Recommendations based on "Catalogue of Death A Miss Zukas Mystery"

"A refreshing and offbeat take on the female detective."--San Francisco ChronicleSPECIAL DELIVERYFor the first time in years, struggling freelance writer Liz Sullivan is headed home to Denver to visit her estranged family. No sooner does she arrive than her former husband's dead body is delivered to her father's front porch with a bullet between the eyes.Since Liz once tried to kill her violently abusive husband, the police assume she has finally succeeded. Her relatives are furious at this new disgrace, and only Liz's new, hard-won self-respect keeps her going, as she desperately tries to discover what vicious new shenanigans might have caused her ex's death--without causing her own. . . .

In the newest entry into the Nero Award-winning Pentecost & Parker Mystery series ("my new favorite sleuthing duo"— Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review), Lillian and Will are hot on the trail of a serial killer whose murders are stranger than fiction. From the author of Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin.New York City, 1947: For years, Holly Quick has made a good living off of murder, filling up the pages of pulp detective magazines with gruesome tales of revenge. Now someone is bringing her stories to life and leaving a trail of blood-soaked bodies behind. With the threat of another murder looming, and reluctant to go to the police, Holly turns to the best crime-solving duo in or out of the pulps, Willowjean “Will” Parker and her boss, famed detective Lillian Pentecost. The pair are handed the seemingly-impossible task of investigating three murders at once without tipping off the cops or the press that the crimes are connected. A tall order made even more difficult by the fact that Will is already signed up to spend her daylight hours undercover as a guileless secretary in the hopes of digging up a lead on an old adversary, Dr. Olivia Waterhouse. But even if Will is stuck in pencil skirts and sensible shoes, she’s not about to let her boss have all the fun. Soon she’s diving into an underground world of people obsessed with murder and the men and women who commit them. Can the killer be found in the Black Museum Club, run by a philanthropist whose collection of grim murder memorabilia may not be enough to satisfy his lust for the homicidal? Or is it Holly Quick’s pair of editors, who read about murder all day, but clearly aren’t telling the full story?With victims seemingly chosen at random and a murderer who thrives on spectacle, the case has the great Lillian Pentecost questioning her methods. But whatever she does, she’d better do it fast. Holly Quick has a secret, too and it’s about to bring death right to Pentecost and Parker’s doorstep.

When San Francisco P.I. Jeri Howard's new client, Rob Lawter, takes a header through his living room window soon after he's hired her, Jeri is in a quandary. Lawter, a paralegal at a food-processing firm, had received a threatening anonymous note, sent because he was about to blow the whistle on some serious corporate cover-up. Since Jeri has already cashed the check, she feels she owes her dead, probably murdered, client his money's worth. So she goes undercover in the firm's legal department, determined to expose Lawter's killer. What Jeri finds is that murder tops this corporation's agenda, as employees pay the ultimate price to keep a deadly health scare out of the media. . . .

Kathleen Paulson is snowed under running her library and caring for her extraordinary felines, Owen and Hercules. But when a holiday fund-raiser turns deadly, she’ll have to add sleuthing to her already full schedule...Winter in Mayville Heights is busy and not just because of the holidays. Kathleen is hard at work organizing a benefit to raise money for the library’s popular Reading Buddies program. She has her hands full hosting the event. And when a guest at the gala drops dead, her magical cats, Owen and Hercules, will have their paws full helping her solve a murder.The victim is the ex of town rascal Burtis Chapman, but she hasn’t lived in the area in years. And though everybody is denying knowledge of why she was back in town, as Kathleen and her detective boyfriend, Marcus, begin nosing around, they discover more people are connected to the deceased than claimed to be. Now Marcus, Kathleen, and her uncanny cats have to unravel this midwinter tale before the case gets cold.

