Mystery

Hanging & burning

Mosley, Walter, author.

Joe King Oliver is the big man you call to solve the most delicate and dangerous of problems. Fresh off having solved the mystery of his own parents' fates, King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother's request) a case from a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer. Armand Babylon's granddaughter has been missing for years, and he has some revelatory truths to impart before he passes. But nothing is what it seems, not Armand, not the woman King must find, and not the many forces that seem to stand in the detective's way. A trail of violence has followed and seemingly destroyed the women in the Babylon clan, and King will follow that trail from LA, to New York, and back to LA again in an attempt to not only satisfy his client but rectify the mounting injustices he's encountered along the way.....

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The family cross

Patterson, James, 1947- author.

Alex Cross is a brilliant psychologist -- and a relentless hunter of killers for the FBI and DC Metro Police. To his beloved Nana Mama, he's still the boy she raised--and every morning, as he straps on his service weapon, she's reminded just how dangerous his world has become. But in Washington, DC, there are places even the police don't go--an unseen underworld where violence thrives and rules don't apply. And this time, Alex is stepping straight into it. Each move pulls him deeper into the dark--and closer to a case that could shatter the promise he made to Nana ... and cost him everything he holds most dear.....

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Chain reaction

Child, Lee, author.

Jack Reacher is hard to find. It's not easy to track him down. And he likes it that way. But General Susan Turner, based deep inside the Pentagon, has the means and the motive. She needs his help. A member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can't trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside. Someone who solves problems and disappears without a trace. Reacher heads to Summertown, Colorado. A town as remote and bizarre as it gets. One diner, one motel, five massive data centers, two giant solar farms humming away in the dust. Total population: four people. And one of them is watching him. But Reacher isn't built to run. He's built to finish things. General Turner knows that if they come for Reacher, they'll regret it -- all the way to the top of the chain.....

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The girl in the lake

Patterson, James, 1947- author.

Mysteries trail Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple, and Auguste Poe wherever they go. At a remote lodge in upstate New York, the embattled private investigators have taken refuge from the assailant who bombed their sleek city headquarters. When the discovery of a body in the lake puts the detectives back in the headlines and under suspicion, the elusive killer issues his despicable orders: stop solving crimes--and start committing them.....

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Miss Wolcott's ghost

Penny, Louise, author.

Armand Gamache returns! "There a body in Lost Nation." "Where?" demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed. But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller. The head of homicide for the Surete du Quebec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. What he does know is that the man was terrified. And so Armand is thrust out of a deep sleep and into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body. When he and his team of Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste find both, the situation only grows more bizarre. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. He lying in a long-abandoned cemetery, on top of a grave with a date, but no name. Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Gamache friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation. Soon, Gamache and his team are faced with tracking down not just the legend of Lost Nation, but a lost ship, lost documents belong to an eccentric Victorian botanist, and a mysterious plant not seen in a century, that might save, or take, countless lives. As the murder investigation deepens, nightmarish spectres from the past begin to haunt the Surete officers, only heightened by the appearance of one of Gamache former and now disgraced proteges, with whom he must form an uneasy alliance. As the ghosts begin to gather, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste, with the help of Reine-Marie, Clara, and the other villagers of Three Pines, realize that the body on the grave is far from the only death. To solve the crime and avert catastrophe they must look to rancid secrets and old lies no longer dead and buried.....

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Truth to power

Cosby, S. A., author.

With advanced cybernetics showing up in the possession of low-level criminals, Luke Cage is hired to investigate a factory manufacturing medical devices in rural Virginia. Leaving Jessica Jones during a delicate moment in their relationship, he makes plans to travel south but is devastated to learn that a cousin who scoped out the plant for him has been found dead. The police report states it was an accident. But Luke has long known that official words are just that: words. Fueled by guilt and vengeance, Luke arrives in Virginia and promises his aunt he'll get to the bottom of things. But danger lurks in every living room, barroom, and country road of Majestic, and the local sheriff's barely concealed prejudices are ready to boil to the surface. Even ordinary people seem to have no qualms about testing their might against the hero from New York City. As Luke uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the county line and beyond, an persistent evil begins to take hold of the town, leaving Luke to hope that his unbreakable skin will protect him long enough to protect others and bring an end to the hate threatening to engulf the nation.....

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The retired assassin's guide to country gardening

Kuttner, Naomi, author.

