Mysteries Recent Picks

October 2009

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

206 bones, Kathy Reichs. (2009)
Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Reichs's outstanding 12th thriller to feature Dr. Temperance Brennan (after Devil Bones), Brennan finds herself bound and injured in an underground tomb. In flashbacks, Reichs fills in the how and why of the forensic anthropologist's deadly predicament. When Brennan and Andrew Ryan of the Sûreté du Québec arrive in Chicago on business, she's accused of botching the autopsy of Rose Jurmain, a Canadian heiress. Knowing only that an anonymous caller instigated the investigation, Brennan is determined to uncover who's out to sabotage her. Back in her Montreal lab, Brennan soon realizes that not only is Jurmain's death possibly linked to the brutal murders of other elderly women but that whoever is out to tarnish her reputation refuses to back off. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science and a stubborn, compelling heroine, Reichs manages to juggle several story lines without losing an ounce of momentum. (Publishers Weekly)

The fever of the bone, Val McDermid. (2009)
'You should have been a detective. If there's one thing the last year has proved, it's how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things. Hard things. Things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are buried so deep nobody even thinks twice about them. The sort of things that turn people's lives inside out once they're exposed.' Meet Tony Hill's most twisted adversary - a killer with a shopping list of victims, a killer unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer driven by the most perverted of desires. The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But it's not long before Tony realises it's just the start of a brutal and ruthless campaign that's targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly-awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony battles to find the answers that will give him personal and professional satisfaction in his most testing investigation yet. (Amazon.co.uk)

The complaints, by Ian Rankin. (2009)
'Mustn't complain' - but people always do... Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'The Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. It's where Malcolm Fox works. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's a man with problems of his own. He has an increasingly frail father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship - something which Malcolm cannot seem to do anything about. But, in the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when a vicious murder intervenes far too close to home for Fox's liking. (Amazon.co.uk)

Way of the traitor, Laura Joh Rowland. (2009)
Samurai Sano Ichiro, our guide through the intricacies of life and death in 17th-century Japan in Laura Joh Rowland's evocative and accessible mysteries (Bundori and Shinju are available in paperback) is called the Shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People. All of these skills--plus a strong sense of survival--are needed in this story about what happens when Dutch traders arrive in Nagasaki in 1690. The foreigners are isolated in a small section of the city, and most ordinary citizens are forbidden to make contact with them--on penalty of beheading. But when the Dutch trade director is found murdered, Sano risks his neck to find the killer and satisfy his curiosity about the world outside his rigorously regimented homeland. (Amazon.com)

Missing Mark, Julie Kramer. (2009)
A for-sale ad for a never worn wedding dress sparks Minneapolis TV reporter Riley Spartz to chase an intriguing story in Kramer's slick sequel to 2008's Stalking Susan. Wealthy Madeleine Post's comedian fiancé, Mark Lefevre, didn't show up for their lavish White Bear Lake wedding and hasn't been seen since. Is Mark, who looks like Groucho Marx, a runaway groom or a crime victim? A few days after Riley interviews Mark's mother, Jean, the mother apparently shoots herself in the head, though the suicide note found at the scene is, oddly, in Mark's handwriting. Riley's discovery of Madeleine's rare disease—prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces), which also afflicts Madeleine's mother—adds a neat twist. Meanwhile, Riley is also under pressure to pursue a big story about the theft of Big Mouth Billy Bass, the Minnesota record largemouth bass, from a mall aquarium. Kramer makes the most of a clever, if far-fetched, idea in this fun mystery thriller. (Publishers Weekly)

