Recommendations based on "To Sketch a Thief"

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines- the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over- adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy's business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn't stay still long enough for habits or routines. She's currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D'Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . . Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?

New York Times Bestseller • Soon to be a PBS MASTERPIECE Mystery! series premiering fall 2024!Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz brings back his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland, hero of Magpie Murders, in an inventive, labyrinthine story that is “catnip for classic mystery lovers” (Time magazine).Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she's always wanted. But is it? She's exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she's beginning to miss London.And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married—a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye Hall—fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts.One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim—an advertising executive named Frank Parris—and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based the third book in his detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime.The Trehearne’s, daughter, Cecily, read Conway’s mystery and believed the book proves that the man convicted of Parris’s murder—a Romanian immigrant who was the hotel’s handyman—is innocent. When the Trehearnes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to England and find out what really happened.Brilliantly clever, relentlessly suspenseful, full of twists that will keep readers guessing with each revelation and clue, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction from one of its greatest masterminds.

In the newest entry into the Nero Award-winning Parker & Pentecost Mystery series ("my new favorite sleuthing duo"-- Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review), Lillian and Will are hot on the trail of a serial killer whose murders are stranger than fiction.New York City, 1947: For years, Holly Quick has made a good living off of murder, filling up the pages of pulp detective magazines with gruesome tales of revenge. Now someone is bringing her stories to life and leaving a trail of blood-soaked bodies behind. With the threat of another murder looming, and reluctant to go to the police, Holly turns to the best crime-solving duo in or out of the pulps, Willowjean “Will” Parker and her boss, famed detective Lillian Pentecost.The pair are handed the seemingly-impossible task of investigating three murders at once without tipping off the cops or the press that the crimes are connected. A tall order made even more difficult by the fact that Will is already signed up to spend her daylight hours undercover as a guileless secretary in the hopes of digging up a lead on an old adversary, Dr. Olivia Waterhouse.But even if Will is stuck in pencil skirts and sensible shoes, she’s not about to let her boss have all the fun. Soon she’s diving into an underground world of people obsessed with murder and the men and women who commit them. Can the killer be found in the Black Museum Club, run by a philanthropist whose collection of grim murder memorabilia may not be enough to satisfy his lust for the homicidal? Or is it Holly Quick’s pair of editors, who read about murder all day, but clearly aren’t telling the full story?With victims seemingly chosen at random and a murderer who thrives on spectacle, the case has the great Lillian Pentecost questioning her methods. But whatever she does, she’d better do it fast. Holly Quick has a secret, too and it’s about to bring death right to Pentecost and Parker’s doorstep.

In this charming mystery from the bestselling author of The Cats Came Back, two magical cats have powers of detection that prove indispensable to librarian Kathleen Paulson... With a well-placed paw on a keyboard or a pointed stare, Kathleen's two cats, Hercules and Owen, have helped her to solve cases in the past--so she has learned to trust their instincts. But she will need to rely on them more than ever when a twenty-year-old scandal leads to murder... The arrival of the Janes brothers has the little town of Mayville Heights buzzing. Everyone of a certain age remembers when Victor had an affair with Leo's wife, who then died in a car accident. Now it seems the brothers are trying to reconcile, until Kathleen finds Leo dead. The police set their sights on Leo's son and Kathleen's good friend Simon, who doesn't have much of an alibi. To prove her friend innocent, Kathleen will have to dig deep into the town's history--and into her sardine cracker supply, because Owen and Hercules don't work for free...

Sarah Grayson, secondhand store owner, and her clever rescue cat Elvis are right on the tail of a criminal in the charming new Second Chance Cat Mystery. Summer is around the corner and Sarah is making sure the store is stocked and ready for tourist season. But while the weather’s heating up, Sarah gets involved in a case that is decidedly cold, when a man who was linked to a drowning death years ago is found dead himself, on the same stretch of beach. Some of Sarah’s friends from the store knew the victim—and the young woman who drowned—very well and are concerned they could be dragged into the case.   It’s beginning to look like an innocent man may be in prison and that drowning death might in fact be the work of a killer who has struck again. Between Charlotte’s Angels, the group of senior citizen private detectives who operate out of the store, and Elvis’s abilities to sniff out trouble, Sarah won’t let a second chance at catching this purr-petrator pass her by.

