Staff Picks Category: Mystery

Anthem for Doomed Youth by Carola Dunn [Book]

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The 19th Daisy Dalrymple mystery was my introduction to this cozy murder series. Daisy is an aristocratic young mother whose husband is a Detective Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard. Set in 1920s London, the mystery revolves around some veterans of the ‘Great War’ whose bodies were found secretly buried in Epping Forest. The heroine possesses curiosity, common sense, intuition and a sly sense of humor. The period setting is engaging and the unraveling of the plot complicated enough to keep turning the pages. With the lead character’s appeal and just the right amount of Anglophilia, this was fun enough for me to borrow another one.

Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark [Book]

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I was not expecting to like this book. I thought that this was a person taking advantage of name recognition to put out a book. Whether or not that is the case, I found myself genuinely engaged by the characters in this legal thriller. Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is stunned at the death of her colleague, Jake Pahlmeyer, who is found shot to death in a sleazy motel along with a 17-year-old boy, raising ugly suspicions that Rachel doesn’t want to acknowledge. Rachel is warned off investigating further, but risks her career to clear her friend’s name. Quick-paced with plot turns and authenticity — the author does know her stuff, prosecutorily. Recommended and looking forward to the next in the series.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith [Book]

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In the latest installment of the popular No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Mma Grace Makutsi gets married, Mma Precious Ramotswe deals with a complicated case of attacks on a farmer’s cattle, and the tiny white van takes on a metaphysical dimension. McCall Smith’s characters handle the large and small dilemmas of life with a realistic mix of (mostly) good intentions and human vulnerability. His prose is charming and the loving portrait of Botswana, always in the background, makes you want to go there.

The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Graphic Novel]

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I.N.J Culbard illustrates Ian Edginton’s adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four. This graphic novel takes on the second Sherlock Holmes story in which the famed detective and Doctor Watson must locate a mysterious stolen treasure. Holmes applies his trademark acute deductive reasoning skills while sprinkling in impatient and acerbic comments to all those within an earshot.

Being a longtime admirer of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, seeing the tale presented as a graphic novel is a quite a treat.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin [Book]

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A character-driven mystery set in rural Mississippi, we are slowly drawn into the stories and lives of Silas “32” Jones, a constable who twice daily has to direct traffic when the shift changes at the local mill, and Larry Ott, a mechanic who has been ostracized from the community. Larry and Silas were secret friends as children, both on the outside, Larry a white boy in a mostly black school who would rather read Stephen King books than do most anything else, and Silas as a poor black boy with a single mother, recently moved from Chicago. They play and fish in the woods, until a neighbor girl goes missing while on a first date with Larry. Now, 20 years later, another girl has gone missing and the suspicion is back on Larry. The story goes back-and-forth between the two timelines, with an increasingly complex network of connections. Check out this ‘rural noir.’

Soulless by Gail Carriger [Book]

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Part regency-romance, part steampunk — “a novel of vampires, werewolves, and parasols.” Set in an alternate regency England, in which werewolves and vampires are an accepted part of society, some with positions at the top levels of government. Alexia Tarabotti is a witty spinster in a family of beautiful people without substance. She is also a preternatural, without a soul. Alexia is bored with her society life, and wants to join the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, a division of Her Majesty’s Civil Service. Although unable to work there, she is still involved in the mystery of where the new vampires are coming from and why the werewolves are disappearing. Very enjoyable read.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King [Book]

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This historical mystery, by an Edgar Award-winning author, introduces the strong intelligent character of Mary Russell, with a well-imagined ‘retired’ Sherlock Holmes in a supporting role. Mary Russell first meets Holmes as her neighbor in Sussex Downs in 1915 at the age of 15, as she almost stumbles over him. Holmes, impressed with her wit and intelligence, takes the orphaned Russell under his wing, and gives her the equivalent of an apprenticeship. After working together on a few interesting cases, Russell and Holmes soon find themselves faced with a nefarious foe who wants to make Holmes suffer, and his friends die.

Still Life by Louise Penny [Book]

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This award-winning book, the first in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, introduces us to the sleepy village of Three Pines, a village difficult to find on a map. This book is a more literary, slower-paced mystery. It has very strong characterization, and a well-drawn setting in the countryside of Quebec. Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to investigate the suspicious death of Jane Neal who has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident, but Gamache suspects something more. Has some similarities to the Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon, and to Christie’s Poirot.

Iron Lake : a Cork O’Connor mystery by William Kent Krueger [Book]

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First in a series, Iron Lake introduces us to Cork O’Connor, former sheriff of wintry Aurora, Minnesota. Facing personal problems after being voted out of the office of sheriff, Cork finds himself compelled to follow up on the suspicious death of a leading Aurora citizen, as well as other strange happenings in the town of Aurora and the reservation that shares the eponymous lake. I enjoyed both the character development and the chilly sense of place.

The Shanghai Tunnel [Book]

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Newman, known for her historical accuracy introduces a new character into 1860s Portland Oregon, in this departure from her Catherine LaVendeur series. Emily Stratton, the daughter of missionaries in China, is in San Francisco when her ship-captain husband dies. She accompanies his body back to the young town of Portland, and tries to make a home there. When she investigates her husband’s suspect business practices, someone wants her to stop. She must find out who to save her new life and her son. Will appeal to readers of Dianne Day and Laurie R. King.

Murder in the Marais by Cara Black [Book]

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Aimée Leduc is a tough private detective who specializes in computer security investigations. She is hired by a rabbi to work with an encrypted photograph. Needing money to pay back taxes, she takes on this anomalous investigation which takes us through richly-drawn Paris in the Marais district, November 1993 and during the occupation, including politics, past and present, Nazis and neo-Nazis, and has Aimée running for her life.
The first in the Aimée Leduc Investigations series, which explores a different area of Paris in each novel.

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene [Book]

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We are guided through a seaside city in England via a naive, teenage gang leader, his artless and devoted girlfriend and a woman searching for a mysteriously missing man she has only just met. By peering into these characters’ consciences, Graham Greene examines both the concepts of religious sin and morality in this potboiler of a novel.