mystery and crime

  • Staff Favorites: Three mysteries for spring

    Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann “Act naturally,” bleated the sheep attempting to evade notice. Standing around munching grass seems to be the most natural thing for sheep to do, but solving a murder mystery? When this Irish flock’s favored shepherd shows up dead in a field, our intrepid sheep detectives,… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reading: Author Lisa Lutz talks about what she’s reading — and even what she’s not reading

    Lucky us! The author of the hilarious mystery series starring Izzy Spellman will be in Seattle next week. Double lucky us—because Lisa Lutz sent us a note from her book tour to give us a peek at what she’s reading:  Since I’ve been under a strict deadline lately, and am currently on a book tour,… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reading: Get your recommendations from Scottish mystery author Val McDermid

    Crime fiction fans take note: Val McDermid, author of several popular series (including the Tony Hill series) will be at the Seattle Public Library this Sunday at 2 p.m. to read from—and talk about—her newest book, A Darker Domain. We’re wildly excited to host Val on one of her rare Seattle visits as she reads… Continue reading

  • Toronto, Mon Amour

    I grew up in Seattle, and am used to hearing out-of-towners who visit the downtown library raving about our breathtaking city (and libraries). Well now I know how they feel. I just returned from my third visit to Toronto, where I was speaking at a library conference, and have been boring everyone silly with effusions… Continue reading

  • Mean, Rainy Streets

    Weary of the weather? And its only January? Try this: turn up your trenchcoat collar against the wind, snap down your fedora to the rain, put some moody jazz on your iPod, and pretend you’re the star of your own film noir. Seattle is a great setting for hardboiled crime. Here are some Northwest crime titles to get… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Adults

    I can remember attending story hour at the Magnolia branch library when I was a kid, just as thousands of children still do each year at libraries all over the city. I’ve never stopped loving stories, but as I grew older they stopped having a storytime for me. So I started one myself, and every other week for the past… Continue reading

  • The Blurb King

    A couple of summers ago, I checked out the novel Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, seduced by the cover and a glowing endorsement from Stephen King. “To say this is a terrific debut novel is really too mild. I haven’t read such a relentlessly creepy family saga since John Farris’s All Heads Turn When the… Continue reading

  • Tales of Wall Street

    The news from Wall Street has been a little too thrilling of late, but the high stakes world of high finance has provided a natural backdrop for some great fiction over the years. How do I balance my own need for a little respite from the increasingly bleak economic outlook with my creeping concern that… Continue reading

  • Staff favorites: Three novels to check out now

    No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay Cynthia is a typical high school student who sneaks out one night to goof around with her boyfriend. She is caught by her angry father and she storms off to bed screaming how much she hates him. She realizes the next morning how horrible she was and she… Continue reading

  • Scaring me in 2008

    This year proves fertile ground for new kinds of horror — scary books that go beyond the splash-gore of Clive Barker or the pokey-fanged love of Tanya Huff and L.A. Banks. Even Stephen King is up to something new. Frankly, simply by his status as one of the most prolific horror writer in America, I… Continue reading

  • Suburban sleuths

    Not all private detectives smoke pipes, carry arms and drive little red sports cars. Some suburban moms and dads solve murders before and after carpooling in vans and oversize station wagons. Authors Jeffrey Cohen, Susan Isaacs, Valerie Wolzien and Jon Katz are four authors have created suburban sleuths.  Jeffrey Cohen writes humorous mysteries set in New… Continue reading

  • Book review: Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood

    I’ve never encountered a detective quite like Phryne (rhymes with “briny”) Fisher before – but now I’m totally smitten. Divinely elegant and stylish, this smart, confident woman turned her back on 1928 aristocracy to live independently in Australia. In one of my favorites, Murder in Montparnasse, Phryne steps in to help her friends Bert and… Continue reading