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| On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service by Rhys BowenHistorical Cozy. In April 1935, Wallis Simpson, an American socialite on her second marriage, has entranced the Prince of Wales, and both are attending a house party in Italy. Georgie Rannoch, 35th in line to the British throne, agrees to act as the queen's eyes and ears at the gathering...which means she's present when a murder occurs. Georgie also helps an unmarried pregnant friend, secluded in a nearby clinic. Like the others in the lighthearted Royal Spyness mysteries, this 11th provides a fascinating glimpse at British aristocracy. |
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| Down a Dark Road: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda CastilloMystery. Joseph King, an Amish man convicted of murdering his wife, escapes prison and heads to Painters Mill, Ohio, where his children live. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, who grew up Amish and was close friends with King as a kid, finds him; he claims he's innocent and says evidence supports him. When a police sniper kills King, Kate doesn't back off trying to find the truth in this 11th entry in the gritty series. If you enjoy atmospheric rural settings, well-drawn characters, and a no-nonsense heroine, also try Julia Keller's Bell Elkins series, featuring a West Virginia prosecutor (the 1st is A Killing in the Hills). |
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| Gone to Dust: A Novel by Matt GoldmanMystery. Minneapolis, Minnesota PI Nils Shapiro takes on a messy -- literally and figuratively -- case when he agrees to help a police detective friend in a wealthy suburb: whoever murdered Maggie Somerville at her mansion appears to have emptied dozens of vacuum cleaner bags over the house, making viable DNA evidence unlikely. With a wisecracking detective, irreverent humor, and plenty of red herrings, Gone to Dust is fresh and fun. Though this is a debut novel, readers are in good hands: Matt Goldman is an Emmy Award-winning writer. |
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Muffin to Fear
by Victoria Hamilton
While Merry is distracted by her quickly planned marriage to Virgil Grace and a blissful honeymoon in New York, her friend Pish invites the ghost-hunting crew from the TV show Haunt Hunt to investigate Merry's home, Wynter Castle. Merry soon discovers that not only is the crew out of sync, there are so many feuds and squabbles, it's a miracle they get a show produced at all. It all goes from bad to worse when the show's psychics claim to have contact with people murdered on Merry's property. When two cast members are found dead, Merry and Virgil must figure out who’s picking off the Haunt Hunt team before their hard-earned happily ever after is cut short.
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A Tangled Yarn
by Betty Hechtman
Casey Feldstein has her hands full with preparations at the Vista Del Mar hotel on the scenic Monterey Peninsula as another yarn retreat begins. The retreaters will be thrown for a loop this time, learning the trendy art of arm knitting and finger crocheting. But not everyone is enthusiastic about trying something new, and Casey is forced to come up with an alternative craft for her less adventurous pupils. Things go from worst to worsted when a travel writer from a neighboring retreat group is found dead in his room among a sea of feathers. When one of the owners of Vista Del Mar pleads for help, Casey gets hooked into the case and must unravel a delicate skein of secrets to catch a killer.
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Chime and Punishment
by Julianne Holmes
Years ago, the serenity of picturesque Orchard, Massachusetts, was shattered by a fire that destroyed the town's beloved clock tower. Ruth inherited the dream of repairing it from her late grandfather. Now that she’s returned home to run his clock shop, the Cog & Sprocket, she’s determined to make it happen, despite wrenches that are being thrown into the works by her least favorite person, town manager Kim Gray. A crowd of residents and visitors are excited to see the progress of the tower at a fund-raiser for the campaign, until Kim is found crushed under the tower’s bell, putting an end to all the fun. The list of suspects is so long it could be read around the clock, and it includes some of Ruth’s nearest and dearest. Time's a-wastin’ as Ruth tries to solve another murder in her beloved Orchard while keeping the gears clicking on her dream project.
