Showing titles in Amateur Sleuths

For a hundred years, the residents of a rural Welsh village have been hiding the truth. Now, a newcomer has started digging around, uncovering more than just buried secrets. Retired detective, Graham Williams, has moved to Bethgelert for a fresh start, determined to put the horrors of last year behind him. He has seen his fair share of disturbing scenes, but nothing prepares him for what he sees hanging in the gnarly old tree outside his front window.

It's an evening like any other when an explosion rips through the leafy Oxford suburb Sarah Tucker calls home. In the aftermath, a house now stands devastated, with two adults dead and a young girl missing. With the police more interested in keeping the neighbors from rubbernecking than in searching for the missing child, Sarah becomes obsessed with finding her, and enlists the help of Oxford private investigator Zoë Boehm. But Sarah's and Zoë's search reveals more secrets than answers.

A year after arriving in Benedict, Beth Rivers is feeling very at home in Alaska, even as outsiders are starting to return to enjoy the brief summer perfection. She feels like she’s finally let go of most of her demons. She's even found her father, Eddy Rivers—or, rather, he found her—and she's trying to find the middle ground between anger and forgiveness. One sunny July day, Beth boards a tourist ship to see the glaciers, the main reason visitors venture to the area. But when the captain has to navigate to an island, a bloodied woman is found standing on the shore, waving for help.

Scotland, 1912: When Maud and Daisy travel to Clachan Castle on the Isle of Mull to investigate the theft of a valuable statuette, at first the case seems straightforward. But when their prime suspect, bad-tempered fellow guest Mr Tremain, is found dead in his bed, the detective duo realise the castle is under attack… At first, it appears the murder is impossible. All the doors and windows to the room were locked from the inside, and there was no way for the killer to escape.

This 19th mystery in the China Bales series is a cozy herbal treat from national best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert. While Pecan Springs bustles back to life in the warmth of spring, one woman’s life is tragically brought to an end. Assigned to cover the story, an intern from the local paper gets too deeply involved. When she disappears, China is determined to find her—before the young journalist becomes headlines herself.

Extra, extra, read all about it! Countess turned advice columnist Amelia Amesbury finds herself playing the role of sleuth when a night at the theatre turns deadly. Victorian Countess Amelia Amesbury’s secret hobby, writing an advice column for a London penny paper, has gotten her into hot...

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events...

In Clouds of Witness, Dorothy L. Sayers presents another brilliant case for the charismatic Lord Peter Wimsey. This time, the stakes are personal. When his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murder after the death of their sister's fiancé, Lord Peter must race against time to uncover the truth and clear his family's name. Set against the backdrop of English aristocracy and filled with Sayers’ signature wit and intricate plotting, this classic detective novel takes listeners through a maze of lies, secrets, and conflicting testimonies.

When a woman Clark Thomas has never seen before sits down across from him in his bookstore, she gives him an invitation to dinner . . . and murder. He takes the beautiful stranger up on her offer. Her father is the host. He is a retired Hollywood music composer and lover of puzzles. What Clark doesn’t know is that someone wants the host dead, and the host wants Clark to figure out who before it’s too late.

In the riveting second installment of the National Park Mystery Series, archaeologist Chuck Bender finds himself and his young wife and stepdaughters in the crosshairs of an unknown killer when he defends his brother-in-law from false accusations of murder in the brutal slaying of a resort worker in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Murder has come to Zumba class… and Janet refuses to sit this one out. By now, Janet Marsh knows that game time can be deadly at her new retirement village, Sunset Village. But why do the bodies stack faster than the coins on Casino Night? This time around, her morning Zumba class ends with a shocking discovery: the vibrant instructor, Marge Gusterson, has been strangled with a resistance band and left in the exercise closet! While the authorities are quick to call it a tragic accident, Janet’s sharp instincts tell her something far more sinister is hiding behind the neon leggings and ...

Finally settled with Viking vampire Eric, Sookie finds normalcy just as chaos surrounds her. Sookie’s former lover Bill, her boss Sam, and even Eric are struggling with family problems. Then things get really interesting when the werewolves tell Sookie an ominous presence is lurking.

Vik Island weight-loss group Losers Club is on the mainland for the Police Scotland Bravery Awards and, even better, they're staying in a posh hotel. Diet sheets have been abandoned and Gordon's dungarees are straining at the seams, so what could be nicer than a gentle stroll up Bennachie to offset all those breakfast sausages? When the Losers stumble upon the body of a young woman on the hillside, they quickly become entangled in a web of deceit surrounding local road protestors.

Steph Williams has arrived at the wealthy gated community of Beaulieu Heights ready to start her new position as head gardener. Surrounded by mansions and acres of land, it's worlds apart from the life she knows, but she's determined to give it her best shot. If she happens to accidentally overhear private conversations while trimming the bushes, or is refused access to a locked shed, she knows not to question it - after all, gardeners should be seen and not heard. Until notes start turning up, threatening to reveal the deepest secrets of the residents.

Herbalist China Bayles' latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the Hemlock House Library, a priceless collection of rare gardening books housed in a haunted mountainside mansion that once belonged to Sunny Carswell, a reclusive heiress. But the most valuable book - A Curious Herbal, created by Elizabeth Blackwell in the 1730s - is missing, and Dorothea is under suspicion.

In the village of Pittlewood, near Earlsraven, they believe in faerie folk. Ask anyone - they'll say there have always been goblins living in the woods nearby. When one of the villagers is found murdered, the footprints made by tiny little shoes are found everywhere around the body. Is it possible? Can one of the little people really be the murderer? The villagers think so. Nathalie and Louise can't believe it and set out to find the truth. Then another murder occurs, and, once again, a tiny trail of footprints seems to implicate the goblins.

After attending a family wedding in Chicago, young widow Bella Jordan is returning to the guesthouse she runs in Lily Dale—the quirky upstate New York lakeside village famous for its spiritual mediums—when she catches a glimpse of the impossible at the airport: her late husband Sam. A former science teacher, Bella is grounded in facts and logic. She doesn't believe in ghosts. But even when she's back home with the competing distractions of her quirky guests, small son Max, resident pet cats and a very unexpected litter of puppies, Bella can't find a good explanation for what she's seen.

Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn’t had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips, and, of course, a dip in the ocean. Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: A guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can’t afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible.

As local merchants unite to attract tourists for a much anticipated weekend quilting event, business is sure to spill over into eateries like Daisy's Tea Garden. Reese Masemer had been dating one of Daisy's employees, Tessa, an artist, though their last interaction was as strained as a cup of loose leaf tea. Now Reese has been found dead near a covered bridge where Tessa's been practicing her sketches.

In this fast-paced and deliciously witty spy romcom, a single mom finds herself wrapped up in unexpected adventure when she is recruited to pose as a secret agent, perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. "Suspend disbelief and savor this frothy romantic thriller." ―The Washington...