Mystery
The night gardener
Jonathan Auxier
jFICTION Auxier, Jonathan
Kids, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Horror
Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.
A season for the dead
David Hewson
MYSTERY Hewson, David
Fiction, Mystery
This book is the first in Hewson's series featuring Nic Costa, a Roman police officer. Rome is an old, amazing city, the modern-day inhabitants live side-by-side with the remains of thousands of years of history, and Hewson makes very good use of this. I often find myself looking up things that get mentioned (the Via Appia, the Etruscan blue demon, and Beatrice Cenci are three good examples!) and I'm better for it. The mysteries themselves, while taking place in the current day, relate to some part of Roman history. Coupled with the wonderful fact that there is so much architecture from the past still remaining makes the history, the mystery, and the city come alive in an exciting and enlightening way. -Candice
Murder in the Marais
Cara Black
MYSTERY Black, Cara
Mystery, Fiction
Aimee Leduc, the heroine of this new series set in Paris, specializes in corporate security, but with business in the toilet, she's open to working for a Jewish Nazi hunter. A woman found dead with a swastika carved into her forehead sends Aimee searching for the link between French neo-Nazis, an EU trade agreement, and a killer whose victims span 50 years. The jam-packed plot is occasionally hard to follow (and if readers miss the fact the story is set in 1993, the characters' ages will seem out of whack). But the characterizations are strong, the action nonstop, and the evocation of both occupied Paris and the contemporary city is awash in vivid detail, right down to a tour of the Paris sewers. Most of all, though, it's the rough-and-tumble Aimee who gets this series off to an explosive start.Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
Cara Black writes mysteries that take place in different parts of Paris, and she takes the time to make the location--its history, its people, its social situation--part of the story. Murder in the Marais is the first in the series that features spiky-haired Aimee Leduc, computer programmer and somewhat unwilling private investigator. Throughout the series a world has developed around the main characters, and Paris comes alive in all of its chaotic glory. -Candice
Bloody Genius.
John Sandford
At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of PC culture. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right? Then someone winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate ... and he soon comes to realize he's dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.
Added by Becky
The death of Mrs. Westaway
Ruth Ware
FICTION Ware Ruth
Fiction, Suspense, Mystery
"On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person--but also that the cold-reading skills she's honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased...where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it."--
I ended up listening to the audio book version of this story (read brilliantly by Imogen Church) and had a hard time setting it aside! Ruth Ware does a fantastic job with pulling in mysterious and suspenseful elements, leaving you anxious to fit together the clues and themes that are woven in throughout the narrative. The Death of Mrs. Westaway was such an engaging story and I would highly recommend the audio book version (available through the Libby App). -Becky
This poison will remain
Fred Vargas
MYSTERY Vargas Fred
Mystery
"A murder in Paris brings Commissaire Adamsberg out of the Icelandic mists of his previous investigation and unexpectedly into the region of Nîmes, where three old men have died of spider bites. The recluse has a sneaky attack, but is that enough to explain the deaths of these men, all killed by the same venom?At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other since childhood, when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy. There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as the "band of recluses." Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man killed by the same venom was not part of the "band of recluses," and the amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.Yet after the Nîmes deaths, more members of the old band succumb to recluse bites, leading the commissaire to uncover the tragedy hidden behind the walls of the orphanage."--Publisher description.
The latest in her French mystery series starring the enigmatic Commissaire Adamsberg and his odd cast of coworkers. This series is fairly slow paced, it's more about the charming characters and setting. "This Poison Will Remain" has some smaller cases being solved around a larger story of older people dying as a result of venom from recluse spider bites. There are some call backs to previous books in the series though I think you could start here without too much worry. -Jason
A case in any case
Ulf Nilsson
jFICTION Nilsson Ulf
Kids, Early Chapter Books, Mystery, Fiction
When Detective Gordon retires and Buffy is left alone at the police station, she hears strange noises and decides to call on Gordon to help her with the mystery.
Sweet, gentle, yet hilariously funny Swedish frog detective and his deputy mouse solve sweet, gentle mysteries in the forest. -Anne W
The Westing game
Ellen Raskin
jFICTION Raskin, Ellen
Mystery, Fiction, Kids
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.
Mystery classic that centers on the death of an eccentric millionaire and the unlikely assortment of wacky characters all competing to solve the puzzle of his death to claim their inheritance. Funny, offbeat, weird, creepy! -Anne W
The view from Saturday
E. L Konigsburg
jFICTION Konigsburg, E. L.
Mystery, Fiction, Picture Books
Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who choses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.
The stories of four unique students are told and come together at the end, when they develop a special bond with each other and their teacher, who has chosen them to compete in the 6th grade Academic Bowl. Puzzles are woven throughout the narrative! -Anne W
Added by Anne W