Contemporary Mystery Fiction
Explore the best contemporary mystery fiction books—gripping thrillers, suspenseful whodunits, and modern detective stories from today's top authors.


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Thus Was Adonis Murdered
by Sarah Caudwell
A young woman accused of murder while on holiday in Venice enlists a friend to come help her—but once they begin unraveling clues, there’s no telling what else will come to light. “Sarah Caudwell is one of my very favorite mystery writers.”—A. J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window His was a body to die for . . . Set to have a vacation away from her home life and the tax man, young barrister Julia Larwood takes a trip to Italy with her art-loving boyfriend. But when her personal copy of the current Finance Act is found a few meters away from a dead body, Julia finds herself caught up in a complex fight against the Inland Revenue. Fortunately, she’s able to call on her fellow colleagues who enlist the help of their friend Oxford professor Hilary Tamar. However, all is not what it seems. Could Julia’s boyfriend in fact be an employee of the establishment she has been trying to escape from? And how did her romantic luxurious holiday end in murder? Don’t miss any of Sarah Caudwell’s riveting Hilary Tamar mysteries: THUS WAS ADONIS MURDERED • THE SHORTEST WAY TO HADES • THE SIRENS SANG OF MURDER • THE SIBYL IN HER GRAVE

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The Perfect Murder
by Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating
Inspector Ghote's first cases for the Bombay Police Department include a seemingly unsolvable murder and the theft of one rupee from the desk of the Minister of Police Affairs and the Arts.




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Mask For A Diva
by Grant Michaels
Stan Kraychik, Boston hair-dresser extraordinaire, has been hired as the wig master's assistant for the upcoming season of a local opera company. For the main event, Italian opera diva and aging soprano Marcella Ostinata will perform the lead. As the company heads unsteadily towards opening night, murder threatens the entire festival and Stan finds himself playing a crucial role in a deadly grand opera, performed without music, and with real weapons and killers.


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Outsider in Amsterdam
by Janwillem Van de Wetering
When Piet Verboom is found dangling from a beam in the Hindist Society he ran, Detective-Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate.

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Maigret and the Madwoman
by Georges Simenon
"Simenon created one of the great moral detectives . . .a master of the slow unfolding of the criminal mind."-JOHN MORT I M E R Someone is moving a kind old woman's furniture while she is away, but by the time Maigret investigates, she is dead. A kind, elderly lady-meticulously groomed and showing no signs of derangement-appeals to Inspector Maigret, frightened because someone has been moving furniture in her apartment. Nothing, however, has been stolen, and Maigret's subordinates at Police Headquarters shrug her off as "Maigret's madwoman." Touched by the imploring look in her eyes, Maigret promises to investigate-but someone gets there ahead of him. "Simenon is . . . in a class by himself."-T H E N E W YO R K E R G eorges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liege, Belgium. He published his first novel at seventeen and went on to write more than two hundred novels, becoming one of the world's most prolific and bestselling authors. His books have sold more than 500 million copies and have been translated into fifty languages. Maigret is a registered trademark of the Estate of Georges Simenon