mystery

  • Books About Books: Mystery/Thrillers

    Books About Books: Mystery/Thrillers

    I love reading books about books. Even better? When they are unputdownable mysteries or thrillers! Here are some of my favorites:   The Writing Retreat – When Alex is given the opportunity to participate in a month-long writing retreat hosted by the famous horror writer Roza Vallo, she accepts the offer despite the fact that… Continue reading

  • Get Me Out of Here!

    I must admit, I’m not typically a mystery reader. I’m impatient and I scare easily, which makes a genre that often features violent deaths and long solving processes difficult for me. I’ve found solace, though, in locked room mysteries, where the why and the how of the crime is often more interesting than the who.… Continue reading

  • Cozy Mysteries of the Magical Variety

    In the wake of Halloween, All Saint’s Eve, Samhain, and Dia De Los Muertos, there’s quite a bit of magic lingering in the air. The leaves have turned, the weather is harsher, and the nights are chilling. Many peoples view this time of year as the time to honor their ancestors as the veil between… Continue reading

  • Fall Into Reading: Beyond Halloween

    The leaves are crunching beneath our boot heels, the sweaters are coming out of the corners of our closets, and cozying up with a book goes along with this season like a warm fire and fuzzy socks! Fall into the season with these reads celebrating all the various festivities the season has to offer! The… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2021: Mystery and Crime under 250 pages

    As Summer Book Bingo 2021 comes down to the wire (deadline: Sept. 7), you may be looking to maximize your remaining reading time. To that end, here are a selection of mysteries that clock in under 250 pages, for rapid reading. Feeling more leisurely? Check out our longer list of suggested mystery/crime novels. Continue reading

  • A guide to exploring new genres

    Each year, groups of librarians from across the country hole up in a room (this year, a virtual room) to discuss and select the best books from the year before. The Notable Books List features literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; the Listen List is all about outstanding audiobooks; and The Reading List, which I want… Continue reading

  • Amateurs Getting It Done

    As an avid mystery reader, one aspect of the genre I love the most is knowing that however tumultuous the situation is at the beginning, by the end of the novel the state of affairs will be set right again. Real life is never so certain. Here are three mystery novels wherein regular everyday people… Continue reading

  • Book Series By Volume: Hard-boiled Edition

    For this installment of Book Series By Volume I’m sleuthing out detective novels. There are several bulky series to look at, but I’ve picked my personal big three. Harry Bosch Series by Michael Connelly The 22 books cover about one and a half cubic feet, but Bosch shows up in a couple other satellite series… Continue reading

  • If You Like Tana French

    We librarians hear a lot about readers’ favorite writers, and some names come up over and over again. One of these is Irish mystery writer Tana French, whose gritty Dublin Murder Squad series provides the perfect blend of police procedure and intricate psychological suspense. Only trouble is, she doesn’t write them fast enough. No worries:… Continue reading

  • Defective Detective Departments

    What happens when cranky, poorly motivated or seemingly-incompetent individuals are all sidelined together into a single work unit? They end up solving the mysteries that no one else could, of course. Or, at least, in fiction they do. These books are all the first in series that find professional pariahs taking care of business. The… Continue reading

  • Get Out of the Lake!

    The lake is where you want to be on a beautiful August day, unless you’re a character in a mystery novel. I’m here to tell you that, in my experience as an avid mystery reader, an idyllic remote lake can often double as the scene of a crime. Which is why these mysteries are wonderful… Continue reading

  • The Year’s Best Crime Writing: The 2019 Edgar Awards

    The Year’s Best Crime Writing: The 2019 Edgar Awards

    Pulitzers, Bookers, Nobels – bah! For crime fiction fans it’s all about the Edgars. Last night the winners in several categories of crime and thriller books were announced at the Mystery Writers of America’s annual Edgar Awards ceremony: here’s a full list of these titles in our catalog, including non-fiction, books for children and teens,… Continue reading

  • The best of genre reading in 2018

    Coordinated by the American Library Association, each year a group of librarians from across the country form The Reading List Council with the goal to identify the year’s best books across eight genres. Here are the 2019 winners (for books published in 2018) in Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, and Women’s… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2018 : A Mystery or Thriller

    #BookBingoNW2018 : A Mystery or Thriller

    If you’re already a mystery or thriller fan, you don’t need our help — this square is a freebie! But what if you don’t usually read crime novels? Not to worry — we have you covered: just find the kind of books you like below, and get reading! Classics: The Shooting Party, by Anton Chekhov.… Continue reading

  • The Feminist and the Axe Murderer

    The Feminist and the Axe Murderer

    Susan Glaspell was just 24, working her first job out of college as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News when she was called to the scene of a grisly crime that would shape her artistic destiny. Late on the night of December 1, 1900, John Hossack had been bludgeoned to death with an… Continue reading

  • A genre reading list for library insiders

    Chances are some of you haven’t heard of ALA’s Reading List Council, but trust me on this one: Their annual list of top books in several genres is a book lover’s gem. They pick the best in eight genres — including mystery, science fiction, and adrenaline (read: suspense/heart-thumping-page-turner) for adult readers. Librarians love that the Reading List is… Continue reading

  • 20 Essential Seattle Books, Part 5 – Tales of the City

    Arriving at our fifth and final post suggesting twenty essential Seattle books, after posts highlighting history, race, place, and Northwest classics, we finish with a handful of novels evocative of our city and its culture. There are several good mystery series set in Seattle, but when a fictional detective has been on our rain-soaked streets for three decades his casebook offers real perspective.… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Seattle mystery novelist Ingrid Thoft shares some favorites

    Our guest blogger today is Ingrid Thoft, author of the Fina Ludlow mystery series (now in development as a series for ABC Studios) about a private investigator working with her three attorney brothers for her father’s maybe-shady Boston law firm. Brutality, the third in the series, comes out June 23. Start with Loyalty, move on to… Continue reading