Detection Unlimited

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Agatha Christie · 256 pages

Belgian Inspector Hercule Poirot has retired to the countryside in the small English village of King's Abbot. Dr. Sheppard, observing his new neighbor, is sure that he must be a former hairdresser. But the brutal murder of a local squire reveals the truth: the peculiar little man is actually a detective par excellence. The Murder of the wealthy industrialist Roger Ackroyd begins the night before w

The Crime at Black Dudley

Margery Allingham · 211 pages

Cover Her Face

P.D. James · 254 pages

When a sly and sensuous young woman who had used her body and her brains to climb the social ladder is murdered by someone who had clearly decided that the wages of sin should be death, it falls to Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find out who the killer is.

False Scent

Ngaio Marsh · 255 pages

In a poisonous cloud of spray, the curtain falls on a drama queen. Little did beloved British actress Mary Bellamy know that she would be done in at her own birthday party-choked by toxic mist from the bottle of "Slaypest," a deadly insecticide. Basking in the glow of her most adoring fans-who all happened to be her most duplicitous enemies-Mary would make her final performance. When Superinten

The Clock Strikes Twelve

Patricia Wentworth · 259 pages

**Miss Silver investigates the murder of a great British industrialist.** Though they share a manor house, the Paradines are not close, and their patriarch does nothing to discourage the petty jealousies that divide wealthy families. A cold figure, James Paradine prefers work to his relations, but on New Year’s Eve he convenes the household. Valuable plans have been stolen from his office, and

The Murders of Richard III

Elizabeth Peters · 240 pages

In a remote English manor house, modern admirers of the much-maligned King Richard III -- one of Shakespeare's most extraordinary villains -- are gathered for a grand weekend of dress-up and make-believe murder. But the fun ends when the masquerade turns more sinister ... and deadly. Jacqueline Kirby, an American librarian on hand for the festivities, suddenly finds herself in the center of strang

The Siamese Twin Mystery

Ellery Queen · 325 pages

Ellery Queen and his father are driving through a mountainous area of the United States on vacation when they are forced by a forest fire to seek shelter in a private home on the top of a mountain. The home soon becomes impossible to escape due to the fire. Dr. Xavier's aerie is host to an unusual assortment of characters, including his family and guests, a pair of teenage boys who are "Siamese" o

A Speedy Death

Gladys Mitchell · 305 pages

If anything rouses the rancour of guests at Chayning Court, it is that someone should dare be late for dinner. But as it turns out, the object of their disdain and speculation on this occasion, the intrepid explorer Everard Mountjoy, would never apologise for his tardiness. In fact, he would never eat dinner again, for he was slumped dead in the bath... The alarming Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bra

Busman's Honeymoon

Dorothy L. Sayers · 397 pages

Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Hertfordshire which he has bought her as a present. The honeymoon is intended as a break from their usual routine of solving crimes (him) and writing about them (her), but it turns into a murder investigation when the seller of the house is found dead at the bottom of the cellar steps with seve

A Rule Against Murder

Louise Penny · 360 pages

*Starred Review* Readers who haven’t discovered Louise Penny and her Armand Gamache series yet are in for a treat. In the latest entry, Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec has traveled to the luxurious and remote Manoir Bellechasse with his wife, Reine-Marie. Each year they return to the manor to celebrate their wedding anniversary on July 1, Canada Day. This year they are fellow guest

Satellite People

Hans Olav Lahlum · 336 pages

The Burglar in the Library

Lawrence Block · 344 pages

Bookseller and New-Yorker-to-the-bone, Bernie Rhodenbarr rarely ventures out of Manhattan, but he's excited about the romantic getaway he has planned for himself and current lady love Lettice at the Cuttleford House, a remote upstate b&b. Unfortunately, Lettice has a prior engagement—she's getting married . . . and not to Bernie—so he decides to take best buddy Carolyn instead. A restful respite f

Sweet Poison

David Roberts · 288 pages

It is 1935 and the Duke of Mersham is hosting a party at his country house, when one of the guests is poisoned. Was it an accident or something more sinister? The Duke's younger brother, Lord Edward Corinth, and journalist Verity Browne set out to investigate.

The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins · 444 pages

One of the first English detective novels, this mystery involves the disappearance of a valuable diamond, originally stolen from a Hindu idol, given to a young woman on her eighteenth birthday, and then stolen again. A classic of 19th-century literature.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Alan Bradley · 375 pages

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found

An English Murder

Cyril Hare · 176 pages

A country house murder mystery classic, as a party find themselves snowed-in on Christmas Eve with a murderer among them... The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. All is set for a lovely Christmas, with friends and family gathered round the fire, except as the bells chime midnight, a murder is committed. But who is responsible? The scorned yo

The Silkworm

J.K. Rowling · 464 pages

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days--as he has done before--and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a

The Last Party

Clare Mackintosh · 432 pages

Jerusalem Inn

Martha Grimes · 299 pages

Superintendent Richard Tury of Scotland Yard spends his Christmas holiday at a colorful country inn near a vast estate inhabited by the titled, the rich, the famous, and--suddenly--the deceased.

Murder at Holly House

Denzil Meyrick · 410 pages

The Dark Side of the Road

Simon R. Green · 224 pages

Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief

Benjamin Stevenson · 358 pages

Murder Before Evensong

Richard Coles · 352 pages

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Stephanie Barron · 337 pages

"The twelfth installment in Stephanie Barron's fan-favorite Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities,