Mystery
Bait and Witch
Baker Street Translation
In Michael Robertson's The Baker Street Translation, Reggie and Nigel Heath--brothers who lease law offices at 221B Baker Street in London, England and answer mail addressed to the location's most famous resident, Sherlock Holmes--find themselves pulled once again into a case straight out of Arthur Conan Doyle. An elderly American heiress wants to leave her entire fortune to Sherlock Holmes. A translator wants Sherlock Holmes to explain a nursery rhyme. And Robert Buxton--Reggie's rival for the love of actress Laura Rankin--has gone missing. Reggie must suss all these things out before an upcoming British royal event. If he doesn't, something very bad will happen to everyone at that event--and to Laura. Fast-paced, exciting, and clever, this is the perfect mystery for aficionados of the current craze for all things Sherlockian.
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Bangtail Ghost: A Sean Stranahan Mystery
--C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author In Montana's Gravelly Range, paw prints and a single whisker discovered at a scene of horrific violence suggest a woman had been attacked and carried away by a mountain lion. Sheriff Martha Ettinger employs her fiancé, sometimes-detective Sean Stranahan, to put a name to the gnawed bones comprising all that is left of the body. The woman's is the first of several deaths that Sean suspects are not as easily explained as they appear. . As a reign of terror grips the Madison Valley, blood in the tracks will lead him from the river below to the snow-covered ridge tops, as Sean finds himself on his most adventurous and dangerous quest yet. For as he comes closer to unearthing the secret shared by the dead and missing, the tracks he is following will turn, and the hunter becomes the hunted.
Barbarous Coast
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Bark of Night
"Bark of Night is a treat, especially for those who love thrillers and dogs." -- Associated Press
The next novel in David Rosenfelt's witty, heartfelt mystery series featuring lawyer Andy Carpenter and his faithful golden retriever, Tara.
When defense lawyer Andy Carpenter's veterinarian asks to speak to him privately at the checkup of his golden retriever, Tara, the last thing Andy expects is Truman. Tiny, healthy, French bulldog Truman was dropped off days ago with instructions to be euthanized by a man everyone thought was his owner. But now the owner is nowhere to be found.
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Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.
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Beam of Light
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Bear Witness to Murder
--Duffy Brown on Bearly Departed
As autumn air settles into the quaint small town of Silver Hollow, there's nothing more popular than Sasha's teddy bears--and murder in cold blood . . . Silver Bear Shop and Factory manager Sasha Silverman is cozying up to the fall season by hosting Silver Hollow's Cranbeary Tea Party, the opening event of the village's Oktobear Fest--a too-cute celebration themed around teddy bears. She barely has a moment to agonize over the return of her former high school rival, Holly Parker, whose new toy and bookstore in town could spell big trouble for the Silver Bear Shop and her cousin's small bookstore . . . But when Sasha discovers Holly's shop assistant dead with a knife plunged in her body, the unpleasant woman suddenly looks like a real backstabber. So does Sasha's ex-husband, rumored to have rekindled the fiery extramarital affair he once had with the victim. Now, before a gruesome homicide case takes the fun out of both the Fest and her personal life, Sasha must identify the true culprit from a daunting suspect list--or risk becoming as lifeless as one of her stuffed bears . . .
Praise for BEARLY DEPARTED
"You'll fall in love with this delightful debut mystery."
--Victoria Thompson, bestselling author of Murder in Morningside Heights
"The first in a new series features a complex plot awash in red herrings, a perky heroine . . . and everything you ever wanted to know about teddy bears."--Kirkus Reviews
"The appealing, impulsive amateur sleuth, dedicated to the family business, will appeal to fans of character-driven cozies." --Library Journal
"Entertaining . . . inhabited by quirky, fully developed characters and good dogs and cats." --Publishers Weekly
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Beastly Things
In Beastly Things, Leon lives up to her reputation as a writer unafraid to address the corruption underlying La Serenissima's outward beauty. When an unidentified murder victim winds up in a canal, Brunetti travels beyond his usual sphere to find the connection between the dead man and a local slaughterhouse.
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Beat Goes on: The Complete Rebus Stories
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Beating About the Bush
New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin--now the star of a hit T.V. show--is back on the case again.
