber barons and magnates . . . It's this mix of the wealthy and the working class that makes this city--an urban center of brick and girders surrounded by verdant suburbs--a perfect backdrop for lawlessness. Cleveland has certainly seen its share of high-profile crime. Eliot Ness, Cleveland's director of public safety in the 1930s, hunted unsuccessfully for the 'torso murderer' who killed and dismemberedtwelve people in Kingsbury Run, the area now known as the Flats, then populated by bars, brothels, flophouses, and gambling dens. The famous disappearance of Beverly Potts in the early 1950s on Cleveland's west side made national headlines. The sensational murder of Marilyn Sheppard in Bay Village and the imprisonment and eventual acquittal of her husband, the surgeon Sam Sheppard, became the basis for a popular television drama The Fugitive . . . The noir stories in this volume hit all these same notes, and their geographies reflect the history of the city and its politics, its laws, poverty, alienation, racism, crime, and violence"--Page 4 of cover
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