Mystery

On a dull and dreary October day, Lori Shepherd and her husband Bill set off for the historic town of Rye, on the southeast coast of England, for a quiet weekend together without the kids. Bill must first pay a visit to a reclusive client--but after Lori drops him off, a powerful storm drives her off course and leaves her stranded in an ancient, rambling inn called The King's Ransom. When Lori is spooked by ghostly noises in the night, Aunt Dimity reminds her rather tartly that not all ghosts intend to harm the living.

But the longer Lori is stuck at the inn, the stranger things seem. She learns that the inn was once a hangout for smugglers, and that it's riddled with secret tunnels the smugglers used to reach a network of hidden caves. Then there's the inn's cook--a brawny, gruff ex-con--who seems to have a beef with a mysterious French guest. Are the noises Lori hears made by the spirits of long dead smugglers? Or should she be more worried by the inn's living inhabitants? Joining forces with her new friend Bishop Wyndham, and guided by Aunt Dimity's wise counsel, Lori sets out to discover once and for all who--or what--is haunting The King's Ransom.

"To the ranks of amateur sleuths, from Miss Marple to Jessica Fletcher, welcome Auntie Poldi." -- Newsday

On her sixtieth birthday, Auntie Poldi retires to Sicily, intending to while away the rest of her days with good wine, a view of the sea, and few visitors. But Sicily isn't quite the tranquil island she thought it would be. When her handsome young handyman goes missing--and is discovered murdered--she can't help but ask questions. Soon there's an investigation, a smoldering police inspector, a romantic entanglement, one false lead after another, a rooftop showdown, and finally, of course, Poldi herself, slightly tousled but still perfectly poised. This "masterly treat" (Times Literary Supplement) will transport you to the rocky shores of Torre Archirafi, to a Sicily full of quirky characters, scorching days, and velvety nights, alongside a protagonist who's as fiery as the Sicilian sun.

"Delightful." -- NPR, The Weekly Reader

"Delizioso!" -- Adriana Trigiani, best-selling author of Kiss Carlo

Sandy: Auntie Poldi kills me. I picked this book because so many of you are mad for the European woman turns sleuth “detective” series, plus it reminded me of a Peter Mayle caper (A Year in Provence, etc.).  Each one of her books is more beloved then the one before - and who can resist Poldi’s verve and full-steam-ahead joie de vivre? While she solves a murder in her new hometown of Sicily, she supports her writer’s-block nephew and, sexy at 60, forges a madcap life of her own.  Full of quirky characters, “scorching days and velvety nights,” this is escapism at its funnest.

When Isolde Oberreiter decides at age 60 to move from Munich to Sicily “to drink herself comfortably to death with a sea view,” her decision makes a crazy kind of sense. Winters in Munich are not for the faint of heart. Her ex-husband, Peppe, now deceased, was from Catania, and his three sisters, Luisa, Teresa, and Caterina, welcome her to join them there. But Isolde, known to her family as Poldi, always flies to her own compass. Instead of Catania, she buys a villa in tiny Torre Archirafi, down the street from the Bar-Gelateria Cocuzza . Because even intrepid Poldi can’t manage a villa on her own, she recruits Valentino Candela, a young local (and dashing) jack-of-all-trades, to help with the restoration. Valentino is a great worker until he disappears. Suspecting foul play, Poldi invades Femminamorta, a local estate Valentino mentioned just before vanishing. Valérie Raisi di Belfiore, the estate’s young owner, takes to Poldi, inviting her to dinner with her elderly cousin, Domenico Pastorella di Belfiore, owner of a still larger estate. Charmed as she is by Sicilian high society, Poldi isn’t getting any closer to finding Valentino. And she isn’t finding people with whom she really clicks—that is, until she crosses paths with police detective Vito Montana. Poldi is an irresistible newcomer with a mature voice and a vision of who she is and who she never will be, not afraid to take chances, and willing to fail. She's grateful to the universe for what it offers and accepting when it doesn't provide more. A drama queen who isn't fooled by her own production, she knows the value of living deeply.

Giordano’s wit and his formidable heroine's wisdom combine to make this debut a smash.

NOMINEE--EDGAR AWARDS BEST ORIGINAL PAPERBACK
Best Crime Novels of the Year, New York Times
Reading the West Award Nominee
Starred review from Publishers Weekly
Starred review from Kirkus Reviews
Starred review from Booklist
Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2019, CrimeReads

The new novel from award-winning author Lisa Sandlin catches up with the almost-murdered secretary Delpha Wade (The Do-Right, 2015, set in 1973) as she's released from a hospital in order to be tucked into the back seat of a police cruiser. Her boss, P. I. Tom Phelan, sets out to spring her. He needs her back in his investigation business, where he'll soon be chasing a skulking grand larcenist and plotting how to keep a ganjapreneur out of the grabby hands of a brand new agency, the D.E.A. Delpha digs through old records and knocks on strange doors to unravel the dangerous case of two brothers with beaucoup aliases--verifying that sometimes truth is not true, but murder is always murder.

The third installment in the delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno.

Something dangerous is afoot in St. Denis. In the space of a few weeks, the normally sleepy village sees attacks on Vietnamese vendors, arson at a local Asian restaurant, subpar truffles from China smuggled into outgoing shipments at a nearby market--all of it threatening the Dordogne's truffle trade, worth millions of dollars each year, and all of it spelling trouble for Benoît "Bruno" Courrèges, master chef, devoted oenophile, and, most important, beloved chief of police. When one of his hunting partners, a noted truffle expert, is murdered, Bruno's investigation into the murky events unfolding around St. Denis becomes infinitely more complicated. His friend wasn't just a connoisseur of French delicacies, he was a former high-profile intelligence agent--and someone wanted him dead.

As the strange crimes continue, Bruno's detective work takes him from sunlit markets to dim cafés, from luxurious feasts to tense negotiations--from all of the paradisial pleasures of the region to its shadowy underworld--and reunites him with a lost love, an ambitious policewoman also assigned to the case. Filled with an abundance of food and wine (including, bien sûr, many, many truffles) and a soupçon of romance, Black Diamond is a deliciously entertaining concoction that delivers all the complexity and delights of the Dordogne itself.

A charming French village, great food, eccentric characters and a mystery to nudge things along...Savory indeed. --The Seattle Times

Meet Benoît Courrèges, aka Bruno, a policeman in a small village in the South of France. He's a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life. He has a gun but never wears it; he has the power to arrest but never uses it. But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes all that. Now Bruno must balance his beloved routines--living in his restored shepherd's cottage, shopping at the local market, drinking wine, strolling the countryside--with a politically delicate investigation. He's paired with a young policewoman from Paris and the two suspect anti-immigrant militants. As they learn more about the dead man's past, Bruno's suspicions turn toward a more complex motive.

Enjoyable.... Martin Walker plots with the same finesse with which Bruno can whip up a truffle omelette, and both have a clear appreciation for a life tied to the land. --The Christian Science Monitor

A nice literary pairing with the slow-food movement.... [It is] lovely...to linger at the table. --Entertainment Weekly