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Death by Dumpling / Vivien Chien
The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that helping wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband.
Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead–after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy–to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out–it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.
Murder in G Major / Alexia Gordon
With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottages murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace. Gethsemanes reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger. As Gethsemane races to prevent a deadly encore, will she uncover the truth or star in her own farewell performance?
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death / M.C. Beaton
When Mrs. Agatha Raisin decides to retire early to the English Cotswolds, she envisions herself enjoying all that country life has to offer: garden parties, tea at the vicarage, and a cozy home far from the noise and smell of London.” “Life in the village of Carsley is not as Agatha anticipated, however. Much to her surprise, she doesn’t attract much interest among the villagers. No one comes to call; there are no invitations to tennis or tea. A miserable Agatha is forced to acknowledge that she is but another newcomer to the well-established Carsley society.” “Agatha didn’t succeed in business by being a shrinking violet, though, so she shakes off her doubts and resolves to make her mark on the village: She will enter Carsley’s Great Quiche Competition and win! The fact that Agatha has never baked so much as a potato in her life doesn’t stop her; she submits a delectable store-bought quiche as her own.” “Having dusted off her mantlepiece to accommodate her silver cup, Agatha is stunned to see the award go to another entry. Her surprise turns to horror, however, when the contest judge drops dead – from poison the police trace to Agatha’s “homemade” spinach pie.” “Agatha is now the talk of the town – though not exactly in the manner she had hoped. In an effort to clear her name, she turns amateur sleuth – as Beaton introduces a witty and well-crafted new mystery series peopled with quirky characters and all endearingly eccentric sleuth.
Murder Once Removed / S.C. Perkins
S.C. Perkins’ Murder Once Removed is the captivating first mystery in the Ancestry Detective series, in which Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster deals with murders in both the past and present. Except for a good taco, genealogist Lucy Lancaster loves nothing more than tracking down her clients’ long-dead ancestors, and her job has never been so exciting as when she discovers a daguerreotype photograph and a journal that prove Austin, Texas, billionaire Gus Halloran’s great-great grandfather was murdered back in 1849. What’s more, Lucy is able to tell Gus who was responsible for his ancestor’s death. Partly, at least. Using clues from the journal, Lucy narrows the suspects down to two nineteenth-century Texans, one of whom is the ancestor of present-day U.S. senator Daniel Applewhite. But when Gus publicly outs the senator as the descendant of a murderer–with the accidental help of Lucy herself–and her former co-worker is murdered protecting the daguerreotype, Lucy will find that shaking the branches of some family trees proves them to be more twisted and dangerous than she ever thought possible.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder / Joanne Fluke
With allusions to the movie Fargo, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder stars a red-haired cook called Hannah Swensen and a very eccentric assortment of Minnesota locals whose lives are disturbed by a killer in their midst.
Up to No Gouda / Linda Reilly
Back in Balsam Dell to heal after the death of her husband, Carly Hale is finally pursuing her lifelong dream–opening Carly’s Grilled Cheese Eatery. After only five months, business is booming as Vermont vacationers and townspeople alike flock to lunch on her Party Havartis and other grilled cheese concoctions. All but Lyle Bagley, Carly’s one-time high school boyfriend and now town bully who just bought the building that houses her eatery and wants Carly out. After a muenster of a fight, Carly’s forced to put her nose to the rind and find a solution to keep her business afloat. That is…until Lyle is discovered dead behind the dumpster of Carly’s shop, and one of her employees becomes the prime suspect. In order to save her eatery and prove her friend’s innocence, Carly must sleuth out the killer before she’s the one who gets grilled.
Vinyl Resting Place / Olivia Blacke
When Juni Jessup and her sisters Tansy and Maggie put all their beans in one basket to open Sip & Spin Records, a record-slash-coffee shop in Cedar River, Texas, they knew there could be some scratches on the track, but no one was expecting to find a body deader than disco in the supply closet. Family is everything to the Jessups, so when their uncle is arrested by Juni’s heartbreaking ex on suspicion of murder, the sisters don’t skip a beat putting Sip & Spin up for bail collateral. But their tune changes abruptly when Uncle Calvin disappears, leaving them in a grind. With their uncle’s freedom and the future of their small business on the line, it’s up to Juni and her sisters to get in the groove and figure out whodunit before the killer’s trail–and the coffee–goes cold. Music and mocha seem like a blend that should be “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” but caught up in a murder investigation with her family and their life savings on the line, Juni wonders if she might be on the “Highway to Hell” instead.
Her Royal Spyness / Rhys Bowen
The Agatha Award winner debuts a 1930s London mystery series, featuring a penniless twenty-something member of the extended royal family. Her ridiculously long name is Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, daughter to the Duke of Atholt and Rannoch. And she is flat broke. As the thirty-fourth in line for the throne, she has been taught only a few things, among them, the perfect curtsey. But when her brother cuts off her allowance, she leaves Scotland, and her fiancZ Fish-Face, for London, where she has: a) worked behind a cosmetics counter-and gotten sacked after five hoursb) started to fall for a quite unsuitable minor royalc) made some money housekeeping (incognita, of course), andd) been summoned by the Queen to spy on her playboy son. Then an arrogant Frenchman, who wants her family’s 800-year-old estate for himself, winds up dead in her bathtub. Now her most important job is to clear her very long family name.
