Mystery
February 2026

Recent Releases
May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin
May Contain Murder
by Orlando Murrin

While his flooded house undergoes repairs, chef-turned-writer Paul Delamare has been offered an accommodation upgrade: an all-expenses-paid trip aboard a private superyacht in the company of Xâera, one of his dearest friends. Paul will help Xâera work on her memoirs as Maldemer glides its sumptuous way to the Caribbean. The scenery is stunning, the luxury is unparalleled, and the food--well, at least the dishes that Paul is roped into preparing--are delicious. The hired chef, meanwhile, seems completely out of her depth. ... When Xâera's priceless new necklace goes missing, Paul falls under suspicion. But there's far worse in store, as one of the passengers is found dead in mysterious and grisly circumstances. The stormy weather matches the threatening mood onboard, and as Maldemer veers off course, every semblance of order goes with it--
First Do No Harm: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery by S. J. Rozan
First Do No Harm: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery
by S. J. Rozan

In the latest novel in S. J. Rozan's groundbreaking mystery series, Lydia Chin and Bill Smith face a dangerous task: they must unlock a hospital's many secrets in order to save an innocent man. With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses' strike, a wealthy benefactor is set to give a large donation to honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine: Dr. Elliott Chin, the brother of private investigator Lydia Chin. Before the donation can be finalized, a member of the nurses' negotiating committee is found murdered. A morgue assistant is arrested and although he denies even knowing the victim his father and brother, both doctors at the hospital, are quick to urge him to take a plea. Another negotiating committee member abruptly resigns and a senior biomedical technician disappears. An officially off-limits section of the hospital basement turns out to be a hotbed of unauthorized--and in some cases criminal--activity. Hired by the arrested man's lawyer, Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith start to dig into the events and personnel at the hospital. Among the union disputes, blackmail, thefts, lies, and a detective who really, really doesn't like them, one thing becomes clear: the dictum to First Do No Harm is not in effect at River Valley. As time runs short, Lydia and Bill face a complicated and dangerous task: they must unlock the hospital's secrets to save an innocent man.
Listen
by Sacha Bronwasser; translated by David Colmer

After her manipulative professor betrays her, Dutch art student Marie becomes an au pair in 1989 Paris, working for a complicated family. Years later, during the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, Marie sees her old professor in the area she once worked. This suspenseful, slow-burn crime novel by a Dutch art critic provides a thought-provoking look at trauma and will work for general fiction readers, too.
Murder at Donwell Abbey
by Vanessa Kelly

When Emma Knightley, née Woodhouse, learns her father is to remarry, she's alarmed about having excitable Miss Bates as a stepmother and having to plan a betrothal party in six days. When Emma's maid is discovered dead at the festivities, most think it was an accident, but suspicious Emma uses her quick, observant mind to investigate her 2nd case. For fans of: mysteries featuring Jane Austen or her characters, such as Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries.
You'll Never Forget Me by Isha Raya
You'll Never Forget Me
by Isha Raya

In this captivating cat-and-mouse thriller, a struggling actress is only just beginning to enjoy the life she's always wanted after inadvertently killing her rival-but now she must contend with the woman who threatens to take it all away-- Provided by publisher.
The Case of the Murdered Muckraker
by Rob Osler

In 1898, 21-year-old detective agency junior field operative Harriet Morrow investigates when a journalist who'd been looking into corrupt government officials is fatally stabbed in a Chicago tenement house. Going undercover, Harriet dons a variety of guises to get to the truth in her richly detailed 2nd outing, which also sees her find a girlfriend. For fans of: Stephen Spotswood; Lev AC Rosen; Cathy Pegau's A Murderous Business.
The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery
The Murder at World's End
by Ross Montgomery

Knives Out meets Downton Abbey Secrets, murder, and mayhem collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo--an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian--hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world, in this locked-room mystery by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ross Montgomery. Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley's Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom--every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within... By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall's newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn't commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she's been waiting for.Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges, and rising terror to unmask the killer before it's too late...
The Living and the Dead
by Christoffer Carlsson

In a small Swedish town in 1999, the teenage son of a local landowner is murdered after a party. Police officer Siri Bengtsson arrives to question folks, but the death of a main suspect and a catastrophic landslide leave the case unsolved. Twenty years later, when a related murder occurs, a retired Siri agrees to help the detective in charge in this 3rd Halland novel. Try this next: Hans Rosenfeldt's Cry Wolf.
The Quiet Mother
by Arnaldur Indridason

Retired Reykjavik police detective Konrad declines to investigate when a terminally ill woman asks him to find the son she gave up for adoption decades earlier. But when the woman is killed and her apartment ransacked, guilt forces Konrad to look into the murder, and what he finds may connect to his own life in his 3rd outing. Read-alikes: Stig Abell's Death Under a Little Sky; Ragnar Jonasson's Dark Iceland series.
Wreck Your Heart
by Lori Rader-Day

Chicago's Doll Devine hopes to make it as a country singer, but for now she's singing at a tavern owned by Alex McPhee, who's helped her since she was a kid. When her estranged mom briefly shows up after 20 years, followed by a woman claiming to be Doll's half-sister, Doll doesn't know what to think, and then her ex is found dead outside the bar. For fans of: standalone mysteries with a strong sense of place and a wisecracking main character.
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