Books with category 🕵️ Detective
Displaying books 193-240 of 255 in total

Faceless Killers

2003

by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers introduces readers to the world of Inspector Kurt Wallander, a dedicated detective in the Ystad police force. On a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse, a senselessly violent crime takes place: an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck.

As if this didn’t present enough problems for Inspector Wallander, the dying woman’s last word is foreign, leaving the police with the one tangible clue they have. This clue becomes the match that could inflame Sweden’s already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments.

Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecutor who has piqued his interest, in this case, Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes.

Wallander soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve this case, a challenge that will test him to his limits.

One Step Behind

2003

by Henning Mankell

It is Midsummer's Eve. Three young friends meet in a wood to act out an elaborate masque. But unknown to them, they are being watched. With a bullet each, all three are murdered. Soon afterwards, one of Inspector Wallander's colleagues is found murdered. Is this the same killer, and what could the connection be? In this investigation, Wallander is always, tantalisingly, One Step Behind.

Sweden's most tenacious detective races to unlock the twisted logic behind a madman's crimes. On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight, they don eighteenth-century costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. And his plans have only just begun to take shape.

Meanwhile, Inspector Kurt Wallander is just back from vacation. Constantly fatigued, he soon learns his health is at risk—but there's no time for rest when a fellow officer is murdered. Wallander soon discovers that the two grisly crimes are connected. A serial killer is on the loose, and the only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know. Forced to dig into the personal life of a trusted colleague, Wallander steps into a nightmare worse than any he could have imagined. Can he find his way out of the darkness before it's too late?

The Black Echo

For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.

Pulp

Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer's seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, Pulp demonstrates Bukowski's own brand of humour and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles.

Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy

Sammy Keyes and her friend Marissa decide to escape their routine and take a bus to the seedy, insane town of Hollywood to surprise Sammy's mother, the elusive Lady Lana. Upon arrival, they discover that she has transformed herself into the glamorous, platinum-blonde, "25-year-old" actress Dominique Windsor. This new persona certainly could never have spawned a 12-year-old—let alone a scruffy, no-nonsense girl like Sammy.

The plot thickens as Lady Lana's masquerade backfires in the most dreadful of ways, leaving Sammy to save the day and solve the biggest mystery of her life. Hollywood is a world where everyone pretends and no one is who or what they seem. When a woman is killed in the room next door, Sammy is hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a motive—including her own mom.

This fast-paced, funny, and thoroughly modern mystery will keep readers on the edge of their seats. It's not just the mystery that's exciting, but also the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back for more.

The Mysterious Mr. Quin

2002

by Agatha Christie

Harley Quin is an enigma. Even his friend, Mr. Satterthwaite, is unable to understand how the man seems to appear and disappear almost like a trick of the light. When he does appear, it's usually in the sparkle of sunshine, or surrounded by a spectrum of coloured light pouring through a stained glass window.

In fact, the only consistent thing about the Mysterious Mr. Quin is that his presence is always a harbinger of love... or death.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Clare Fergusson, St. Alban's new priest, fits like a square peg in the conservative Episcopal parish at Millers Kill, New York. She is not just a lady, she's a tough ex-Army chopper pilot and nobody's fool. Then a newborn infant left at the church door brings her together with the town's Police Chief, Russ Van Alstyne, who's also ex-Army and a cynical good shepherd for the stray sheep of his hometown.

Their search for the baby's mother quickly leads them into the secrets that shadow Millers Kill like the ever-present Adirondacks. What they discover is a world of trouble, an attraction to each other—and murder...

It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is on thin ice as the first female priest of its small Episcopal church. The ancient regime running the parish covertly demands that she prove herself as a leader. However, her blunt manner, honed by years as an Army pilot, is meeting with a chilly reception from some members of her congregation, and Chief of Police Russ Van Alystyne, in particular, doesn't know what to make of her or how to address "a lady priest", for that matter.

The last thing she needs is trouble, but that is exactly what she finds. As the days dwindle down and the attraction between the avowed priest and the married police chief grows, Clare will need all her faith, tenacity, and courage to stand fast against a killer's icy heart.

Plum Island

2002

by Nelson DeMille

The hair-raising suspense of The General's Daughter... the wry wit of The Gold Coast...this is vintage Nelson DeMille at the peak of his originality and the height of his powers. Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio. The victims were biologists at Plum Island, a research site rumored to be an incubator for germ warfare.

Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications -- and thrusts Corey and two extraordinary women into a dangerous search for the secret of PLUM ISLAND....

The Probability Broach

2001

by L. Neil Smith

Denver detective Win Bear, on the trail of a murderer, discovers much more than a killer. He accidentally stumbles upon the probability broach, a portal to a myriad of worlds—some wildly different from, others disconcertingly similar to our own.

Win finds himself transported to an alternate Earth where Congress is in Colorado, everyone carries a gun, there are gorillas in the Senate, and public services are controlled by private businesses.

Roses are Red

2001

by James Patterson

In this heart-pounding but touchingly romantic thriller, Detective Alex Cross pursues the most complex and brilliant killer he's ever confronted - a mysterious criminal who calls himself the Mastermind.

In a series of crimes that has stunned Washington, D.C., bank robbers have been laying out precise demands when they enter the building - and then killing the bank employees and their families if those instructions are not followed to the letter.

Detective Alex Cross takes on the case, certain that this is no ordinary bank robber at work - the pathological need for control and perfection is too great. Cross is in the midst of a personal crisis at home, but the case becomes all-consuming as he learns that the Mastermind is plotting one huge, last, perfect crime.

Crimson Rivers

A horrifically mutilated corpse is discovered wedged in an isolated crevice. The highly-regarded but unpredictable ex-commando Pierre Niémans is sent from Paris to the French Alps to investigate. Meanwhile, Karim Abdouf, a young Arab policeman, is trying to find out why the tomb of a young child has been desecrated.

When a second body is found, high up in a glacier, the paths of the two policemen are joined in their search for the killers, a trail that embroils them with the mysterious cult of the Crimson Rivers.

Along Came a Spider

2001

by James Patterson

A missing little girl named Maggie Rose . . . a family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C. . . . the thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher . . . a psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him - even after he's been captured.

Gary Soneji wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the first female supervisor of the Secret Service who completes one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read. Alex Cross and Jezzie Flanagan are about to have a forbidden love affair—at the worst possible time for both of them. Because Gary Soneji is playing at the top of his game. The latest of the unspeakable crimes happens in Alex Cross's precinct. It happens under the noses of Jezzie Flanagan's men. Now Alex Cross must face the ultimate test: How do you outmaneuver a brilliant psychopath?

Motherless Brooklyn

2000

by Jonathan Lethem

Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn’s very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in the most startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent’s Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna’s limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal.

But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel’s colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim’s widow skips town. Lionel’s world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.

Running Blind

2000

by Lee Child

Women are being murdered nationwide by a killer who leaves no trace of evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to an apparent motive. All the victims have one thing in common: they each knew Jack Reacher.

Jack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren't totally sure he's not the killer they're looking for, but believe that even if he isn't, he's smart enough to help them find the real killer. And what they've got on the ex-MP, who's starred in three previous Lee Child thrillers, is enough to ensure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher's inadvertent involvement in a protection shakedown and the threat of harm to the woman he loves.

The killer's victims have only one thing in common--all of them brought sexual harassment charges against their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they died in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn't drown and they weren't shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can't figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths.

Reacher isn't sure whether the killings are an elaborate cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who's smart enough to leave absolutely no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he finally figures it out, but every one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn't let up for a second. The ending will come as a complete surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you'll wonder what's in store for him in his next adventure.

Hot Six

2000

by Janet Evanovich

Low-rent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum reaches depths of personal experience that other women detectives never quite do. In Hot Six, for example, a sequence of new and hideous cars bite the dust. She finds herself lumbered with a policeman's multiply incontinent dog, and she has several bad skin days. All this when she is trying to prove her distinctly more competent colleague and occasional boyfriend, Ranger, innocent of a mob hit. She must avoid the heavies trailing her in the hope of finding him and cope with a wife-abusing bail defaulter with nasty habits, such as setting Stephanie on fire.

Stephanie's adventures are a blend of humor and thrilling suspense, making her journey both challenging and entertaining. Will she manage to keep her life intact while solving the mystery?

Tripwire

2000

by Lee Child

Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman, was enjoying the laid-back life in Key West until everything changed. The tranquility was shattered when Costello, a friendly private investigator, turned up dead. This amiable PI had been hired in New York by the daughter of Reacher's mentor and former commanding officer, General Garber.

