The country may be struggling through the Great Depression, but the good ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up and their town beautiful. Their garden club, the Darling Dahlias, has just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees in full bloom. But life in Darling is not all garden parties and rosemary lemonade. When local blond bombshell Bunny Scott is found in a suspicious car wreck, the Dahlias decide to dig into the town's buried secrets, and club members Lizzy, Ophelia, and Verna soon find leads sprouting up faster than weeds. The town is all abuzz with news of an escaped convict from the prison farm, rumors of trouble at the bank, and tales of a ghost heard digging around the cucumber tree. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it's the Darling Dahlias.
Publisher: n/a
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9780425234457
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eBook
Mark of the Lion
By Arruda, Suzanne Middendorf
In 1919, when most women only dream of adventure, Jade del Cameron lives it. After growing up tough on a New Mexico ranch, then driving an ambulance along the front lines of World War I, she can fire a rifle with deadly precision and stare down men maddened by shell shock. Now, still suffering lingering trauma from the Great War, she sets off for Africa, determined to fulfill a man's dying wish...and never expecting to become involved in murder. Rich with romance, mystery, and adventure, Mark of the Lion introduces a fascinating new heroine and explores the elusive heart of a compelling and exotic world.
Publisher: n/a
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9780451217486
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Print book
Nemesis
By Bernhardt, William
In his bestselling legal thrillers, William Bernhardt has explored the dark side of contemporary politics, power, and the law. Now Bernhardt turns back the clock to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in the fall of 1935. Based on true events and new discoveries about Eliot Ness, Nemesis is a brilliantly told story featuring this legendary lawman's fateful duel with a terrifyingly new kind of criminal: America's first serial killer.In Chicago, Eliot Ness had created "the Untouchables," the fabled team of federal agents who were beyond corruption and who finally put Al Capone behind bars. Now the headline-grabbing Ness has been moved to Cleveland, where a new mayor desperately needs some positive publicity. The heroic, squeaky-clean Fed is the perfect man to become the city's director of public safety, but by the time Ness starts his new job, a killer has started a career of his own. And this man is as obsessed with blood and mayhem as Eliot Ness is obsessed with justice.One by one, bodies are found, each one decapitated and uniquely dissected with a doctor's skill and a madman's bent. The police are baffled, the population is terrorized, and newspaper headlines blare about the so-called "Torso Killer." Though it's not his turf, Ness is forced to cross bureaucratic boundaries and take over the case, working with a dogged, street-smart detective and making enemies every step of the way. The more energy Ness pours into the investigation, the more it takes over his life, his marriage, even his untouchable reputation. Because in Cleveland, there is only one true untouchable: a killer who has the perfect hiding place and the perfect plan for destroying Eliot Ness.From the first primitive use of forensic psychology to a portrait of America battling the Great Depression and a man battling his own demons, Nemesis is a masterwork of mystery, murder, and vivid, dynamic historical suspense.
Publisher: n/a
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9780345487582
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Hardcover
Her Royal Spyness
By Bowen, Rhys
The Agatha Award winner debuts a 1930s London mystery series, featuring a penniless twenty-something member of the extended royal family. Her ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, daughter to the Duke of Atholt and Rannoch. And she is flat broke. As the thirty-fourth in line for the throne, she has been taught only a few things, among them, the perfect curtsey. But when her brother cuts off her allowance, she leaves Scotland, and her fianc Fish-Face, for London, where she has: a) worked behind a cosmetics counter-and gotten sacked after five hours b) started to fall for a quite unsuitable minor royal c) made some money housekeeping (incognita, of course) , and d) been summoned by the Queen to spy on her playboy son. Then an arrogant Frenchman, who wants her family's 800-year-old estate for himself, winds up dead in her bathtub. Now her most important job is to clear her very long family name.
Publisher: n/a
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9780425215678
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Print book
Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter
By Brett, Simon
It's that glorious period between the two world wars, and the exiled king of Mitteleuropa is visiting the ancestral home of the Duke of Tawcester. When the ex-king's daughter is kidnapped, noblesse obliges the Duke's handsome, brave, and rather stupid son (known to all as Blotto) to drive off to the rescue. Luckily, he's aided by his brilliant sister, Twinks. Plus, he's got a really swell car.
