Posts tagged with mystery in Blog Lost in the Stacks

Ancient Roman private investigator Flavia Albia takes on the case of a young woman's suspicious death. The victim had supposedly swallowed a love potion provided by the local witch, Pandora, after being rejected by her boyfriend. Flavia discovers that Pandora has connections to an organized crime family, and the young woman might have been a victim of gang warfare. Can Flavia catch the killer before she becomes the next victim?

The Stranger Diaries is a contemporary gothic novel of suspense set at a high school in rural England. Clare Cassidy is an English teacher researching a Victorian novelist who used to live in one of the school buildings. There is a legend that he murdered his wife and that her ghost haunts the school. When two members of the English department are murdered and their bodies found with a line from a story by the Victorian novelist, and Clare finds that a stranger has written in her diary, she realizes the murderer must be someone she knows. Will she be the next victim? Or is the murderer trying to protect her by killing off her enemies?

In this mystery set in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti solves the murder of a young man, the son of one of Venice's noble families, who had been kidnapped two years ago and whose body was found in a field. His family had been involved in shady business dealings in eastern Europe. Was he murdered because of this? Or did his cousin, the new heir to the family business, murder him? As he searches for the murderer, Brunetti also wonders if his wife, Paola, is unhappy in their marriage because he spends too much time on his police work.

As catastrophic floods threaten to devastate Québec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache finds the body of a murdered, pregnant woman. All the evidence points to her abusive husband as the killer, but there's not enough to convict him, and the woman's grieving father threatens to kill the husband. Meanwhile, Gamache faces damage to his reputation in social media, as a video emerges, seriously misrepresenting the actions which led to his demotion.

Prophecy is the second in S.J. Parris' mystery series set in Elizabethan England, featuring the real-life philosopher and scientist Giordano Bruno, who, in the series, works as a spy for Queen Elizabeth I. In this book, he attempts to foil a plot against the queen's life, which is being timed to coincide with an astronomical event.

In this entry in Camilleri's mystery series set in Sicily, Inspector Montalbano investigates two cases. In one, the young wife of a much-older merchant is robbed and sexually assaulted while depositing money at a bank. In the other, an abandoned building on a farm is used to store weapons, and two Tunisian farm workers are the prime suspects. Meanwhile, Montalbano is undergoing a crisis in his personal life, as he is torn between two women: his long-time girlfriend and a beautiful art gallery owner.

Parisian detective Aimée Leduc receives a visit from a Haitian woman claiming to be her half-sister. Just as she is about to tell Aimée more, she disappears, leaving an address behind. When Aimée goes to that address, she finds the body of a murdered scientist, and her supposed sister is the prime suspect. Two witnesses who are about to speak to Aimée are murdered, one by one. Can Aimée clear the woman she thinks is her sister?

Heresy is the first of a series of mysteries featuring the real-life 16th century philosopher and scientist Giordano Bruno. In 1583 Bruno goes to Oxford to uncover a conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I. One of the fellows of the college is found dead, and this turns out to be the first in a series of gruesome murders. Will Bruno find the murderer and put an end to the conspiracy against the queen?

In the latest entry in Alan Bradley's mystery series featuring twelve-year-old chemistry genius Flavia de Luce, Flavia finds the body of a murdered man in the river. It turns out he is the son of a vicar who was hanged for the murder of three of his female parishioners. But was the vicar really innocent?

This is the first of a series of mysteries set in 1920s India, featuring Perveen Mistry, one of the first female lawyers in India. She investigates the murder of a man at the home of the three widows of a wealthy Muslim mill owner. The widows live in strict seclusion and will talk to Perveen, while they cannot talk to a male lawyer. In alternating chapters set a few years earlier, we learn of the traumas Perveen went through as a young woman, and her disastrous marriage. Author Massey conveys a wonderful sense of the various cultures and religions in 1920s India.