Women Sleuths

The past few years have shown an increase in the number of mysteries featuring a woman sleuth. She may be a police officer, a private detective, an office worker, a professor, an attorney, a nun, or even a librarian, but she is always tenacious and self-reliant. She may occasionally use her physical strength or a weapon in the course of her crime-solving; more often, she uses her intelligence, her expertise in a specific area, and her understanding of human nature to reach a solution. 

Titles are listed in the order in which they were published, through November 2019.  This is not an exhaustive list of women sleuths, but a collection of notable series owned by Madison Public Library.

Search for author by last name:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U| V | W | X | Y | Z

 

Nekesa Afia

Caught in a police raid of a 1920s New York speakeasy, Louise Lloyd is given an opportunity to reduce her sentence by helping to solve the murders of several local black girls in these Harlem Renaissance mysteries.  

• Dead Dead Girls
• Harlem Sunset
• A Lethal Lady

Susan Wittig Albert 

China Bayles is a Pecan Springs, Texas herb store owner and former attorney. Herb lore and a portrait of a modern small town being reshaped by big city refugees are important features of this series. 

• Thyme of Death
• Rosemary Remembered
• Witches Bane
• Rueful Death
• Hangman's Root
• Love Lies Bleeding
• Chile Death
• Lavender Lies
• Mistletoe Man
• Bloodroot 
• Indigo Dying
• An Unthymely Death
• A Dilly of a Death 
• Dead Man's Bones 
• Bleeding Hearts
• Spanish Dagger
• Nightshade 
• Wormwood 
• Holly Blues 
• Mourning Glory 
• Cat's Claw 
• Widow's Tears 
• Death Come Quickly 
• Bittersweet
• Blood Orange
• The Last Chance Olive Ranch
• Queen Anne's Lace
• A Plain Vanilla Murder
• Hemlock
• Forget Me Never

Ellie Alexander

Brewer Sloan Krause leaves her cheating husband to work for a hip new micro brewery while solving murders in the brewing world.  

• Death on Tap
• The Pint of No Return
• Beyond a Reasonable Stout
• Without a Brew
• The Cure for What Ales You

Jules Capland is a pastry chef at her family's bakeshop, Torte, in Ashland, Oregon.

• Meet Your Baker
• A Batter of Life and Death
• On Thin Icing
• Caught Bread Handed
• Fudge and Jury
• A Crime of Passion Fruit
• Another One Bites the Crust
• Till Death Do Us Tart
• Live and Let Pie
• A Cup of Holiday Fear
• Nothing Bundt Trouble
• Chilled to the Cone
• Mocha, She Wrote
• Bake, Borrow and Steal
• Donut Disturb
• Muffin But the Truth
• Catch Me If You Candy
• A Smoking Bun
• Sticks and Scones

Tasha Alexander 

Lady Emily Ashton’s status in upper-crust Victorian London gives her access to the murmurings of society gossip and high-powered connections—both handy for this amateur detective.

• And Only to Deceive
• A Poisoned Season
• A Fatal Waltz
• Tears of Pearl
• Dangerous to Know
• A Crimson Warning 
• Death in the Floating City 
• Behind the Shattered Glass 
• The Counterfeit Heiress
• The Adventuress
• A Terrible Beauty
• Death in St. Petersburg
• Uneasy Lies the Crown
• In the Shadow of Vesuvius
• The Dark Heart of Florence
• Secrets of the Nile
• A Cold Highland Wind
• Death by Misadventure

Boris Akunin 

In the remote nineteenth-century Russian countryside, Sister Pelagia uses methodical investigations to unravel tightly knotted mysteries. 

• Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
• Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
• Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel

Sally Andrew

Tannie Maria is a middle-aged Afrikaans widow who writes an advice column in the Klein Karoo Gazette in rural South Africa.

• Recipes for Love and Murder
• The Satanic Mechanic

Mary Kay Andrews 

This humorous series features Eloise "Weezie" Foley, who forms her own antique business after a bitter divorce.

• Savannah Blues 
• Savannah Breeze 
• Blue Christmas 
• Christmas Bliss 

Suzanne Middendorf Arruda

Following the trauma of World War I, Jade del Cameron moves to East Africa to find peace and fulfill a dying man's wish.  But she finds that navigating the Anglo-Saxon elite and the wilds of the savannah hide many dangers and opportunities for murder.

• Mark of the Lion
• Stalking Ivory
• The Serpent's Daughter
• The Leopard's Prey
• Treasure of the Golden Cheetah
• The Crocodile's Last Embrace

Nancy Atherton 

Lori Shepard relies on the supernatural skills of Aunt Dimity, her now-dead benefactor, to solve puzzles on both sides of the grave in this cozy series.   

• Aunt Dimity’s Death
• Aunt Dimity and the Duke
• Aunt Dimity’s Good Deed
• Aunt Dimity Digs In
• Aunt Dimity’s Christmas
• Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil
• Aunt Dimity, Detective
• Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday
• Aunt Dimity Snowbound
• Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin
• Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea
• Aunt Dimity Goes West
• Aunt Dimity, Vampire Hunter
• Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon 
• Aunt Dimity Down Under
• Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree
• Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch
• Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince
• Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well 
• Aunt Dimity and the Summer King
• Aunt Dimity and the Buried Treasure 
• Aunt Dimity and the Widow's Curse 
• Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom
• Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold
• Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage

Lori Avocato 

Pauline Sokol leaves the nursing profession to become a fraud investigator for the Scarpello & Tonelli Insurance Company. 

• A Dose of Murder
• The Stiff and the Dead
• One Dead Under the Cuckoo's Nest
• Deap Sea Dead
• Nip, Tuck, Dead
• Dead on Arrival 
• Dead Weight

Deb Baker 

Gertie Johnson is a sixty-six-year-old grandmother who upholds the law in Michigan’s rural Upper Penisula.  

• Murder Passes the Buck
• Murder Grins and Bears It
• Murder Talks Turkey 
• Murder Bites the Bullet

Mignon Ballard

Longtime first-grade teacher Miss Dimple Kilpatrick solves crimes and helps with heartache and rationing in World War II era Elderberry, Georgia. 

• Miss Dimple Disappears
• Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause
• Miss Dimple Suspects
• Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble
• Miss Dimple and the Slightly Bewildered Angel

Ballard also writes a humorous supernatural mystery series featuring guardian angel August Goodnight. 

• Angel at Troublesome Creek
• An Angel to Die For
• Shadow of an Angel
• The Angel Whispered Danger
• Too Late for Angels
• The Angel and the Jabberwocky Murders
• Hark! the Herald Angel Screamed

Jo Bannister 

Single mother Brodie Ferrell starts her own search service, "Looking for Something?," in Dimmock, England. 

• Echoes of Lies
• True Witness
• Reflections
• The Depths of Solitude
• Breaking Faith
• Requiem for a Dealer
• Flawed
• Closer Still 
• Liars All

Linda Barnes 

Six-foot-one red-head Carlotta Carlyle, former Boston cop and sometimes cabbie, sets herself up as an independent private investigator ready to deal with anything from lost pets to grand larceny. 

• A Trouble of Fools
• The Snake Tattoo 
• Coyote
• Steel Guitar
• Snapshot 
• Hardware 
• Cold Case 
• Flashpoint 
• The Big Dig
• Deep Pockets
• Heart of the World 
• Lie Down With the Devil 

Nevada Barr 

Anna Pigeon is a National Park Service Ranger. In each book, she has been assigned to a different national park, including one in Texas and one on Lake Superior. 

• Track of the Cat
• Superior Death 
• Ill Wind
• Firestorm 
• Endangered Species 
• Blind Descent 
• Liberty Falling 
• Deep South 
• Blood Lure 
• Hunting Season 
• Flashback 
• High Country 
• Hard Truth 
• Winter Study 
• Borderline 
• Burn 
• The Rope 
• Destroyer Angel 
• Boar Island 

Stephanie Barron  

Stephanie Barron is the pseudonym of former C.I.A. intelligence analyst Francine Mathews. This mystery series features Jane Austen as detective in Regency England.  

• Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
• Jane and the Man of the Cloth
• Jane and the Wandering Eye
• Jane and the Genius of the Place 
• Jane and the Stillroom Maid 
• Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
• Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House 
• Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
• Jane and His Lordship's Legacy 
• Jane and the Barque of Frailty
• Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron
• Jane and the Canterbury Tale
• Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas
• Jane and the Waterloo Map 
• Jane and the Year Without a Summer
• Jane and the Final Mystery

Carrie Bebris 

Author Carrie Bebris was inspired to reimagine some of Jane Austen’s most enduring characters as amateur detectives in Regency England in her Mr. and Mrs. Darcy series. 

• Pride and Prescience
• Suspense and Sensibility
• North by Northanger
• The Matters at Mansfield
• The Intrigue at Highbury
• The Deception at Lyme 
• The Suspicion at Sanditon

SJ Bennett

In between her royal duties, Queen Elizabeth II uses her skills honed from years of diplomacy and a vast web of social connections to solve murders.

• The Windsor Knot
• All the Queen's Men
• Murder Most Royal
• A Death in Diamonds

Laurien Berenson 

Melanie Travis is a special education teacher, divorced mother, and new owner of a standard poodle. Aided by her Aunt Peg, Melanie enters the dog show world. These lighthearted adventures will charm dog fanciers and cozy fans.

• A Pedigree to Die For
• Underdog
• Dog Eat Dog
• Hair of the Dog
• Watchdog
• Hush Puppy
• Unleashed
• Once Bitten
• Hot Dog
• Best in Show
• Jingle Bell Bark
• Raining Cats & Dogs
• Chow Down
• Hounded to Death
• Doggie Day Care Murder 
• Gone With the Woof
• Death of a Dog Whisperer
• The Bark Before Christimas
• Live and Let Growl
• Murder at the Puppy Fest
• Wagging Through the Snow
• Ruff Justice
• Bite Club
• Game of Dog Bones
• Here Comes Santa Paws
• Howloween Murder
• Pup Fiction
• Show Me the Bunny
• Killer Cupid
• Pumpkin Spice Puppy

Septuagenarians Rose, a former nun, and Peg, her widowed sister-in-law, work to put aside their sometimes clashing personalities to solve murders in this upbeat and comic cozy series.

• Peg and Rose Solve a Murder
• Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble
• Peg and Rose Play the Ponies

Ruth Birmingham 

Sunny Childs is the sharp-tongued lead private investigator for Peachtree Investigations in Atlanta, Georgia. 

• Atlanta Graves
• Fulton County Blues
• Sweet Georgia
• Blue Plate Special
• Cold Trail
• Feet of Clay

Cara Black 

The City of Light seems worlds away from the dark, crime-ridden corners of Paris where Aimee Leduc does her investigating in these fast-paced mysteries.   

