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To Thine Own Self Be True (Stella Crown Series)
By Judy Clemens. 2006
"An armchair travelers delight"—Publishers WeeklyOne dead art collector and a gallery of suspects. This romantic weekend just turned deadly…Translator Rick…
Montoya is looking forward to a quiet weekend away with his girlfriend, Betta, an art fraud investigator for the Italian Culture Ministry. Their destination: the beautiful village of Urbino, home to Renaissance masters Rafael and the lesser-known Piero della Francesca. While Betta does have official business to attend to—namely, collecting a priceless Piero drawing from a wealthy Spanish collector on the ministry's behalf—she asks Rick to join her "in case she needs an interpreter," but with other, less-official intentions in mind.When the Spaniard is found murdered and the drawing stolen, Betta must shift back into art cop mode, and Rick's official services are required after all. As they set out to discover the identity of the killer and the whereabouts of the stolen sketch, they are drawn from Urbino's cobbled streets to eastern Tuscany and back as the list of suspects grows longer—and more dangerous. Will this lovers' getaway literally be to die for?This captivating crime fiction novel is perfect for armchair travel, transporting you right to Italy with vivid descriptions of the scenery, food, and wine. To Die in Tuscany is sure to delight those interested in international crime mysteries, police procedurals, and fans of art and the Renaissance period will appreciate learning more about Raphael and Piero della Francesca.Also in the Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries:Cold Tuscan StoneDeath in the DolomitesMurder Most UnfortunateReturn to UmbriaA Funeral in MantovaRoman Count DownMesozoic Murder (Ansel Phoenix Mysteries #1)
By Christine Gentry. 2003
"Gentry's appealing heroine, who gets ample opportunity to display her resourcefulness and fortitude, and the intriguing milieu in which she…
operates, should ensure both a warm reception and a speedy encore."—Publishers WeeklyAnsel Phoenix draws dinosaurs for magazines, books, and museum displays. But one morning, digging with students out in the field, she unearths the body of colleague and ex-lover Nick Capos. Shocked and grieved over the murder, and not trusting the Big Toe police who've an axe to grind with her father, Ansel decides to investigate what Capos had been doing during the last few months of his life. She soon suspects he was working on a secret, possibly illegal project worth killing for. Her list of possible suspects grows by the hour as someone starts stalking her across the Montana landscape—a master predator who will stop at nothing. Why is Nick's fossil collection missing and why had he developed a recent interest in Baltic amber?Ansel must also deal with the challenges of her own half-Anglo, half-Blackfoot heritage; with her ranching family and the changes threatening their rural community; and with more than one Mesozoic mystery....But Remember Their Names: A Cynthia Jakubek Legal Thriller (Cynthia Jakubek Legal Thrillers #0)
By Hillary Bell Locke. 2011
There's one corpse too many in a Pittsburgh museum's life-size diorama of the Battle of Lexington, 1775. The extra body…
is that of philanthropist and art connoisseur T. Colfax Bradshaw. But why? Maybe he knew too much about the biggest art heist in history.When their daughter Caitlin seeks legal advice, newly minted lawyer Cynthia Jakubek finds herself representing the teen. Jakubek aches to jump from Main Street to Wall Street but is stuck interning for ace Pittsburgh attorney Luis Mendoza while she waits for her future New York employer to recover from the Great Recession. Or for her fiancé to finish his post-modern novel....Protecting Caitlin will take Jakubek from a ghetto church in Pittsburgh to a confessional at St. Patrick's Cathedral to the opulent Manhattan office. Along the way she'll meet people who carry guns on the job and she'll pick up a broken nose and a broken heart for her trouble....The Wrong Hill to Die On (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #6)
By Donis Casey. 2012
"Alafair Tucker deserves to stand beside Ma Joad in literature's gallery of heroic ladies." —TONY HILLERMAN, New York Times bestselling…
