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Mystery Mayhem Author Spotlight

Mystery lovers know --- there's nothing more fun than solving a mystery. Legends in this genre include Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Well-known authors include Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and Marcia Muller. To help you unravel the endless question of "what mystery authors should I read next?" we bring you our Mystery Mayhem feature. It's a chance to get to know a group of authors who sleuth, track clues, and captivate readers by bringing fictitious characters to justice. We call them "Authors Who Keep You Guessing." We hope you enjoy exploring their work as much as we did tracking them down.

Sharon Virts, author of Veil of Doubt

Emily Lloyd, a young widow in Reconstruction-era Virginia, is accused of poisoning her three-year-old daughter, Maud. Her husband and three other children all died of mysterious illnesses, so when Maud succumbs to an unexplained malady, the town suspects foul play. Soon Mrs. Lloyd is charged not only with poisoning the child but also with murdering her children, her husband and her aunt. Enter Powell Harrison, a soft-spoken, brilliant attorney who recently returned to his Virginia hometown to help his brother manage their late father’s practice. As details about the widow’s erratic behavior and her reclusive neighbors emerge, Harrison begins to suspect that an even more sinister truth might lurk beneath the family’s horrible fate and finds himself irresistibly drawn to the case.

Diane Setterfield, author of Once Upon a River

On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens.

Jess Lourey, author of February Fever: A Murder-by-Month Mystery

Mira James’ hot and heavy relationship with boyfriend Johnny Leeson is definitely warming up her winter. But when Johnny has to go to Portland, Oregon, for a month-long internship, airplane-averse Mira lets her septuagenarian friend Mrs. Berns talk her into a visit. After a few glasses of champagne and Mrs. Berns’ encouragement, Mira begins to relax and enjoy herself…until a fellow passenger is murdered and a snowstorm traps the train in the Rockies. If Mira can’t track down the killer, she may end up derailed --- permanently.

William Kent Krueger, author of Windigo Island

When the body of a teenage Ojibwe girl washes up on the shore of an island in Lake Superior, the residents of the nearby Bad Bluff reservation whisper that it was the work of a mythical beast, the Windigo, or a vengeful spirit called Michi Peshu. Such stories have been told by the Ojibwe people for generations, but they don’t solve the mystery of how the girl and her friend, Mariah Arceneaux, disappeared a year ago. At the request of the Arceneaux family, Cork O’Connor, former sheriff turned private investigator, is soon on the case.

William Kent Krueger, author of Tamarack County

As a blizzard swells just days before Christmas, the car belonging to the wife of a retired local judge is discovered abandoned on a rural road. When the beloved pet dog of a friend is found decapitated, private investigator Cork O’Connor begins to detect a startling pattern of ominous incidents throughout the area. Then Cork’s son is nearly killed, and he knows this is no trick of his imagination. Someone is spinning a deadly web in Tamarack County.

William Kent Krueger, author of Trickster's Point

The unsinkable Cork O’Connor is sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness. Beside him is the first Native American governor-elect, Jubal Little, who is slowly dying with an arrow through his heart. Although the men have been bow hunting, this is no accident. The arrow in the governor’s heart belongs to Cork, who becomes the primary suspect in the murder.

Lisa Lutz, author of Trail of the Spellmans: Document #5

Chaos abounds in the Spellman family, and things aren’t any simpler for Spellman Investigations, the family business. But Isabel won’t stop hunting for the answers --- even when they threaten to shatter everything she holds dear.

Helene Tursten, author of Night Rounds: A Detective Inspector Irene Huss Investigation

Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector with the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden. And now she’s back with a gripping follow-up to DETECTIVE INSPECTOR HUSS.

Helene Tursten, author of Detective Inspector Huss

One of the most prominent citizens of Göteborg, Sweden, plunges to his death off an apartment balcony, but what appears to be a “Society Suicide” soon reveals itself to be a carefully plotted murder. Irene Huss finds herself embroiled in a complex and high-stakes investigation. As Huss and her team begin to uncover the victim’s hidden past, they are dragged into Sweden’s seamy underworld of street gangs, struggling immigrants and neo-Nazis in order to catch the killer.

William Kent Krueger, author of Northwest Angle

With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O'Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in NORTHWEST ANGLE, the latest installment of William Kent Krueger's unforgettable New York Times bestselling series.