• Murder in the Marais
• Murder in Belleville
• Murder in the Sentier 
• Murder in the Bastille
• Murder in Clichy
• Murder in Montmarte
• Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis
• Murder in the Rue de Paradis 
• Murder in the Latin Quarter 
• Murder in the Palais Royal
• Murder in Passy 
• Murder at the Lanterne Rogue
• Murder Below Montparnasse
• Murder in Pigalle
• Murder on the Champs de Mars
• Murder on the Quai
• Murder in Saint Germain
• Murder on the Left Bank
• Murder in Bel-Air

Eleanor Taylor Bland 

Marti MacAlister, mystery fiction's first black woman homicide detective, is a former Chicago cop who joins the suburban Lincoln Prairie police force after her husband dies. 

• Dead Time
• Slow Burn
• Gone Quiet
• Done Wrong
• Keep Still
• See No Evil
• Scream in Silence
• Whispers in the Dark
• Windy City Dying
• Fatal Remains
• Shades of Black
• Cold & Silent Dying
• Dark & Deadly Deception
• Suddenly A Stranger
• A Dark and Deadly Deception

Rhys Bowen 

In this early 20th-century series, Molly Murphy travels to New York, running away from Ireland and the accidental murder of a man who tried to rape her. In New York, Molly sets herself up as an apprentice to a private detective.  Starting with Wild Irish Rose, Bowen's daughter Clare Broyles is a co-author on the series.

• Murphy's Law
• Death of Riley
• For the Love of Mike
• In Like Flynn
• Oh Danny Boy
• In Dublin’s Fair City
• Tell Me, Pretty Maiden
• In a Gilded Cage
• The Last Illusion
• Bless the Bride
• Hush Now, Don't You Cry
• The Family Way
• City of Darkness and Light
• The Edge of Dreams
• Away in a Manger 
• Time of Fog and Fire
• The Ghost of Christmas Past
• Wild Irish Rose
• All That is Hidden
• In Sunshine or In Shadow

Although Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie has a royal pedigree, her penniless state and extraordinary sleuthing knack puts her on the trail of murderers in 1920s England. 

• Her Royal Spyness
• A Royal Pain
• Royal Flush
• Royal Blood
• Naughty in Nice
• The Twelve Clues of Christmas
• Heirs and Graces
• Queen of Hearts
• Malice at the Palace 
• Crowned and Dangerous
• On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service
• Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding
• Love and Death Among the Cheetahs
• The Last Mrs. Summers
• God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
• Peril in Paris
• The Proof of the Pudding
• We Three Queens

Alan Bradley

Flavia de Luce is a precocious eleven-year-old sleuth living in a bucolic 1950s English village.  Her primary passions--chemistry, puzzles and poisons--come in handy when investigating suspicious deaths and disappearances. 

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie 
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag 
• A Red Herring Without Mustard 
• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows 
• Speaking From Among the Bones 
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches 
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust 
• Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd 
• The Grave's a Fine and Private Place
• The Golden Tresses of the Dead
• What Time the Sexton's Blade Doth Rust

Rita Mae Brown 

Mary Minor Haristeen (Harry), postmistress of Crizel, Virginia, is helped in investigations by Mrs. Murphy (her cat), Tee Tucker (her dog) and Pewter (a neighbor's cat). 

• Wish You Were Here 
• Rest in Pieces
• Murder at Monticello
• Pay Dirt
• Murder She Meowed
• Murder on the Prowl
• Cat on the Scent 
• Pawing through the Past 
• Claws and Effect 
• Catch as Cat Can 
• Tail of the Tip-off
• Whisker of Evil 
• Cat's Eyewitness 
• Sour Puss 
• Puss ‘n Cahoots 
• The Purrfect Murder 
• Santa Clawed 
• Cat of the Century 
• Hiss of Death 
• The Big Cat Nap 
• Sneaky Pie for President 
• The Litter of the Law 
• Nine Lives to Die 
• Tail Gait 
• Tall Tail 
• A Hiss Before Dying
• Probable Claws
• Whiskers in the Dark
• Furmidable Foes
• Claws for Alarm

In her seventies, Master of the Hunt Sister Jane Arnold  is still a feisty detective in murder-prone Virginia horse country.

• Outfoxed
• Hotspur
• Full Cry 
• The Hunt Ball 
• The Hounds and the Fury
• The Tell-Tale Horse 
• Hounded to Death 
• Fox Tracks 
• Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
• Crazy Like a Fox
• Homeward Hound
• Scarlet Fever
• Out of Hounds
• Thrill of the Hunt
• Lost and Hound
• Time Will Tell

Fiona Buckley  

Set in 16th Century England these mysteries feature Ursula Blanchard, a young widow who is one Elizabeth I's Ladies of the Presence Chamber. An eye for suspicious dealings has gained her an additional income as a spy for the Queen.  

• To Shield the Queen
• The Doublet Affair
• Queen's Ransom 
• To Ruin the Queen
• Queen of Ambition
• A Pawn for a Queen
• The Fugitive Queen
• The Siren Queen  
• Queen Without a Crown
• Queen's Bounty
• Rescue for a Queen 
• A Traitor's Tears
• A Perilous Alliance
• The Heretic's Creed
• A Deadly Betrothal
• The Reluctant Assassin
• A Web of Silk
• The Scent of Danger
• Forest of Secrets
• Shadow of Spain
• Golden Cargoes
• To Seize a Queen

Jan Burke 

Irene Kelly is a news reporter in southern California and can't stay away from solving crimes. Detective Frank Harriman, Irene's on-again, off-again love interest has become an integral part of the series.

• Goodnight, Irene 
• Sweet Dreams, Irene
• Dear Irene
• Remember Me, Irene
• Hocus
• Liar
• Bones
• Flight
• Bloodlines
• Kidnapped
• Disturbance 

V. M. Burns

Bookshop owner and aspiring mystery author Samantha Washington teams up with her grandmother and her retiree friends to solve crimes in North Harbor, Michigan.

• The Plot is Murder
• Read Herring Hunt
• The Novel Art of Murder
• Wed, Read and Dead
• Bookmarked for Murder
• A Tourist's Guide to Murder
• Killer Words
• Bookclubbed to Death
• Murder on Tour

As Valerie Burns, V. M. Burns writes the Baker Street mysteries featuring baker Maddy Montgomery and her sidekick, a 250-pount mastiff named Baby, in New Bison, Michigan.

• Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder
• Murder is a Piece of Cake
• A Cup of Flour, a Pinch of Death

Buzzelli, Elizabeth Kane

After a bitter divorce, Jenny Weston returns home to Bear Falls, Michigan, in the Little Libraries mysteries

• A Most Curious Murder
• She Stopped for Death
• In Want of a Knife
• And Then They Were Doomed

Colleen Cambridge

Phyllida Bright serves as housekeeper at Mallowan Hall, and helps to solve murders that stump even her famous employer--Agatha Christie.

• Murder at Mallowan Hall
• A Trace of Poison
• Murder by Invitation Only
• Murder Takes the Stage

Dorothy Cannell 

Ellie Haskell, heiress and mother of twins, lives in England with her husband Ben, who she met through an escort service. 

• The Thin Woman
• Widow’s Club
• Mum’s the Word
• Femmes Fatal
• How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law
• How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams
• The Spring Cleaning Murders
• The Trouble With Harriet 
• Bridesmaids Revisited 
• God Save the Queen
• The Importance of Being Ernestine
• Withering Heights
• Goodbye, Ms. Chips 
• She Shoots to Conquer

P. M. Carlson 

Martine "Marty" Hopkins is the deputy sheriff of quiet Nichols County in southern Indiana. She tries to find a balance between the demands of her job and her home life, which includes her husband and young daughter. 

• Gravestone
• Bloodstream
• Deathwind
• Crossfire 

Laura Childs

Carmela Bertrand is a scrapbook store owner and accidental sleuth in New Orleans. 

• Keepsake Crimes
• Photo Finished
• Bound for Murder
• Motif for Murder
• Frill Kill
• Death Swatch
• Tragic Magic
• Fiber and Brimstone
• Skeleton Letters 
• Postcards from the Dead
• Gilt Trip 
• Gossamer Ghost
• Parchment and Old Lace
• Crepe Factor
• Glitter Bomb
• Mumbo Gumbo Murder

In Childs' other series is based in Charleston, South Carolina, tea shop owner Theodosia Browning  finds herself steeped in mysteries.

• Death by Darjeeling
• Gunpowder Green
• Shades of Earl Grey
• The English Breakfast Murder
• The Jasmine Moon Murder
• Chamomile Mourning
• Blood Orange Brewing
• Dragonwell Dead
• The Silver Needle Murder
• Oolong Dead
• The Teaberry Strangler
• Scones and Bones 
• Agony of the Leaves 
• Sweet Tea Revenge 
• Steeped in Evil 
• Ming Tea Murder
• Devonshire Scream
• Pekoe Most Poison
• Plum Tea Crazy
• Broken Bone China
• Lavender Blue Murder
• Haunted Hibiscus
• Twisted Tea Christmas
• A Dark and Stormy Tea
• Lemon Curd Killer
• Honey Drop Dead
• Murder in the Tea Leaves
• Peach Tea Smash

Childs' other series features three semi-desperate, 40+ women running the egg-themed Cackleberry Club in the small town of Kindred:

• Eggs in Purgatory
• Eggs Benedict Arnold
• Bedeviled Eggs
• Stake and Eggs
• Eggs in a Casket
• Scorched Eggs
• Egg Drop Dead
• Eggs on Ice
• Egg Shooters

Jill Churchill 

Her earlier series features Jane Jeffry, a young suburban "Jane Marple" with kids, a dog and a busy life as a single mother.  

• Grime and Punishment
• Farewell to Yarns
• Quiche Before Dying
• The Class Menagerie
• A Knife to Remember
• From Here to Paternity
• Silence of the Hams
• War and Peas
• Fear of Frying
• The Merchant of Menace
• A Groom with a View
• Mulch Ado About Nothing
• The House of Seven Mabels
• Bell, Book and Scandal 
• A Midsummer Night's Scream 
• The Accidental Florist 

Churchill's new series is set in the Hudson River Valley in the 1930's and stars a sister and brother team of inn owners, Lily and Robert Brewster in her Grace and Favor myster series . 

• Anything Goes
• In the Still of the Night
• Someone to Watch Over Me
• Love for Sale
• It Had to Be You 
• Who's Sorry Now? 

Tracy Clark

Detective Harriet Foster must solve homicides while also navigating prejudices and corruption as a Black female officer in the Chicago Police Department.

• Hide
• Fall
• Echo

Judy Clemens 

29-year-old Stella Crown runs a dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she rides Harley-Davidson motorcycles and solves the mysteries that arise in her small community. 

• Till the Cows Come Home
• Three Can Keep a Secret
• To Thine Own Self Be True
• The Day Will Come
• Different Paths
• Leave Tomorrow Behind

Margaret Coel 

Coel's Arapaho Indian Mystery series takes place on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and features a Jesuit missionary named John Aloysius O'Malley and an Arapaho attorney named Vicky Holden. 

