The hokey and harmless-seeming police officer in 1950s West Texas likes to say ‘golly’ and ‘gee whiz’ in between slapping women around and staging sudden and brutal murders. Few in his small town want to confront the possibility that this gentleman-officer is capable of any sort of violence. As our narrator/serial killer states plainly the whys and wherefores of his extracurricular activities, his tone stays chummy and light. It’s pretty unsettling how wholesome and clean a psychopath can be. Creepy! Fun!

Recommended by Jeeyeon

Patricia Highsmith is unafraid to admit that human beings can have really uncharitable thoughts. But here is a love story and she illuminates the way a person can fall in love, and how this can change a life (or two). The suspense that builds steadily and urgently is about the exquisite longing one person feels for another---and then it becomes about whether this particular love can survive. In 1950s New York City a woman falling for a woman was considered fairly impossible.

Recommended by Jeeyeon

Father John had watched as once again Ned walked away without voicing the problem that seemed to be bearing him down. And now, Ned was dead, murdered and there would be no way to help at all. The Feds seem to think it could be the white girlfriend Marcy, Ned's Aunt Ella thinks so too. Ned was going to make a change in his life and was working hard to learn what was needed to join the Sun Dance. Or could it be Ned's old girlfriend Roseanne or the two Indians he told her to stay away from? Father John and Vicky are at odds with each other. Vicky is hired to protect Marcy but Father John has his doubts about her and Vicky is certain there is a connection with Roseanne. Does the Trickster, Spider have a role in all this, with the twists and turns of the case? Or is it just a single spider web, hiding a truth? As always, Ms. Coel has painted the land for us and fleshed out the haunting characters that inhabit it in a way that only she can. While we read the story we breathe the air and see the sky of the Arapaho. It is truly a different world.

Recommended by Lee Kelley

Everybody’s reading it, and for a great reason: IT’S MIND-NUMBINGLY, SPINE-TINGLINGLY GOOD!!! Filled with dirty family secrets, intrigue, and excellent characters, Stieg Larsson’s first book of the ‘Millennium’ trilogy can’t be passed by!

Recommended by Rebecca

Chet is a dog anyone could love -- well as long as you stayed on his good side anyway.  Bernie is a P.I. and Chet is his partner.  Chet was training to become a police dog; he was the best jumper in his class.  Unfortunately that was also his downfall.  But no matter, now he's with Bernie and the two of them make a great investigative pair.  The really fun part of this mystery is that Chet narrates the story - dog fashion!  If he remembers a smell that may be a clue but can't seem to get Bernie to pay attention, well he just may get distracted a bit too and go on to something else.  Like wondering why cats catch birds. After all, he never has.  Well, cats are just strange anyway.  This book is a delight, and I'm keeping my eye out for more.

Recommended by Lee

I loved this book! Just ask my family. I can't stop talking about it. A young man stands accused of murdering a well-liked med student and Inspector Darko Dawson is sent from the Ghanian capital of Accra to Ketanu; Ketanu where his own mother disappeared from twenty-five years earlier. This isn't just a mystery, it's a tale about personal demons, old-fashioned bad police work, modern investigation and modern medicine bucking against the fetish priests in the area. There are more suspects than you can count and the poor victim was actually liked! Kwei Quartey takes us from mud huts to city houses and Inspector Dawson even complains about traffic jams. Traffic jams! In Africa. Ok I know it's silly, but I honestly haven't thought of Ghana that way. I'm serious, if you don't find much more than just a great mystery in this book I'll stop eating chocolate for a week! By the way, I was so taken up by the story, the country and the writing that I had no clue to the killer until near the end. Welcome Dr. Quartey, we've been waiting for you.

Recommended by Lee

"A very fun and well written novel with a ‘who-dun-it’ aspect to the plot. The characters are varied and all amazingly fleshed out and memorable. Collins is perhaps better known for ‘The Woman in White’, which is also fabulous. Read both."
-Recommended by Jeeyeon

"Considered the 1st - & by many the best – detective novel ever written, this book debuted originally in serialized form in 1868. I mention this because it should not be thought of as historical fiction: its depiction of the crime & its resolution are not quaint but contemporary. The myriad scientific advantages that present day crime solvers (both real & fictional) have were not even dreamed of when this was written. & that just makes this book even more enjoyable. The crime & its unraveling are told by many voices over a year’s time, & proves, among other things, that great mysteries do not have to a) have bodies strewn all over the place; b) have a detective in constant peril of being beaten to a pulp – or worse – and c) do not need to be solved overnight. A delight from beginning to end."
-Recommended by Jan