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Detective and mystery fiction

  • Author:
    Harrison, Mike
    Summary:

    When Eddie receives an early morning call for help, he catches the next plane to Britain. His friend, Dr. Peter Maurice, a renowned psychologist on a UK book tour with his wife Sylvia, has been accused of multiple, brutal murders and is about to be arrested.

    Eddie learns that the deadly intrigue goes further back than the present time – to a two-hundred-year-old manuscript, written by Franz Anton Mesmer, and recently purchased by Dr. Maurice. The manuscript, written in Old Italian, appears to be a catalyst that sparks killing sprees, as history shows that Mesmer’s great-great-granddaughter, who smuggled the manuscript out of East Germany, became the first of many women to die horribly at the hands of a demented serial killer. But what’s the connection?

    Eddie arranges to have the manuscript translated, but when he goes to collect it, he discovers the translator dead, her head brutally crushed by a killer who specializes in breaking bones very slowly. Eddie’s investigation unearths gruesome information about England’s notorious Newgate Prison, once frequented by Mesmer but long since burned to the ground.

    The paparazzi are all over Eddie and Dr. Maurice’s wife as Eddie works to disprove Scotland Yard’s claim that Dr. Maurice is a monster. Eddie is determined to help the good Doctor and prove the police wrong. But are they?

  • Author:
    Brown, Bethany, Kane, Ashlyn
    Summary:

    Lost Boys and Love Letters, Book Three A gunshot wound isn't enough to slow down Detective Patrick Hawkins, so his friends conspire to ship him off to visit his best friend and ex-lover, Dr. Julian Piet, for some forced recovery time. If only Julian and his new boyfriend weren't so disgustingly cute all the time, Patrick might actually have a chance to enjoy himself. Enter Brad Wilde, Alberta's hottest bartender. Brad might be inexperienced and shy by nature, but that doesn't stop the sparks from flying between them. But Patrick is used to casual flings and one-night stands, and he's not quite sure what to do about his attraction to Brad. All of Patrick's doubts seem trivial when Julian's neighbor's child goes missing and the whole town mobilizes to find her. When the search for Hallie turns up a decomposing body, the police begin to fear they'll never find her alive. As Brad and Patrick try to help, they will have to overcome the physical and emotional distance between them to have any hope of finding Hallie before she falls victim to the same fate as the mysterious corpse.

  • Author:
    Albert, Susan Wittig
    Summary:

    Herbalist ex-lawyer China Bayles investigates the murder of a teller at the Pecan Springs bank and follows the clues to a haunted bed and breakfast.

  • Author:
    Malliet, G. M.
    Summary:

    Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play. As the investigation unfolds, Max becomes more intricately involved. Memories he'd rather not revisit are stirred, evoking the demons from the past which led him to Nether Monkslip.

  • Author:
    Barnard, J. E.
    Summary:

    When a Hollywood director's wife dies during a local movie shoot, filming is suspended. The death also spells the end of ex-Mountie Lacey McCrae's latest temporary job. At loose ends, Lacey volunteers to help in the search for an aging oil baron and his son who have disappeared in the foothills of the Rockies. As drone operators scan the forested valleys from the air and rock-climbers rappel down narrow chasms in search of the pair, Lacey dons her Victim Services' cap to ease tensions among the missing oilman's four adult sons and three ex-wives.As squabbles over the possible inheritance intensify, Lacey uncovers a surprising link between the missing oilman and the big-shot director. But an unexpected event sends Lacey out on a risky trek across an unstable mountainside on the trail of a murderer who is bent on killing again.

  • Author:
    Harris, C. S.
    Summary:

    In the newest mystery from the national bestselling author of Where the Dead Lie, a brutal murder draws Sebastian St. Cyr into the web of the royal court, where intrigue abounds and betrayal awaits. London, 1814. As a cruel winter holds the city in its icy grip, the bloody body of a beautiful young musician is found half-buried in a snowdrift. Jane Ambrose's ties to Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince Regent and heir presumptive to the throne, panic the palace, which moves quickly to shut down any investigation into the death of the talented pianist. But Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife Hero refuse to allow Jane's murderer to escape justice. Untangling the secrets of Jane's world leads Sebastian into a maze of dangerous treachery where each player has his or her own unsavory agenda and no one can be trusted. As the Thames freezes over and the people of London pour onto the ice for a Frost Fair, Sebastian and Hero find their investigation circling back to the palace and building to a chilling crescendo of deceit and death ...

  • Author:
    Tursten, Helene
    Summary:

    He watches the women from the shadows. He has an understanding with them; as long as they follow his rules, they are safe. But when they sin, he sentences them to death. A woman is found dead in a cemetery, strangled and covered in plastic. Just a few days before her death, the victim had received a flower, an unintelligible note, and a photograph of herself. Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden, have neither clue nor motive to pursue, and when similar murders follow, their search for the killer becomes increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, strange things have been going on at home for Irene: first the rose bush in her garden is mangled, then she receives a threatening package with no return address. Is Irene being paranoid, or is she next on the killer's list?

  • Author:
    Cahoon, Lynn
    Summary:

    Angie Turner hopes her new farm-to-table restaurant can be a fresh start in her old hometown in rural Idaho. But when a goat dairy farmer is murdered, Angie must turn the tables on a bleating black sheep... With three weeks until opening night for their restaurant, the County Seat, Angie and her best friend and business partner Felicia are scrambling to line up local vendors-from the farmer's market to the goat dairy farm of Old Man Moss. Fortunately, the cantankerous Moss takes a shine to Angie, as does his kid goat Precious. So when Angie hears the bloodcurdling news of foul play at the dairy farm, she jumps in to mind the man's livestock and help solve the murder. One thing's for sure, there's no whey Angie's going to let some killer get her goat.

