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Scandinavian Crime

Frozen Tracks (2007)
Ake Edwardson
Investigating a series of assaults and child abductions in the bleak autumn days outside Sweden's rural Gothenburg, Detective Inspector Erik Winter races against time to discover a link between the cases when his own family's safety is threatened.
For fans of Henning Mankell and Karin Fossum.

The Cruel Stars of the Night (2007)
Kjell Eriksson
Police Inspector Ann Lindell and her colleagues are called in to investigate the disappearance of a local professor, a case that could be linked to the murders of several elderly men. Ed McBain and Ruth Rendel fans may like this Swedish crime writer.

The Quiet Girl (2007)
Peter Hoeg
Set in Denmark in the here and now, The Quiet Girl centers around Kaspar Krone, a world-renowned circus clown with a deep love for the music of Johan Sebastian Bach, and an even deeper gambling debt. Wanted for tax evasion and on the verge of extradition, Krone is drafted into the service of a mysterious order of nuns who promise him reprieve from the international authorities in return for his help safeguarding a group of children with mystical abilities--abilities that Krone also shares.

The Glass Devil (2007)
Helene Tursten
The execution-style murders of a minister, his wife, and their schoolteacher son--takes the Swedish detective Irene Huss from the scene of the crime, a village outside Goteborg, to London, where the traumatized daughter of the minister lives.

Murder in the Windy City

The Blade Itself (2007)
Marcus Sakey
Danny Carter went legit when a job went bad, but his former partner returns and puts his new life on the line. The author is touted as reminiscent of Dennis Lehane and Harlan Coben. +Mystery Sakey

Big City, Bad Blood (2007)
Sean Chercover
Reluctantly hiring on as a bodyguard to a Hollywood locations manager who is testifying as a prosecution witness against a suspected member of the Chicago Outfit, private detective Ray Dudgeon is forced into an unexpected investigation with corrupt ties to Washington. A first novel. +Mystery Chercover

Chicago Blues (2007)
Libby Hellmann, ed.
Blues can evoke music, mood, and more, and the 21 stories in Chicago Blues display the work of some of Chicago's finest mystery writers. Twenty-one excellent reasons to stay out of the Windy City. +813.0872 C432

Probable cause (2007)
Therese Schwegel
Rookie police officer Ray Weiss, following in his family's law enforcement legacy, confronts a brutal hazing initiation on the part of his senior officers in Chicago's District 20 and stumbles upon a corpse. +Fic Schwegel

Death in Venice

Dead Lagoon: an Aurelio Zen Mystery
Dibdin, Michael.
Zen returns to his native Venice to locate a missing American businessman. His search becomes as twisted as the canals and streets of the famous city. Hauntings, mistaken identity, and ill-fated love impede his mission. +Mystery Dibdin

Dirge for a Doge
Eyre, Elizabeth.
Niccolo Ermolin is found stabbed to death in his study. Renaissance detective, Sigismondo, must sort throught the Machiavellian intrigues of aristocratic Venice to find his murderer. +Mystery Eyre

Lucifer’s Shadow
Hewson, David
The Guarneri violin that belonged to a talented Jewish woman who wrote a now lost concerto in 1733 is stolen from a grave. Her missing concerto is found. This intricate mystery is complex and compelling as it glides between modern Venice and the 18th century city of Vivaldi. Beauty, deceit, and murder mingle in this well written story. +Mystery Hewson

Death at La Fenice
Leon, Donna
A world renowned conductor is poisoned before he can conduct the final act of an opera. Inspector Guide Brunetti must tread carefully to find the murderer. Not what you might expect. +Mystery Leon

Interrupted Aria
Myers, Beverle Graves
Castrato Tito returns to early 18th century Venice to begin his operatic career. His premier is interrupted by the murder of a close friend, and the arrest of another. Tito conducts his own investigation to determine the true murderer and the secrets of those involved. +Mystery Myers

The Titian Committee
Pears, Iain
Jonathan Argyll and Flavia DiStefano seek the answer to the deaths of several art historians on the Committee. Events of the real life of the artist Titian may hold the key. +Mystery/F/Pears

