May is Mystery Month! This collection of books is sure to satisfy your craving for suspense and intrigue. Our list has something for every mystery lover, from domestic thrillers to cozy mysteries.
All the Queen's Men by S. J. Bennett
Second in the series Her Majesty Investigates, in which Queen Elizabeth II solves mysteries centred in Buckingham Palace, with her private secretary Rozie Oshodo doing most of the legwork. In this entry, a favourite painting has gone missing, and the search reveals both a poison pen campaign against female palace employees and a long-standing fraud scheme.
Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon
First comes love. Then comes murder. Lucas Forester didn't hate his wife. Michelle was brilliant, sophisticated and beautiful. Most notably: wealth that only the one percent could comprehend. For years, Lucas has been honing a flawless plan to inherit Michelle’s fortune. Unfortunately, it involves taking a hit out on her.
Fifty-Four Pigs by Philipp Schott
First in a new series about Manitoba vet Peter Bannerman. In his first case, Peter investigates a barn explosion at the farm of his friend Tom after he learns that the RCMP suspects Tom of having deliberately set the fire — and now Tom has gone missing.
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Twenty years later, when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back.
When Blood Lies by C. S. Harris
Seventeenth in the Sebastian St Cyr series, about a nineteenth-century aristocratic sleuth and former soldier. It’s 1815, and Sebastian and his wife Hero are in Paris on the trail of his long-lost mother. Reunited as she lies dying, her son must now determine if her ties to Napoleon warn of an escape attempt from Elba. Sebastian first appeared in What Angels Fear, but the series can be read in any order.
Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
Sarah has put all she wants to leave behind her and is starting over in a different city with her husband and son. But when she finds hidden cameras in her new home, she wonders: Has her past caught up to her, and worse yet, who's watching her now?
The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
The fourteenth installment in the Ruth Galloway series following a British forensic anthropologist who alternates teaching at the local university, archaeological digs, and helping the police identify modern bodies. In this volume Ruth and her daughter are sheltering at home during the first months of COVID when a medieval plague victim is unearthed; meanwhile, the police investigate a suspicious series of apparent suicides. It’s worth seeking out the series debut (2009’s The Crossing Places) first, but after that, the rest of the series can be read in any order.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
You see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son kills a stranger. That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake ... and it is yesterday. And then you wake again ... and it is the day before yesterday. Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer.
The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions by Kerry Greenwood
A collection of short stories starring 1920s Australian private detective Phryne Fisher. Free-thinking flapper Phryne is considerably out of step with Melbourne’s conservative middle and upper-crust citizens, but she’s the one they turn to when murder disturbs their world. This collection offers a sampling of Phryne’s cases, and if you enjoy them, you should probably next read the first volume in the series, the 2007 novel Cocaine Blues – but after Cocaine Blues, the other twenty volumes can be read in any order.
It's One of Us by J.T. Ellison
Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can't be fulfilled. And just when she feels she's at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park.
Round Up the Usual Peacocks by Donna Andrews
Thirty-first in the humorous Meg Langslow series, about a small-town Virginia blacksmith/amateur sleuth with dozens of eccentric relatives who help her solve local murders – usually with an avian twist.
