Books with category 🕵️ Detective
Displaying books 1-48 of 103 in total

The Hidden Staircase

2030

by Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew is alarmed when Nathan Gombet threatens her father. Gombet sold a piece of land for a railroad bridge through Carson Drew and now believes that he was cheated.

Meanwhile, valuable objects are disappearing from rooms in the Turnbull mansion even while the Turnbull sisters, Rosemary and Florette, are at home in their locked house. Having heard about her reputation for solving mysteries, the sisters invite Nancy Drew to stay in the mansion and discover the thief.

In seeking to solve the mysterious happenings in an old stone mansion, Nancy uses her courage and powers of deduction and tackles a situation that would have appalled a far older person.

The Grey Wolf

2024

by Louise Penny

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning. That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin The Grey Wolf.

A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you", a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list - and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching. Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. If they fail, the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

The Waiting

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.


Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.


Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.


Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch’s daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls.

The Wilds

2024

by Sarah Pearse

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Sanatorium, comes The Wilds where Detective Elin Warner unravels the mystery behind the chilling disappearance of a young woman.

A perpetual drifter, Kier Templer lives her life on the road. Dubbed "the monster's daughter" after her mother's infamous crime, Kier has left her hometown and twin behind. Kier is haunted by the past, but one thing has always bound her to her brother, Penn: the distinctive maps she designs of the places she's explored. When Kier abruptly goes off-grid without sending him her latest, Penn knows something is seriously wrong.

Elin Warner is on vacation with her brother Isaac in a rugged national park in Portugal—the last place Kier was seen. It's supposed to be a time for the siblings to reconnect, but when Elin discovers Kier's disturbing final map, it seems the park—especially the inhabitants of a camp buried deep in the forest—holds clues to what happened to Kier, and a lot more besides.

After a sinister discovery, Elin is shocked to learn Kier's disappearance is more personal to her than she'd ever imagined. And as she seeks the truth, Elin soon finds the wilderness hides something far darker than shifting shadows…

Breaking the Dark

2024

by Lisa Jewell

In her most imaginative novel yet, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell launches the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with an original story starring the private detective Jessica Jones.

Meet Jessica Jones: Retired superhero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.

The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night’s poor choices. But something about Amber Randall’s story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don’t act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something “perfect.”

Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins’ new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community?

A mother’s intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect—not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.

Breaking the Dark, the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introduces fans to a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, and will continue with original novels featuring fan-favorite characters like Luke Cage and Daredevil.

The Return of Ellie Black

2024

by Emiko Jean

Detective Chelsey Calhoun's life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie's reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It's been twenty years since Chelsey's sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she's been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey's line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won't say where she's been, or who she's protecting, and it's up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

Still See You Everywhere

2024

by Lisa Gardner

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner comes a harrowing new installment in the Frankie Elkin series. Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten. However, she couldn't have anticipated the latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks' time.

No man truly fears a woman. Not even one who is her father's daughter.

The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the beginning, waived all appeals. She had called herself 'death,' but people called her the devil. Despite the media's chronicling of her tragic circumstances—the childhood spent with a violent father—no one could find sympathy for 'the Beautiful Butcher' who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats.

Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago. She needs Frankie's help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher's offer: When was the last time your search ended with finding the living?

Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson's request. Twelve years ago, five-year-old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson's tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific—the site of MacManus's latest vanity project—fresh evidence has appeared. To learn the truth and possibly save a young woman's life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in…

End of Story

2024

by A. J. Finn

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.”

So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.”

“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.”

Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”

As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.

Holly

2023

by Stephen King

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King's most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

"Sometimes the universe throws you a rope." — BILL HODGES

Stephen King's Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly's gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges's partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King's new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl's desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie's disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

Treacherous Estate

2023

by Behcet Kaya

In Treacherous Estate, award-winning author Behcet Kaya introduces us to Jack Ludefance, a P.I. who lives aboard his 57-foot houseboat in the Florida Panhandle and keeps an alligator for security. Written from Jack's first-person point of view; his commentary is frequently terse and self-deprecating. He is a man who knows his limitations and honest enough to admit them, but rarely indulges in self-pity. Unlucky in love and sometimes a bit awkward with women, he has the outward scar on his face from wrestling with a gator as a kid and the inward scar of the loss of his wife to divorce.

