NCW Libraries

Murder - it's one of the staples of mystery fiction. One of the unwritten rules of the mystery novel is to start your murder in the first chapter...and on the first page, if possible! Collected here are 22 tales of murder. Some are fiendish. ("The Doorbell" is especially chilling.) Some are exotic. (Egyptian mummy murder? You bet!) Some take place in far-off locations. (The Canadian woods? At sea? In foreign countries? Why not!) What they all have...

In 1924 London, when shy academic Lao She meets larger-than-life Judge Dee Ren Jie, these unlikely allies investigate the murders of Chinese immigrants, all stabbed to death with a butterfly sword and must connect the dots to catch a killer before they become victims themselves.

"When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again--for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth's estranged husband, Derek. Yet Hercule Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie reenactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board"--Page...

After splurging to buy her childhood home in the Catskills, recently widowed Mikki Lincoln emerges from retirement as a freelance editor. But it's not long before Mikki realizes that the village of Lenape Hollow isn't the thriving tourist destination it was decades ago. Not with a murderer on the loose . . . When perky novice writer Tiffany Scott knocks at her door holding a towering manuscript, Mikki expects another debut novel plagued by typos...

The Thubway Tham MEGAPACK™ presents 22 classic tales by Johnston McCulley (creator of Zorro) featuring his series antihero, a pickpocket named Thubway Tham. Included in this volume are: THUBWAY THAM, FASHION PLATE THUBWAY THAM'S DOG THUBWAY THAM TUNES IN THUBWAY THAM'S HONESTY THUBWAY THAM'S HOODOO ROLL THUBWAY THAM'S OPERATION THUBWAY THAM'S CURIOSITY THUBWAY THAM MEETS A GIRL THUBWAY THAM'S ENGAGEMENT THUBWAY THAM GOES TO THE RACES THUBWAY...

Drawing upon experiences from his own prison days, the author recounts in feverish tones the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student tormented by his own nihilism, and the struggle between good and evil. Believing that he is above the law, and convinced that humanitarian ends justify vile means, he brutally murders an old woman -- a pawnbroker whom he regards as "stupid, ailing, greedy ... good for nothing." Overwhelmed afterwards by feelings...

"When teenage coder Emika Chen hacks her way into the opening tournament of the Warcross Championships, she glitches herself into the game as well as a sinister plot with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire"--

"A middle school teacher leaves home one morning and never arrives at his job. He leaves behind his briefcase and his phone, along with photographs of some of his female students. Across town, a detective on Santa Rosa's Violent Crimes Investigations team joins a colleague from the narcotics division as they investigate the killing of a dealer and local heroin smuggling operation. As the two cases converge in unexpected ways, secrets rise to the surface,...

Told from the alternating perspectives of nineteen-year-old Sadie who runs away from her isolated small Colorado town to find her younger sister's killer, and a true crime podcast exploring Sadie's disappearance.

As commander of the SVU, Capt. Olivia Benson is a seasoned veteran of the unit who has seen it all. She leads with empathy and professionalism, all the while dealing with her difficult past as a product of rape and her responsibility as a trailblazer in survivor advocacy, both of which influence the way she relates to the victims and perpetrators of each case.