When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?- Please log in to review this product
Beau Death
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Beautiful Bad: A Novel
In the tradition of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train comes a riveting psychological thriller about a devoted wife, a loving husband, and a chilling crime that will stun even the cleverest readers. It seemed like such a beautiful marriage... Maddie and Ian's love story began at a party overseas, while she was visiting her best friend, Jo. Now, almost two decades later, they are married with a beautiful son and living the perfect American life. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian, her concerns for her safety, and the couple's tangled and tumultuous past with Jo. From the electric streets of the Balkans to a quiet suburb in Kansas, sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion, culminate in the Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime. Twisty and utterly original, Beautiful Bad shows that appearances are deceptive and even the most seemingly perfect couples have something to hide.
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Beautiful Crime: A Novel
An O Magazine Best Book of the Year
"Stylish... a compelling take on the eternal question of how good people morph into criminals. Terrific."--People, Book of the Week
From the author of The Destroyers comes an intricately plotted and elegantly structured (Newsday) story of intrigue and deception, set in contemporary Venice and featuring a young American couple who have set their sights on a risky con.
When Nick Brink and his boyfriend Clay Guillory meet up on the Grand Canal in Venice, they have a plan in mind--and it doesn't involve a vacation. Nick and Clay are running away from their turbulent lives in New York City, each desperate for a happier, freer future someplace else. Their method of escape? Selling a collection of counterfeit antiques to a brash, unsuspecting American living out his retirement years in a grand palazzo. With Clay's smarts and Nick's charm, their scheme is sure to succeed.
As it turns out, tricking a millionaire out of money isn't as easy as it seems, especially when Clay and Nick let greed get the best of them. As Nick falls under the spell of the city's decrepit magic, Clay comes to terms with personal loss and the price of letting go of the past. Their future awaits, but it is built on disastrous deceits, and more than one life stands in the way of their dreams.
A Beautiful Crime is a twisty grifter novel with a thriller running through its veins. But it is also a meditation on love, class, race, sexuality, and the legacy of bohemian culture. Tacking between Venice's soaring aesthetic beauty and its imminent tourist-riddled collapse, Bollen delivers a brilliantly conceived international crime story (Good Morning America).
Bedlam Stacks
An Indie Next Pick
Now in paperback, Natasha Pulley's witty, entrancing novel . . . burnishes her reputation as a gifted storyteller (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In 1859, ex-East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall with an injury that almost cost him his leg. When the India Office recruits him for an expedition to fetch quinine--essential for the treatment of malaria--from deep within Peru, he knows it's a terrible idea; nearly every able-bodied expeditionary who's made the attempt has died, and he can barely walk. But Merrick is eager to escape the strange events plaguing his family's crumbling estate, so he sets off, against his better judgment, for the edge of the Amazon. There he meets Raphael, a priest around whom the villagers spin unsettling stories of impossible disappearances, cursed woods, and living stone. Merrick must separate truth from fairy tale, and gradually he realizes that Raphael is the key to a legacy left by generations of Tremayne explorers before him, one which will prove more valuable than quinine, and far more dangerous.Beetle
"A fun new way to encounter the spine-tinglers of yesteryear." --Booklist
A horror classic for the modern reader, presented by the Horror Writers Association.
Rediscover the classic and come face-to-face with a creature "born of neither god nor man"
First published in 1897, Richard Marsh's classic work of gothic horror, The Beetle, opens with Robert Holt, an out-of-work clerk seeking shelter in an abandoned house. He comes face to face with a fantastical creature with supernatural and hypnotic powers; a creature who can transform at will between its human and beetle forms and who wrecks havoc when he preys on young middle-class Britons.
Featuring an introduction by bestselling author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the Haunted Library Horror Classics edition of The Beetle is a tale of revenge that takes the reader on a dark journey, one that explores the crisis of late imperial England through a fantastical and horrific lens.
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Before She Was Helen
"As Before She Was Helen opens, readers are drawn into what appears to be a light, retirement-community caper. But author Caroline B. Cooney quickly flips expectations upside-down in this deceptively dark mystery. Between old crimes and fresh murders, septuagenarian protagonist Clemmie faces an unspeakable fear that will keep readers hooked in this twisty whodunit."-Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author
From the critically acclaimed, international bestselling author Caroline B. Cooney comes a domestic thriller perfect for fans of mystery books by Laura Lippman and Alice Feeney.
Her life didn't turn out the way she expected--so she made herself a new one
When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?
And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . and she was the last person at the crime scene, where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly thrown into the heart of a twisted investigation, Clemmie finds herself the uncomfortable subject of intense scrutiny. And the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.
From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you've been living falls apart and you're forced to confront the truth.
