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The Mark on the Mirror (Judy Bolton Mysteries #15)
by Margaret SuttonGhosts, bad luck from broken mirrors, and a mystery around an unloved girl set the scene for Judy's latest adventure. It is only weeks until Lorraine and Judy's double wedding, but mysteries know no social schedule. From a masked man delivering a shower gift to being run off the road, Judy's head is spinning trying to put the pieces together in another mystery adventure.
Midnight House (Murder Room #349)
by Ethel Lina WhiteNo. 11 India Crescent is officially a dead address. Its absentee owner, General Tygarth, and his wife are reported to be living abroad, but it is so long since they have been seen in the town that few remember them. Only one or two people recall its tragic story of domestic tyranny, ill-starred love and early death; only Mr Spree the lawyer knows that the old General has ordered the house to be closed for a certain number of years. Now, in a fortnight's time, the house is to be reopened.But to Elizabeth Fetherstonehaugh, the young governess at No. 10, the night noises coming from the house next door are fast becoming an obsession ...
Midnight House
by Ethel Lina WhiteNo. 11 India Crescent is officially a dead address. Its absentee owner, General Tygarth, and his wife are reported to be living abroad, but it is so long since they have been seen in the town that few remember them. Only one or two people recall its tragic story of domestic tyranny, ill-starred love and early death; only Mr Spree the lawyer knows that the old General has ordered the house to be closed for a certain number of years. Now, in a fortnight's time, the house is to be reopened. But to Elizabeth Fetherstonehaugh, the young governess at No. 10, the night noises coming from the house next door are fast becoming an obsession ...
The Miss Silver Mysteries Volume Two: In the Balance, The Chinese Shawl, and Miss Silver Deals with Death (The Miss Silver Mysteries)
by Patricia WentworthThe British governess-turned-sleuth solves three of her most intriguing cases, in this “timelessly charming” series (Charlotte MacLeod). Retired governess and teacher Maud Silver has found a new calling: private detection. With her knitting needles and fondness for Tennyson, she may seem an unlikely sleuth, but Scotland Yard would be lost without her. “Patricia Wentworth has created a great detective in Miss Silver, the little old lady who nobody notices, but who in turn notices everything” (Paula Gosling, author of the Jack Stryker Mysteries). In the Balance: On a train back to London, Miss Silver meets a frightened new bride. Lisle Jerningham has fled her home after overhearing a seemingly sinister conversation. Her husband’s first wife died in an apparent accident, and the resultant infusion of cash saved his family home. Now he’s broke again. Will he attempt a second convenient mishap? The Chinese Shawl: Actress Tanis Lyle may lack professional training, but her natural charisma seems to hypnotize all who meet her. The rising star has just finished filming her first motion picture. Unfortunately, it will turn out to be her last. Who did Tanis fail to charm? The answer could lie with a distant cousin and a long-standing family feud. Miss Silver Deals with Death: In wartime London, the once grand Vandeleur House has been divided into flats, its glorious façade now concealing a nest of intrigue. When one inhabitant reports she’s being blackmailed by another, Miss Silver is brought in to sort out the suspects from the residents, which include a woman who lost her fiancé after their ship was struck by a Nazi torpedo and a sleepwalking maid with a curious past.
Mother Finds a Body
by Craig RiceIt’s supposed to be a quiet honeymoon getaway for celebrated stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and Biff Brannigan, ex-comic and ex-Casanova of the Burly Q circuit, settled as they are in a cozy trailer built for two. If you don’t count Gypsy’s overbearing mother, a monkey act, and Gee Gee, a.k.a. the Platinum Panic. Not to mention the best man found shot to death in the bathtub. Strippers are used to ballyhoo, but this time it’s murder. Leave it to Gypsy and her latest scandal to draw a crowd: Biff’s burnt-out ex-flame, a sleazy dive owner with a Ziegfeld complex, a bus-and-truck circus troupe, and a local Texas sheriff randy for celebrities. But when another corpse turns up with a knife in his back, Gypsy fears that some rube is dead set on pulling the curtain on her bump and grind. She’s been in the biz long enough to know this ghastly mess is just a tease of things to come.
Murder in Retrospect
by Agatha ChristieAfter the accused's daughter reopens the case, a detective attempts to recreate and solve a murder from 16 years earlier by examining the five main characters.
No Coffin for the Corpse (The Great Merlini Mysteries #4)
by Clayton RawsonA murdered blackmailer haunts a captain of industryWhen Ross Harte gets into a screaming match with his fiancée&’s father, millionaire Dudley Wolff, the old man cuts Harte&’s beloved out of his will. As far as Wolff is concerned, this is an empty threat, because he plans to live forever. He has a team of scientists working to extend his life as long as possible, and should they fail, a renowned psychic will contact him after his death. Wolff is obsessed with death&’s mysteries, and he is about to get a first-hand look. When a detective attempts to blackmail him, Wolff punches him in the jaw so hard that it stops the crook&’s heart. Fearing scandal, Wolff and his staff bury the body in the woods. When the dead blackmailer comes back to haunt him, the millionaire is forced to call on Harte and his friend the Great Merlini, conjurer and sleuth, to banish the spirits that have brought death to his door.
