Mystery Women Sleuths

Siobhán O'Sullivan's hopes for a quiet Irish Christmas are dashed when the local Santa turns up dead in a carnival dunk tank of hot cocoa. Now instead of hunting down holiday gifts, she's pursuing a heartless killer. Seems the dead Santa was no angel either, stealing neighborhood dogs to guide his sleigh. But was it his holiday antics - or worse - that led to his death by chocolate?

Does the truth really set you free? A missing serving girl. A swindled nobleman. An Irish mobster. London 1811. When her stepcousin Alexander Dovefield, the future Baron of Newark, asks for her help to find a missing serving girl from his favorite gambling hell, Lady Zoe Demas once again enlists inquiry agent Quinton Huxley to piece together the puzzle of who is cheating whom. What at first seems like a simple swindle takes a sinister and murky turn when bodies start to pile up. As they attempt to solve the mystery, Quinton also struggles with revelations about his own past . . . and what ...

Death On the Cliffs Pelican Cove is preparing for the fall festival. A British Lord is in residence at Cliffside, the abandoned mansion by the bluffs. Jenny is hired to cater a party for the august company. When one of them is found dead below the cliffs on a stormy morning, the police dismiss it as an accident. But Jenny is not convinced. Can the faithful old butler help her unmask the killer? Meanwhile, efforts are underway to raise money for the Equine Rescue Center. The town stalwarts are at war and Heather might be in love again. Molly's life takes a difficult turn. Join Jenny and the ...

Not only is Scarlett Parker's love life in the loo - as her British cousin Vivian Tremont would say - it's also gone viral with an embarrassing video. So when Viv suggests Scarlett leave Florida to lay low in London, she hops on the next plane across the pond. Viv is the proprietor of Mims's Whims, a ladies' hat shop on Portobello Road bequeathed to both cousins by their beloved grandmother, and she wants Scarlett to finally join her in the millinery business. But a few surprises await Scarlett in London.

Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates.

Lee Barrett has agreed to attend a storage auction with Aunt Ibby - even though she suspects the forgotten rooms will yield more junk than treasure. Her skepticism vanishes once the two win a bid on an overlooked locker and uncover a trove of beautiful curiosities, including a stunning wooden carousel horse with gentle eyes and fading paint. But just before Lee leaves the fairground relic at a local repair shop, the sight of a silver samovar awakens her psychic abilities and conjures visions of murder.

Award-winning author Nevada Barr fills the pages of Blind Descent with heart-stopping suspense, plots that twist around every corner, and spectacular wilderness settings.

In the life of Precious Ramotswe, a woman duly proud of her fine traditional build, there is rarely a dull moment, and in the latest installment in the universally beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, there is much happening on Zebra Drive and Tlokweng Road. Mma Ramotswe is experiencing staffing difficulties. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni asks to be put in charge of a case involving an errant husband. But can a man investigate such matters as successfully as the number-one lady detective can?

After Vicky Bliss stumbles over a clue to the existence of a hidden masterpiece by a late Gothic sculptor, she and her then-boyfriend, Tony, embark on a contest of will and wits to find the treasure.

Pamela is hosting the next Knit and Nibble meeting and can't wait to liven up her otherwise empty home with colorful yarn, baking, and a little harmless gossip. She even recruits Amy Morgan, an old friend who recently moved to town, as the group's newest member. But on the night of the gathering, Amy doesn't show. Not until Pamela finds the woman dead outside - a knitting needle stabbed through the front of her handmade sweater....

Penelope Parish has hit a streak of bad luck, including a severe case of writer's block that is threatening her sophomore book. Hoping a writer in residence position at The Open Book bookstore in Upper Chumley-on-Stoke, England, will shake the cobwebs loose, Pen, as she's affectionately known, packs her typewriter and heads across the pond. Unfortunately, life in Chumley is far from quiet, and when the chairwoman of the local Worthington Fest is found dead, fingers are pointed at Charlotte Davenport, an American romance novelist and the future duchess of Worthington.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground.

Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....

In high school, rumors can make or destroy a reputation. A thoughtless nickname can turn each day into a living hell. Gossip is irresistible—and contagious. But sometimes, gossip can kill. Mackenzie Laughlin, formerly with Oregon's River Glen police department, has reluctantly agreed to investigate a local woman's disappearance. The case reconnects her with Jesse James Taft, a PI gifted at getting under Mac's skin. But when the body is found tangled in river weeds, Mac and Taft realize that the case has changed, from one missing woman to a hunt for a terrifying and relentless killer.

AN OLD HOUSE...A DEAD BODY...AND A MYSTERIOUS YOUNG WOMAN. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PAST MEETS THE PRESENT? A mysterious young woman arrives in the small town of Shady Pines to renovate a beautiful old bed and breakfast, but is that her only reason for coming? Misty Raven is on a mission, but she soon gets distracted when a body is discovered buried in the backyard of the bed and breakfast she just purchased. Could it be related to a murder that happened in the house fifteen years ago? While Misty searches for answers, someone doesn't want the truth uncovered and tries to stop her. When two ...

Things are starting to look up for Fortune Redding. Even though her life was at stake, the CIA assassin had balked at taking on a new identity in Sinful, Louisiana. But instead of hating it like she'd thought she would, Fortune now has friends she cares about and just finished up an incredible first date with the sexiest deputy in the state. Sure, there's been a murder or two that she's gotten mixed up in since she arrived in town, but she's hoping all of that is behind her.

For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly.

There isn't much crime in Lilyvale, Arkansas, but local authorities have their hands full with Ms. Sherry Mae Stanton Cutler and her housemates - a crafty group of retirees who've dubbed themselves the Silver Six. But when Sherry Mae's niece, Nixy, arrives to keep them in line, Lilyvale also plays host to a killer.

Alchemist Zoe Faust and her impish gargoyle sidekick Dorian Robert-Houdin travel to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to investigate a mysterious discovery found in the wreckage of the tragic fire: a long-lost gargoyle illustration drawn by Victor Hugo himself. When the work of art is stolen under impossible circumstances, Dorian must use his “little gray cells” — not to mention his culinary skills — to solve the crime and discover the true origins of where he came from.

For her latest excursion, Miranda is thrilled to take a close-knit group of rock climbers, the Risky Business Adventurers, up the challenging Battleship Rock Trail to paint and sample moonshine. But the outing is cut short when they discover a skeleton near the trailhead. Even more startling, the bones belong to Howard Cable, Miranda's cousin...and a former classmate of the Risky Business group.