Fleece Navidad, by Maggie Sefton. (2009)
This is Sefton’s sixth entry in her enjoyable mystery series featuring CPA, caffeine addict, and beginning knitter Kelly Flynn. Christmas is approaching, and the knitters who hang out at House of Lambspun in Fort Connor, Colorado, are working on various holiday projects. Even neophyte knitter Kelly is inspired to help in a project teaching children how to knit. The venture is headed by the quiet town librarian, Juliet, well known for her beautiful hand-knitted Christmas capes. Everyone at House of Lambspun loves the unassuming librarian and is horrified to learn of her death in a hit-and-run accident. Some of the members of the knitting group think that the unidentified hit-and-run driver may be Claudia, a newcomer to the group. Kelly resists getting involved as an amateur sleuth but finally decides she has to do something to solve the murder and end the dissension in the normally “close-knit” group of friends. One of the most rewarding things about this series is that the circle of friends includes young and old, male and female, all of whom possess a variety of interests beyond knitting. (Booklist)

Bodies in winter, by Robert Knightly. (2009)
On a cold winter's morning in New York, NYPD detective Harry Corbin and his partner Adele Bentibi arrive at the scene of a shooting: ex-detective David Lodge has been shot dead the morning after he was released from a seven-year sentence for killing a pimp. It looks like a cut-and-dried case: a revenge killing by the dead pimp's brother and his gang. However, as Corbin and Bentibi start digging, they come up against the impenetrable Blue Wall of Silence (the cop version of the Mafia's omerta) and the NYPD bosses seem particularly keen for this case to be laid to rest as quickly - and cleanly - as possible. Corbin is hoping for promotion, so at first he's happy to accept the facts as he's given them, but the overzealous Bentibi is not so easily persuaded. When they start uncovering a murky world of bent cops and cover-ups, they put both their careers - and their lives - in serious danger. (Amazon.co.uk)

Fold and die : a Jordan Lacey mystery, Stella Whitelaw. (2009)
Jordan Lacey is back - by popular demand! Jordan Lacey, Latching's zany but intrepid private eye, goes cruising to Norway and the spectacular Midnight Sun. But she is the undercover bodyguard of Joanna Carter, a woman who believes that her life is in danger. A set of curious events culminate with Jordan on the run and being charged with Joanna's murder. In desperation Jordan emails DI James for help. Storms at sea, gale force winds, a mysterious grey man, a disappearing Thai stewardess and a doddery old lady who calls herself Miss Phoebe Brown accentuate the twists and turns of this fast moving plot aboard a supposedly leisurely cruise. (Amazon.co.uk)

The black monastery, by Stav Sherez. (2009)
When Nikos, a detective in the final years of his career, is persuaded back to his home town he is faced with the gory murder of a young boy near the old monastery. Echoing two murders committed 33 years previously in the exact same spot, and a mass cult suicide, it brings back a part of the island's history that it has tried hard to forget.There is a lot at stake - the island's lucrative tourist trade and the open secret of the drugs trade that goes hand in hand with the hordes of mainly young British holiday makers. As Nikos begins his investigation, two British crime writers arrive on the island. The best selling Kitty Carson, on a break from the pressures of writing and her strained relationship, and Jason an aspiring writer whose aim is to strike up a friendship with her and convince her to help him get published. As the two writers are thrown together in an unexpected way, another murder is committed and Jason and Kitty are drawn into an investigation of their own. As they discover more about the island's dark past what began as a diversion becomes a dangerous pursuit. (Amazon.com)

Cut out, Patrick Lennon. (2009)
Afghanistan. Every year, an assignment for thousands of British personnel. Some of them bring back more than memories. TV producer Dan Simmons wants to film it all. He finds a regiment about to be deployed to the Afghan war on a radical anti-heroin operation. He gets himself embedded. He shoots some film. Then he shoots himself. The Ministry of Defence puts Military Police captain Stef Maguire under pressure to file it all away. But Maguire has heard the TV man’s dying words and they lead her to someone called Tom Fletcher. Ex-cop, ex-PI, now Fletcher is living the perfect life in a house in the country. A very isolated house.
Fletcher doesn’t know why the TV man shot himself. But some very dangerous people think otherwise. And when they begin to threaten Fletcher’s family, it’s time for him to act. (Amazon.co.uk)

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