113 results for "Mystery"

The word is murder: a novel

Horowitz, Anthony
"A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz--a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories--suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into the mystery.But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he's at the center of a story he can't control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own."- from back cover.
Harper Perennial 2019-05-07 390 pages

Think Twice

Harlan Coben
A man presumed dead is suddenly wanted for murder in this thriller of secrets, lies, and dangerous conspiracies that threaten to cover up the truth. Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on - until now, when two federal agents walked into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is. According to the agents, Greg is still alive--and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers. Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes. Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy that stretches back into the past churn at the heart of Harlan Coben's blistering new novel.
Grand Central Publishing 2024-12-03 400 pages

The Match

Harlan Coben
A shocking genetic match exposes a family's darkest secret in this gripping #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from the creator of the #1 hit Netflix series Stay Close After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he's known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life. Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he's ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare. Was his cousin's downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a treacherous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time? Named a Best Book by USA Today - Wall Street Journal - Publishers Weekly
Grand Central Publishing 2023-02-07 352 pages

In big trouble

Lippman, Laura
Join the world of New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan in the Shamus and Anthony Award-winning fourth book in the acclaimed series In Big Trouble Tess Monaghan has learned the hard way how to survive on the streets of Baltimore—first as a fearless investigative reporter and lately as a PI. But a new case is about to take her way out of her element. What begins with a tantalizing shard of a newspaper headline—"In Big Trouble"—above a photograph of an old boyfriend will end far away in another world, where people dress and talk differently . . . and rich people's games can have lethal consequences. Here where the sun is merciless—and curiosity can kill faster than a rattler's bite—Tess is going to have to confront her past and, hopefully, live to tell about it. For the answers she seeks about a man she thought she knew may be somehow linked to a murderer who two-steps to a very deadly drummer.
William Morrow 2009-10-27 308 pages

Butchers Hill

Laura Lippman
Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out the shingle as a P.I.-for-hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Her first client is Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car, just sprung from jail. He wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime for his own peace of mind, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses she locates start dying. Is the "Butcher of Butchers Hill" as it again? Or is there another, even more sinister force at work?
HarperCollins Publishers 1998 275 pages

True Detectives

Jonathan Kellerman
In Jonathan Kellerman's gripping novels, the city of Los Angeles is as much a living, breathing character as the heroes and villains who roam its labyrinthine streets. Sunny on the surface but shadowy beneath, this world of privilege and pleasure has a dark core and a dangerous edge. In True Detectives, Kellerman skillfully brings his renowned gifts for breathless suspense and sharp psychological insight to a tale that resonates on every level and satisfies at every turn. Bound by blood but divided by troubles as old as Cain and Abel, Moses Reed and Aaron Fox were first introduced in Kellerman's bestselling Bones. They are sons of the same strong-willed mother, and their respective fathers were cops, partners, and friends. Their turbulent family history has set them at odds, despite their shared calling. Moses--part Boy Scout, part bulldog, man of few words--is a no-frills LAPD detective. Aaron, sharp dresser and smooth operator, is an ex-cop turned high-end private eye. Usually they go their separate ways. But the disappearance of Caitlin Frostig isn't usual. For Moses, it's an ice-cold mystery he just can't outrun, even with the help of psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis. For Aaron, it's a billable-hours bonanza from his most lucrative client. Like it or not, Moses and Aaron are in this one together-and the rivalry that rules them won't let either man quit till the case is cracked. A straight-arrow, straight-A student from Malibu, Caitlin has only two men in her life: her sullen single father and her wholesome college sweetheart, who even the battling brothers agree seems too downright upright to be true. Reluctantly tag-teaming in a desperate search for fresh leads, Moses and Aaron zero in on Caitlin's white knight as their primary person of interest, hoping that, like most people in L.A., he has a secret side. But they uncover more than just a secret as they descend into the sinister, seamy side of the City of Angels after dark, populated by a Hollywood Babylon cast of the glamorous and the damned: a millionaire movie director turned hatemongering eccentric; a desperate Beverly Hills housewife looking for an exit from the fast lane; a heartthrob actor being eaten alive by personal demons; a hooker who's probably seen it all . . . and might just know too much. And at the center, a dead young woman whose downward spiral and brutal end loom over Moses and Aaron like an omen of what may come to be if the dark end of the street claims another lost soul. From the Hardcover edition.
Random House Large Print 2009 528 pages

Gun, with occasional music

Lethem, Jonathan
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems-there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse. Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.
Harcourt Brace 1994 262 pages

A red death: an Easy Rawlins mystery

Mosley, Walter
A “fascinating and vividly rendered” ( The Wall Street Journal ) mystery featuring one of crime fiction’s greatest protagonists—private investigator Easy Rawlins—as he agrees to a dangerous surveillance job. It’s 1953 in Red-baiting, blacklisting Los Angeles—a moral tar pit ready to swallow Easy Rawlins. Easy is out of the hurting business and into the housing (and favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him for tax evasion. Special Agent Darryl T. Craxton, FBI, offers to bail him out if he agrees to infiltrate the First American Baptist Church and spy on alleged communist organizer Chaim Wenzler. That’s when the murders begin....
Washington Square Press 2002-10-01 312 pages

