Recommendations based on "The Early Investigations of Joanne Kilbourn"

'Laugh-out-loud hilarious, moving and life affirming. How can one book be so many things? I couldn't put this fabulous, first class, five star read down.' JANICE HALLETT'Thoroughly wicked, compulsively page-turning, and funny as hell.' S J BENNETTHello? Can you hear me? Probably not. I'm Dr Miriam Price . . . and I'm dead.The local police, who couldn't investigate their own nostrils, think I drank myself into an early grave. The nerve! I was murdered. I was just too plastered to know whodunnit, that's all.Unless I prove to my inquest this week that my death was no 'misadventure', I'm condemned to 50 years in Limbo. I have to find my killer - but I can't communicate with any living human. Well, there's one, but she barely qualifies . . . Winnie - my neighbour and nemesis. It seems the dying can interact with the dead, which is helpful news for me, if not stellar for Winnie. Oh well. She'll live. Maybe.Suspects? How long have you got? My saintly husband, who'd reached his limit? My best friend, who was anything but? My secret lover, or his wife? My disgruntled colleague? The mother who wrongly holds me responsible for her child's death? Professor Plum? Your guess is as good as mine.So Winnie - slap on your deerstalker and strap on your granny pants. Let's catch a killer! Assuming we don't kill each other first . . .'A triumph...there are also moving moments amid the hilarity' DAILY MIRROR'Splendidly offbeat whodunnit....Evans knows how to make an unlikely plot seem entirely believable' DAILY EXPRESS'Sometimes a book comes along that reminds you why you fell in love with reading. Imaginative, witty and original...an absolute joy!' WOMAN & HOME

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough – who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974.Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.As Strike and Robin investigate Margot’s disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .

‘Tis the season in Briar Creek, and this year festivities become fatalities in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Fatal First Edition. During the most wonderful time of the year, famous author Helen Monroe arrives in Briar Creek to be the writer in residence, but her “bah humbug” attitude excludes her from the many local holiday celebrations. To try to spread some Christmas cheer, library director Lindsey Norris invites the new writer in town to join her crafternoon club. Helen politely refuses and when an altercation happens between Helen and another patron, Lindsey begins to suspect the author has been keeping to herself for a reason. Another newcomer, Jackie Lewis, reveals she’s visiting Briar Creek to be near Helen because she believes they are destined to meet. Having dealt with a stalker in the past, Lindsey feels compelled to tell Helen about Jackie, as she suspects that Helen is unaware her “number one” fan is in town. When Jackie’s body is later discovered in the town park beneath the holiday-light display with a copy of Helen’s latest manuscript in her hand, the reclusive novelist becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her self-proclaimed mega-fan. Helen’s frosty demeanor melts when Lindsey offers her help, and now the librarian and her crafternoon pals must prove the author innocent before "The End" becomes Helen's final sentence.

In Cornwall, a man suffers a violent death - and the killer may lurk within the community . . . Featuring Detectives Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, A Slowly Dying Cause is an atmospheric, gripping crime thriller from bestselling author Elizabeth George. Amid the beauty of Cornwall's coastline, the death of a local man shatters the peace with its violence. The body of Michael Lobb is discovered in his family's tin and pewter workshop, and Detective Inspector Beatrice Hannaford is brought in to investigate. Suspicion quickly develops when it emerges that a mining company had been trying to buy the man's land, and Lobb was the only remaining obstacle to the deal going through. But every step of Bea's investigation provokes more questions than answers, and the complexity of the case develops further as Lobb's family life, rife with mistrust and deception, comes to light. With cryptic alibis and shifting motives, the tangled web of intrigue soon draws in her colleagues Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, who must search for a killer in a community that has very little trust in outsiders . . . **** 'She writes extremely well, plots brilliantly and reaches an emotional level deeper than most' - The Times 'She's a designer of fastidious mosaics that never fail to intrigue' - Guardian 'Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery' - New York Times 'Presses all the buttons to make us hoover her stuff up' - Daily Telegraph 'It feels like meeting old friends and that you're almost solving the crime together' - Belfast Telegraph 'Rich with descriptive detail and emotional nuance. Several alternating plot threads unspool at length, all of which weave tightly together with pleasing inevitability' - Wall Street Journal

A spiderweb of dangerous relationships lies at the heart of V is for Vengeance, Sue Grafton's daring new Kinsey Millhone novel. A woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose. And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web. V: Victim. Violence. Vengeance.

