The October Year in Reading challenge is.... mysteries! Be they cozy, noir, hilarious, and everything in between, these mysteries are ready to turn your October into something unknown.
Be sure to check out our virtual reading challenge on Beanstack to earn virtual badges!
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Space case : the graphic novel
Author(s):
Description:
When a lunarnaut dies on Moon Base Alpha, twelve-year-old Dashiell Gibson sets out to solve the lunar murder mystery before the killer strikes again.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Gib
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Description:
"Near the top most deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers--just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship's detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fair weather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies, but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot. Dorothy suspects the misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprieter--and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting--knows more than she's letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work--and if so, they've had three hundred years to perfect their schemes" --Publisher description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Wai
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Whack job : a history of axe murder
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Description:
"A brilliant and bloody examination of the axe's foundational role in human history, from prehistoric violence, to war and executions, to newspaper headlines and popular culture. For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill. Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology-- one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it. Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Job sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
621.9309 Jam
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Murder, interrupted : true-crime thrillers
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Description:
MURDER, INTERRUPTED. Rich, cheating financier Frank Howard wants his wife dead, and he's willing to pay Billie Earl Johnson whatever it takes, to the tune of $750,000. When his bullet misses the mark, Billie Earl and Frank will turn on each other in a fight for their lives...MOTHER OF ALL MURDERS. Dee Dee Blancharde is a local celebrity. Television reports praise her as a single mother who tirelessly cares for her wheelchair-bound, chronically ill daughter. But when the teenaged Gypsy Rose realizes she isn't actually sick and Dee Dee has lied all these years, Gypsy Rose exacts her revenge...
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.1523 Pat
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Description:
"In the middle of the family New Year's gathering at his home, Grandfather Fuchigami is murdered. But not for the last time. For his grandson, Hisataro, has fallen into a mysterious time-loop, in which he must relive the same day again and again. Every morning after his grandfather's death, Hisataro wakes up with a chance to find the culprit and prevent the murder. But day after day he fails, despite stumbling across clues aplenty in the shape of secret plots, illicit love affairs and jealous rivalries. With an extremely large inheritance up for grabs, everyone is a suspect -- and Hisataro is beginning to wish he could leave this day behind" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Nis
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Description:
"A mysterious group known as the Pretty Boy Detective Club is rumored to solve (and perhaps cause) most of the trouble at Yubiwa Academy--in a strictly unofficial, undercover, uncommercial capacity, of course. In order to find a star she glimpsed ten years ago, second-year Mayumi Dojima enlists the Pretty Boy's aid, and gets much more than she bargained for! When they run up against a shadowy organization called the Twenties, stargazing is suddenly the least of their worries. Mayumi's entire future is in jeopardy, and the Pretty Boy Detective Club must race to solve the Mystery of the Dark Star before time runs out!'' --Back cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Nis
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Description:
Portland, Oregon. Sage Caplin has high hopes for her coffee cart, Ground Rules. Her business partner, Harley, is a genius at roasting beans and devising new blends. Then Sage finds a customer's body in front of her cart, a fatal slash across his neck. She knows the locals have intensely strong opinions, but who would be mad enough to commit murder? Sage is already fending off trouble in the form of her estranged, con-artist mother, but when her very own box cutter is discovered to be the murder weapon, she needs to focus on finding the killer-- fast! -- adapted from back cover
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Dun
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Description:
In Daretana's most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead--killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it's a death at once terrifying and impossible. Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior's eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana's quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. Din is most perplexed by Ana's ravenous appetite for information and her mind's frenzied leaps--not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire's greatest detective. As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he's barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra--and wonders how long he'll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ben
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Description:
Eleven-year-old Meadow Witch apprentice Anwen Sedge, along with her grandmother and rival Cerys, find themselves in the Sky Kingdom with giants after a dead king falls onto their rural village, prompting them to solve the mystery of the king's death before they can return home.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Bel
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The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession
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Description:
"For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly ten years-in museums and cathedrals all over Europe-Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser's strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them to his heart's content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to assess practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtakingly number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict's need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend's pleas to stop-until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.14 Fin
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Curious cases: true crime for kids : hijinks, heists, mysteries, and more
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Description:
"Curious Cases: True Crime for Kids presents a slew of fascinating stories that are all age-appropriate, including: the cold case of D.B. Cooper, the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum theft, the disappearance of Masterpiece the poodle, two brothers' cunning escape from Alcatraz, Sherlock Holmes and the fairy photographs, the real-life ghost busters, and much more! After reading these cases, kids will be able to dive into some fun forensic science activities they can do at home to help them uncover evidence and solve their own mysteries"--back cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 364.1 Val
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Author(s):
Description:
Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante. But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen--and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met. The investigation turns personal when Io's estranged oldest sister shows up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players before destruction comes to her own doorstep.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Hat
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Description:
Students from an elite prep school travel to a remote ski cabin for their senior excursion, but as the temperature drops and a blizzard traps them inside, tensions rise, secrets and betrayals are revealed, and when classmates begin to die, the group must uncover the killer among them to survive.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Don
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Bad blood : secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup
Author(s):
Description:
The inside story of the rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes had created a startup "unicorn" that promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. The problem: The technology didn't work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. Here is the story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
338.7681 Car
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Murder book : a graphic memoir of a true crime obsession
Author(s):
Description:
Why is it so much fun to read about death and dismemberment? Lifelong true-crime obsessive and cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell tries to puzzle out the answer. A graphic exploration of a lifetime of Ann Rule super-fandom, amateur armchair sleuthing, and a deep dive into the high-profile murders that have fascinated the author for decades, this is a blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and true crime with a focus on the often-overlooked victims of notorious killers.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.1 Cam
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My friend Anna : the true story of a fake heiress
Author(s):
Description:
"From a photo editor at Vanity Fair comes the true account of her friendship with "Anna Delvey"--a woman posing as a German heiress who conned her out of $62,000--and her quest to obtain justice"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.163 Wil
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Description:
"The fire wasn't Marlowe Wexler's fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist. With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that's how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It's easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition. Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths? Maybe this job isn't such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that's been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing. All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down--if someone doesn't bury Marlowe first" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Joh
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How to write a mystery : a handbook from Mystery Writers of America
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Description:
From some of the most successful mystery writers in the business, an invaluable guide to crafting mysteries, from character development and plot to procedurals and thrillers.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
808.3872 How
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Author(s):
Description:
A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he's dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists. --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Tuo
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The most wonderful crime of the year : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt. She's the new queen of the cozy mystery. He's Mr. Big-Time thriller guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.) But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself. That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone. She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust? As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth--and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor. Assuming they don’t kill each other first" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Car
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Author(s):
Description:
"Unremarkable legal assistant Gary Thorn goes for a pint with his coworker Brendan, unaware his life is about to change. There, Gary meets a beautiful woman, but she leaves before he catches her name. All he has to remember her by is the title of the book she was reading: The Clementine Complex. And when Brendan goes missing, too, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Clementine to get some answers. And so begins Gary's quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to find some answers and hopefully, some love and excitement in this page-turning, witty, and oddly sweet story with a cast of unforgettable characters"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mor
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Author(s):
Description:
All of Basit Deniau's houses were haunted. Rose House, his final architectural triumph built in the remote Mojave desert, was perhaps the most. A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing. But a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every crevice and corner with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. That is Rose House. When Detective Maritza Smith gets a call from Rose House, she's shocked to learn that there is a dead body behind its sealed-up door. Everybody in town knows it's haunted. But Basit died more than a year ago, and everybody also knows that only his former protege, Dr. Selene Gisil, is permitted inside. But Selene wasn't in the country when Rose House called in the death. Who is the dead body? How did they get in? And who--or what--killed them? The answers lie within the labyrinthine halls of Rose House. But even if Martiza can get inside, there is no guarantee she will ever be able to leave ...
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mar
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Description:
The lonely, rockbound island of Tsunojima is notorious as the site of a series of bloody unsolved murders. Some even say it’s haunted. One thing’s for sure: it’s the perfect destination for the K-University Mystery Club’s annual trip.
But when the first club member turns up dead, the remaining amateur sleuths realise they will need all of their murder-mystery expertise to get off the island alive.
As the party are picked off one by one, the survivors grow desperate and paranoid, turning on each other. Will anyone be able to untangle the murderer’s fiendish plan before it’s too late?
But when the first club member turns up dead, the remaining amateur sleuths realise they will need all of their murder-mystery expertise to get off the island alive.
