I'd Know You Anywhere/Laura Lippman/373 pages

Eliza Benedict is a wife and mother of two. When she was a teenager, she was kidnapped and manipulated by Walter Bowman, who also kidnapped and killed several other young girls. Walter is now on "Death Row" and has contacted Eliza as his sentence is about to be carried out. We (and Eliza) wonder why Walter has contacted her and why he treated her differently from his other victims. The story tells the frightening story of kidnapping and manipulation.

Sherlockian / Graham Moore 589 p.

Literary researcher Harold White reaches nirvana when he is inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars, the preeminent Sherlockian group in the United States. Arthur Conan Doyle scholar Alex Cale is coming to the Baker Street Irregulars convention with the long lost Doyle diary-- only to be murdered in his hotel room. Doyle's great-grandson hires White to solve the murder and trace the diary, which is missing from Cale's hotel room. Chapters alternative between White's probing in the present and Doyle's own account of his serial murder investigation with his friend Bram Stoker in 1900. A good yarn utilizing much from the Holmes stories useful for readers of Sherlock Holmes.


Anthony Award Nominee

Faithful Place / Tana French 400 p.

Detective Frank Mackey returns unwillingly to his home after 22 years of self-imposed exile when his long lost, love, Rosie Daly's suitcase turns up in an abandoned home, the only remnant of their plan to run away together to London. In this third novel featuring the Dublin Murder Squad, Frank investigation is wound tightly around his dysfunctional family, friends and neighbors of Faithful Place, Dublin, Ireland. Mackey reveals all the happenings of the neighborhood. Everyone from that time has secrets drudged up as the pieces slowly fall into place. Language alert. For those readers who enjoy all the details of relationships.

Anthony Award Nominee

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter/Tom Franklin/274 pgs

Larry Ott had been accused of kidnapping and maybe the murder of a neighbor girl while he was still in high school. But because the body was never found he was never charged with any crime except in the minds of the people in his home town. Now another girl is missing and he is a suspect in this crime, but before anything can be done he is shot. His childhood friend and the new constable, Silas Jones is trying to find out what happened. Silas and Larry were friends one summer - this is important because Larry is white and Silas is black and this is Mississippi in the 70s. You can figure out part of the story right away but there are some twists at the end.

Crooked letter, crooked letter / Tom Franklin 274 p.

Larry Ott spends his entire life as an outsider; awash in gossip and whispers when his very first date ever horribly wrong--the girl never returns. No body is ever found, no evidence of foul play, nor does Larry ever confess. "Scary" Larry becomes the key suspect when another girl goes missing. When Larry is shot, the investigation is run by his childhood friend, African American Silas Jones, now constable. Slow paced, descriptive mystery set in the 1970s Mississippi.

Anthony Award Nominee

Bury Your Dead / Louise Penny 371 p.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Montreal police returns in this 6th book where Louise Penny masterfully interweaves three substantial plots set in Quebec. On leave, he investigates the murder of Augustin Renaud, an eccentric obsessed with finding the final resting spot of Samuel de Champlain, Quebec's founder, while he rehashes a police-hostage situation gone bad. Add his doubts about a recently settled murder the Three Pines murder enquiry that sent B&B owner Olivier to prison (bk. 5). Readers of mysteries set in locals may find this of interest. Readers of P.D. James may enjoy this. Listen to the audiobook for an interview with Penny.

Link to the SCCCLD catalog for Louise Penny's works
Anthony Award Nominee

I'd Know You Anywhere/Laura Lippman/373 pgs.

Several victims are kidnapped and murdered--why was Eliza Benedict allowed to live? Discovering the answer to this question is what propels the plot in Lippman's psychological mystery. It's a very absorbing read; I highly recommend it!

i'd know you anywhere / Laura Lippman 373 p.

Eliza Benedict carefully crafted peaceful, ordinary suburban life is shattered when Walter Bowman's letter tells her "I'd know you anywhere". In 1985, Walter cowered her when he kept her captive at 15 for 39 days. Now on prison's deathrow and within weeks of his execution for the rape and murder of another girl, he re-enters her life to manipulate her to save his life. Eliza agrees to talk to him. The story unfolds on two fronts: one reveals her past ordeal and the other her current life as she interacts with her moody daughter, her daughter's teachers, her sweet son, convicted killer Walter, and his civilian advocate. A fast-paced psychological look at victim and the aftermath of a violent crime.
Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel

Check the SCCCLD catalog