  • Author:
    Staunton, Ted
    Summary:

    Danny has survived everything life has thrown at him: being abandoned at birth, multiple abusive foster homes, life as a con man in training. But when his latest "protector" dies suddenly, Danny has to think fast or he'll be back in foster care again. He decides to assume the identity of a boy who disappeared three years before. If nothing else, he figures it will buy him a little time. Much to his astonishment, his new "family" accepts him as their own, despite the fact that he looks nothing like their missing relative. But one old cop has his suspicions about Danny, and he's not about to declare the case closed. Inspired by a true story, Who I'm Not is a powerful portrait of a boy whose identity is as fluid as a river and as changeable as a chameleon's skin.

  • Author:
    Scieszka, Jon
    Summary:

    When the world's most horrible editor turns up dead, investigator Jon Scieszka has his work cut out for him. The suspect list is long. Very long. Think eighty-three-famous-YA-authors long, including Libba Bray, David Levithan, John Green, Lemony Snicket, Lauren Myracle--you get the picture. They've all got alibis, collected in this very anthology. But the question is … Who done it?

  • Author:
    Snicket, Lemony
    Summary:

    In a fading town, far from anyone he knew or trusted, a young Lemony Snicket began his apprenticeship in an organization nobody knows about. He started asking questions that shouldn't have been on his mind. Now he has written an account that should not be published, in four volumes that shouldn't be read. This is the first volume.

  • Author:
    Delany, Vicki
    Summary:

    When paramedic Ashley Grant finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, she moves out of her house (okay, his house), quits her job and takes a new one in a tiny Caribbean country, the Victoria and Albert Islands. Ashley is thrown into the deep end when she arrives. Her new colleague picks her up at the airport in the island's only ambulance, which is called to the discovery of a body floating off the beach at the exclusive Club Louisa. The body is that of a man vacationing with his daughter and glamorous new wife. Coincidentally, Sally, the daughter of the dead man, recognizes Ashley from high school. She is convinced that her stepmother killed her father and begs Ashley to help her prove it. Before she can even unpack her bags or enjoy the view from her ocean-side apartment, Ashley is unwittingly dragged into a murder investigation. First in a new series from award-winning author Vicki Delany.

  • Author:
    Butcher, Jim.
    Summary:

    In Chicago, someone has been killing practitioners of magic, those incapable of becoming full-fledged wizards. Shockingly, all the evidence points to Harry Dresden's half brother, Thomas, as the murderer. Determined to clear his sibling's name, Harry uncovers a conspiracy within the White Council of Wizards that threatens not only him, but his nearest and dearest, too.

  • Author:
    McGrath, M. J.
    Summary:

    Half Inuit, half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk is the best guide in her corner of the Arctic. When a man is murdered under her watch, she sets out to investigate but is shocked by the suicide of someone close to her. The events seem unrelated, but Edie's instinct says otherwise.

  • Author:
    Child, Lincoln, Preston, Douglas J.
    Summary:

    In 1876, in a remote mining camp in the Colorado Rockies, several miners were killed in grizzly bear attacks. Now the historic cemetery has been dug up to make way for development. Corrie Swanson has arranged to examine the remains. But in doing so she makes a shocking discovery.

  • Author:
    Fowler, Christopher
    Summary:

    Christopher Fowler is acclaimed as a "new master of the classical detective story" (Denver Post). In White Corridor, Fowler's senior-citizen detectives find themselves solving a locked-room case (by cell phone, no less) while stuck in a van. "... life always seems livelier whenever Arthur Bryant and John May are on a case."-New York Times Book Review

  • Author:
    Aaronovitch, Ben
    Summary:

    It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher-and the victim's wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom-if it exists at all-is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects ... except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer's apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as "the Faceless Man," it's up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and-as of now-deadliest subway system in the world. At least he won't be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She's young, ambitious, beautiful ... and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah-that's going to go well.

  • Author:
    Baker, Chandler
    Summary:

    Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc., for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge. But the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently. This time, when they find out Ames is making an inappropriate move on a colleague, they aren’t willing to let it go. This time, they’ve decided enough is enough. Sloane and her colleagues’ decision to take a stand sets in motion a catastrophic shift in the office. Lies will be uncovered. Secrets will be exposed. And not everyone will survive. All of their lives - as women, colleagues, mothers, wives, friends, even adversaries - will change dramatically as a result. "If only you had listened to us,” they tell us in Chandler Baker's Whisper Network, “none of this would have happened."

  • Author:
    Meyrick, Denzil
    Summary:

    When the body of a young woman is washed up on an idyllic beach on the West Coast of Scotland, D.C.I. Jim Daley is despatched from Glasgow to lead the investigation. Far from home and his troubled marriage, Daley finds himself a stranger in a close-knit community. Betrayal, fear and death stalk the small town of Kinloch, and the case becomes more deadly than Daley could ever have imagined.

  • Author:
    Hugelschaffer, Dave
    Summary:

    The latest installment in Dave Hugelschaffer's innovative murder-mystery series sends forest fire forensics expert Porter Cassel to the isolated northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan, where an arsonist armed with Molotov cocktails has started a series of blazes. During his investigation the remains of a trapper are discovered in a burned-down cabin. The RCMP rule the death accidental, but Cassel isn't so sure. Complicating matters are unfriendly locals who don't take kindly to outsiders prying into their business. Once again, Cassel must act alone - surviving assassination attempts on both his character and his life - in order to get to the truth.

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