Now and on Earth (Mulholland Classic)
by Jim ThompsonSan Diego in the years before World War II. James Dillon is barely scraping by working a menial job in manufacturing, trying to raise a family and support his elderly mother and sister Frankie at the same time. He drinks too hard--just like his father and nearly everyone in his extended family. With so many people crammed into one home, sometimes there's so much fighting he can barely stand it. But if James can survive the chaos of everyday life long enough, maybe--just maybe--there's a chance it'll all get better.NOW AND ON EARTH, Jim Thompson's first novel, draws on personal experience to depict a hardscrabble life in the sun-soaked streets of mid-20th century California. Chronicling the birth of a writer and the plight of the working man, it prefigures the American classics that followed, in a deeply-felt, autobiographical tale that shows a writer just coming into his own.
Owls Don't Blink
by Erle Stanley Gardner A. A. Fair[from the back cover] "A New York lawyer came all the way to Los Angeles to hire Bertha Cool and Donald Lam for a routine job in New Orleans. He offered them $50 a day plus expenses to find a missing fashion model. But he wouldn't say why he wanted the gal, or who was footing the bill. It was a quick way to some easy money, so they took the case, found the gal and pocketed the pay. Then the model disappeared again. And the lawyer booked Cool and Lam for a repeat performance. The second time round the model and the pay were the same, but a killer was setting the styles and the fashion was murder."
Owls Don't Blink (Cool & Lam)
by Erle Stanley GardnerRoberta Fenn was every man's dream - a clinging climber with photogenic features and a phenomenal body. She had what it took to get what she wanted, and she wanted a lot. But one thing she wasn't looking for was an early grave, and that was where she was heading - unless the redoubtable Bertha Cool and the inimitable Donald Lam jumped in, guessed right, and moved fast to save this bedevilled dream girl from a nightmare of blackmail, double cross and murder.
Owls Don't Blink (The Bertha Cool and Donald Lam Mysteries)
by Erle Stanley GardnerAn odd couple of detectives descends on New Orleans to search for a missing heiress in this hard-boiled mystery by the creator of Perry Mason. Bertha Cool is a bulldog of a woman with an attitude to match. Donald Lam is a handsome ex-lawyer who makes up for in brains what he lacks in brawn. Together, they&’re an unlikely pair of private detectives on a mission to find Roberta Fenn, a missing model and heiress in New Orleans. It&’s a seemingly simple case of lost and found . . . Except, Donald can&’t help but wonder why someone would hire a firm out of Los Angeles instead of one based in the Big Easy. Also, locating Roberta proves surprisingly effortless. Keeping track of her is not. She disappears, leaving a body behind in her apartment. Now Cool and Lam must find Roberta and a killer, before someone makes them disappear as well . . . &“Cool and Lam are an amusing and endearing pair—perfect foils for one another.&” —Monica Muller, 1001 Nights: The Aficionado&’s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction &“No one has ever matched Gardner for swift, sure exposition.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Prepare for Action (Department Z #19)
by John CreaseyA World War II thriller by a multimillion-selling, Edgar Award–winning author. As plans for D-Day loom large, the agents of Department Z—a secret detective unit within British intelligence—are working overtime to halt the leaking of intelligence to Berlin. Meanwhile, three cousins undertake their own covert operation: meeting in a cottage in Guildford to discuss a dark family matter in secret. As these two seemingly unrelated events collide, the cousins are drawn along a secretive trail that leads to a powerful spy ring. The team faces a race against the clock, as they fight to infiltrate this tight-knit organization—or risk devastating consequences . . . “Following closely on the heels of history, and sometimes a little ahead of it, Mr. Creasey and Department Z are busy preventing someone from putting a spoke in the wheels of the Allied invasion of Europe.” —Evening Chronicle
Pursuit of a Parcel: An Ernest Lamb Mystery (Ernest Lamb #3)
by Patricia WentworthEnemy forces will stop at nothing to retrieve an incriminating package in this gripping international thriller from the author of the Miss Silver Mysteries Double agent Cornelius Roos is about to become dispensable to the Germans--until he reveals the existence of a recording that will guarantee the death of a high-ranking Nazi official if it finds its way into the hands of Hermann Goering. So Roos strikes a bargain: If he walks out of Gestapo headquarters alive, he will ensure that the compromising recording never reaches Goering. Meanwhile, in the Foreign Intelligence office in England, agent Antony Rossiter is interrogated about Roos, his older, adopted brother. A few days later, Rossiter parachutes into Holland to make contact with Roos. But when a brown paper parcel with Rossiter's name on it is delivered to a British law firm, Rossiter's fiancée, Delia Merridew, becomes an innocent pawn in a deadly game of international espionage and cold-blooded murder. Now it's up to Scotland Yard Inspector Ernest Lamb and Detective Frank Abbott to ferret out the truth before a desperate enemy claims another victim. Pursuit of a Parcel is the 3rd book in the Ernest Lamb Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
The Quest of the Missing Map (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #19)
by Carolyn KeeneThis book is about a young detective named Nancy Drew and how she comes upon a mystery about a hidden map. Nancy must find clues to lead her to the lost map and then to the buried treasure of her friend's relatives.
