Mystery
June 2025

Recent Releases
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin
by Alison Goodman

In Regency England, 42-year-old twin sisters and amateur sleuths Augusta and Julia Colebrook have never married, each for her own reasons. Their compelling 2nd adventure combines mystery and romantic elements as the two try to clear an innocent man's name, hide a woman from her controlling brother, and push against the restrictions society places on women. Try this next: Katharine Schellman's Lily Adler mysteries; Vanessa Riley's Lady Worthing mysteries.

*Digital edition.
Easeful Death
by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

DCI Bill Slider and his team investigate the murder of an 18-year-old girl, who was killed one bright afternoon at her middle-class London home. But the team soon learns the girl had secrets, several romantic connections, and tension at home. Though this witty, intricately plotted novel is the 25th Inspector Bill Slider mystery, new readers can start here. For fans of: British police procedurals; Louise Penny.
Marble Hall Murders
by Anthony Horowitz

After breaking up with her Greek boyfriend, Susan Ryeland is back in London, editing a novel by the late Alan Conway that's been completed by Eliot Crace. But troubled Crace has laced the plot with references to his well-known grandmother's suspicious death, and this leads to murder. Fine for newcomers and featuring a book-within-a-book, this 3rd Magpie Murders novel "dazzles" (Publishers Weekly). Read-alikes: Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library; Janice Hallett's The Twyford Code.

*Also available digitally.
Murder at Gulls Nest
by Jess Kidd

In 1954, after letters from former novice Frieda abruptly stop, Sister Agnes leaves the order she's been a part of for decades. Now known as Nora Breen, she goes to Frieda's last address, the Gulls Nest boarding house in Kent, and finds an eccentric group. When murder occurs, Nora works with an intriguing police inspector to solve the cases. Read-alike: Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House.
This Is Not a Game
by Kelly Mullen

On Michigan's Mackinac Island, septuagenarian Mimi invites her granddaughter Addie to a socialite's charity auction with an ulterior motive. Mimi is being blackmailed by the host and wants Addie, cocreator of a murder mystery video game, to help find a solution. But then the guests are snowed in and the host is murdered in this atmospheric, well-plotted debut. Read-alikes: Ally Condie's The Unwedding; Louise Hegarty's Fair Play.

*Digital edition.
Big Bad Wool
by Leonie Swann

The sheep of Glennkill, Ireland, including clever Miss Maple, are wintering in France with their shepherdess Rebecca and her tarot card-reading mum. But strange deer deaths attributed to a werewolf and the killing of a human find the flock once again using wit and courage to solve crimes in this charming sequel to Three Bags Full. "A complete original," raves Booklist.
Author Spotlight: Nicci French
The English husband-wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French have been publishing popular suspense novels together under the pen name Nicci French since 1997. Per NoveList: "These atmospheric and intricately plotted stories depict well-developed and plausibly complex female protagonists being slowly and inexorably drawn into chilling dangers involving mysterious deaths, vicious stalkers, and psychopathic lovers who seem normal to everyone else. With keen psychological insight French captures strong women at their most terrifyingly vulnerable moments, and readers will have hard time putting down these surprising and inventive thrillers."
 
These books were recommended by one of your fellow Portsmouth Public Library patrons, who said that they are very good writers in addition to good mysteries.
 
Here are French's most recent releases:
 
The Last Days of Kira Mullan
by Nicci French

Recovering from a psychotic breakdown, Nancy North moves into a new flat and becomes convinced a new neighbor's sudden death isn't a suicide, while Detective Maud O'Connor battles institutional apathy to uncover the truth, as both women face mounting pressure and blurred lines between reality and suspicion.

(2025. Book 2 in The Maud O'Connor Mysteries. Also available digitally.)
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
by Nicci French

Two families shattered by tragedy have secrets that have been waiting decades to be revealed.

(2024. Book 1 in the Maud O'Connor Mysteries. Also available digitally.)
The Favor
by Nicci French

When she agrees to pick up an ex-boyfriend at the train station, Jude is shocked when the police show up instead of him and, realizing she knows nothing about the man he's become, becomes entangled in his life as she tries to uncover the truth.

(2022. Standalone.)
The Unheard
by Nicci French

When her young daughter returns from her ex's house with a violent crayon drawing and the words “He did kill her,” Tess searches for the truth, which sets off an explosive chain of events where more than one life may be at stake.

(2021. Standalone. Also available digitally.)
Contact your librarian for more great books!