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Toucan Keep a Secret
by Donna Andrews
What it's about: Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan Meg's friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. After hearing a hammering in the columbarium (the small building where cremated remains are held), Meg finds an elderly parishioner lying dead on the floor of the crypt. Several niches have been chiseled open; several urns knocked out; and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone.
Series Alert: This title is number 23 in the Meg Langslow series, to start at the beginning, pick up Murder With Peacocks.
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Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding
by Rhys Bowen
What it's about: Georgie is finally able to plan for her wedding in the summer. It is going to be a summer of weddings: her mother is marrying Max, her German beau; Georgie's grandfather is marrying his next door neighbor, Mrs. Huggins; and Darcy's father is getting up the courage to ask the princess to marry him. Georgie is staying at the princess's London house when she receives a letter from one of her mother's former husbands, Sir Hubert Anstruther. Georgie is now his sole heir, and he's offering her the use of his lovely country house. He suggests she move in right away to keep an eye on the place because all might not be well since his butler died.
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| A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne FreemanStarring: Frances, the wealthy 27-year-old American Countess of Harleigh, whose titled British husband married her for her money and then died in another woman's bed (a fact Frances hid to avoid scandal).
What happens: To the dismay of her greedy in-laws, Frances and daughter Rose go to London, where Frances' younger sister Lily arrives, ready for her first season -- but the police also appear, having gotten an anonymous letter indicating that Frances' husband was murdered.
For fans of: debuts, Downton Abbey, and witty Victorian romantic mysteries starring clever heroines, like those by Deanna Raybourn. |
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The Amazing Adventures of Aaron Broom
by A. E. Hotchner
What it's about: Street-savvy, almost-thirteen-year-old Aaron Broom is parking his father's car when he witnesses a robbery gone wrong in a jewlery store across the street. To Aaron's shock his father, a travelling watch salesman in the wrong place at the wrong time, is fingered as the prime suspect in the murder. Despite seeing the real killer flee the scene, Aaron can't do much to help in the moment--no one will take a kid's word for it. Undaunted, Aaron enlists an unlikely band of friends and helpful adults to clear his father's name.
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| Salt Lane by William ShawFeaturing: Single mom DS Alex Cupidi (who left the London Met for Kent amidst some upheaval) and her likable new constable, Jill Ferriter.
What happens: An elderly woman's murder leads the cops to her shocked son, who says he'd only met his mother for the first time the day before...and forensics say she was already dead by then. Then, the horrific murder of an immigrant fruit picker occurs nearby.
For fans of: the author's The Birdwatcher (Cupidi appears, though Salt Lane is called the 1st in a series), and police procedurals featuring complex female detectives, like Susie Steiner's DS Manon mysteries. |
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| White River Burning: A Dave Gurney Novel by John VerdonWhat happens: On the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer, the Catskills town of White River finds itself hosting protesters and dealing with more death when a sniper kills a police officer. So the smarmy local DA calls in PI Dave Gurney, a former NYPD detective known for his logical crime-solving.
Series alert: This is the suspenseful 6th Dave Gurney novel.
Reviewers say: White River combines "the hard-boiled social observations of noir fiction with the inscrutable pleasures of classic 'whodunit' puzzle-solving" (Kirkus Reviews).
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If You Like: William Kent Krueger
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The Poacher's Son
by Paul Doiron
What it's about: After his hard-drinking poacher father becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a beloved local cop, Mike Bowditch is one of the few who believes the violent womanizer didn't do it and, with the help of a retired pilot, journeys deep into the Maine wilderness to find his fugitive kin--and the real killer.
Series Alert: This is the first in the Mike Bowditch series. If you like the first, there are eight more book to enjoy behind it. The latest addition arrived on our shelves just last month.
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| Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne HillermanWhat happens: Navajo Tribal police officer Bernadette Manualito witness the ambush of retired cop Joe Leaphorn. As he fights for his life, Bernie, her cop husband Jim Chee, and the FBI investigate.
Series alert: This is the 19th Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee mystery, but Anne Hillerman's first; she's ably continuing her father Tony's series.
Why William Kent Kruger fans will like it: evocative rural settings, Native American characters, and clever plotting. |
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Still life
by Louise Penny
What it's about: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Canada's Sûreté du Quebec is called to Three Pines, a tiny hamlet south of Montreal, to investigate the suspicious hunting "accident" that claimed the life of Jane Neal, a local fixture in the village
Series Alert: Still Life is the first in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. There are currently 13 titles available, with number 14 hitting the shelves this November.
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| Less Than a Treason by Dana StabenowStarring: Aleut detective Kate Shugak, who lives in a remote area of Alaska, and her trusty half-wolf, half-husky dog Mutt are both shot; as Kate recovers, she works a missing persons case that turns into a murder investigation.
Series alert: This is the "richly nuanced, highly entertaining" (Publishers Weekly) 21st in the Kate Shugak series.
Why William Kent Kruger fans will like it: the crisp writing, the beautifully rendered landscapes, and the importance of friends and family to Kate and the story. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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