Reply Paid: And, The Adventures Of Mr. Montalba, Obsequist (The Mycroft Holmes Mysteries #2)
by H. F. HeardThis ingenious reworking of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle&’s infamous mysteries sends brilliant detective Mycroft Holmes to investigate a mystery in the deserts of the American West. His name is Mycroft, not Sherlock, although it&’s easy to understand why people get them mixed up. Both are brilliant detectives with minds that seem to contain every bit of information known to man. And both show remarkable interest in beekeeping, tobacco ash, and the fine of art of murder. Even so, they are not the same person—which is a shame, because Mycroft Holmes is chasing a fiendish killer, and his younger brother, Sherlock, would certainly enjoy the hunt. The search for the mysterious Mr. Intil takes Mycroft to the distant land known as Los Angeles, where his old friend Sydney Silchester has made a new life for himself as a codebreaker. In the strangest city on earth, Sydney and Mycroft&’s investigation will take on a deadly spiritual dimension. Fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will find author H. F. Heard&’s Mycroft Holmes no less brilliant than his younger brother, Sherlock. These classic golden-age mysteries are some of the most unique detective stories of all time. Reply Paid is the 2nd book in the Mycroft Holmes Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Sorry You've Been Troubled
by Peter CheyneyNo one asked Slim Callaghan to investigate - he just did it - and they had to like it. A £40,000 insurance claim, two beautiful women and possibly a fake suicide were at stake. Slim Callaghan, private detective, reckoned the situation looked very interesting indeed, but he didn't have a client.Callaghan's motto was, 'We get there somehow and who the hell cares how'. He got there and got himself a client, eventually - an exquisitely beautiful client . . .
State of Fear
by Michael CrichtonIn Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications. <P><P>In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea.And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means. <P><P>Thus begins Michael Crichton's exciting and provocative technothriller, State of Fear. Only Michael Crichton's unique ability to blend science fact and pulse-pounding fiction could bring such disparate elements to a heart-stopping conclusion. This is Michael Crichton's most wide-ranging thriller. <P><P>State of Fear takes the reader from the glaciers of Iceland to the volcanoes of Antarctica, from the Arizona desert to the deadly jungles of the Solomon Islands, from the streets of Paris to the beaches of Los Angeles. The novel races forward, taking the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride, all the while keeping the brain in high gear. Gripping and thought-provoking, State of Fear is Michael Crichton at his very best.
The Sunday Pigeon Murders (The Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Mysteries #1)
by Craig RiceTwo New York City street photographers develop a deadly get-rich-quick scheme in this novel from “the grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy” (Ed Gorman). Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed—until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary. There’s only one way for Bingo and Handsome to muscle in on that half-million-dollar claim: Kidnap Pigeon and blackmail his coconspirator. Unfortunately, their foolproof plan comes with mobsters, a dodgy chorus girl, multiple murders, a refrigerated corpse, and the strange Mr. Pigeon himself, who, it seems, likes being a hostage. In fact, he has no intention of escaping. It’s the surest way to protect his own secret—which could be Bingo and Handsome’s biggest threat. The first mystery writer ever to make the cover of Time magazine, Craig Rice is a “composite of Agatha Christie’s ingenuity, Dashiell Hammett’s speed, and Dorothy Sayers’s wit” (Louis Untermeyer, Gold Medal Award–winning poet). The Sunday Pigeon Murders is the 1st book in the Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Who's Calling?
by Helen McCloyThe engagement of Archie, a young doctor, to night club artiste Frieda evokes ghostly phenomena when Archie takes Frieda to visit his mother near Washington. Untraceable phone calls, vandalism - and a murder - all happen before Dr Basil Willing, psychologist-sleuth, takes over and solves the mystery.
