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Fateful Mornings: A Henry Farrell Novel
by Tom Bouman
Mystery. A sequel to Dry Bones in the Valley finds Officer Henry Farrell of Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, confronting a spate of drug-related burglaries and other crimes. When local carpenter Kevin O’Keeffe admits that he shot a man and that his girlfriend, Penny, is missing, the search leads the small-town cop to an industrial vice district across state lines that has already ensnared more than one of his neighbors. With the patience of a hunter, Farrell ventures into a world of shadow beyond the fields and forests of home..
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| Random Road: A Geneva Chase Mystery by Thomas KiesMystery. Journalist Geneva Chase struggles with a drinking problem and a penchant for dating the wrong men (the current one is married). Working at her small hometown paper, she is the only reporter at the scene when six bodies are found naked and mutilated in a gated Connecticut community. Hoping to get to the truth as well as help her flagging career, she juggles drinking, court-mandated AA visits, and her love life while digging up secrets and trying to uncover a cruel killer. Readers who enjoy character-driven stories with strong female leads should pick up this fast-paced debut novel. |
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Take Out
by Margaret Maron
Police Procedural. New York Times bestselling author Margaret Maron returns to her first series, featuring detective Sigrid Harald, with a final, thrilling mystery. Sigrid is still reeling from the untimely death of her lover, acclaimed painter Oscar Nauman, when she is called to investigate the deaths of two homeless men in the West Village. She uncovers an intriguing neighborhood history: a haughty mafia widow and her disgraced godson, a retired opera star with dark secrets, an unsolved hit-and-run, and the possible discovery of a long-missing painting that will rock the art world. Soon the case is fraught with myriad suspects and motives. Who killed the two homeless men, and why?
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| The Play of Death: A Hangman's Daughter Tale by Oliver Pötzsch; translated by Lee ChadeayneHistorical Mystery. In 1670, healer Simon Fronwieser takes his seven-year-old son to a boarding school; it's the only place that will educate a bright lower-class boy. When someone crucifies the actor playing Christ in the local Passion Play, Simon acts as the town healer for a while in order to investigate. He needs all the help he can get, so it's good that his hangman father-in-law shows up. Meanwhile, witchcraft accusations at home trouble his wife and her sister. This detail-rich, intricately plotted, medieval mysteries is sixth in the Hangman's Daughter series. |
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| The Right Side: A Novel by Spencer QuinnMystery. Sgt. LeAnne Hogan has one eye, a scarred face, PTSD, and short- and long-term memory issues; no matter how hard she tries, she can't remember what happened in Afghanistan. When Marci, her roommate at Walter Reed Hospital, suddenly dies, LeAnne takes off for Marci's Washington state hometown. There, LeAnne bonds with a stray dog and learns that Marci's eight-year-old daughter is missing. While trying to heal and remember, LeAnne hunts for the missing girl. Readers who adore Spencer Quinn's humorous Chet and Bernie novels will find this nuanced mystery grittier and more serious but just as good. |
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Collared
by David Rosenfelt
Cozy Mystery. All kinds of dogs make their way to the foundation, and Andy and Willie aren't surprised to find a dog at the shelter one morning with a note saying someone had found him stray and dropped him off. But they are surprised when they scan the dog's embedded chip. They know this dog. Two and a half years ago, a baby and this dog were kidnapped in broad daylight in Eastside Park. The dog and baby were never found.Now, with the reappearance of the dog, the case is brought back to light. Canine rescuer and lawyer Andy Carpenter reopens the case to search for the stolen child and determine if the right person was sent to jail. Sixteenth title in the award-winning Andy Carpenter Mystery series.
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| Love & Death in Burgundy by Susan C. SheaCozy Mystery. Hoping for acceptance from her Burgundy, France village, American expat painter Katherine Goff organizes a local fête, which will include performances by her former rock star husband and a country music star. Meanwhile, the owner of the local chateau dies after a fall down the stairs and rumors abound that it was murder. Katherine can't help but nose about, and teenager Jeannette, the daughter of a local thief who's got a talent for spying, helps out. Fans of village mysteries peopled with eccentric characters should pick up this first in a new series. For another cozy series featuring an expat detective, pick up Elizabeth Duncan's Wales-set Penny Brannigan mysteries. |
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Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore: A Novel
by Matthew Sullivan
Mystery. This debut novel follows the efforts of a bookstore clerk to unravel a puzzle left behind by a patron who has committed suicide. As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page.
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A Talent for Murder: A Novel
by Andrew Wilson
Mystery. Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, is boarding a train, preoccupied with the devastating knowledge that her husband is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events—for her rescuer is no guardian angel, rather he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. In A Talent for Murder, Andrew Wilson ingeniously explores Agatha Christie’s odd ten-day disappearance in 1926 and weaves an utterly compelling and convincing story around this still unsolved mystery involving the world’s bestselling novelist.
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If You Like: Margaret Maron |
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Terminal City: A Novel
by Linda A Fairstein
Try the Alexandra (Alex) Cooper series by Linda A Fairstein if you like legal mysteries set in New York City. This novel finds Assistant DA Alex Cooper and detective Mike Chapman confronting Grand Central Terminal's dark secrets as well as their own changing relationship. When the body of a young woman is found in the tower suite of the Waldorf Astoria--one of the most prestigious hotels in Manhattan--Alex along with Mike and Detective Mercer Wallace find themselves hunting for an elusive killer whose only signature is carving a carefully drawn symbol into his victims' bodies, a symbol that bears a striking resemblance to train tracks.
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Death at the Door: A Death on Demand Mystery
by Carolyn G Hart
More southern charm, complicated family relationships, and a mystery solving couple are highlighted in Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand series. Annie Darling owner of a mystery bookstore prefers fictional crimes as opposed to the real things. But in one tragic week, two acts of violence shake the island community of Broward's Rock. First, a beloved doctor is found shot dead, seemingly by his own hand. Only days later, a local artist is arrested after his wife is murdered. Did someone want them both out of the picture? With the police considering both cases as good as closed, it's up to Annie and her husband, Max, to sort through a rogues' gallery of suspects to see if someone is trying to frame the artist.
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Judgment Call
by Judith A. Jance
For another strong woman with complicated family connections, try the Joanna Brady series from J. A. Jance. In Judgement Call Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady's personal and professional worlds collide when her daughter, Jenny, stumbles upon the dead body of her high school principal, and the search for justice leads to her own door, forcing her to face the possibility that her perfect daughter may not be what she seems.
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Rage Against the Dying
by Becky Masterman
A faster pace, intense story, and a strong female protagonist are part of Becky Masterman's Brigid Quinn series. Brigid's experiences in hunting sexual predators for the FBI have left her with memories she wishes she didn't have and lethal skills she hopes never to need again. She was pushed into early retirement by events she thinks she's put firmly behind her. But the past intervenes when a man named Floyd Lynch confesses to the worst unsolved case of Brigid's career. Floyd knows things about that terrible night that were never made public, and offers to lead the cops to a body in return for a plea bargain.
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The Ming and I
by Tamar Myers
For milder mysteries set in North Carolina, try the Den of Antiquity Series by Tamar Myers. The Ming and I finds North Carolina native Abigail Timberlake, owner of the Den of Antiquity, quick to dismiss the seller of a hideous old vase--until the poor lady comes hurtling back through the shop window minutes later, the victim of a fatal hit-and-run. It turns out the victim had a lineage that would make a Daughter of the Confederacy green with envy, and her connection with the historic old Roselawn Plantation makes that a good place to start sleuthing. Digging into the long-festering secrets of a proud family of the Old South turns out to be a breach of good manners that could land Abby six feet under in the family plot.
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Resurrection Road
by Kathryn R. Wall
Kathryn Wall's Bay Tanner series delivers complex mysteries with a southern flair. Still struggling with the idea that her husband's murderers remain free, Bay Tanner is forced to put the past to rest when a young boy arrives to accuse her of killing his father. From the gated enclaves of the Southern aristocracy to the dusty, echoing passageways of an abandoned fort, from the secret vaults of an offshore bank to the twisted mind of a vengeful child, Resurrection Road speeds to a deadly confrontation that will alter Bay Tanner's world forever. By the author of Perdition House.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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