Good Reads - Fiction

Mystery

Historical Mysteries - Bibliography

M/ALEXANDER
Alexander, Bruce - Blind Justice - 1994, 254p.
Soaked with atmospheric sights and sounds of the era, 18th century London serves as backdrop to Judge Sir John Fielding's introduction as a detective. A founder of London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, the blind judge, together with his 13-year-old sidekick (and set of eyes) Jeremy Proctor, delves into a world of darkness and evil to find the truth behind an assumed suicide of a lord.

M/DAY
Day, Dianne - Fire and Fog - 1996, 241p.
For Fremont Jones Wednesday April 18, 1906 started with bells—church bells signaling the onset of the Great San Francisco earthquake. Barely escaping being crushed by a falling armoire, Fremont runs to her office to check on her beloved typewriter. Although her typewriter is intact, the encroaching fires force her to grab it and run. When Fremont's landlords are found dead in the office building, she realizes they were not killed by the earthquake. Failing to convince the police of this, she decides to learn what happened. She meets a number of unusual people, places her life in danger, and questions what she wishes to do with the rest of her life. The second book in an excellent historical series.

M/GRAYSON
Grayson, Richard - Death Off Stage - 1992, 189p.
A range of interesting characters from all classes bring turn-of-the-century Paris to life, as Inspector Gautier investigates several seemingly unrelated cases, from the murder of an infant to the poisoning of a prima ballerina. Both his heart and mind are engaged, since several cases involve the visiting Dashkova Ballet Company, a dance troupe led by his lover Princess Sophia. Applying intuition and solid investigative techniques, Gautier discovers the link among the cases and finds himself in danger as he brings the murderers to justice.)

M/GREGORY
Gregory, Susanna - An Unholy Alliance - 1996, 310p.
England is barely beginning to recover from the effects of the Black Death in 1348. People despairing of God's love have turned increasingly to satanic cults; the unscrupulous are seizing trade, land, and livelihoods. Matthew Bartholomew and Benedictine monk Brother Michael investigate the mysterious appearance of a dead friar inside a locked chest, but did the friar die of ignorance or malice? And did his death have anything to do with the four prostitutes murdered in the last two months? A strong first novel that delivers a close look at the history of Cambridge and a fascinating period in British history.

M/HATVARY
Hatvary, George Egon - The Murder of Edgar Allan Poe - 1997, 211p.
What really happened to Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore on that fateful election day in 1849? Befriended by a shadowy stranger, the acerbic author is drugged, dressed in rags, and left to die outside of Gunner's Hall, a raucous tavern and makeshift polling place. Auguste Dupin, Poe's renowned detective hero, is summoned from Paris by the writer's distraught aunt. Dupin promptly sails for America to console grieving relatives, privately suspecting a grotesque literary vendetta.

M/KING
King, Laurie R. - The Beekeeper's Apprentice, or, on the Segregation of the Queen - 1994, 347p.
Trapped in an unpleasant legal entanglement with a cold and abusive guardian, fifteen-year-old orphan Mary Russell finds the ideal mentor in the retired beekeeper whose cottage borders her home in Sussex Downs. Her keen intellect intrigues and enchants the Great Detective, and their relationship grows and deepens into a mutually respectful friendship as he involves her in several investigations. The author has succeeded in creating a new "Baker Street regular" without compromising the character of the formidable Sherlock Holmes himself.

M/LAWRENCE
Lawrence, Margaret - Hearts and Bones - 1996, 307p.
Set amidst the chaos and uncertainty of post-Revolutionary War America, Hannah Trevor, midwife in the small Maine village of Rufford, delves into the rape and murder of a young mother whose husband is gone surveying the western lands. It is the dead of winter; and as Hannah in her characteristic red cloak prowls the snowdriven paths of the village, she comes under the scrutiny of her former lover, the judging eyes of the village, and the gaze of a murderer.

M/LINSCOTT
Linscott, Gillian - Sister Beneath the Sheet - 1991, 224p.
Famed courtesan Topaz Brown died in Biarritz, leaving her fortune to the Women's Social and Political Union, an embattled organization fighting for the vote for women. One of its leaders, Nell Bray, is assigned to go to Biarritz to protect the union's interests, since Topaz's brother is contesting the will, claiming his sister's suicide was the result of a deranged mind. Topaz's maid is convinced her mistress was murdered. Nell begins sleuthing, completes her mission, and sees justice served, in a lively story that gracefully evokes the fervor of the suffragettes and the old style grandeur of the rich and famous.