author1916: Alafair Tucker had not wanted to come to Arizona, but because of her young daughter Blanche's lung ailment, she and her husband Shaw bundled Blanche onto the train and made the nightmare trip from Oklahoma to Alafair's sister in Tempe, Arizona, hoping the dry desert air would help their daughter.As soon as they arrive, Blanche begins to improve, and Alafair is overjoyed to see her witty, beautiful sister Elizabeth again. For added excitement, a Hollywood motion picture company is shooting their movie right in Tempe.But Alafair and Shaw soon discover that all is not well. Elizabeth's marriage is in tatters; tensions are high between the Anglo and Latino communities following Pancho Villa's murderous raid on Columbus, New Mexico; and Alafair suspects her sister is involved in an illegal operation to smuggle war refugees out of Mexico and into the U.S.And now here there's Bernie Arruda, dead on his back in a ditch. The night before he had been singing Mexican love songs at the party in Elizabeth's backyard. Can Alafair connect all the pieces and discover a murderer before it is too late?Pleasing the Dead: A Storm Kayama Mystery (Storm Kayama Series #0)
By Deborah Turrell Atkinson. 2008
Some nasty predators dwell in paradise, and they arenat all hiding in the azure waters. The day attorney Storm Kayama…
arrives in Kahului to help Lara Farrell set up her new dive shop, someone bombs a restaurant. When one of Laraas employees, a recent Japanese immigrant, kills himself and one of his young daughters, Storm begins to ask questions. The tentacles of the Yakuza, the dangerous, Japanese organized crime group, grip local businesses, real estate, and politics. Cunning and deadly, the clan leaders exploit underage women and eliminate anyone who dares face up to them. Storm finds herself up against a lethal and faceless enemy, in a place where disposing of a victim is easy as dumping her in shark-infested waters. But who is hunting whom? In a struggle to the death, Storm begins to realize that surviving doesnat always mean living. For some, the ghosts of the past may be more painful than the anguish of the present. Hawaii lawyer Storm Kayama must battle against the yakuza's presence and an ancient adherence to tradition to save more young girls from a terrible fate.Crying Blood: An Alafair Tucker Mystery (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #5)
By Donis Casey. 2011
"Casey depicts family ties that uplift and support and family ties broken by anger in a poignant, lyrical, authentic novel…
of early day Oklahoma." —CAROLYN HART, New York Times bestselling authorIn the autumn of 1915, Shaw Tucker, his brother James, and their sons go hunting. Instead of a quail, Shaw's dog, Buttercup, flushes an old boot...containing the bones of a foot. Buttercup then leads the men to a shallow grave and a skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull. That night, Shaw awakens to see a pair of moccasin-clad legs brushing by his tent flap. He chases the intruder, but he has disappeared. His concern is justified when he realizes that someone—or something—has followed him home.Dread turns to relief when he captures a young Creek Indian boy called Crying Blood. Shaw ties the boy up in the barn, but during the few minutes he is left alone, someone thrusts a spear through Crying Blood's heart. The local law is on the killer's trail, but Shaw Tucker has a hunch...Only Shaw's wife Alafair might be able to forestall his dangerous plan. So Shaw sends her on a wild goose chase so he can confront the killer...Killing the Emperors: 'hilariously Un-pc' The Times (Robert Amiss/Baroness Jack Troutbeck Mysteries #12)
By Ruth Dudley Edwards. 2013
"A raucous send-up of the art world's collectors, critics, curators and especially those postmodernists who call themselves artists."—Kirkus ReviewsLady (Jack)…
