Favorite Sleuths

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz - Hilarious new addition to sleuths series. (February 2008)

Red Cat by Peter Spiegelman - Third John March novel in this impressive series. (February 2008)

Mosaic Crimes by Giulio Leon - a Danta Alighieri Mystery, set in Florence, June 1300 (February 2008)

The Watchman by Robert Crais - (January 2008)

A Deeper Sleep by Dana Stabenow - P.I. Kate Shugak is working on a case for the Anchorage D.A. involving the murder of a woman by her husband. (January 2008)

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (alias for John Banville!): Debut crime novel from the Booker-winning author. A Dublin pathologist follows the corpse of a mysterious woman into the heart of a conspiracy among the city’s high Catholic society. (January 2008)

Death of a Maid by M. C. Beaton (January 2008)

Cover-Up by Michele Martinez - Television reporter Suzanne Shepard was a ruthless celebrity scandalmonger with a roster of high-profile enemies. But which one left her mutilated, lifeless body in the dark recesses of New York's Central Park? Federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas needs to find out. (December 2007)

A False Mirror by Charles Todd - Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, is a most unlikely place for violence. Yet, one spring morning, a man is found on the strand so severely beaten that he slips in and out of consciousness. The prime suspect? Inspector Ian Rutledge’s wife's jilted lover. December 2007)

The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman - Retirement has never sat well with former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. Now the ghosts of a still-unsolved case are returning to haunt him, reawakened by a photograph in a magazine spread of a one-of-a-kind Navajo rug, a priceless work of woven art that was supposedly destroyed in a suspicious fire many years earlier. The rug, commemorating one of the darkest and most terrible chapters in American history, was always said to be cursed, and now the friend who brought it to Leaphorn's attention has mysteriously gone missing. (December 2007)

Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein - Hundreds of feet below Manhattan, a treacherous tunnel maze is inhabited by the sandhogs, teams of workers who are rebuilding New York City's deteriorating water supply system. Their dark and dangerous world turns deadly when a catastrophic explosion rips through Water Tunnel #3, sending shock waves that are felt throughout the city and inside the courtroom where Alexandra Cooper is dead-set on nailing young businessman Brendan Quillian for the murder of his wealthy wife. (October 2007)

Erased from Memory by Diana O'Hehir - This series features Carla Day and her elderly father, an Egyptologist suffering from Alzheimer's disease.(October 2007)

A Case of Two Cities by Qui Xiaolong - Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is summoned by an official of the party to take the lead in a corruption investigation - one where the principle figure and his family have long since fled to the United States and beyond the reach of the Chinese government. (October 2007)

The Hidden Assassins by Robert Wilson - As Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon investigates the case of a faceless, mutilated corpse, the beautiful city of Seville is rocked by a massive explosion. The discovery of a mosque in the basement of a devastated apartment building confirms everybody’s fears of terrorism. Panic sweeps the city and the region goes on red alert. As more bodies are dragged from the rubble, the media interest and political pressure intensify and Falcon suspects that all is not what it appears to be. (October 2007)

Stone Butterfly by James D. Ross - 11th Charlie Moon mystery. Daisy Perika is no stranger to eerie dreams, but when she has a nightmare, lives could be at stake. Convinced that her visions of a wisp-thin girl with blood dripping from her hands are omens, the old woman calls on her nephew, Charlie Moon. A part-time tribal investigator and full-time Colorado rancher, Moon is often skeptical of his aunt's mystical ways. And this time, much as he wants to believe her, Daisy just can't get a clear vision of the girl's face. (October 2007)

Girl in a Box by Sujata Massey - In the ninth Rei Shimura novel, former antiques dealer Rei is now working as a special informant (spy) for the Organization for Cultural Intelligence (OCI). Her training is cut short when the agency needs her to work undercover at the Japanese department store Mitsutan, where some financial irregularities have been reported. (October 2007)

Island of Exiles by I. J. Parker - I. J. Parker returns with a gripping tale of political intrigue and cold-blooded murder in ancient Japan. When the exiled Prince Okisada, the most illustrious prisoner of the penal colony on Sado Island, is poisoned, Sugawara Akitada is called upon by the emperor’s envoys to investigate incognito. (September 2007)

Kidnapped by Jan Burke - When Irene Kelly's articles profiling missing children run in the Las Piernas Express, she anticipates the renewed public interest and the deluge of phone tips and remembered clues; she even anticipates the renewed pain of the anguished parents. What she doesn't expect is that the articles will set off a murderous chain reaction. (September 2007)

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson - A brilliant new thriller from the author of 2005's breakout favorite, Case Histories, again featuring the irresistibly reluctant detective Jackson Brodie. (September 2007)

Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley - The third installment about this odd couple, Paris Minton and Fearless Jones, and their dealing with the reality of being Black men in Los Angeles of the 1950’s. (September 2007)

