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Mystery

Migrations

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Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Format:  Book
Who it’s for:  Adults

Picture a future where most animals have become extinct.  Scientists are studying how to keep those remaining from complete termination.  The answer may lie with the Arctic terns.  Franny Stone is convinced of this truth.  To prove it to herself, Franny has made her way to Greenland with the goal of talking a fishing crew into following the terns on their last migration.  If Franny can get the crew to follow the terns that she has been able to catch and tag, she is convinced that the fishermen will find the fish they desperately need to support their livelihood, and Franny will prove her theory.

Here the mystery begins.  As the crew attempts to follow the terns through frigidly calm seas and unrelenting storms, the reader learns about the dangers of daily life on a fishing vessel, and Franny’s past life. One becomes intent on trying to figure out just who Franny is and what she has left behind.  The author describes Franny in the perilous present and then shifts to the past to explore who Franny was as a child, teenager and adult.  Why are the terns so important to her?  What is Franny running from? Why was she in jail? Where are her parents? Where is her husband?  Will the crew survive their dangerous journey? Will the terns survive their migration?  Will it be their last? The listener hangs on to the author’s every word until all answers are revealed in the story’s thrilling conclusion.

Find it in the catalog.

 

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

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 Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Format: DVD, Digital TV Show
Who it’s for: Adults

Set in glittering 1920s Australia, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries stars Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher—a strong, smart, and sexy woman who is decades ahead of her time. Often accompanied by her timid and soft-spoken companion Dot, Phryne solves a different mystery in each episode. This predilection for sleuthing frequently puts her in the path of Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, who is both frustrated by and attracted to Miss Fisher and her endless interference. With only three seasons and a recently released movie finale, this series makes for the perfect binge watch. As an added bonus, Phryne wears some of the most eye-catchingly gorgeous costumes seen on the small screen!

Find the first season in the catalog or dive in with the complete collection.
Also on hoopla digital.

Gideon the Ninth

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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Gideon the Ninth, book one of The Locked Tomb Trilogy, is a wild ride. The book is dark, imaginative, and fresh. Part fantasy and part science fiction, the book follows the heirs of the Nine Houses who have been selected by their god, the King Undying, to take part in a trial to join his group of immortal Saints and their personal knights, or Cavaliers.

The main character of the novel is Gideon, an indentured servant of the Ninth House, who is more comfortable with a sword than necromantic magic. Gideon has spent her entire life trying to escape the frozen planet of death where she was raised, and her future of eternal servitude as a reanimated skeleton.

Her chance arrives when her childhood rival, enemy, and ruler, Harrow, the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and greatest bone witch to be born of the Ninth House, forces her to serve as her Cavalier. Gideon must protect and serve Harrow during the trial. If Harrow succeeds, she becomes an immortal disciple of the King Undying, and Gideon earns her freedom. However, Harrow and Gideon must first keep from murdering one another.

The book is both dark and hilarious. Who knew violence, tragedy, and a whole lot of bones could be so funny? It is also one of the best examples of enemies to…well, something approaching love at least.

Necromancers in space, what more can I say?

The second book in the trilogy, Harrow the Ninth, came out in August 2020.

Find it in the catalog.

Turtle Under Ice

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Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario
Published: February 11, 2020
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens

I am not going to lie to you, this is a sad one. From page one you can feel the loneliness and sorrow that hangs over Row, Ariana, and their home. Each one, their own island of grief.

Their mother died. Years later the grief is still with Row and her big sister Ariana. For Row, Ariana’s disappearance into a snowy night is a terrifying blow to their relationship. The novel, written in verse, is told from both Row’s and Ariana’s perspective. Without focusing on the small details that make up their lives, the novel centers on how each character copes with their grief, and how the disconnects in their relationships with each other and with their friends, keeps them from healing in order to live their lives. They both need to learn how to miss their mom while being more than the sum of their grief.

Don’t let the prospect of a sad and poignant story sway you from reading this beautifully written and hopeful portrayal of loss, love, and grief.

Find it in the Catalog

Takes One to Know One

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Takes One to Know One by Susan Isaacs
Format: eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

After fifteen years with the FBI, Corie was ready for some stability.  Enter Josh Geller:  tall, handsome, green-eyed.  Lawyer turned federal judge, Josh was rich and yet humble.  What was not to love?  Yet meeting Josh’s daughter Eliza sealed the deal.  “Teach me how you flip open your FBI badge,” she’d said.  Eliza didn’t remember her mom, who’d died suddenly years before.  She took to Corie easily.  The three of them settled down to married life together.

Corie freelanced part-time for three publishing companies.  She previewed modern Arabic works to translate to the English market.  She also met for lunch on Wednesdays with a group of home-based entrepreneurs.  Phoebe resold on E-Bay, Iris ran the Moveable Garden, Pete marketed packaging, Marcalynn wrote Republican speeches, John did landscaping drains, and Darby retouched photographs.  Corie let the others assume that she’d always been in publishing.  There was no need to blow her cover.  This kept her open for contract work with the FBI.  Only Corie’s family and best friend, Wynne, knew of her true history.

One day, Corie noticed that Pete might be more than he seemed.  Why did Pete always scout out his surroundings?  Why was he hiding his muscular physique under baggy, nondescript clothing?  Why had he hidden and then keyed someone’s car?  Was Corie reading into things?  Could you take the girl out of the FBI but not the FBI out of the girl?

This fast-paced mystery reminded me of the Stephanie Plum series.  Like Stephanie, Corie jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.  Likewise, the characters were very distinctive, such as Corie’s melodramatic actress mother.  Yet unlike Evanovich’s books, Susan Isaac’s novel had a more serious, sophisticated tone.  Had Corie found the life she loved and, if so, was she willing to risk it all?

Find it on OverDrive/Libby!

Meddling Kids

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Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
Format: eBook, Book
Who it’s for: Adults

In 1977, a group of precocious kid detectives and their dog solved the case of the Sleepy Lake monster. The culprit turned out to be, as was common in their cases, an old man in a mask. He would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids!

Years later the “Blyton Summer Detective Club” are all grown up, but only barely functioning. One committed suicide, one is a college drop out, one has been in and out of jail, and one has been in and out of psychiatric wards. Turns out they’ve all been haunted by the Sleepy Lake monster case. The truth is: they didn’t actually solve it. Yes, there was a masked man in the abandoned mansion on Deboen Isle, but there were also real live monsters that permanently unsettled them, and they’ve had enough. They are reuniting to solve the case once and for all.

When they return to their charming hometown in the Pacific Northwest they find it’s not as idyllic as their childhood memories. Otherworldly horror lurks around every corner, and only they, and their loyal dog (twice removed from their original dog), can stop it.

This book is basically Scooby-Doo meets H.P. Lovecraft meets Twin Peaks and I thought it was great. The writing style is unique, laden with meta references to popular kid detective and classic sci-fi tropes. If you love stories about young detectives, Lovecraftian horror, or small towns where things are not as they seem, you should definitely check this out from the library, or electronically on OverDrive, today!