Dante has come to the small coastal town of Te Kohe, New Zealand, for a fresh start in life. But he doesn't want to open a BnB, or save a charming bookshop, or start a romance with a single mother in need of rescuing. He just wants to forget about his past career (which involved a lot of dead bodies) and have everyone leave him the hell alone. Unfortunately for Dante, life has other plans.......

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Return to Breakneck Island

Ryan, Tom, 1977 February 26- author.

Breakneck Island: Nestled precariously off the coast of Maple Bay, the lighthouse atop this rocky outcrop is all that stands between safe passage and nautical disaster. For generations, the MacLeary family lived on Breakneck Island in an isolated and physically demanding existence. One night in 1932, after a ruthless storm battered all of Maple Bay, the MacLearys disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only whispers of a missing fortune. Nearly a century later, three people are drawn to Breakneck Island and its perplexing past: Peter Barnett, a recent Maple Bay transplant who's piecing his life back together and possibly catching feelings for a charming professor; Dandy Feltzen, a perceptive teenage girl searching for new beginnings while juggling the arrival of an unexpected visitor; and Cass Jones, a successful author given a cryptic tip for a haunting new story. As Peter, Dandy, and Cass are drawn into the orbit of one of Maple Bay's darkest mysteries, the real story of the MacLearys finally comes into focus. But if the island is to reveal its oldest secrets, it may demand fresh bodies in return.....

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The best mystery stories of the year 2026

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen selects and introduces the best short mystery fiction of the past year. This anthology contains the best crime stories published last year, selected from a pool of over 3,000 by bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series, Tess Gerritsen, under the auspices of New York City's legendary crime fiction specialty store The Mysterious Bookshop. Included herein, readers will find tales by giants of the genre Lee Child, Andrew Klavan, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lisa Unger, alongside lesser-known writers equally as deserving of attention. The stories have been pulled from a wide variety of sources, including The Strand Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Dark Yonder, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The collection is rounded off by a bonus story from the last century by Agatha Christie, sourced from the Mysterious Bookshop's rare book room.....

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The fatal unpleasantness at Netherfield

Gray, Claudia, author.

Jonathan Darcy has recovered from the wound he received in a duel three months prior, during a disastrous London Season. But his parents aren't over the shock, and they remain convinced that, no matter how many murderers have been caught via their investigations, Jonathan must end his association with Miss Juliet Tilney: particularly now that she is a young lady of ruined reputation. He prays for some opportunity to be with her again, but unfortunately, the answer to those prayers comes in the form of murder: his uncle Charles Bingley's brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, is found dead from poisoning at Netherfield Park. Aunt Jane is desperate for answers, which means Miss Tilney must be invited to Netherfield to investigate! Juliet, still reeling from her newfound ruination, is happy to be back in the thick of an investigation. The reunion with Mr. Darcy is difficult: Juliet has missed Jonathan terribly, but she is tormented by the knowledge that his parents will never approve their match. Adding to her troubles are the scheming Caroline Bingley Allerdyce and her daughter Priscilla, whose machinations threaten any hope Juliet might have of societal rehabilitation, much less an engagement. Then, Mr. Hurst proves to be only the first victim at Netherfield, casting a pall of danger: and worse, scandal: over the Bingleys' household. Jonathan and Juliet must find the culprit, and will ultimately be called to make a final choice between respectability and love.....

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Home for the homicides

Cosimano, Elle author

'Tis the season . . . for murder. "The festive, quirky love child of a holiday whodunit and a steamy romance." -Sara Raasch When Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd report to the idyllic town of Christmas to investigate a very less than idyllic murder, they're in for more than the average whodunnit. Welcome to Christmas, a town so cozy and charming it could be the backdrop of a Hallmark movie, where crime is never in season and it's the holidays all year round. So when a tourist is found stabbed to death by an icicle ornament in the middle of the town nativity scene, the local police are out of their depth-after all, how do you find a criminal in a town where crime doesn't exist? The stakes are high: the whole town is relying on Holly and Mark to solve the crime before the annual Jingle Bell Jubilee festival (which naturally the town's entire economic survival relies on), plus, whichever of them cracks the case will receive a promotion to Major Crimes-and there's only one spot. Holly and Mark are both on thin ice after screwing up on the job. This assignment is their one shot at redemption, if they can put aside their bitter rivalry. And of course, it's not only their careers on the line, it's their hearts, too-regrets of their holiday party hookup last year haunt them like ghosts of Christmas past, so they both want to wrap up this rom-com gone wrong as quickly as possible. But with just twelve days until the festival, the countdown to catch a killer-without killing each other-is on.....