Murder in The Big Easy

The Tin Roof Blowdown: a Dave Robicheaux Novel
Burke, James Lee
Set in post- Katrina New Orleans, Detective Robicheaux investigates the shooting of two of three looters in a wealthy neighborhood. The robbers had ransacked the home of New Orleans's most powerful mobster. Robicheaux tries to reach the third looter before the mob does. The search also reveals the fate of a priest who disappeared during Katrina while trying to rescue his parishioners. +Mystery Burke

Frill Kill
Childs, Laura
Amateur detective Carmela Bertrand owns a scrap booking shop, Memory Mine. She discovers the body of fashion model Amber Lalique in the alley behind her friend Ava’s JuJu Voodoo Shop. The chief suspect is Giovanni, Ava’s tarot card reader. Carmela and Ava disguise themselves as models for a Halloween night fashion show to solve the murder. In the process the author shares scrap booking tips and tempting Louisiana recipes. +Mystery Childs

Scrub-a-dub Dead
Colley, Barbara
As a favor for a friend Charlotte LaRue takes on the job of cleaning rooms at the New Orleans Jazzy Hotel. The hotel is hosting the Shreveport chapter of the elite Red Scarf Sorority. While cleaning the room of member, Tessa Morgan, Charlotte is startled when the obviously upset occupant arrives. Tessa Morgan has just had a run-in with her estranged husband's mistress Lisa. The next day, Charlotte learns that Lisa has been murdered, probably strangled with a red scarf. It falls to Charlotte to make a clean sweep of this mystery. +Mystery Colley

Rampart Street
Fulmer, David
Creole detective, Valentin St. Cyr, returns to the red-light district of Storyville a thinner and, to bar owner Tom Anderson, a haunted man. When the police seem reluctant to solve the crime, Tom tries to tempt the apathetic St. Cyr into solving the murder of a wealthy businessman whose body was discovered in one of Storyville's meanest streets. Five more will die before St. Cyr resolves the mystery. +Mystery Fulmer

Shiver
Jackson, Lisa
A serial killer is on the loose in New Orleans, one who kills in pairs made to look like murder/suicide. The only connection between victims concerns patients confined to a mental hospital years earlier. Detective Reuben Montoya searches for clues while the bodies accumulate. +Mystery Jackson

P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof
Smith, Julie
Talba Wallis, hip African-American PI, goes undercover to investigate a shady New Orleans judge. The judge’s dysfunctional family—Royce, the alcoholic son, Lucy, a depressed teenager, and grandmother, Reedy, who attempts to nurture attention-starved Lucy—reprise Tennessee William’s “Big Daddy” and his family. A Mardi Gras party celebrating the judge’s engagement to successful businesswoman, Kristin, exposes his crooked dealings—and Talba's professional identity. Later the judge is found dead and a grieving Kristin hires Talba to solve the crime. +Mystery Smith

Murder in The Land of Enchantment

Monkey Man
Brewer, Steve
An Albuquerque Private Investigator is having coffee with a potential client when a gun-toting ape arrives on the scene. Without warning, Bubba is covered with the blood of his client-turned-murder-victim. The P.I. has his hands full with a grieving fiancée, an insistent reporter, a go-getter intern, and an unaccountable spike in the death rate at the local zoo. Can Bubba keep from going bananas before he nails that ape? +Mystery Brewer

Dance Hall of the Dead
Hillerman, Tony
Navajo Tribal Lieutenant, Joe Leaphorn, suspects the worst when the only trace of two missing Native American boys is a pool of blood in the dry New Mexico soil. As he investigates the disappearance his search is complicated by secret Zuni religious rites, a promising archeological dig, and a hypodermic needle. Can Leaphorn bring the murderer to justice before he kills again? +Mystery Hillerman