Troutbeck is missing. So is celebrity curator Sir Henry Fortune and his partner in love and money, louche art dealer Jason Pringle. But panic doesn't begin in the London art world until no one can locate Anastasia Holliday, sensational abject artist; Jake Thorogood, the critic who catapulted her into stardom; or Dr. Hortense Wilde, notorious for having influenced generations of art students to despise craftsmanship. Are these fashionable adopters of conceptual art hostages? If so, why? Ransom? Revenge?Who will be next? Will it be Sir Nicholas Serota, mighty overlord of British temples of the avant garde? The internationally renowned Young British Artist Damien Hirst, whose dross became platinum? Is Charles Saatchi, mega-rich husband of a TV cook and the genius who took talentless young people and turned them into a winning brand, in danger? When news comes of a New York disappearance, the fears of the art establishment go transatlantic.But why is Baroness Troutbeck a target? After all, Jack is a standard bearer of conservative values in education and art who recently publicly described admirers of conceptual art as knaves and fools.Can Jack's friends rescue her before her own worst fantasies are turned into reality and she becomes the next horrifying "hommage murder" satirizing notorious works of art?When Pru Marlowe gets the call that there's been a cat shooting, she's furious. Animal brutality is the one thing…
that this tough animal psychic won't stand for, and she's determined to care for the traumatized pet. But when Pru finds out that the cat did the shooting—accidentally setting off a rare dueling pistol—she realizes something else is going on. Could the white Persian really have killed her owner? Or did the whole bloody mess have something to do with that pricey collectible? With the white cat turning a deaf ear to her questions, Pru must tune in to Beauville's other pampered residents—from the dead man's elite social set to their equally spoiled pets—and learn the truth before her ex, a former New York cop, gets too close. In a world where value is determined by a price tag, only Pru and her trusty tabby Wallis can figure out if this was a case of feline felony...or if some human has set the Persian up to be the ultimate cat's paw.Avoidable Contact (Kate Reilly Mysteries #3)
By Tammy Kaehler. 2014
Racecar driver Kate Reilly is suited up and ready for the start of the legendary 24 Hours of Daytona. But…
what lies ahead is not just a racing challenge but a harrowing test of her will and nerve off the course.Even before the green flag waves over Daytona International Speedway, Kate receives word her boyfriend Stuart is hospitalized nearby in a coma, fighting for his life after a hit-and-run. Stunned by the news, Kate can do nothing better for Stuart than complete her scheduled laps driving her team's car. But more shocks follow as Daytona's clock starts ticking. An on-track accident ends tragically. Some of her complicated family is spotted with other teams—why? And an eyewitness claims Stuart was run down deliberately by someone from the race paddock.Alternating stints behind the wheel of the team's Corvette with stretches of quizzing colleagues and searching for clues, Kate circles the police and taps every possible source—friend, foe, and family—to find out who's after Stuart and why. As the race clock counts down to zero hour, Kate must come to terms with her own fears rising from her past and decide who she's willing to trust. Only then can she identify who's willing to kill to keep a secret buried.A Crack in Everything: A Susan Callisto Mystery (Susan Callisto Mysteries #0)
By Angela Gerst. 2011
"Gerst gets good mileage out of her political roots, but it's her finely honed plot that seals the deal. Here's…
hoping she runs for another term."—Kirkus Reviews STARRED reviewPolitics, money, love . . . what could go wrong?Susan Callisto is pushing thirty and taking stock. Trading financial security at a Boston law firm for sandals and jeans in Waltham, she's reinvented herself as a political consultant for people seeking low-level office. Her income may be dicey, but Susan loves her new life—until her boyfriend, Detective Lieutenant Michael Benedict, dumps her without a goodbye. Not one to mope, Susan uses humor and perpetual motion to keep away the pain.When biotech high roller Charles Renfrow offers her a huge retainer to advise his political campaign, Susan is wary. Why would a scientist stalking the human genome want to be mayor of a small Massachusetts town? Rumor has it Renfrow's biotech company is dumping deadly waste and that a child has died. On her way to confront him, Susan finds the body of his gorgeous assistant. Assigned to the case, Michael reenters Susan's life. Soon mayhem rains down: Susan herself is attacked, an elderly client is beaten and left for dead, and a child is abducted. When Michael's suspicions settle on Susan's favorite candidate, she elbows her way into the investigation. She hopes to prove Michael wrong. But now, with her own life on the line, Susan uncovers the crack in everything.Bleeding Through: A Rachel Goddard Mystery (Rachel Goddard Mysteries #5)
By Sandra Parshall. 2012
When veterinarian Rachel Goddard and Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger take teenagers on an outing to clean up roadside trash in…
rural Mason County, Virginia, they make a grisly discovery: the plastic-wrapped body of a young woman. One teen peers at the face through the plastic and screams. The dead girl is her sister, Shelley, a law student who has been missing for a month.As Tom launches the investigation, Rachel copes with a visit from her own sister, Michelle, who is terrified that a man is stalking her. Michelle's own husband doubts her. But soon it becomes clear that the mysterious stalker has followed Michelle to Mason County, and now he's turning his attention to Rachel, too.Tom pursues the stalker at the same time he investigates Shelley's murder. Was Shelley's murder random, or was she killed because she was working to prove that a Mason County man was wrongly convicted of murder? Relatives of his supposed victim were enraged by Shelley's efforts to free a man they believe is guilty. Did they kill her to stop her? But what if she was right? If an innocent man was convicted, one person would have the strongest motive to silence Shelley: the real murderer.Did Not Survive: A Zoo Mystery (large Print 16pt) (Zoo Mysteries #0)
By Ann Littlewood. 2010
The murder is the messageWhat you don't see is what you get. When a sniper targets a blind man walking…
along the lagoon of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the bullet is a wake-up call aimed straight for Allie Harper and Tom Bennington, shattering their illusion that the Mondo Mega Jackpot Nightmare is over.On the day Allie—sassy, lonely, broke—met Tom—smart, hot, blind—he won $500 million trying to show a kid that gambling doesn't pay. Romance—and multiple murders—ensued, along with a new, opulent lifestyle that the couple had never dreamed possible. Then a ruthless man of formidable skills and resources hacked into the security system in their rented 9,000 square-foot lakeside mansion, and they learned just how far someone who begrudges their good fortune would go to destroy them. Now they know the past six months of peace and quiet were the calm before a rising storm of mayhem and revenge.The new game begins tonight. An old devil. A new devil. And a new case for The T&A Detective Agency. (Yes. They should have put Allie's initial first.) Tom and Allie aren't on the case long before they discover a strong lead that takes them into the heights of Cleveland's upper-crust, where husbands and wives weave webs of betrayal with unfathomable sums of money at the center. As the threats–and murders—multiply, Allie, Tom, and the T&A must fight to beat the devil's own game. Will they get out alive?Somebody's Bound to Wind Up Dead series:Too Lucky to Live (Book 1)Murder to the Metal (Book 2)The Devil's Own Game (Book 3)Praise for Annie Hogsett:"The original voice, humor, and unusual premise will appeal to Janet Evanovich readers." —Library Journal STARRED review for Too Lucky to Live"Fast pacing, multiple plot twists, and humor, including a Stephanie Plum-like main character, enliven the story and keep the pages turning." —Booklist for Too Lucky to Live"The bittersweet mystery, with the open-ended threat of a villainous mastermind, is reminiscent of P.J. Tracy's early 'Monkeewrench' novels." —Library Journal for Murder to the MetalUndercurrents (Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries #11)
By Mary Anna Evans. 2018
Something frightening is happening in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia. Pets are vanishing mysteriously and "Missing Dog" posters…
cover the waiting room walls at Dr. Rachel Goddard's veterinary clinic. A pack of feral canines roams at night, attacking livestock in a desperate search for food.Then prominent physician Gordon Hall is found dead in his yard, his throat ripped open. Sheriff's Department investigator Tom Bridger believes the killing was premeditated murder using a trained attack dog as the weapon. He also suspects it is connected to the resurgence of an old problem: illegal dog fighting. But Dr. Hall's son insists the feral pack killed his father, and he organizes a group of men to find and shoot the animals.Rachel and her friend Holly Turner make enemies by trying to rescue the dogs and move them to the sanctuary Holly has created. Tom, in love with Rachel and worried about her safety, must divide his time between the escalating controversy, shutting down the dog-fighting operation (if he can locate it), and hunting for Gordon Hall's killer....Prolonged Exposure (Posadas County Mysteries #0)
