AGATHA RAISIN AND THE VICIOUS VET by M.C. Beaton

FIC/MYS

BEATON, M.

This book is a delightful English "cozy," i.e. a mystery set in a quaint village. Agatha Raisin is not exactly the Miss Marple type, however. She has retired from her public relations company in London and settled down to the deceptively peaceful idyll of the Cotswolds.

She might be retired, but Agatha wouldn't be averse to a little romance and excitement. When a handsome new vet arrives in town, Agatha-true to her charmingly self-centered, vaguely dishonest self will try anything to get her claws into him. Whoops! He winds up dead!

A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES

FIC/MYS

PETERS, E.

Though Brother Cadfael is skeptical of Prior Robert's motives in fetching Saint Winifred's bones from her grave in Wales to the abbey, it is a good thing Cadfael accompanies the delegation sent accomplish the task. Brother Cadfael is needed to interpret between the Welsh villagers and the English monks. He must also find the murderer of the villager leading the opposition to moving Winifred. Cadfael solves the murder, assists in pairing off two sets of lovers, and keeps Winifred in Wales without disappointing his own abbey.

Readers with an interest in medieval history or in mysteries, or who just enjoy a good story with many humorous touches, should try this first of Brother Cadfael's adventures.

BITTER MEDICINE by Sara Paretsky

PBK/MYS

Paretsky, S.

A riveting Chicago-based whodunit which starts out with private detective V.I. Warshawski taking Consuelo, sixteen years old and pregnant, to a Schaumburg hospital for delivery of her premature baby. Neither mother nor baby live out the night. The next day the doctor who treated her is found brutally murdered, and Vic (short of Victoria) is hip-deep in a highly personal investigation. What she uncovers is an explosive nightmare of conspiracy and greed in which human life takes a back seat to the bottom line.

SHAPE SHIFTER by Tony Hillerman

FIC/MYS

HILLERMAN

Lt. Joe Leaphorn has recently retired from the Navajo Tribal police. He receives a copy of an article about an old and priceless Navajo rug from the 1860's, when the Navajo people started their long walk home. Eventually the "woven sorrow rug" was purchased and displayed at a trading post. When that building burned down, the rug was supposedly lost as well. The insurance company paid the owner.

Now Joe's friend Mel Bork, who is investigating the owner of a supposed copy, has gone missing only to be found dead a few days later. An atmospheric and suspenseful read.

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by Julia Spencer-Fleming

FIC/MYS

Spencer-Fleming

Clare Fergusson, former army helicopter pilot, is the first Episcopal woman priest in small-town Miller's Kill, N.Y. Clare is having enough trouble with the cold weather and her conservative parishioners when she finds a baby abandoned in the church. This event brings police chief Russ Van Alstyne, a religious skeptic, to her door. Opposites are forced together when the baby's mother is found murdered. Since the policeman is married, both suppress the growing attraction between them. As this is the first in a series, their relationship is sure to be explored further.

NOT IN THE FLESH by Ruth Rendell

FIC/MYS

RENDELL
The discovery of skeletal remains by a truffle hunting dog draws Inspector Wexford into a difficult missing person investigation. When his assistant Mike Burden discovers another body in the basement of the deserted cottage on the property they must find the link between the two cases. A subplot involving genital mutilation among the immigrant Somali population of Kingsmarkham keeps this long-running series current.

DEATH IN THE DEVIL'S ACRE by Anne Perry

PBK/MYS
PERRY, A.

A series of brutal murders takes place in the red light district of London during the late 1880s. Police Inspector Thomas Pitt is called to investigate to see if there's a tie between the murder victims: a middle aged doctor, a former footman, a very rich and titled gentleman, and a math teacher. All were stabbed in the back and mutilated.

Pitt and his wife Charlotte race against time to find the killer. The search leads them to aristocratic families with secrets to hide, as well as to the underside of Victorian London.

THE BEACH HOUSE by James Patterson

FIC

PAT

Jack Mullen is a law school student who grew up in the Hamptons. He frequently heads home to his widowed father's home where his brother Patrick and grandfather also live. Jack is devastated to learn that his beloved younger brother, Peter, has drowned while working as a valet at a ritzy part. When Jack sees the body he concludes that Peter was beaten to death. The rick folk and local authorities insist the death was an accident. Jack investigates, discovering that his brother had a secret life. With the help of his grandfather and friends Jack sets out to avenge his brother's death in a way that the Hamptons will not soon forget.

MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH by Ariana Frankllin

FIC

FRANKLIN
A serial child murderer is on the loose in 12th-century Cambridge and suspicion has fallen on the local Jewish population. King Henry II wants to find the killer (and needs the Jewish tax revenues). He sends for a medical examiner, or master of the art of death, from one of the most advanced medical schools of the time, the University of Salerno. What he gets is a “mistress of the art of death” in the form of young Dr. Adelia Aguilar who must do her work in secret because of the English prejudice against female doctors. The mystery is entertaining but perhaps more interesting are the many historical details of life in this distant time.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon

FIC

HADDON

Christopher Boone is an exceptional 15-year. He is blessed with a genius for math and an exceptionally logical mind, but is autistic and has no understanding of human emotions. As the narrator of this story his world begins to fall apart after finding the neighbor's dog impaled by a garden fork. He makes it his mission to find the murderer, modeling his investigation after his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes. Christopher embarks upon a journey that forces him to deal with his parents' divorce and his father's lies. The novel, told in the format of a murder mystery, is the honest and sometimes funny account of what might go on in the mind of an autistic child.