10 To-Reads: Crime, Thrillers & Mysteries

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Who doesn’t love a good whodunit? From classic British murder mysteries to super sleuthing and global conspiracies, here are ten to-reads this month.

 

NUMERO ZERO by Umberto Eco

A disturbing take on the times from the bestselling author of The Name of the Rose, Eco’s satirical novel explores the murky world of media politics and international conspiracies including a plot involving the C.I.A. and the corpse of Mussolini’s body double.

CAREER OF EVIL by Robert Galbraith

J.K. Rowling’s latest under her nom de plume Robert Galbraith is the darkest of the series yet. After receiving a gruesome package containing a woman’s severed leg, private detective Cormoran Strike – a veteran who lost his own leg in Afghanistan – faces down a brutal psychopathic killer intent on serial murder.

EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD by Ian Rankin

It turns out that retirement and John Rebus aren’t very well suited – good news indeed for fans of the longstanding series. In Rankin’s 20th Rebus novel, the former detective is asked to help solve the murder of a senior lawyer, which is only the beginning of a dangerous dog-eat-dog game in Edinburgh’s underbelly.

 

GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB by David Lagercrantz

The girl with the dragon tattoo hacks on in the latest installment of the popular Millennium series featuring genius hacker Lisbeth Salander and crusading reporter Mikael Blomkvist. Written by Swedish journalist David Lagercrantz, it is the first not to be authored by creator Stieg Larsson (who died of a heart attack in 2004). In Girl in the Spider’s Web, the famous duo find themselves entangled in a web of spies, foreign governments and cybercriminals.

A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES by Elizabeth George

Scotland Yard’s elegant and aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley is back, along with his colourful sidekick Sgt. Barbara Havers. Set in London and the deceptively peaceful English countryside, the murder investigation centers on a dangerous sociopath — and what might be the most dysfunctional family ever.

 

CRIMSON SHORE by Preston & Child

The theft of a valuable wine collection leads Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Mass. where they find evidence of an ancient murder connected to the 1692 Salem witch trials. Sins of the past may still be very much alive when a present day victim is found marked in demonic symbols connected to witchcraft.

THE GUILTY by David Baldacci

It becomes personal for Will Robie, a U.S. government assassin, when his father is charged with murder and he must use his formidable skills to prove he is not guilty – or is he?

CROSS JUSTICE by James Patterson

You can go home again — but it might kill you. Washington D.C. Detective Alex Cross returns to his hometown in Starksville, North Carolina for the first time in 35 years when his cousin Stefan is accused of murder. In his attempt to find justice for Stefan, he opens up dangerous secrets about his own past.

VICTIM WITHOUT A FACE by Stefan Ahnhem

Hometown horrors also feature in the first book in a new Scandinavian crime series. In search of a fresh start, Investigator Fabian Risk and his family leave Stockholm for his hometown of Helsingborg. Within a few hours of his return, his former classmates are targeted for murder, one after another.

 

THE LAST SEPTEMBER by Nina de Gramont

Love story meets murder mystery in this literary whodunit set on the desolate shores of off-season Cape Cod.