Mystery
November 2025

Recent Releases
Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs
Evil Bones
by Kathy Reichs

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, magnetic thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself enmeshed in a series of grisly animal killings that escalate into something far more sinister. Small creatures--a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel--have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Ruthie, she's diverted by a disturbing call. The perp is upping the ante. This find could be human. Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone's pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty abhorrent, Tempe agrees to help apprehend the person responsible, and she acquires an equally outraged ally in semi-retired homicide detective Erskine Skinny Slidell. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe seeks input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries--and a shift in the perp's focus to humans. And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the animal killings. Subsequently, people Tempe cares about begin to go missing until it becomes clear she is being taunted, the target in a sick game that has her and Slidell racing against a ticking clock and facing a terrifying question: What is pure evil?
The Girl in the Green Dress
by Mariah Fredericks

In 1920 New York, reporter Morris Markey seizes his chance to cover a big story when his neighbor is murdered. With help from Zelda Fitzgerald, who's looking for a diversion while her husband writes, Morris investigates the killing in this atmospheric, banter-filled mystery set at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Read-alikes: Sara DiVello's Broadway Butterfly; Barbara Hambly's Scandal in Babylon.
A death in door county by Annelise Ryan
A death in door county
by Annelise Ryan

A Wisconsin bookstore owner and hobbyist cryptozoologist agrees to help the local police chief after several bodies show up on the shores of Lake Michigan with giant bites from an unknown animal, in the first novel of a new series.
The King's Ransom by Janet Evanovich
The King's Ransom
by Janet Evanovich

Gabriela Rose, recovery agent extraordinaire, can find just about anything. Too bad she can't seem to lose her gorgeous-but-infuriating ex-husband Rafer Jones. And now he needs her help. His cousin, Harley, is in trouble...big trouble. As the president of a too-big-to-fail bank, he invested an astronomical amount of money in insuring some of the world's most priceless artifacts at the urging of his board. It seemed like a low-risk, high-reward business move, so he jumped in with both feet. But recently, these insured pieces started going missing and worse, there's no paper trail of Harley being directed to make these risky investments. Unless the artwork can be recovered soon, it looks like Harley is going to be heading to jail as the fall guy for an ingenious crime. Gabriela knows what she must do: travel around the world with Rafer to find the missing works of art, keep Harley out of jail, and save both his skin and his bank. Along the way, she'll encounter corruption, threats, murder, mysterious dark forces behind a global conspiracy to destroy the world's wealth, and a nefarious villain who will stop at nothing to bring the world to the brink of ruin--
Five Found Dead
by Sulari Gentill

Author Joe Penvale celebrates finishing cancer treatment by taking his twin sister on the Orient Express. Fellow travelers include a retired French detective, true crime podcasters, travel bloggers, and two elderly women. When a blood-soaked cabin is discovered and the train is quarantined after a new COVID variant, the group investigates. But who can be trusted? Read-alikes: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express; Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect.
A Very Bad Thing by J. T. Ellison
A Very Bad Thing
by J. T. Ellison

With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she's lying dead in a pool of blood. Columbia's death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on--at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author's illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter atrail, her secrets won't stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?--
A Murderous Business
by Cathy Pegau

After her father's 1912 death, Margot Baxter Harriman takes over his business, despite the misgivings of the men around her. When her dad's secretary dies shortly afterwards with an odd note in her hand, Margot hires Loretta "Rett" Mancini to investigate. Rett, who helps at her dad's detective agency, goes undercover to find answers and also introduces lonely Margot to New York's queer scene. For fans of: Rob Osler's The Case of the Missing Maid; Stephen Spotswood's Pentecost and Parker mysteries.
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Fair Play
by Louise Hegarty

Louise Hegarty's genre-splicing debut is a treat--clever, confident, and always surprising, a mystery story that ingeniously escapes the locked room of the genre to take on the biggest questions of life and death.--Paul Murray, author of The Bee StingFor fans of Anthony Horowitz and Lucy Foley, a wonderfully original, genre-breaking literary debut from Ireland that's an homage to the brilliant detective novels of the early twentieth century, a twisty modern murder mystery, and a searing exploration of grief and loss.A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year's Eve. It is Benjamin's birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d'oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else's heart is broken.In the morning, all of them wake up--except Benjamin.As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother's death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin's killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems. Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss?Gripping and playful, sharp and profoundly moving, Fair Play plumbs the depths of the human heart while subverting one of our most popular genres.
Murder by the Book
by Amie Schaumberg

When a college student is murdered in a small Oregon town, Detective Ian Carter isn't sure what to make of the way the victim has been posed. But his new friend, professor Emma Reilly, recognizes the tableau as a copy of a painting of Hamlet's Ophelia. As similar murders occur, Ian, Emma, and others combine their knowledge of crime, art, and literature to catch a killer. Read-alikes: Zoe B. Wallbrook's History Lessons; Susie Dent's Guilty by Definition.
Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests
by KJ Whittle

Seven Londoners receive elegant invites to an anonymously hosted dinner party at an out-of-the-way restaurant. The evening is intriguing, but the cards each guest receives at the end are menacing, listing the year they'll die. When two of them pass away as predicted, the others try to sort it all out before their time runs out. Try this next: Andreina Cordani's The Twelve Days of Murder.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Hammond Public Library564 State Street
Hammond, Indiana 46320 | 219-931-5100
www.hammondlibrary.org/