mystery

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Hallowe'en Party

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At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce – a hostile thirteen-year-old – boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.

That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer. And was it even true that she once witnessed a murder? Unmasking a murderer isn't going to be easy for Hercule Poirot—there isn't a soul in Woodleigh who believes this little storyteller was even murdered.

Hallowe'en Party is the 36th book in the Poirot series of detective novels, however, they do not need to be read in order.

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages.

(A special thank you to book club member, Julie Griffin for the suggestion.)

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The Sisters of Alameda Street

Currently available on Kindle US for $1.99

When Malens tidy, carefully planned world collapses following her father’s mysterious suicide, she finds a letter—signed with an “A”—which reveals that her mother is very much alive and living in San Isidro, a quaint town tucked in the Andes Mountains. Intent on meeting her, Malena arrives at Alameda Street and meets four sisters who couldn’t be more different from one another, but who share one thing in common: all of their names begin with an A.

To avoid a scandal, Malena assumes another woman’s identity and enters their home to discover the truth. Could her mother be Amanda, the iconoclastic widow who opens the first tango nightclub in a conservative town? Ana, the ideal housewife with a less-than-ideal past? Abigail, the sickly sister in love with a forbidden man? Or Alejandra, the artistic introvert scarred by her cousin’s murder? But living a lie will bring Malena additional problems, such as falling for the wrong man and loving a family she may lose when they learn of her deceit. Worse, her arrival threatens to expose long-buried secrets and a truth that may wreck her life.

Set in 1960s Ecuador, The Sisters of Alameda Street is a sweeping story of how one woman’s search for the truth of her identity forces a family to confront their own past.

"A family saga like no other—a story that's hard to put down." —Paula Paul

"This book is great fun. Scenes involving clandestine late-night excursions, visits to a seedy motel, and Malena's unexpected tango performances demonstrate the author's skills in writing comedy—such a rare treat in historical fiction. The many threads are carefully untangled, and the strength of family wins the day. Heartily recommended to saga readers." —Historical Novel Society

"[A] joy to read, with delectably evil villains and gratifyingly strong female characters. When those women face marital, societal, and career limitations, they end up overcoming them with ingenuity." —Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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Man Tiger

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 & winner of the Financial Times Emerging Voices Fiction Award 2016

A wry, affecting tale set in a small town on the Indonesian coast, Man Tiger tells the story of two interlinked and tormented families and of Margio, a young man ordinary in all particulars except that he conceals within himself a supernatural female white tiger. The inequities and betrayals of family life coalesce around and torment this magical being. An explosive act of violence follows, and its mysterious cause is unraveled as events progress toward a heartbreaking revelation.

Lyrical and bawdy, experimental and political, this extraordinary novel announces the arrival of a powerful new voice on the global literary stage.

”Without a doubt the most original, imaginatively profound, and elegant writer of fiction in Indonesia today.” —Benedict Anderson

“A supernatural tale of murder and desire fascinatingly subverts the crime genre … Kurniawan’s writing demonstrates an affinity with literary heavyweights such as, yes, García Márquez and Dostoevsky.” —Guardian

“Brash, worldly and wickedly funny, Eka Kurniawan may be South-East Asia’s most ambitious writer in a generation... Eka is shaping up to be [Indonesia's] Murakami: approaching social concerns at an angle rather than head-on, with hefty doses of surrealism and wry humour.” —The Economist

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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The Square of Revenge

The beautiful medieval architecture of Bruges belies the dark longings of her residents…

When the wealthy and powerful Ludovic Degroof’s jewelry store is broken into, nothing is stolen, but the jewels have been dissolved in jars ofaqua regia, an acid so strong it can even melt gold. In the empty safe is a scrap of paper on which a strange square has been drawn.

At first, Inspector Van In pays little attention to the paper, focusing on the bizarre nature of the burglary. But when Degroof’s offspring also receive letters with this same square, Van In and the beautiful new DA Hannelore Martens find themselves unraveling a complex web of enigmatic Latin phrase and a baroness’ fallen family and Degroof’s relationship with a hostage grandchild, ransomed for a priceless collection of art.

“A very likeable and very politically incorrect group of detectives. Humor is permanent, the plot well constructed, and the whole story extremely exotic.” —L'Express (France)

“To sell a million copies in only ten years! This never happened in Flanders before.” —Het Laatste Nieuws (Belgium)

“Aspe is and always will be one of our favorite authors. An exciting murder mystery, a pinch of humor, and a generous serving of romance are among the highlights of the series.” —Crimezone Magazine

(Group read suggestion from Julie Jacobs, book club moderator.)

