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Detective and mystery fiction

  • Author:
    Kenna, Alex
    Summary:

    Kate Myles was a promising Los Angeles police detective--until an accident and opioid addiction blew up her family and destroyed her career. Struggling to rebuild her life, Kate decides to try her hand at private detective work, but she gets much more than she bargained for when she takes on the case of a celebrated painter found dead in a downtown loft. When Margot Starling's body was found, the cause of death was assumed to be suicide. Despite her beauty, talent, and fame, she struggled with a host of demons. But as Kate digs deeper, she learns that Margot had a growing list of powerful enemies--among them a shady art dealer who had been selling forged works by Margot. Kate soon uncovers a dirty trail that leads straight into the heart of the city's deadly underworld. Margot died for her art, and if Kate doesn't tread lightly, she could be the next to get brushed out.

  • Author:
    Hood, David
    Summary:

    On an October night in 1899 the body of a city councilman is found under a Halifax wharf. Detective Inspector Culligan Baxter embarks on an investigation that takes him along a path of connections and corruption, linking some of the city's most prominent businessmen. With pointed observations on human behaviour and on the changing character of the city, Detective Baxter conducts a sardonic inquiry into morality, justice, and the space in between.

  • Author:
    Hood, David
    Summary:

    On an October night in 1899 the body of a well-regarded city councilman is found floating under a Halifax wharf. Detective Inspector Culligan Baxter embarks on an investigation that leads from the waterfront, through the city's streets, and out into the surrounding countryside. Aided by the young but surprisingly astute Kenny Squire and an odd assortment of barkeeps, petty thieves, and prostitutes, Baxter's sleuthing takes him into the station's back files and along a path of connections and corruption, linking some of the city's most prominent businessmen. From the well-to-do parlours to the seedy taverns to the public spaces that still dominate the city's downtown today, author David Hood has created a vivid portrait of late-Victorian Halifax. With pointed observations on human behaviour and on the changing character of his hometown, Detective Baxter conducts a sardonic inquiry into morality, justice, and the space in between.

  • Author:
    Cooney, Caroline B.
    Summary:

    While still adjusting to the reality of having two families, her birth family and the family into which she was kidnapped as a small child, seventeen-year-old Janie makes a shocking discovery about her long-gone kidnapper.

  • Author:
    Rankin, Ian
    Summary:

    The world is erupting in turmoil--tragedy, isolationism, and loss. Something strange is going on. The most advanced satellite in Europe loses signal, but there is much more at stake than anyone realize.

  • Author:
    Innes, Roy
    Summary:

    When a series of murders threatens the lives of an entire community in Vancouver, Inspector Coswell and RCMP Corporal Paul Blakemore team up once again to solve the case. What begins as an array of hate crimes suddenly culminates into a conspiracy against an American politician, and the lines between Canada and the United States are blurred as suspicions rise from both sides. To solve this case, both detectives must look beyond the powers of one culprit and instead focus on the ventures of an entire underground organization, all while protecting members of their own city.

  • Author:
    Unsworth, Cathi
    Summary:

    Named one of the Best Crime Books of the Year by the Guardian , Weirdo is an atmospheric thriller about a teenage girl convicted of murder in a 1980s seaside town and the private investigator who reopens the case to discover that she may not have acted alone . . . Corinne Woodrow was fifteen when she was convicted of the ritualistic murder of her classmate in a quaint seaside town. It was 1984, a year when teenagers ran wild, dressed in black, stayed out all night, and listened to music that terrified their parents. Rumours of Satanism surrounded Corinne and she was locked up indefinitely, a chilling reminder to the parents of Ernemouth to keep a watchful eye on their children. Twenty years later, private investigator Sean Ward — whose promising career as a detective with the Metropolitan Police was cut short by a teenager with a gun — reopens the case after new forensic evidence suggests that Corinne didn’t act alone. His investigation uncovers a town full of secrets, and a community that has always looked after its own.

  • Author:
    Kemelman, Harry
    Summary:

    A member of Rabbi Small's congregation dies a mysterious death during a hurricane. When the suspect turns out to be a troubled but likable young man, Rabbi Small comes to his aid.

  • Author:
    Fluke, Joanne
    Summary:

    Hannah is thrilled to be marrying Ross Barton, her college crush. And her excitement only grows when she learns he’ll be able to join her on her trip to New York City for the Food Channel’s dessert chef contest. They get a taste of the Big Apple before Hannah wins the Hometown Challenge and the producers bring all the contestants to Lake Eden to tape the remainder of the show. It’s nerve-wracking enough being judged by Alain Duquesne, a celebrity chef with a nasty reputation. But it’s even more chilling to find him stabbed to death in the Lake Eden Inn’s walk-in cooler—before he’s even had a chance to taste Hannah’s Butterscotch Sugar Cookies! Now Hannah has not only lost her advantage, she’ll have to solve a mystery with more layers than a five-tiered wedding cake…

  • Author:
    Lockhart, E.
    Summary:

    Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one in the family is a failure. No one is a psycho. No one is a criminal. The Sinclairs have vacationed on private Beechwood Island for generations. Not one of Granddad's precious daughters has ever missed a summer, nor have any of his grandchildren. Until Cadence Sinclair Eastman. Two years ago she fell in love and had a serious accident. Now she is fragile. Cadence thought she knew her own story, but now, back on Beechwood Island, she suspects that she knows nothing. In fact, nothing is what it seems.

