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Mysteries-Humorous Some subtle, some outrageous, some themed -- this collection will provide entertainment as well as a mystery to solve.
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Susan Wittig AlbertFind Hinsdale materials here.
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China Bayles series.China, a former big-city lawyer turned small-town herb shop owner, solves murders through a combination of botanical know-how, deductive skills, and legal reasoning. Each mystery will expand your plant knowledge while providing an entertaining escape.
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Donna AndrewsFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Meg Langslow series.Meg is a blacksmith in Yorktown, Virginia. Looking to laugh? You'll love the antics of Meg's family. Their over-the-top wackiness adds to the fun of these excellent mysteries. All have birds in the titles.
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Maggie BarbieriFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Murder 101 series.Safely outside the New York City limits, St. Thomas College was supposed to be peaceful and quiet. Unfortunately, English professor Alison Bergeron has found it to be anything but. The series is a nice combination of mystery, romance, and humor.
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Robert BarnardFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Charlie Peace series.Charlie is a sharp, young, black Scotland Yard detective who works first in London and then in West Yorkshire. Charlie, who works with his boss, Superintendent Mike Oddie, uses both his humanity and his cunning to crack the latest case. The novels are peppered with colorful, comfortable characters.
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M.C. BeatonFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Agatha Raisin series.Agatha is a frustrated, yet endearing, middle-aged public relations agent who moved from London to the Cotswolds after she took early retirement and sold her public relations firm. She solves murders in each of the earlier books, but in the fifteenth book she sets up her own detective agency. The police, and even some of her acquaintances, are convinced that she solves crimes through accident and luck.
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M.C. BeatonFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Hamish Macbeth series.Hamish is the local police constable of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands. He has no ambition, but he does have extraordinary common sense and insight into the lives of the quirky villagers who are his neighbors. He leads a quiet life until there is a murder to solve.
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Lawrence BlockFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Bernie Rhodenbarr series.Rhodenbarr is a New York City-based thief who is a master at lock-picking and breaking and entering (for the thrill of it), but he usually ends up solving a murder in order to clear his name. He becomes the owner/operator of a used book store in Greenwich Village, which he partially funds from the take of his occasional burglar activities.
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Lilian Jackson BraunFind Hinsdale materials here.
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The Cat Who...series.Each title in this series begins with The Cat Who... They feature a reporter named Jim Qwilleran (Qwill) and his Siamese cats, Kao K’o-Kung (“Koko” for short) and Yum-Yum. A long-standing friendship and crime-solving trio are formed.
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Simon BrettFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Fethering series.Fethering is a fictitious village on England's south coast. It is the place of residence of amateur sleuths Carole Seddon, a retired civil servant, and her neighbor, Jude Nichols, whose origins are obscure.
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Dorothy CannellFind HInsdale materials here.
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Ellie Haskell series.Ellie is an interior decorator who solves mysteries along with her husband, Ben, a writer and chef. Joining them are Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell, a pair of dotty sisters and owners of the Flowers Detection Agency. Outlandish characters enliven the stories, and the titles are puns on literary classics.
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Jill ChurchillFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Jane Jeffry series.Jane is a recent widow and single mom living in suburban Chicago. She has a good knowledge of human nature, which helps in her crime-solving adventures. The titles in the series are all puns on famous works, e.g. Bell, Book and Scandal.
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Blaize ClementFind Hinsdale materials here.
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-Dixie Hemingway series.These books center around the life of a former policewoman turned pet-sitter, in the Gulf-side city of Sarasota. The series has interesting recurring characters. (Following the author's death, the series has been continued by her son, John.)
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Bill Crider Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Sheriff Dan Rhodes series.Rhodes has a laconic, laid-back detecting style—a cross between Tom Selleck and Willie Nelson. Marked with dry humor, meticulous plotting, and insights into small-town life in Texas, the series makes for top-notch, down home crime-solving.
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Mary DaheimFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Emma Lord series. Emma is the owner/publisher/editor of The Advocate, a newspaper in Alpine, Washington. Emma is spunky, humorous, and independent. She gets assistance with her investigations from members of the community. Murders in Alpine seem to happen in alphabetical order, beginning with The Alpine Advocate.
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Diane Mott DavidsonFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Goldy Schulz series.The series follows “Goldy Bear” Schultz, a caterer in Colorado, as she solves murders and tries to keep her fledgling business afloat. There's a nasty ex, a little romance, and some wonderful recipes in these mysteries.
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Jane EvanovichFind HInsdale materials here.
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Stephanie Plum series.Employed by her cousin Vinnie, Stephanie is a bounty hunter. She's a spunky combination of Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry. Set in New Jersey, the mysteries have a supporting cast of characters, some of whom are hilarious.
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Joanne FlukeFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Hannah Swensen series.Hannah, in her early thirties, has flaming red, frizzy hair and two love interests -- a detective and a dentist. She is the owner/operator of an independent bakery and coffee shop called The Cookie Jar, located in a fictitious town in Minnesota. She and her young assistant, Lisa, make everything by hand, but when Hannah is not baking, she gets involved in solving murders.
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Dorothy GilmanFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Mrs. Polliax series.Emily Pollifax, a widow in her sixties, decides one day to leave her comfortable apartment in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and join the CIA. She is very likely the only spy in literature to belong simultaneously to the CIA and a local garden club.
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Parnell HallFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Puzzle Lady series.Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady, is a syndicated newspaper columnist for crossword enthusiasts. Quirky, hard-drinking, and photogenic, she appears in TV commercials to pay the bills. She's been married several times, loves to smoke and gamble, and is an avid reader of mystery novels. As an amateur detective, she lands in the thick of things when she undertakes her own investigations to solve mysteries.
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Carolyn HartFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Death on Demand series.Annie Laurance inherits a bookstore on an island off South Carolina called Death on Demand. Max Darling is a private investigator. They marry and become partners in crime-solving -- think Nick and Nora Charles with wildly eccentric characters .
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Joan HessFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Arly Hanks series.Arly is the Police Chief of Maggody, Arkansas, population 775, half of whom are named Buchanan. She returns to her hometown of Maggody from New York after a messy divorce. Arly's attempts to nab wrongdoers in a town filled with odd-ball characters provide unending chuckles.
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Joan HessFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Claire Malloy series.Claire owns a small bookstore in a college town. Her husband was killed years ago when he was hit by a chicken truck. Her teenage daughter frequently talks in CAPITAL LETTERS. Claire has a dry, rather droll, witty style and is frequently at odds with her detective love interest as she becomes involved in her amateur investigations. Of course there is a collection of odd friends who often get Claire into trouble.
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Dorothy HowellFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Haley Randolph series.Witty, smart, and chic, Haley is a professional fashionista and event planner for the Stars. She starts out working part-time at a department store in Los Angeles but soon becomes entangled in solving murders while dealing with challenges in her personal life. She is an engaging amateur sleuth.
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Sue Ann JaffarianFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Odelia Grey series.Odelia is a plus-size, middle aged, paralegal. She has a habit of stumbling into mysteries that are very complicated. Settle in for some twists and fun with some great characters.
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Joe KonrathFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Jack Daniels series.Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels, a Chicago cop with the violent crimes unit, has a sometimes disruptive personal life. These laugh-out-loud, edge-of-seat suspense novels put this series into the genre of a Kinsey Millhone or Stephanie Plum investigation.
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Sharyn McCrumbFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Elizabeth MacPherson series.Those who like sardonic wit, slightly bent characters, and good fun will enjoy this series. One of the more unusual amateur sleuths, Elizabeth MacPherson is an anthropologist who ends up in some peculiar situations no matter where she goes.
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John MortimerFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Rumpole series.Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister, defends any and all clients. In fact, his skill at defending his clients is legendary among the criminal classes. A man of strong ethics, he prefers not to advance, content in his role of defender in the "Old Bailey." Among Rumpole’s many courtroom weapons is humor. It makes it much tougher for the prosecutors when the jury is laughing at their case.
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Tamar MyersFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Pennsylvania Dutch series.Magdalena Yoder, the owner/operator of a Mennonite inn in Pennsylvania, caters to sophisticated urbanites looking for charm and Amish ambience. The stories, each with a tasty selection of authentic Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, are embellished with a cast of memorable characters. .
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Elizabeth Peters Find Hinsdale materials here.
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Amelia Peabody series.Amelia, a Victorian Egyptologist, starts out as a confirmed spinster, suffragist, and scholar. She later marries and produces a second generation of archeologists. Besides uncovering and solving mysteries, many of the books are set in real places with historical people appearing in the plots.
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David RosenfeltFind Hinsdale materials here.
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Andy Carpenter series.Andy is a defense lawyer in New Jersey who is a dog lover. These comic legal thrillers include some regular oddball characters and canine clients.
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