Publisher: n/a
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9781934609699
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Paperback
A Trace of Smoke
By Cantrell, Rebecca
Even though hardened crime reporter Hannah Vogel knows all too well how tough it is to survive in 1931 Berlin, she is devastated when she sees a photograph of her brother's body posted in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. Ernst, a cross-dressing lounge singer at a seedy nightclub, had many secrets, a never-ending list of lovers, and plenty of opportunities to get into trouble. Hannah delves into the city's dark underbelly to flush out his murderer, but the late night arrival of a five-year-old orphan on her doorstep complicates matters. The endearing Anton claims that Hannah is his mother ... and that her dead brother Ernst is his father. As her investigations into Ernst's murder and Anton's parentage uncover political intrigue and sex scandals in the top ranks of the rising Nazi party, Hannah fears not only for her own life, but for that of a small boy who has come to call her "mother."
Publisher: n/a
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9780765320445
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Print book
The Last Kashmiri Rose
By Cleverly, Barbara
Conjuring up the last golden days of the Raj and the turbulent early ones of Indian rule, this suspenseful and atmospheric first novel - the winner of the Crime Writer Association's Debut Dagger competition - draws the governor of Bengal, local police authorities, and visiting Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands into an increasingly baffling and bizarre case of serial murder. It is 1922, in Panikhat. In March of each of the past five years the wife of an officer in the Bengal Greys has met with a violent and terrifying death. One died in a fire, another by a cobra bite, the third from a fall, and the fourth victim drowned. Of course, they all might have been accidents, while the death of Captain Somersham's pretty young wife, who was found with her wrists cut, could be ruled a suicide. One link between the five cases, however, points to foul, disturbing play. On the anniversary of the deaths small red roses mysteriously appear on the women's graves. With only a few days to go before the end of March and with faith in the new Western science of psychological profiling, Joe Sandilands finds himself running a race against time and a serial killer who alone knows the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose. "The atmosphere of the dying days of the Raj is colorfully captured." - Sunday Telegraph "Introduces an intelligent author and an interesting investigator." - Morning Star
Publisher: n/a
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9780786710591
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Hardcover
Death at Wentwater Court
By Dunn, Carola
More than twenty years ago, Carola Dunn introduced to the world the charming, vivacious and perspicacious Daisy Dalrymple and the tumultuous decade of the 1920s, in an England barely starting to recover from World War I and now undergoing rapid social changes. In early 1923, the young Honourable Daisy Dalrymple has made a decision that shocks her social class-instead of living in the Dower House with her mother and being supported by her relatives, she's decided to make her own living as a writer. Landing an assignment for Town & Country to write a series of articles on country manor houses, Daisy travels to Wentwater Court to research her first piece. There she finds a household in turmoil, filled with holiday guests and recriminations. But that's nothing compared to the uproar when one of those guests drowns in a tragic early-morning skating "accident." When it is learned that this was anything but accidental, Scotland Yard is called in and a young Chief Inspector, one Alec Fletcher, is called in to investigate. And therein hangs a tale... A series with all the charm of the classic golden age mysteries with the kind of full-blooded, three dimensional characters that define the best of modern mystery, the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries have been a favorite for more than two decades. Now, with this reissue, readers can enjoy it from the very beginning.
Publisher: n/a
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9781602850354
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Large Print]
Cocaine Blues
By Greenwood, Kerry
This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back. The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher--she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions--is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism--not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse--until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
Publisher: n/a
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9781590582367
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Hardcover
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
By King, Laurie R.
An Agatha Award Best Novel NomineeNamed One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers AssociationFrom New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King comes the book that introduced us to the ingenious Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Beekeeper's Apprentice.In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protge and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. In their first case together, they must track down a kidnapped American senator's daughter and confront a truly cunning adversary--a bomber who has set trip wires for the sleuths and who will stop at nothing to end their partnership. Full of brilliant deductions, disguises, and dangers, this first book of the Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes mysteries is "wonderfully original and entertaining . . . absorbing from beginning to end" (Booklist) .