As the party are picked off one by one, the survivors grow desperate and paranoid, turning on each other. Will anyone be able to untangle the murderer’s fiendish plan before it’s too late?
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Aya
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Author(s):
Description:
"For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again. For the fourteen years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as Six Four. They would never forgive the authorities for their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case. He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find."--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Yok
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Author(s):
Description:
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."--Dust jacket.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Gal
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Description:
"In a snowbound valley, deep in the French Pyrenees, a dark story of madness and revenge is unfolding. The first victim is a horse: its headless, flayed body hangs suspended from the edge of a frozen cliff. On the same day as the gruesome discovery takes place, Diane Berg, a young psychiatrist starts her first job at a high security asylum for the criminally insane, just a few miles away. She is baffled by the slightly unorthodox methods the asylums's director uses, and then greatly alarmed when she realizes that drugs are disappearing from within the fortified institution while someone seems to be slipping out at night. Commandant Martin Servaz, a charismatric, Toulouse city cop fond of quoting Latin, can't believe he has been called out over the death of an animal. But there is something disturbing about this crime that he cannot ignore. Then DNA from one of the most notorious inmates of the asylum, a highly intelligent former prosecutor who is accused of killing and raping several women, is found on the corpse... and a few days later the first human murder takes place. Servaz and his colleague, the mysterious Irene Ziegler, must use all their skill to solve the terrifying mystery"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Min
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Author(s):
Description:
"Seventeen-year-old Cassie, who has a natural ability to read people, joins an elite group of criminal profilers at the FBI in order to help solve cold cases"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Bar
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Description:
After high school graduation, Mac focuses on finding the serial killer who murdered his best friend the previous summer, while working through his own feelings for the deceased.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Rya
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Description:
The only thing sixteen-year-old Mullory Prudence has left of her mom is a warning: "Run if the strange finds you." But mysterious warnings don’t pay the bills or help take care of her sick Gran. And they certainly don’t make her miserable after-school job any more bearable. When unexpected letters start appearing in peculiar places--sealed in bags of dog food and hidden in the refrigerator--Mullory knows she should avoid them to heed her mother’s warning, but her curiosity thinks otherwise. She uncovers an invitation from Stoutmire Estate to compete in a game of Mystery Royale for the chance at a sizable inheritance. Dizzy with the prospect of billions, Mullory enters the game only to unearth the true prize--the illusionary magical properties of Xavier Stoutmire, a recluse without an heir. A recluse who was expected to keep his magic in the family, especially when there isn’t enough for each member. With a prize worth killing for, the game is simple: be the first to solve the mystery--who killed Xavier Stoutmire? One week full of lavish parties dripping with enchantments, in a mansion brimming with clues of the past, and everyone’s a suspect. To win, Mullory will need to untangle a twisted family web and decide who she can trust... Whitaker Stoutmire, the golden boy who’s harboring deadly secrets? Ellison Stoutmire, his closed off twin, who saw something she shouldn’t have? Lyric Stoutmire, the youngest sibling, exiled by the family and burning with resentment? Or Mateo Maldonado, the only other outsider whose reserved manner allows him to hide in the shadows... At least at first. But most of all, Mullory must ask herself, why? Why her?
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Cav
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Bridget Vanderpuff and the baked escape
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Description:
Bridget Baxter is the very last orphan at the Orphanage for Errant Childs, left at the mercy of the awful Miss Acrid, her foul-smelling fish sandwiches and her office full of hideous things. Miss Acrid's mission is to make Bridget's life a misery. But Bridget is more than a match for her. When kindly Mr Vanderpuff arrives at the Orphanage in search of a child to love, Bridget thinks her luck has finally turned. Mr Vanderpuff is the village baker, and his shop is a world of wonders. But they soon discover that Bridget is absolutely terrible at baking, and not even Pascal the Butter Elf can help her. When Miss Acrid returns for the ultimate revenge, Bridget must open the Locked and Secret Door, navigate Miss Acrid's spiderweb of booby traps and use her unique baking skills to save herself and Mr Vanderpuff from certain disaster. Join Bridget as she dons her chef whites and gets the kwassongs at the ready... Baking isn't such a piece of cake.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Ste
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Description:
"Abbi, Lydia, and Daniel hunt for a lost ferret while helping take care of the animals at Ms. Margery's petting zoo and animal sanctuary"--
Format:
Book
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