Garber's investigation into a Vietnam MIA sets Reacher on a collision course with the sinister hand-less "Hook" Hobie, who is mere hours away from pulling off his biggest score yet. As the plot unfolds, Reacher finds himself embroiled in a web of danger and deceit, forcing him to confront his own past.

Join Reacher on this thrilling journey filled with unexpected twists and turns, as he navigates a world where danger lurks around every corner.

Nemesis

2000

by Agatha Christie

In utter disbelief, Jane Marple read the letter addressed to her from the recently deceased Mr. Rafiel — an acquaintance she had met briefly on her travels. He had left instructions for her to investigate a crime after his death. The only problem was, he had failed to tell her who was involved or where and when the crime had been committed. It was most intriguing.

Soon she is faced with a new crime — the ultimate crime — murder. It seems someone is adamant that past evils remain buried...

A Scandal in Bohemia (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #1)

Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia to recover blackmail evidence, held by the woman whom the king once promised to marry, but who he abandoned for a woman of noble birth.

Join Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. John Watson as they embark on a thrilling adventure filled with twists, turns, and unexpected revelations. Set against the backdrop of Victorian London, A Scandal in Bohemia follows Holmes as he is enlisted by the King of Bohemia to retrieve a compromising photograph from the clutches of the beautiful and elusive Irene Adler.

Themes of deception, betrayal, and cunning abound as Holmes employs his keen powers of deduction to unravel the mystery surrounding Adler and her elusive past. With his razor-sharp intellect and unparalleled powers of observation, Holmes navigates a web of intrigue and deceit, uncovering secrets that threaten to shake the very foundations of society.

Pop Goes the Weasel

1999

by James Patterson

Detective Alex Cross is back—and he's in love. But his happiness is threatened by a series of chilling murders in Washington, D.C., murders with a pattern so twisted they leave investigators reeling.

Cross's pursuit of the killer produces a suspect, a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shafer. But proving he's the murderer becomes a potentially deadly task. As Shafer engages in a brilliant series of surprising counter moves, Alex and his fiancée become hopelessly entangled with the most memorable nemesis Cross has ever faced.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun

1999

by Keigo Higashino

When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, the unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime: the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect.

Over the next twenty years, we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case, which remains unsolved, to the point of obsession. Stark, intriguing, and stylish, Journey Under the Midnight Sun is an epic mystery by the bestselling Japanese author.

Death du Jour

1999

by Kathy Reichs

Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should lie in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate.

The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation.

From the fire scene, they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial professor, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island.

Iron Lake

William Kent Krueger joined the ranks of today's best suspense novelists with this thrilling, universally acclaimed debut. Krueger brilliantly evokes northern Minnesota's lake country — and reveals the dark side of its snow-covered landscape.

Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor is the former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota. Embittered by his "former" status, and the marital meltdown that has separated him from his children, Cork gets by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt. Once a cop on Chicago's South Side, there's not much that can shock him.

But when the town's judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on a mind-jolting case of conspiracy, corruption, and scandal. As a lakeside blizzard buries Aurora, Cork must dig out the truth among town officials who seem determined to stop his investigation. But even Cork freezes up when faced with the harshest enemy of all: a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home.

Three to Get Deadly

1998

by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick, is back and she's having a bad hair day—for the whole month of January. She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton's most beloved citizen, who was arrested for carrying concealed and has now gone no-show for his court appearance.

To make matters worse, she's got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk—now a wannabe bounty hunter—at her side, sticking like glue. Lula's big, blonde, black, and itching to get the chance to lock up a crook in the trunk of her car.

Morelli, the New Jersey vice cop with the slow-burning smile that undermines a girl's strongest resolve, is being polite. So what does this mean? Has he found a new love? Or is he manipulating Steph, using her in his police investigation, counting on her unmanageable curiosity and competitive Jersey attitude?

Once again, the entire One for the Money crew is in action, including Ranger and Grandma Mazur, searching for Mo, tripping down a trail littered with dead drug dealers, leading Stephanie to suspect Mo has traded his ice-cream scoop for a vigilante gun.

Cursed with a disastrous new hair color and an increasing sense that it's really time to get a new job, Stephanie spirals and tumbles through Three to Get Deadly with all the wisecracks and pace her fans have come to expect.