• Eagle Catcher
• Ghost Walker
• Dream Stalker
• Story Teller
• Lost Bird 
• Spirit Woman 
• Thunder Keeper 
• Shadow Dancer 
• Killing Raven 
• Wife of Moon 
• Eye on the Wolf 
• The Drowning Man 
• The Girl With the Braided Hair 
• The Silent Spirit 
• The Spider's Web 
• Buffalo Bill's Dead Now
• Killing Custer
• Night of the White Buffalo
• The Man Who Fell From the Sky
• Winter's Child

Susan Conant

30-year-old Holly Winter is a feisty columnist for Dog's Life Magazine, living in Cambridge, MA. She stumbles across murder in the course of training and showing her Alaskan Malamute dogs. 

• A New Leash on Death
• Dead and Doggone
• A Bite of Death
• Paws Before Dying
• Gone to the Dogs
• Bloodlines
• Ruffly Speaking
• Black Ribbon
• Stud Rites
• Animal Appetite
• The Barker Street Regulars
• Evil Breeding
• Creature Discomforts
• The Wicked Flee
• The Dogfather
• Bride and Groom
• Gaits of Heaven
• All Shots
• Brute Strength
• Sire and Damn

Susan Conant has teamed up with her daughter, Jessica Conant-Park, to write a new culinary mystery series, Gourmet Girls, set in Brighton, MA, featuring twenty-something Chloe Carter. Carter is a food connoisseur, looking for the perfect dish and the perfect date, but finding murder along the way. 

• Steamed
• Simmer Down
• Turn Up the Heat 
• Fed Up
• Cook the Books

Beverly Connor 

Connor released the first book of a brand new series featuring forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon. As the new director of the River Trail Museum of Natural History in Georgia, Diane thought she had left forensics behind her until plot twists bring her back into the field. 

• One Grave Too Many
• Dead Guilty
• Dead Secret
• Dead Past
• Dead Hunt 
• Scattered Graves
• Dust to Dust
• The Night Killer
• One Grave Less

Natasha Cooper  

Amateur sleuth Willow King leads a double life. Tues.-Thurs. she's a civil service administrator in London’s Dept. of Old Age Pensions; the rest of the week she works as romance author Cressida Woodruffe.  

• A Common Death
• Poison Flowers
• Bloody Roses
• Bitter Herbs
• Rotten Apples
• Drowning Pool
• Sour Grapes  

As an offshoot of the King series, Cooper began a series with a slightly darker edge, featuring barrister Trish Maguire. 

• Creeping Ivy
• Fault Lines
• Prey to All
• Out of the Dark
• A Place of Safety
• Keep Me Alive
• Gagged & Bound
• Evil Is Done
• A Poisoned Mind  

Patricia D. Cornwell 

Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia, is able to sort out answers from available forensic evidence. 

• Postmortem 
• Body of Evidence 
• All that Remains 
• Cruel and Unusual 
• The Body Farm 
• From Potter's Field 
• Cause of Death 
• Unnatural Exposure 
• Point of Origin 
• Scarpetta's Winter Table (short stories)
• Black Notice 
• Last Precinct 
• Blow Fly 
• Trace 
• Predator 
• At Risk 
• Book of the Dead 
• Scarpetta 
• The Scarpetta Factor 
• Port Mortuary 
• Red Mist 
• The Bone Bed 
• Dust 
• Flesh and Blood 
• Depraved Heart 
• Chaos 
• Autopsy
• Livid
• Unnatural Death
• Identity Unknown

Andy Brazil, a young reporter-turned-rookie, police chief Judy Hammer and her deputy, Virginia West battle the bad guys in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

• Hornet's Nest 
• Southern Cross 
• Isle of Dogs 

Deborah Crombie 

Detective Sergeant Gemma James and Superintendent Duncan Kincaid are English police detectives. Gemma is a young divorced single mother and she develops a complicated relationship with Duncan. 

• A Share in Death 
• All Shall Be Well
• Leave the Grave Green 
• Mourn Not Your Dead 
• Dreaming of the Bones 
• Kissed a Sad Goodbye
• A Finer End
• And Justice There is None 
• Now May You Weep 
• In a Dark House 
• Water Like a Stone 
• Where Memories Lie 
• Necessary as Blood 
• No Mark Upon Her 
• The Sound of Broken Glass 
• To Dwell in Darkness 
• Garden of Lamentations 
• A Bitter Feast
• A Killing of Innocents

Mary Daheim 

Former journalist Mary Daheim writes two mystery series, the first of which focuses on a Seattle bed and breakfast run by Judith McMonigle Flynn. 

• Just Desserts
• Fowl Prey
• Holy Terrors
• Dune to Death
• Bantam of the Opera
• Fit of Tempera
• Major Vices
• Murder, My Suite
• Auntie Mayhem
• Nutty as a Fruitcake
• September Mourn
• Wed and Buries
• Snow Place to Die
• Legs Benedict
• Creeps Suzete
• Streetcar Named Expire
• Suture Self
• Silver Scream
• Hocus Croakus
• This Old Souse
• Dead Man Docking 
• Saks and Violins
• Scots on the Rocks
• Vi Agra Falls
• Loco Motive
• All the Pretty Hearses
• The Wurst Is Yet to Come 
• Gone With the Win
• Clam Wake 
• Here Comes the Bribe 
• A Case of Bier

Ms. Daheim's other star is Emma Lord, a small-town newspaper owner-editor in Alpine, Washington. 

• The Alpine Advocate
• The Alpine Betrayal
• The Alpine Christmas
• The Alpine Decoy
• The Alpine Escape
• The Alpine Fury
• The Alpine Gamble
• The Alpine Hero
• The Alpine Icon
• The Alpine Journey
• The Alpine Kindred
• The Alpine Legacy
• The Alpine Menace
• The Alpine Nemesis
• The Alpine Obituary
• The Alpine Pursuit
• The Alpine Quilt
• The Alpine Recluse
• The Alpine Scandal
• The Alpine Traitor 
• The Alpine Uproar
• The Alpine Vengence
• The Alpine Winter
• The Alpine Xanadu 
• The Alpine Yeoman 
• The Alpine Zen

Jeanne Dams  

Dorothy Martin is an American schoolteacher retired in England.

• The Body in the Transept
• Trouble in the Town Hall
• Holy Terror in the Hebrides
• Malice in Miniature
• The Victim in Victoria Station 
• Killing Cassidy
• To Perish in Penzance
• Sins Out of School 
• Winter of Discontent
• A Dark and Stormy Night
• The Evil That Men Do
• The Corpse of St. James's
• Murder at the Castle
• Shadows of Death
• Day of Vengeance
• The Gentle Art of Murder
• Blood Will Tell
• Smile and Be a Villain
• The Missing Masterpiece
• Crisis at the Cathedral
• A Dagger Before Me
• Death in the Garden City
• Death Comes to Durham
• The Bath Conspiracy
• A Deadly Web
• Village Politics Can Be Murder

Hilda Johansson is a turn-of-the-century Swedish housemaid in South Bend, Indiana. 

• Death in Lacquer Red 
• A Red, White and Blue Murder 
• Green Grow the Victims 
• Silence is Golden 
• Crimson Snow
• Indigo Christmas  
• Murder in Burnt Orange

Dams' newest series follows 25-year-old widow Elizabeth Fairchild, who learns the hard way that her home town of Oak Park Village, Illinois has not escaped the violence surrounding 1920s Chicago.  

• Murder in the Park
• Music and Murder

Diane Mott Davidson 

Gertrude "Goldy" Bear is a caterer in Aspen Meadow, Colorado. Mouth-watering recipes and food descriptions are liberally mixed into the plot. She works closely with officer Tom Schulz; eventually they marry. 

• Catering to Nobody 
• Dying for Chocolate 
• Cereal Murders 
• The Last Suppers 
• Killer Pancake 
• The Main Corpse 
• The Grilling Season 
• Prime Cut 
• Tough Cookie 
• Sticks and Scones 
• Chopping Spree
• Double Shot 
• Dark Tort 
• Sweet Revenge 
• Fatally Flaky 
• Crunch Time
• The Whole Enchilada 

Lindsey Davis

In first-century Rome, the role of 'personal informer' is a difficult one, especially for a woman.  Nonetheless, Flavia Albia uses her sharp intelligence, wit and levity to make inquiries into crimes among the ancient elite. 

• The Ides of April 
• Enemies at Home
• Deadly Election
• The Graveyard of the Hesperides
• The Third Nero
• Pandora's Boy
• A Capitol Death
• The Grove of the Caesars
• A Comedy of Terrors
• Desperate Undertaking
• Fatal Legacy
• Death on the Tiber

Anna Dean

Dido Kent, a 'lady of a certain age' in Regency England, uses her acute intellect, knowledge of upper crust society and perceptive observation to solve mysteries in spite of the limits placed on women of her era. 

• Bellfield Hall
• A Gentleman of Fortune, or the Suspicions of Miss Dido Kent
• A Woman of Consequence
• A Place of Confinement

Carola Dunn 

These 1920's mysteries are a cozy look at post World War I Britain. The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple writes magazine features that frequently get her involved in murder.  

• Death at Wentwate Court 
• The Winter Garden Mystery
• Requiem for a Mezzo
• Murder on the Flying Scotsman
• Damsel in Distress
• Dead in the Water
• Styx and Stones
• Rattle His Bones
• To Davy Jones Below
• The Case of the Murdered Muckraker
• Mistletoe and Murder
• Die Laughing
• A Mournful Wedding
• Fall of the Philanderer 
• Gunpowder Plot
• Bloody Tower
• Black Ship  
• Sheer Folly
• Anthem for Doomed Youth
• Gone West
• Heirs of the Body
• Superfluous Women
• The Corpse at the Crystal Palace

Dunn also has a series set in 1960s Cornwall featuring Eleanor Trewynn, a widow who runs a charity shop in Port Maybn.  

• Manna From Hades
• A Colourful Death
• The Valley of the Shadow
• Buried in the Country

Kathy Lynn Emerson  

Set in the 16th century these historical mysteries feature Lady Susanna Appleton, an herbalist.  

• Face Down in the Marrow Bone Pie
• Face Down Upon an Herbal
• Face Down Among the Winchester Geese
• Face Down Beneath the Eleanor Cross
• Face Down Under the Wych Elm
• Face Down Before the Rebel Hooves
• Face Down Across the Western Sea
• Face Down Below the Banqueting House
• Face Down Beside St. Anne’s Well
• Face Down O’er the Border 

Emerson began a new series featuring Diana Spaulding, a descendant of Lady Susanna Appleton. Independence, stubbornness, and a taste for solving mysteries have remained through the generations. Set in the late 1800s, widowed Spaulding works as a journalist in New York City. 

• Deadlier than the Pen
• Fatal as a Fallen Woman
• No Mortal Reason
• Lethal Legend 

Kathleen Ernst

Old World Wisconsin museum curator Chloe Ellefson studies the historical heritage sites of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, which often lead her into buried secrets and murder.

