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Mystery April 2026 Monday Mysteries Book Club Monday, May 4 at 4 pm Join us to discuss: |
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A Very Woodsy Murder
by Ellen Byron
Down-on-her-luck sitcom writer Dee Stern is flipping the script. Twice divorced and wasting her talents on an obnoxious kids show, the lifelong Angeleno embraces the urge to jump in her car and keep driving. It's a road trip with no destination--until she pulls into a mid-century motel filled with cobwebs and retro charm. Nestled in the shadow of a national park, it's a time capsule of a place that, like her, could use some work. So, in the most impulsive move of her life, Dee teams up with best friend, Jeff Cornetta--who happens to be her first ex-husband--to transform the aging ranch into the Golden Motel-of-the-Mountains, a hiker's oasis on the edge of the wilderness...But Dee and Jeff soon realize there couldn't be two people more unprepared for the hospitality business. There's also the panic-inducing reality of prowling bears and a general store as the only shopping spot for miles. Living and working in the middle of nowhere takes some getting used to--especially when a disrespectful guest ends up murdered!--
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Death in Brittany: A Mystery
by Jean-Luc Bannalec
An international bestseller, this captivating whodunit introduces Commissaire Dupin-a clever but cantankerous traditional police inspector in an idyllic French seaside village
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Cat on a Hot Tin Woof: A Chet & Bernie Mystery
by Spencer Quinn
Join Chet the dog, the most lovable narrator in all of fiction (Boston Globe), and his human partner Bernie as they scramble to solve a case exposing the dark side of internet fame. Chet the dog is less than enthusiastic about the Little Detective Agency's next case. Chet and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, have been hired to find a missing person--only the missing person is a cat. Miss Kitty, an internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong. Miss Kitty belongs to Bitty, a sweet teenage girl who lives with her mom. Bitty and her mother are struggling financially, but the arrival of Miss Kitty and the chance discovery of her social media appeal has changed everything. Bitty now has sponsors, a high-powered agent, and all the tools needed to thrive online, and real money is flowing in. At least, it was. With Miss Kitty gone, the family's income is on the line. The case presents a slew of challenges for Chet and Bernie. For one thing, a potential witness is a pig named Senor Piggy who may be in possession of an important piece of evidence. For another, it seems like a possible perp has been killed twice--and there's evidence implicating Bernie in the crime.
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A Deadly Episode
by Anthony Horowitz
They're making a major feature film of the first Hawthorne/Horowitz mystery novel. Except--they're behind schedule, they've run out of money and . . . oh The star has just been murdered.Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is dead.Or, rather, the actor playing him in the film adaptation of The Word is Murder is. Rising star David Caine has been stabbed, and it seems that everyone on the set had a motive.Caine had just fired his PA. He had fallen out with his director, slept with the screenwriter, humiliated his co-star and dropped his agent days before he was about to sign a multi-million-dollar deal to appear in the next Spider-Man movie.But what if Caine's murderer had made a mistake? What if it was the real Hawthorne who was the intended victim? For it turns out that the brilliant detective may have got it wrong ten years earlier. An innocent man has died in jail. And perhaps someone has decided that Hawthorne must pay the price.From the film set on the south coast of England, the story moves to Reeth, in Yorkshire, the village where Hawthorne grew up. A burned-down school, a car accident that isn't what it seems, blackmail and murder in an Elizabethan country house . . . somehow they combine to unlock the secret of what has happened in Hastings.For once, the local police are helpful. DS Sarah Milnes gives Hawthorne carte blanche to investigate and there may even be a hint of romance in the air. Which leaves his hapless sidekick, Horowitz, on his own, stumbling his way to the truth.A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, A Deadly Episode is an intriguing page-turner that once again demonstrates why Anthony Horowitz is the reigning king of the modern whodunit.
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| The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn ClarkeSix struggling authors are invited to the private Scottish island of bestselling novelist Arthur Fletch, a recluse known for his fiendish plot twists. Upon arrival, they are told Fletch has died and left an unfinished manuscript. It's up to one of them to write the best ending in 72 hours, and whoever wins gets money and publicity. But then a real murder occurs. For fans of: the Knives Out films; Ande Pliego's You Are Fatally Invited. |
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| Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief by Benjamin StevensonWriter and amateur sleuth Ernest Cunningham has gone to the bank hoping to get a loan to bankroll a new PI business. When Ernest and everyone else inside is taken hostage, he manages to nose around, learning that more than one person planned to rob the bank that day. Then a murder occurs. Kirkus Reviews raves, "nobody from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz beats Stevenson for cleverness." This is the 4th in a delightful series by Australian author Benjamin Stevenson. For fans of: Richard Osman.
