Pictures of Perfection

Frost At Christmas

R.D. Wingfield · 280 pages

D.I. Frost takes over the search for a missing child at Christmastime.

A Place Of Safety

Caroline Graham · 288 pages

When Lionel Lawrence opens his rambling rectory to rehabilitate young offenders he has no idea of the consequences, least of all that they will include blackmail and murder. Chief Inspector Barnaby has a good idea of the identity of the violent individual responsible, now all he needs is evidence.

The Double-Jack Murders

Patrick F. McManus · 266 pages

43-year-old Blight County, Idaho, Sheriff Bo Tully finds three young men, apparently farm laborers, lying by a huckleberry patch, each shot in the back of the head. Tully has his hands full with the rare triple murder as well as the disappearance of rancher Orville Poulson, whose so-called caretaker, Ray Crockett, has entrenched himself on Poulson's property.

Dark of the Moon

John Sandford · 392 pages

Virgil Flowers-tall, lean, late thirties, three times divorced, hair way too long for a cop's-had kicked around for a while before joining the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. First, it was the army and the military police, then the police in St. Paul, and finally Lucas Davenport had brought him into the BCA, promising him, "We'll only give you the hard stuff."He'd been doing the hard st

Foxglove Summer

Ben Aaronovitch · 354 pages

"When two young girls go missing in rural Herefordshire, police constable Peter Grant has to leave London to check that nothing supernatural is involved. It's purely routine, Nightingale thinks he'll be done in less than a day. But Peter's never been one to walk away from someone in trouble, so when nothing overtly magical turns up he volunteers his services to the local police, who need all the

Death of a Dustman

M.C. Beaton · 226 pages

With his neat new uniform, big new truck and important new job as head of Lochdubh's state-of-the-art recycling center, dustman Fergus Macleod is a force to be reckoned with-issuing harsh fines and enforcing petty rules, much to the dismay of the businesspeople in town. But when the unpopular trash collector is found dead, stuffed in his own recycling bin, Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth is call

Mrs. McGinty's Dead

Agatha Christie · 229 pages

Poirot, disillusioned by the "senseless cruel brutality" of modern crime, pays no attention to the sad case of Mrs McGinty, an old woman apparently struck dead by her lodger for thirty pounds that she kept under a floorboard. When, however, he is asked by the investigating officer to take another look at the case to stop an innocent man going to the gallows, he realises that things may not be as s

The Old Wine Shades

Martha Grimes · 391 pages

Richard Jury considers the authenticity of a fantastical tale, told by a stranger and fellow patron at the Old Wine Shades pub in London, about a string theory scientist's wife, son, and dog, who disappeared without a trace nine months earlier.

Not in the Flesh

Ruth Rendell · 303 pages

A new Chief Inspector Wexford mystery from the author who Time magazine has called "the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world." When the truffle-hunting dog starts to dig furiously, his master's first reaction is delight at the size of the clump the dog has unearthed: at the going rate, this one truffle might be worth several hundred pounds. Then the dirt falls away to reveal not a pre

The House on Vesper Sands (Inspector Cutter Mystery, An)

Paraic O'Donnell · 416 pages

Case Histories

Kate Atkinson · 336 pages

"Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. More than thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters, each achingly lonely in her own way, reunite when their cruel and distant father dies. There, among the clutter of their childhood home, they unearth a shocking clue to Olivia's disappearance." "Case Two: All of Theo's h

The Nature of the Beast

Louise Penny · 448 pages

"Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced w

Murder at Holly House

Denzil Meyrick · 410 pages

The Keeper of Lost Causes

Jussi Adler-Olsen · 396 pages

Chief detective Carl Mørck, recovering from what he thought was a career-destroying gunshot wound, is relegated to cold cases and becomes immersed in the five-year disappearance of a politician.

The Dance of the Seagull

Andrea Camilleri · 277 pages

Giuseppe Fazio unknowingly gets entangled in a messy affair. When he disappears, Montalbano and the rest of the crew get involved too, and, like retrieving a week-old corpse from the bottom of a well, the closer they get to resolution the messier the affair gets.

Overture to Death

Ngaio Marsh · 319 pages

The Ghost Riders of Ordebec

Fred Vargas · 361 pages

"As the chief of police in Paris's seventh arrondissement, Commissaire Adamsberg has no jurisdiction in Ordebec. Yet, he cannot ignore a widow's plea. Her daughter Lina has seen a vision of the Ghost Riders with four nefarious men. According to the thousand-year-old legend, the vision means that the men will soon die a grisly death. When one of them disappears, Adamsberg races to Ordebec, where he

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 Various Haunts of Men

Susan Hill · 438 pages

A lonely woman of 53 vanishes in fog - hidden in her cupboard is an expensive pair of cuff-links with a note: 'To You, with all possible love from your devoted, Me'. A fat 22-year-old never returns from an early morning walk - is her disappearance connected with her girlish crush on Dava, the blue-eyed 'therapist' whose speciality is 'inner harmony'? Experienced policemen know that most missing pe

Chat

Archer Mayor · 394 pages

Intriguing plots, complex characters, and a vivid landscape are the foundation of Archer Mayor's award-winning New England thrillers. Now in this suspenseful new novel two investigations will lead Mayor's popular hero Joe Gunther to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where relationships are formed and broken, and nothing is as it seems.News travels fast in the small state of Vermont . In th

Blue Shoes and Happiness

Alexander McCall Smith · 256 pages

In this seventh installment in the internationally bestselling, universally beloved series, there is considerable excitement at the shared premises of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local medical clinic reveals to Mma Ramotswe that faulty blood-pressure readings are being recorded there.

Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?

G.M. Ford · 314 pages

When an old gangster friend of Leo's father makes a request he "can't refuse," Leo and his band of drunks, delve into the world of environmental politics in search of Caroline Nobel, a spoiled brat, without the sense God gave a gopher. With the help of "the Boys" -- a group of aging winos who are his modern day "Baker Street Irregulars" -- Leo fights Native American tribal politics, industrial pol

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler · 220 pages

Philip Marlowe, a private eye who operates in Los Angeles's seamy underside during the 1930s, takes on his first case, which involves a paralyzed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder

To Love and Be Wise

Josephine Tey · 255 pages

The whole art colony at Salcott St. Mary would have agreed with popular authoress Lavinia Finch when she remarked about her American guest: “I’m sure he must have been something very wicked in ancient Greece.” The too-handsome, rich, famous Leslie Searle had created havoc at Salcott. He was about to break up an engagement and ruin a smug broadcaster; he'd already insulted a leading playwright a