National Network for Equitable Library Service

After more than twenty years, Mike Ward is back. Older and a lot wise, he's been sent by the Canadian wire service to cover the spoiled children and their controlling parents: the actors and producers of Hollywood. It's 1940. The war in Europe is well under way. The U.S. is uncertain of its role - and, if it participates, there are those in positions of power who think Germany is best to side wirh.

The latest installment in Dave Hugelschaffer's innovative murder-mystery series sends forest fire forensics expert Porter Cassel to the isolated northern Alberta community of Fort Chipewyan, where an arsonist armed with Molotov cocktails has started a series of blazes. During his investigation the remains of a trapper are discovered in a burned-down cabin. The RCMP rule the death accidental, but Cassel isn't so sure. Complicating matters are unfriendly locals who don't take kindly to outsiders prying into their business.

Liz Ryerson believes that Hillcrest Village, her Toronto neighbourhood, is quaint and quiet, but stumbling over a corpse while walking her dog dissolves that illusion for good. When she realizes she actually knew the murdered man, a real estate broker who appraised the building she co-owns with her philandering ex-husband, she becomes obsessed with solving the crime. The more instability is revealed in her life, the more she needs to find out who killed James Scott -- and why.

When a small fire starts to creep through the underbrush deep within a Montana forest valley, Porter Cassel is brought in to organize the firefighters charged with containing it. The fire moves quickly from bad to worse, rapidly scaling the forest canopy and killing one of Cassel's men. Removed from command, Cassel takes the fire investigation into his own hands, discovering that the fire was not just a random flare-up, but the work of an arsonist.

When Carrie Singleton's first event as head of programs at a small local library ends up in the sudden death of the presenter, she is determined to investigate, convinced this death is connected to another cold-case murder.

Montalbano investigates the death of wealthy accountant Cosimo Barletta in a case involving a string of mistresses, family secrets, and a history full of extortion, greed, and corruption.

Melanie West and her grandmother, Liza, open a bed-and-breakfast inn on the Oregon coast replete with a friendly ghost, one very real skeleton in the closet, and a freshly dead body on the beach. It seems someone doesn't appreciate newcomers prying into the town's past. Now Melanie and Liza must solve the murders to save their business--and their lives.

A triple murder in Scotland in 1869 leads to the arrest of Roderick Macrae. There's no question that Macrae is guilty, but his fate hinges on the question of his sanity. Recounted through the accused's memoir, trial transcripts, and newspaper reports, this is a riveting literary thriller.

Annie and her new neighbor must solve the mystery of what connects them before one of them is convicted of a murder that has yet to happen--and somehow already did.

First published in a 1844 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1845, The Purloined Letter is the third and final story that features Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. In it, Dupin is approached by the prefect of the police to help with a case that involves a stolen letter containing compromising information.