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The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin

The city of Simenon's youth comes to life in this superb Inspector Maigret mystery set in Liège.

In the darkness, the main room is as vast as a cathedral. A great empty space. Some warmth is still seeps from the radiators. Delfosse strikes a match. They stop a moment to catch their breath, and work out how far they have still to go. And suddenly the match falls to the ground, as Delfosse gives a sharp cry and rushes back towards the washroom door. In the dark, he loses his way, returns and bumps into Chabot.”

Inspector Maigret observes from a distance as two boys are accused of killing a rich foreigner in Liège. Their loyalty, which binds them together through their adventures, is put to the test, and seemingly irrelevant social differences threaten their friendship and their freedom.

“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian

“Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” —The Observer (London)

“Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” —People

“A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” —The Independent (London)

Note: This is book 10 of the 74-book series, however, the books can be read in any order.

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder

Meet Inspector Singh: a fat, slightly bumbling, but truly lovable detective sure to charm readers of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Inspector Singh is in a bad mood. He's been sent from his home in Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to solve a murder that has him stumped. Chelsea Liew—the famous Singaporean model—is on death row for the murder of her ex-husband. She swears she didn't do it, he thinks she didn't do it, but no matter how hard he tries to get to the bottom of things, he still arrives back at the same place—that Chelsea's husband was shot at point blank range, and that Chelsea had the best motivation to pull the trigger: he was taking her kids away from her. Now Inspector Singh must pull out all the stops to crack a crime that could potentially free a beautiful and innocent woman and reunite a mother with her children. There's just one problem—the Malaysian police refuse to play ball.

”Flint keeps the reader hooked right up to the unexpected resolution.” —Publishers Weekly

”A charming and solid mystery with an enticing international atmosphere.” —Booklist

”It's impossible not to warm to the portly, sweating, dishevelled, wheezing Inspector Singh from the start of this delightful debut novel.” —The Guardian

”I like Flint’s smooth style and the rhythm of her writing, as well as her ability in making real an environment so far removed from ours, globalisation notwithstanding.” —Thriller Books Journal (UK)

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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The Lost Children of Paradise

A self-driving cargo container crashes in rural Pakistan. Inside are 46 kidnapped street children. A traditional who-done-it mystery, set against the unique backdrop of a futuristic Pakistan with two great main characters in a fun, engrossing read…

As a grizzled, semi-retired policewala (police officer) living in rural twenty-second century Pakistan, Officer Nawaz had long ago substituted any notions of heroism with a pretty impressive drinking habit. But when he comes across a crashed cargo container near his hometown carrying kidnapped street children, curiosity drives him to investigate. Fate pairs him up with Adil Khan, a young, idealistic, and rather annoying space cadet from the global Confederation. While most of the developed world looks to the stars, Pakistan finds itself embroiled in age-old problems. The two officers must face challenges at once unique and timeless in order to untangle the mystery of the kidnapped container children.

“What a gem! One rarely encounters a genuinely strong book on [US] Kindle Unlimited. This is one of them. The narrative, the characters, the plot, and the setting create a beautifully realized world that is both recognizable and strange. This is imaginative fiction at its best!” —Chandos

“Sparkling character development and world building—noir from a Pakistan several centuries ahead. Love the dialogue, love the plot.” —Dr. Bruce

“A refreshingly unique premise with excellent pacing. A thoughtful imagining of the Third World in the future.” —Hammond

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Winner of the Edgar Award, longlisted for the Women’s Prize, & named one of the best books of the year by the NY Times Book Review, Time, NPR, & more
 
In a sprawling Indian city, a boy ventures into its most dangerous corners to find his missing classmate. . . .

Through market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line lies a jumble of tin-roofed homes where nine-year-old Jai lives with his family. From his doorway, he can spot the glittering lights of the city’s fancy high-rises, and though his mother works as a maid in one, to him they seem a thousand miles away. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line plunges readers deep into this neighborhood to trace the unfolding of a tragedy through the eyes of a child as he has his first perilous collisions with an unjust and complicated wider world.

Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.

But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.

Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is extraordinarily moving, flawlessly imagined, and a triumph of suspense. It captures the fierce warmth, resilience, and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble and carries the reader headlong into a community that, once encountered, is impossible to forget.

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Ordeal

Sofie Lund’s grandfather died after a fall down his basement steps, the same basement that holds a locked safe bolted to the floor. She inherits the house, but wants nothing to do with his money believing the old man let her mother die in jail.

Line Wisting’s journalist instincts lead her into friendship with Sofie, and they are together when the safe is opened. What they discover unlocks another case and leads Line’s father, Chief Inspector Wisting, on a trial of murder to an ordeal that will eventually separate the innocent from the damned.