• Old World Murder
• The Heirloom Murders
• The Light Keeper's Legacy
• Heritage of Darkness
• Tradition of Deceit
• Death on the Prairie
• A Memory of Muskets
• Mining for Justice
• The Lacemaker's Secret
• Fiddling With Fate

Pomeranian immigrant Hanneke Bauer arrives in 1855 Wisconsin expecting to find her husband waiting, but instead discovers him dead, requiring her to turn sleuth to uncover who his killer is.

• Lies of Omission
• The Solace of Stars
• A Most Perilous Journey

Janet Evanovich 

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum tracks down bail jumpers in Trenton, New Jersey. Her bounty hunter pal Ranger often steps in to advise her and vice-cop Joe Morelli also joins in her cases. 

• One for the Money 
• Two for the Dough 
• Three to Get Deadly 
• Four to Score 
• High Five
• Hot Six 
• Seven Up 
• Hard Eight 
• To the Nines 
• Ten Big Ones 
• Eleven on Top 
• Twelve Sharp 
• Lean Mean Thirteen 
• Fearless Fourteen 
• Finger Lickin' Fifteen 
• Sizzling Sixteen 
• Smokin' Seventeen 
• Explosive Eighteen 
• Notorious Nineteen 
• Takedown Twenty 
• Top Secret Twenty-One 
• Tricky Twenty-Two 
• Turbo Twenty-Three 
• Hardcore Twenty-Four 
• Look Alive Twenty-Five
• Twisted Twenty-Six
• Fortune and Glory: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Tantalizing Twenty-Seven)
• Game On:  Tempting Twenty-Eight
• Going Rogue:  Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine
• Dirty Thirty
• Now or Never

Evanovich's new series follows Alexandra Barnaby, a tough, working-class woman from Baltimore who grew up helping her mechanic father and has never lost her passion for cars even though she now works as an insurance clerk. 

• Metro Girl 
• Motor Mouth 
• Troublemaker (graphic novel)
• Troublemaker Book 2 (graphic novel) 

Jerrilyn Farmer

Madeline Bean takes on the daunting task of balancing her catering career with amateur sleuthing—all while making social functions for Los Angeles’ high and mighty flow smoothly. 

• Sympathy For the Devil
• Immaculate Reception
• Killer Wedding
• Dim Sum Dead
• Mumbo Gumbo
• Perfect Sax
• The Flaming Luau of Death
• Desperately Seeking Sushi 

Monica Ferris 

Written under one of Mary Monica Pulver's many pseudonyms, this series features Betsy Devonshire, owner of a needle and yarn store in Excelsior, Minnesota. Needlework enthusiasts will enjoy these handcraft-inspired cozies. 

• Crewel World
• Framed in Lace
• A Stitch in Time
• Unraveled Sleve
• A Murderous Yarn
• Hanging by a Thread
• Cutwork
• Crewel Yule
• Embroidered Truths *
• Sins and Needles *
• Knitting Bones *
• Thai Die*
• Blackwork
• Buttons and Bones *
• Threadbare
• And Then You Dye *
• The Drowning Spool
• Darned If You Do
• Knit Your Own Murder

Under the name Margaret Frazer, Pulver writes about a medieval nun in Oxfordshire, England, named Sister Frevisse. 

• Novice's Tale
• Servant's Tale
• Outlaw's Tale
• Bishop's Tale
• Boy's Tale
• Murderer's Tale
• Prioress' Tale
• Maiden's Tale
• Reeve's Tale
• Squire's Tale
• Clerk's Tale
• Bastard's Tale
• Hunter's Tale
• Widow's Tale
• Sempster's Tale
• Traitor’s Tale
• Apostate’s Tale  

Earlene Fowler  

Benni Harper is director of a folk art museum in mythical San Celina on California's central coast. Benni often clashes with police chief Gabe Ortiz, with whom she is also involved with romantically. 

• Fools Puzzle
• Irish Chain
• Kansas Troubles
• Goose in the Pond
• Dove in the Window
• Mariner's Compass
• Seven Sisters
• Arkansas Traveler
• Steps to the Altar
• Sunshine and Shadow 
• Broken Dishes 
• Delectable Mountains 
• Tumbling Blocks 
• State Fair 
• Spider Web

Dianne Freeman

Newly freed by the death of her philandering husband, the Countess of Harleigh uses her standing to investigate misdeeds among her upper class Victorian social set.  

• A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder
• A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder
• A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder
• A Fiancee's Guide to First Wives and Murder
• A Bride's Guide to Marriage and Murder
• A Newlywed's Guide to Fortune and Murder
• An Art Lover's Guide to Paris and Murder

Jacqueline Girdner 

Writing as Claire Daniels - Girdner has started a new series featuring Cally Lazar, an intuitive energy worker and recovering attorney. 

• Body of Intuition
• Strangled Intuition
• Cruel and Unusual Intuition
• Final Intuition  

Leslie Glass  

April Woo, a NYPD detective has an easier time dealing with the stresses of the job then she does dealing with her mother, Skinny Dragon.  

• Burning Time
• Hanging Time
• Loving Time
• Judging Time
• Stealing Time
• Tracking Time
• Silent Bride
• A Killing Gift
• A Clean Kill  

Alexia Gordon

Gethsemane Brown, an African-American classical musician, stranded in Dunmullach, Ireland, living in a cottage haunted by the irascible ghost of a famous native composer

• Murder in G Major 
• Death in D Minor  
• Murder in C Sharp
• Fatality in F
• Execution in E

Kerry Greenwood 

Set in the 1920s, this series follows Phryne Fisher, a woman who leaves London, England, for Melbourne, Australia to try and establish herself as a detective. 

• Cocaine Blues 
• Flying Too High
• Murder on the Ballarat Train 
• Death on the Victoria Dock
• The Green Hill Murder 
• Blood and Circuses
• Ruddy Gore 
• Urn Burial 
• Raisins and Almonds
• Death Before Wicket
• Murder in Montparnasse
• Queen of Flowers
• Away with the Fairies
• The Castlemaine Murders 
• Death by Water 
• Murder in the Dark 
• Murder on a Midsummer Night 
• Dead Man's Chest 
• Unnatural Habits 
• Murder and Mendelssohn
• Death in Daylesford
• The Lady With the Gun Asks the Questions (short story collection)
• Murder in Williamstown

Corinna Chapman left her job as an accountant to open her own bakery, Earthly Delights, in an eccentric building in Melbourne, Australia.   

• Earthly Delights
• Heavenly Pleasures 
• Devil's Food 
• Trick or Treat
• Forbidden Fruit 
• Cooking the Books 
• The Spotted Dog

Elly Griffiths

Ruth Galloway is a university lecturer in forensic anthropolgy whose skills are often called on by police, in Norfolk, England.

• The Crossing Places
• The Janus Stone
• The House at Sea's End
• A Room Full of Bones
• Dying Fall
• The Outcast Dead
• The Ghost Fields
• The Woman in Blue
• The Chalk Pit
• The Dark Angel
• The Stone Circle
• The Lantern Men
• The Night Hawks
• The Locked Room
• The Last Remains

Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur investigates murders along England's southern coast, where she often has to deal with helpful amateur sleuths.

• The Stranger Diaries
• The Postscript Murders
• Bleeding Heart Yard
• The Last Word

Carolyn Haines 

Sarah Booth Delaney is a Southern belle living in Zinnia, Mississippi, who unexpectedly finds herself in the position of private investigator. 

• Them Bones
• Buried Bones
• Splintered Bones
• Crossed Bones
• Hallowed Bones 
• Bones to Pick
• Hambones
• Wishbones
• Greedy Bones
• Bone Appetit
• Bones of a Feather 
• Bonefire of the Vanities
• Smarty Bones
• Booty Bones
• Bone to Be Wild
• Rock-a-bye Bones
• Sticks and Bones
• Charmed Bones
• A Gift of Bones
• Game of Bones
• The Devil's Bones
• A Garland of Bones
• Independent Bones
• Lady of Bones
• Bones of Holly
• Tell-Tale Bones
• Lights, Camera, Bones
• Blue Christmas Bones

Barbara Hamilton

Abigail Adams investigates crimes while assisting her husband John with the fermenting rebellion in 1770s Boston.  

• The Ninth Daughter
• A Marked Man
• Sup With the Devil 

Denise Hamilton 

Eve Diamond is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who uncovers crime as she covers the news. 

• The Jasmine Trade
• Sugar Skull
• Last Lullaby
• Savage Garden
• Prisoner of Memory

Karen Harper  

Many books feature an Elizabethan setting, only this one features Elizabeth I as the investigator.  

• The Poyson Garden
• The Tidal Poole
• The Twylight Tower
• The Queen's Cure
• The Thorne Maze
• The Queen's Christmas
• The Fyre Mirror
• The Fatal Fashione
• The Hooded Hawke  

Charlaine Harris  

Aurora Teagarden is a librarian in Lawrenceton, George.

• Real Murders
• A Bone to Pick
• Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
• The Julius House
• Dead Over Heels
• A Fool and His Honey
• Last Scene Alive
• Poppy Done to Death
• All the Little Liars
• Sleep Like a Baby

Harper Connelly survived a lightning strike with an unusual ability to locate bodies and see how they died.   

• Grave Sight 
• Grave Surprise 
• An Ice Cold Grave
• Grave Secret 

Cora Harrison

Mara is a judge appointed by King Turlough Donn O'Brien in the early 16th century on the west coast of Ireland.

• My Lady Judge
• A Secret and Unlawful Killing
• The Sting of Justice
• Writ in Stone
• Eye of the Law
• Scales of Retribution
• Deed of Murder
• Laws in Conflict
• Chain of Evidence
• The Cross of Vengeance
• Verdict of the Court
• Condemned to Death
• A Fatal Inheritance
• An Unjust Judge

Harrison's other series features Reverend Mother Aquinas in 1920s Cork, Ireland.

• A Shameful Murder
• A Shocking Assassination
• Beyond Absolution
• A Gruesome Discovery
• Death of a Novice
• Murder at the Queen's Old Castle
• Death of a Prominent Citizen
• Murder in an Orchard Cemetery
• Murder in the Cathedral
• The Deadly Weed

Carolyn Hart 

Annie Laurance, owner of a mystery bookstore called Death on Demand, and Max Darling, independently wealthy private detective, join forces to solve murders on the island community of Browards Rock. 

• Death on Demand 
• Design for Murder
• Something Wicked
• Honeymoon with Murder 
• Little Class on Murder
• Deadly Valentine
• Christie Caper
• Southern Ghost
• Mint Julep Murder
• Yankee Doodle Dead 
• White Elephant Dead 
• Sugarplum Dead 
• April Fool Dead 
• Engaged to Die 
• Murder Walks the Plank 
• Death of the Party 
• Dead Days of Summer 
• Death Walked In 
• Dare to Die 
• Laughed 'til He Died 
• Dead by Midnight 
• Death Comes Silently 
• Dead, White and Blue 
• Death at the Door
• Don't Go Home 
• Walking on My Grave

Ellen Hart 

Jane Lawless is a Minneapolis restaurant owner and her friend is theatrical director Cordelia Thorn. Books include religious and psychological themes. 