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9780312427368
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Paperback
Ghosts of Manhattan
By Mann, George
1926. New York. The Roaring Twenties. Jazz. Flappers. Prohibition. Coal-powered cars. A cold war with a British Empire that still covers half of the globe. Yet things have developed differently from established history. America is in the midst of a cold war with a British Empire that has only just buried Queen Victoria, her life artificially preserved to the age of 107. Coal-powered cars roar along roads thick with pedestrians, biplanes take off from standing with primitive rocket boosters, and monsters lurk behind closed doors and around every corner. This is a time in need of heroes. It is a time for The Ghost. A series of targeted murders are occurring all over the city, the victims found with ancient Roman coins placed on their eyelids after death. The trail appears to lead to a group of Italian-American gangsters and their boss, who the mobsters have dubbed 'The Roman'. However, as The Ghost soon discovers, there is more to The Roman than at first appears, and more bizarre happenings that he soon links to the man, including moss-golems posing as mobsters and a plot to bring an ancient pagan god into the physical world in a cavern beneath the city. As The Ghost draws nearer to The Roman and the center of his dangerous web, he must battle with foes both physical and supernatural and call on help from the most unexpected of quarters if he is to stop The Roman and halt the imminent destruction of the city.
Publisher: n/a
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9781616141943
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Paperback
After the Armistice Ball
By Mcpherson, Catriona
Dandy Gilver, her husband back from the War, her children off at school and her uniform growing musty in the attic, is bored to a whimper in the spring of 1923 and a little light snooping seems like harmless fun. And what could be better than to seek out the Duffy diamonds, stolen from the Esselmont's country house, Croys, after the Armistice Ball Before long, though, the puzzle of what really happened to the Duffy diamonds has been swept aside by the sudden, unexpected death of lovely young Cara Duffy in a lonely seaside cottage in Galloway. Society and the law seem ready to call it an accident but Dandy, along with Cara Duffy's fianc Alec, is sure that there is more going on than meets the eye. What is being hidden by members of the Duffy family: the watchful Lena, the cold and distant Clemence and old Gregory Duffy with his air of quiet sadness, not to mention Cara herself whose secret always seems just tantalizingly out of view Dandy must learn to trust her instincts and swallow most of her scruples if he is to uncover the truth and earn the right to call herself a sleuth.
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9780786716081
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Hardcover
The Holy Thief
By Ryan, William
Moscow, 1936, Stalins Great Terror is beginning and, in a deconsecrated church, a young woman is found dead. Captain Alexei Korolev, finally beginning to enjoy the benefits of his success as a detective with the Moscow Militia, is asked to investigate. But when he discovers that the victim is an American citizen, the NKVD - the most feared organization in Russia - becomes involved. Soon, Korolevs every step is under close scrutiny and one false move will mean exile to the frozen camps of the far north.Committed to uncovering the truth behind the gruesome murder, Korolev enters the realm of the Thieves, rulers of Moscows underworld. As more bodies are discovered and pressure from above builds, Korolev begins to question who he can trust and who, in a Russia where fear, uncertainty and hunger prevail, are the real criminals. Soon, Korolev will find not only his moral and political ideals threatened, but also his life.. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2011 THEAKSTONS CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR AND THE KERRYGOLD IRISH FICTION AWARD. Impressive. Ryan ... makes palpable the perpetual state of fear of being reported as disloyal, besides dramatizing the difficulty of being an honest cop in a repressive police state.Publishers Weekly (starred review) . Ryan writes with narrative drive and urgency, a good sense of place and a central character who is conflicted, moral and above all likeable: whodunnit heaven.Times Literary Supplement. Ryan can really write - an elegant, evocative English that savours each scene while propelling the action unerringly onwards.Irish Independent. Such details make The Holy Thief ... one of the years most exciting mysteriesSun Sentinel. Atmospheric, beautifully written and meticulously researched.Irish Examiner. It is Ryans details of life in the bad old USSR that make the story so engrossing.Irish Times. Its a tough, suspenseful premise for a debut, contrasting claustrophobic atmosphere with personal optimism.Financial Times. Set in a vividly