Mystery
Kingdom of the blind
Louise Penny
MYSTERY Penny Louise
Mystery
When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder. None of them had ever met the elderly woman. The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane? When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing. But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing. The investigation into what happened six months ago--the events that led to his suspension--has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception. Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers. As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.
Chocolate chip cookie murder
Joanne Fluke
MYSTERY Fluke, Joanne
Mystery
Hannah Swenson already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden, Minnesota's most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can't get any worse....
The first book in Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen mystery series, which in up to 29 books. -Beth
Catering to nobody
Diane Mott Davidson
MYSTERY Davidson, Diane Mott
Fiction, Mystery
Even though working a wake isn’t Goldy Bear’s idea of fun, the Colorado caterer throws herself into preparing a savory feast featuring Poached Salmon and Strawberry Shortcake Buffet designed to soothe forty mourners. Her culinary efforts seem to be exactly what the doctor ordered . . . until her former father-in-law, gynecologist Fritz Korman, is struck down—and Goldy is accused of adding poison to the menu. Now, with the Department of Health impounding her leftovers, her ex-husband trashing her name, and her business close to being shut down, Goldy knows she can’t wait for the police to serve up answers. She soon uncovers more than one skeleton in the closet, along with a veritable slew of unpalatable secrets—the kind that could make Goldy the main course in an unsavory killer’s next murder
The first book in the Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery series. -Beth
The chef
James Patterson
MYSTERY Patterson, James
Mystery, Fiction
In the Carnival days leading up Mardi Gras, Detective Caleb Rooney comes under investigation for a murder he is accused of committing in the line of duty -- as a Major Crimes detective for the New Orleans Police Department. Has his sideline at the Killer Chef food truck given him a taste for murder? While fighting the charges against him, Rooney makes a pair of unthinkable discoveries: His beloved city is under threat of attack . . . and these would-be terrorists may be local. As crowds of revelers gather, Rooney follows a fearsome trail of clues, racing from outlying districts into city center. He has no idea what -- or whom -- he'll face in defense of his beloved hometown, only that innocent lives are at stake.
Added by Beth
Four to score
Janet Evanovich
MYSTERY Evanovich, Janet
Mystery, Humor
Stephanie Plum, Trenton, New Jersey's favorite pistol-packing, condom-carrying bounty hunter, is back---and on the trail of a revenge-seeking waitress who's skipped bail. With the help of seventy-three-year-old Grandma Mazur, ex-hooker Lula, a transvestite musician named Sally Sweet, and the all-too-sexy Joe Morelli, Stephanie might just catch her woman. Then again, with more mishaps than there are exits on the Jersey Turnpike---including murders, firebombs, and Stephanie's arch-rival bounty hunter chasing after the same fugitive---Stephanie better watch her back big-time if she wants to live to crack this case.
Added by Beth
All this I will give to you
Dolores Redondo
MYSTERY Redondo Dolores
Mystery
"When novelist Manuel Ortigosa learns that his husband, Álvaro, has been killed in a car crash, it comes as a devastating shock, but it won't be the last. He's now arrived in Galicia where Álvaro died. It's where the case has already been quickly closed as a tragic accident. It's also where Álvaro hid his secrets. The man to whom Manuel was married for fifteen years was not the unassuming man he knew. Álvaro's trail leads Manuel deep into one of Spain's most powerful and guarded families. Behind the walls of their forbidding estate, Manuel is nothing but an unwelcome and dangerous intruder. Then he finds two allies: a stubbornly suspicious police lieutenant and Álvaro's old friend, and private confessor, from seminary school. Together they're collecting the pieces of Álvaro's past, his double life, and his mysterious death"--
Added by Beth
And then there were none
Agatha Christie
MYSTERY Christie, Agatha
Mystery
First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder.
Added by Beth
Alex
Pierre Lemaître
MYSTERY Lemaitre Pierre
Mystery
In this gripping, fiendishly plotted detective novel, Alex Prévost is kidnapped, savagely beaten, and suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned industrial building in a wooden cage - she is running out of time. Her abductor/torturer appears to desire only one thing: to watch her die.
Added by Beth
In the woods
Tana French
MYSTERY French, Tana
Mystery
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
First book in the Dublin Murder Squad series - there are currently 6 books in this series. -Beth
First in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. Currently there are 17 books in the series. -Beth