The Widening Stain
by W Bolinbroke JohnsonA series of accidents? Or is it Murder in the library...?A wonderfully entertaining classic from the Golden Age of crime fictionAt first, for the staff of the university library, it's easy enough to dismiss the death of a woman who fell from a rolling ladder as nothing more than an unfortunate accident. It's more difficult, however, to explain away the strangled corpse of a man found inside a locked room, surrounded by rare and obscure erotica. When a valuable manuscript disappears from the archive, it begins to look like both a killer and a thief are on the loose. It's up to chief cataloguer Gilda Gorham to solve the crimes but, unless she's careful, the next death in the library might just be her own.
The Widow
by Georges Simenon John Petrie Paul TherouxThe Widow is the story of two outcasts and their fatal encounter. One is the widow herself, Tati. Still young, she's never had an easy time of it, but she's not the kind to complain. Tati lives with her father-in-law on the family farm, putting up with his sexual attentions, working her fingers to the bone, improving the property and knowing all the time that her late husband's sister is scheming to kick her out and take the house back.The other is a killer. Just out of prison and in search of a new life, Jean meets up with Tati, who hires him as a handyman and then takes him to bed. Things are looking up, at least until Jean falls hard for the girl next door.The Widow was published in the same year as Camus' The Stranger, and André Gide judged it the superior book. It is Georges Simenon's most powerful and disturbing exploration of the bond between death and desire.
Wolf in Man's Clothing (The Sarah Keate Mysteries #6)
by Mignon G. EberhartTwo nurses investigate a millionaire&’ s suspicious gunshot wound in this &“absorbing&” mystery by a Special Edgar Award–winning author (The New York Times). It takes a compound fracture to bring Craig Brent and Drue Cable together. A millionaire injured in an auto accident, Craig falls quickly for his nurse, wedding Drue as soon as his arm is mended. Craig&’s father, disgusted to see his son marrying below his station, pressures him into a divorce, and the whirlwind marriage dies in Reno. A year later, the young lovers are given a second chance, when a bullet shatters Craig&’s shoulder. The family insists Craig shot himself while cleaning his gun, but Drue has never known a man to clean his gun at eleven o&’clock at night. She calls on Sarah Keate, whose nursing skill is matched only by her deductive reasoning, to unravel the mystery. When Sarah arrives at the Brent house, Craig is in a drugged sleep. If he is ever to awake, the nurses must unmask the killer in his family.
Yesterday's Murder
by Craig RiceFrom the author of the John J. Malone Mysteries: An estranged relative becomes heir to a Chesapeake Bay fortune—and his family’s ghostly history. If it hadn’t been for his great-uncle Philip, David Telefair would’ve grown up unwanted, forlorn, and poverty stricken in a New England parsonage. But for twenty years, David’s generous benefactor paid for his education, yearly summer camps, living expenses as he grew older, and any amenities he ever needed. Odd that David had never spoken to him in his entire life. Odder still that after all this time, the aging Philip has now extended an invitation for David to meet him at his isolated estate on Telefair Island in the Chesapeake. From the moment David arrives, something feels . . . off. First was the local minister’s daughter’s queer way of describing David’s visit: inevitable; then the unaccountable loathing in the eyes of a Telefair servant; and finally a perilously pale female cousin who welcomes David with a warning: “You ought never to have come.” This is less a family reunion than an ingeniously designed trap of murder, madness, and nasty family secrets.
The Bamboo Blonde (Murder Room #541)
by Dorothy B. HughesGriselda and Con Satterlee are spending a second honeymoon in a cottage on Long Beach, and it's not going well. To cap it all, Con picks up a blonde in the Bamboo Bar one night and walks out with her, leaving Griselda on her own.Con comes back, saying that he took the blonde outside to try to stop her from shooting herself, but the police find her body the next morning and Con is arrested for her murder.Then Con disappears, and Griselda is alone in their beach house with a door that can't keep out the Major, who frightens her; Kew, whom Con distrusts; Kathie, who is lovely, and so strange; or Dare, who has caused trouble before . . .Griselda must work quickly to save Con - and their marriage.
The Bamboo Blonde (Murder Room Ser.)
by Dorothy B. HughesOn their second honeymoon, a woman&’s husband is arrested for murderGriselda Satterlee is beginning to regret her second marriage to Con. Their honeymoon was supposed to be joyous, romantic, and full of glamor—all of the things their first marriage wasn&’t—but instead they are spending it on Long Beach, a Navy town whose fleets have all shipped out to sea. The tedium of Long Beach cannot compare to the insult Con gives Griselda one night, when he picks up a stunning blonde at a bar, leaving his wife in the dust. When he returns to their hotel, Con explains to Griselda that the woman was planning to shoot herself, so he took her out of the bar to confiscate her gun. Griselda is just beginning to believe him when the blonde turns up dead, and Con is arrested for her murder. Griselda will have to work quickly to salvage their honeymoon, or Con will be forced to trade their bridal suite for death row.