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The Harvey Girl
by Dana Stabenow
This thrilling historical mystery sees a young female Pinkerton detective take on the lawless American frontier of the 1890s.
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How to Cheat Your Own Death
by Kristen Perrin
From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, two interlocking mysteries decades apart unfold in this latest instalment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Castle Knoll Murder Mystery seriesSome secrets are deadlier than others1968: Frances Adams is loving her new London life, and she's stepped into a world of glamour thanks to her new friend, Vera Huntington--a magnetic socialite as mysterious as she is provocative. Vera dances around London like she owns it, taking Frances with her. Present day: When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her famous artist mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Laura's new protégée, left in an alley with her heart surgically removed from her chest. Annie is no stranger to murder--after all, she's solved a few already. And something about this case feels familiar. She's read about one just like it in the journals of her late great aunt Frances, whose friend Vera was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way. As Annie investigates, threats pile up on Laura's doorstep, and it soon becomes clear that she's next. With her mother's life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it's too late?
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In the Spirit of French Murder
by Colleen Cambridge
After moving to France, Tabitha Knight has a new friend in fellow expat and Cordon Bleu student Julia Child, whose culinary tips can come in quite handy. But something's cooking in postwar Paris, and it isn't just cheese soufflé... Tabitha has enjoyed an entertaining afternoon in Julia's kitchen, but her return home is a bit jarring. As she arrives at her grandfather's rue de l'Universitémansion, a woman bursts out the door babbling about messages from spirits and a warning Grand-père must heed. Oncle Rafe angrily sends the woman on her way, and neither man will answer Tabitha's questions. It's not the last she sees of the mysterious visitor. While she's on a date that evening, she's accosted by her again--and learns that Madame Vierca is a medium who claims to have visions of a dark fate that awaits Grand-père and Oncle Rafe. The very next night, Tabitha's messieurs host a soiree at their new restaurant, inviting fellow Resistance fighters from the war known as the Nine Bluets. To commemorate the work of the Resistance network, the vase on the dinner table sports nine of the pretty blue flowers. But shortly after the revelers leave the restaurant, one of Grand-père's old friends is found dead on the street . . . and one of the nine flowers is missing from the vase. When a second member of the Nine Bluets is found poisoned the next day, and a bluet flower is left with the body, Tabitha cannot ignore Madame Vierca's frightening predictions about her dear messieurs. She has no choice but to share her suspicions and fears with the enigmatic and unruffled Inspecteur Merveille. Tabitha soon finds herself caught up in an investigation that takes her and Merveille to the seediest, most dangerous parts of the Left Bank--home of strange, fantastical legends, disquieting events, and unusual people. As she and Merveille desperately try to find a killer, they know they don't have much time before the rest of the Nine Bluets are targeted . . . including Grand-père and Oncle Rafe.
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Last One Out
by Jane Harper
From the New York Times bestselling author of Exiles and The Dry comes a captivating new novel set in a modern ghost town. Carralon 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.
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| Stakeouts and Strollers by Rob PhillipsAfter being laid off from his crime reporting job, new dad Charlie Shaw becomes a rookie PI. While on a stakeout trying to catch a cheating spouse, he meets 16-year-old Friday, who's hoping to avoid foster care by finding her estranged father. Charlie agrees to look for her dad and he and his wife give her a place to stay, but Friday's situation is more dangerous than Charlie ever imagined. For fans of: fun debut novels; Kat Ailes' The Expectant Detective mysteries; Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan novels. |
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When the Wolves Are Silent
by C. S. Harris
A string of shocking ritual killings has London's ruling elite panicked in the latest Sebastian St. Cyr mystery by C. S. Harris, USA Today bestselling author of Who Will Remember. Sebastian faces his greatest challenge yet when the dissolute sons of London's power brokers begin turning up dead in what seem to be ritualistic sacrifices. As he digs deeper, numerous suspects emerge, including ones with ties to the Revolutionary War, members of a neo-Druid movement, and a printer of political tracts. It seems many people wanted the men dead, and Sebastian has to find the killer to keep them from striking again-- Provided by publisher.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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