Amateur Detective

Boston expat Maura Donovan has been getting accustomed to Irish living, complete with an inherited house and a pub named Sullivan’s. But now, her mother has returned - and she’s brought Maura’s half-sister in tow. To make matters more confusing, a handful of Cork University students are knocking on Maura’s door, asking about a mystical fairy fort that happens to be located on Maura’s piece of land. Then one of the students disappears after a day of scoping out the fort, and Maura uncovers a decades-old corpse.

Mr. Thipps wakes up to the worst day ever. A dead body in his bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez. So many questions. Luckily, Lord Peter Wimsey catches wind of this – for he has a keen mind for solving crimes, although he is the pampered aristocratic amateur. With the connections that privilege offers, he has returned somewhat battered from the war with a penchant for crime solving. This case of near-sighted nudity, taking place during the plague of 1918, takes on twists and turns both unforeseen and unwelcome.

Kelly Jackson, manager of the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast, is excited to participate in an event to raise awareness for the plight of struggling veterans in their Northern California coastal community. Local wineries are sponsoring tastings, and professional chefs will forage for wild edible greens. Kelly plans to come along, despite a warning to beware of poachers, who have been stealing a highly valued succulent. When a consultant for the sale of a local winery is murdered, the poachers are suspected - but so is a wine merchant, Kelly's friend Phil.

Gwinny Tuffel, the dog sitter, stays at an ageing rock singer's Little Venice houseboat to look after his border collie while he goes on tour. But during the annual Canal Carnival the singer's body is discovered, having never made it out of London. The police dismiss it as an accident, but Gwinny suspects murder most foul. It is up to her to solve this curious crime .

Autumn has come and gone on Scotland’s Isle of Glenroth, and the islanders gather for the Tartan Ball, the annual end-of-tourist-season gala. Spirits are high. A recently published novel about island history has brought hordes of tourists to the small Hebridean resort community. On the guest list is American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton. Kate returns reluctantly to the island where her husband died, determined to repair her relationship with his sister, proprietor of the island’s luxe country-house hotel, famous for its connection with Bonnie Prince Charlie.

A collection of short stories from Edmund Crispin featuring his beloved amateur detective, Gervase Fen. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best.

Undercover mobster Joey "The Weasel" Frizzone needs to lay low before he testifies against a notorious mob boss, so the feds hide him in a place no one would ever think to look-sleepy Whispering Bay, Florida. But someone in the FBI must have a big mouth because soon there are enough hitmen in town to make it look like a Sopranos reunion. Local baker and amateur sleuth Lucy McGuffin just wants her quaint little beach town back-minus the mobsters. As the body count begins to rise, Lucy is forced to team up with handsome, but know-it-all cop Travis Fontaine.

As war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards - but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She's painfully in love with Stephen Pendock, the squire of Pigeonsford, but Pendock's smitten with young beauty Francesca Hart. One afternoon, Fran debuts a new hat, and Grace's jealousy gets the better of her. She exclaims, "I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a thing like that!" She will soon be proven wrong. Grace is found dead with the hat on her head.

When Donna branches out from floristry to private investigation and opens The Edge of the World Detective Agency, the last thing she expects is to have a murder fall into her lap almost immediately. Now, normally she wouldn’t be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there’s one significant problem with the case – all the evidence points to Donna as the murderer!

New York Times best-selling author Diane Mott Davidson has taken readers by storm with clever mysteries filled with tantalizing plots and mouthwatering recipes. In her 12th novel, her tastiest tale yet, the ingenious storyteller whips up a rich soufflé of murder and mischief.

A deafening explosion rocks a historic Oklahoma City hotel, sending archaeologist Faye Longchamp-Mantooth crashing to the lobby floor. Faye's in town for a conference celebrating indigenous arts but is soon distracted by the aftermath of the explosion, which cracks open the hotel’s floor to reveal subterranean chambers that had housed Chinese immigrants a century before. Faye's fascinated by the tunnels, which are a time capsule back to the early 20th century - but when the bodies of three children are discovered deep beneath the city, her sense of discovery turns to one of dread.

In addition to his library duties and his role as doting grandad, Charlie has enrolled in an early medieval history course offered by young, charismatic professor Carey Warriner. Charlie feels a bit out of place - his fellow classmates are half his age - except for Dixie Bell Compton, another "mature" student. When Charlie hears an angry exchange between her and their professor, his interest in piqued. He's even more intrigued when she shows up at his office asking for a study partner.

Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers responds to a shooting and discovers her longtime friend Horace Pavelka has gunned down a man who'd bullied him mercilessly for decades. Ruled self-defense, no charges are filed. When another of his tormentors turns up dead in Horace's kitchen, Police Chief Pete Adams questions the man's innocence in both cases...especially after Horace and his girlfriend go into hiding.

Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.

Juniper Song knows secrets - how to keep them and how to search them out. As a girl, noir fiction was her favorite escape, and Philip Marlowe has always been her literary idol. So when her friend, Luke, asks her to investigate a possible affair between his father and a young employee, Juniper (or "Song" as her friends call her) finds an opportunity to play detective.

Sherlock Holmes et le Docteur Watson, le duo le plus célèbre de l'histoire du roman policier ! Il a bien fallu qu'un jour ils se rencontrent, que Watson découvre les traits un peu spéciaux de son futur ami, son activité de détective amateur au palmarès presque irréprochable. Ou que Holmes apprenne à se reposer sur le bon sens et la gentillesse de son acolyte.

Sa première journée d'homme libre depuis vingt-sept ans. Elle a filé à une allure qui lui donne le tournis. Les derniers clients du restaurant s'en vont. Il ne va pas tarder, lui non plus. Il a hâte de se coucher dans un vrai lit. Il salue la patronne, une grosse femme joviale, et il sort. La soirée est douce. Derrière lui, le bruit d'une moto qu'on vient de mettre en marche...Il a tant d'idées en tête, tellement de sensations qui l'occupent tout entier qu'il ne prend pas la peine de se retourner. Il a tort.

Forgotten on the outskirts of quaint Lenape Hollow, Feldman's Catskill Resort Hotel has outlasted its heyday as a popular tourist destination and now awaits demolition. But once Mikki is hired to edit a revealing memoir by Sunny Feldman, the doomed resort quickly ends up back in the spotlight. Unfortunately, everyone's attention shifts to Mikki when a body is discovered at the demolition site. Seen arguing with deceptive entrepreneur Greg Onslow right before his shocking death, the editor has no choice but to spell out exactly why she isn't guilty of murdering him.

Three years ago, 15-year-old Ellen Vicksburg went missing in the quiet town of River Remez, New Mexico. Ellen was kind, studious, and universally liked. Her younger brother, Ben, could imagine nothing worse than never knowing what happened to her - until, on the first anniversary of her death, he found her body in a shallow grave by the river's edge. Ben, now 17, is relentlessly driven to find answers to Ellen's homicide. Police believe she was the victim of a psychopath known as the Demon.

Charlie Harris is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year's annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians. And as if that weren't bad enough, the keynote address will be delivered by Charlie's old nemesis from library school. It's been 30 years since Charlie has seen Gavin Fong, and he's still an insufferable know-it-all capable of getting under everyone's skin.