By Steven F. Havill. 1998
Savvy storytelling infused with a spicy Southwestern setting."Not only does Havill offer a melancholy reinterpretation of that grand western myth…
of the slow-talking, fast-thinking lawman, he also writes crisp, marvelously detailed police procedurals in which a mix of technical know-how and informed common sense gets things done."—BooklistBill Gastner is going crazy recuperating from heart surgery. Dreaming of green chili, he's rescued by a phone call from back home. The Undersheriff arrives in Posadas County only to learn that his own home has been burgled. Moreover, Gastner finds his cranky ancient neighbor Florencio Apodaca has borrowed a bit of land to bury his equally ancient wife—and the dead woman's stepson questions if she died a natural death. Meanwhile a young boy out camping has vanished from atop Cat Mesa. A stringent search convinces Bill, his treasured deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman, and Sheriff Martin Holman that the boy has been spirited away.Poisoned Pen Press has republished the five earlier novels in Steven Havill's carefully, cleverly detailed police procedural series richly redolent of southern New Mexico.A Discount For Death (Posadas County Mysteries #12)
By Steven F. Havill. 2010
"Sublimely snappy prose...Maddy, full of life at 68, is a terrific narrator."—Kirkus ReviewsMaddy Sprowls gets to The Hannawa Herald-Union on…
the stroke of nine. She makes her first mug of Darjeeling tea and settles down at her desk to read the obituaries. The obits are the best part of her day, she admits. But not today. First she reads that her old college friend Gordon Sweet is dead. Then she learns he was murdered—at the abandoned landfill where the eccentric archaeology professor was conducting his latest dig.And just like that, the cranky 68-year-old newspaper librarian finds herself investigating another murder. No, two murders! Is Gordon's death linked to the grisly bludgeoning of state wrestling champ David Delarosa fifty years earlier?And so begins a harrowing and hilarious trek back to Maddy's old beatnik days, when she was a member of the Meriwether Square Baked Bean Existentialist Society. Legendary beat writer Jack Kerouac still casts a long shadow over the group. And there's a coffee house full of quirky suspects to consider: Poet Chick Glass, saxophonist Shaka Bop, free-thinking Effie Fredmansky, snooty Gwen Moffitt-Stumpf, and toxic waste dumper Kenneth Kingzette.There's a reason why reporters call Maddy "Morgue Mama" behind her back. And why cops and criminals alike get the jitters when she pulls up in her old Dodge Shadow. She is tough, tenacious, and tricky as the dickens.Brooklyn Bones (Erica Donato Mysteries #1)
By Triss Stein. 2013
Brooklyn native and young widow Erica Donato wants to focus on her PhD research. But when her teenage daughter Chris…
finds a skeleton behind a wall in their crumbling Park Slope, Brooklyn, home, she and her daughter are both touched and disturbed by the mysterious tragedy. Are the remains more recent than they at first appear?Chris' dangerous curiosity and Erica's work at a local history museum lead her right back to her neighborhood in its edgy, pregentrification days, when the age of Aquarius was turning dark. A cranky retired reporter shares old files. The charming widow of a slumlord has some surprises. The crazy old lady who hangs around Erica's street keeps trying to tell her something, and the people who know the whole story will stop at nothing to make sure it stays buried forever....Desert Lost: A Lena Jones Mystery (Lena Jones Series #6)
By Betty Webb. 2009
Winner of the Best Mysteries of 2009 of Library Journal.While running surveillance in an industrial section of Scottsdale, P.I. Lena…