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards / Lilian Jackson Braun
More than thirty years ago, Lilian Jackson Braun wrote The Cat Who Could Read Backwards and launched the phenomenally successful Cat Who… mystery series. In it we are introduced to the extraordinary detective team of prize-winning reporter Jim Qwilleran and Koko, the brilliant Siamese cat. Jim Qwilleran is somewhat disgruntled when his assignment for the Daily Fluxion is to cover the art beat. For a hard-nosed crime reporter it’s like being put out to pasture. Little does he suspect that this fluff assignment will lead down the path to murder. A stabbing in an art gallery, vandalized paintings, a fatal fall from a scaffold are not at all what Qwilleran expects. Even less, he could not possibly predict that the solution to these crimes wouldn’t come from his newfound partner, Koko the Siamese with exceptional abilities for sniffing out clues.
A Killing in Costumes / Zac Bissonnette
Stardom fades fast when you’re on the line for murder, in this debut cozy mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Jenn McKinlay. Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were soap opera stars in the late ’90s, a wholesome young husband-and-wife duo who combined musical talent with humor and charisma. When the truth about their sexual orientations came to light, their marriage and TV careers ended, but decades later they have remained friends. Together, they open Palm Springs’ chicest movie memorabilia store, Hooray for Hollywood–but no customers and dwindling finances spell trouble. A Hail Mary arrives in the form of Yana Tosh, a ninety-year-old diva of the silver screen who has amassed a valuable collection of costumes and props and is looking to sell. But first, Jay and Cindy have to beat their competition, a vice president from a mega-auction house with ten times their resources. And when he winds up dead, they become prime suspects in the murder. With their freedom and livelihoods on the line, Jay and Cindy desperately need to clear their names. There are plenty of other potential suspects, but they’ll have to solve it soon before they’re forced to trade in their vintage costume collection for two orange jumpsuits.
The Marlow Murder Club / Robert Thorogood
Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper. One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local vicar. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club. When another body turns up, they realize they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…
A Most Agreeable Murder / Julia Seales
From The Lady’s Guide to Swampshire, Volume 1. Acceptable topics of conversation: the weather, hats. Unacceptable topics of conversation: gossip, France, missing person cases. Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township–she is terrible at needlework, has no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters–beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: she is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper, even going so far as to try to solve them herself. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she’d be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever. For her family’s sake, she’s vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family’s estate, and they will be ruined, or even worse, forced to move to mime-infested France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior…which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball. Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Contending with competitive card games, tricky tonics, and Swampshire’s infamous squelch holes, Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice and her own desires-before anyone else is murdered.
Mango, Mambo, and Murder / Raquel V. Reyes
Food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith’s move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, puts her academic career on hold to stay at home with her young son. Adding to her funk is an opinionated mother-in-law and a husband rekindling a friendship with his ex. Gracias to her best friend, Alma, she gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women’s Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.
When a second woman dies soon after, suspicions coalesce around a controversial Cuban herbalist, Dr. Fuentes–especially after the morning show’s host collapses while interviewing him. Detective Pullman is not happy to find Miriam at every turn. After he catches her breaking into the doctor’s apothecary, he enlists her help as eyes and ears to the places he can’t access, namely the Spanish-speaking community and the tawny Coral Shores social scene.
As the ingredients to the deadly scheme begin blending together, Miriam is on the verge of learning how and why the women died. But her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder.
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder / Valerie Burns
Receiving a surprise inheritance, social media expert Maddy Montgomery must live in her great-aunt Octavia’s house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for an English mastiff named Baby, while trying to prove her innocence in the murder of the town’s mayor.
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder / Dianne Freeman
Wealthy young widow Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, spent the obligatory year in mourning for her philandering husband. With her young daughter in tow, Frances moves from the English countryside and her money-grubbing in-laws to Victorian London, and welcomes her sister, Lily, arriving from New York for her first London social season. When mysterious burglaries start plaguing London’s elite, an anonymous tip to the police implicates Frances in her late husband’s death. Frances rallies her wits, a circle of gossips, and her dashing new neighbor George Hazelton to uncover the truth.
The Frangipani Tree Mystery / Ovidia Yu
1936 in the Crown Colony of Singapore, and the British abdication crisis and rising Japanese threat seem very far away. When the Irish nanny looking after Acting Governor Palin’s daughter dies suddenly – and in mysterious circumstances – mission school-educated local girl SuLin – an aspiring journalist trying to escape an arranged marriage – is invited to take her place. But then another murder at the residence occurs and it seems very likely that a killer is stalking the corridors of Government House. It now takes all SuLin’s traditional skills and intelligence to help British-born Chief Inspector Thomas LeFroy solve the murders – and escape with her own life.
To find more great books go to our book recommendation page and browse book lists created by the librarians at Robbins.