Recommendations based on "Badgering the Witness"

'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger on The Cat and the Corpse in the Old Barn 'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel on The Cat and the Corpse in the Old Barn Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago. Clarice readily agrees to accompany Emily to Colin's funeral. On arriving at the stunning Victorian Gothic manor house, with Bellatrix, the majestic stone Siamese cat reposing at its entrance, Clarice soon becomes drawn into the fractious world of the Compton-Smythe family: Colin's argumentative father Ralph and his equally combative partner Tessa, their daughter, Dawn, being stalked by an ex-lover and, most unsettling of all, Ernestine, Ralph's emotionally unpredictable sister. And then there's Johnson, Ralph's menacing manservant. Clarice discovers the nearer she gets to the truth, the greater she is in danger as somebody is intent that the mystery of the missing wife should never be resolved.

Charlie Leathers was not the most popular man in the charming English village of Ferne Basset, but few people seemed to hate him enough to murder him. Still, that was his fate one night, and it brings Inspector Barnaby to the scene to investigate. What Barnaby doesn't know is that before his death, Charlie witnessed what might have been the suicide--or murder--of a young woman whose troubles with the law have landed her in the home of a local retired minister and his none-too-pleased wife. Now a man is dead, a girl is missing, and a town is in chaos as long-kept secrets begin to unravel, with deadly repercussions.

Knives Out meets Downton Abbey! Secrets, murder, and mayhem collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo--an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian--hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world, in this locked-room mystery by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ross Montgomery. Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley's Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom--every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within... By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow. All eyes turn to Steven Pike, Tithe Hall's newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn't commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she's been waiting for. Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges, and rising terror to unmask the killer before it's too late...

Librarian Kathleen Paulson and her enchanted felines get involved in a cold case that is putting people in very hot water in the newest installment of this New York Times bestselling series.When a water leak repair results in a body being found behind the walls of the store run by the artists’ co-op that Kathleen's friend, Maggie, is part of everyone is completely mystified as to whose body it is and who hid it there. But as the dust settles, her boyfriend, Detective Marcus Gordon, begins to suspect the body could belong to a young woman who disappeared more than thirty years ago.  When a friend with a connection to the young woman asks Kathleen to look into the circumstances around the disappearance, she and her cats—who have special feline talent for catching felons—find themselves digging up secrets that at least one person in Mayville Heights would much prefer stay buried.

In international bestselling author Jean-Luc Bannalec's The Secrets of the Abbey, between large inlets, the wild Atlantic, and enchanting apple orchards, a tricky and highly personal case unfolds for Commissaire Georges Dupin and his team.Summer in Brittany has carried merrily into October, bringing warm, sunny days and balmy nights. For Commissaire Georges Dupin and his team, it also brings a heavy blow. Second inspector Kadeg’s aunt has passed away after being struck by a series of omens of death. And when Kadeg travels to the former abbey where his aunt lived, he’s attacked and critically injured.Dupin and the rest of his team quickly head to the aunt’s estate on the Côte des Légendes to look into what happened. But the more they look, the more questions are uncovered, and the more secrets Kadeg’s family seems to have.

There’s no rest for the whiskered as librarian Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat, Eddie, have to investigate a poisoning—and a murder—in the newest installment of the national bestselling Bookmobile Cat Mysteries. When a heat wave hits northern Michigan, Minnie, Eddie, and their bookmobile head to the beach to catch some rays and some customers. But library business is put on hold when Minnie’s restaurant-owning best friend, Kristen, calls. The specialty ice cream cone treat she'd been serving to patrons was sabotaged, making some customers horribly sick. Kristen needs Minnie to sniff out the culprit fast, or the restaurant's reputation will be destroyed forever. Minnie and Eddie are hot on the tail of the suspect when an employee from another restaurant is found dead. Could the poisoning and the murder be related? It’ll take a feline to catch a felon...

"Missing humans, missing cats, what's the difference?" A fire in the seaside village of Molena Point has left a twelve-year-old boy homeless—and the body of his alcoholic guardian is found in the smoldering ruins. A most curious tomcat, feline p.i. Joe Grey wonders if escape was really impossible for the elderly woman or if something more sinister occurred. And when boisterous Debbie Kraft descends uninvited on the Damens' home with her two children, claiming that her ex-husband has left her destitute, Joe really smells a rat—especially when he discovers Debbie is carrying loads of cash . . . and that the dead woman was her estranged mother. This case—a nasty mix of missing persons, abandoned pets, real-estate scams, and murder—has Joe's fur standing on end. But it's not until Debbie's left-behind housecat shows up that Joe and his furry detecting pals find the biggest, most troubling clue of all: a grave that the cops somehow have missed.

In the latest Key West Food Critic mystery, Hayley Snow’s beat is reviewing restaurants for Key Zest magazine. But she sets aside her knife and fork when a dear friend is accused of murder…Hayley Snow looks forward to reviewing For Goodness Sake, a new floating restaurant that promises a fresh take on Japanese delicacies like flambéed grouper with locally sourced seaweed. But nearby land-based restaurateurs would rather see their buoyant competition sink.Sent to a City Commission meeting to cover the controversy, Hayley witnesses another uproar. The quirky performers of the daily Sunset Celebration are struggling to hold onto their performance space. The fight for Mallory Square has renewed old rivalries between Hayley’s Tarot-card reading friend Lorenzo and a flaming-fork-juggling nemesis, Bart Frontgate—but things take a deadly turn when Bart is found murdered.If Lorenzo could read his own cards, he might draw The Hanged Man. He can only hope that Hayley draws Justice as she tries to clear him of murder…INCLUDES RECIPES

'Tis the season to be jolly - and for Meg Langslow to round up stray animals of all sorts as well as a killer. Duck the Halls!The brilliantly funny Donna Andrews delivers boughs of holly and barrels of laughs with Meg's latest adventure in her award-winning, New York Times bestselling series. A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when volunteer fireman Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Vess, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen - only to turn up later during the concert, slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens. The next morning is Sunday, and the congregation of St. Byblig's, the local Catholic church, arrive to find it completely filled with several hundred ducks.It's clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Vess is discovered dead. Who would have murdered such a harmless - if slightly cranky - old man? Who has the time during the busy holiday season to herd all of these animals into the town's churches? And will Meg ever be able to finish all of her shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time for Christmas Eve? A Yuletide treasure for the ages, Duck the Halls is guaranteed to put the "ho ho hos" into readers' holidays.

City girl Poppy desperately wants to pay off her debts, quit her dead-end job, find her father... oh, and keep a plant alive. But she knows that these are just hopeless dreams--until the day a letter arrives. Suddenly, Poppy is on a train heading deep into the English countryside to claim a mysterious inheritance. And the last thing she expects to receive is a cottage garden nursery--complete with romantic climbing roses, scented herbs, a bossy, talkative ginger cat... and a dead body.Now she must solve the mystery or risk losing her new home and the chance for a fresh start. But who would want to murder a gardener in a sleepy little village? Could a reclusive inventor have something to do with the killing? What about the brooding crime author next door? And why is her long-lost cousin so desperate for her to sell the cottage?Poppy might not know her pansies from her petunias, but that doesn't stop her digging for clues. The only problem is that she could be digging her own grave too...