Mystery Women Sleuths

Japanese-American Rei Shimura is a 27-year-old English teacher living in one of Tokyo's seediest neighborhoods. She doesn't make much money, but she wouldn't go back home to California even if she had a free ticket (which, thanks to her parents, she does). Her independence is threatened, when a getaway to an ancient castle town is marred by murder. Rei is the first to find the beautiful wife of a high-powered businessman, dead in the snow. Taking charge, as usual, Rei looks for clues by crashing a funeral, posing as a bar-girl, and somehow ends up pursued by police and paparazzi alike.

Radhi returns home to Mumbai to lick her wounds after a failed relationship and a bout of writer's block, but she soon gets caught up in a tangled mystery. Radhi's pregnant best friend Sanjana's father is found dead in his study. Everyone says it's suicide. And yet, just hours before, he was telling Sanjana that he couldn't wait to hold his grandchild in his arms. Something feels off to Radhi. Her suspicions are further raised by the surly cook and timid young maid's odd behavior. And who did the second cup of tea on his desk belong to? Radhi is determined to uncover the truth.

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant.

At exactly 7:30 p.m., Walter Pettibone arrived home to over a hundred friends and family shouting, "surprise!" It was his birthday. Although he had known about the planned event for weeks, the real surprise was yet to come. At 8:45 p.m., a woman with emerald eyes and red hair handed him a glass of champagne. One sip of birthday bubbly, and he was dead.

Set in the 1980s, the Jennifer Pierce mystery series features a prototypical small town in Maine going through the transition from a self-reliant semi-rural mill town to distant suburb of the information age. In Barnburner, secretary turned reporter Jennifer Pierce finds the incendiary mix of a fundamentalist preacher and an unabashedly pagan back-to-the-earth couple could be worth a story - and someone's life. When a new computer BBS pops up in town around the same time, there are complications that reach far beyond Maine, and as close as her own front door.

"So I thought I might take up paragliding. You know, buy one on eBay and just jump off the cliff one morning." Emily Willows is middle-aged, widowed, wealthy, and bored. When she makes those flippant remarks to her son over coffee one Friday, she has no inkling that within a few hours she will be facing the most terrifying situation of her life.

"Existe-t-il encore un jardin secret que nous ne livrions pas aux machines ?" Partout, il y a la terreur. Celle d'une jeune femme dans une chambre d'hôtel sordide, ventre loué à prix d'or pour couple en mal d'enfant, et qui s'évapore comme elle était arrivée. Partout, il y a la terreur. Celle d'un corps mutilé qui gît au fond d'une fosse creusée dans la forêt. Partout, il y a la terreur. Celle d'un homme qui connaît le jour et l'heure de sa mort. Et puis il y a une lettre, comme un manifeste, et qui annonce le pire.

After nearly dying in the line of duty, the FBI's top criminal profiler, Genevieve Callow, contemplates a quieter life while struggling with survivor's guilt. She's reminded every day that while she was fighting for her life, another predator was stalking the night in her hometown—the Icebox Killer. She knows now that home isn't safe. But she's haunted, tired, and barely recovered. There are other agents on the killer's tail. They should be able to catch him. Or can it only be her? Now, in one brazen act, the killer has called out to her by name, taunting her―a game of cat and mouse.

When Lady Arlene Archibald tracks Wolf down and begs him for help, he plans to travel to Brighton alone to see her. What was he thinking? Instead, he finds himself with an unruly entourage of lords, ladies, servants, children, and even a dog. Can and will he help Arlene prove her friends innocence? How will he manage Tabitha coming face-to-face with his first love? And how is he to dissuade the Dowager Countess of Pembroke from insinuating herself into the investigation?

It’s been 12 years since Sandi Parkman went missing after being dropped off at home by her schoolmate, Nick Larson, now the Sheriff of Freeport, Michigan. When a construction crew unearths Sandi’s bones - along with Nick’s letterman jacket and one of his hairs - Nick becomes suspect number one in the murder.

Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled 17-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She’s lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves as intellectuals, drawing the notice of Christine Martins, their dazzling English teacher, who enthralls them with her passion for literature and her love of noirish detective fiction. When Philippa returns a novel Miss Martins has lent her, she interrupts a man grappling with her in the shadows.

When Fiona inherits her grandmother's quaint bed and breakfast, Petunia's, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to return to her beloved hometown of Reading, Vermont. Little did she know that her homecoming would bring more than just nostalgia.

In the two weeks CIA assassin Fortune Redding has been hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, she's been harassed, poisoned, and shot at...and that was the easy part. But now she's about to face her biggest challenge since setting foot in the tiny bayou town. When mayoral candidate Ted Williams is murdered, everyone is surprised. Ted was a blowhole and a Yankee, but those usually weren't good reasons to kill someone.

To get a fresh start away from a bad relationship, Kylie Strange moves across the country to open a shop in a seemingly quiet town in rural Maine. During renovations on Strange Herbs & Teas, she discovers a peculiar and ancient codex, The Booke of the Hidden, bricked into the wall. Every small town has its legends and unusual histories, and this artifact sends Kylie right into the center of Moody Bog's biggest secret.

It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks, complained about the boss, maybe hooked up with someone for the night. Until something went terribly wrong. At first it was just a friction in the air. The noise intensified. The crowd seemed oppressive. Some sharp words were exchanged, some pushing and shoving. Then the madness descended. And after 12 minutes of chaos and violence, 80 people lay dead.

A serial killer is stalking Virginia’s young lovers, taking their lives and taunting police with a single clue: a jack of hearts. For two years, the meaning of this card has eluded FBI investigators. But as Scarpetta begins searching the victims’ remains for microscopic clues, she begins to suspect that someone in the FBI knows more about the murderer.

Former Detective Hillary Greene and her cold case team are sweltering in their stuffy basement office on the hottest day of the year when they are handed an impossible case. Fifteen years ago, Imelda Phelps was battered to death in the hallway of her home. The brutal crime shocked the residents of the pretty market town of Chipping Norton. The killer was never caught. The motive for the murder remains a mystery. Could the happily married mother-of-two’s stunning good looks have played a part in her death?

Louie Cogburn had spent three days holed up in his apartment, staring at his computer screen. His pounding headache was unbearable - like spikes drilling into his brain. And it was getting worse. Finally, when someone knocked at his door, Louie picked up a baseball bat, opened the door, and started swinging... The first cop on the scene fired his stunner twice and Louie died instantly. Detective Eve Dallas has taken over the investigation, but there's nothing to explain the man's sudden rage or death.

Agatha Award-winning author Rhys Bowen’s charming combination of intrigue and romance blended with a touch of humor shines when performed by Audible Hall of Fame narrator Katherine Kellgren, whose deft range and impeccable accent work make it hard to believe this isn’t a multicast performance.

When an executed murderer’s fingerprints turn up at a new crime scene, Kay Scarpetta investigates. Prepare for the kind of riveting suspense this best-selling author delivers so well.