imagined Stalinist Russia, where the creeping paranoia of a surveillance state blends perfectly with the brutal serial murdersMetro (Crime Book of the Year) . Ryans novel has an authority that belies his first-novel status ... The auguries for a series ... are very promising indeed.Daily Express. Excellently-observed characters who exist in a nightmarish world of fear, suspicion and danger. Ryan skillfully captures the reality of life in the most spied-upon society in history.Yorkshire Evening Post. Fans of Phillip Kerr, Tom Rob Smith, and Olen Steinhauer have a treat in store with this strong period thriller from debut author Ryan . . . Book List. A first novel written with all the narrative assurance of someone whod been perfecting his art for years.Books of the year, Irish Independent. Remarkable thriller . . . In his solitude and resolve, Ryans Korolev evokes Martin Cruz Smiths fierce Arkady Renko.Library Journal. Ryans research, and the genuine feel he has for the unique place and time, made The Holy Thief an especially good read.Ellery Queen Magazine. While THE HOLY THIEF is a dark book, Ryan peppers the narrative with some grim humor to keep things from becoming too stark. The star of the novel, however, is the plot, which provides a plausible, surefooted explanation for the motive behind the murders..Book Reporter. Ryan captures the pervasive fear of Stalins reign, where even a joke amongst friends can lead to denunciation and exile to the Zone ... An impressive debut.Historical Novel Society (Editors Choice)
Publisher: n/a
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9780312586454
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Hardcover
Whose Body?
By Sayers, Dorothy L
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially witha pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.
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9780061043574
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Paperback
City of Dragons
By Stanley, Kelli
A 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. February, 1940. In San Franciscos Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailors shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth. An outstanding series debut.
Publisher: n/a
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9780312603601
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Hardcover
A Test of Wills
By Todd, Charles
"Todd has written a first novel that speaks out, urgently and compassionately, for a long-dead generation ... .A meticulously wrought puzzle." - New York Times Book Review"An intricately plotted mystery. With this remarkable debut, Charles Todd breaks new ground in the historical crime novel." - Peter Lovesey, author of The Circle"You're going to love Todd." - Stephen King, Entertainment WeeklyThe first novel to feature war-damaged Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, A Test of Wills is the book that brought author Charles Todd into the spotlight. This Edgar and Anthony Award-nominated, New York Times Notable mystery brilliantly evokes post-World War I Great Britain and introduces readers to one of crime fiction's most compelling series protagonists. Here the shell-shocked Rutledge struggles to retain his fragile grip on sanity while investigating the death of a popular army colonel, murdered, it appears, by a decorated war hero with ties to the Royal Family. A phenomenal writer, a twisting puzzle, a character-rich re-creation of an extraordinary time and place ... it all adds up to one exceptional read that will delight fans of Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Jacqueline Winspear, Ruth Rendell, and other masters of the British procedural.
Publisher: n/a
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9780062091611
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Paperback
An Expert in Murder
By Upson, Nicola
A brilliant and original fiction debut set in the exotic world of 1930s British theatreMarch 1934. Revered mystery writer Josephine Tey is traveling from Scotland to London for the final week of her celebrated play Richard of Bordeaux. But joy turns to horror when her arrival coincides with the murder of a young woman she had befriended on the train ride, and Tey quickly finds herself plunged into a mystery as puzzling as any of those in her own works.Detective Inspector Archie Penrose is convinced that the killing is connected to her play. Richard of Bordeaux has been the surprise hit of the season, with pacifist themes that strike a chord in a world still haunted by war. Now, however, it seems that Tey could become the victim of her own success, as her reputation - and even her life - is put at risk.A second murder confirms Penrose's suspicions that somewhere among this flamboyant theatre set is a ruthless and spiteful killer. Together, Penrose and Tey must confront their own ghosts in search of someone who will stop at nothing.An Expert in Murder is both a tribute to one of the most enduringly popular writers of crime and a richly atmospheric detective novel in its own right.