Damnation Street by Andrew Klavan - Two-time Edgar winner Klavan again puts his own quirky spin on classic noir in his slam-bang third contemporary crime thriller to feature PIs Scott Weiss and Jim Bishop (September 2007)

Under Orders by Dick Francis - Sid Halley, champion jockey turned sleuth, returns. (September 2006)

Love, Lies and Liquor by M.C. Beaton - An Agatha Raison Mystery (August 2007)

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen - PECCAVI. It’s a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O’Donnell–Jane’s professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club. (August 2007)

The Fourth Bear: A Nusery Crime by Jasper Fforde - Jack Spratt and Mary Mary take on their most dangerous case so far as a murderous cookie stalks the streets of Reading. (August 2007)

Mask Market by Andrew Vachss - The renegade New York City PI, who operates by an idiosyncratic private moral code, has been lying low since being shot in the face. But a longtime fixer, Charlie, soon sees past Burke's attempt to pose as his own brother and arranges a meeting with a prospective client. (August 2007)

Echo Park by Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch is still on the job, working out of LAPD's Open Unsolved Unit, and despite his best efforts at holding his antiestablishment impulses in check, he's in trouble again. 12th in this compelling series. (July 2007)

Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy - Minneapolis police detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth—are on hand for a snowman-building contest their department is sponsoring in a local park. The contest turns into a double murder investigation after the frozen bodies of two policemen turn up inside two of the snowmen. (July 2007)

Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich - Alexandra "Barney" Barnaby has a degree in engineering and a passion for the way cars work. Second in this new series. (July 2007)

Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson - Arriving at a local law firm to ready breakfast for clients of one of the attorneys, she trips over the body of 20-year-old Dusty Routt, a young employee who lives down the street from Goldy. (July 2007)

Last Shot by Gregg Hurwitz - Walker Jameson, dishonored Recon Marine, has pulled off an impossible escape from Terminal Island Penitentiary. After starting a riot, he vanishes from his cell, leaving behind the body of a sadistic killer, and little else. Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Rackley, elite manhunter, must track Walker down. (July 2007)

Dead Wrong by J.A. Jance - Cochise County, Arizona Sheriff Joanna Brady has a full plate. Not only is she investigating the murder of an ex-con and trying to find out who beat one of her animal-control officers nearly to death, she is also spectacularly pregnant. (June 2007)

Heart of the World by Linda Barnes - Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle is involved in a deeply personal case: Paolina, a spunky teen whom Carlotta loves like a daughter, has disappeared. (May 2007)

Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein - Grabenstein's second humorous procedural, set in Sea Haven, New Jersey with police office and Iraqi veteran John Ceepak. (May 2007)

The Cold Moon by Jeffrey Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic criminalist, returns for a new round of crime busting. (May 2007)

The Big Boom by Domenic Stansberry - Dante Mancuso, the beak-nosed PI introduced in Edgar-winner Stansberry's Chasing the Dragon, returns to prowl the bars and alleys of San Francisco's North Beach in this solid sequel, a dark, moody excursion into neo-noir. (May 2007)

Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery by Louise Penny - Introduces Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. (May 2007)

Cripple Creek by James Sallis - Second entry in this superb noir series. (April 2007)

Kill Me by Stephen White - We’ve all been there. A loved one or a dear friend becomes desperately ill or is tragically injured. Someone—maybe even you—says, "If that ever happens to me, I wish someone would just . . . kill me." What if you could choose when to die? But once you decide, you can’t change your mind. Ever. No matter what. (March 2007)

Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters - 18th entry in the Amelia Peabody series. (March 2007)

Shadows in the Starlight by Elaine Cunnigham - A ten year veteran of the Providence Rhode Island vice squad Gwen “GiGi” Gellman began her life as a foundling and is used to being on her own. So when she finds herself unemployed, she scrapes together enough capital to start her own PI business specializing in “family problems.” But, in doing so she never guessed that she would uncover her own mysterious and mystical past. (February 2007)

Finishing School by Michelle Martinez - New York federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas is summoned at two in the morning a week before Christmas to a sadly bizarre death scene on Park Avenue. The teenage stepdaughter of Wall Street mogul and would-be U.S. senator James Seward has died of a heroin overdose, along with a fellow student at a posh East Side girls' school. Melanie soon finds herself up to her neck in politics (February 2007)

The Serpent's Kiss by Mark Sullivan - A divorced, second-generation cop out of San Diego, Seamus Moynihan figures he's witnessed the worst kinds of violence humans can visit upon one another. Until he's summoned to a crime scene where the victim was bitten to death. (February 2007)

Sea Change by Robert B. Parker - When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. (February 2007)

Blind to the Bones by Stephen Booth - Something sinister is happening on the desolate moors of England's Peak District. The villagers of Withens are dying. Nineteen-year-old Emma Renshaw disappeared two years ago. Her body has never been found, and her parents still cling to the hope that she may be alive. Fourth in the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry psychological thriller series set in England. (February 2007)