M/MAHER
Maher, Mary - The Devil's Card - 1992, 243p.
A fictionalized review of a celebrated 1889 Chicago case: the disappearance and murder of Dr. Patrick Cronin. The details are grimly dramatic—a naked corpse, wearing only a scapular, found in a Lakeview storm drain, a bloody trunk that may have held the corpse, a blood-drenched cabin, and the victim's crusade against the nationalistic Irish secret society. Reporter Tom Martin struggles with his own identity as an Irish-American as he works on the Cronin case. A sensitive, leisurely-paced historical reconstruction of ethnic tensions among the Irish. A fascinating, grittily authentic mystery.

M/NEWMAN
Newman, Sharan - Death Comes as Epiphany - 1993, 319p.
Catherine LeVendeur has been asked by the prioress Heloise to pretend to leave the Order of the Paraclete, so she can go undercover and investigate the possibility the heretical statements that have been found in the psalters were copied by the novitiates. As she journeys to the library at St. Denis, she meets and falls in love with a young Saxon, Edgar. This historical mystery is the first in the series which follows Catherine through courtship and marriage to Edgar. It is very atmospheric with details about daily life in 1139 A.D. France.

M/NOLAN
Nolan, WIlliam F. - The Marble Orchard - 1996, 230p.
Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Erle Stanley Gardner are back as amateur detectives, following their debut in The Black Mask Murders. Here they interact in a complex, colorful, and richly textured thriller. Narrated by Chandler, the adventure begins in East Los Angeles with the discovery of what seems to be a ritual suicide in a Chinese cemetery. Action moves from the Hearst castle, to the abandoned canals of Venice by the Sea, to an ornate hotel on Conorado Island, to the Victorian mansions of Bunker Hill. Along the way readers will encounter real-life personalities. Nolan expertly evokes the surreal world of Southern California and Hollywood in the 1930s, as the all-time masters of crime fiction return in a bold, inventive novel.

M/PENMAN
Penman, Sharon Kay - The Queen's Man - 1996, 291p.
It is 1193 and London's king, Richard the Lionhearted, is missing. Having left to fight in the Crusades, no one has heard from him for weeks. His mother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, is determined to find him while his brother John, heir to the throne, speculates that he has been killed. Traveling to London, young Justin De Quincy witnesses the murder of the Queen's messenger and discovers a vital letter on the body addressed to the Queen. Upon delivery of this letter, Justin becomes "the Queen's man" and becomes involved in sinister plots, murder, and treachery in the coming months.

M/ROBB
Robb, Candace M. - The Apothecary Rose - 1993, 256p.
Details of medieval life and the apothecary trade abound as Owen Archer, former Captain of Archers, is sent to York to investigate the death of the ward of the Lord chancellor of England. Apprenticed to Lucie, wife of Master Apothecary Nicholas Wilton, Owen uses his cover to track down the murderer while falling in love with Lucie, who to Owen's dismay, is a strong suspect.

M/ROBINSON
Robinson, Lynda S. - Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing - 1996, 229p.
Lord Meren, the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, is told by the Pharaoh to go to his ancestral home and rest. His journey covers the fact that he and his son Kesen are secretly taking the bodies and treasure of Akhenaton and Nefertiti to their new secret burial site. Unfortunately, when Meren comes home, he finds that his family has thrown a Feast of Rejoicing to celebrate his homecoming. During the party, Meren discovers the body of Anhai, the wife of his cousin, in his granary. As he delves into everyone's motives, he discovers that the intrigues and murderous actions of the dead pharaoh Akhenaton continue to haunt everyone. Meren must uncover old hatreds in order to solve this murder.

M/SATTERTHWAIT
Satterthwait, Walter - Escapade - 1995, 355p.
An eccentric lord with Socialist leanings, a vulgar widow and her paid companion, Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a Pinkerton agent are just a few of the people gathered in a haunted country manor house for a seance. When the Earl of Axminster is murdered in his bed, Houdini and a Scotland yard detective enter into a competition to solve the crime. A humorous entertainment.

F/SMITH
Smith, Martin Cruz - Rose - 1996, 364p.
Jonathan Blair returns to Victorian England from a period of African exploration dogged by scandal and malaria. Out of options, he accepts an unwelcome offer from his former patron Bishop Hannay to investigate the disappearance of a cleric in the mining village of Wigan, in exchange for the Bishop's support in further explorations. In Wigan, Blair finds deceit and danger, and a growing attraction for Rose, a mysterious and independent "pit girl."

Prepared by members of the Adult Reading Round Table, a group of librarians from various library systems in Illinois.