While enjoying his usual Friday night after dinner beer at a local restaurant, Jack's evening is suddenly shattered when a beautiful young woman sits down next to him, whispers, "Can you help me, Mr. Ludef...?" then falls dead. When her death is ruled 'natural', Jack begins to investigate why she came to him desperately seeking his help. To complicate matters, her husband is a prominent, highly respected local businessman. As Jack unravels the pieces to the unsolved puzzle, the more heinous the crimes of the dead woman's husband become and Jack finds his own life is in danger.

The Big Four

2023

by Agatha Christie

Framed in the doorway of Poirot’s bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man’s gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell. Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure 4, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper?

Poirot finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life to uncover the truth about ‘Number Four’. The story unfolds as Poirot, alongside his faithful assistant Hastings, follows clues and outmaneuvers a cabal of international criminals.

In this action-packed mystery, Poirot's brilliance is put to the test as he faces formidable foes, including a brilliant Chinese criminal mastermind, an American multi-millionaire, a beautiful Frenchwoman scientist, and "the destroyer," a ruthless murderer with a genius for disguise. Will Poirot succeed in foiling "The Big Four" and prevent their plan for world dominance?

The Seven Dials Mystery

2022

by Agatha Christie

Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a.m.

But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences. For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words "Seven Dials" were to take on a new and chilling significance...

Join Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent and friends as they unravel this mystery and discover why a heavy sleeper would die of an overdose of a sleeping draught. Why were there only seven of the eight clocks found, neatly and sinisterly arranged on the mantelpiece? The answers lie within the enigmatic Seven Dials Society.

The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear is the last novel by Arthur Conan Doyle where the reader meets Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective. He and Doctor Watson arrive at a country manor to investigate a possible murder. After receiving a coded message, Holmes links the murder to the name in the message.

Clue by clue, our friends get closer to Holmes’ arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty. It is a brilliantly executed mystery, riddled with sufficient evidence and compelling, plot-driven structure. Detective fiction enthusiasts will not be disappointed.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After his studies, he worked as a ship’s surgeon on various boats. During the Second Boer War, he was an army doctor in South Africa. When he came back to the United Kingdom, he opened his own practice and started writing crime books. He is best known for his thrilling stories about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He published four novels and more than 50 short stories starring the detective and Dr. Watson, and they play an important role in the history of crime fiction. Other than the Sherlock Holmes series, Doyle wrote around thirty more books, in genres such as science fiction, fantasy, historical novels, but also poetry, plays, and non-fiction.

The Likeness

2019

by Tana French

In the compelling (The Boston Globe) and pitch perfect (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, it's six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who was this girl?

The Red Hand

Someone is experimenting with...Death! Rookie detective Frank Nagler has barely had time to arrange his desk, when a new homicide case is assigned to him. Could a serial killer be stalking his hometown of Ironton, N.J.?

One by one the bodies pile up. Nine victims are killed over several months, all from different walks of life and different parts of Ironton. Each killed in a different way, forming no clear pattern, as might be expected from a single killer.

The Red Hand is the prequel to The Swamps of Jersey, the book that launched the Frank Nagler Mysteries. This investigation takes place before economic hard times, political corruption and a government money scandal hit the former industrial center of Ironton, N.J.

This story is atmospheric, moody, dark and thrilling.

Lethal White

Lethal White is a gripping mystery and a thrilling installment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Written by the international bestselling author Robert Galbraith, this novel is a masterpiece of suspense and intrigue.

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office, he asks for help investigating a crime he believes he witnessed as a child. Billy is clearly mentally distressed and cannot recall many concrete details, yet there is something sincere and compelling about his story. Before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from the office in panic.

Determined to uncover the truth behind Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—embark on a twisting journey. Their investigation leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

Throughout this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward. His newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Moreover, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than ever. Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

This novel is a testament to Galbraith's wizardry as a writer, offering readers both a captivating mystery and an engaging continuation of the Cormoran Strike series.

One Small Sacrifice

2019

by Hilary Davidson

An apparent suicide. A mysterious disappearance. Did one man get away with murder—twice?

NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling has had her eye on Alex Traynor ever since his friend Cori fell to her death under suspicious circumstances a year ago. Cori’s death was ruled a suicide, but Sheryn thinks Alex—a wartime photojournalist suffering from PTSD—got away with murder.

When Alex’s fiancée, Emily, a talented and beloved local doctor, suddenly goes missing, Sheryn suspects that Alex is again at the center of a sticky case. Sheryn dislikes loose ends, and Cori’s death had way too many of them.

But as Sheryn starts pulling at the threads in this web, her whole theory unravels. Everyone involved remembers the night Cori died differently—and the truth about her death could be the key to solving Emily’s disappearance.

Thin Air

2019

by Lisa Gray

She investigates missing persons—now she is one.

Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.

Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she was abducted, Jessica’s determined to solve a case the police have forgotten. Meanwhile, veteran LAPD detective Jason Pryce is in the midst of a gruesome investigation into a murdered college student moonlighting as a prostitute. A chance encounter leads to them crossing paths, but Jessica soon realizes that Pryce is hiding something about her father’s checkered history and her mother’s death.

To solve her mother’s murder and her own disappearance, Jessica must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But the air gets thinner as she crawls closer to the truth, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.

Blood for Blood

2019

by Victoria Selman

Ziba Mackenzie profiles killers. Now one is profiling her.

Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone.

When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?

Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

The Scopas Factor

A Hmong "story cloth," a Revolutionary War battle flag, forged Picassos and a Russian drug dealer—finding the link between these disparate elements is the challenge Mike Hegan faces in The Scopas Factor, the latest mystery from Vincent Panettiere.

After his last investigation ends tragically, Detective Mike Hegan returns to Chicago from St. Kitts, hoping to put everything behind him. But his girlfriend, Diana, has other plans, and although he has no interest in the job opportunity she presents him—in a small northern California town, no less—he wants to please her. Upon his arrival in Weedley, he's caught up in a kidnapping and two murders. A visit to Diana's family in San Francisco only serves to deepen the mystery, as her father might be the link to a gang of antiquities thieves that might have something to do with the crimes in Weedley. And when Diana's father disappears, Hegan takes off for Antibes in southern France, where he discovers that the mystery has only just begun.

The 17th Suspect

Sergeant Lindsay Boxer puts her life on the line to protect San Francisco from a shrewd and unpredictable killer.

When a series of shootings exposes San Francisco to a mysterious killer, a reluctant woman decides to put her trust in Sergeant Lindsay Boxer. The confidential informant's tip leads Lindsay to a disturbing conclusion: something has gone horribly wrong inside the police department.

The hunt for the killer lures Lindsay out of her jurisdiction and impacts her in dangerous ways. She suffers unsettling medical symptoms, and her friends in the Women's Murder Club warn her against taking the crimes to heart. But with lives at stake, the detective can't help but follow the case into terrifying terrain.

A decorated officer, loving wife, devoted mother, and loyal friend, Lindsay has always acted with unwavering integrity. But now she is confronting a killer who is determined to undermine it all.

The Robots of Dawn

2018

by Isaac Asimov

A millennium into the future, two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.

Detective Elijah Baley is called to the Spacer world Aurora to solve a bizarre case of roboticide. The prime suspect is a gifted roboticist who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the crime. There's only one catch: Baley and his positronic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, must prove the man innocent.

For in a case of political intrigue and love between woman and robot gone tragically wrong, there's more at stake than simple justice. This time Baley's career, his life, and Earth's right to pioneer the Galaxy lie in the delicate balance.

The Midnight Line

2017

by Lee Child

Reacher takes a stroll through a small Wisconsin town and sees a class ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. A tough year to graduate: Iraq, then Afghanistan. The ring is tiny, for a woman, and it has her initials engraved on the inside. Reacher wonders what unlucky circumstance made her give up something she earned over four hard years. He decides to find out. And find the woman. And return her ring. Why not?

So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness.

The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes. Turns out the ring was just a small link in a far darker chain. Powerful forces are guarding a vast criminal enterprise. Some lines should never be crossed. But then, neither should Reacher.