Publisher: n/a
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9780061451539
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Print book
Maisie Dobbs
By Winspear, Jacqueline
"Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie-and a rare treat for mystery fans."-Charles Todd "A welcomed addition to the sleuthing scene. . . . Maisie isn't a character I'll easily forget."-Elizabeth George. "Poignant and compelling."-Library Journal, starred
The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree
By Albert, Susan Wittig
The country may be struggling through the Great Depression, but the good ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up and their town beautiful. Their garden club, the Darling Dahlias, has just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees in full bloom. But life in Darling is not all garden parties and rosemary lemonade. When local blond bombshell Bunny Scott is found in a suspicious car wreck, the Dahlias decide to dig into the town's buried secrets, and club members Lizzy, Ophelia, and Verna soon find leads sprouting up faster than weeds. The town is all abuzz with news of an escaped convict from the prison farm, rumors of trouble at the bank, and tales of a ghost heard digging around the cucumber tree. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it's the Darling Dahlias.
Mark of the Lion
By Arruda, Suzanne Middendorf
In 1919, when most women only dream of adventure, Jade del Cameron lives it. After growing up tough on a New Mexico ranch, then driving an ambulance along the front lines of World War I, she can fire a rifle with deadly precision and stare down men maddened by shell shock. Now, still suffering lingering trauma from the Great War, she sets off for Africa, determined to fulfill a man's dying wish...and never expecting to become involved in murder. Rich with romance, mystery, and adventure, Mark of the Lion introduces a fascinating new heroine and explores the elusive heart of a compelling and exotic world.
Nemesis
By Bernhardt, William
In his bestselling legal thrillers, William Bernhardt has explored the dark side of contemporary politics, power, and the law. Now Bernhardt turns back the clock to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in the fall of 1935. Based on true events and new discoveries about Eliot Ness, Nemesis is a brilliantly told story featuring this legendary lawman's fateful duel with a terrifyingly new kind of criminal: America's first serial killer.In Chicago, Eliot Ness had created "the Untouchables," the fabled team of federal agents who were beyond corruption and who finally put Al Capone behind bars. Now the headline-grabbing Ness has been moved to Cleveland, where a new mayor desperately needs some positive publicity. The heroic, squeaky-clean Fed is the perfect man to become the city's director of public safety, but by the time Ness starts his new job, a killer has started a career of his own. And this man is as obsessed with blood and mayhem as Eliot Ness is obsessed with justice.One by one, bodies are found, each one decapitated and uniquely dissected with a doctor's skill and a madman's bent. The police are baffled, the population is terrorized, and newspaper headlines blare about the so-called "Torso Killer." Though it's not his turf, Ness is forced to cross bureaucratic boundaries and take over the case, working with a dogged, street-smart detective and making enemies every step of the way. The more energy Ness pours into the investigation, the more it takes over his life, his marriage, even his untouchable reputation. Because in Cleveland, there is only one true untouchable: a killer who has the perfect hiding place and the perfect plan for destroying Eliot Ness.From the first primitive use of forensic psychology to a portrait of America battling the Great Depression and a man battling his own demons, Nemesis is a masterwork of mystery, murder, and vivid, dynamic historical suspense.
Her Royal Spyness
By Bowen, Rhys
The Agatha Award winner debuts a 1930s London mystery series, featuring a penniless twenty-something member of the extended royal family. Her ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, daughter to the Duke of Atholt and Rannoch. And she is flat broke. As the thirty-fourth in line for the throne, she has been taught only a few things, among them, the perfect curtsey. But when her brother cuts off her allowance, she leaves Scotland, and her fianc Fish-Face, for London, where she has: a) worked behind a cosmetics counter-and gotten sacked after five hours b) started to fall for a quite unsuitable minor royal c) made some money housekeeping (incognita, of course) , and d) been summoned by the Queen to spy on her playboy son. Then an arrogant Frenchman, who wants her family's 800-year-old estate for himself, winds up dead in her bathtub. Now her most important job is to clear her very long family name.
Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter
By Brett, Simon
It's that glorious period between the two world wars, and the exiled king of Mitteleuropa is visiting the ancestral home of the Duke of Tawcester. When the ex-king's daughter is kidnapped, noblesse obliges the Duke's handsome, brave, and rather stupid son (known to all as Blotto) to drive off to the rescue. Luckily, he's aided by his brilliant sister, Twinks. Plus, he's got a really swell car.
A Trace of Smoke
By Cantrell, Rebecca
Even though hardened crime reporter Hannah Vogel knows all too well how tough it is to survive in 1931 Berlin, she is devastated when she sees a photograph of her brother's body posted in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. Ernst, a cross-dressing lounge singer at a seedy nightclub, had many secrets, a never-ending list of lovers, and plenty of opportunities to get into trouble. Hannah delves into the city's dark underbelly to flush out his murderer, but the late night arrival of a five-year-old orphan on her doorstep complicates matters. The endearing Anton claims that Hannah is his mother ... and that her dead brother Ernst is his father. As her investigations into Ernst's murder and Anton's parentage uncover political intrigue and sex scandals in the top ranks of the rising Nazi party, Hannah fears not only for her own life, but for that of a small boy who has come to call her "mother."
The Last Kashmiri Rose
By Cleverly, Barbara
Conjuring up the last golden days of the Raj and the turbulent early ones of Indian rule, this suspenseful and atmospheric first novel - the winner of the Crime Writer Association's Debut Dagger competition - draws the governor of Bengal, local police authorities, and visiting Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands into an increasingly baffling and bizarre case of serial murder. It is 1922, in Panikhat. In March of each of the past five years the wife of an officer in the Bengal Greys has met with a violent and terrifying death. One died in a fire, another by a cobra bite, the third from a fall, and the fourth victim drowned. Of course, they all might have been accidents, while the death of Captain Somersham's pretty young wife, who was found with her wrists cut, could be ruled a suicide. One link between the five cases, however, points to foul, disturbing play. On the anniversary of the deaths small red roses mysteriously appear on the women's graves. With only a few days to go before the end of March and with faith in the new Western science of psychological profiling, Joe Sandilands finds himself running a race against time and a serial killer who alone knows the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose. "The atmosphere of the dying days of the Raj is colorfully captured." - Sunday Telegraph "Introduces an intelligent author and an interesting investigator." - Morning Star
Death at Wentwater Court
By Dunn, Carola
More than twenty years ago, Carola Dunn introduced to the world the charming, vivacious and perspicacious Daisy Dalrymple and the tumultuous decade of the 1920s, in an England barely starting to recover from World War I and now undergoing rapid social changes. In early 1923, the young Honourable Daisy Dalrymple has made a decision that shocks her social class-instead of living in the Dower House with her mother and being supported by her relatives, she's decided to make her own living as a writer. Landing an assignment for Town & Country to write a series of articles on country manor houses, Daisy travels to Wentwater Court to research her first piece. There she finds a household in turmoil, filled with holiday guests and recriminations. But that's nothing compared to the uproar when one of those guests drowns in a tragic early-morning skating "accident." When it is learned that this was anything but accidental, Scotland Yard is called in and a young Chief Inspector, one Alec Fletcher, is called in to investigate. And therein hangs a tale... A series with all the charm of the classic golden age mysteries with the kind of full-blooded, three dimensional characters that define the best of modern mystery, the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries have been a favorite for more than two decades. Now, with this reissue, readers can enjoy it from the very beginning.
Cocaine Blues
By Greenwood, Kerry
This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back. The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher--she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions--is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism--not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse--until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
By King, Laurie R.
An Agatha Award Best Novel NomineeNamed One of the Century's Best 100 Mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers AssociationFrom New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King comes the book that introduced us to the ingenious Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Beekeeper's Apprentice.In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protge and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. In their first case together, they must track down a kidnapped American senator's daughter and confront a truly cunning adversary--a bomber who has set trip wires for the sleuths and who will stop at nothing to end their partnership. Full of brilliant deductions, disguises, and dangers, this first book of the Mary Russell--Sherlock Holmes mysteries is "wonderfully original and entertaining . . . absorbing from beginning to end" (Booklist) .