• Hallowed Murder
• Vital Lies
• Stage Fright
• Killing Cure
• Small Sacrifice
• Faint Praise
• Robber's Wine
• Wicked Games
• Hunting the Witch
• Merchant of Venus
• Immaculate Midnight
• An Intimate Ghost
• The Iron Girl 
• Night Vision
• The Mortal Groove
• Sweet Poison
• The Mirror and the Mask
• The Cruel Ever After
• Lost Women of Lost Lake
• Rest for the Wicked
• Taken by the Wind
• The Old Deep and Dark
• The Grave Soul
• Fever in the Dark
• A Whisper of Bones
• Twisted at the Root
• In a Midnight Wood

Sophie Greenway also lives and works in Minneapolis. She's a magazine editor, food critic and hotel owner. 

• This Little Piggy Went to Murder
• For Every Evil
• The Oldest Sin
• Murder in the Air
• Slice and Dice
• Dial M for Meat Loaf
• Death on a Silver Platter
• No Reservations Required   

Lynne Heitman 

Alex Shanahan is an airline manager who finds herself becoming an impromptu investigator when mystery crosses her way.

• Hard Landing
• Tarmac
• First Class Killing  
• The Pandora Key

Lauren Henderson  

London sculptor Sam Jones is described as the reprobate hero's female counterpart, one who's capable of eating him for breakfast.  

• Dead White Female
• Black Rubber Dress
• Freeze My Margarita
• The Strawberry Tattoo
• Chained
• Pretty Boy

Lynn Hightower  

Lena Padget is a private investigator from Kentucky whose specialty is assisting women and children lost in the complications of the legal system. 

• Satan's Lambs
• Fortunes of the Dead
• When Secrets Die   

Victoria Houston 

Lewellyn Ferris, a fly fishing wonder and the Chief of Police in Loon Lake, Wisconsin is featured in these mysteries. 

• Dead Angler
• Dead Creek
• Dead Water
• Dead Hot Mama
• Dead Jitterbug
• Dead Boogie
• Dead Frenzy
• Dead Madonna
• Dead Hot Shot 
• Dead Renegade
• Dead Deceiver
• Dead Tease
• Dead Insider
• Dead Lil' Hustler
• Dead Rapunzel
• Dead Loudmouth
• Dead Spider
• Dead Firefly
• Dead Big Dawg

Anna Lee Huber

Lady Kiera Darby, an artist and widow of an anatomist, uses her knowledge of the macabre to uncover murderers in 1830s Scotland.   

• The Anatomist's Wife
• Mortal Arts
• A Grave Matter
• A Study in Death
• As Death Draws Near
• A Brush With Shadows
• An Artless Demise
• A Stroke of Malice
• A Wicked Conceit
• A Perilous Perspective
• A Fatal Illusion
• A Deceptive Composition

Huber has also started a new series featuring Verity Kent, a young war widow in 1919 England.

• This Side of Murder
• Treacherous Is the Night
• Penny For Your Secrets
• A Pretty Deceit
• Murder Most Fair
• A Certain Darkness
• The Cold Light of Day

Maddy Hunter 

This Wisconsin author writes the "Passport to Peril" mysteries featuring Emily Andrew. 

• Alpine for You
• Top o' the Mournin'
• Pasta Imperfect
• Hula Done It?
• G’Day to Die
• Norway to Hide 
• Dutch Me Deadly
• Bonnie of Evidence
• Fleur de Lies
• From Bad to Wurst
• Say No Moore
• Catch Me If Yukon

Roberta Isleib 

Cassie Burdette is a professional golfer who uncovers mysteries as she drives her way to the top. 

• Six Strokes Under
• Buried Lie
• Putt to Death
• Fairway to Heaven
• Final Fore   

Isleib also writes as Lucy Burdette.  Her series featuring Hayley Snow, a 20 something food critic for Key Zest magazine, is set in Key West, Florida.

• An Appetite for Murder
• Death in Four Courses
• Topped Chef
• Murder With Ganache
• Death With All the Trimmings
• Fatal Reservations
• Killer Takeout
• Death on the Menu
• A Deadly Feast

J.A. Jance  

Sheriff Joanna Brady, elected sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona after her husband is killed, is a single parent and an inexperienced police officer who learns on the job. 

• Desert Heat 
• Tombstone Courage
• Shoot, Don't Shoot 
• Dead To Rights 
• Skeleton Canyon 
• Rattlesnake Crossing 
• Outlaw Mountain 
• Devil's Claw 
• Paradise Lost 
• Partner in Crime 
• Exit Wounds 
• Dead Wrong 
• Damage Control 
• Fire and Ice 
• Judgment Call 
• Remains of Innocence 
• Downfall 
• Field of Bones
• Missing and Endangered

Susan Kandel 

Biographer Cece Caruso is obsessed with two things:  vintage clothing and dead authors.  This cozy, high-spirited series set in Southern California gives Cece ample opportunity to research Los Angeles’ legendary past—and unravel some of its recent murders. 

• I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason
• Not a Girl Detective
• Shamus in the Green Room
• Christietown 
• Dial H for Hitchcock

Faye Kellerman 

Rina Lazarus, a widow and a member of an orthodoc Jewish community, assists police detective Peter Decker in solving crimes. 

• Ritual Bath 
• Sacred and Profane 
• Milk and Honey 
• Day of Atonement 
• False Prophet
• Grievous Sin
• Sanctuary 
• Justice
• Prayers for the Dead 
• A Serpent's Tooth
• Jupiter's Bones
• Stalker 
• Forgotten 
• Stone Kiss 
• Street Dreams 
• The Burnt House
• The Mercedes Coffin 
• Blindman's Bluff 
• Hangman 
• Gun Games 
• The Beast 
• Murder 101 
• The Theory of Death 
• Bone Box 
• Walking Shadows
• The Lost Boys

Laurie King 

Kate Martinelli finds herself with a promotion to detective in the San Francisco Police Department and needs to prove herself. 

• A Grave Talent
• To Play The Fool
• With Child
• Night Work 
• Art of Detection 

Mary Russell, first a teenage student of Sherlock Holmes and later his partner in solving crimes, reports on cases that the retired beekeeper Holmes takes on. 

• Beekeeper's Apprentice 
• A Monstrous Regiment Of Women 
• A Letter Of Mary
• The Moor 
• O Jerusalem 
• Justice Hall 
• The Game 
• Locked Rooms 
• The Language of Bees 
• The God of the Hive 
• Pirate King 
• Garment of Shadows 
• Dreaming Spies 
• The Murder of Mary Russell 
• Mary Russell's War and Other Stories of Suspense
• Island of the Mad
• Riviera Gold
• Castle Shade

J. A. Konrath 

Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is a lieutenant on the Chicago Police Department, investigating homicides with her partner, Herb. A hard-boiled detective series with a humorous twist. 

• Whiskey Sour 
• Bloody Mary
• Rusty Nail 
• Dirty Martini 
• Fuzzy Navel 
• Cherry Bomb 
• Shaken
• Rum Runner
• Last Call
• White Russian 

Harley Jane Kozak 

Wollie Shelley struggles to keep her "Good Gollie Miss Wollies" greeting card line afloat and finds herself caring for her mentally ill brother, participating in extreme dating adventures, and solving murder mysteries along the way. 

• Dating Dead Men 
• Dating is Murder 
• Dead Ex 
• A Date You Can't Refuse 

Rochelle Majer Krich  

Krich's new series features Molly Blume, a true-crime writer in Los Angeles, California. 

• Blues in the Night
• Dream House
• Grave Endings
• Now You See Me 

Laura Lippman 

Tess Monaghan is a newspaper reporter turned P.I. in Baltimore, Maryland.  

• Baltimore Blues 
• Charm City 
• Butchers Hill 
• In Big Trouble 
• The Sugar House 
• In a Strange City 
• The Last Place 
• By a Spider's Thread 
• No Good Deeds 
• Another Thing to Fall 
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat 
• Hush Hush 

Mary Logue 

Claire Watkins, a former Minneapolis police detective, is a widow trying to care for her ten-year-old daughter and act as deputy sheriff for the Pepin County Police Department in Fort St. Anoine, Wisconsin. 

• Blood Country
• Dark Coulee
• Glare Ice
• Bone Harvest 
• Poison Heart 
• Maiden Rock
• Point No Point 
• Frozen Stiff
• Lake of Tears

Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope, a young American living in war-time London, originally works in Prime Minister Churchill's office but is soon recruited by MI-5 for more sensitive missions. 

• Mr. Churchill's Secretary 
• Princess Elizabeth's Spy 
• His Majesty's Hope
• The Prime Minister's Secret Agent 
• Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante 
• The Queen's Accomplice 
• The Paris Spy 
• The Prisoner in the Castle
• The King's Justice
• The Hollywood Spy

Margaret Maron 

Lawyer and eventually Judge Deborah Knott lives in the tobacco country of Colleton County, North Carolina. She is part of a large Southern family and is at home with the rich landscape and people of the New South. 

• Bootlegger's Daughter
• Southern Discomfort 
• Shooting At Loons
• Up Jumps the Devil 
• Killer Market 
• Home Fires 
• Storm Track
• Uncommon Clay 
• Slow Dollar 
• High Country Fall 
• Rituals of the Season 
• Winter’s Child 
• Hard Row 
• Death’s Half Acre 
• Sand Sharks 
• Christmas Mourning 
• Three-Day Town 
• The Buzzard Table 
• Designated Daughters 
• Long Upon the Land 

Nancy Martin 

Set in Philadelphia, this series follows three sisters, Nora, Emma, and Libby Blackbird, who are left with a two million dollar tax debt when their parents leave town. In need of money, Nora finds work at a Philadelphia newspaper and finds herself stumbling across mysterious murders. 

• How to Murder a Millionaire
• Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds
• Some Like it Lethal
• Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die
• Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too
• A Crazy Little Thing Called Death
• Murder Melts in Your Mouth 
• No Way to Kill a Lady
• Little Black Book of Murder *A Little Night Murder

Michele Martinez Campbell 

Melanie Vargas is a young federal prosecutor in Manhattan, New York, who is trying to advance her career and spend time with her baby daughter. 

• Most Wanted
• The Finishing School
• Cover-Up
• Notorious  

Sujata Massey 

These mysteries set in modern Japan feature the first-person voice of 27-year-old Rei Shimura, a California raised Japanese American English teacher and antiques dealer.  

• The Salaryman's Wife
• Zen Attitude
• The Flower Master
• The Floating Girl
• The Bride's Kimono
• The Samurai's Daughter
• +The Pearl Diver
• The Typhoon Lover
• Girl In a Box
• Shimura Trouble  
• The Kizuna Coast

Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family and Oxford University graduate, has just joined her father’s law firm, in 1920s Bombay, India.

