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Elementary, She Read
by Vicki Delany
Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
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Behind her eyes : a novel
by Sarah Pinborough
The secretary of a successful psychiatrist is drawn into the seemingly picture-perfect life of her boss and his wife before discovering a complex web of controlling behaviors and secrets that gradually reveal profound and dangerous flaws in the couple's relationship.
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| The Moth Catcher by Ann CleevesMystery. After the body of a stranger is found in a ditch in the small Northumberland community of Valley Farm, dogged DI Vera Stanhope and good-hearted DS Joe Ashworth visit the nearby country home where the dead man had been house sitting...and discover another corpse. Try as they might, the only connection they find between the two dead men is a mutual affection for moths. As the investigation progresses, the cops discover that many of the people living in Valley Farm have secrets, especially the three middle-aged couples who make up "the retired hedonists' club." This is the 7th book in the Vera Stanhope series (which is the inspiration for Vera, the popular TV show starring Brenda Blethyn). For another atmospheric series featuring a smart, irascible female detective in Europe, try Norwegian author Anne Holt's Hanne Wilhelmsen novels. |
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Dead and Breakfast
by Kate Kingsbury
Melanie West is getting her life back on track after a messy divorce when her grandmother, Liza Harris, asks her to open a B&B with her. Together, Liza and Melanie purchase a purportedly haunted mansion on the Oregon coast and jump right into clearing out the cobwebs. But while attempting to remove wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom, the new B&B owners stumble upon a very real skeleton in their closet.
The police suspect the skeleton is that of the wife of the previous owner of the B&B, but no one in town seems to want to say much about her. As the inn owners try to juggle renovations with their own amateur investigations, their grand opening looms closer and closer--and a friendly ghost in their walls starts playing tricks. But it all comes crashing to a halt when a new body is found stabbed to death on the beach below the inn--the victim chillingly close in resemblance to Melanie herself.
It seems someone doesn't appreciate newcomers prying into the small town's past, and now it's up to Melanie and Liza to get to the bottom of these murders to save their business...and their lives.
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The forgotten girls
by Owen Laukkanen
She was a forgotten girl, a runaway found murdered on the High Line train through the northern Rocky Mountains and, with little local interest, put into a dead file. But she was not alone. When Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint FBI-BCA violent crime force stumble upon the case, they discover a horror far greater than anyone expected--a string of murders on the High Line, all of them young women drifters whom no one would notice. But someone has noticed now. Through the bleak midwinter and a frontier land of forbidding geography, Stevens and Windermere follow a frustratingly light trail of clues--and where it ends, even they will be shocked.
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| Glow of Death by Jane K. ClelandCozy Mystery. When she's called to appraise a possible Tiffany lamp by Edward and Ava Towson, Josie Prescott is delighted; though most stained glass lamps aren't Tiffany, some are and the sale of one would bring a hefty commission. Her delight turns to puzzlement a few days later, however, when the real Ava Towson is killed, and Josie learns that the wealthy couple who'd requested her help were impostors, and that their story about the Tiffany lamp was a carefully constructed lie. Not only that, but the Tiffany lamp she'd declared authentic has been replaced with a fake. Upset at being conned, Josie can't help but nose around. This 11th Josie Prescott mystery set in coastal New Hampshire should please cozy readers who enjoy watching Antiques Roadshow. |
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In This Grave Hour
by Jacqueline Winspear
Sunday September 3rd 1939. At the moment Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain’s declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs' flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie: to find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy, some twenty-three years earlier during the Great War.
In a London shadowed by barrage balloons, bomb shelters and the threat of invasion, within days another former Belgian refugee is found murdered. And as Maisie delves deeper into the killings of the dispossessed from the “last war," a new kind of refugee — an evacuee from London — appears in Maisie's life. The little girl billeted at Maisie’s home in Kent does not, or cannot, speak, and the authorities do not know who the child belongs to or who might have put her on the “Operation Pied Piper” evacuee train. They know only that her name is Anna. As Maisie’s search for the killer escalates, the country braces for what is to come. Britain is approaching its gravest hour — and Maisie could be nearing a crossroads of her own.
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| The Inheritance by Charles FinchHistorical Mystery. It's a snowy January 3, 1877 in London when gentleman detective Charles Lenox receives an odd letter from Gerald Leigh, a former Harrow schoolmate who'd been an outcast there, but has become a renowned scientist living in France. Later, it appears that Gerald has gone missing, and Charles wonders if the letter and his disappearance are related to the mysterious benefactor who paid for Gerald's expensive schooling. Meanwhile, Charles' partners, Polly Buchanan and Lord John Dallington, investigate break-ins at Parliament. As the trio work their cases, they encounter both East End gangs and Royal Society denizens. Readers who enjoy intricately plotted, elegantly written traditional mysteries will love the Charles Lenox Chronicles; The Inheritance is the 10th entry. |
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The violated
by Bill Pronzini
In Echo Park, in the small town of Santa Rita, California, the mutilated body of Martin Torrey is found by two passersby. A registered sex offender, Torrey has been a suspect in a string of recent rapes, and instant suspicion for his murder falls on the relatives and friends of the women attacked. Police chief Griffin Kells and detective Robert Ortiz are under increasing pressure from the public and from a mayor demanding results in a case that has no easy solution. Pronzini cleverly unfolds the case through alternating perspectives--Martin Torrey's wife, caught between her grief and the fear her husband was guilty; the outraged husbands of the women violated; the enterprising editor of the local paper; the mayor concerned most with his own ratings; the detectives, often spinning in circles--until a surprising break leads to a completely unexpected conclusion.