Ghosts of Manhattan
By Mann, George
1926. New York. The Roaring Twenties. Jazz. Flappers. Prohibition. Coal-powered cars. A cold war with a British Empire that still covers half of the globe. Yet things have developed differently from established history. America is in the midst of a cold war with a British Empire that has only just buried Queen Victoria, her life artificially preserved to the age of 107. Coal-powered cars roar along roads thick with pedestrians, biplanes take off from standing with primitive rocket boosters, and monsters lurk behind closed doors and around every corner. This is a time in need of heroes. It is a time for The Ghost. A series of targeted murders are occurring all over the city, the victims found with ancient Roman coins placed on their eyelids after death. The trail appears to lead to a group of Italian-American gangsters and their boss, who the mobsters have dubbed 'The Roman'. However, as The Ghost soon discovers, there is more to The Roman than at first appears, and more bizarre happenings that he soon links to the man, including moss-golems posing as mobsters and a plot to bring an ancient pagan god into the physical world in a cavern beneath the city. As The Ghost draws nearer to The Roman and the center of his dangerous web, he must battle with foes both physical and supernatural and call on help from the most unexpected of quarters if he is to stop The Roman and halt the imminent destruction of the city.
After the Armistice Ball
By Mcpherson, Catriona
Dandy Gilver, her husband back from the War, her children off at school and her uniform growing musty in the attic, is bored to a whimper in the spring of 1923 and a little light snooping seems like harmless fun. And what could be better than to seek out the Duffy diamonds, stolen from the Esselmont's country house, Croys, after the Armistice Ball Before long, though, the puzzle of what really happened to the Duffy diamonds has been swept aside by the sudden, unexpected death of lovely young Cara Duffy in a lonely seaside cottage in Galloway. Society and the law seem ready to call it an accident but Dandy, along with Cara Duffy's fianc Alec, is sure that there is more going on than meets the eye. What is being hidden by members of the Duffy family: the watchful Lena, the cold and distant Clemence and old Gregory Duffy with his air of quiet sadness, not to mention Cara herself whose secret always seems just tantalizingly out of view Dandy must learn to trust her instincts and swallow most of her scruples if he is to uncover the truth and earn the right to call herself a sleuth.
The Holy Thief
By Ryan, William
Moscow, 1936, Stalins Great Terror is beginning and, in a deconsecrated church, a young woman is found dead. Captain Alexei Korolev, finally beginning to enjoy the benefits of his success as a detective with the Moscow Militia, is asked to investigate. But when he discovers that the victim is an American citizen, the NKVD - the most feared organization in Russia - becomes involved. Soon, Korolevs every step is under close scrutiny and one false move will mean exile to the frozen camps of the far north.Committed to uncovering the truth behind the gruesome murder, Korolev enters the realm of the Thieves, rulers of Moscows underworld. As more bodies are discovered and pressure from above builds, Korolev begins to question who he can trust and who, in a Russia where fear, uncertainty and hunger prevail, are the real criminals. Soon, Korolev will find not only his moral and political ideals threatened, but also his life.. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2011 THEAKSTONS CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR AND THE KERRYGOLD IRISH FICTION AWARD. Impressive. Ryan ... makes palpable the perpetual state of fear of being reported as disloyal, besides dramatizing the difficulty of being an honest cop in a repressive police state.Publishers Weekly (starred review) . Ryan writes with narrative drive and urgency, a good sense of place and a central character who is conflicted, moral and above all likeable: whodunnit heaven.Times Literary Supplement. Ryan can really write - an elegant, evocative English that savours each scene while propelling the action unerringly onwards.Irish Independent. Such details make The Holy Thief ... one of the years most exciting mysteriesSun Sentinel. Atmospheric, beautifully written and meticulously researched.Irish Examiner. It is Ryans details of life in the bad old USSR that make the story so engrossing.Irish Times. Its a tough, suspenseful premise for a debut, contrasting claustrophobic atmosphere with personal optimism.Financial Times. Set in a vividly imagined Stalinist Russia, where the creeping paranoia of a surveillance state