Special Collections
Agatha Award
Description: Named for Agatha Christie, the Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the cozy mystery subgenre. #award
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Learning to Swim
by Sara J. HenryWinner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award When she sees what looks like a child tumbling from a ferry into frigid Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. When she gets the child to shore she discovers that his name is Paul, he speaks only French--and no one seems to be looking for him. Her determination to protect Paul pulls Troy from her quiet life in a small Adirondack town into an unfamiliar world of wealth and privilege in Canada and then in Vermont. Her attachment to him--and the danger she faces when she tries to unravel the mystery of his abandonment--force her to evaluate everything she thought true about herself. Sara J. Henry's riveting, award-winning debut will keep readers engrossed right up to its shattering conclusion.From the Hardcover edition.s self-indulgence--a world in which the murder of a child is not unthinkable. She'll need skill and courage to survive and protect her charge and herself. Sara J. Henry's powerful and compelling Learning to Swim will move and disturb readers right up to its shattering conclusion.From the Hardcover edition.
Death Al Dente
by Leslie BudewitzFIRST IN A NEW SERIES! The town of Jewel Bay, Montana--known as a Food Lovers' Village--is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead... Murphy's Mercantile, known as the Merc, has been a staple in Jewel Bay for over a hundred years. To celebrate their recent makeover as a gourmet food market, Erin has organized a town festival, Festa di Pasta, featuring the culinary goods of Jewel Bay's finest--including her mother Fresca's delicious Italian specialties. But Erin's sweet success is soured when the shop's former manager, Claudette, is found dead behind the Merc on the Festa's opening night. With rival chef James Angelo stirring up rumors that Fresca's sauce recipes were stolen from Claudette, Erin's mother is under close scrutiny. Now Erin will have to hunt down some new suspects, or both her family and her store might wind up in hot water... INCLUDES FRESH, DELICIOUS RECIPES!
Well Read, Then Dead
by Terrie Farley MoranFirst in a new series! Nestled in the barrier islands of Florida's Gulf Coast, Fort Myers Beach is home to Mary "Sassy" Cabot and Bridget Mayfield--owners of the bookstore café, Read 'Em and Eat. But when they're not dishing about books or serving up scones, Sassy and Bridgy are keeping tabs on hard-boiled murder. Read 'Em and Eat is known for its delicious breakfast and lunch treats, along with quite a colorful clientele. If it's not Rowena Gustavson loudly debating the merits of the current book club selection, it's Miss Augusta Maddox lecturing tourists on rumors of sunken treasure among the islands. It's no wonder Sassy's favorite is Delia Batson, a regular at the Emily Dickinson table. Augusta's cousin and best friend Delia is painfully shy--which makes the news of her murder all the more shocking. No one is more distraught than Augusta, and Sassy wants to help any way she can. But Augusta doesn't have time for sympathy. She wants Delia's killer found--and she's not taking no for an answer. Now Sassy is on the case, and she'd better act fast before there's any more trouble in paradise. Includes a buttermilk pie recipe!
The Semester of Our Discontent
by Cynthia KuhnAgatha Award Winner: “An engaging heroine, a college setting that will have you aching to go back to school, and a puzzler of a mystery.” —Laura DiSilverio, national bestselling author of the Readaholics Book Club Mysteries English professor Lila Maclean is thrilled about her new job at prestigious Stonedale University—until she finds one of her colleagues dead. When she herself is suspected of involvement—by everyone from the chancellor to the detective working the case—she has no choice but to assign herself the role of amateur detective. More attacks on professors follow, and the only connection is a curious symbol at each of the crime scenes. Putting her scholarly skills to the test, Lila gathers evidence, but her search is complicated by an unexpected nemesis, a suspicious investigator, and an ominous secret society. Rather than earning an “A” for effort, she receives a threat featuring the mysterious emblem and must act quickly to avoid failing . . . and becoming the next victim. This Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel is “a pitch-perfect portrayal of academic life with a beguiling cast of anxious newbies, tweedy old troublemakers and scholars as sharp as they’re wise” (Catriona McPherson, author of the Dandy Gilver series). “Kuhn is phenomenal at conveying the tension-filled atmosphere that inundates higher institutions, where one’s fate rests entirely on a few out-of-touch, pompous faculty members.” —Kings River Life Magazine “A very intricate, cool story featuring the depth of an institution where everyone is dying to climb the ladder of success.” —Suspense Magazine
A Great Deliverance
by Elizabeth GeorgeTo this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders. Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry. " Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley--and in their own lives as well. From the Paperback edition.