• The Widows of Malabar Hill
• The Satapur Moonstone
• The Bombay Prince
• The Mistress of Bhatia House

G. A. McKevett 

This Southern California series stars Detective Sergeant Savannah Reid, dropped from the San Carmelita Police Dept. for being overweight. The Georgia-born karate expert promptly sets up the Moonlight Detective Agency.  

• Just Desserts
• Bitter Sweets
• Killer Calories
• Cooked Goose
• Sugar and Spite
• Sour Grapes
• Peaches and Screams
• Death by Chocolate
• Cereal Killer
• Murder a la Mode
• Corpse Suzette
• Fat Free and Fatal
• Poisoned Tarts 
• A Body to Die For
• Wicked Craving
• A Decedent Way to Die
• Buried in Buttercream
• Killer Honeymoon
• Killer Physique
• Killer Gourmet
• Killer Reunion
• Every Body on Deck
• Hide and Sneak
• Bitter Brew
• And the Killer is...
• A Few Drops of Bitters

Jenn McKinlay

Lindsey Norris is the director of the Briar Creek Public Library, in Briar Creek, Connecticut, in the Library Lover’s mysteries.

• Books Can Be Deceiving
• Due or Die
• Book, Line and Sinker
• Read It and Weep
• On Borrowed Time
• A Likely Story
• Better Late Than Never
• Death in the Stacks
• Hitting the Books
• Word to the Wise
• One For the Books
• Killer Research
• The Plot and the Pendulum
• Fatal First Edition
• A Merry Little Murder Plot

Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are operators of Fairy Tale Cupcakes, in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona, in the Cupcake Bakery mysteries.

• Sprinkle With Murder
• Buttercream Bump Off
• Death by the Dozen
• Red Velvet Revenge
• Going, Going, Ganache
• Sugar and Iced
• Dark Chocolate Demise
• Vanilla Beaned
• Caramel Crush
• Wedding Cake Crumble
• Dying for Devil's Food Cake
• Pumpkin Spice Peril
• For Batter or Worse
• Strawberried Alive
• Sugar Plum Poisoned
• Fondant Fumble

Ann McMillan 

Narcissa Power, a young widow and Judah Daniel, a freedwoman who is also the local herbalist work together at the time of the Civil War in Virginia.  

• Dead March
• Angel Trumpet
• Civil Blood
• Chickahominy Fever  

Annette Meyers  

Smith and Wetzon are headhunters. That's Leslie Wetzon and Xenia Smith and they do their hunting on Wall Street.  

• The Big Killing
• Tender Death
• The Deadliest Option
• Blood on the Street
• Murder: The Musucal
• These Bones Were Made for Dancin'
• The Groaning Board
• Hedging  

Denise Mina 

Maureen O'Donnell lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and can't seem to find anything but trouble as she struggles with alcohol, relationships, memories of her abusive childhood, and murder. 

• Garnethill
• Exile
• Resolution   

Camille Minichino 

Gloria Lamerino is a 50-something Italian-American physicist in Revere Beach, Massachusetts. Now retired from her position as a professor in Berkeley, she finds her time taken up with murder.  

• The Hydrogen Murder
• The Helium Murder
• The Lithium Murder
• The Beryllium Murder
• The Boric Acid Murder
• The Carbon Murder
• The Nitrogen Murder   
• The Oxygen Murder

As Ada Madison, Minichino writes the Sophie Knowles mysteries, centered on a math professor at Henley College, Massachusetts.

• The Square Root of Murder
• The Probability of Murder
• A Function of Murder
• The Quotient of Murder

Minichino writes the Cassie Miller series under the pseudonym Jean Flowers.  Miller is the postmistress of her small hometown's post office in North Ashcot, Massachusetts.

• Death Takes Priority
• Cancelled by Murder
• Addressed to Kill

Lisa Miscione 

Lydia Strong, a true crime author in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is featured in this series written under a pen name by Lisa Unger.  

• Angel Fire
• The Darkness Gathers
• Twice
• Smoke    

Margaret Mizushima

Police officer Mattie Cobb, her K-9 police dog Robo and local vet Cole Walker solve crimes in the small mountain town of Timber Creek, Colorado.

• Killing Trail
• Stalking Ground
• Hunting Hour
• Burning Ridge
• Tracking Game
• Hanging Falls
• Striking Range
• Standing Dead
• Gathering Mist

Theresa Monsour 

Paris Murphy is a homicide detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, who finds herself tangled in messy relationships and harrowing murder cases. 

• Clean Cut
• Cold Blood
• Dark House   

Allison Montclair

Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge team up to found The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in 1946 London, but when one of their clients is murdered, they prove to be adept at detective work.  

• The Right Sort of Man
• A Royal Affair
• A Rogue's Company
• The Unkept Woman
• The Lady From Burma
• Murder at the White Palace

Marcia Muller 

Sharon McCone is a female private eye who bears little resemblance to Miss Jane Marple. This extensive series follows her through many changes in her life and work. 

• Edwin of the Iron Shoes
• The Cheshire Cat's Eye 
• Games to Keep the Dark Away 
• Leave a Message for Willie
• There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of 
• Eye of the Storm 
• There's Something in a Sunday 
• The Shape of Dread
• Trophies and Dead Things 
• Where Echoes Live 
• Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes
• Wolf in the Shadows 
• Til the Butchers Cut Him Down
• A Wild and Lonely Place 
• The Broken Promise Land
• Both Ends of the Night
• While Other People Sleep 
• A Walk Through the Fire
• Listen to the Silence
• Dead Midnight
• The Dangerous Hour 
• Vanishing Point 
• The Ever-Running Man 
• Burn Out 
• Locked In 
• Coming Back 
• City of Whispers 
• Looking for Yesterday 
• The Night Searchers 
• Someone Always Knows
• The Color of Fear
• The Breakers

Sharan Newman 

These 12th century mysteries are set in France and follow a Saxon noblewoman, Catherine LeVendeur, who has a secret in her past.  

• Death Comes as Epiphany
• The Devil's Door
• The Wandering Arm
• Strong as Death
• Cursed in the Blood
• The Difficult Saint
• To Wear the White Cloak
• Heresy
• The Outcast Dove
• The Witch in the Well    

Katherine Hall Page 

Faith Sibley Fairchild is a minister's wife, a mother and an amateur sleuth. These are light but well-written mysteries. 

• Body in the Belfry
• Body in the Kelp
• Body in the Bouillon
• Body in the Vestibule
• Body in the Cast
• Body in the Basement
• Body in the Bog
• Body in the Fjord
• Body in the Bookcase
• Body in the Big Apple
• Body in the Moonlight
• Body in the Bonfire
• Body in the Lighthouse
• Body in the Attic
• Body in the Snowdrift
• Body in the Ivy
• Body in the Gallery 
• Body in the Sleigh
• Body in the Gazebo
• Body in the Boudoir 
• Body in the Piazza 
• Body in the Birches
• Body in the Wardrobe 
• Body in the Casket
• Body in the Wake

Sara Paretsky 

V. I. Warshawski is a lone wolf operator whose specialty is financial investigation, but whose cases all involve murder. 

• Indemnity Only
• Deadlock 
• Killing Orders 
• Bitter Medicine 
• Blood Shot
• Burn Marks
• Guardian Angel
• Tunnel Vision
• Windy City Blues (short stories) 
• Hard Time
• Total Recall 
• Blacklist 
• Fire Sale 
• Hardball 
• Body Work 
• Breakdown 
• Critical Mass 
• Brush Back
• Fallout 
• Shell Game
• Dead Land

Jill Paton Walsh 

Mystery author Paton Walsh garners comparisons to the great British authors of the past with her Imogen Quy (‘rhymes with why’) series.  Imogen’s occupation as a student nurse puts her in a valuable position to investigate murders among Cambridge’s scholarly haunts.   

• The Wyndham Case
• A Piece of Justice
• Debts of Dishonor
• The Bad Quarto  

Anne Perry 

Charlotte Ellison Pitt and her husband, Inspector Thomas Pitt of Scotland Yard, solve crimes in Victorian England using their special combination of observation and intuition. 

• The Cater Street Hangman 
• Callander Square 
• Paragon Walk 
• Resurrection Row 
• Rutland Place
• Bluegate Fields 
• Death in Devil's Acre
• Cardington Crescent 
• Silence in Hanover Close
• Bethlehem Road 
• Highgate Rise 
• Belgrave Square 
• Farrier's Lane 
• The Hyde Park Headsman
• Traitor's Gate
• Pentecost Alley
• Ashworth Hall
• Brunswick Gardens
• Bedford Square 
• Halfmoon Street 
• Whitechapel Conspiracy 
• Southampton Row 
• Seven Dials 
• Long Spoon Lane 
• Buckingham Palace Gardens 
• Treason at Lisson Grove 
• Dorchester Terrace 
• Midnight at Marble Arch 
• Death on Blackheath 
• The Angel Court Affair
• Treachery at Lancaster Gate 
• Murder at the Serpentine 

After Murder at the Serpentine, the series is continued into the 1910s featuring Daniel Pitt, a barrister and Charlotte and Thomas's son.    

• Twenty-one Days
• Triple Jeopardy
• One Fatal Flaw
• Death With a Double Edge

Elena Standish is a British photographer in the 1930s.

• Death in Focus
• A Question of Betrayal
• A Darker Reality

Nancy Pickard 

Jenny Cain splits her time between running small-town foundations and solving crimes.   

• Generous Death
• Say No to Murder
• No Body
• Marriage Is Murder *
• Dead Crazy
• Bum Steer
• I. O. U.
• But I Wouldn’t Want to Die There
• Confession
• Twilight 

Author Marie Lightfoot writes true-crime novels, but her research often turns up fresh bodies in these fast-paced mysteries.   

• The Whole Truth
• Ring of Truth
• The Truth Hurts

Deanna Raybourn

Lady Julia Grey is about to reluctantly settle into the constricted life of Victorian widowhood after her husband suddenly dies, but when a mysterious private inquiry officer suggests foul play, she is soon swept into the life of an investigator. 

• Silent in the Grave
• Silent in the Sanctuary
• Silent on the Moor
• Dark Road to Darjeeling
• The Dark Inquiry

Veronica Speedwell seeks adventure in 1880s London

• A Curious Beginning
• A Perilous Undertaking
• A Treacherous Curse
• A Dangerous Collaboration
• A Murderous Relation
• An Unexpected Peril

Kathy Reichs  

Like her fictional heroine, Dr. Temperance Brennan, Reichs serves as forensic anthropologist for the province of Quebec and commutes between Montreal and Charlotte, North Carolina.  