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| Beloved Poison by E.S. ThomsonHistorical Mystery. In this well-researched debut novel set in 1850s London, young Jem Flockhart has a secret: in order to work as an apothecary alongside her ill father, she has been pretending to be a man. It's been fine, but when the large infirmary she works at is slated to be torn down to make way for a railway, she finds herself with one of the young architects, Will Quartermain, for a roommate. Since Will is nice enough, Jem helps him with his work, during which the two find six tiny coffins holding dolls and flowers in the centuries-old infirmary's chapel. Jem and Will search for answers, and find much more than they bargained for, especially when murders occur. With a strong sense of place that captures the grim realities of life in a 19th-century infirmary as well as a cemetery relocation, Beloved Poison is a good choice for non-squeamish historical mystery readers. |
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Duplicity
by Ingrid Thoft
Assigned to investigate a glitzy new church that is being sued for brainwashing allegations, gutsy Boston P.I. Fina Ludlow delves into the life of a prominent church member who has died under suspicious circumstances. By the author of Identity.
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At What Cost : A Detective Penley Mystery
by James L'etoile
Detective John Penley and his new partner, Detective Paula Newberry, of the Sacramento Police Department are tasked with leading the investigation into a local serial killer who has dumped three bodies in the past six weeks--and all of them are missing their internal organs. But while pursuing a lead, the detectives stumble upon a personal message the killer left behind for Penley. And it's attached to a human kidney.
How could the killer know Penley's son is on the kidney transplant waiting list? Now Penley's baited into an impossible trap that could jeopardize his entire career. Will the detective take down the killer and place his faith in the medical establishment to heal his son? Or, will he make a deal with the devil for the transplant organ his son needs to live?
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Snowblind : A Thriller
by Ragnar Jonasson
A U.S. debut from a best-selling European author follows the first posting of a rookie policeman in a peaceful Northern Iceland fishing village, where a suspicious injury and a murder reveal explosive local secrets.
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Plaid and plagiarism
by Molly MacRae
When the murder of a surprisingly hated local disrupts preparations for the annual Inversgail Literature Festival in Scotland, the owner of a new bookshop and an ambitious investigative reporter comb through the victim's hate mail for clues about who was the killer.
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| Full Dark House by Christopher FowlerMystery. This creative take on the detective novel tells the stories of John May's and Arthur Bryant's first case (a 1940 murder in a theater)...and their last (involving an explosion at their modern-day London Peculiar Crime Unit's headquarters, which is related to the earlier killing and leaves nothing behind of the elderly Bryant but his false teeth). May goes over decades-old information and memories in order to figure out what the World War II-era murder has to do with the explosion. With writing that makes London come to life, banter-filled dialogue, and quirky detectives you'll enjoy spending time with, this 1st in a fantastic series is a perfect read for those looking for something a bit different. |
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| S is for Silence by Sue GraftonMystery. Tough, confident California PI Kinsey Millhone wants to learn the truth behind a decades-old cold case, but it won't be easy. Thirty-four years after beautiful Violet Sullivan's unexplained disappearance on July 4, 1953, Daisy, the daughter she left behind, enlists Kinsey to help her find out what happened to her mom. Did Violet simply walk out on her daughter and abusive husband, like some insist? Or was she herself a victim, like others think? And what was in the safe deposit box she emptied the week before she disappeared? Juicy tidbits about Kinsey and atmospheric flashbacks to 1953 add dimension to this 19th entry in this bestselling series that's now up to letter X. |
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| If the Dead Rise Not: A Bernie Gunther Novel by Philip KerrHistorical Mystery. Full of rich atmosphere, this Bernie Gunther novel (the 6th of 11 thus far) is set in 1954 in Havana...but certain events force Bernie to relive his experiences in 1934 Berlin. Back then, as the Nazis prepared to host the 1936 Olympics, Bernie had a choice: join the Nazi party, or lose his job. He quit, and also agreed to help a beautiful American organize a U.S. boycott of the Olympic Games. Things didn't end well, and in 1954, she reappears, along with an American mobster from Bernie's past. If the Dead Rise Not fills in a lot of Bernie's backstory, making for a fine entree into the series, though purists may want to start with March Violets. |
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| The Lake House: A Novel by Kate MortonMystery. London police detective Sadie Sparrow has been messing up at work -- especially on a recent child abandonment case -- and needs a break. Staying at her grandfather's Cornwall home, she comes across a rundown country house in the woods, abandoned by the family in 1933 when their toddler son disappeared during a party and was never found. Sadie meets the boy's sister, now an elderly mystery writer living in London, and tries to sort out what happened those many years ago, triggering a series of events that lead to shocking revelations. Set in both 1933 and 2003, this gothic-tinged mystery should please fans of Eve Chase's debut, Black Rabbit Hall. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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