mystery fiction

"Quinn Marcelo wouldn't necessarily win the award for Most Popular Person at her school, but unbeknownst to her peers, Quinn entertains them at every football, basketball, and baseball game--as Peaches the Parrot, her high school's God-like mascot. But when someone sabotages the legendary Peaches costume at the Homecoming Game, Quinn's left unmasked and humiliated. Determined to uncover the culprit, Quinn publicly unravels the lives of everyone in her path--including Tessa Banks, the most popular girl in school--in a no-holds-barred conspiracy-fueled investigation. But when a killer starts going after the people implicated in Quinn's mascot disaster, she must race to uncover the truth behind her feathery faux-pas--before the truth kills her too"--Provided by publisher.

Meet Jessica Jones: Retired super hero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell?s Kitchen, New York. The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night?s poor choices. But something about Amber Randall?s story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don?t act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something ?perfect.? Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins? new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community? A mother?s intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect?not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.

"Salem Amani is a world-weary sixteen-year-old living with his mother and older sister in a haunted house. But all Sal really wants is to be ordinary, which is hard to do when you live in a house full of ghosts. And when a strange boy arrives on his doorstep asking more questions than he's at all comfortable with, Sal's efforts to be ordinary are put under even greater strain. Until Pax makes his offer: 'I could help you with the hauntings. . .I'm good with ghosts.' But despite his initial dislike of Pax, Sal can't help but find himself unexpectedly drawn to the boy. And as the two grow closer, and Pax offers to help Sal scare away his ghosts for good, Sal finds himself sinking deeper into a lie concealing the truth about his family. When the true nature of the "hauntings" is revealed, Sal must confront reality--or risk losing Pax for good"--Provided by publisher.

"A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript. When Nardeen's home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something--or someone--she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family's killers to justice, regardless of the cost"--Provided by publisher.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she?s pretty sure they won?t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren?t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples?Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana?in order to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real?and the stakes are life or death.

There is nothing frivolous about the way a Hawthorne man loves. An amnesiac playboy and the woman with every reason to hate him. A daredevil, his favorite heiress, and three nights in Prague. An unlikely pairing between a cowboy and a goth. Four brothers with an inescapable bond, strengthened by the family they chose, in a house of wonders that promises to always deliver one more secret. Discover their stories of love and loss, power, puzzles, and life-and-death secrets in this mind-blowingly romantic collection that proves that when you love the way Hawthornes love, there is no going back.

"Players compete for millions in a game of riddles orchestrated by Avery and the Hawthorne brothers, but not everyone is playing by the rules".

"When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the S?ret? du Qu?bec to places even he is afraid to go. But must. And there he finds four young cadets in the S?ret? academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map"--Provided by publisher.

Young sleuths Abbi, Lydia, and Daniel are excited to search for clues of a cougar near Abbi's home, but they soon discover something more might be going on.

"A high-pitched loud sound in an elevator shaft sends young sleuths Abbi, Daniel, and Lydia on the hunt for the source"--Provided by publisher.