A murder at Oxford

By Alexander, Magda

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: M

Call Number: M

A decade-old murder. Kitty's fiance suspected of the crime. Can she find the killer before he pays with his life? England, 1924. With business booming at the Ladies of Distinction Detective Agency and her personal life going swimmingly, Kitty Worthington couldn't be happier. But then her sister summons her to Oxford. An urgent matter threatens someone Kitty holds dear. After her arrival at that august city, Kitty discovers the cause for her sister's concern. The remains of a young woman with ties to Robert Crawford, Kitty's fiance, has been found. Testimony at the inquest soon points to him as the murderer. Terrified he may be charged with the crime, Kitty sets out to investigate. But with a trail gone as cold as the grave, the facts prove elusive. And everyone seems to have something to hide. Who's lying? Who's telling the truth? As close as she is to the suspect, Kitty can't tell. But with time running out, she must discover the murderer. For if she doesn't, Robert may be condemned to hang.

The body by the sea

By Bannalec, Jean-Luc

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"In all of Commissaire Georges Dupin's time living in Brittany, there has never been a murder on his home turf, until now, in Jean-Luc Bannalec's The Body by the Sea. A town on the sea, Concarneau's nickname is Ville Bleue, or the Blue Town. With three harbors at its center, visitors can see enormous ships, sailors, fishermen, and the industry that goes alongside it. Because of its geographical location, Concarneau has shown it's perfectly positioned to protect its inhabitants from enemy attacks. For this reason and more, including his favorite restaurant, the Amiral, Commissaire Georges Dupin calls this town home. Most of his colleagues are on vacation for the Pentecost long weekend, but Dupin remains. His future in-laws are coming to visit. But what happens when an enemy attacks from within? Dupin's plans as host must change when the body of Doctor Chaboseau is discovered. Chaboseau fell to his death, pushed from his home above the Amiral. With only two new colleagues to help--no one else is answering their phone--Dupin is tasked with finding out what happened to the doctor"--

The King Arthur case: a Brittany mystery

By Bannalec, Jean-Luc

Publishing Date: 2022

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"The King Arthur Case is the seventh installment of Jean-Luc Bannalec's bestselling mystery series. The forest of Broceliande, with its picturesque lakes and castles, is the last remnant of the fairy kingdom, if Breton lore is to be believed. Innumerable legends spanning thousands of years are set here, including the tale of King Arthur and the Round Table. It seems to be an appropriate destination for Commissaire Dupin and his team to take a late summer field trip. But when the body of a historian turns up, Dupin is called upon to investigate the brutal murder case. Before too long, there are more victims. What knowledge do the assembled scientists have about the most recent archaeological digs in the area? Where do they stand on the controversial decision to turn parts of the forest into an amusement park? And why is no one willing to talk? Even Nolwenn, Dupin's unshakeable assistant, is concerned. And that means trouble. Mysterious, ingenious, and suspenseful: Dupin's seventh case takes him and his team into the very heart of Brittany"--

Cascade

By Beason, Pamela

Publishing Date: [2022]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"Just as society is celebrating the fade of the COVID quarantine restrictions, Sam Westin suddenly finds her life in shambles. While she and her friends were enjoying a spring snow outing in the North Cascades, an earthquake launches multiple avalanches to wreak destruction on the slopes. Now skiers are dead and Sam's lover, Chase, is fighting for his life. In her logical mind, Sam knows that she can't blame two wolverine poachers for the cascade of events that killed and injured so many in the mountains. But if she hadn't needed to answer the call to rescue a trapped wolverine, she wouldn't have been buried, and her friends would have been safely off the mountain and back home. And criminal associates of her troubled young protege Maya wouldn't have trashed her unoccupied house and injured her cat. Why did two teens want to capture a wolverine, and why has nobody come forward to claim their bodies? Are baby wolverines, still hidden beneath the snow, starving to death because their mother was murdered? Sam has to find the answers to bring some sanity back to her world."--

The Excalibur murders: a Merlin investigation

By Blair, J. M. C

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: M

Call Number: M

Merlin makes a great investigator-and it only looks like magic. Merlin is no magician, merely a scholar and advisor to King Arthur. But after the supposedly magical Stone of Bran is stolen-along with the legendary sword Excalibur-and one of Arthur's squires is brutally murdered during the theft, Merlin must use the power of reason to conjure up a miracle and catch a murderer.

