Humor Crime

Two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he’s inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the tower’s façade.

When snobby candle maker Darcy Bloom ends up dead outside Junie Carmichael's bookshop, all signs point to local antiques dealer Walter Fitch. But Junie knows he's not the one with a guilty heir. Junie came to Thistleberry Point to pack up her late aunt's bookstore-not stumble over a dead body during the Midsummer Market. Darcy Bloom had a fake lineage, a real brooch, and a knack for making enemies. Now she's dead, and Walter Fitch is the prime suspect. But Junie isn't buying it. With her chatty parrot Edgar, her aunt's spirited best friend Flo, and a stong cup of local gossip, Junie digs ...

In modern-day America, Dez is a former lawyer and teacher - an ephebophile with a proclivity for teenage girls hiding out in a trailer park with his latest conquest, Chloe.

Having been in and out of courtrooms (and therapists' offices) for a number of years, Dez is adrift, at odds with a society that persecutes him over his desires. From his couch one afternoon, Dez watches an interview with Jasper Ulrickson, a doting father and loving husband whose heartrending memoir, Lessons from My Daughter, has become a national best seller.

Dr. Siri Paiboun, the ex-national coroner of Laos, may have more experience dissecting bodies than making art, but when he manages to smuggle a fancy movie camera into the country he devises a plan to shoot a Lao adaptation of War and Peace. The only problem? The Ministry of Culture must approve the script first. That and he can't figure out how to turn on the camera. Meanwhile, the skeleton of a woman has appeared under the Anusawari Arch in the middle of the night. Siri assists his friend, the newly promoted Senior Police Inspector Phosy Vongvichai, with the ensuing investigation.

Tom Angleberger scored two critical and popular hits with his Star Wars–inspired The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. In the hilarious Fake Mustache, young Lenny Flem Jr.’s friend Casper disguises himself with a shockingly convincing handlebar mustache and begins robbing banks, quickly amassing a fortune. Setting his sights on the presidency, Casper is working on plans for world domination—and only Lenny stands in his way.

Ramona Bates thought that a dating site that matched people based on their internet search history was the perfect way to get everyone off her back about her lack of a love-life. Ramona was a crime fiction writer, who was going to have a google history to match that? When she met Joshua Ryan, a butcher's assistant who knew a surprising amount about murder, it seemed like destiny. When Ramona released her first book, the local police force realised that a lot of the murder scenes matched with old crime reports. Now they are on the hunt, but will they catch the right person? In a twisting ...

Adrienne is disappointed when her friend from housekeeping, Cece Blake, announces she’ll be on vacation for their next voyage. But when Cece shows up to board as a passenger this time around, Adrienne can hardly believe it! This cruise, the popular charlatan – er, hotshot entrepreneur - Paul Parker, and his Spider’s Web of investors promise to make a millionaire out of one lucky contestant in their Claim Your Millions contest. "Winters will have you giggling into your book!" The normally no-nonsense Cece falls hook, line, and sinker for the scam, and she’s out to win at any cost… ...

What’s worse than a self-centered beauty queen? A cruise chock full of them! “Winters will have you giggling into your book!” But what if the self-centred beauty queen is also a murderer? When the Swan of the Seas hosts a beauty pageant, Adrienne is forced to spend her time dealing with narcissistic judges, oblivious contestants and a feminist protest. The event seems hectic enough, when Diana Penn, the esteemed beauty queen and headlining judge, is found murdered! Now, it’s up to Adrienne and her friends Cece, Sam, and First Officer Hot Stuff—er, First Officer Ethan Lee—to sort...

The adventures of Donald J. Sobol’s amateur detective Encyclopedia Brown have been delighting puzzle and mystery lovers for over four decades - earning a special Edgar Award in the process. Here are 10 more devilishly clever noggin scratchers for young listeners to try and solve. Join Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown as he keeps the streets of tiny Idaville free from petty crooks, ruffians, and altogether no-goodniks - all for 25 cents a day, plus expenses.

The Heritage Hall book fair was my chance to showcase my bookbinding techniques. Instead, I become the main suspect in a murder. Paper flowers and leather bindings filled my Heritage Hall book fair booth. This was my chance to showcase traditional bookbinding techniques. Instead, I found a dead authenticator in my space. Mark Henderson, known for exposing forgeries, lay sprawled among tools stolen from my exhibit. Making me the prime suspect. Book preservation is my passion - being a murder suspect, not so much. I teamed up with Fitzgerald, my Maine Coon cat and journalist Jennifer Walsh to...

