Five cosy mysteries worth checking out
As summer gives way to fall, it's the perfect time to think about cosy mysteries — books with a memorable investigator who must solve a crime that's more intriguing than gruesome. Here are five that fit the bill.
1 Give Unto Others, by Donna Leon When an acquaintance asks Commissario Guido Brunetti to look into her son-in-law's financial affairs, he reluctantly agrees. The investigation shakes Brunetti's faith in himself as a detective. In the newest book in Leon's series set in Venice, Brunetti is joined by a trio of his closest colleagues as they try to untangle a web of family secrets and financial misdeeds. The book is steeped in a murky atmosphere as Leon describes the pandemic-related devastation of Venice's tourist-dependent economy.
2 The Locked Room, by Elly Griffiths
When sorting through her deceased mother's belongings, Ruth Galloway finds an old photo of the cottage in Norfolk, England, where she now lives with her daughter Kate. It's dated five years before Ruth's birth. Ruth's mother had never indicated any connection to the cottage, so Ruth vows to find out more. In the latest in her popular Ruth Galloway series, Griffiths delivers a complicated mystery plus a heartfelt look at the unsettling mix of panic and boredom in the pandemic's early days.
3 Overboard, by Sara Paretsky
V.I. (Vic) Warshawski's latest case begins during the pandemic when she discovers a teenage girl hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. Badly injured, the girl is only able to say one word before losing consciousness.
But that's enough for Vic to go on as she delves into who hurt the girl and why. In her hunt,
Vic uncovers family secrets that make her a target for a powerful, brutal cop. Once again, Paretsky demonstrates the staying power of her iconic character as well as her own deft storytelling skills.
4 The King Arthur Case, by Jean-luc Bannalec
What begins as a lighthearted office outing to Brocéliande Forest in Brittany, France, suddenly becomes one of Commissaire Georges Dupin's most violent murder cases in The King Arthur Case, the seventh book in Bannalec's best-selling Brittany Mystery series. In this volume, Bannalec plunges Dupin into an apparent bloodletting among top academics studying the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. Dupin finds several motives among the suspects. Bannalec compresses the action into a little more than two days and incorporates humour into his story, something too often missing in mysteries.
5 The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill
With its story-within-a-story framework and a premise that offers an intriguing twist on a locked-room puzzle, The Woman in the Library will appeal to classic-mystery lovers. The book tells of how a friendship develops among four strangers sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library when a woman's scream suddenly pierces the air. The friendship shifts as secrets are uncovered and it becomes clear one of them is a murderer. Gentill's complex plot will keep readers guessing to the end.