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Murder by the Book Mystery Book Club, Braden River Library, Thursday, April 13, @1:15 call 941-727-6079 for information.
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The river of kings : a novel
by Taylor Brown
Two brothers, a college student and a Navy SEAL, travel the storied past and present of Georgia's "Little Amazon" Altamaha River to scatter their enigmatic father's ashes while exploring the work of 16th-centry artist Jacques Le Moyne and sharing what they know about their father's death. By the prize-winning author of Fallen Land. Illustrations. Map(s)
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| What You Break by Reed Farrel ColemanHardboiled Fiction. In a part of Long Island far removed from the Hamptons, ex-cop Gus Murphy lives at a motel and works as its late-night van driver/bouncer/house detective. Still adjusting after the death of his son, divorced Gus does a favor for a friend and investigates why someone killed a rich businessman's adult granddaughter (the cops have the killer, but no motive). Gus also learns that a co-worker, bellman Salva, isn't who he seems and has a darker past than Gus'd imagined. Navigating a minefield of secrets, street gangs, and Russians with ties to heinous crimes committed decades earlier, this follow-up to Where It Hurts provides a dark, twisty tale for those who like their mysteries hardboiled. |
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Dead cold brew
by Cleo Coyle
A happy engagement between Clare and her NYPD detective boyfriend is hampered by a mysterious inheritance, the poisoning of their ring designer and a cold case involving a sunken ship, an Italian curse, a charming jewel thief and a shocking family secret.
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| A Cast of Vultures by Judith FlandersMystery. London book editor Sam Clair sets off to do her Saturday morning trip to the farmers' market and finds herself in the middle of a neighborhood mystery. Her elderly friend Viv's upstairs neighbor has disappeared, and feisty Viv wants help finding out what happened to him (a little breaking and entering might be involved). Then a series of arsons grows closer when a nearby house inhabited by squatters is torched and a body is found inside. With some help from her police detective boyfriend Jake, Sam tries to unravel what's going on. Third in a series, A Cast of Vultures features a sassy, relatable heroine, eccentric secondary characters, and a lively look at modern London and book publishing. |
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The Dry: A Novel
by Jane Harper
Mystery. In this highly acclaimed debut novel by an Australian journalist, Melbourne-based federal agent Aaron Falk receives a troubling note from the father of his childhood best friend: "You lied. Luke lied. Be at the funeral." Against a backdrop of the worst drought the small town of Kiewarra has seen in a century, which is causing financial problems for just about everyone, Falk returns to his hometown for the first time since he was a teen. Even though his expertise is in financial crimes and he hasn't talked to Luke in years, he agrees with his friend's dad: Luke didn't kill his wife and daughter and then himself. Teaming up with Raco, the newly arrived local cop, Falk confronts the fallout of 20-year-old false alibis and a long-ago death. Richly detailed and beautifully plotted, The Dry is set to catch fire (Reese Witherspoon's already snagged the movie rights).
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Walking on my grave by Carolyn G HartAnnie’s friend and fellow shop owner Ves Roundtree is a very wealthy woman. Her rich brother entrusted her with his estate, and upon her death, his fortune is to be divided. Several cash-strapped islanders are in line to collect life-changing inheritances. The problem is, Ves is very much alive. Ves hosts a dinner for the prospective beneficiaries and feels a chill in the air that has nothing to do with the wintry season. Not long after, she suffers a bad fall that was no accident. Everyone at the table had a motive but not a shred of evidence was left behind. When one of the suspects is found floating in the harbor and Ves disappears, Annie and her husband Max spring into action to catch a calculating killer before greed takes another life. Latest in the popular Death on Demand series.
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White tears
by Hari Kunzru
Two ambitious young musicians—one shy, the other a glamorous heir—are drawn into the dark underworld of blues-record collecting while navigating the ghosts of a repressive past and the fallout of a scam involving one's claim that a viral video of an unknown singer is the long-lost recording of a famous blues musician.
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| Snowblind by Ragnar JonassonMystery. Despite his live-in girlfriend's wishes, Ari Thor Arason, who previously studied philosophy and theology, accepts his first police job: a posting in a remote village in Northern Iceland near the Arctic Circle. Accessible by tunnel, it's also completely cut off part of the year. His boss informs him that things are done differently here -- you try to avoid giving people tickets and such. But when a suspicious injury and a murder occur, Ari Thor starts to examine everything, including small town secrets. Everyone from Agatha Christie fans to Arnaldur Indridason readers will want to try this debut novel, which was a bestseller in Europe and is the stunning 1st in the Dark Iceland series. |
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| The Dime by Kathleen KentPolice Procedural. When Betty "Riz" Rhyzyk, a tough, red-haired, nearly six-foot-tall police detective, relocates from Brooklyn to Dallas, Texas with her long-term girlfriend, she doesn't expect to fit in with the locals. Working in narcotics, Betty does find a friend in her partner Seth; after an operation goes south, the two of them realize the case is bigger than a drug bust and try to sort out what's going on...and if it's related to Biz's stalker and an older case. Gritty and violent but leavened with humor, this scorching 1st in a new series is perfect for readers who like strong female protagonists, realistic characters, and tight plotting. |
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A twist of the knife : a novel
by Becky Masterman
Traveling back to her Florida hometown when her former partner asks for her help with a case that is not going well, ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn turns skeptical when she learns that her former colleague would save an innocent man on death row. By the Edgar Award-nominated author of Fear the Darkness.
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The dark room
by Jonathan Moore
SFPD homicide inspector Gavin Cain is forced to set aside a cold case when a ruthless killer attempts to blackmail San Francisco's mayor with exposures of grisly secrets unless the mayor commits suicide. By the author of The Poison Artist.