Folks in Moraine, Wisconsin, are buzzing about the latest swarm of trouble humming around Story Fischer . . . It's a real buzz-kill when beekeeper Story Fischer gets a visit from her frantic sister, Holly, desperate for help hosting a combative trio of employees that Holly's husband, Max has brought home for a weekend of R and R. Good thing the well-stocked shelves of Story's grocery store, The Wild Clover, can provide assistance. During an afternoon tour of Story's hives, however, one of the guests drops dead. Just what Story needs only days after hunky boyfriend, Hunter Wallace, finally decided to move in. As if a dead body isn't enough to put a damper on romance, Story becomes a prime suspect when the carrot juice she brought with the breakfast fixings is found to contain poison. Now it's up to Story to comb through the evidence and find the real perpetrator before she ends up getting stung herself . . . Praise for the Queen Bee Mysteries'One honey of a tale.' Lorna Barrett, New York Timesbestselling author'Reed's story is first-rate, her characters appealing.' Richmond Times-Dispatch

Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls, and customers willing to go to any lengths to uncover a hidden treasure, Meg suspects things have gotten a little out of hand... Then an antiques dealer is found stuffed in a trunk with his head bashed in—and the yard sale turns into a day's-long media circus. Even worse, the suspect arrested for the crime is the person Michael needs to secure academic tenure. Now, Meg is juggling an ever-growing list of suspects. And she's going to have to outthink and outwit one clever murderer who lives by "everything must go..."

SKELETON OF THE PAST Back in the Sixties, the street belonged to students, druggies, and rolling stones. Nowadays it's a sedate family enclave, and freelance writer Liz Sullivan, who is child-and house-sitting on the block, is astonished when the kids find human bones in their dug-up sidewalk. Whose bones? Probably those of a male in his twenties, whose body was stashed away some thirty years ago. Positive identification seems unlikely. But Liz and her friend, police detective Paul Drake, go digging, and from the memories of people who lived the days of peace and love in Palo Alto they resurrect a past that someone would--and will--murder to keep buried. Meanwhile, the bones take a walk, the helter-skelter past resumes its sway, and Liz picks a bone with a killer. . . . "A refreshing and offbeat take on the female detective." --San Francisco Chronicle

DEAD NEWS DAY Two months after an unlucky snowboarder vanished on the slopes above Alpine, his disappearance is old copy. Emma Lord, publisher of the Alpine Advocate, is back to writing about graduations and the latest outbreak of chicken pox-until the town's oldest family feud flares up, leaving three people dead, their bodies stowed in a meat freezer. The startling discovery of a fourth body sharing the victims' chilly repose launches Emma on the story of a lifetime. But as she races to scoop the upstart radio station with the late-breaking news, Emma unwittingly uncovers a shocking conspiracy that will change her life forever. . . . READ ALL ABOUT IT! The Alpine Advocate Novels by Mary Daheim BONUS FEATURE: "My Alpine" by Mary Daheim

In her newest novel featuring popular Judge Deborah Knott, multiple-prize winning author Margaret Maron explores the achingly beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, where leaves are turning...and corpses are deadly still. No one is more surprised than Judge Deborah Knott by her engagement to her childhood friend Dwight Bryant. Stressed out by the impending marriage, Deborah agrees to fill in for a vacationing judge in the hills of Cedar Gap. With its fresh mountain air and gorgeous fall foliage, it's the perfect place to clear her head...until a local doctor is brutally murdered. Presiding over the probable cause case against the main suspect, Deborah decides the trial can proceed. But when a second person is killed, Deborah begins to look at this case-and her relationship with Dwight-with more critical eyes. And if she fails to notice the fast approaching darkness, she could end up as another corpse in the High Country fall...

Book three of The Three Sisters Inn: Danger awaits the Hampton sisters in quiet Amish country. Wanted: Dead or Alive Had her brand-new husband been involved in something shady? Before Caroline Hampton could confront him, he was killed in a car crash...or so it was claimed. Unsettling incidents--escalating in danger--warned her he could be very much alive. And so Caroline fled for the safety of her sisters' Amish country inn. But someone who suspected her--handsome police chief Zachary Burkhalter--was waiting for Caroline. Waiting for her to slip up. And watching her every move. Daring her to trust him with all of the truth. From Love Inspired Suspense: Courage. Danger. Faith. The Three Sisters Inn Book 1: Hide in Plain Sight Book 2: A Christmas to Die For Book 3: Buried Sins