CRIME & MYSTERY FICTION. GRAPHIC NOVEL. Miss Marple's first case is adapted into the first Miss Marple comic book in this long-awaited adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's most famous novels. Nothing ever happens in the peaceful village of St Mary Mead. So it seems almost incredible when Colonel Protheroe is discovered shot through the head in the vicarage study. Unfortunately for the murderer, there is someone in the village who knows everything, sees everything and hears everything - and she intends to work out who killed the Colonel. Her name is Miss Marple!

Spring has sprung in Briar Creek, but it is not all sunshine and roses, in the newest Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of One for the Books. Spring is livening up Briar Creek after a long, cold winter, and newlyweds Lindsey and Sully could not be happier. Even though the upcoming mayoral election is getting heated, everything else in town is coming up daffodils...until a body is found. Ms. Cole, a librarian and current candidate for town mayor, is shocked when she opens her trunk to discover a murder victim who just so happens to be a guy she dated forty years ago and the founder of the baking empire Nana's Cookies. As the town gossip mill turns, a batch of rumors begins to circulate about Ms. Cole's rebellious youth, which--along with being a murder suspect--threatens to ruin her life and her budding political career. But Ms. Cole is one tough cookie who will not go down without a fight. Has the campaign for mayor turned deadly? It is up to Lindsey, Sully, and the rest of the crafternoon pals to see how the cookie crumbles and figure out who is trying to frame Ms. Cole for murder and why.

Nobody took much notice when the handbag slashing began in London. A few women found small nicks in their handbags, others huge gashes. John Coffin had a feeling that the cases were going to lead to something far more unpleasant. A similar case in Scotland -- of coats, this time -- comes to trial in Murreinhead, and Giles Almond, a mild-mannered officer of the Court, is viciously attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. Then the body of a missing Murreinhead woman is discovered in a rotting tenement in London, and the chase is on ...

Molly Murphy's beau Captain Daniel Sullivan may be out of jail on bail, but he's still a ways from clearing his name, and his foul mood has Molly in search of a little breathing room when providence steps in in the form of a proposition from New York City's renowned theatrical impresario Tommy Burke. America has been very good to Tommy, and now that he's getting on in years, he'd like to pass some of that good fortune on to his family back in Ireland. That's, of course, if Molly can find the long-lost baby sister his family left in the care of a parish priest when they fled the famine and avoid the warrant out for her arrest that forced Molly to flee herself. Tempted by the prospect of going home for the first time in years and putting her fledging detective agency on firm financial ground, Molly throws caution to the wind and climbs aboard the White Start Liner Majestic with hopes of sneaking on and off the isle without raising a peep. But even before Molly lands on the other side of the Atlantic, Broadway's leading actress, Oona Sheehan, has gone missing from the ship, and her maid is found dead in her cabin. Full of rich historic detail and enchanting turn-of-the-century personalities, Molly's return home, In Dublin's Fair City, is the sixth thrilling installment in Rhys Bowen's award-winning Molly Murphy series.

Never in my lifetime did I think I'd spend New Year's Eve knee-deep in mischief, magic, and murder! When my high-school nemesis, Prudence McAvoy, chooses The Melting Pot Café to host her New Year's party, I know I'm courting trouble by accepting her booking. The trouble begins with Prudence turning up dead, face down in a pond, and the finger for her murder is pointed directly at my shape-shifting best friend, Jordi. Determined to clear Jordi's name and bring the real killer to justice, I pool resources with Harriet, Tyler, and my cheeky familiar, Miss Saffron, to find out what happened to Prudence. As the clock counts down to midnight, time is running out in more ways than one. Can we find the killer before another body drops? Or will Jordi's new year begin in the pokey? If you like witty witches, talking cats, and magical murder mysteries, then you'll love Polly Holmes' light-hearted Melting Pot Café series.