The Big Nowhere

1998

by James Ellroy

1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness.

Told with Ellroy's characteristically forceful and relentless style, The Big Nowhere is the link between The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential in his masterwork, The LA Quartet. It is as powerful and thrilling as crime fiction gets.

A Noble Radiance

1998

by Donna Leon

Donna Leon has topped European bestseller lists for more than a decade with a series of mysteries featuring clever Commissario Guido Brunetti. Always ready to bend the rules to uncover the threads of a crime, Brunetti manages to maintain his integrity while maneuvering through a city rife with politics, corruption, and intrigue.

In A Noble Radiance, a new landowner is summoned urgently to his house not far from Venice when workmen accidentally unearth a macabre grave. The human corpse is badly decomposed, but a ring found nearby proves to be a first clue that reopens an infamous case of kidnapping involving one of Venice's most aristocratic families. Only Commissario Brunetti can unravel the clues and find his way into both the heart of patrician Venice and that of a family grieving for their abducted son.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

1997

by Laurie R. King

A Monstrous Regiment of Women continues Mary Russell's adventures as a worthy student of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and as an ever more skilled sleuth in her own right. Looking for respite in London after a stupefying visit from relatives, Mary encounters a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to her current enthusiasm, a strange and enigmatic woman named Margery Childe, who leads something called "The New Temple of God."

It seems to be a charismatic sect involved in the post-World War I suffrage movement, with a feminist slant on Christianity. Mary is curious about the woman and intrigued. Is the New Temple a front for something more sinister?

When a series of murders claims members of the movement's wealthy young female volunteers and principal contributors, Mary, with Holmes in the background, begins to investigate. Things become more desperate than either of them expected as Mary's search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced.

The Bone Collector

1997

by Jeffery Deaver

Lincoln Rhyme was once a brilliant criminologist, a genius in the field of forensics -- until an accident left him physically and emotionally shattered. But now a diabolical killer is challenging Rhyme to a terrifying and ingenious duel of wits. With police detective Amelia Sachs by his side, Rhyme must follow a labyrinth of clues that reaches back to a dark chapter in New York City's past -- and reach further into the darkness of the mind of a madman who won't stop until he has stripped life down to the bone.

Immortal in Death

1996

by J.D. Robb

When Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates the murder of a top model, she is putting her career on the line because the prime suspect is her best friend. Eve's investigations lead her into the glamorous world of high fashion.

She'd come to New York to be a cop, because she believed in order. Needed it to survive. She had taken control, had made herself into the person some anonymous social worker had named Eve Dallas. But in a few weeks, she won't just be Eve Dallas, lieutenant, homicide. She'll be Roarke's wife. But Eve's wedding plans may have to be put on hold as her private and professional lives collide...

The victim in her latest murder investigation is one of the most sought-after women in the world. A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted - even another woman's man. And Eve's chief suspect is the other woman in this fatal love triangle - her best friend Mavis.

Putting her job on the line to head the investigation, Eve discovers that the world of high fashion thrives on an all-consuming passion for youth and fame. One that leads from the runway to the dark underworld of New York City where drugs can fulfill any desire - for a price.

Jack & Jill

1996

by James Patterson

In the middle of the night, a controversial U.S. senator is found murdered in bed in his Georgetown pied-a-terre. The police turn up only one clue: a mysterious rhyme signed "Jack and Jill" promising that this is just the beginning. Jack and Jill are out to get the rich and famous, and they will stop at nothing until their fiendish plan is carried out.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., homicide detective Alex Cross is called to a murder scene only blocks from his house, far from the corridors of power where he spends his days. The victim: a beautiful little girl, savagely beaten—and deposited in front of the elementary school Cross's son, Damon, attends.

Could there be a connection between the two murders? As Cross tries to put the pieces together, the killer—or killers—strike again. And again. No one in Washington is safe—not children, not politicians, not even the President of the United States. Only Alex Cross has the skills and the courage to crack the case—but will he discover the truth in time?

A relentless roller coaster of heart-pounding suspense and jolting plot twists, Jack and Jill proves that no one can write a more compelling thriller than James Patterson, the master of the nonstop nightmare.

Kiss the Girls

1995

by James Patterson

In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. In Washington D.C. Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing - and they are working coast to coast.