Slow Kill
McGarrity, Michael
Kevin Kerney, police chief of Santa Fe, becomes involved in a murder investigation while vacationing in California. Hotel magnate, Clifford Spalding, is poisoned in the room right next to Kerney's. At first Kerney is a viable suspect but some unofficial sleuthing on his part reveals irregularities in Spalding's past. Once cleared of suspicion Kerney returns to New Mexico. However his earlier investigation reveals Santa Fe connections and he chooses to pursue the case on his home ground. +Mystery McGarrity

The Pumpkin Seed Massacre
Slater, Susan
This mystery is set in one of New Mexico's Tewa Pueblos. Half-breed Ben Pecos lives part of the year with his grandmother at the pueblo and the rest with Anglo step-parents in Utah. Ben, who is considering a medical career, has a summer internship at a Pueblo's medical clinic when a major medical disaster occurs. An epidemic, supposedly cause by tainted pumpkin seeds, is spreading throughout New Mexico. Ben and local TV reporter, Julie Conlin, become deeply involved in resolving the cause of the illness. +Mystery Slater

Turquoise Girl: an Ella Clah Mystery
Thurlo, Aimee and David
Special Investigator Ella Clah of the Navajo Tribal Police receives an anonymous tip that waitress Valerie Tso has been murdered. When found, the body has been arranged in a kneeling, prayerful position. Ella recognizes several similarities between the killing and a crime she investigated years ago. More deaths follow and Ella tries to identify the murderer before the Fierce Ones, a vigilante group, enact their own brand of justice. +Mystery Thurlo

Parrot Blues: a Neil Hamel Mystery
Van Gieson, Judith.
Neil Hamel, an Albuquerque attorney, is confronted with the disappearance of her client’s wife, Deborah Dumaine, and one of the couple’s valuable parrots, Perigee. It seems to Neil that her client is more interested in the recovery of the bird than in finding the wife he wishes to divorce. Neil becomes involved with an unsavory parrot smuggler who may have kidnapped both. A troubling question must be answered: is her client involved with his wife’s abduction? +Mystery van Gieson

Murder in The Centennial State

Painted Lady
Albresch, Peter
Physical therapist, Jim Dandy, and his artist girl friend, Dodee Fisher, are planning an Elderhostel trip down the Santa Fe Trail. Before the trip begins, Jim sees a Native American woman fall from a building next to his Denver hotel. Or was she pushed? While participating in the trip they notice that a spectral image of the woman persistently appears in each of Dodee’s trip paintings. When an Elderhosteller is murdered, Jim and Dodee must solve both of these murders—before they join the victims. +Mystery Albresch

Double Shot
Davidson, Diane Mott
Fans of sleuthing caterer, Goldy Bear Schulz, will welcome another in her series of culinary cozies. Goldy is attacked shortly after she begins to prepare a memorial lunch at her new catering center. She awakens to discover a kitchen of spoiled food and greedy mice. Goldy’s instincts point to her ex-husband, John Richard Korman, who has just been released from prison. Violent attacks continue as Goldy cooks her way to a solution. As usual, recipes included. +Mystery Davidson

Booked to Die
Dunning, John
This title introduces Denver policeman, and rare book collector, Cliff Janeway. When Bobby Westfall, a book scout in the antiquarian book trade, is murdered, Janeway suspects a local criminal, Jackie Newton. Janeway stalks this thug in a manner suited to the brutality of his quarry. As he does so, Janeway delves deeply into the antiquarian book trade, revealing players whose expertise is exceeded only by their greed. +Mystery Dunning

Dead Aim
Johansen, Iris
Photojournalist Alex Graham is assigned to cover a dam collapse in Colorado when he overhears a conversation between the culprits who caused the collapse. They discover that Alex has overheard them and decide to silence him. Alex's friend, Sarah Logan, is inadvertently injured when an attempt on Alex's life goes wrong. Sarah's wealthy husband, John, hires shadowy government operatives for the job to keep his wife, and Alex, safe. One of the hired operatives, Judd, kidnaps Alex to keep him safe, but Alex convinces him that the dam was sabotaged and that it would not be the last to be destroyed. Judd joins with Alex to uncover high level conspiracy in a fast paced story. +Mystery Johansen