As Laurie Cass continues the national bestselling Bookmobile Cat mystery series, librarian Minnie Hamilton is happy to take her bookmobile for a spin with her rescue cat, Eddie—but her tenacious tabby always seems to find trouble...   As the bookmobile rolls along the hills of Chilson, Michigan, Minnie and Eddie spread good cheer and good reads. But when her faithful feline finds his way into the middle of a murder, Minnie is there, like any good librarian, to check it out.   Eddie turns a routine bookmobile stop into anything but when he makes a quick escape and hops into a pickup truck…with a dead body in the flatbed. The friendly local lawyer who was driving the pickup falls under suspicion. But Minnie and Eddie think there's more to this case than meets the eye, and the dynamic duo sets out to leave no page unturned.

I've been able to add amateur sleuthing and accidental corpse finding to my CV. I'm not sure it's a good look. Juno Browne, self-proclaimed Domestic Goddess who can turn her hand to cleaning, dog walking or home help jobs, is feeling overworked and underpaid. However, she is not the only one with problems, very serious problems. Among her friends, Elizabeth is being blackmailed, and Ricky's errant nephew is on the run from criminals in London. In an attempt to get to the bottom of these disturbing developments, Juno finds herself drawn from an isolated manor house on Dartmoor to London's glamorous but shady theatreland. Can she avoid being fatally entangled in threads of deception and murder?

The Fall Crafters Fair has barely begun in Shipshewana when murder strikes the small town once again--this time on the property of Daisy's Quilt Shop. It will take all of the sleuthing skills Deborah Yoder and Callie Harper possess to catch the perpetrator. But the stakes are higher than ever before, since the material witness is their best friend's child. Masked identities, antique quilts with hidden messages, one brave dog, and a possible hidden treasure . . . Deborah and Callie are in for nonstop action, danger, and a dash of romance.

Librarian Charlie Harris and his ever-intuitive feline friend Diesel must catch a killer in a deadly game of cat and mouse where no one is who they seem to be... At last, Charlie and Helen Louise’s wedding is only a month away. They’re busy preparing for the big day, and the last thing Charlie needs is a new mystery to solve. Enter Tara Martin, a shy, peculiar woman who has recently started working part-time at Helen Louise’s bistro and helping Charlie in the archive. Tara isn’t exactly friendly and she has an angry outburst at the library that leaves Charlie baffled. And then she abruptly leaves a catered housewarming party Charlie’s son Sean is throwing to celebrate his new home in the middle of her work shift. Before ducking out of the party, Tara looked terrified and Charlie wonders if she’s deliberately trying to escape notice. Is she hiding from someone? When Tara is viciously attacked and lands in the hospital, Charlie knows his instincts were correct: Tara was in trouble and someone was after her. With the help of his much beloved cat, Diesel, Charlie digs deeper, and discovers shocking glimpses into Tara’s past that they could never have predicted. Will they catch the villain before Charlie’s own happily ever after with Helen Louise is ruined?

Life is busier than ever for witch Ophelia Jensen. In addition to her day job at the library, she—with the help of her grandmother Abby—is preparing to officially adopt Tink, the young medium she's taken under her wing. So when Ophelia's elderly Aunt Dot, eager for adventure, wants to investigate the murder of a funeral director in the neighboring town, Ophelia tries to say no. But then Tink's dog pulls a skull out of the woods—a skull that may belong to a murder victim. Finding mysterious bones in the woods isn't the only strange thing that's happened to Tink lately. She's been having visions of ghastly ghosts imploring her for help. But before Ophelia can connect the apparitions with the murder, Tink is kidnapped! Ophelia and Abby will have to battle a creepy crematorium owner and an invasion from some modern-day body snatchers to find their protégé . . . or else they'll have to hold a séance just to speak to her again.