Jones discovers the body of a woman connected to Second Zion, an infamous polygamy cult based in northern Arizona. With the help of a former "sister wife," Lena discovers a shocking secret: in a society where one man can have ten wives, nine men will have none. Second Zion makes certain these possible rivals don't stick around by turning these teens into Arizona's "lost boys."While searching for the dead woman's lost son, Lena is surprised by a visit from Madeline, the beloved foster mother from whom she'd been forcibly parted at the age of nine. Madeline's presence renews Lena's memories of her own damaged childhood and brings new clues to the identity of her biological parents, who seemingly abandoned her when she was four years old.But their joyful reunion is interrupted when Lena learns that her close friend, television star Angel Grey, is being stalked by an increasingly violent mental patient. When Lena flies to Angel's aid, she finds that danger has followed her to Hollywood.Arizona polygamy and its discarded sons, the deceptively insulated world of Beverly Hills, and Lena's lost past converge in a case fraught with danger.Speak Now (Charley Fairfax Mysteries #1)
By Margaret Dumas. 2004
"Comic cozy meets crazed spy thriller in this debut novel short-listed for Britain's 2003 Crime Writer's Association Debut Dagger award."—BooklistCharley…
Van Leeuwen can tell by a man's kiss whether he's been drinking Taittinger or Veuve Clicquot. Not that she kisses many men, a fact her friends deplore. So imagine their surprise when she came home to San Francisco with a new husband. Jack Fairfax is the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. But is he a mild-mannered meteorologist as he claims?Sometime between finding a dead body in her bathtub, tagging along on a ransom drop, and getting rescued by her husband in a hail of bullets, Charley begins to suspect there's more to Jack's past than he's willing—or able—to admit.So, here's Charley, used to her money as a cushion, forced to protect her family and friends, and rushed to rescue her nonprofit repertory theater from artistic and financial ruin. If that means dealing with kidnappings, murders, bitter ex-boyfriends, out-of-control relatives, and vicious former spies—all while staging a play—well, nobody ever said marriage would be easy....The Sanctity of Hate (Medieval Mysteries #9)
By Priscilla Royal. 2012
"The plotting and the mechanics of the solution are in the best traditions of the classic British mystery...Try not to…
miss this one." —New York TimesLife in a dismal bureaucratic cul-de-sac is not what Robert Amiss expects when the British civil service lends him for a year to the British Conservation Corporation. In fact, he finds himself condemned to a non-job in a backwater, managing disgruntled and demoralized timeservers who deeply resent him. Morale is not improved by the arrival of Melissa, a radical feminist lesbian separatist. Only Amiss's sense of humour and the joys of visiting Rachel, his new love in Paris, keep him sane.The malice, envy and anger that burgeons among the filing cabinets is first expressed in pettiness and then in unpleasant practical jokes. Then it escalates and finally culminates in callous murder by means of boxes of poisoned chocolates sent to the bureaucrats' wives.With the help of Ellis Pooley, a young detective obsessed with fictional sleuths, Amiss and his friend, Superintendent Milton, search for motives in an office where marital discord and broken dreams might drive anyone to murder.Hornswoggled (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #2)
By Donis Casey. 2005
"Donis Casey's voice flows like tea syrup, transporting you effortlessly to the Oklahoma frontier....A welcome invite to your great-grandmother's front…
porch swing." —JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING, New York Times bestselling authorIt's spring 1913, and love is in bloom for Alice Tucker. Walter Kelley is handsome, popular, and wealthy. But Alice's mother, Alafair, sees that Walter has a weakness for the ladies—and they for him. Only a few months earlier, Walter's late wife Louise had been stabbed in the heart and her body disposed of in Cane Creek. The murderer was never caught.The sheriff cleared Walter of the deed—he had an alibi—but Alafair is not so sure that he wasn't involved in some way. Something literally doesn't smell right.With the help of her feisty mother-in-law, Sally McBride, Alafair sets out to prove to the headstrong Alice that Walter is not the paragon she thinks he is. Alafair soon uncovers such a tangle of lies, misdirection, and deceit that she begins to think that the whole town has been downright hornswoggled!