| The Secrets of the Abbey by Jean-Luc BannalecIn coastal Brittany, France, Police Commissaire Dupin and his team investigate when Second Inspector Kadeg is attacked and critically injured at his elderly aunt's property, just days after she died in odd circumstances. At the aunt's home in a restored former abbey on the Côte des Légendes, Dupin finds secrets and murder. Like the others in the series, this 11th entry lovingly describes the setting and food and works as a standalone story. |
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| A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan HarperIn Los Angeles, people make money however they can. Jake monitors the police scanner and livestreams to his many followers, defense attorney Gibson reluctantly represents a big-time TV producer charged with possession of child abuse images, and Kara works for a private concierge service, getting the wealthy what they want. Then a missing woman connects them, upending their lives. For fans of: gritty neo-noir novels with well-crafted dialogue; Jonathan Ames' Happy Doll novels. |
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| Robbie McNeil's Hit List by Brianna HeathMilitary vet Robbie McNeil is busy running the Indiana karaoke bar she co-owns with her queerplatonic partner and fellow contract killer, Dee. The two are also writing and staging a musical. Needing money for their theatrical ambitions, Robbie takes a sketchy contract job and soon her target disappears, leading Robbie to investigate in the midst of everything else. For fans of: found family themes; slow-burn crime novels with likeable morally gray characters. |
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| My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru KonishiKaede, a 27-year-old teacher and crime novel reader, often uncovers puzzling events as she goes about her day. With her beloved grandfather, a former member of a mystery club whose Lewy body dementia hasn't affected his armchair crime-solving skills, she explores six mysteries, including a locked room murder and a missing persons case. For fans of: novels that reference classic mysteries; cozy Japanese stories. |
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| A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna RaybournAre there vampires in 1890 London? Natural scientists Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane investigate when a young man with bite marks on his neck is found dead near Highgate Cemetery. This well-plotted 10th in a popular series finds Veronica and Stoker going to a Romany camp as well as interacting with a vampire-like man and his witchy partner. For fans of: the author's Lady Julia Grey novels (Julia makes a cameo here); twisty mysteries with bantering detective duos. |
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| Nobody's Baby by Olivia WaiteOn the HMS Fairweather, a luxurious interstellar passenger liner, ship's detective Dorothy Gentleman investigates when an infant is left on her nephew's doorstep. Since fertility is supposed to be on pause during the journey, Dorothy has lots of questions, and while she looks for answers, her nephew and his partner grow attached to the baby. Readers who appreciate smart, fresh takes on cozy mysteries will want to pick up this delightful 2nd in a series. Try this next: Malka Older's Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series. |
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Five
by Ilona Bannister
Ilona Bannister's "Five" introduces readers to five seemingly random people waiting for a train. But these are not just any five people. From the beginning we know that one of them is going to die soon. But before this happens you will learn their stories. An incredibly original novel that breaks the fourth wall and asks the reader to be judge, jury, and executioner, "Five" looks at some of the most complicated issues of contemporary life: motherhood, disability, addiction. Every stranger has a story. And in Ilona Bannister's skillful hands, five people's stories come together to create an unforgettable novel.
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Dissection of a Murder
by Jo Murray
When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she's shocked by the victim: a well-known, well-respected judge, whose death sent shockwaves through the legal community. She's also incredulous--she's nowhere near experienced enough to handle such a high-profile assignment--but the defendant is insistent: he wants her, and only her, to represent him. Except he's refusing to talk. And if that wasn't complicated enough, Leila soon learns her opponent is the most ruthless prosecutor she's ever known: her husband. It's an impossible situation, yet Leila is determined to sway the jury--until she's blindsided once again by a shadowy figure from her past. Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only for her client and marriage, but also to keep her own secrets buried.
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The Fine Art of Lying
by Alexandra Andrews
In the beginning, there was art. It was Clare Bast's love of art that saved her from a bleak, predictable life in upstate New York, and drew her to the cultured world of Manhattan's Upper East Side where she met Jed, her doting, affluent husband. Despite her best efforts--including a half-finished PhD, abandoned when her daughter Sadie was born--Clare secretly can't help but feel like an imposter in Jed's one-percent, Park-Avenue life. When the well-connected wife of Jed's new boss introduces her to influential friends--a curator here, a gallerist there, an aficionado abroad--Clare feels an essential part of herself coming alive again. And when she discovers that an important work painted by the subject of her unfinished dissertation is hanging in the brownstone of a seductively attractive dealer, she believes fate is leading her where she belongs . . . until she finds herself at the scene of a gruesome murder and a stolen masterpiece. Caught in the perfectly wrong place at the perfectly wrong time, every clue the investigation uncovers points back to her. Suddenly, Clare is trapped inside a dark and treacherous art world filled with unscrupulous dealers and international criminals. What, exactly, has she gotten herself into . . . and how is she going to get herself, and her family, out?
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