Ship shapely: a Gil Yates private investigator novel

By Boyle, Alistair

Publishing Date: 1999

Classification: M

Call Number: M

PI Gil Yates of Hawaii investigates the drowning of the captain of a boat, crewed by five beautiful women. It appears the ladies had to serve the captain in his bunk as well as on deck.

Death of Jezebel

By Brand, Christianna

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"First published in Britain in 1949, Brand's exuberant novel is still regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the classic mystery genre for its fiendishly constructed puzzle, memorable setting, dumbfounding acts of misdirection and thrilling denouement. This edition includes an introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards. "A very neat version of the 'sealed room' mystery... provides [Miss Brand] with excellent opportunities to indulge her sense of character and her pleasantly malicious wit, as well as her gift for posing an ingenious problem." -Times Literary Supplement, 1949. At Elysian Hall, a grand exhibition space in post-War London, a cast has been assembled for a medieval-themed pageant show replete with knights in colored armour, real horses, and a damsel in a rickety tower on high. With death threats discovered by members of the troupe before the show, the worst comes to pass when the leading lady is thrown from the tower before the eyes of the audience by an unknown assailant--with all doors backstage also under observation. Faced with a seemingly impossible case, the wizened Inspector Cockrill and the fresh-faced Inspector Charlesworth begrudgingly join forces to uncover the killer hiding in plain sight"--

Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll

By Brett, Simon

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: M

Call Number: M

Blotto and Twinks travel to America! Specifically, they travel to Chicago (and this would be during the Prohibition years) in the hopes of marrying Blotto off to an American heiress and thus saving Tawcester Towers from financial ruin. Thankfully, Twinks is around to nose out the dirty undertakings of the heiress's father, a meat-packing magnate and Chicago mob associate.

The Como falcon

By Carson, Jeff

Publishing Date: 2022

Classification: M

Call Number: M

Police officer Ali Falco has created a comfortable life in the beautiful Tuscan city of Siena, Italy patrolling the ancient streets. Behind the walls of the medieval town it's easy to keep the past out of mind, but shocking news of her father's death is impossible to ignore, forcing her to return north to her childhood home of Como, a stunning lakeside city tucked into the Italian Alps, and the site of a lot of bad memories. She and her father were tightly bonded until the death of her mother thrust a divide between them. Hate him or not, though, something about his death doesn't look right. In fact, it looks very wrong, and she soon finds herself caught up in a case that pulls all the demons out of the dark depths of her past, along with a few that may still be lurking around the picturesque valley she used to call home.

NEW RELEASE

Tuscan blood

By Carson, Jeff

Publishing Date: 2024

Classification: M

Call Number: M

After five years on foot patrol inside the idyllic Tuscan walled city of Siena, Italy, Ali Falco is eager to stretch her limbs into the surrounding region and prove her worth in her new role of detective. Still recovering from gunshot wound surgery after the events up north in Como, she gets her chance sooner than expected when a man is found murdered inside his family vineyard home in the wine country of Montalcino. The death of the young vintner is a devastating blow to a father and sister, surviving owner-operators of a winery producing the iconic style of wine: Brunello di Montalcino. Wounds point to a killer bent on vengeance, but for what? As motive for the killing proves just as elusive as the identity of the murderer, the case leads Ali and her partners to rich and powerful people in the area, whose bloodlines span back generations, and whose money flows like wine into the pockets of those in power.

A death in the parish

By Coles, Richard

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: M

Call Number: M

CANON DANIEL CLEMENT IS BACK... It's been a few months since murder tore apart the community of Champton apart. As Canon Daniel Clement tries to steady his flock, the parish is joined with Upper and Lower Badsaddle, bringing a new tide of unwanted change. But church politics soon become the least of Daniel's problems. His mother - headstrong, fearless Audrey - is obviously up to something, something she is determined to keep from him. And she is not the only one. And then all hell breaks loose when murder returns to Champton in the form of a shocking ritualistic killing.

The last good kiss: a novel

By Crumley, James

Publishing Date: 1988

Classification: M

Call Number: M

C.W. Sughrue, a Montana private eye, is hired to track down a failing author and winds up searching for Betty Sue Flowers, a woman missing for ten years in Haight-Ashbury.

The wrong case: a novel

By Crumley, James

Publishing Date: 1986, 1975

Classification: M

Call Number: M

Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of Meriwether, in the pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He's up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. he takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely The Wrong Case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of crime that took place long before the novel begins.

