Contemporary Detective Mysteries

Jessica Fletcher knows better than anyone that creativity is meant to be nurtured. So when a young lady from Cabot Cove shows promise as a country-and-western singer and songwriter, Jessica and a local citizens’ committee send the talented teen on a scholarship trip to Nashville, Tennessee, where she can benefit from professional instruction.

The first time Elliott Youngblood spots Catherine Calhoun, he’s just a boy with a camera, and he’s never seen a sadder and more beautiful sight. Both Elliott and Catherine feel like outcasts, yet they find an easy friendship with each other. But when Catherine needs him most, Elliott is forced to leave town. Elliott finally returns, but he and Catherine are now different people. He’s a star high school athlete, and she spends all her free time working at her mother’s mysterious bed-and-breakfast. Catherine hasn’t forgiven Elliott for abandoning her, but he’s determined to win her back....

From Dan Wells, author of the New York Times best-selling Partials Sequence, comes the first book in a new sci-fi-noir series. Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni - a smart device implanted right in a person's head. In a world where virtually everyone is online 24 hours a day, this connection is like oxygen - and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

The curious amd murderous exploits of the Rev Frances Outerard as recounted by himself.

Supernatural Squad might be small, but we're growing in power. The vampires and werewolves of London are beginning to respect me more, and I feel like I know what I'm doing - even if I don't yet understand what I truly am. Unfortunately, there might be a few snags to deal with. I'm trying to avoid Lord Horvath, the black-eyed vampire leader who seems intent on a more intimate relationship. There's also Devereau Webb, who runs a small criminal syndicate and has offered me a mysterious gift that I'm certain I don't want.

An artist's model never shows up at Neville Grant's house...or so he claims. But when one of Mr. Grant's houseguests suddenly dies, the Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries have to work double-time to find both the missing model and the killer!

I’m Jinx, a private investigator, a truth seeker, and a wizard. You'd think of all those skills would make it so easy for me to get to the heart of things. And honestly? I thought I knew what had happened to my parents that night. But I've taken a tumble down the rabbit hole and everything I thought I knew was topsy turvy. I'm trying to get my head screwed on right, but some rude SOB keeps trying to kill me. Worse, I think it's the same guy that targeted my parents. I need to stay alive long enough to bring him to justice. The problem with that is that it looks like we've got a mole.

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist lights up the night. In her eighth adventure, Anita Blake can't turn her back on a former lover during the full moon. Especially since he's behind bars-and he's a werewolf.

Seventeen-year-old Abby Schoenberg isn't exactly looking forward to the summer before her senior year. She's just broken up with her first boyfriend, and her friends are all off in different, exciting directions for the next three months. Abby needs a plan - an adventure of her own. Enter: the letters. They show up one rainy day along with the rest of Abby's recently deceased grandmother's possessions. And these aren't any old letters; they're love letters.

As soon as Seneca Frazier sees the post on the Case Not Closed website about Helena Kelly, she's hooked. Helena's high-profile disappearance five years earlier is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It's the reason she's a member of the site in the first place. So when Maddy Wright, her best friend from the CNC site, invites Seneca to spend spring break in Connecticut looking into the cold case, she immediately packs her bag.

When Marianna Santino's roommate is killed, Detective Ethan O'Hara can't fathom the motive. Then he realizes the deaf teacher was the intended target. Marianna must have something the murderer desperately wants. But what? Digging for the truth, the guarded cop tries to learn everything he can about Marianna. Her world. Her family. Her beauty, faith, and fierce independence. In spite of himself, Ethan finds that he can't keep his feelings at bay. Soon, he's willing to risk everything to lay the silent terror stalking Marianna to rest.

In this chilling novel set in the world of the CW’s Nancy Drew, the beloved teen sleuth investigates a sinister, once-dormant curse that may be threatening her town once more. Perfect for fans of Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Stranger Things!

Sahara Travis is used to being worshipped by adoring fans, but now someone is fixated on her in a dangerous way. After multiple attempts on her life, she reluctantly agrees to hire a security specialist for her protection, though the last thing she wants is some burly bodyguard invading her personal space. With Brendan and her devoted assistant, Lucy, in tow, Sahara returns to her family estate in New Orleans to uncover the identity of her attempted killer before he can close in on his final target.

Danny didn’t know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they’re ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny. But Danny didn’t just find the Grays. They cast a spell that calls her halfway across the country, because she has something they need.

Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she's cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel. In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide.

Everyone wants to be someone. Layla Harrison wants to leave her beach-bum days for digs behind a reporter's desk. Aster Amirpour wants to scream at the next casting director who tells her "we need ethnic but not your kind of ethnic." Tommy Phillips dreams of buying a 12-string guitar and using it to shred his way back into his famous absentee dad's life. But Madison Brooks took destiny and made it her bitch a long time ago. She's Hollywood's hottest starlet, and the things she did to become the name on everyone's lips are merely a stain on the pavement.

Four women are dead, each strangled with an orange cord, their bodies ritually arranged. Carol and Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke know that this killer, like all serial killers, will be exceedingly difficult to track down. The Australian press has sensationalized the murders, especially the fact that one of the victims was a lesbian. Madeline Shipley, star of The Shipley Report, claims that she has been contacted by the “Orange Strangler”. Adding to the pressures on Carol is her relationship with Sybil Quade, who has grown increasingly restive with its secrecy.

Working homicides in New York City, there will always be disquieting cases, but this one has me in a cold sweat. When Bishop and I discover a high-ranking wizard has been tied down and tortured as part of some unhinged ritual, we know all hell is about to break lose. What’s worse, our lead suspect is a member of the Arcane Council, and when you cross the Council, you tend to disappear without a trace. Victims deserve justice—it’s my job—but one wrong move will see me share their fate. Curl up with One Foot in the Grave and discover the motive behind this unusual case.

The normal part of Lorelei MacAlister's life didn’t just slip away quietly the day Jared Kovach came to town. Nope. The normal part of her life shattered. It exploded. It burst into a gazillion shards of fleeting light. It went out with a bang. Goodbye normal. Hello dark and eerie. While her best friend, Brooklyn, is focusing all of her energy on helping Lorelei hone her abilities, Lorelei is dealing with the reality that Satan's second in command has taken up residence inside her body. Oh, and the fact that she has a crush on the Angel of Death.

The most exciting installment to the Edgar Award winning Samurai Mystery series. When a man with a tattoo covering his back is found floating in the water at a rice ceremony, Seikei and Judge Ooka know it's a bad omen. Soon there are seven of these men with partial tattoos on their backs. All different, all dead, all seemingly unrelated - except for the tattoos. It becomes apparent these men are not just carrying body art, but a treasure map…to what? And why is carrying this map so mortally dangerous? Seikei must find and assemble all seven tattoos to find the answer.