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| The Devil's Muse by Bill LoehfelmPolice Procedural. It's Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, and tough-as-nails rookie police officer Maureen Somerville is working her first night parade. She knew it'd be crazy, but she didn't think that within a few minutes of each other she'd see an overdose victim run into a car and hear a shooting, which injures multiple people (including a child). While Maureen and her fellow cops try to capture the bad guys in this fast-paced 5th outing, they deal with partiers, gangbangers, drama-seeking videographers, an incompetent detective, and complicated race relations. |
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What's your real name, writer?
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| Dishing the Dirt: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. BeatonMystery. Agatha Raisin is no one's idea of a meek, humble person. So when a new therapist arrives in her Cotswold village, goes out with Agatha's ex-husband, and snoops into Agatha's background, Agatha pushes back, threatening the woman. Loudly. That's a problem when the therapist turns up dead. M.C. Beaton is one of several pseudonyms that prolific Scottish author Marion Chesney uses (she also writes historical romances). Dishing the Dirt is the 26th outing for Agatha; the 28th and latest in the series, The Witches' Tree, comes out in October. |
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The Ghost of Christmas Past
by Rhys Bowen
Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house’s atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."
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Ghost Dancer : A Thriller
by John Case
Photojournalist Mike Burke carried his camera into every war zone and hellhole on earth–and came back with the pictures (and battle scars) to prove it. He was flying high until, quite suddenly, he wasn’t. When Burke’s helicopter crashed and burned in Africa, he came away with his life but lost his heart to the beautiful woman who saved him. That’s when he decided it was time to stop dancing with the devil. But a wicked twist of fate puts an end to Burke’s dreams, leaving him adrift in Dublin with bittersweet memories. An ocean away, Jack Wilson leaves prison burning for revenge, and dreaming of starting over - only, Wilson’s dream is the rest of the world’s nightmare. Wilson dreams of the Apocalypse–and plans to make it happen. As a terrifying worldwide chain reaction is set in motion, Burke alone grasps the impending horror of Wilson’s malevolent plan. Burke pursues an American terrorist to an isolated Nevada ranch. It is here, in a climactic showdown, that a determined Mike Burke faces a nemesis who knows no fear.
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| The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert GalbraithMystery. PI Cormoran Strike, a 35-year-old who lost a leg in Afghanistan, has spent the night in his bare-bones London office after a relationship-ending fight with his long-term girlfriend. He sports a cut on his face (she threw an ashtray) as he rushes out the door, barreling into a new temp secretary he can't afford. The forgiving temp, Robin, quickly proves herself useful when the brother of a famous model -- who supposedly jumped from the top of her penthouse apartment -- hires them. Entering the realm of the mega-rich, Strike and Robin uncover the truth in this 1st mystery by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling; the 3rd and most recent entry is Career of Evil. |
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Secrets in Death
by J. D. Robb
The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it’s not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that’s exactly what happens one cold February evening. The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described “social information reporter,” or as most people would call it, a professional gossip. As it turns out, she was keeping the most shocking stories quiet, for profitable use in her side business as a blackmailer. Setting her sights on rich, prominent marks, she’d find out what they most wanted to keep hidden and then bleed them dry. Now someone’s done the same to her, literally—with a knife to the brachial artery. Eve didn’t like Larinda Mars. But she likes murder even less. To find justice for this victim, she’ll have to plunge into the dirty little secrets of all the people Larinda Mars victimized herself. But along the way, she may be exposed to some information she really didn’t want to know
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| The Daughter of Time by Josephine TeyClassic. Mystery. Hospitalized Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant is bored. Bed-bound, he's tired of starring at the ceiling, so an actress friend encourages his interest in a historical mystery: did Richard III murder his nephews in order to become king? Researching history and legends and testing out theories on those around him, Grant comes to a thought-provoking conclusion. The Daughter of Time is considered by some critics to be one of the great mystery novels of all time. It is the 5th of six Inspector Grant novels by Scot Josephine Tey, whose real name was Elizabeth MacKintosh, and the last book published before her death in 1952. Intrigued by Tey? Nicola Upson writes a series featuring the author as detective; the 1st is An Expert in Murder. |
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