Before the Devil Fell: A Novel
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Before the Ruins: A Novel
Named a Best New Book of 2021 (so far) by Real Simple
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Lit Hub and Bustle A gripping, multilayered debut in the tradition of Tana French and Donna Tartt about four friends, an empty manor, and a night that will follow them for the rest of their lives It's the summer of 1996 and school's out forever for Andy, her boyfriend Marcus, her best friend Peter, and Em. When Andy's alcoholic mother predicts the apocalypse, the four teenagers decide to see out the end of the world at a deserted manor house, the site of a historic unsolved mystery. There they meet David--charming and unreliable, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere. David presents an irresistible lure for both Andy and Peter and complicates the dynamics of their lifelong friendship. When the group learns that a diamond necklace, stolen fifty years ago, might still be somewhere on the manor grounds, the Game--half treasure hunt, half friendly deception--begins. But the Game becomes much bigger than the necklace, growing to encompass years of secrets, lies, and, ultimately, one terrible betrayal. Meticulously plotted and gorgeously written, Before the Ruins is a page-turner of the highest order about the sealed-off places in our pasts and the parts of ourselves waiting to be retrieved from them.Beginnings: A Kate Martinelli novella
INSPECTOR KATE MARTINELLI has worked the SFPD's Homicide Detail for nearly thirty years. She knows all about how a cop builds a case bit by bit to create a clear story from the scattered pieces of evidence. Until the day her fifteen-year-old daughter, Nora, happens to ask about an aunt she'd never met. Kate's kid sister died in the 1980s, a wild young woman who lost control of a car and hit a tree, end of story ... except it isn't. Because once Kate begins to look, seeking to reassure Nora that it was only a senseless accident and not the suicide a small town's gossip made it, she starts to find pieces that don't fit the picture. Holes in the evidence. Mismatched fragments that change the story Kate has told herself all these years-the story that for her, was the beginning of everything.
What did happen in Diamond Lake that night? Was it an accident, or a hushed-up suicide? Or was her sister's death something darker yet?
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Behind God's Back
Praise for Harri Nykänen's Nights of Awe
"The clever combination of classic Jewish themes with the traditions of Nordic crime makes for a refreshing tale with wide appeal. And the subtle humor makes it even better."--Booklist
"Professional responsibility and ethnic affiliation clash in Nykänen's intriguing first novel. The resolution will satisfy noir fans."--Publishers Weekly
"Ariel Kafka wins the award for most intriguing name for a fictional detective, and it suits this impressively labyrinthine mystery series."--Time Out
The second in the Ariel Kafka series.
There are two Jewish cops in all of Helsinki. One of them, Ariel Kafka, a lieutenant in the Violent Crime Unit, identifies himself as a policeman first, then a Finn, and lastly a Jew. Kafka is a religiously non-observant forty-something bachelor who is such a stubborn, dedicated policeman that he's willing to risk his career to get an answer. Murky circumstances surround his investigation of a Jewish businessman's murder. Neo-Nazi violence, intergenerational intrigue, shady loans--predictable lines of investigation lead to unpredictable culprits. But a second killing strikes closer to home, and the Finnish Security Police come knocking. The tentacles of Israeli politics and Mossad reach surprisingly far, once again wrapping Kafka in their sticky embrace.
Harri Nykänen, born in Helsinki in 1953, was a well-known crime journalist and is now dedicated to writing fiction. The first in the Ariel Kafka series was Nights of Awe. Nykänen's work exposes the local underworld through the eyes of the criminal, the terrorist, and now from the point of view of an eccentric Helsinki police inspector.
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Behind the Red Door: A Novel
Beige Man
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Belgrade Noir
Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.
Brand-new stories by: Oto Oltvanji, Misha Glenny, Kati Hiekkapelto, Vesna Goldsworthy, Mirjana Đurđevic, Vladan Matijevic, Muharem Bazdulj, Vladimir Arsenijevic, Dejan Stojiljkovic, Miljenko Jergovic, Aleksandar Gatalica, Vule Zuric, Verica Vincent Cole, and Goran Skrobonja.