blends perfectly with the brutal serial murdersMetro (Crime Book of the Year) . Ryans novel has an authority that belies his first-novel status ... The auguries for a series ... are very promising indeed.Daily Express. Excellently-observed characters who exist in a nightmarish world of fear, suspicion and danger. Ryan skillfully captures the reality of life in the most spied-upon society in history.Yorkshire Evening Post. Fans of Phillip Kerr, Tom Rob Smith, and Olen Steinhauer have a treat in store with this strong period thriller from debut author Ryan . . . Book List. A first novel written with all the narrative assurance of someone whod been perfecting his art for years.Books of the year, Irish Independent. Remarkable thriller . . . In his solitude and resolve, Ryans Korolev evokes Martin Cruz Smiths fierce Arkady Renko.Library Journal. Ryans research, and the genuine feel he has for the unique place and time, made The Holy Thief an especially good read.Ellery Queen Magazine. While THE HOLY THIEF is a dark book, Ryan peppers the narrative with some grim humor to keep things from becoming too stark. The star of the novel, however, is the plot, which provides a plausible, surefooted explanation for the motive behind the murders..Book Reporter. Ryan captures the pervasive fear of Stalins reign, where even a joke amongst friends can lead to denunciation and exile to the Zone ... An impressive debut.Historical Novel Society (Editors Choice)
Whose Body?
By Sayers, Dorothy L
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially witha pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.
City of Dragons
By Stanley, Kelli
A 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. February, 1940. In San Franciscos Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailors shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth. An outstanding series debut.
A Test of Wills
By Todd, Charles
"Todd has written a first novel that speaks out, urgently and compassionately, for a long-dead generation ... .A meticulously wrought puzzle." - New York Times Book Review"An intricately plotted mystery. With this remarkable debut, Charles Todd breaks new ground in the historical crime novel." - Peter Lovesey, author of The Circle"You're going to love Todd." - Stephen King, Entertainment WeeklyThe first novel to feature war-damaged Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, A Test of Wills is the book that brought author Charles Todd into the spotlight. This Edgar and Anthony Award-nominated, New York Times Notable mystery brilliantly evokes post-World War I Great Britain and introduces readers to one of crime fiction's most compelling series protagonists. Here the shell-shocked Rutledge struggles to retain his fragile grip on sanity while investigating the death of a popular army colonel, murdered, it appears, by a decorated war hero with ties to the Royal Family. A phenomenal writer, a twisting puzzle, a character-rich re-creation of an extraordinary time and place ... it all adds up to one exceptional read that will delight fans of Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Jacqueline Winspear, Ruth Rendell, and other masters of the British procedural.
An Expert in Murder
By Upson, Nicola
A brilliant and original fiction debut set in the exotic world of 1930s British theatreMarch 1934. Revered mystery writer Josephine Tey is traveling from Scotland to London for the final week of her celebrated play Richard of Bordeaux. But joy turns to horror when her arrival coincides with the murder of a young woman she had befriended on the train ride, and Tey quickly finds herself plunged into a mystery as puzzling as any of those in her own works.Detective Inspector Archie Penrose is convinced that the killing is connected to her play. Richard of Bordeaux has been the surprise hit of the season, with pacifist themes that strike a chord in a world still haunted by war. Now, however, it seems that Tey could become the victim of her own success, as her reputation - and even her life - is put at risk.A second murder confirms Penrose's suspicions that somewhere among this flamboyant theatre set is a ruthless and spiteful killer. Together, Penrose and Tey must confront their own ghosts in search of someone who will stop at nothing.An Expert in Murder is both a tribute to one of the most enduringly popular writers of crime and a richly atmospheric detective novel in its own right.
Maisie Dobbs
By Winspear, Jacqueline
"Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie-and a rare treat for mystery fans."-Charles Todd "A welcomed addition to the sleuthing scene. . . . Maisie isn't a character I'll easily forget."-Elizabeth George. "Poignant and compelling."-Library Journal, starred