The Secret of Red Gate Farm

1995

by Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew and her friends Bess and George find themselves entangled in a thrilling mystery when Bess purchases an expensive bottle of Oriental perfume. Little did they know, this perfume would lead them to a series of mysterious events that needed unraveling.

Joined by their new friend Jo, the trio sets out to uncover the secrets of a mysterious conspiracy, a secretive cult, and a ring of counterfeiters, all centered around Red Gate Farm.

As they delve deeper, they encounter peculiar characters and strange happenings that keep them on their toes. Will Nancy's intuition and detective skills be enough to solve the mystery?

Join Nancy Drew in this classic adventure filled with suspense, intrigue, and the spirit of girl power!

Death at La Fenice

1994

by Donna Leon

There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does occasionally rear its head is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice-commissario of police and a genius at detection.

Now all of his admirable abilities must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice.

As the investigation unfolds, a chilling picture slowly begins to take shape—a detailed portrait of revenge painted with vivid strokes of hatred and shocking depravity.

And the dilemma for Guido Brunetti will not be finding a murder suspect, but rather narrowing the choices down to one...

All That Remains

In Richmond, Virginia, young lovers are dying. So far, four couples in the area have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses. When the daughter of the president's newest drug czar vanishes along with her boyfriend, Dr. Kay Scarpetta knows time is short.

Following a macabre trail of evidence that ties the present homicides to a grisly crime in the past, Kay must draw upon her own personal resources to track down a murderer who is as skilled at eliminating clues as Kay is at finding them...

Farewell, My Lovely

Philip Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.

The Maltese Falcon

Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?

Fatherland

1992

by Robert Harris

Fatherland is set in a universe where Nazi Germany won World War II. In this alternate history, the story's lead protagonist, an SS officer, embarks on an investigation into the murder of a Nazi government official who was one of the participants at the Wannsee Conference. Through his investigation, he uncovers a plot to eliminate all attendees of the conference in order to help Germany gain better political accommodations with the United States.

Body of Evidence

After months of menacing phone calls and the feeling that her every move is being watched, successful writer Beryl Madison flees Key West when a terrifying message is scratched on her car. But on the very night she returns to Richmond, she deactivates her burglar alarm and opens her door to someone who nearly decapitates her.

Why did she let him in? This is the question that haunts Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. And, why is Beryl's latest manuscript missing? Pursuing the answers involves Scarpetta in the murder of another writer - Beryl's jealous mentor.

While she copes with a variety of personal and professional problems, Scarpetta's high-tech forensic skills enable her to collect a body of evidence. Clues that would mean little without her intelligence, compassion, and imagination lead her directly into a nightmare all her own.

L.A. Confidential

1990

by James Ellroy

Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals. Six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the three LAPD detectives involved, it will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers.

The novel takes these cops on a sprawling epic of brutal violence and the murderous seedy side of Hollywood. One of the best crime novels ever written, it is the heart of Ellroy's four-novel masterpiece, the LA Quartet, and an example of crime writing at its most powerful.

The Bad Place

1990

by Dean Koontz

Frank Pollard is terrified of falling asleep. Each morning, he awakens to find something strange—like blood on his hands. It's a bizarre mystery that tortures his soul.

Two investigators have been hired to follow this haunted man. But only one person—a young man with Down's Syndrome—can imagine where their journeys might end.

That terrible place from which no one ever returns.

The Adventures of Feluda

1989

by Satyajit Ray

The Adventures of Feluda brings together four novellas of crime and suspense featuring the brilliant Bengali private investigator, Feluda.

Contents:

  • The Golden Fortress
  • The Buccaneer of Bombay (The Bandits of Bombay)
  • Mystery at Golok Lodge (A Mysterious Tenant)
  • Trouble in the Graveyard (The Secret of the Cemetery)

In his foreword, Satyajit Ray, the noted film-maker, confesses to being an avid reader of crime fiction. This deep interest led Ray to try his own hand at the genre. The first Feluda story's response startled him: "I scarcely imagined he would prove so popular that I would be forced to write a Feluda novel every year." The novellas in this collection are the author's own favourites from among the numerous Feluda stories he has written.

Join Feluda, urbane and intellectually-inclined, as he sets out to solve a series of particularly baffling crimes ranging from a kidnapping in Rajasthan to a locked-room murder in an old Calcutta house.