Close to Home

2017

by Robert Dugoni

New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni’s acclaimed series continues as Tracy Crosswhite is thrown headlong into the path of a killer conspiracy.

While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy, Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite makes a startling discovery: the suspect is an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base. After a key piece of case evidence goes missing, he is cleared of charges in a military court. But Tracy knows she can’t turn her back on this kind of injustice.

When she uncovers the driver’s ties to a rash of recent heroin overdoses in the city, she realizes that this isn’t just a case of the military protecting its own. It runs much deeper than that, and the accused wasn’t acting alone. For Tracy, it’s all hitting very close to home.

As Tracy moves closer to uncovering the truth behind this insidious conspiracy, she’s putting herself in harm’s way. And the only people she can rely on to make it out alive might be those she can no longer trust.

Say You're Sorry

2017

by Melinda Leigh

In a new series from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh, former prosecutor Morgan Dane returns to Scarlet Falls, seeking the comfort of her hometown. Now, surrounded by family, she’s finally found peace and a promising career opportunity—until her babysitter is killed and her neighbor asks her to defend his son, Nick, who stands accused of the murder.

Tessa was the ultimate girl next door, and the community is outraged by her death. But Morgan has known Nick for years and can’t believe he’s guilty, despite the damning evidence stacked against him. She asks her friend Lance Kruger, an ex-cop turned private eye, for help. Taking on the town, the police, and a zealous DA, Morgan and Lance plunge into the investigation, determined to find the real killer. But as they uncover secrets that rock the community, they become targets for the madman hiding in plain sight.

Tiger and the Robot (Chandler Gray #1)

2017

by Grahame Shannon

She lives in the cloud, and travels in a phone. She’s Saga, Artificial Intelligence Detective. The exciting action of the Swiftsure Yacht race launches an adventure which ranges from the urban landscape of Vancouver to the wild islands of Alaska. Chandler Gray, a sailor and software developer, has created Saga (Say-Gah), an Artificial Intelligence app which emulates the powers of fiction’s greatest detectives.

A chance encounter with the wealthy, glamorous Gina Lee, leads to an invitation to sail on her yacht in the Swiftsure race. When Gina is kidnapped, Saga falsely claims Chan is a Private Investigator, and he takes on the rescue. Sometimes bumbling, but always determined, Chan and Saga roll through adventures in flight, at sea, and on the ground. With a band of friends providing support, and sometimes derision, Chan doggedly pursues the truth, no matter where it leads.

The quest leads to piracy in the Aleutians, a Land Rover attacked in the backwoods of Vancouver Island, and a lover’s betrayal. Saga’s remarkable abilities don't always lead in the right direction, and her sassy attitude sometimes annoys Chan, but in the end, they make an effective team.

The Body Reader

2016

by Anne Frasier

For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive.

After her experience with isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice—and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead. Despite colleagues’ doubts about her mental state, she resumes her role at Homicide. Her new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, doesn’t trust her sanity, and he has a story of his own he’d rather keep hidden. But a killer is on the loose, murdering young women, so the detectives have no choice: they must work together to catch the madman before he strikes again. And no one knows madmen like Jude Fontaine.

A Murder Is Announced

2016

by Agatha Christie

The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises: “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m.”

Is it a childish practical joke? Or perhaps a spiteful hoax? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, the locals arrive at Little Paddocks at the appointed time.

Without warning, the lights go out and a gun is fired. When they come back on, a gruesome scene is revealed. An impossible crime? Only the astute Miss Marple can unravel it.

Death in the Clouds

2016

by Agatha Christie

From seat number nine, Hercule Poirot is almost ideally placed to observe his fellow air travelers on this short flight from Paris to London. Over to his right sits a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated with the man opposite. Ahead, in seat number thirteen, is the Countess of Horbury, horribly addicted to cocaine and not doing too good a job of concealing it. Across the gangway in seat number eight, a writer of detective fiction is being troubled by an aggressive wasp.


Yes, Poirot is almost ideally placed to take it all in—except that the passenger in the seat directly behind him has slumped over in the course of the flight... dead. Murdered. By someone in Poirot's immediate proximity. And Poirot himself must number among the suspects.

