May 14, 2024 – Info Cafe

One of my favorite months of the year is May, which is Mystery month! With dozens and dozens of new releases out this spring, below are a few noteworthy releases. As this is just a sampling, visit Reading Recommendations on the library’s website for many more mysteries. This is the perfect time to check in with your favorite author and see if a new title is on the horizon.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz – In this novel, the fifth installment of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is called on to investigate the apparent murder of an unpopular resident who resides on a quiet street inside a gated community. The residents of the community have paid large amounts of money to feel safe and secure, seemingly protected from the outside world. The murder victim was a known troublemaker and strayed from the strict community rules which made him very unpopular with his neighbors. Was someone mad enough with him breaking the rules to resort to murder?

Clock Struck Murder by Betty Webb – Expat Zoe Barlow is at it again in 1920s Paris in the second book in the Lost in Paris series. During the weekly poker game hosted at her apartment, a fellow player accidentally breaks Zoe’s beloved vintage clock. On a quest to find a replacement in the Montparnasse neighborhood flea market, Zoe finds the perfect replacement clock and purchases it immediately from her favorite shopkeeper, Laurette. Upon arrival at home, Zoe discovers her clock is wrapped in the most beautiful Chagall canvas, which Zoe recognizes immediately. Almost more impressed with the artwork, Zoe is desperate to find out more about the paintings and tracks down the vendor only to find her murdered! With police resources scarce, Zoe turns into an amateur detective and finds out the paintings are stolen and may have been played a role in the murder of Laurette.

Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen – A historical mystery based on the life of the “mother of forensic science”, Katie Tietjen has written a unique mystery where a skilled creator of doll houses uses her talent to recreate crime scenes in miniature. In the years after WWII Maple Bishop is still learning to live without her husband, Bill, who was killed in the war. She soon learns that he has left her with no income and she risks losing their family home in Vermont. Maple has no choice but to turn to her natural talent to earn a living – making miniatures for dollhouses. On her way to make a delivery to her first customer, she discovers his lifeless body in a barn. She decides to make a miniature of the crime scene in the hopes of putting the pieces together as an amateur sleuth. She teams up with a new police officer to get to the bottom of the crime before she risks becoming a victim herself.

Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver – Electra McDonnell’s safecracking skills have made her indispensable to the British Government in this fourth installment of Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell series set in WWII London. Electra gets wind of a series of burglaries carried out by expert thieves and contacts her elusive handler, Major Ramsey, who just happens to be a member of the British government in order to garner more information. The two of them start on a journey that leads to Portugal and includes the delivery of a mysterious package that could break the case wide open. As the group of thieves grow bolder, Electra and Ramsey hope to outwit the thieves with their own game.