Posts tagged with mystery in Blog Lost in the Stacks

In the latest entry in Louise Penny's popular mystery series, Armand Gamache, former head of the Sûreté de Québec, now living in the tiny village of Three Pines, is named as the executor of the will of a woman he's never met. Soon afterwards, the body of her oldest son is found in a collapsed farmhouse. Gamache's investigation of the murder uncovers secrets, including a long-lasting family feud. Meanwhile, Gamache searches for a deadly drug he allowed to slip through, and which is about to hit the streets of Montréal.

This World War II mystery is the latest in a series featuring spy and cryptographer Maggie Hope. Maggie is imprisoned in a castle on a remote island off the coast of Scotland because she knows too much about the plans for the Allied invasion of Normandy and her bosses are afraid she'll reveal them if she's ever captured. Her fellow prisoners, also agents who know too much, are being killed off, one by one. Will Maggie be able to catch the killer before she becomes the next victim?

Lewis Barnavelt, a ten-year-old orphan, comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan in a 19th century house in a town which is a fictionalized version of Marshall, Michigan. He finds that his uncle and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are wizards, and that the house has a clock buried in its walls, counting down the minutes until the end of the world. Will Lewis, his uncle, and their friend be able to stop the clock in time? This mystery/horror story is perfect for children and people of all ages.

Venetian policeman Guido Brunetti investigates a series of suspicious deaths at a nursing home run by an order of nuns. At first he can't find any evidence that the deaths were anything but natural, but when the former nun who first told him about her suspicions is severely injured in a hit and run accident, he knows that the patients must have been murdered. But how will he prove it?

Ancient Roman detective Gordianus the Finder investigates the murder of a politician on the Appian Way, supposedly at the hands of a rival. But everyone gives a different account of what happened, and Gordianus doesn't know what to believe. As he attempts to solve the murder, he faces physical danger, as well as a crisis in his family. This mystery is inspired by actual events, and features appearances by Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Cicero, and other famous Romans.

Ancient Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco travels to Germany on a mission for the Emperor Vespasian, to discover what happened to a missing general and to negotiate peace with a powerful Druid priestess. The emperor's son Titus wants Falco out of the way because he has his eye on Falco's girlfriend Helena Justina. Is the barber who Titus sent along with Falco really an assassin? And will Falco have to give up Helena for the good of Rome? Unlike other books in the series, this is more of an adventure novel than a mystery, and it includes plenty of action in the forests of Germany.

In this third mystery in Donna Leon's long-running series set in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti investigates the murder of a transvestite whose face was damaged beyond recognition. It turns out that the victim was one of Venice's most prominent bankers, and Brunetti uncovers a scandal involving financial fraud and illegally rented apartments. Meanwhile, he longs to solve the case quickly to avoid becoming the next victim and to escape the heat of August in Venice and join his wife Paola and teenage children on vacation in the mountains. As usual with Leon, the book features Paola's mouth-watering meals, and Brunetti does some cooking for himself this time.

Glass Houses is the latest entry in Louise Penny’s long-running mystery series featuring Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache of the Sûreté de Québec, who lives in the tiny village of Three Pines. After Three Pines' Halloween party, a mysterious figure in a black cloak haunts the village green. Two days later, the figure disappears, but the body of a woman, a visitor to Three Pines, is found wearing the cloak. The story of the murder alternates with the trial of the person accused of it, several months later. Meanwhile, Gamache is trying to capture the head of the most powerful drug cartel in Québec. There is, of course, a connection between the drug trade and the murder in Three Pines, but part of the suspense is figuring out what it is.

Ancient Roman detective Flavia Albia has been hired by palace officials working for the paranoid emperor Domitian to investigate a conspiracy involving a man who pretends to be the emperor Nero. Meanwhile, the newly-married Flavia cares for her husband, who's survived being struck by lightning but has never been the same since, and contends with a series of domestic troubles.

Ancient Roman private eye Marcus Didius Falco tries to prevent a murder from happening. A "professional bride", Severina Zotica, has been married three times, and each of her husbands has died in suspicious circumstances. Now she's about to marry a fourth husband, a former slave who has made a fortune in real estate, and the members of his household are certain that she killed her first three husbands, and she will try to kill him. Can Falco save the man's life?