Iron Ties
Parker, Ann
Inez Stannert is the candid, poker-playing, gun-toting co-owner of the Silver Queen Saloon in Leadville, Colorado. Her partner is Abe Jackson, a free black man, disliked by the post-Civil War populous. Inez’s friend, Susan Carothers, a young photographer hoping to sell her photos of picturesque Colorado, witnesses a murder while photographing in the mountains. Susan is injured in a rockslide that kills one man involved in the murder. Inez nurses her friend while trying to make sense of what Susan actually witnessed. +Mystery Parker

Into Thin Air
Zigal, Thomas
Kurt Miller, ex-hippie sheriff of Pitkin County finds a body in the Roaring Fork River near county seat, Aspen. The discovery leads to a complicated case that will involve Argentinean terrorists and local politicos. Kurt’s personal problems further complicate the investigation and cause him to resign. Determined to solve the crime he continues to investigate on his own. +Mystery Zigal

Murder in The Emerald City

Homicide My Own
Argula, Anne
“Sent to pick up a bail-jumper on a lonely Northwest island, quirky cops Quinn and Odd, a menopausal woman and a young Swede, become distracted by a decades-old murder when Odd channels the female victim’s spirit.”* +Mystery Argula

We Interrupt This Broadcast
Beck, K.K.
“Alice Jordan’s new job at Seattle’s least-favorite classical radio station gets off to a bumpy start when she discovers her predecessor’s body folded into a studio sofa bed.” +Mystery Beck

The Alpine Rescue
Daheim, Mary
”Publisher Emma Lord is back in the 18th installment of this series set in the Cascade mountain town of Alpine, where residents are shocked by the double crime of arson and the murder of a young father-to-be.” +Mystery Daheim

You May Now Kill the Bride
Donnelly, Deborah
“Lavender and love vie with murder and mayhem for Seattle-based wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid’s attention, as nuptial vows give way to last rites on a beautiful San Juan Island.” +PB Mystery Donnelly

Under Cover of Darkness
Grippando, James
“After his wife vanishes, Seattle attorney Gus Wheatley discovers something in her past that may link her to a serial killer in more ways than one.” + Fiction Grippando

Long Time Gone
Jance, J. A.
“Compassionate J. P. Beaumont, Seattle Special Homicide Investigator, looks into a cold case for a friend when a nun’s nightmares reveal the repressed childhood memory of a neighbor’s murder.” +Mystery Jance

Donna Rose and the Slug War
Johnson, Norma
“Retired schoolteacher Donna Galbreath and feuding back-door neighbor Cyrus Bates put aside their differences to go small town sleuthing in Cedar Harbor, WA after Donna discovers a dead body on the beach.”* +Mystery Johnson

Folly: a novel
King, Laurie R.
“Suffering from severe depression following the death of her husband and child, Rae Newborn retreats to a deserted San Juan Island to heal, but instead finds herself battling an unseen stalker.” +Mystery King

Smoke in Mirrors
Krentz, Jayne Ann
“Settling her swindling half-sister’s estate, college librarian Leonora Hutton uncovers embezzlement, murder, and a seductive handyman. What answers will be reflected in an antique mirror collection?” +Fiction Krentz

The Good Diamond
Moody, Skye Kathleen
“Sassy Venus Diamond’s work as a Fish and Wildlife Agent has her fighting crime across the Northwest. In her seventh outing, she tracks down the link between murder, diamond mines, and smuggling weapons.” +Mystery Moody

The Majolica Murders
Morgan, Deborah A.
“Ex-FBI agent Jeff Talbot asks a dear friend to track down some rare majolica for his wife, only to find him accused of killing the dealer, in this fifth installment of intriguing antiques mysteries.” +LT Fic Morgan (Mystery)

Dating Can Be Deadly
Roberts, Wendy
Psychic ability is a pain in the neck! Just ask Tabitha, whose insights into a murder attract the suspicious eye of the cops, when she’d rather be drinking with friends, catching the eye of her hunky boss.” +Mystery Roberts

* Annotations from the Seattle Public Library: Library Collection, Reader’s Corner, Seattle Mysteries. http://www.spl.org