A MiniMystery Series that will touch your heart and leave you craving for more! FINNIAN CHURCH IS TRYING to piece his life back together. After losing his leg while in the Army, he is starting a new career as an insurance investigator. Joining him is newly hired videographer, Annie Summers — a woman who lost her hearing but is trying to make it as a single mother of two. The world might see them as broken and battered souls, but as they come together to solve mysteries, they discover they make a great team. Join this unlikely duo as they investigate their way through murder, arson, theft,...

Adrienne is looking forward to the scrapbooking cruise, especially when she learns that her friend Minnie’s daughter, Vanessa, is joining them as a guest! However, Minnie and Addi's friends Cece and Greg Washington all seem to be acting rather strangely, and Addi can’t understand what’s gotten into them. Before she can figure out the bizarre behavior of the crew, this cruise’s guest of honor, scrapbooking superstar Irina Clark is murdered, and all signs point to Vanessa as the culprit. Could Minnie's daughter really have done it? Unfortunately, the Captain finds out what Minnie, ...

Kelp has a plan, and John Dortmunder knows that means trouble. His friend Kelp is a jinx, and his schemes, no matter how well intentioned, tend to spiral quickly out of control. But this one, Kelp swears, is airtight. He read it in a book.

In county lock-up for a traffic charge, Kelp came across a library of trashy novels by an author named Richard Stark. The hero is a thief named Parker whose plans, unlike Kelp and Dortmunder's, always work out. In one, Parker orchestrates a kidnapping so brilliant that, Kelp thinks, it would have to work in real life.

There's nothing like a good deli, and the Red River Deli in Trenton is one of the best. World-famous for its pastrami, cole slaw, and for its disappearing managers. Over the last month, three have vanished from the face of the earth, and the only clue in each case is one shoe that's been left behind. The police are baffled. Lula is convinced that it's a case of alien abduction. Whatever it is, they'd better figure out what's going on before they lose their new manager, Ms. Stephanie Plum.

James Flynn is an expert shot, a black belt in karate, fluent in four languages, and irresistible to women. He’s also a heavily medicated patient in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital. Flynn believes his locked ward is the HQ of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. When the hospital is acquired by a new HMO, Flynn is convinced that the Secret Service has been infiltrated by the enemy. He escapes to save the day, and in the process, Flynn kidnaps a young Hispanic orderly named Sancho. This crazy day trip turns into a very real adventure when Flynn is mistaken for an actual secret agent.

Fletch, now newly engaged and happily living out his days in Italy, finds himself embroiled in yet another scandal. His soon-to-be father-in-law has been kidnapped and is now presumed dead, and the priceless collection of rare art that belongs to his fiancée’s family has been stolen. Ever the investigative reporter, he receives a tip about the missing art that lands him in Boston, where he walks right into a murder scene in his apartment. What clearly looks like a setup to the unfazed Fletch looks quite different to the detective assigned to the case, Mr. Francis Xavier Flynn.

Sylvestre Bonnard is a mild-mannered, kind-hearted book collector and antiquarian, a little tyrannized by his housekeeper maybe, but nonetheless respected and eminent in his field of research into the abbeys, abbots and monks of medieval France. He has spent his life with his books, and knows little of the ways of the world. Resigned to reaching old age and retirement without being able to complete his life's work, he suddenly comes across the one thing that would not only complete it, but that would crown it with success. He heads off on an adventure to get his hands on this treasure and ...

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

A captivating spy story, brimming with more twists and turns than a Golden Ager’s hula-hoop convention, Hornett’s debut comedy novel introduces the world to Britain's latest, and most endearing, special agent, Maggie Matheson. Fans of Richard Osman's Murder Club books and The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson will simply love this book. “A laugh-out-loud spy thriller with a twist. Maggie is a thumping good story which keeps you guessing to the end” “Hilarious... you’ll fall in love with eccentric Maggie in minutes..." “Maggie ...

Thrift shop til someone drops... The Vintage Vendetta When she receives a strange invitation to her aunt’s midnight funeral in the cozy Minnesota town of Pine Grove, Jessica Braun’s life is going nowhere. Her marriage is over, and her dead-end job has run out of road. Now she’s inheriting an old log house full of collected treasures and memories, and learns Aunt Daphne’s death was no accident. To make matters worse, Jess is the hopeless deputy’s prime suspect. After a second old-timer is silenced and a third may be in danger, she dives into her own investigation and the town’s ...