Elephants Can Remember

2016

by Agatha Christie

Elephants Can Remember is a classic Hercule Poirot investigation where the expert detective delves into an unsolved crime from the past involving the mysterious death of a husband and wife.

Poirot stood on the clifftop, the very place where, many years earlier, a tragic accident had occurred, followed by the grisly discovery of two bodies—a husband and wife, both shot dead. But the question remained, who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder?

As Poirot delves into the past, he discovers that old sins leave long shadows. With his sharp mind and keen instincts, he is determined to solve this old double murder mystery that still stands as an open verdict.

Evil Under the Sun

2016

by Agatha Christie

Set at the Jolly Roger, a posh vacation resort for the rich and famous on the southern coast of England, Evil Under the Sun is one of Agatha Christie’s most intriguing mysteries. When a gorgeous young bride is brutally strangled to death on the beach, only Hercule Poirot can sift through the secrets that shroud each of the guests and unravel the macabre mystery at this playground by the sea.

The beautiful bronzed body of Arlena Stuart lay facedown on the beach. But strangely, there was no sun and Arlena was not sunbathing…she had been strangled. Ever since Arlena’s arrival, the air had been thick with sexual tension. Each of the guests had a motive to kill her, including Arlena’s new husband. But Hercule Poirot suspects that this apparent “crime of passion” conceals something much more evil.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

2016

by Agatha Christie

On the night before Christmas, cruel, tyrannical, filthy rich Simeon Lee is found in his locked bedroom with his throat cut. Now Hercule Poirot must put his deductive powers to the test to solve one of his most chilling cases - and to prevent a clever killer from spilling more blood.

Christmas Eve, and the Lee family’s reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture and a high-pitched wailing scream. Upstairs, the tyrannical Simeon Lee lies dead in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. When Hercule Poirot offers to assist, he finds an atmosphere not of mourning but of mutual suspicion. It seems everyone had their own reason to hate the old man.

The Body in the Library

2016

by Agatha Christie

The iconic Miss Marple must investigate the case of a girl found dead in Agatha Christie’s classic mystery, The Body in the Library.

It’s seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing an evening dress and heavy makeup, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?

The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple into their home to investigate. Amid rumors of scandal, she baits a clever trap to catch a ruthless killer.

Her Final Breath

2015

by Robert Dugoni

Homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite has returned to the police force after the sensational retrial of her sister’s killer. Still scarred from that ordeal, Tracy is pulled into an investigation that threatens to end her career, if not her life.

A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle. Even after a stalker leaves a menacing message for Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, she is charged with bringing the murderer to justice. With clues scarce and more victims dying, Tracy realizes the key to solving the murders may lie in a decade-old homicide investigation that others, including her captain, Johnny Nolasco, would prefer to keep buried. With the Cowboy on the hunt, can Tracy find the evidence to stop him, or will she become his next victim?

The Poet

Denver crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how—he decides to write the story. But his research leads him to suspect a serial killer is at work—a devious murderer who's killing cops and leaving a trail of poetic clues.

It's the news story of a lifetime, if he can get the story without losing his life.

My Sister's Grave

2014

by Robert Dugoni

Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House — a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder — is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.

When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past — and open the door to deadly danger.

The Cuckoo's Calling

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry -- known to her friends as the Cuckoo -- famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that.

The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

Red Harvest

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

Blueblood

2012

by Matthew Iden

Four unrelated murders. Nothing special in Washington DC. Not even good enough to make the evening news. But then a concerned police lieutenant approaches retired homicide detective Marty Singer with a simple fact that changes everything.

They were all cops.

In a race to stop the killings, Marty tackles the case from the outside, chasing the killer from deadly Southeast DC to the heart of the Virginia gangland, on a mission to stop the spilling of yet more Blueblood.

Broken Harbour

2012

by Tana French

In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin – half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned – two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder Squad’s star detective.

At first, he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one: Pat Spain was a casualty of the recession, so he killed his children, tried to kill his wife Jenny, and finished off with himself. But there are too many inexplicable details, and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once.

Scorcher’s personal life is tugging for his attention. Seeing the case on the news has sent his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family, one summer at Broken Harbour, back when they were children. The neat compartments of his life are breaking down, and the sudden tangle of work and family is putting both at risk.

