mystery fiction

Maisie Dobbs, a one-time maid who was encouraged by her employer to seek an education, becomes a private investigator after serving at the front as a nurse during World War I, but her first case brings back disturbing memories of the war when her inquiries lead her to The Retreat, a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers from which no one ever seems to emerge.

"What happens when two best friends take on the world's worst summer? On the first day of vacation, ten-year-old Ivy Crowden falls down the stairs and breaks her leg. Stuck in a plaster cast, she's certain her summer is doomed. Not even Teddy, her neighbor and best friend, can cheer her up because he's dealing with his own pain: the loss of a beloved dog. But when Ivy witnesses a possible burglary from her living room window, her summer takes a sudden turn from meh to mysterious. Who are the criminals? Might a classmate be involved? And...uh-oh. A second mystery is nipping at Ivy's heels. Cue the best friends, the best dog, and the best chance that summer can be saved!"--From the publisher's web site.

Seventeen-year-old Zuretta Palmer travels to Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair to find her missing sister, but when the police and the Pinkertons refuse to help her, Zuretta begins her own investigation by becoming a maid at the notorious Castle.

"Thirty years ago, a teenage Vincent King was sent to prison. But now, he's served his sentence and is returning to his hometown. The hometown where his childhood best friend, Walk, is now the chief of police. The town where his childhood sweetheart, Star Radley, still lives. The same Star Radley whose sister he killed. Duchess, Star's daughter, is a self-proclaimed outlaw. She needs to be. Who else is going to take care of her and her five-year-old brother? Star is still dazzling, still beautiful, but she hasn't shined as bright since Vincent was sent away. Too often it's Duchess and Walk who are the ones taking care of her. But when Duchess exacts her own vigilante revenge, she will set into motion a series of events that threatens not only her own family, but everyone she grows close to. A crime thriller that will break your heart and a literary novel with a mystery at its core, We Begin at the End unforgettably examines how the choices we make can nudge us into the dangerous ground between good and evil"--Provided by the publisher.

"From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a #1 IndieNext pick, a gorgeous and pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands. Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska. Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she's witnessed--inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is mauled to death, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then is something more sinister at play? Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves--if she isn't consumed by a wild that was once her refuge"--Provided by the publisher.

The morning after her eighteenth birthday, Andrea McNulty wakes up in a motel room, covered in blood and unable to remember what happened the previous night, only to discover that her parents were brutally attacked and she is the main suspect.

"From literary icon Joyce Carol Oates comes a brand new collection of haunting and, at times, darkly humorous mystery & suspense stories. These are tales of psyches pushed to their limits by the expectations of everyday life--from a woman who gets lost on her drive home to her plush suburban home and ends up breaking into a stranger's house, to a first-person account of a cloned 1940s magazine pinup girl being sold at auction and embodying America's ideals of beauty and womanhood. Taken as a whole, the collection forms a poignant tapestry of regular people searching for their place in a social hierarchy, often with devastating and disastrous results. Rendered with stylish, fresh writing from an author who continues to push the envelope, the stories deftly weave in and out of a stream-of-consciousness to reflect the ways we process traumatic experiences and impart that uncertainty and uneasiness to the reader. Originally appearing in publications as disparate as Harper's Vice, and Conjunctions, the stories comprising Night, Neon showcase Oates' mastery of the suspense story--and her relentless use of the form to conduct unapologetically honest explorations of American identity"--From the publisher's web site.

The county's chief deputy prosecutor is asked to investigate the rape and murder of one of his colleagues, a former lover.

"Two sisters start a detective agency and solve a series of everyday mysteries about themselves and their family"--Provided by publisher.

"Bram moves to the small town of Louth in order to help her uncle start his new inn, but when she discovers a legacy of silenced women tied to her new home, she sets out to investigate the truth behind the town's 'Dead Girl' myths"--Provided by publisher.