Dirty thirty

By Evanovich, Janet

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: M

Call Number: M

Stephanie Plum, Trenton's hardest working, most underappreciated bounty hunter, is offered a freelance assignment that seems simple enough. Local jeweler Martin Rabner wants her to locate his former security guard, Andy Manley (a.k.a. Nutsy), who he is convinced stole a fortune in diamonds out of his safe. Stephanie is also looking for another troubled man, Duncan Dugan, a fugitive from justice arrested for robbing the same jewelry store on the same day. With her boyfriend Morelli away in Miami on police business, Stephanie is taking care of Bob, Morelli's giant orange dog who will devour anything, from Stephanie's stray donuts to the upholstery in her car. Morelli's absence also means the inscrutable, irresistible security expert Ranger is front and center in Stephanie's life when things inevitably go sideways. And he seems determined to stay there. To complicate matters, her best friend Lula is convinced she is being stalked by a mythological demon hell-bent on relieving her of her wardrobe. An overnight stakeout with Stephanie's mother and Grandma Mazur reveals three generations of women with nerves of steel and driving skills worthy of NASCAR champions. As the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won't be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It's a good thing Stephanie isn't afraid of getting a little dirty, too.

Calico

By Goldberg, Lee

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: M

Call Number: M

When chef Owen Slader vanishes driving through the Mojave desert, the case is assigned to disgraced former LAPD detective Beth McDade. Beth might be searching for a way out, but all roads lead to local ruins known as Calico Ghost Town - and to a conclusion that will shake not just her entire existence, but will unbalance the world.

A noble radiance

By Leon, Donna

Publishing Date: 2003, 1998

Classification: M

Call Number: M

An unassuming uninhabited farmhouse in the Italian countryside delivers up its gruesome secret when its overgrown grounds are cleared for the first time in decades. What is left of the decomposing body is of little help to the urgently summoned Brunetti ... until a distinctively valuable signet ring, found nearby, links the mangled remains to a kidnapped scion of Venetian aristocracy.

The dark tunnel

By Macdonald, Ross

Publishing Date: [2013]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"In 1937 Munich, an American must be careful when he smokes his pipe. Robert Branch, a careless academic, makes the mistake of lighting up when the Fuhrer is about to begin a procession, and nearly gets pummeled for his mistake. Only the timely intervention of Ruth Esch, a flame-haired actress, saves him. So begins a month-long romance between East and West -- a torrid affair that ends when the lovers make the mistake of defending a Jew, earning Branch a beating and Esch a trip to a concentration camp. Six years later, Esch escapes to Vichy and makes her way to Detroit. To her surprise, Branch is waiting for her. He is a professor, working for the war effort, and his paranoia about a spy inside the Motor City war board sours their reunion. Once again, a dangerous net is encircling these lovers -- a reminder that, in this war, love always comes second to death." --

Trouble follows me

By Macdonald, Ross

Publishing Date: [2013]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

US Navy ensign Sam Drake uncovers a conspiracy during the last days of World War II.

From a far and lovely country

By McCall Smith, Alexander

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"This latest installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series finds Botswana's premier detective agency as busy as ever, with no shortage of sensitive situations requiring Mma Ramotswe's keen eye and discerning input. Through it all, Mma Ramotswe will demonstrate that there are solutions to all manner of difficulties, there to be discovered as long as one is led by kindness, grace, and logic, and can rely on the wise counsel of close friends and loved ones. Sometimes, she reminds us, the best solutions to life's problems can be found with a bit of good humor, generosity of spirit, and a steaming cup of red bush tea"--

Head wounds

By McGarrity, Michael

Publishing Date: [2021]

Classification: M

Call Number: M

"Detective Clayton Istee investigates New Mexico borderland killings by an elusive Mexican assassin with ties to a drug cartel. In Michael McGarrity's final, propulsive Kevin Kerney novel, the nightmare of the Mexican drug wars spills across the border with the discovery of a couple in a Las Cruces hotel, scalped with their throats cut. Because of the unusual MO, Detective Clayton Istee suspects that the murders are drug related, but a lack of evidence stalls his investigation. Turning to the victims for a possible motive, he learns that two years ago the couple had stolen $200,000 from a nearby casino, then disappeared. When his efforts to uncover why they'd unexpectedly returned fail to generate any leads, he resists letting the case go cold. Approached by a seasoned DEA agent working undercover to seize the assassin, Clayton is thrust into the Mexican underworld of police corruption, narcotrafficking, money laundering, and dirty federal officials on both sides of the Rio Grande. What unravels culminates in a ferocious climax that is sure to stun"--