“Horst writes some of the best Scandinavian crime fiction available. His books are beautifully plotted and addictive, the characters superbly realized.” —Sigurdardottir

“The more widely I read within Nordic noir, the more I appreciate the attention to detail and realism Horst brings to his writing having served as a police officer himself. His main character is not the same old damaged detective; he’s a good, hardworking man who believes in justice…a character so refreshing to read.” —Crime by the Book

“A richly detailed narrative, morally complex characters, and a deeply contemplative, philosophical undertone make this a superior example of Scandinavian crime fiction.” —Publishers Weekly

Note: While this book is officially #5 in the series, it can be read as a standalone.

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Died in the Wool

World War II continues to rage on, and Inspector Alleyn continues to act as the Special Branch’s eyes and ears in New Zealand (a country admittedly not often thought of as playing a central role in the war). While his primary brief is spy-catching, he is happy to lend a hand in matters of old-fashioned policing, and that’s exactly what the Flossie Rubrick case initially appears to be.

A highly opinionated and influential Member of Parliament, Ms. Rubrick was also the wife of a sheep farmer, and she was last seen heading off to one of his storage sheds. Three weeks later, she has turned up—very dead, and packed in a bale of her own wool. Had she made political enemies? Had a mysterious legacy prompted her death? Or—as Alleyn increasingly thinks likely—could the shadowy world of international espionage have intruded, improbably, on this sheep farm in the back of beyond? 

Fans of Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, or Dorothy L. Sayers will adore Ngaio Marsh. These four authors together are in fact known as the “Queens of Crime” though many do not realize that Marsh is actually from New Zealand. While this is the 13th novel in the Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn series, each novel stands alone & only a few of take place in New Zealand with the remainder taking place in the UK.

“In Marsh’s ironic and witty hands, the mystery novel can be civilized literature.” —The New York Times

(A special thank you to book club member, Beth Cummings for the suggestion.)

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The Steam Pig

A beautiful blonde has been killed by a bicycle spoke to the heart, Bantu gangster style. Why?

Set in Apartheid-era South Africa, The Steam Pig is the first in the outstanding mystery series featuring the biracial police team duo of Lieutenant Kramer and Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi.

“James McClure's novel arrives like a slam in the kidneys . . . a gripping style, real characters, and an exotic locale. . . . The Steam Pig will not only keep the reader's nose to the page, it will also make [him] think.” —The NY Times Book Review

“This well-plotted, well-written murder mystery is exceptional ... sometimes grim, sometimes sourly comic, always shocking.” —The Atlantic

“That it takes place in the apartheid setting of South Africa, that it has a black and white police team so artfully conceived as to engender cheers, that it uses the power of subtlety over brash bias to make its points, sets it up as a memorable mystery.” —LA Times

“More than a good mystery story, which it is, The Steam Pig is also a revealing picture of the hate and sickness of apartheid society.” —The Washington Post

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Zoo City

Multi-award winner including the Arthur C. Clarke Award & Publisher's Weekly Best of the Year Sci Fi & Fantasy among others

A unique cyberpunk/urban fantasy mash-up set in an alt Johannesburg where murderers and other criminals have magical animals mystically bonded to them for their crimes.

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. When a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, Zinzi’s forced to take on her least favorite kind of job—missing persons.

Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a teenybop pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell’s undertow. Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she’ll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives including her own.

“This book is a must read for lovers of South African fiction and urban fantasy alike. It is edgy and pacey. Like a rollercoaster ride, it sweeps you up, spins you around, turns you upside down and dumps you out on the other end, heady and breathless and yearning for more.” —Exclus1ves

"At times, the witty and lyrical prose is sheer magic, the story captivating and the characters exotic, cruel and beautiful while the backdrop of Johannesburg seethes with hidden, lurking dangers around every corner, Zoo City is quite simply captivating.” —SciFi & Fantasy Books

"Beukes’s future city is as spiky, distinctive and material a place as any cyberpunkopolis, and quit a bit fresher. The narrative is brisk and well turned, but the great achievement here is tonal: atmospheric, smart and memorable work.” —Locus

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Confession of the Lioness

A finalist for the Man Booker International Prize & shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award

“A dark, poetic mystery about the women of the remote village of Kulumani and the lionesses that hunt them.

Told through two haunting, interwoven diaries, Mia Couto's Confession of the Lioness reveals the mysterious world of Kulumani, an isolated village in Mozambique whose traditions and beliefs are threatened when ghostlike lionesses begin hunting the women who live there.