Mr. Monk gets even

Goldberg, Lee
An all-new original mystery starring Adrian Monk, the brilliant investigator who always knows when something's out of place.... It may be a foggy San Francisco summer, but for Adrian Monk the future is looking bright. Natalie is off working as a cop in Summit, his brother Ambrose and Yuki are a week away from their wedding, Monk has a new assistant—Natalie's daughter Julie—and even a girlfriend, Ellen Morse. All this change doesn't keep Monk from work, though. He's investigating a string of accidental deaths and suicides that he quickly determines are actually murders. But when the man Monk pegs for the murder is killed, Monk is forced to face the fact that, for the first time, he might actually be wrong. Have stability, domesticity, and happiness robbed Monk of his special skills? Has Monk lost his mojo? Meanwhile, Monk's imprisoned arch nemesis, the morbidly obese criminal mastermind Dale the Whale, is being transferred from prison to San Francisco General Hospital for an operation. But when Dale escapes and all signs point to Captain Stottlemeyer as his accomplice, Monk will have to reboot his detective skills to clear the captain's name—and prove that he's still the one and only Monk.
Obsidian Mystery 2013 274 pages

The Lightning Rod A Zig and Nola Novel

Brad Meltzer
New York Times Bestseller "Nola is the most accomplished kicker of ass since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." --A. J. Finn Zig and Nola are back--in the hugely entertaining, highly anticipated follow-up to Brad Meltzer's #1 New York Times bestselling thriller The Escape Artist. What's the one secret no one knows about you? Archie Mint has a secret. He's led a charmed life--he's got a beautiful wife, two impressive kids, and a successful military career. But when he's killed while trying to stop a robbery in his own home, his family is shattered--and then shocked when the other shoe drops. Mint's been hiding criminal secrets none of them could have imagined. While working on Mint's body before his funeral, mortician "Zig" Zigarowski discovers something he was never meant to see. That telling detail leads him to Mint's former top secret military unit and his connection to artist Nola Brown. Two years ago, Nola saved Zig's life--so he knows better than most that she's as volatile and dangerous as a bolt of lightning. Following Nola's trail, he uncovers one of the U.S. government's most intensely guarded secrets--an undisclosed military facility that dates back to the Cold War and holds the key to something far more sinister: a hidden group willing to compromise the very safety and security of America itself. Trouble always finds her... She's the lightning rod.
HarperCollins 2023-04-04 432 pages

Mr. Monk and the dirty cop

Goldberg, Lee
THE REAL OCD: Welcome to the all-new series of original mysteries starring Adrian Monk, the brilliant investigator who always knows when something's out of place. Captain Leland Stottlemeyer relies on Monk to solve his most baffling cases -- so most of the credit and attention goes to Monk. But Stottlemeyer is okay with that. Or is he? When the captain is faced with budget cuts, Monk's fees are one of the expenses he trims. Monk is too compulsive to stop investigating; he resorts to calling in tips under assumed names. The captain is infuriated, and so is Monk's assistant, Natalie, who would like to see Monk -- and herself -- get paid. But when Stottlemeyer is arrested for murder, he turns to the only detective who can possibly prove his innocence: Adrian Monk. That is, if Monk can overcome some potentially crippling obstacles along the way.
Obsidian 2010 275 pages

Cinnamon kiss

Mosley, Walter
It is the Summer of Love and Easy Rawlins is contemplating robbing an armored car. It's farther outside the law than Easy has ever traveled, but his daughter, Feather, needs a medical treatment that costs far more than Easy can earn or borrow in time. And his friend Mouse tells him it's a cinch. Then another friend, Saul Lynx, offers a job that might solve Easy's problem without jail time. He has to track the disappearance of an eccentric, prominent attorney. His assistant of sorts, the beautiful "Cinnamon" Cargill, is gone as well. Easy can tell there is much more than he is being told-Robert Lee, his new employer, is as suspect as the man who disappeared. But his need overcomes all concerns, and he plunges into unfamiliar territory, from the newfound hippie enclaves to a vicious plot that stretches back to the battlefields of Europe.
Little, Brown 2005-09-19 312 pages

Indemnity Only

Sara Paretsky
Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshwski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.
Thorndike Press 2011 395 pages

Mr. Monk and the blue flu

Goldberg, Lee
Monk is horrified when he learns there's going to be a blue flu in San Francisco-until Capt. Stottlemeyer explains that it just means the police plan to call in "sick" until they get a better contract.The good news is the labor dispute will give Monk a chance to get back on the force.The bad news is it means he'll be a "scab"-and he doesn't like the sound of that either. But before he knows it, Monk has his badge back, and his own squad to command. Unfortunately, some of the squad members make Monk look like a paragon of mental health. But despite the challenges, they'll have to pull together to catch an astrologer's killer, solve a series of mysterious fatal assaults, and most importantly, clean up their desks.
Thorndike/Chivers 2007 369 pages

Blonde Faith

Walter Mosley,Walter
Easy Rawlins comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon.Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems. The love of his life is marrying another man and his friend Mouse is wanted for murder. As he's searching for a clue to Christmas Black's whereabouts, two suspicious MPs hire him to find his friend Black on behalf of the US Army. Easy's investigation brings him to Faith Laneer, a blonde woman with a dark past.As Easy begins to put the pieces together, he realizes that Black's dissappearance has its roots in Vietnam, and that Faith might be in a world of danger.
Orion Publishing Group, Limited 2008-08-05 320 pages

Nobody's fool

Coben, Harlan
"Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There's a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn't know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts -- and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who's working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It's unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day"-- Dust jacket flap.
Grand Central 2025-03-25 340 pages

Been wrong so long it feels like right: a king oliver novel

Mosley, Walter
"Joe King Oliver is at a crossroads: with his grandmother on death's door, he tasked with tracking down his estranged father, a man he discovers has been out of prison for more than a decade. He also seeks to protect another family, a mysterious woman and her young daughter on the run from an abusive billionaire who'll stop at nothing to retrieve them. Heartfelt, pulse-pounding, and undeniably sexy, Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right shows Walter Mosley at his very best"-- Provided by publisher.
Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company 2026-01-27 336 pages

Closed casket: the new Hercule Poirot mystery

Hannah, Sophie
"What I intend to say to you will come as a shock ..." With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny ... and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live. Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?
William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2016 302 pages