Fiction : Crime

In her debut mystery, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, intrepid amateur sleuth and bakery owner Hannah Swensen proved that when it comes to crime, nothing is sweeter than a woman who knows how to really mix it up. Now, the flame-haired, tart-talking (and baking) heroine is back, judging a contest where the competition is really murder. Strawberry Shortcake Murder. When the president of Hartland Flour chooses cozy Lake Eden, Minnesota, as the spot for their first annual Dessert Bake-Off, Hannah is thrilled to serve as the head judge. But when a fellow judge, Coach Boyd Watson, is found stone-cold dead, facedown in Hannah's celebrated strawberry shortcake, Lake Eden's sweet ride to fame turns very sour indeed. Between perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and Chocolate Crunchies, Hannah's snooping into the coach's private life and not coming up short on suspects. And could Watson's harsh criticism during the judging have given one of the contestants a license to kill? The stakes are rising faster than dough, and Hannah will have to be very careful, because somebody is cooking up a recipe for murder…with Hannah landing on the “necessary ingredients” list. "Another delicious adventure…a superior cozy sure to leave readers satisfied…but hungry for more." — Publishers Weekly. Includes seven delicious recipes! more...

Price: $5.95

Three "Queen's Quorum" Keystone Mystery Classics! If you love gaslight mysteries and chases in hansom cabs or horseless carriages, and fin-de-siecle detectives, you will love this remarkable reading value. Here in one mammoth omnibus are three writers whose work was selected by the legendary mystery novelist and critic Ellery Queen as among the 100 best detective classics of all time, with two Queen's Quorum picks (Average Jones and Prince Zaleski), plus one of the rarest of mystery characters (Marquis of the C.I.D., the Sleuth of St. James Square). On the case from 1911 is the detective the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection called mystery master Samuel Hopkins Adams' "most famous creation," the man whose moniker totally belies his real character, that ratiocinating genius and member of the Cosmic Club, AdrianVan Reypen Egerton, or "Average" Jones as his friends shorten it. Here how the Enyclopedia describes his adventures, "This handsome young advertising genius maintains a remarkable sense of humor throughout a series of unusual cases which often have a medical background." Match wits with Jones as the takes on the cases of The Red Spot, the Mercy-Sign, the Blue Fires, the Million Dollar Dog, and others. Next, the game's afoot in the 1920s exploits of Sir Henry Marquis, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard (C.I.D.), known as the Sleuth of St. James Square. "A middle-aged Englishman with short cropped grey hair, Marquis seems more like a typical outdoorsman than a policeman," the Encyclopedia says. "Although a Londoner, he directs secret service operations in Asia, and many of his cases take place in distant countries, including the U.S. These stories carefully combine ratiocination with dramatic flare." Then meet the justly praised M. P. Shiel's 1895 Prince Zaleski, whom the Fantastic Victoriana website hails as "one of the most memorable of the Victorian detectives, on a level with Sherlock Holmes himself. Zaleski is Russian royalty more...

Price: $5.99

A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage - and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town - the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly "accident" back in the terrible summer of 1960 - is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. more...

Price: $11.99

Imagine a killer who thinks, "What is the worst thing anyone has ever done?"--and then goes far beyond it. Now imagine four women --a police detective, an assistant DA, a reporter, and a medical examiner --who join forces as they sidestep their bosses to track down criminals. Known as the Women's Murder Club, they are pursuing a murderer whose twisted imagination has stunned an entire city. Their chief suspect is a socially prominent writer, but the men in charge won't touch him. On the trail of the most terrifying and unexpected killer ever, they discover a shocking surprise that turns everything about the case upside down. more...

Price: $13.99

It was the perfect place to disappear . . . When Kacy Macgrath's life crumbled two years ago, she changed her name and escaped to her grandmother's cottage in Ireland. Here she lives anonymously, with no reminders of the past--except the terrifying images that continue to haunt her dreams. more...

Price: $6.50