| The Girl in the Green Dress by Mariah FredericksIn 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-alike: Barbara Hambly's Scandal in Babylon. |
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| Five Found Dead by Sulari GentillAuthor 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. |
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| The Last Death of the Year by Sophie HannahOn New Year’s Eve 1932, Hercule Poirot and Inspector Catchpool are staying in a rundown guesthouse on a small Greek island while Poirot investigates a threat against a fellow lodger. Then a note appears promising “the last and first death of the year." This clever latest by Sophie Hannah is authorized by Agatha Christie’s estate and will appeal to fans of Colleen Cambridge's Murder at Mallowan Hall. |
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| The Bone Thief by Vanessa LillieRhode Island Bureau of Indian Affairs archeologist Syd Walker, who’s Cherokee, returns in this compelling 2nd outing. Having received a promotion, she’s ready when the 300-year-old bones of a child are found at a summer camp run by the powerful Founders Society. But when the remains disappear and a young Indigenous woman goes missing, Syd has to work fast to find answers. Try this next: Marcie R. Rendon’s Cash Blackbear novels. |
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| Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing by Nicholas MeyerThe game's afoot for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in this latest cleverly plotted pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. In a blizzard-stricken 1890s London, Lady Glendenning hires Holmes to find her painter tenant, who's disappeared without paying the rent and left a bloody room behind. On the way to a surprising finale, the book examines art, ambition, forgery, and love. For other Victorian London mysteries, try: Charles Finch's Charles Lenox chronicles or Will Thomas' Barker and Llewelyn mysteries. |
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| Gray Dawn by Walter MosleyIn an evocative 1970s Los Angeles, 50-something PI Easy Rawlins runs a successful detective agency, lately letting his associates take most of the work. But he takes the lead in a case involving a dangerous woman who's gone missing. Meanwhile, he helps his secretary and his adopted son, who each have their own troubles, in this 17th entry in the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series. Try this next: Gary Phillips’ One-Shot Harry. |
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| A Murderous Business by Cathy PegauAfter 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. |
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| Murder by the Book by Amie SchaumbergWhen 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. |
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| Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert ThorogoodThough DI Tanika Malik asks them not to investigate, elderly crossword creator Judith, DJ and dogwalker Suzie, and vicar's wife and mom Becks can't help but look into things when a cruise chartered by the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society includes a seemingly impossible murder. This fun 4th outing for the Marlow Murder Club will please fans of earlier books as well as the TV series based on them. Try this next: Simon Brett's Fethering mysteries. |
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| Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests by KJ WhittleSeven 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. |
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Recent Cozy Mystery Releases
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Sugar and Spite: An Agatha Raisin Mystery
by M. C. Beaton
When a series of deaths within the small Cotswolds birdwatching community begins to unravel her village, Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators are certain there has been foul play involved. Now, they must dig up decades' worth of tempestuous relationships and simmering secrets among the birdwatching enthusiasts of the village in order to prevent any further deaths. But with Agatha's own relationship with John Glass on the rocks after he is called away on his job as a cruise ship dance instructor, and Sir Charles Fraith now attempting to step into John's shoes as her lover, Agatha has her work cut out for her. Agatha will have to break out her binoculars and embrace her bitter side to solve the murders and wrangle the sickly-sweet temptations in her own life. Will she be able to gather all the breadcrumbs and put together the clues before she becomes a sitting duck herself?
Series note: This is the 36th title in the Agatha Raisin series.
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The Knife Before Christmas
by Kate Carlisle
Christmas has come to Lighthouse Cove, but business hasn't slowed down for Shannon Hammer. She's been contracted to renovate a local hotel owned by the Garrisons, a family that's so devoted to the holidays they serve a seven-course dinner every night from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Last year's festivities featured a train that transported guests around the breathtaking Cliffside property. This year, Shannon and her crew have been commissioned to build a Victorian-style carnival midway with games and prizes galore. Everyone in town loves the hotel's spirit, except the Garrisons' children and their spouses, who are hum-bugged by the money being wasted on holiday cheer while their inheritance goes up the chimney. Things turn nasty when a mischief-maker close to the family is found dead. It's up to Shannon and Mac to catch a sinister Scrooge before all of Lighthouse Cove receives coal for Christmas.
Series note: This is #11 in the Fixer-Upper Mystery series.
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Epilogue to a Christmas Murder
by Lauren Elliott
Mass market paperback original
There's no place like the seaside Massachusetts town of Greyborne Harbor for the holidays, and there's no better feeling for Addie than donating to the lighthouse museum's Twelve Days of Christmas charity fundraiser. Of the dozen books she'll be offering as prizes from her Beyond the Page Books and Curios shop, the most special volume is a first edition of 'The gift of the magi' imported from England--signed by O. Henry! But on the night Addie delivers the book to the museum, someone posing as one of Santa's Little Helpers swipes it--and the rest of the charity gifts. As if the theft wasn't bad enough, a body is found on the rocks outside the lighthouse, believed to be murdered. Now, it's up to Addie to connect the clues, find stolen goods, and catch a killer--in order to usher in a Happy New Year.
Series note: This is #11 in the Beyond the Page bookstore mystery series.
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Death of a Tom Turkey
by Lee Hollis
Mass market paperback original
The relationships between bad-tempered Tom Farley and his neighbors are as bitter as a bowl of raw cranberries, but would one of them have taken it far enough to replace birdshot with a real bullet and make him a target at a shooting competition? That's what the injured turkey farmer is claiming from his hospital bed--in between terrorizing the nurses--and he insists it's because a property developer is looking to buy them all out for big money. But Tom says he was born on that land, and he intends to die on it. Sadly, that happens sooner than he expects. Now an inquisitive Hayley has a cornucopia of suspects to consider, from an agoraphobic therapist to an ex-Army sniper, while also preparing for Thanksgiving. But with the strange twists and dark secrets still to be revealed, this case will not be as easy as pie.
Series note: 18th in the Hayley Powell food and cocktails mystery series.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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