• Deja Dead
• Death du Jour 
• Deadly Decisions 
• Fatal Voyage 
• Grave Secrets 
• Bare Bones 
• Monday Mourning 
• Cross Bones 
• Break No Bones 
• Bones to Ashes 
• Devil’s Bones 
• 206 Bones 
• Spider Bones 
• Flash and Bones 
• Bones Are Forever 
• Bones of the Lost 
• Bones Never Lie 
• Speaking in Bones 
• A Conspiracy of Bones
• The Bone Code

Marcie R. Rendon

Renee 'Cash' Blackbear lives a rough and tumble life hustling pool games, drinking and (not) coping with her past floating between foster homes after being removed from the Ojibwe White River Reservation.  She's driven by the waking dreams she experiences to discover murderers near the Red River, North Dakota, area.  

• Murder on the Red River
• Girl Gone Missing
• Sinister Graves

Vanessa Riley

As the daughter of a Black Jamaican mother and a white Scottish father and married to an of oft-absent baron, Lady Abigail Worthing faces stiff prejudice in Regency-era London, in spite of her social standing.  She splits her time between the underground effort to abolish slavery in the British Empire and the pursuit of justice.

• Murder in Westminster
• Murder in Drury Lane
• Murder in Berkeley Square

Candace Robb

Kate Clifford runs a guesthouse in 14th century York, England.

• The Service of the Dead
• A Twisted Vengeance
• A Murdered Peace

J. D. Robb

Robb (pseudonym of Nora Roberts) introduces readers to New York City in the near future, 2058 to be exact, as seen through the eyes of Eve Dallas, a detective with the New York City Police and Safety Department.  

• Naked in Death 
• Glory in Death 
• Immortal in Death 
• Rapture in Death
• Ceremony in Death 
• Vengeance in Death
• Holiday in Death
• Conspiracy in Death 
• Witness in Death
• Judgment in Death 
• Betrayal in Death 
• Silent Night (anthology)
• Seduction in Death
• Reunion in Death 
• Purity in Death 
• Remember When 
• Portrait in Death 
• Imitation in Death 
• Divided in Death 
• Visions in Death
• Survivor in Death 
• Origin in Death 
• Midnight in Death 
• Memory in Death 
• Born in Death 
• Innocent in Death 
• Creation in Death 
• Strangers in Death 
• Salvation in Death  
• Promises in Death 
• Kindred in Death
• Fantasy in Death 
• Indulgence in Death
• Treachery in Death 
• New York to Dallas 
• Celebrity in Death 
• Delusion in Death
• Calculated in Death 
• Thankless in Death
• Concealed in Death 
• Festive in Death 
• Obsession in Death 
• Devoted in Death 
• Brotherhood in Death 
• Apprentice in Death 
• Echoes in Death 
• Secrets in Death 
• Dark in Death
• Leverage in Death
• Connections in Death
• Vendetta in Death
• Golden in Death
• Shadows in Death
• Faithless in Death
• Forgotten in Death

Gillian Roberts 

Amanda Pepper is a Philadelphia English teacher at Philly Prep. She has something going (she's never exactly sure what) with the reticent C. K. MacKenzie, a Philadelphia cop. 

• Caught Dead in Philadelphia
• Philly Stakes
• I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia
• With Friends Like These
• How I Spent My Summer Vacation
• In the Dead of Summer
• The Mummer's Curse
• The Bluest Blood
• Adam and Evil
• Helen Hath No Fury
• Claire and Present Danger
• Till the End of Tom 
• A Hole in Juan
• All’s Well That Ends  

Annelise Ryan

Annelise Ryan is the pen name for Beth Amos, a Wisconsin-based author.  Her Mattie Watson series is set in fictional Sorenson, Wisconsin, where Mattie, a former nurse, now serves as deputy coroner.

• Working Stiff (also published as The Vicarious Liver)
• Scared Stiff
• Frozen Stiff
• Lucky Stiff
• Board Stiff
• Stiff Penalty
• Still Competition
• Dead in the Water
• Dead Calm
• Dead of Winter
• Dead Ringer
• Dead Even

Amos' newest series, Monster Hunter Mysteries, follows Door County bookstore owner and amateur cryptozoologist Morgan Carter as she investigates some of the more unusual deaths of Wisconsin's North woods.  

• A Death in Door County
• Death in the Dark Woods
• Beast of the North Woods

Amos also writes as Allyson K. Abbott.  Her Mack's Bar mysteries feature Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton, the owner of a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Synesthesia, a neurological condition enabling her to smell noises or taste color.

• Murder on the Rocks
• Murder With a Twist
• In the Drink
• Shots in the Dark
• A Toast to Murder
• Last Call

P. B. Ryan 

Irish immigrant Nell Sweeney is a governess to the wealthy Hewitt family in post-Civil War Boston. 

• Still Life with Murder
• Murder in a Mill Town
• Death on Beacon Hill
• Murder on Black Friday
• Murder in the North End
• A Bucket of Ashes  

Katherine Schellman

Seamstress Vivian Kelly moonlights at a New York speakeasy called the Nightingale.  When murders occur among the regulars of the Nightingale, Vivian has to navigate the treacherous world of Jazz Age New York to get to the truth.

• Last Call at the Nightingale
• The Last Drop of Hemlock
• The Last Note of Warning

Widow Lily Adler navigates Regency-era society, which doesn't look kindly on independent-minded women.

• The Body in the Garden
• Silence in the Library
• Death at the Manor
• Murder at Midnight
• A Scandal in Mayfair

Judith Skillings 

Rebecca Moore is a Washington D.C. reporter with a passion for classic cars. Her investigative journalism experience and knowledge of automotives help her solve murders in this series.  

• Dead End
• Dangerous Curves
• Driven to Murder   

Karin Slaughter 

Dr. Sara Linton is a pediatrician and the coroner in Grant County, Georgia in these dark mysteries.  With 2009's Undone, Slaughter combined Linton's series with that of Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, featuring both characters as leads.  

• Blindsighted 
• Kisscut 
• A Faint Cold Fear 
• Indelible 
• Faithless 
• Beyond Reach 
• Undone
• Broken
• Fallen
• Criminal
• Unseen
• The Kept Woman
• The Last Widow
• The Silent Wife

Alexander McCall Smith 

Mma Precious Ramotswe, owner of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana, stars in this international cozy mystery series.  

• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 
• Tears of the Giraffe 
• Morality for Beautiful Girls 
• Kalahari Typing School for Men 
• The Full Cupboard of Life 
• In the Company of Cheerful Ladies 
• Blue Shoes and Happiness 
• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive 
• The Miracle at Speedy Motors 
• Tea Time for the Traditionally Built 
• The Double Comfort Safari Club 
• The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party 
• The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection 
• The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon 
• The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe 
• The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine 
• Precious and Grace 
• The House of Unexpected Sisters
• The Colours of All the Cattle
• To the Land of Long Lost Friends
• How to Raise an Elephant
• The Joy and Light Bus Company
• A Song of Comfortable Chairs
• From a Far and Lovely Country
• The Great Hippopotamus Hotel

As a lover of puzzles and the editor of ‘The Review of Applied Ethics,’ Isabel Dalhousie is a natural for tracking down mysteries in modern-day Edinburgh in Mc-Call Smith’s series of cozy mysteries.   

• The Sunday Philosophy Club 
• Friends, Lovers, Chocolate 
• The Right Attitude to Rain 
• The Careful Use of Complements 
• The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday 
• The Lost Art of Gratitude 
• The Charming Quirks of Others 
• The Forgotten Affairs of Youth 
• The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds 
• The Novel Habits of Happiness 
• A Distant View of Everything 
• The Quiet Side of Passion
• The Geometry of Holding Hands
• Sweet Remnats of Summer
• The Conditions of Unconditional Love

Julie Smith 

Rebecca Schwartz is a professional attorney and an amateur sleuth in San Francisco. The daughter of a famous criminal lawyer, she is trying to make it on her own merit.  

• Death Turns a Trick
• The Sourdough Wars
• Tourist Trap
• Dead in the Water
• Other People's Skeletons

Skip Langdon is a 6-ft. tall police detective in New Orleans, Louisiana

• New Orleans Mourning 
• The Axeman's Jazz 
• Jazz Funeral
• New Orleans Beat
• House Of Blues
• Kindness Of Strangers
• Crescent City Kill
• 82 Desire
• Mean Woman Blues  

In 2001, Ms. Smith spun off a character introduced in 82 Desire. Talba Wallis is an African-American poet whose day job has her working as an apprentice private investigator. 

• Louisiana Hotshot
• Louisiana Bigshot
• Louisiana Lament
• P. I. On a Hot Tin Roof  

Julia Spencer-Fleming  

Clare Fergusson, newly-ordained Episcopal priest helps Russ Van Alystyne, Chief of Police in Millers Kill, New York. 

• In the Bleak Midwinter
• A Fountain Filled with Blood
• Out of the Deep I Cry
• To Darkess and to Death
• All Mortal Flesh
• I Shall Not Want 
• One Was a Soldier
• Through the Evil Days
• Hid From Our Eyes

Stephen Spotswood

Renowned private detective Lillian Pentecost struggles to cope with her progressing multiple sclerois.  For help, she recruits former circus performer Willowjean Parker as her assistant.  But crime in 1940s New York requires a steep learning curve, and Lillian and Will have their work cut out for them.  

• Fortune Favors the Dead
• Murder Under Her Skin
• Secrets Typed in Blood
• Murder Crossed Her Mind

Dana Stabenow 

Kate Shugak is a former investigator for the Anchorage district attorney's office and now lives in the Alaska bush. The series resonates with the exotic Alaskan landscape and the fiercely independent people who live there. 

• A Cold Day for Murder 
• A Fatal Thaw 
• Dead in the Water
• A Cold-Blooded Business 
• Play with Fire 
• Blood Will Tell
• Breakup
• Killing Grounds 
• Hunter's Moon 
• Midnight Come Again 
• The Singing of the Dead 
• A Fine and Bitter Snow 
• A Grave Denied 
• A Taint in the Blood 
• A Deeper Sleep 
• Whisper to the Blood 
• A Night Too Dark 
• Though Not Dead 
• Restless in the Grave 
• Bad Blood 
• Less Than a Treason
• No Fixed Line
• Not the Ones Dead

As the Eye of Isis, Tetisheri investigates murders on behalf of her childhood friend, Cleopatra, in first century B. C. E. Egypt.

• Death of an Eye
• Disappearance of a Scribe
• Theft of an Idol
• Abduction of a Slave

Amy Stewart

Constance Kopp, one of the first female deputy sheriffs, helps keep law and order with her two younger sisters in 1910s Paterson, New Jersey.

• Girl Waits With Gun 
• Lady Cop Makes Trouble 
• Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions
• Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit
• Kopp Sisters on the March
• Dear Miss Kopp

Sarah Strohmeyer

Meet Lehigh, Pennsylvania's own Bubbles Yablonsky - a tube-top-wearing, gum-snapping hairdresser-turned-gun-toting gumshoe.  

