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Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Tag: Crime

It was a Dark and Stormy Night….

With the upcoming release of “Death on the Nile” in cinemas, now seems like an excellent time to commemorate the sprawling stacks of mystery fiction throughout Wellington City Libraries. From our iconic Agatha – the creator of Hercule Poirot and his “little grey cells” – and classics such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, to the modern stylings of Karen M. McManus and Maureen Johnson, we have a wide selection from the “criminal classes” on offer.

Although mysteries and criminal acts have been appearing in works of fiction for millennia, the mystery genre as we know it today started with Edgar Allan Poe, whose short story entitled “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) introduced the reading world to it’s first fictional detective – Auguste Dupin. Dupin (along with his anonymous narrator friend) is the semi-monastic, enigma-loving basis for the ‘gentleman detective’ character type that came into popularity during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in the early-mid 20th century.

via GIPHY

The hot new ‘whodunnit’ style modelled by Poe was rapidly taken up by other authors, including Mary Roberts Rinehart. Referred to as the ‘American Agatha Christie’, Rinehart’s works established the “had I but known” trope (a style of narrative foreshadowing that hints at a looming tragedy or disaster) into the ever-growing mystery genre.

These days, the mystery and crime genre has a happy fat beast of a following, and can be categorised into four sub-genres:

  • The Detective Novel, which follows a primary detective figure as they hijink and deduce their way through a case.
  • The Cosy Mystery, which follows a primary detective figure as they hijink and deduce their way through a case, but make it wholesome.
  • Caper Stories, featuring the grand heists, swindles and crimes from the perspective of the criminal(s) themselves.
  • The Police Procedural, in which the protagonist is typically part of a larger police force.

So sit back and relax one dark and stormy night (a muggy evening will also work) with these highlights from our mystery collection, and see if you can beat the detectives to figure out ‘whodunnit’.

Death on the Nile / Christie, Agatha
“[…] The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. […] Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…” (Adapted from Catalogue)

One of us is lying / McManus, Karen M.
“When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students, all four become suspects. It’s up to them to solve the case”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)

A study in scarlet / Doyle, Arthur Conan
“A Study in Scarlet was flung like a bombshell into the field of detective fiction. Join Dr. Watson as he first meets the brooding Holmes and as they locate their now famous apartment at 221B Baker Street in the midst of a case that spans two continents.” (Catalogue)

Truly devious / Johnson, Maureen
“When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder’s wife and daughter shortly after the school opened. […] The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” […] But the past has crawled out of its grave: Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy.– Adapted from dust jacket.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Two Flights Up / Rinehart, Mary Roberts
“From the outside, it seems like the three women of the Bayne house are frozen in time […]. Into this steps Howard Warrington, a bond salesman who answers an advertisement to rent the Baynes’ extra room. He finds the house to be full of old secrets and quiet grudges, and he soon grows to hate his life there. But when Margaret attempts to kill herself, he realizes how dark life is for the women Bayne — and how difficult it might be for him to escape.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Firekeeper’s daughter / Boulley, Angeline
“Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, either in her hometown or on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. […] When Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source of a new drug. How far will she go to protect her community, if it threatens to tear apart the only world she’s ever known? — adapted from jacket” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The inheritance games / Barnes, Jennifer
“When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.” (Catalogue)
The hound of the Baskervilles : another adventure of Sherlock Holmes / Doyle, Arthur Conan
“The terrible spectacle of the beast, the fog of the moor, the discovery of a body, this classic horror story pits detective against dog. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse. It is left to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to solve the mystery of the legend of the phantom hound before Sir Charles’ heir comes to an equally gruesome end.” (Catalogue)

Little grey cells : the quotable Poirot / Christie, Agatha
“Discover the man behind the moustache in this book of one-liners by the world’s most famous Belgian detective, revealing the wit and wisdom of Hercule Poirot and his creator, Agatha Christie. ” (Adapted from Catalogue)

New books

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsLost girls, Merrie Destefano

Yesterday, Rachel went to sleep listening to Taylor Swift, curled up in her grammy’s quilt, worrying about geometry. Today, she woke up in a ditch, bloodied, bruised, and missing a year of her life. She doesn’t recognize the person she’s become: she’s popular. She wears nothing but black.
Black to cover the blood. And she can fight. Tell no one. She’s not the only girl to go missing within the last year…but she’s the only girl to come back. She desperately wants to unravel what happened to her, to try and recover the rest of the Lost Girls. But the more she discovers, the more her memories return. And as much as her new life scares her, it calls to her. Seductively. The good girl gone bad, sex, drugs, and raves, and something darker…something she still craves—the rush of the fight, the thrill of the win—something she can’t resist, that might still get her killed…The only rule is: There are no rules. (Goodreads)

