Cozy Mystery. Cotswold detective Agatha Raisin dreams of a perfect Christmas, deals with her unsatisfactory work, and ponders her problematic love life in this 18th in the popular series. To solve her job woes, Agatha hires Toni Gilmour, a 17-year-old teenage girl from a less-than-stellar family, to find the lost cats and dogs that middle-aged Agatha is tired of tracking down. This lets Agatha travel to a Gloucestershire manor house after she receives a letter from a wealthy widow claiming someone in her family wants her dead. As for Agatha's love life--ex-husband James Lacey is still on her mind, but for how much longer? This Christmas tale centered on a dysfunctional family is a cozy treat.

Crime Novel. Sometimes being acquitted of a crime is just the beginning of the story. Everyone, even his own father, thinks Adam Chase got away with murder and treats him like dirt. Adam leaves his beloved southern hometown, but five years later, home calls him back when one of his few old friends asks for his help. Adam goes, but when he arrives no one is happy to see him and his friend is gone. Things worsen when people start being attacked and a dead body is found. Author John Hart doesn't fall victim to a sophomore slump--Down River earns starred reviews from multiple critics and more than one reviewer compares Hart's novels with Raymond Chandler's.

Mystery. Author Jon Loomis' first mystery (he has published two books of poems) begins a series set in the flamboyant resort town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Ex-Baltimore cop Frank Coffin left the big city after the daily grind of death caused him to have panic attacks. Now, he's the only police detective in his small hometown, and he's forced to deal with a murder case after a virulently anti-gay TV evangelist is found dead on a local beach dressed in the attire he favored on his nights off--a floral muumuu and pumps. Featuring "razor-sharp wit and laugh-out-loud comedic elements" (The Chicago Tribune), this debut is perfect for readers looking for a fun read this holiday season.

At the height of the Christmas season, Cecily Sinclair Baxter undertakes a personal investigation to find her missing husband and stable manager, who vanished during an expedition into the nearby woods to cut holly to decorate the ballroom for the Pennyfoot Hotel's annual Christmas reception, and the killer responsible for returning a corpse in their place. Original.

Forensic Crime Novel. Three years ago, forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter lost his wife and child and, thus, his footing in the world. He left London and his old job (dealing with decaying bodies) to settle in a small English village and practice medicine on living people. But when a local young woman is found dead and another is missing, he agrees to help the police with their investigation. Readers of the Kay Scarpetta novels will enjoy the forensic details here ("a human body starts to decompose four minutes after death") as well as the troubled doctor's relationships with those around him. If you enjoy Dr. Hunter's 1st outing, the 2nd, Written in Bone, was published in 2007.

Forensic Thriller. Like Patricia Cornwell (who once worked in the Virginia Medical Examiner's office), author Linda Fairstein has worked at the same government agency as her detective, Alexandra Cooper. Alex is an assistant district attorney in charge of Manhattan's sex crime prosecution--a job that Fairstein held for a number of years. In Final Jeopardy, the 1st book featuring Alex, murder becomes personal when movie star Isabella Lascar is killed while staying in Alex's summer home. Did the murderer really intend to kill Alex instead? And why is Alex's boyfriend behaving strangely? Kirkus Reviews calls this book "Patricia Cornwell in the Big Apple."

Forensic Thriller. Cornwell readers fascinated by forensic details will also dig the in-depth, accurate, and often quite gory examination of dead bodies by forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. In Déjà Dead, the 1st book to feature the Montreal-based North Carolinian, Tempe suspects that there might be a link between the murder case she's working on and an earlier death. Since the police ignore her warnings about a serial killer, Tempe investigates on her own and finds herself in danger, both professionally and personally. TV viewers who have seen the small-screen version of Tempe in Bones, but haven't read the books the show is based on, should definitely try one.

Suspense. In rural Grant County, Georgia, Sara Linton, the local pediatrician and coroner (talk about two jobs that usually aren't connected!), finds herself being held hostage at the police station alongside several others, including the chief of police (who's her ex-husband), and a group of 10-year-olds. Flashing back in time, Sara recalls the tumultuous trip to her ex's small hometown 12 years earlier--a visit that included a murder. Could the two cases be related? This 4th novel in the series is a fine place to start since it dips into the past, but readers who insist on doing things by the book should start with the 1st one, Blindsighted.

Humorous Mystery. In her 4th outing, blacksmith Meg Langslow agrees to help out her brother, Rob, by filling in as the receptionist/switchboard operator at his computer-game company, Mutant Wizards (famous for their "Lawyers from Hell" game). But Meg is soon juggling with more things than phone calls after she discovers the office's practical joker lying dead on the mail cart and her brother is accused of the crime. With a one-winged buzzard, an assortment of dogs, disgruntled programmers on a deadline, and psychotherapists who share the office space, you've got "a smile on nearly every page and at least one chuckle per chapter" (Publishers Weekly).

Mystery. At the behest of her former coach who's fighting cancer and can't do her job right now, V.I. Warshawski shelves her detective gear in order to coach the girls' basketball team at her old South Chicago high school. V.I.'s got gang members and teen mothers to deal with, but not to worry, whodunit fans! She dons her detective gear after she's hired to investigate the disappearance of a rich local family's son, and she also tries to figure out who's sabotaging a local flag factory. Mystery readers looking for books with a strong sense of place will find that Chicago has "a costarring role" (Booklist) in Fire Sale, the 13th in this gritty series.

Mystery. Southerner Ricky Smith is Mr. Lucky--after escaping a fire at a Las Vegas hotel by jumping into the pool, Ricky immediately goes to a casino, plays a variety of games, never loses, and wins a million bucks. Nobody's that lucky, right? Everyone thinks Ricky must be cheating and ex-cop Tony Valentine is hired to figure out exactly how he's winning. Tony follows Ricky to his hometown and finds that he's still on a roll (he even wins the lottery). Kirkus Reviews calls this 5th book in the Tony Valentine mysteries "a wall-to-wall adrenaline rush as potent as a gambler's high"--check it out if you need a pick-me-up after all of those holiday errands.

As the University of Notre Dame prepares for a much-anticipated football game with Baylor University, America's leading Protestant college, murder threatens the campus, Notre Dame's famed quarterback vanishes, and brothers Roger and Philip Knight must find a killer

When her hometown decides to host a charity crossword puzzle tournament, Cora Felton, "the Puzzle Lady," is reluctant to become involved, until the mysterious death of one of the celebrity contestants forces Cora into the role of amateur sleuth to find the killer