Recommendations based on "A Private View"

Don't miss the British mystery series "Karen Pirie" on BritBox! Season 2 based on A Darker Domain airs this fall! A New York Times Notable Crime Book of the Year • A Finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize “A thrilling story with heartbreaking questions of social justice and history.” —Seattle Times The New York Times calls Val McDermid, “As smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there. . . the best we’ve got.” Time spent with her extraordinary thriller, A Darker Domain, will prove that it’s true. Set in Scotland, McDermid’s brilliant exploration of loyalty and greed intertwines the past and present. Fife, Scotland, 1984. Mick Prentice abandons his family at the height of a politically charged national miners' strike to join the strikebreakers down south. Despised and disowned by friends and relatives, he is not reported missing until twenty-three years later. Fife, Scotland, 1985. Kidnapped heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant is killed and her baby son vanishes when the ransom payoff goes horribly wrong. In 2008, a tourist in Tuscany stumbles upon dramatic new evidence that reopens the investigation. Already immersed in the Prentice affair, Detective Karen Pirie, newly appointed head of the Cold Case Review Team, wants to make her mark with this second unsolved 1980s mystery. But two decades' worth of secrets are leading Pirie into a dark domain of violence and betrayal—a place darker than any she has previously entered.

The “wickedly clever and devilishly amusing”* Veronica Speedwell returns for a rousing adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey Mysteries.London, 1887. At the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task—saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Ramsforth, accused of the brutal murder of his mistress, Artemisia, will face the hangman’s noose in a week’s time if the real killer is not found.But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of many secrets Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural-historian colleague, Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer. From a Bohemian artists’ colony to a royal palace to a subterranean grotto with a decadent history, the investigation proves to be a very perilous undertaking indeed...*SusanElia MacNeal

"McDermid excels in putting the reader at the center of the action . . . A tightly paced mystery . . . My bones tell me we haven't seen the last of Inspector Pirie--or at least I hope not." --Janet Napolitano, Los Angeles Times on The Skeleton Road Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, whose gripping, impeccably plotted novels have garnered millions of readers worldwide. In her latest, Out of Bounds, she delivers a riveting cold case novel featuring detective Karen Pirie. When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward. But it's as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems. An enthralling, twisty read, Out of Bounds reaffirms Val McDermid's place as one of the most dependable professionals in the mystery and thriller business. "McDermid melds the political thriller with the police procedural for an intense novel that . . . feels both intensely personal and global . . . Karen . . . once again proves herself a formidable character worthy of her own series."--Associated Press on The Skeleton Road

"1931. Maisie Dobbs's new case takes her to the Kent Weald where acts of arson, theft and vandalism around the village of Heronsdene have gone unreported for more than a decade. Maisie accepts the assignment from an old friend who wants her to uncover the truth behind these crimes before he buys part of the Sandermere estate at the heart of the village. Maisie discovers that the villagers are bitterly prejudiced against outsiders and, even more troubling, seem possessed by the legacy of a wartime Zeppelin raid“--Provided by publisher.

Michaelhouse is in uproar: Kenyngham the saintly but ageing Master has announced his retirement and with unseemly haste Runham arranges his own 'election' as his successor. Within days he has dismissed several members of staff, including the redoubtable laundress Agatha, and is making life so unpleasant for the scholars that even Matthew Bartholomew believes his future as physician and teacher at the college is untenable. But Matthew has many patients to divert his attention and Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university, has some suspicious deaths to investigate, although they cannot help but notice that the new Master has commissioned a flurry of building work. Then Runham himself is murdered and, although mourned by none, Matthew and Michael know they have to solve the mystery before any more damage is done to their beloved Michaelhouse.

The new 'Sir Geoffrey Mappestone' mystery - When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone is ordered by King Henry to deliver a series of mysterious letters to the restless western reaches of Wales, he agrees only reluctantly. His conviction that the simple mission hides something more sinister is strengthened when the letters' scribe is murdered before the journey begins. Then one of Geoffrey's travelling companions is killed, and he knows he must uncover the secret behind the letters before more victims are claimed . . .

"Even though Maddie is swamped running Vintage Magic and dealing with the consequences of the visions she gets from certain of her fashion treasures, she's agreed to plan her sister Sherri's baby shower and mentor a design intern. But when Maddie goes to the Mystic train station to pick up her new student, she finds a murder scene instead. The victim: intern Isobel York. Cause of death: suspicious circumstances. Later that evening, a woman claiming to be Isobel appears on her doorstep, and Maddie knows it's not just a case of 'whodunit' but 'who-is-it.' Luckily a gift of lusciously luxe vintage clothes offers clues, and though the '50s wardrobe and accessories are to die for, Maddie is determined to iron out the wrinkles before the murderer can return to put an end to a promising fashion career. . ."--P. [4] of cover.

Sarah investigates the death of con artist Charlie Daventer on his bathroom floor, when his title role acting replacement, old cousin Fred, insists murder was the cause. Her Aunt Emma's theater troupe is doing The Sorcerer, with Emma as Lady Sangazure. Husband Max away in Finland, Sarah sorts clues herself.

A Crime Club selection, this intrguing tale has been reviewed as ... the very best whodunnit in many a day... Not to be missed. It starts with plans to bury deceased Great-uncle Frederick in the family vault on Beacon Hill. When the vault is opened, there's someone already there that no one could ever expect-the skeleton of a burlesque queen who disappeared thirty years ago! It's up to young Sarah Kelling to hold the shocked family together, and try to find out what happened. What she unravels is a complex murder plot that not only stretches into the past, but also has Sarah marked as a victim! - The third in a series of definitive edition of mysteries by America's Agatha Christie! - Second title in ibooks' Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn reissue program. - Over 1,000,000 Charlotte MacLeod novels have been sold worldwide. - Charlotte MacLeod is the American Mystery and Nero Wolfe Award-winning of the Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn and Professor Peter Shandy series of mysteries.

London, March 1941. The Blitz continues to cast a shadow over the city's brightest spots such as the Café de Paris. Having narrowly escaped a devastating bomb attack on the nightclub, Detective Chief Inspector Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are called to the disused Lord's Underground station where the body of a man has been discovered. The dead man was beaten to death by what may have been a cricket bat. Is he linked to the British Empire XI, made up of players from Great Britain and far-flung corners of the globe, who are playing at the world-famous Lord's Cricket Ground? Coburg and Lampson are certainly put in a spin by this complex case.