English Authors Mystery

Leonard Dyke's writing style didn't offend. But all of his work featured unhappy endings: murders. When four people die, including the author, police finally call on Nero Wolfe. Wolfe baits a trap, and when it springs shut, he finds that truth is stranger (and bloodier) than fiction.

Some facts about Billy Dickens: He once saw a biker swerve across the road in order to run over a snake. Later, that motorcycle somehow ended up at the bottom of a canal. Billy isn't the type to let things go. Some facts about Billy's family: They've lived in six different Florida towns because Billy's mom insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest. Billy's dad left when he was four and is a total mystery. Billy has just found his dad's address - in Montana.

Paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski has the perfect exhibit for the harvest festival - a haunted grape press. But when she's accused of stealing the press, and her accuser is murdered, all eyes turn to Maddie. Knowing the perils of amateur sleuthing as she does, Maddie is reluctant to get involve, until her mother insists she investigate. Does her mom have a secret agenda? Or is she somehow connected to the murder? Facing down danger and her own overactive imagination, Maddie must unearth the killer before she becomes the next ghost to haunt her museum.

Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog, only to discover that she's been committed to an Alzheimer's unit in a nursing home. With no memory of how she ended up in this position, Rose is sure something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she's "not making it through the week", Rose is convinced that if she's to survive, she has to get out of the nursing home. She avoids taking her medication, putting on a show for the aides, then stages her escape. But how does she convince anyone that she's not actually demented?

A dying convict's last request thrusts small-town newspaperman Jefferson Morgan into a deadly maelstrom as he explores a 50-year-old case of child murder - a wound his town still isn't ready to scrape open. Under the heaviest deadline of his life, and amid threats from unexpected foes, Morgan must struggle with his own conscience to tell a story no matter the consequences, dig deep into the town's past, and unveil a killer who's managed to remain hidden in plain sight for almost 50 years.

Jonathan Grave long ago lost faith with the so-called war on drugs, a futile campaign that enables cartels to make billions under the protection of corrupt officials on both sides of the border. But when a twelve-year-old dies after consuming fentanyl disguised as candy inside the dormitory at Resurrection House, the school he created for the children of incarcerated parents, Jonathan knows it's time to use his special talents to change the game.

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend. Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South.

After her divorce, Athena has returned to coastal Michigan to work in her family's garden center and raise her son, while also caring for a mischievous wild raccoon and fending off her family's annoying talent for nagging. Working alone at the garden center one night, Athena is startled by a handsome stranger who claims to be the rightful owner of a valuable statue her grandfather purchased at a recent estate sale. But she has even bigger problems on her plate.

When a sudden crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the US Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. An ex-cop known for his unorthodox methods, Duncan is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization—but the attorney in question is Ellen Leicester, the wife who left him fifteen years earlier, and to her, he can't say no.

Milo Luttrell finds himself in the midst of an expedition into the largest underground system in Africa, helmed by a brash billionaire turned exploration guru and his elite team of cavers. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to finally solve a century-old disappearance of the famed explorer Lord Riley DeWar, an enigmatic figure who both made - and nearly ruined - Milo's fledgling career. But when a storm hits the surface base camp, stranding the cavers and washing away supplies, all communication to the outside world is lost.

Alex Mercer could use a break. But, as usual, he can't catch one. He's overburdened with best man duties, familial changes, and work obligations. The three responsibilities collide when his daughter's boyfriend is taken, his best friend is targeted, and officers and agents go missing. He knows there must be a link, but he's the only common denominator - a fact that doesn't bode well for job security. Or his loved ones' safety.

A threat is called into the LAPD Bomb Squad, a team dispatched to a house whose owner is away, and a bomb disguised inside photography equipment exploded in the kitchen. But it is a second bomb hidden in the basement that has devastating consequences - half of the entire Bomb Squad is obliterated within seconds. The fragmented unit turns to Dick Stahl, a former Bomb Squad commander who now operates his own private security company.

It's St. Patrick's Day, and a dead body shows up in the woods behind the esteemed Beechwood Manor. With the townspeople distracted by a mysterious shamrock-themed scavenger hunt, everyone seems content to chalk up the death as a tragic hunting accident. But when the clover-shaped clues lead back to the crime scene, things take a deadly turn. With a rogue leprechaun on the loose and something sinister lurking on the edges of town, it's up to Holly to stop the murderer and keep secret paranormal powers from swallowing up the sleepy town she's grown to love.

Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorists worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world . . . and then tragedy struck.

Pirate Week is sweeping through Crystal Cove and keeping Jenna Hart and her bookstore, the Cookbook Nook, plenty busy. But she’s not too swamped to also host the local Chocolate Cookbook Club’s meeting—especially because the guest of honor is her friend, candy maker and cookbook author Coco Chastain. Jenna whips up a delicious event amidst the rowdy festivities, but the mood is soon broken by robberies, simmering tempers, and a dead body—Coco’s editor, Alison.

Nothing says romance like spending a long weekend at a haunted inn famed for sending its guests to the ER with scratches, bites, and fractures. Or so Linus thinks when he books a trip for Grier and himself to Oliphant House. As far as honeymoons go, the choice is nontraditional, but then, so is his bride. Haunted history is one of Grier's great loves, and she's thrilled to discover Linus has given her a mystery to solve. Forget walks on moonlit beaches and sipping fruity drinks, Grier would much rather unravel the curse that's plagued the Oliphant family for generations.

In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective Sasagaki is unable to find the killer. Over the next 20 years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective, Sasagaki, who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth.

Suspecting that someone is stealing from him, the aging and eccentric James Delacorte wants Charlie to do an inventory on his rare book collection. Soon after they begin, Delacorte is found dead at his desk, leaving Charlie with the bigger task of solving his murder. Immediately Charlie is suspicious of Delacorte's own family, and relies on the help of Diesel to paw around for clues. The cat and mouse game heats up after a highly valued copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane goes missing and a second murder occurs.

Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped.

Summer, 2021. Nell has come home at her family's insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote The Golden Bones. Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of The Golden Bones led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried—gold and precious stones, each a different part of a skeleton. One by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore's pelvis remained hidden.