Pat's Picks 2014
March 2014
Pat’s Picks is back! Pat, BCCLS Executive Secretary and Office Manager, shares her favorite mystery and suspense novels. These books span centuries and continents - there's something here for mystery lovers of all stripes!
A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen
After receiving a sealed bottle with a years-old plea for help by two young victims imprisoned in a boathouse by the sea, Detective Carl Morck follows leads to a desperate woman trapped in a brutal marriage to a man who keeps her in isolation and hides deadly secrets.
The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Detective Carl Morck and his assistants look into the case of a brothel owner who went missing in the 1980's and discover that numerous other people went missing around the same time, bringing them closer and closer to a charismatic surgeon with a horrifying agenda.
A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay
A grieving father, private investigator Cal Weaver, offers a ride to a teenage girl in the hopes of finding information on the drug dealer responsible for his son's death, but discovers a web of secrets and lies in the small upstate New York town of Griffon.
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham
Rookie cop Fiona Griffiths, on the cusp of breaking her first big case, uncovers a dire conspiracy that takes her into a dark underworld that threatens her with her own personal demons.
Lost by S.J. Bolton
On leave from the London police force after a traumatic ordeal at Oxford College, Lacey Flint resolves to set aside her feelings to help when children from her community, kids linked to her 10-year-old motherless next-door neighbor, are targeted by a brutal serial killer.
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
Young chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce uses her knowledge of poisons to solve a dastardly crime on the English countryside while learning new clues about her mother's disappearance.
Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
When the tomb of St. Tancred is opened at a village church in Bishop's Lacey, its shocking contents lead to another case for Flavia de Luce, in which greed, pride and murder result in old secrets coming to light, along with a forgotten flower that hasn't been seen for 500 years.
These Mortal Remains by Milton T. Burton
When an African-American deputy is shot on a roadside, Texas’ Caddo County Sheriff Bo Handel uncovers a white supremacist hate campaign being staged from a compound on the edge of town.
Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave
Private detective Theodore Tate must unravel a chilling case of unsolved murders and mistaken identities after a lake in a Christchurch, New Zealand, cemetery releases its grip on the murky past.
Dead, Without a Stone to Tell It by Jen J. Danna with Ann Vanderlaan
Homicide detective Leigh Abbott has something to prove, both to herself and to the men in her department. She's been assigned a difficult challenge: solve a murder where the only evidence is a single bone.
The Black Country by Alex Grecian
When members of a prominent coal-mining family go missing, Scotland Yard's Murder Squad teammates Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith, aided by newly arrived forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley, investigate dark secrets and realize that the family's village is slowly sinking into underground mines.
The Yard by Alex Grecian
Suffering public contempt after the Metropolitan Police's failure to capture Jack the Ripper, Walter Day, a member of Victorian London's recently formed "Murder Squad," partners with Scotland Yard's first forensic pathologist to track down a killer who is targeting their colleagues.
Tamarack County by William Kent Krueger
Faced with a series of dark occurrences that are linked to a twenty-year-old murder, private investigator Cork O'Connor must stop a vengeful force before his family and friends pay the ultimate price.
Sunrise by Al Lamanda
When John Bekker's old friend and state prosecutor Carly Simms wakes up next to a murdered young man in a motel room after a night of drinking, she doesn't remember a thing, especially stabbing the young man in the heart. Although all the evidence points to her guilt, Simms hires Bekker to prove her innocence. Bekker soon finds himself ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
The Raven's Eye by Barry Maitland
While trying to make sense of a seemingly accidental death on a houseboat, DI Kathy Kolla and DCI David Brock, dealing with limited resources, discover a link to another tragic death and must prove that there is a murderer on the loose in the canals around greater London.
At the Dying of the Year by Chris Nickson
In 1733, Richard Nottingham hunts a child-killer preying on the street children of Leeds, but he has to go up against the wealthy and powerful of the city to do it, including the new mayor.
A Final Reckoning by Susan Moody
Returning to the lodge where her sister was murdered twenty-three years earlier, Chantal Frazer searches for answers about the crime.
The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton
Struggling to live a normal life a decade after escaping her kidnappers, Reeve LeClaire agrees to help her therapist throughout the rehabilitation of another rescued abductee only to discover that the girl is still being pursued by a ruthless predator.
The Philadelphia Quarry by Howard Owen
Reporter Willie Black finds himself at the Quarry, where Alicia Parker Simpson identified Richard Slade as her rapist twenty-eight years ago. Five days after DNA evidence freed Slade from prison Alicia Simpson is found shot to death. Most people believe that Slade did it, but Willie, his cousin, has his doubts. When the city’s old money tries to crush the story, Willie is even more determined to chase what always seems to get him into trouble—the truth.
Blind Justice by Anne Perry
When his friend, judge Oliver Rathbone, rashly crosses a line and inadvertently causes the death of a charismatic minister, police superintendent William Monk and his wife, Hester, navigate the perilous case to expose the truth and clear Rathbone's name.
White Fire by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Special Agent Pedergast investigates after a woman is thrown in jail by the owners of a spa resort located on the site of unsolved murders.
The Tenth Witness by Leonard Rosen
In this prequel to All Cry Chaos, engineer Henri Poincaré, not yet an Interpol agent, is working during 1978 on salvage of a shipwreck off the Dutch coast when he meets Liesel Kraus, heir to the Kraus Steel Co. As the two become close, Henri finds disturbing evidence about Liesel's father Otto's conduct during the Nazi era.
The Shogun's Daughter by Laura Joh Rowland
When the Shogun is forced to claim an illegitimate son as his heir after the death of his only child, Sano Ichiro, believing the malevolent youth to be part of a plot to seize power, risks the safety and honor of his family to uncover the truth.
Louise's Dilemma by Sarah R. Shaber
Louise, chief file clerk at the OSS, heads off to talk to the recipient of a puzzling postcard referred to OSS by the US Censor. Her investigation becomes complicated when she realizes the recipient is involved in something illegal.
Louise's War by Sarah R. Shaber
While working as a clerk in Washington, D.C., Louise tries to get an old Jewish friend and her family out of Vichy France before the Nazis arrive, but the task becomes more difficult after the person she enlisted for help is murdered.
Lineup by Liad Shoham
When a brutal rape case is thrown out of court due to a procedural technicality and the suspect goes free, disgraced Detective Eli Nahum is determined to find the truth at any cost when another rape occurs in a quiet Tel Aviv neighborhood.
The Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl
U.S. Forest Service officer and grandson of Norwegian immigrants, Lance Hansen lives a quiet life working his job and pursuing the hobby of genealogy in his spare time until he comes upon the body of a Norwegian tourist brutally murdered near a stone cross on the shore of Lake Superior.
Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd
When two murders occur at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire during a society wedding, Inspector Ian Rutledge begins to question his own judgment as he follows a hunch related to a dark episode he witnessed during the war.
In the blood by Lisa Unger
Lana Granger, a master manipulator and compulsive liar whose trust fund is almost depleted, takes a job babysitting a troubled boy named Luke, who, accustomed to controlling the people in his life, threatens to reveal the truth about her involvement in the disappearance of her closest friend.
Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
When the body of an Indian woman is found in a south London canal, Maisie Dobbs is asked to investigate by the victim's brother, a task that takes Maisie into a dangerous, and unexpected, exotic world.
List created by:
Pat Loughnane
Executive Secretary & Office Manager, BCCLS