First lines: I remember last night perfectly. I know what we ate for dinner. I know my little brother didn’t do his homework. I know Dad drove me to my ballet lessons, then waited for me in the Starbucks across the street. I know that, later in the evening, I fell asleep when I was supposed to be studying geometry, my earbuds in while I listened to Taylor Swift’s latest album. That was my yesterday.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsFreeks, Amanda Hocking

Welcome to Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the act…
Mara has always longed for a normal life in a normal town where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. Instead, she roams from place to place, cleaning the tiger cage while her friends perform supernatural feats every night. When the struggling sideshow is miraculously offered the money they need if they set up camp in Caudry, Louisiana, Mara meets local-boy Gabe…and a normal life has never been more appealing. But before long, performers begin disappearing and bodies are found mauled by an invisible beast. Mara realizes that there’s a sinister presence lurking in the town with its sights set on getting rid of the sideshow freeks. In order to unravel the truth before the attacker kills everyone Mara holds dear, she has seven days to take control of a power she didn’t know she was capable of—one that could change her future forever.(Goodreads)

First lines: Behind me, the branches and trees crunched and snapped as the creature tore through them. I didn’t scream- there was no one who could come to help me, nothing that could stop the monster that lurched behind me. The only thing I could do was run faster.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe secret of a heart note, Stacey Lee

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can make.(Goodreads)

First lines: Most people that heartache smells like blueberries. It’s not the only scent, but it’s the main one, and if someone comes to us smelling like blueberry pie, Mother and I turn them away. The heartbroken need time to heal before we can work our magic.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsOne was lost, Natalie D. Richards

Murder, justice, and revenge were so not a part of the plan when Sera set out on her senior camping trip. After all, hiking through the woods is supposed to be safe and uneventful. Then one morning the group wakes up groggy, confused, and with words scrawled on their wrists: Damaged. Deceptive. Dangerous. Darling. Their supplies? Destroyed. Half their group? Gone. Their chaperone? Unconscious. Worst of all, they find four dolls acting out a murder—dolls dressed just like them. Suddenly it’s clear; they’re being hunted. And with the only positive word on her wrist, Sera falls under suspicion… (Goodreads)

First lines: No one said anything about rain in the brochures. Not that there were brochures. There was a handwritten sign-up sheet in the cafeteria, followed by permissions slips recycled from ghosts of field trips past. I’m not really sure why I was expecting a world-class production. Must be the director in me.

From the stacks

Did you know that we have a secret area of the library known as the stacks? It’s where we keep:

*Items that are still in demand which are in a deteriorating condition and cannot be replaced.
*Out of print items of special interest.
*Classic titles or titles by classic authors in a deteriorating condition of which replacement editions cannot be readily sourced.
*Valuable editions of titles.
*Copies of fiction titles written by major ‘Prize’ winning authors.

(From our Collection development policy)

It’s a treasure trove of awesome books which really need a bit more love. You can get these books by reserving them or going up to the second floor and asking at the desk. Here are a few of my favourites. There’s a fair amount in the stack, so I may make this a regular feature.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsWatermark, Penelope Todd

In a month or so we’ll be hitting a record breaking summer. Or at least, we hope so! This is an incredible novel about a summer that’s as wonderful and strange as any you could ever live. Zillah, an eighteen year old who’s having doubts about the future that her life so far have been building to – something has to break. So she heads off, away from safety, to a place suggested by a mysterious letter. There she meets an enigmatic brother and sister. Events take a turn for the dangerous as both the natural world and the people around her move in their own mysterious patterns. There are two sequels; Dark and Zillah.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsMontmorency, Eleanor Updale

A young thief gets a second chance – of sorts – when a doctor decides that rather than consign the unammed man to death, he’ll try a series of experiments to rebuild his shattered body. The man that results from this is named Mortmorency. Mortmorency is clever and quick and tries to engineer his escape, but there are parts of his life that he can’t quite leave behind. Mortmorency’s set in Victorian London, so a literal world away from Watermark.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe sea-wreck stranger, Anna Mackenzie

Ness is a young woman struggles against the inflexible traditions of her island society. She has the sea in her blood, or so she says, in a place that hates and fears the sea. A stranger washes up with the tide, and suddenly her future becomes even more uncertain and dangerous than she could have imagined. The world that MacKenzie has written is completely fictitious yet familiar and realistic. It’s one of the best novels I’ve read in a while – which makes me happy to have looked in the stacks in the first place!

Spider Mansion, Caroline MacDonald

I wasn’t prepared for how creepy I’d find this novel. It’s a simple enough premise: the Day family run a business out of their home, a beautiful historic home. The Todd family come to stay…and don’t leave. The Todds exert a strange hold over the Days, and tensions escalate and events spiral out of control.