|
|
|
|
|
|
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished. Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus. It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.
|
|
|
|
Away to Me by Patricia B. McConnellMaddie is living her best second life on a 40-acre sheep farm in the Wisconsin countryside. In addition to her passion for training sheepdogs—including her spirited border collie Jack—she sees all manner of dogs with behavioral problems ranging from biting to thunder phobia as part of her local practice. No stranger to trauma herself, Maddie has worked hard to recover from the ordeal of her previous marriage. But things take a turn when Maddie’s friend and mentor, George, is inexplicably killed by a rifle shot fired from the woods during a sheepdog trial. Maddie is devastated and also baffled—it’s not hunting season, and who could mistake a man, standing alone in a field, for a deer? She’s still reeling from George’s shooting when a shelter calls her for help with a German shepherd found half dead beside the highway who’s too aggressive to feed and care for. The dog flourishes at the farm, but when Maddie returns one day to find her house invaded, it’s clear that she has stumbled into a situation far more complex and sinister than she realized. And her romantic involvement with an enigmatic young shelter worker soon leads to even more trouble. As Maddie continues to search for answers to George’s death, it quickly becomes apparent that her own life is once again in danger . . .
|
|
|
|
Guiltby Keigo HigashinoHomicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate the death of a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, whose body was found on a Central Tokyo riverbank. His investigations leads him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who claims to have had limited contact with Shiraishi - but, surprising the investigators, Kuraki not only confesses to the lawyer's murder, but another one from thirty years ago - for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. This brings unexpected resolution to two cases but there is one problem: to Detective Godai the confession rings false. And Godai is not the only one who cannot accept Kuraki's explanation of both murders and his professed motives. The confessed murderer's son and the victim's daughter both feel strongly that both the act and the motive claimed are untrue. As Godai investigates further, he discovers that the relation between the murder of thirty years ago and the recent one is complex, raising multi-faceted questions of guilt and innocence. Guilt is a rich novel about crime and its aftereffects on those left behind by both the victim and perpetrator, a twisting, compelling work that will surprise and astonish.
|
|
|
|
Last One Out by Jane HarperCarralon Ridge, a once vibrant village in rural New South Wales, has become a shell of itself, its houses and buildings bought up and left to rot by the mining company operating at its borders. A decade into its slow death, surrounded by industrial noise and swathed in thick layers of dust, the skeletal town is all but abandoned, with just a handful of residents clinging onto what remains. After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she'd become one of them. But everything changed when she lost her son. Five years ago, Sam vanished while visiting during a break from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had loved Carralon Ridge, and had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy before it vanished altogether. It wasn't long after his disappearance that the rest of the family began to crumble away too. But when Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam's disappearance, she begins to suspect that something important was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure that its secrets die with it.
|
|
|
|
Clawed and Dangerous: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae BrownThe leaves have fallen in Crozet, Virginia, and with a sudden downpour of cold rain, autumn gloom has settled. But Harry and her best friend, Susan, are determined to cheer up the town, and with the help of a kind local doctor, they just might succeed. Not only is Dr. Anglin kind and generous, he’s also the owner of multiple properties, and he agrees to let Harry and Susan use one of his homes to throw a spooky Halloween bash. Harry and Susan quickly bury themselves in the flurry of planning: witches, ghosts, and headless horsemen abound. But around town, things grow even spookier when a local townsperson turns up dead. Soon, one dead body turns into multiple—and what’s even spookier is that the deaths seem to be connected. Could these deaths be the result of a lover’s quarrel? Or is something even more sinister haunting the town? With help from her feline sidekicks Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and her helpful hounds Tee Tucker and Pirate, Harry has no choice but to get to the bottom of it.
|
|
|
|
26 Beauties: A Women's Murder Club Thriller by James PattersonSFPD’s Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's best friend, Claire Washburn, is named medical examiner of the year. But an uninvited guest crashes the Women’s Murder Club's party: a concerned father seeking investigative reporter Cindy Thomas’s help in locating his missing daughter. And she’s not the only one. Lindsay’s been investigating the deaths of a Jane Doe washed up on a nearby beach, and a young woman found in Golden Gate Park. What if all these cases are connected? The answers lie with the 26 Beauties on the run and in the wind.
|
|
|
|
The Bush Tea Murder by Ashley-Ruth BernierFood journalist Naomi Sinclair doesn’t expect a side of murder with her passion fruit juice. But when her return to Saint Thomas heralds a series of troubling cases, ranging from petty theft to cold-blooded murder, that threaten her tight-knit community, that is exactly the kind of unsavory treat she must sink her teeth into. Luckily for her neighbors, Naomi is as adept at solving puzzles as rolling johnnycake dough—a good thing, since her island community, though small, keeps serving up plenty of trouble. With the help of her friends and her crush, Mateo, Naomi must navigate the tumultuous turquoise waters of life in the Caribbean, all as her beloved father battles an illness that keeps tugging her back to her island amid her rising career stateside. Rich with mouthwatering recipes, lush landscapes, and a hefty dose of fun under the sun, The Bush Tea Murder has all the ingredients to make up the perfect beach read.