  • Author:
    Alsterdal, Tove
    Summary:

    "Beautifully elegiac and intricately plotted, this is Nordic noir at its best."-People Winner of the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. Shortlisted for the Best Swedish Book of the Year Award. One of People Magazine's Best Books of Fall. A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer. It's been more than twenty years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family's house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there's a panicked dog, a terrible stench, water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower. For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then fourteen, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town's collective memory-a wound that never quite healed-and tinged Eira's childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now. An intricate crime narrative in which past and present gracefully blend, We Know You Remember is a relentlessly suspenseful and beautifully written novel about guilt and memory in which nothing is what it seems, and unexpected twists upend everything you think you know.

  • Author:
    Heaberlin, Julia
    Summary:

    The discovery of a girl abandoned by the side of the road threatens to unearth the long-buried secrets of a Texas town's legendary cold case in this superb, atmospheric novel from the internationally bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans. "If you only read one thriller this year, let it be this one. Psychologically absorbing, original and atmospheric. I could not turn the pages fast enough."'Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 Summers It's been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town's Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime. When Wyatt finds a lost girl dumped in a field of dandelions, making silent wishes, he believes she is a sign. The town's youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. But Odette can't look away. She shares a wound that won't close with the mute, one-eyed mystery girl. And she is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru. Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save the lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past'the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town's dark, violent mythology. In this twisty psychological thriller, Julia Heaberlin paints unforgettable portraits of a woman and a girl who redefine perceptions of physical beauty and strength.

  • Author:
    Blackwood, Scott
    Summary:

    A young lifeguard, a doctor sick with cancer, and two children have disappeared, leaving no trace. It's only when they start to resurface, in small moments and sudden flashes of consciousness, that the true gravity of their existence comes to light.

  • Author:
    Havelange, Joan
    Summary:

    When Mabel slices her golf ball into the town cemetery. She and her best friend Violet think the worst that could happen would be a lost ball. That is until they discover a dead body, and it isn't six feet under. Mabel's golf ball lays in the middle of his forehead, it's murder. The ladies take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of the dead body in the graveyard. Using the information gleaned from Coffee Row, a collection of eccentric townspeople. Leads them to investigate golfers and relatives of the deceased. Their investigation frustrates a newly appointed RCMP officer, who does his best to put a stop to their interference. But nothing stops the intrepid detectives. Not the RCMP, a stampede of cattle or even shots fired at them in the dark. They have an uncanny ability to find trouble and dead bodies. Almost getting themselves killed before solving the murders.

  • Author:
    Edwards, Martin
    Summary:

    A notice announcing that Harry Devlin died suddenly on Mid-summer’s Eve arrives at the office of his law firm one June day. Harry isn’t happy to read it—especially as Midsummer’s Eve is less than a week away. His partner Jim Crusoe treats the message as a joke, but Harry isn’t so sure. From that moment on, his world starts to fall apart. Who is his unknown enemy? Meanwhile, young women are being murdered in Harry’s home city of Liverpool. When a friend who has asked to meet him becomes the latest victim, Harry is dragged into the investigation and becomes a suspect. He finds himself fighting for survival on two fronts. But even as he unravels the shocking secret behind the murders, the clock keeps ticking. Harry must discover and confront the enemy who wants him dead if he is to live to see Midsummer’s Day. An atmospheric, fast-moving and intricate thriller, Waterloo Sunset features Harry Devlin, one of modern crime fiction’s most memorable amateur detectives in the deadliest case of his life.

  • Author:
    Crombie, Deborah
    Summary:

    In the aftermath of a teenager's drowning in a Cheshire countryside canal, Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James investigate strange connections between the victim and two past murder cases.

  • Author:
    Todd, Charles
    Summary:

    Charles Todd brings his classic mystery series to a new level of intensity and intrigue. The year is 1919, and Ian Rutledge is a fragile yet courageous former soldier searching for his place in a post-war world. Now a Scotland Yard detective, Rutledge is called upon to probe a murder in the small Norfolk town of Osterley but he soon discovers that the crime may be connected to one of the greatest disasters of all time.

  • Author:
    Liparulo, Robert
    Summary:

    The Kings are focused on rescuing a lost family member, until a stranger comes to take their bizarre house. What secret is he hiding, as he hides the scars on his body? Can the Kings harness the house's secrets and discover who is watching their every move?

  • Author:
    Brown, Janelle
    Summary:

    The disappearance of a beautiful, charismatic mother leaves her family to piece together her secrets in this propulsive novel for fans of Big Little Lies--from the bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. "Tantalizing and twisty ... a spider's web of a novel ... You won't be able to put it down."--Megan Abbott Who you want people to be makes you blind to who they really are. It's been a year since Billie Flanagan--a Berkeley mom with an enviable life--went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found, just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie's death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends. But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive's emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie's past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan? Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth--about Billie, but also about themselves, learning, in the process, about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown's insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.

  • Author:
    Hovey, Dean
    Summary:

    A Park Service backpacking trip turns deadly when hikers are caught in a steep canyon during a flash flood. Three hikers are swept away, but a rescue team recovers four bodies. Park Service Investigator Doug Fletcher teams up with rangers Jill Rickowski and Liz Carpenter, and Navajo Nation Policeman Jamie Ballard. They hike river bottoms and arroyos searching for the origin of the fourth body, leaning on each other to overcome their fears, cultural differences, and emotional baggage. In the process they forge bonds that will last past the end of the investigation.

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