• Bubbles Unbound
• Bubbles in Trouble 
• Bubbles Ablaze 
• Bubbles a Broad 
• Bubbles Betrothed 
• Bubbles All the Way   

Denise Swanson 

Scumble River Mysteries featuring School Psychologist Skye Denison, later Denison-Boyd, in Scumble River, Indiana.  

• Murder of a Small-Town Honey
• Murder of a Sweet Old Lady
• Murder of a Sleeping Beauty
• Murder of a Snake in the Grass
• Murder of a Barbie and Ken
• Murder of a Pink Elephant
• Murder of a Smart Cookie
• Murder of a Real Bad Boy
• Murder of a Botoxed Blonde
• Murder of a Chocolate Covered Cherry 
• Murder of a Royal Pain
• Murder of a Wedding Belle
• Murder of a Bookstore Babe
• Murder of a Creped Suzette
• Murder of a Cat's Meow
• Murder of a Stacked Librarian
• Murder of a Needled Knitter
• Murder of an Open Book
• Murder of a Cranky Catnapper
• Dead in the Water
• Die Me a River

Dani (Danielle) Sloan has inherited an old house and runs a catering business, in the college town of Normalton, Illinois, in the Chef-To-Go mysteries.

• Tart of Darkness
• Leave No Scone Unturned

Virginia Swift 

Sally Adler is a tough-talking singer who comes home after 17 years to be a scholar of women's studies at the University of Wyoming.  

• Brown-Eyed Girl
• Bad Company
• Bye, Bye, Bye
• Hello Stranger   

Lou Jane Temple  

Temple's new culinary mystery series features Bridget Heaney, an Irish immigrant working as an assistant cook in Civil War era New York City. 

• The Spice Box
• Death du Jour   

Sherry Thomas

Charlotte Holmes, a disgraced young gentlewoman, solves cases under the pseudonym Sherlock Holmes beginning in 1886 London, in the Lady Sherlock series.  

• A Study in Scarlet Women
• A Conspiracy in Belgravia
• The Hollow of Fear
• The Art of Theft
• Murder on Cold Street
• Miss Moriarty, I Presume?
• A Tempest at Sea
• A Ruse of Shadows

Victoria Thompson 

These Gaslight Mysteries star Sarah Brandt, a midwife in turn-of-the-century New York City.  

• Murder on Astor Place
• Murder on St. Mark's Place
• Murder on Gramercy Park
• Murder on Washington Square
• Murder on Mulberry Bend
• Murder on Marble Row
• Murder on Lenox Hill
• Murder in Little Italy
• Murder in Chinatown 
• Murder on Bank Street  
• Murder on Waverly Place 
• Murder on Lexington Avenue 
• Murder on Sister's Row 
• Murder on Fifth Avenue 
• Murder in Chelsea 
• Murder in Murray Hill 
• Murder on Amsterdam Avenue
• Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue
• Murder in Morningside Heights
• Murder in the Bowery
• Murder on Union Square
• Murder on Trinity Place
• Murder on Pleasant Avenue
• Murder on Wall Street

Elizabeth Miles lives on the edge of society, relieving so-called respectable men of their ill-gotten gains, in turn-of-the-20th-Century New York City, in the Counterfeit Lady series.

• City of Lies
• City of Secrets
• City of Scoundrels
• City of Schemes
• City of Shadows
• City of Fortune
• City of Betrayal

Aimee & David Thurlo 

Navajo F.B.I. agent Ella Clah returns to the Navajo Nation after the murder of her minister father to find her brother the medicine man the prime suspect.  

• Blackening Song
• Death Walker
• Bad Medicine
• Enemy Way
• Shooting Chant
• Red Mesa
• Changing Woman
• Tracking Bear
• Plant Them Deep
• Wind Spirit
• White Thunder
• Mourning Dove
• Turquoise Girl
• Coyote’s Wife
• Earthway
• Never-Ending-Snake
• Black Thunder
• Ghost Medicine
• Grave Consequences

Sister Agatha, a member of New Mexico's Our Lady of Home Monastery, relies on her past experiences as an investigative journalist to solve a murder within her cloistered community. 

• Bad Faith
• Thief in Retreat
• Prey for a Miracle
• False Witness
• The Prodigal Nun 
• Bad Samaritan

P. J. Tracy 

P. J. Tracy was the pseudonym for a mother-daughter team who write this series featuring Grace MacBride. MacBride is the founder of a software company called Monkeewrench in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

• Monkeewrench 
• Live Bait
• Dead Run 
• Snow Blind 
• Shoot to Thrill 
• Off the Grid 
• the Sixth Idea 
• Nothing Stays Buried
• The Guilty Dead
• Ice Cold Heart

Peter Tremayne  

Sister Fidelma is a 7th century Celtic sister and legal advocate in Kildare, Ireland.  

• Absolution by Murder
• Shroud for the Archbishop
• Suffer Little Children
• Subtle Serpent
• Spider's Web
• Valley of Shadow
• Hemlock at Vespers (short stories)
• The Monk Who Vanished
• Act of Mercy
• Our Lady of Darkness
• Smoke in the Wind
• Whispers of the Dead (short stories)
• The Haunted Abbot
• Badger's Moon
• Leper's Ball
• Whispers of the Dead
• Master of Souls
• A Prayer for the Damned
• Dancing With Demons  
• Council of the Cursed
• The Dove of Death
• Chalice of Blood
• Behold a Pale Horse
• The Seventh Trumpet
• Atonement of Blood
• The Devil's Seal
• The Second Death
• Penance of the Damned
• Night of the Lightbringer
• Bloodmoon
• Blood in Eden

Helene Tursten

Detective Inspector Irene Huss, mother and new head of the Violent Crimes Unit, is tasked with uncovering dangerous criminals and gruesome crimes in Goteburg, Sweden while winning the respect of her colleagues in a police division unused to women officers. 

• Detective Inspector Huss
• The Torso
• The Glass Devil
• Night Rounds
• The Golden Calf
• The Fire Dance
• The Beige Man
• The Treacherous Net
• Who Watcheth
• Protected by the Shadows

Nicola Upson

Playwright and mystery author Josephine Tey writes about murder, but finds that the real world often contains just as much crime in this series set in 1930s England. 

• An Expert in Murder 
• Angel With Two Faces
• Two For Sorrow 
• Fear in the Sunlight
• The Death of Lucy Kyte
• London Rain
• Nine Lessons
• Sorry for the Dead
• The Secrets of Winter
• Dear Little Corpses
• Shot With Crimson

Elaine Viets 

Helen Hawthorne traded a lavish lifestyle to work in a boutique at minimum wage in Florida and is featured in the Dead End Job mysteries. 

• Shop Till You Drop
• Murder Between the Covers
• Dying to Call You
• Just Murdered
• Murder Unleashed
• Murder With Reservations
• Clubbed to Death
• Killer Cuts
• Half Price Homicide
• Pumped for Murder
• Final Sail
• Board Stiff
• Catnapped!
• Checked Out
• The Art of Murder

Viets' most recent series follows Josie Marcus, single mother and mystery shopper. 

• Dying in Style
• High Heels Are Murder
• Accessory to Murder
• Murder With All the Trimmings 
• The Fashion Hound Murders
• An Uplifting Murder
• Death on a Platter
• Murder is a Piece of Cake
• Fixing to Die
• A Dog Gone Murder

Angela Richman is a death investigator in Chouteau Forest, a wealthy suburb of St. Louis.

• Brain Storm
• Fire and Ashes
• Ice Blonde
• A Star is Dead

Kathryn Wall 

Bay Tanner, a former financial consultant, sets up a detective agency in Hilton Head, South Carolina.  

• In for a Penny
• And Not a Penny More
• Perdition House
• Judas Island
• Resurrection Road
• Bishop's Beach
• Sanctuary Hill
• The Mercy Oak
• Covenant Hall
• Caanan's Gate
• Jericho Cay
• St. John's Folly
• Jordan Point

Michelle Wan 

Mara Dunn teams with orchid expert Julian Wood to unravel old mysteries in the Dordogne region of France in this series by British author Wan. 

• Deadly Slipper
• The Orchid Shroud
• A Twist of Orchids 

Ashley Weaver

Amory Ames is a wealthy young socialite in 1930s London, whose charming rake of a husband, Milo, often vanishes for months.

• Murder at the Brightwell
• Death Wears a Mask
• A Most Novel Revenge
• The Essense of Malice
• An Act of Villainy
• A Dangerous Engagement
• A Deception at Thornecrest

In order to avoid jail time, safecracker Electra McDonnell agrees to help the British authorities by using her housebreaking skills for the war efforts in 1940s London.

• A Peculiar Combination

Betty Webb 

Lena Jones of Desert Investigations in Scottsdale, Arizona stars in this crisp series.  

• Desert Noir
• Desert Wives
• Desert Shadows
• Desert Run
• Desert Cut
• Desert Lost
• Desert Wind
• Desert Rage
• Desert Vengeance
• Desert Redemption

Gloria White 

Private eye and security specialist Ronnie Ventana is a tough character who finds herself in many scapes as she investigates crime in San Francisco. 

• Murder on the Run
• Money to Burn
• Charged With Guilt
• Sunset and Santiago
• Death Notes
• Cry Baby 

Kate White 

Bailey Weggins is a true crime writer for a New York women's magazine who turns sleuth in the glossy, high-fashion world.

• If Looks Could Kill 
• A Body to Die For 
• 'Til Death Do Us Part 
• Over Her Dead Body 
• Lethally Blond 
• So Pretty It Hurts
• Even If It Kills Her
• Such a Perfect Wife

Jacqueline Winspear 

After the loss of her mother forced her to enter service, and the death of her fiance in World War I, Maisie Dobbs knows the feeling of loss and alienation well.  Her investigations in 1920s and 30s London are tinged with the psychological wounds of the war and its aftermath, which threaten to reopen when she's again called to duty during World War II. 

• Maisie Dobbs 
• Birds of a Feather
• Pardonable Lies 
• Messenger of Truth 
• An Incomplete Revenge 
• Among the Mad 
• The Mapping of Love and Death 
• A Lesson in Secrets 
• Elegy for Eddie 
• Leaving Everything Most Loved 
• A Dangerous Place 
• A Journey to Munich 
• In This Grave Hour 
• To Die But Once
• The American Agent
• The Consequences of Fear
• A Sunlit Weapon
• The Comfort of Ghosts

Yu, Ovidia

Chen Su Lin escapes plans for an arranged marriage by being taken in by an Inspector in 1936 Singapore Crown Colony, and uses her wits to help him solve mysteries and survive through the Japanese occupation and beyond.

• The Frangipani Tree Mystery
• The Betel Nut Tree Mystery
• The Paper Bark Tree Mystery
• The Mimosa Tree Mystery
• The Cannonball Tree Mystery
• The Mushroom Tree Mystery
• The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery
• The Angsana Tree Mystery

Widow Rose 'Aunty' Lee runs her own popular home cooking restaurant and spends her spare time pursuing justice in Singapore.

• Aunty Lee's Delights
• Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials
• Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge

updated kah 12/24