A Reason to Live

2012

by Matthew Iden

In the late nineties, a bad cop killed a good woman and DC Homicide detective Marty Singer watched the murderer walk out of the courtroom a free man. Twelve years later, the victim's daughter begs for help: the killer is stalking her now. Marty has retired to battle cancer, but helping her could give his own life new meaning. A second shot at the killer... and a first chance at redemption.

The Moving Finger

2012

by Agatha Christie

The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon, a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village's quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide.

The vicar, the doctor, the servants—all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar's houseguest happens to be none other than Jane Marple.

Smokin' Seventeen

2011

by Janet Evanovich

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.

Short on time to find the murderer, Stephanie is also under pressure from family and friends to choose between her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom wants her to dump them both for a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, suggests a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Joe’s old-world grandmother gives Stephanie “the eye,” which may mean that it’s time to get out of town.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival

The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival is a science fiction mystery in which the brilliant hyperspatial physicist, Dr. Skye Chadwick, discovers the existence of alternate realities, often populated by characters we consider only literary. Her secret project, Project: Tesseract, hidden deep under Schriever AFB, identifies Continuum 114, where Sherlock Holmes was supposed to perish alongside Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.

In a knee-jerk reaction, Skye rescues Holmes, who inadvertently travels through the wormhole to our universe, while his enemy plunges to his death. Unable to return without causing devastating continuum collapse, Holmes must stay in our world and adapt.

Meanwhile, the Schriever AFB Department of Security uncovers a spy ring working to extract the details of—and possibly sabotage—Project: Tesseract. Can Chadwick help Holmes get up to speed with modern investigative techniques in time to stop the spies? Will Holmes thrive in our modern world? Is Chadwick now Holmes' new "Watson"—or more? And what happens next?

The Silent Girl

2011

by Tess Gerritsen

Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.

In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.

Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.

Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

2010

by Mark Hodder

London, 1861. Sir Richard Francis Burton—explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead.

Algernon Charles Swinburne—unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy.

The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!

Think of a Number

2010

by John Verdon

An extraordinary fiction debut, Think of a Number is an exquisitely plotted novel of suspense that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates, forcing its deeply troubled characters to moments of startling self-revelation.

Arriving in the mail over a period of weeks are taunting letters that end with a simple declaration, “Think of any number…picture it…now see how well I know your secrets.” Amazingly, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly.

For Dave Gurney, just retired as the NYPD’s top homicide investigator and forging a new life with his wife, Madeleine, in upstate New York, the letters are oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle but quickly ignite a massive serial murder investigation.

What police are confronted with is a completely baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air. Even more disturbing, the scale of his ambition seems to widen as events unfold.

Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney’s tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and finally, a dark, cold fear builds that he’s met an adversary who can’t be stopped.

In the end, fighting to keep his bearings amid a whirlwind of menace and destruction, Gurney sees the truth of what he’s become – what we all become when guilty memories fester – and how his wife Madeleine’s clear-eyed advice may be the only answer that makes sense.

A work that defies easy labels — at once a propulsive masterpiece of suspense and an absorbing immersion in the lives of characters so real we seem to hear their heartbeats – Think of a Number is a novel you’ll not soon forget.

The Devil's Star

2010

by Jo Nesbø

Oslo is sweltering in the summer heat when a young woman is murdered in her flat. One finger has been cut off and a tiny red diamond in the shape of a pentagram—a five-pointed star—is found under her eyelid.

Detective Harry Hole is assigned the case with Tom Waaler, a colleague he neither likes nor trusts. He believes Tom is behind a gang of arms smugglers—and the murder of his partner. But Harry, an off-the-rails alcoholic, is barely holding on to his job and has little choice but to play nice.

Five days later, another woman is reported missing. When her severed finger is found adorned with a star-shaped red diamond ring, Harry fears a serial killer is on the loose. Determined to find the killer and expose the crooked Tom Waaler, Harry discovers the two investigations melding in unexpected ways.

But pursuing the truth comes at a price, and soon Harry finds himself on the run and forced to make difficult decisions about a future he may not live to see.

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