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Bark humbug

Rosenfelt, David author

Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter helps a desperate sister investigate the widely publicized murder of a gubernatorial candidate in Bark Humbug, the latest Christmas mystery in David Rosenfelt's bestselling series. This time, Andy is serious about retiring. Besides, he can't hear the sound of his phone ringing over the football game. But when the local newspaper asks him to participate in their Christmas spread of local celebrities and their dogs, he pauses the game and brings Tara along for the ride. When the photographer comes to take pictures of him and the dogs, he instead opens the door to Sharon Lowery, who devised the newspaper story just to get Andy's attention and beg him for help. Her brother, Jon, is wanted for murder and is on the run. However, if Andy agrees to hear Jon out, he'll turn himself in with the hope that Andy will represent him and reunite him with his dog. It's a dangerous situation, and between the media circus surrounding the murder and Jon's volatile position, Andy knows that when Jon is found, someone could get hurt. But Andy respects Sharon's dedication to her brother, and in an effort to keep Jon--and the public--safe, Andy agrees to talk to Jon. Andy decides to help Jon and slowly uncovers a web of conspiracies. Determined to keep Jon out of jail, Andy gathers the crew to investigate. David Rosenfelt returns with Andy Carpenter's classic disdain for Christmas but love for dogs and justice.....

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Those who are gone

King, Laurie R., author.

SFPD Homicide Inspector Raquel Laing had what might politely be termed a 'difficult childhood,' until she was taken in by a loving family at the age of nine. She still lives with her adoptive sister, Dee, an online investigator for organizations all over the world. Trouble arrives with an all-too-common case for Inspector Laing: the homicide of a drug dealer in a deserted corner of San Francisco. But the everyday rapidly spirals into complications -- just as a simple search into the family's ancestry is throwing Dee into her own world of turmoil. Raquel's case blows up far too close to home, thanks in part to the illicit shortcuts she took in the investigation, and while her unique skills are too valuable for the SFPD to suspend her entirely, she is removed from Homicide and put onto the Cold Case Unit. On the one hand, Cold Case lets her work with her friend and mentor, Al Hawkin. On the other, it leaves her free to look at some disturbing facts about her past -- and at the devastating news that Dee has uncovered in her own search for the truth. Cold cases heat up, the distant past intrudes, and two sisters begin to suspect that they are tied together in ways they never imagined -- ways that threaten attention from a powerful and vicious international cartel. Because the truth is, those who are gone... have never truly left.....

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The vanished sister

Thomas, Sherry (Sherry M.), author.

It's been three years since Charlotte Holmes struck a decisive blow against Moriarty's operations in Britain, three years of relative calm and benign developments. In a buoyant mood, everyone gathers at Lord Ingram's seaside cottage in North Devon for what promises to be a perfect summer holiday. Until Mrs. Watson receives an invitation from Mrs. Carstairs, her long-estranged sister, to attend a house party nearby. Mrs. Carstairs has married spectacularly well. She is the mistress of a great manor, a doyen of all domestic arts, and still an unforgettable beauty. Now she clamors for a reconciliation with her sister. Mrs. Watson does not trust Mrs. Carstairs's motives. Yet she cannot help but feel tremors of the old admiration for this once-beloved sister. Then Mrs. Carstairs disappears without a trace. The next day a woman is discovered floating on the waves, her build and coloring matching those of Mrs. Carstairs. But her husband insists that the corpse fished out of the Bristol Channel cannot be his wife. So where is the real Mrs. Carstairs? Would she have purposely dragged Mrs. Watson into a murder investigation? Or was it Sherlock Holmes's involvement that she needed from the very beginning?....

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The dying light

Cleeves, Ann, author.

A scorching heatwave marks the start of the summer in Devon. Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death, when the body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious holiday home. The girl's best friend, Hannah, whose family owns the house, is missing. The girls had arrived a few days earlier to celebrate the end of their school exams, quickly stirring unrest in the small community with incendiary social media videos mocking the place as parochial. When further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community filled with secrets. The fact that Hannah's father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising political star with powerful enemies draws intense media scrutiny to the case. With the summer heat come holidaymakers, and it emerges that some of them may have stronger connections with the Armstrong family than first thought. Venn knows all too well that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silences that they keep.....

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