Mariamar, a woman whose sister was killed in a lioness attack, finds her life thrown into chaos when the outsider Archangel Bullseye, the marksman hired to kill the lionesses, arrives at the request of the village elders. Mariamar's father imprisons her in her home, where she relives painful memories of past abuse and hopes to be rescued by Archangel. Meanwhile, Archangel tracks the lionesses in the wilderness, but when he begins to suspect there is more to them than meets the eye, he starts to lose control of his hands. The hunt grows more dangerous, until it's no safer inside Kulumani than outside it. As the men of Kulumani feel increasingly threatened by the outsider, the forces of modernity upon their traditional culture, and the danger of their animal predators closing in, it becomes clear the lionesses might not be real lionesses at all but spirits conjured by the women themselves.

Both a riveting mystery and a poignant examination of women's oppression, Confession of the Lioness explores the confrontation between the modern world and ancient traditions to produce an atmospheric, gripping novel.”

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Morgue Drawer Four

Shortlisted for Germany's Friedrich Glauser Prize for best crime novel.

Coroner is the perfect job for Dr. Martin Gänsewein, who spends his days in peace and quiet autopsying dead bodies for the city of Cologne. Shy, but scrupulous, Martin appreciates his taciturn clients—until the day one of them starts talking to him. It seems the ghost of a recently deceased (and surprisingly chatty) small-time car thief named Pascha is lingering near his lifeless body in drawer number four of Martin's morgue. He remains for one reason: his “accidental” death was, in fact, murder.

Pascha is furious his case will go unsolved—to say nothing of his body's dissection upon Martin's autopsy table. But since Martin is the only person Pascha can communicate with, the ghost settles in with the good pathologist, determined to bring the truth of his death to light. Now Martin's staid life is rudely upended as he finds himself navigating Cologne's red-light district and the dark world of German car smuggling. Unless Pascha can come up with a plan—and fast—Martin will soon be joining him in the spirit world. Witty and unexpected, Morgue Drawer Four introduces a memorable (and reluctant) detective unlike any other in fiction today.

Note: Also, a great audiobook as well.

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Panic in Paris

“It all begins innocently enough when the corpse of a London boxer is discovered at sunrise on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. But the man was reportedly seen in London only a couple of hours earlier...

A great English detective and France's leading investigative reporter team up to solve a baffling mystery that will ultimately take them to a network of vast caverns under Paris inhabited by prehistoric monsters, waiting to be released…

Jules Lermina's Panic in Paris (1910) combines the tradition of utopian fiction with both the scientific advances of the 19th century and the pseudoscientific trappings of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871).

It also features some intriguing anticipations of two key works by Arthur Conan Doyle, prefiguring both The Lost World (1912) and The Poison Belt (1913). This volume also includes Lermina's classic vampire novella, The Elixir of Life (1890).”

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Death of a Red Heroine

“Xiaolong knows that words can save your soul and in his pungent, poignant mystery, he proves it on every page.” - Chicago Tribune

“A marvelously assured debut . . . Engrossing, immensely readable.” - The Wall Street Journal

“Qiu Xiaolong's award-winning debut introduces Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police.

A young ‘national model worker,’ renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.”

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Outsider in Amsterdam

“What makes this series so engaging is that the policemen are as quirky and complicated as the criminals.” - The Washington Post

“A superb storyteller.” - Chicago Tribune

”A superlative mystery writer.” - Time

”On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself ‘Hindist’ and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances.

This now-classic novel introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.”

”[Van de Wetering] is doing what Simenon might have done if Albert Camus had sublet his skull.”  - John Leonard

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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The Keeper of Lost Causes

“Far from being just another morose Nordic crime writer, Adler-Olsen creates a detective whose curiosity is as active as his soul is tortured.” - Library Journal

“Adler-Olsen merges story lines with ingenious aplomb, effortlessly mixing hilarities with horrors. This crime fiction tour de force could only have been devised by an author who can even turn stomach flu into a belly laugh.” - Publishers Weekly

“Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.

Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead...yet.”

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The Boy in the Suitcase

“Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.

Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.”

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Smilla’s Sense of Snow (aka Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow)

Named Best Book of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly & People magazines

“She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories—a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime...

It happened in the Copenhagen snow. A six-year-old boy, a Greenlander like Smilla, fell to his death from the top of his apartment building. While the boy's body is still warm, the police pronounce his death an accident. But Smilla knows her young neighbor didn't fall from the roof on his own.

Soon she is following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow. For her dead neighbor, and for herself, she must embark on a harrowing journey of lies, revelation, and violence that will take her back to the world of ice and snow from which she comes, where an explosive secret waits beneath the ice.”

Note: Depending upon your country, this book may be titled Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.

(Group read suggestion from Ivor Watkins, book club moderator.)

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