From the introduction by Milorad Ivanovic
It was summer 1997, two years after the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, and two years before the war in Kosovo and NATO's bombardment of Belgrade. Serbia was under sanctions and life was difficult. I had been working as a journalist for two short months when my editor sent me to cover the suicide of a famous Serbian painter. The crime scene was terrifying--in front of the elevator lay the body of the artist covered in blood. In one hand, he held a plastic bag containing the bread and milk he had purchased just a few minutes before in a nearby supermarket, and in the other he gripped a pistol that was still pressed against his forehead. Neighbors told us that just a few moments before he had sat in a kafana, drinking sljivovica. As I continued documenting the scene, a brand-new red Mazda pulled up and parked in front of the building. Two neat, clean-shaven, dangerous-looking men in very expensive suits exited the car, approached the policemen conducting the investigation, and showed their Serbian secret service IDs.
"Keep doing your job, we're here on other business," they said. The police officers stepped aside, allowing the men to enter the building. A few minutes later the agents reemerged accompanied by one of, at the time, the biggest stars of turbo-folk music. Dressed in a luxurious coat, and caked in makeup, her high heels elegantly stepped through the blood pooled in front of the elevator. She paid no attention to the macabre scene accented by the fresh dead body lying in front of her as she entered the red Mazda.
If you read the previous paragraphs, and you fully comprehended them--recognized turbo-folk, reminisced about your favorite kafana, recalled the sort of sanctions Serbia lived under, and remembered why one European capital was bombed in 1999--then you will find it easy to understand the fourteen short noir stories in this anthology. If you did not, this will be a great opportunity to learn about and understand the city that Momo Kapor, one of the most famous Serbian authors, described as "a low-budget New York."
Bellini and the Sphinx
Included in CrimeReads's list of February's Best International Crime Fiction
Included in Chicago Review of Books's list of Winter's Best Thrillers
Included in CBC Radio's The Homestretch's Fall 2019 Mystery Selections
"Bellini and the Sphinx is the American debut for the wildly popular Sao Paulo-based crime series written by Bellotto, the celebrated Brazilian guitarist and writer. His private eye, Remo Bellini, is a conscious homage to Philip Marlowe and the classic noir American detectives, but with an identity all his own and a milieu, the streets of Sao Paulo, that are as alive and mysterious as any you'll come across in the genre. American readers have waited too long for this, but they'll finally get the chance to visit Brazil through Bellotto/Bellini's eyes."
--Literary Hub
Included in CrimeReads's List of The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2019
"Originally published in Portuguese in 1995, Bellotto's series opener introduces Remo Bellini, a private eye in the tradition of Spade and Marlowe but distinctively Brazilian...Bellotto's detective, less ironic and more earnest in his angst than his American counterparts, proves a compelling guide to the passionate world of São Paulo."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Previously published in Brazilian rock musician Bellotto's native country, the São Paolo-set noir follows private detective Remo Bellini, who is investigating the disappearance of several women connected to the underworld and the related murder of a famed surgeon. Bellotto says he modeled his PI on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and that the plot, which involves prostitutes and live-sex performers, evokes two classically intertwined themes: sex and death."
--Publishers Weekly
"Private detective Remo Bellini plunges into the underworld of São Paulo in search of [a] missing dancer at the behest of her married lover, a renowned surgeon, who soon turns up dead."
--Publishers Weekly, Included in Spring 2019 Announcements / Mysteries & Thrillers
"The dialogue and interactions between [Remo and Dora Loba] are fantastic, and lent some much-needed lightness to the story. Both of these characters are well-drawn and thoughtful, so I do hope that these books continue to be translated for us English readers."
--I've Read This
"Bellini is a classic private eye, having fallen into the career from a failed attempt at the law...If a reader were interested in knowing what hard-boiled detective fiction is all about, this would be a good place to start."
--The Cyberlibrarian
"Bellini and the Sphinx is an enjoyable light ride, with enough variety to keep readers interested."
--The Complete Review
"Tony Bellotto has written his novel in the best noir tradition. The book, in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, grips the reader from beginning to surprising end. Bellini and the Sphinx is a landmark in Western crime fiction."
--Paulo Lins, author of City of God
Who is the missing dancer Ana Cíntia Lopes? Why did her coworkers, Camila and Dinéia, disappear? What does the voluptuous prostitute Fatima want? Who killed renowned surgeon Dr. Samuel Rafidjian? And what is the role of the hulking live-sex performer known as the Indian?
To confront the puzzle of several sphinxes, most of them female, private detective Remo Bellini plunges into the underworld of São Paulo. Little by little, the mysteries unravel in a surprising fashion, until the solving of the final enigma leaves Bellini perplexed, with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Translated from Brazilian Portuguese into English by Clifford E. Landers.
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