Popular Mystery Books for Adults
Hundreds of books are added to the Library's collection each month. Here are the most popular Mystery books for adults.
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Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales
No one gets inside the head of the murderer--or makes it a more thrilling read--than the late, great P. D. James. Fast on the heels of her latest best seller: a new, fiendishly entertaining gathering of previously uncollected stories, from the author of Death Comes to Pemberley and The Private Patient. It's not always a question of "whodunit?" Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime? The ones who aren't brought down even though they're found out? And what about those who do the finding out who witness a murder or who identify the murderer but keep the information to themselves? These are some of the mysteries that we follow through those six stories as we are drawn into the thinking, the memories, the emotional machinations, the rationalizations, the dreams and desires behind murderous cause and effect. (syndetics)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Raging Storm
"Fierce winds, dark secrets, deadly intentions. When Jem Rosco -- sailor, adventurer, and legend -- blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded. As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove's storm of dark secrets."-- Provided by publisher.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Glass Houses
"When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead. From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Su00fbretu00e9 du Quu00e9bec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized. But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied. Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montru00e9al, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache's own conscience is standing in judgment" -- provided by publisher.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Problem of the Wire Cage
"Among all of Carr's ingenious crime scenes, the present case is one of his best known: a dead man is found strangled in the middle of a clay tennis court, just after a storm. In the damp dirt, there is one set of footsteps-his own-leading back to the grass; the court is otherwise untouched. There are no trees above from which the body may have fallen and no other visible means by which it may have been transported to its final resting place. Before determining the perpetrator of the strangulation, the local authorities are first confronted by the utter implausibility of the location-two interlocking questions puzzling enough to stump even the most seasoned inspector. The bafflement is reaching a harried volley by the time amateur sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell gets involved, but he soon shows that the knotted plot is no match for his deductive powers. Before he can serve up a dazzling explanation of whodunnit, though, Fell will have to sort through a confounding set of clues in search of a diabolical killer and a bizarre murder method"-- Provided by publisher.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Death Under A Little Sky
"A detective ready for a new life... For years, Jake Jackson has been a high-flying detective in London. But then one day he receives a letter from his reclusive uncle - he has left Jake his property in the middle of the countryside. For Jake, it is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. A rural idyll the stuff of dreams... At first, life in the middle of nowhere is everything Jake could wish for. His new home is beautiful, his surroundings are stunning, and he enjoys getting back to nature. A death that disrupts everything... But then, what starts as a fun village treasure hunt turns deadly, when a young woman's bones are discovered. And Jake is thrust once again into the role of detective, as he tries to unearth a dangerous killer in this most unlikely of settings"-- Goodreads.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Lightning Strike: A Novel
Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota's Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to twelve-year-old Cork O'Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family, and himself. Cork's father, Liam O'Connor, is Aurora's sheriff and it is his job to confirm that the man's death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father's official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own. Together, father and son face the ultimate test of choosing between what their heads tell them is true and what their hearts know is right. In this masterful story of a young man and a town on the cusp of change, beloved novelist William Kent Krueger shows that some mysteries can be solved even as others surpass our understanding.-- Publisher's description.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Murder by Degrees: A Mystery
Philadelphia, 1875: It is the start of term at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lydia Weston, professor and anatomist, is immersed in teaching her students in the lecture hall and hospital. When the body of a patient, Anna Ward, is dredged out of the Schuylkill River, the young chambermaid's death is deemed a suicide. But Lydia is suspicious and she is soon brought into the police investigation. Aided by a diary filled with cryptic passages of poetry, Lydia discovers more about the young woman she thought she knew. Through her skill at the autopsy table and her clinical acumen, Lydia draws nearer the truth. Soon a terrible secret, long hidden, will be revealed. But Lydia must act quickly, before she becomes the next target of those who wished to silence Anna.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Dream Town
"Hidden Hills is a private celebrity enclave of white picket fences and horse trails that seems to exist in a dreamworld. But when reality superstar Kitty Winslow is killed within their gates and corpses are found in the vast state park outside them, LASD detective Eve Ronin realizes there is a deadly, razor-thin line between what's real and what's imagined. Eve discovers that Kitty's surreal on- and off-camera life, a blur of fact and fantasy, shockingly mirrors her own as she struggles to investigate the killings, wade into a music industry war, and battle a vicious Chilean gang -- all while her life is being turned into a fictional cop show directed by her estranged father. Eve's grip on reality and the case is strained to the breaking point as the slayings continue, the media frenzy reaches a fever pitch, and the only inescapable truth she can see is death... and it's coming for her"--Dust jacket flap.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Daughter of Ashes
"Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues-not even her partner, Inspector Marini-know that her Alzheimer's is getting worse, and that Teresa is unsure she will ever return to work. Teresa's plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work twenty-seven years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a past she thought she'd buried, back to when Giacomo first began to kill, and Teresa-newly pregnant and married to an abusive man-did everything she could to catch him"-- Provided by publisher.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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A Château Under Siege
"The town of Sarlat is staging a reenactment of its liberation from the British in the Hundred Years War when the play's French hero, Brice Kerquelin, is stabbed and feared fatally wounded. Is it an unfortunate prop malfunction--or something more sinister? The stricken man happens to be number two in the French intelligence service, in line for the top job. Bruno is tasked with the safety of the victim's daughters, Claire and Nadia, as well as their father's old Silicon Valley buddies, ostensibly in town for a reunion. One friend from Taiwan, a tycoon in chip fabrication, soon goes missing, and Bruno suspects there may be a link to the French government's efforts to build a chip industry in Europe--something powerful forces in Russia and China are determined to scuttle. Wading through a tangle of rivalries and secrets, Bruno begins to parse fact from fiction--while also becoming embroiled in some romantic complications, and, of course, finding time to put together some splendid meals" -- Publisher's description.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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