|
|
|
|
The Great Houses of Pill Hill by Diane JosefowiczHannah “Cookie” Cooke, an interior decorator with a sideline making miniature reproductions of crime scenes for the local police department, lands her dream job when New Preston’s wealthiest couple hires her to renovate their historic New England home. But things go spectacularly wrong when her client Chuck—with whom she is having an affair—is murdered at the housewarming party. The detective on the case commissions one of Cookie’s miniatures to help solve the baffling murder. While grappling with her own complicated role in Chuck’s life—and the thorny layers of her own envies, resentments, and ambitions—Cookie delves into the strange details of his death, including his overly involved therapist, his wife’s nebulous textile empire, and a room decorated in nineteenth-century Egyptian kitsch hidden on the premises. In untangling the mystery, Cookie reveals an ugly truth about New Preston’s elite that might prove deadly. At once an irreverent interpretation of the hard-boiled genre and a skewering of traditional domesticity, this show-stopping work of crime fiction is crackling with narrative voice, resulting in a read that is equally engrossing and electrifying.
|
|
|
|
The Library After Dark by Ande PliegoNot all fairytales were meant for children. Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled—she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well. As a Valentine’s Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library—the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind. But when the automatic-door entry malfunctions and Aria, Jasper, and the five other people in their tour group become trapped in the library, they are forced to venture through the storied rooms and hidden passageways of the Daedalus in search of escape . . . and Aria quite literally has nowhere to hide from the shadows of her past. Then the group learns there’s a murderer in their midst. Now, as she tries to break out of the library’s intricate reading rooms, Aria has to decide who she can trust—and what secrets are best kept buried—if she wants to make it out alive.
|
|
|
|
A Zoom with a Viewby Jess CannonLeo can't believe she's back in Blue Oak. Her small, quirky Texas hometown feels suffocating after trying to make it big as an English professor in New York—especially due to her strained relationship with her overly hair-sprayed mother, Karina. But with Leo’s career in academia in shambles, at least she's able to work as a photographer for her godmother's real estate business. And her best friend, Emily, is around to help her navigate through the mess—and maybe force her to reconnect with her old high school boyfriend, Mack. But while at work, Leo makes a grisly discovery at one of her godmother's properties: the dead body of rival real estate agent and social media influencer Chaz. Even worse, Leo and Emily have been secretly running a snarky Reddit page making fun of Chaz’s cringe-inducing advice and duck-faced selfies. When someone she loves is accused of the murder, Leo finds herself flung headfirst into a dangerous investigation, teaming up with a local detective who is a lot more attractive than she remembered when they were both teenagers. Meanwhile, Karina has been acting stranger and stranger, as if all her hair hides a big secret. . . . A bold and hilarious introduction to a new sleuth who is looking to get her life back on track, but finds a man with his skull bashed in instead.
|
|
|
|
A Very Vexing Murder: Harriet Smith Investigates by Lucy Andrew “Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.” —Jane Austen, EMMA Is a killer lurking in the idyllic country domain of Emma Woodhouse? No longer Emma’s naïve companion, Harriet Smith is a feisty con-woman-turned-detective tasked with breaking off Frank Churchill’s engagement and uncovering his aunt’s would-be murderer. While Harriet has doubts that the deadly threats are little more than society scandal, the shrewd Mrs. Churchill suspects Frank’s unsuitable fiancée, Jane Fairfax, is out to kill her. What begins as a routine investigation among Highbury’s elite quickly spirals into a web of deception, dangerous secrets, and a game of survival. As Harriet interrogates a growing list of suspects with the help of her long-suffering best friend, Robert Martin, not only does she have to contend with a potential homicidal maniac and striking out as a single woman in Regency society, but is also afraid her father (and former partner-in-crime) is out for revenge. With a cast of unforgettable characters—including a charming scoundrel, a lovesick farmer, a ghoulish butler, and a ruthless heiress determined to hide her skeletons at any cost— this brilliantly reimagined mystery featuring the characters from Jane Austen’s Emma is as deliciously dark as it is delightfully clever.
|
|
|
|
Rachel West and the Fallen Starlet by Emma MillsBaby doll top, gladiator sandals, and fully loaded iPod at the ready: it’s 2008 in Los Angeles, and Rachel West is a little less starry-eyed than your average ingenue. Copyediting a celeb gossip rag isn't the glossy entertainment journalism Rachel thought she would be doing but hey, it pays the bills. Some of them, anyway. Rachel’s life changes overnight after meeting Molly Byrne, a former child star and current tabloid fave for her drunken escapades and rotating cast of boyfriends, and what begins as a chance encounter in a nightclub bathroom quickly grows into a genuine friendship. When Molly is found dead, Hollywood accepts her death as an overdose. But Rachel knows for a fact her friend was clean—and she’s not alone in her suspicions that Molly was murdered. With the help of a ragtag group of residents from her apartment building, a friendly paparazzo, and a handsome detective, Rachel must solve the mystery of Molly’s death before she’s written off for good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|