The Thin Man

Nick and Nora Charles are among Dashiell Hammett’s most alluring creations: a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis.

Nick Charles seems to find trouble wherever he goes. He thinks his sleuthing days are behind him when Julia Wolf, a former acquaintance, turns up dead. Nick—thanks to some persuasion from his enchanting wife, Nora—finds himself falling back into old habits and making a few polite inquiries. The prime suspect, Julia’s lover and boss Clyde Miller Wynant, has vanished without a trace. Everyone is after him, but Nick is not so sure Wynant is the culprit.

And when another dubious figure bursts into their bedroom, waving a loaded handgun, it seems Nick and Nora’s adventure is only just beginning.

The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

The Last Good Kiss

1988

by James Crumley

The Last Good Kiss is an unforgettable detective story starring C.W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade.

The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

1988

by Douglas Adams

When a passenger check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the explosion is deemed an act of God. But which god, wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently? What god would be hanging around Heathrow trying to catch the 3:37 to Oslo? And what has this to do with Dirk's latest--and late-- client, found only this morning with his head revolving atop the hit record "Hot Potato"? Amid the hostile attentions of a stray eagle and the trauma of a very dirty refrigerator, super-sleuth Dirk Gently will once again solve the mysteries of the universe...

The Lady in the Lake

The Lady in the Lake is a thrilling novel by the master of hardboiled crime fiction, Raymond Chandler. It features the iconic private detective Philip Marlowe in his fourth novel appearance.

Marlowe is hired to investigate the case of two missing wives—one belonging to a wealthy man and the other to a man of modest means. As he delves deeper into the mystery, he uncovers a web of deceit, Mexican divorces, gigolos, and possibly a murder.

Throughout the investigation, Marlowe remains characteristically detached, realizing that he is not paid to care, yet drawn into the intrigue and danger that surrounds him. The narrative is peppered with Chandler's signature witty dialogue and vivid descriptions, making it a captivating read.

This novel is a staple of the noir genre, filled with suspense and twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats. A true classic that explores the depths of human nature and the complexities of truth and deception.

Knots and Crosses

1987

by Ian Rankin

Detective John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders... and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood.

Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions, and ignores a series of crank letters. But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer, he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle...

Knots and Crosses introduces a gifted mystery novelist, a fascinating locale, and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today.

The Monkey's Raincoat

1987

by Robert Crais

When Ellen Lang's husband disappears with their son, she hires Elvis Cole to track him down. Ellen, a quiet and seemingly submissive wife, can't even write a check without him. All she wants is to get him and her son back—no questions asked.

The search for Ellen's errant husband leads Elvis into the seamier side of Hollywood. He soon learns that Mort Lang is a down-on-his-luck talent agent who associates with a schlocky movie producer. The last place he was spotted was at a party thrown by a famous and very well-connected ex-Matador. But no one has seen him since—including his B-movie girlfriend.

At the same time, the police find Mort in his parked car with four gunshots in his chest—and no kid in sight—Ellen disappears. Now nothing is what it seems, and the heat is on. It's up to Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike to find the connection between sleazy Hollywood players and an ex-Matador.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

Since his first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle’s classic hero - a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures in crime!

Volume I includes the early novel A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the eccentric genius of Sherlock Holmes to the world. This baffling murder mystery, with the cryptic word Rache written in blood, first brought Holmes together with Dr. John Watson. Next, The Sign of Four presents Holmes’s famous “seven percent solution” and the strange puzzle of Mary Morstan in the quintessential locked-room mystery.

Also included are Holmes’s feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the chilling The Adventure of the Speckled Band, the baffling riddle of The Musgrave Ritual, and the ingeniously plotted The Five Orange Pips, tales that bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes

The Complete Sherlock Holmes is a comprehensive collection that includes all of the master detective's adventures, penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This anthology contains:

  • A Study in Scarlet
  • The Sign of Four
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which features stories such as A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, and The Adventure of the Speckled Band
  • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes with tales like The Musgrave Ritual and The Final Problem
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • The Valley of Fear
  • His Last Bow, which includes The Adventure of the Devil's Foot and His Last Bow
  • The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, featuring The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire and The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

An introduction by Loren D. Estleman is included in volume 2. This collection is an essential for any fan of detective fiction and a testament to Doyle's enduring legacy in the genre.

Are you sure you want to delete this?