by Sally Andrew (2015)
"A bright new talent makes her fiction debut with this first novel in a delicious crime series set in rural South Africa: a flavorful blend of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Goldy Schulz, full of humor, romance, and recipes, and featuring a charming cast of characters. Tannie Maria ("tannie" meaning auntie, the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook and eat. She shares her culinary love through her work as a recipe columnist for the local paper, until the Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart than for lunch and dinner ideas. Tannie Maria doesn't like the change but soon discovers she has a knack and a passion for helping people. Of course, a recipe is always part of the remedy she offers. Assisting other people with their problems, Tannie Maria is eventually forced to face her own issues, especially when the troubles of those she helps touch on the pain of her own past like a woman who contacts her desperate to escape her abusive husband. When the woman is murdered, Tannie Maria becomes dangerously entwined in the investigation, despite the best efforts of a handsome detective named Kannemeyer, who is determined to keep her safe. Suddenly, this practical, down-to-earth woman is involved in something much more sinister than perfecting her chocolate cake recipe . . ." -- ONIX annotation.
Liza Marklund
Detective and mystery stories. Inside the City Hall, over a thousand guests attend the prestigious Nobel Prizewinners' dinner. With a lavish meal laid on to the backdrop of a full orchestra, this is one of the city's most glamorous events of the year. Two shots are fired on the dance floor. Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is there, covering the event for the Evening Post.
Arne Dahl
When a Swedish literary critic is found tortured to death in a closet at Newark International Airport, the police realize that the murderer made off with the victim's ticket and boarded a flight to Stockholm. With no clear motive in sight, Detectives Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of Intercrime's A-Unit learn that the method of torture used was not only a highly specialized means of extracting information secretly developed during the Vietnam War-- allowing the victim to whisper, but not to scream-- but also that it was the modus operandi of an allegedly deceased homicidal maniac known only as the Kentucky Killer.
Thatcher Robinson
"Bai Jiang--San Francisco's best-known souxun ("people finder")--is hired to track down the mysterious Daniel Chen. Police inspector Kelly suspects Chen of being involved in a botched drug heist that resulted in the death of an officer. Bai has her own suspicions. She thinks the police just want to see Chen dead. Her investigation leads Bai into deadly intrigue as she finds herself caught between international intelligence agencies and merchants of war, who deal in death, drugs, and high-jacked information. To make matters worse, she's thirty-something and dating again. It's not easy juggling a suitor with family connections, a brazen young man who finds her irresistible, and her ex--the father of her child. World conflict and family strife explode as adversaries face off in San Francisco's Chinatown, a world away from the one we know"-- "Dark humor, adventure, and romance characterize this action-packed series featuring a young female Buddhist with formidable martial arts skills in the underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown"--
Dawn Eastman
Katie LeClair has finally settled down as the new doctor in Baxter, Michigan. After years of moving, schooling, and training, she wants nothing more than to find a place she can call home, and a small town outside of Ann Arbor seems perfect. But that idyllic dream is immediately shattered when one of her patients is found dead. After years of moving, schooling, and training, Katie LeClair has finally settled down as the new doctor in Baxter, Michigan. She's building a new life, and has found a pair of business partners in a team of father and son family practitioners. When one of her patients is found dead-- and ruled a suicide, a result of the medication Katie had prescribed. But she doesn't remember writing it. Someone is willing to kill to keep part of the town's history in the shadows-- and Katie has been set up to take the fall.