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The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency
by Mandy Morton
Indignantly dispatched to a home for older cats, feline detective Hettie Bagshot teams up with new sidekick, Tilly, to solve the mystery of a series of bodysnatchings behind the disappearances of three former residents from their graves.
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| The Ripper's Shadow: A Victorian Mystery by Laura Joh RowlandHistorical Mystery. In 1888 London, times are certainly tough, and photographer Sarah Bain has started (illegally) taking "boudoir pictures" of prostitutes and splitting the earnings from their sale with her subjects. After the recent murders of two of the women she's photographed, Sarah and a motley crew of friends (including a Lord, a Jewish immigrant couple, and a street urchin) investigate the Jack the Ripper killings to see if they are connected to Sarah, even if it means drawing the attention of the killer and getting into hot water with the cops. Debuting this 1st in a new series, veteran author Laura Joh Rowland leaves 18th-century Japan but retains atmospheric writing and fine character development. |
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| An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock: A Samuel Craddock Mystery by Terry ShamesMystery. Circa the early 1980s, on the outskirts of Jarrett Creek, Texas, a fire in "Darktown" leaves five African Americans dead, including four young people. A racist highway patrolman in charge of the case arrests African American Truly Bennett, even though inexperienced police chief Samuel Craddock believes Truly's innocent. Craddock, an honorable hometown boy, must also sort out a troublesome drug problem at the local high school. This timely 6th in an atmospheric series is a prequel that examines race and crime; it also provides a fascinating look at a young Craddock and offers a good entry point for newcomers. |
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The girl from Venice
by Martin Cruz Smith
A new standalone novel by the award-winning author of Gorky Park follows a turbulent love affair between a fisherman and a Jewish woman on the run in occupied 1945 La Serenissima.
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If You Like: Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs
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In like Flynn
by Rhys Bowen
Private investigator Molly Murphy goes undercover within the household of a senator and his wife, the latter of whom frequently solicits the infamous Sorensen sister spiritualists for information about her presumed-dead son
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| Murder in the Afternoon: A Kate Shackleton Mystery by Frances BrodyCozy Historical. When a young girl and her little brother sneak away from home to visit their stonemason dad at work, they find his corpse. They tell an adult, but when the authorities arrive, the body is gone. Their worried mother, Mary Jane, calls on PI Kate Shackleton and asks for help...and tells Kate that they are sisters. Adoptee Kate sets aside news about her biological family and investigates, but soon has a growing suspicion that Mary Jane is harboring a dangerous secret. Fans of post-World War I mysteries set in the United Kingdom and featuring complex characters, such as those by Jacqueline Winspear, will want to try the Kate Shackleton series. This 3rd entry was chosen by Library Journal as one of its five best mysteries for 2014; the 7th in the series, A Death in the Dales, was released in the U.S. last month. |
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Death at Wentwater Court : a Daisy Dalrymple mystery
by Carola Dunn
During the post-war turbulence of 1920s England, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple shocks her family by getting a job writing, a job that leads her to Wentwater Court, a manor house full of jealousy and murder.
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| The Moor: A Mary Russell Novel by Laurie R. KingHistorical Mystery. In Dartmoor, 20 years after Sherlock Holmes' famous Baskerville case, a ghostly carriage and dog have been seen by more than one person...and a murder has occurred. Called to investigate by his ill, elderly friend Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, Holmes and his redoubtable young wife Mary Russell stay at Baring-Gould's fascinating house, tramp over the moors, talk with locals, and meet the new owner of Baskerville Hall as they puzzle out the complicated truth. Highly intelligent, courageous, and working during and after World War I, Mary Russell has much in common with Maisie Dobbs; also, like Maisie, Mary was apprenticed to an older and more experienced detective who taught her his methods. The Moor is the 4th in an excellent series; readers who haven't read the 1st, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, may want to start there. |
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Mr. Churchill's Secretary : A Maggie Hope Novel
by Susan Elia Macneal
After German Luftwaffe bomb London, Maggie Hope--trained in math and code breaking, but only able to find a job as Winston Churchill's secretary--uses the unfettered access her position demands to try to unravel a plot to assassinate Churchill himself. A first novel.
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| A Deadly Measure of Brimstone: A Dandy Gilver Mystery by Catriona McPhersonHistorical Mystery. In September 1929, Dandy Gilver's family is already sick with complications from the flu when scarlet fever arrives in their Scottish village. Decamping to a health spa, Dandy hopes to ensure the convalescence of her teenage sons and husband Hugh, while investigating, along with her close friend police detective Alec Osborne, the suspicious death of an elderly widow and ghost-like figures in the Turkish baths. This is the 8th entry in an Agatha Award-winning series; Maisie Dobbs readers who enjoy smart, spirited heroines, 1920s and '30s U.K. settings, and leisurely pacing will want to meet Dandy. |
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| An Impartial Witness: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles ToddHistorical Mystery. In the summer of 1917, British nurse Bess Crawford accompanies a group of badly wounded soldiers home from the battlefields in France. She recognizes the wife of one of them (he always kept her photo pinned to his tunic) at a London train station -- but she's clinging closely to another soldier. When the woman is murdered, Bess finds herself hunting a killer, especially once the police arrest a soldier she believes to be innocent. An Impartial Witness is the atmospheric 2nd in a series. Those who appreciate strong, independent nurses living during World War I should enjoy spending time with Bess. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Manatee County Public Library System 1301 Barcarrota Boulevard West Bradenton, Florida 34205 (941) 748-5555www.mymanatee.org/library |
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