Recommendations based on "Murder of a Royal Pain A Scumble River Mystery"

A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of the hardboiled classics, Fortune Favors the Dead introduces Pentecost and Parker, an audacious new detective duo for the ages.“Razor-sharp style, tons of flair, a snappy sense of humor, and all the most satisfying elements of a really good noir novel, plus plenty of original twists of its own.”—Tana French, bestselling author of The SearcherIt's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.Three years later, Will and Lillian are on the Collins case: Abigail Collins was found bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball following a big, boozy Halloween party at her home—her body slumped in the same chair where her steel magnate husband shot himself the year before. With rumors flying that Abigail was bumped off by the vengeful spirit of her husband (who else could have gotten inside the locked room?), the family has tasked the detectives with finding answers where the police have failed.But that's easier said than done in a case that involves messages from the dead, a seductive spiritualist, and Becca Collins—the beautiful daughter of the deceased, who Will quickly starts falling for. When Will and Becca's relationship dances beyond the professional, Will finds herself in dangerous territory, and discovers she may have become the murderer's next target.

A gripping mini-mystery from the bestselling author of Murder Most Unladylike.'I, the Honourable Daisy Wells, have decided to give an account of another mystery the Detective Society has faced in recent weeks. It was very exciting, and very heroic, and I was very brilliant and brave...'A daring thief has been robbing London's most famous museums. . .When Daisy's birthday treasure hunt leads them into the path of the culprit, Daisy and Hazel realise where they'll strike next - the British Museum!With help from their friends (and rivals) the Junior Pinkertons, the girls must crack codes, unravel clues and race against time to solve the mystery.

A bone-shaking new trilogy begins – the latest adventure in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series

Your favourite anti-heroine, Kitty Collins, is back! Expect more wit, sass, and, of course, murder…My name is Kitty Collins and I’m a serial killer.I don’t want to kill. It’s just so hard to resist. Some men really, really deserve it.Men like Blaze Bundy, an anonymous influencer spreading misogyny online. He’s making it very hard for me to control my murderous urges.Meanwhile I’m in the South of France to watch my mother marry a man I’ve never met. I should be drinking cocktails and focusing on my tan, not plotting a murder.But a woman’s work is never done. Surely one more teensy little kill wouldn’t hurt, would it?Fans of How to Kill Your Family and Bad Sisters will love this deliciously dark, hilariously twisted new novel from the author of How to Kill Men and Get Away With It and The Murder After the Night Before.Readers are obsessed with Kitty Collins:'Darkly witty' Red'Made in Chelsea if it got seriously dark' Heat‘I literally couldn’t put this book down, I was just so engrossed in Kitty and what the heck she was going to do next!!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘This book has got to be my favourite so far this year.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘There are just so many good things I could say about this book. I absolutely tore (pun intended) through this read. Everyone needs to go read it.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Being a man I really shouldn't like this book. Well I didn't like it. I loved it! Oh I just couldn't stop reading this.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘How to Kill Men was an absolute treat to read, sending out American Psycho and Promising Young Women vibes.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘AMAZING!!! Where has Kitty been all my life?’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘This is one of the most clever books I have read in quite a while.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘A well-rounded cast of characters, quick pace, and thrilling twists make this one of my favourites of the year!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Detectives Byrne and Balzano return to the streets of Philadelphia to put an end to a macabre succession of murdered children.A quiet Philadelphia suburb. A woman cycles past a train depot with her young daughter. There she finds a murdered girl posed on a newly painted bench. Beside her is a formal invitation to a tea dance in a week's time.Seven days later, two more young victims are discovered in an abandoned house, posed on painted swings. At the scene is an identical invitation. This time, though, there is something extra waiting for Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano: a delicate porcelain doll.It's a message. And a threat. With the killers at large, Detectives Byrne and Balzano have just seven more days to find the link between the murders before another innocent child is snatched from the streets.

A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice • Rex Stout meets Agatha Christie with a fresh twist in the new Pentecost and Parker Mystery, a delightfully hardboiled high-wire act starring two daring women sleuths dead set on justice as they set out to solve a murder at a traveling circus“A delight.... It’s a pleasure to watch [Pentecost and Parker] sifting through red herrings and peeling secrets back like layers of an onion.” The New York Times Book ReviewSomeone’s put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and Willowjean “Will” Parker’s former knife-throwing mentor has been stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss, world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel to the circus, where they find a snake pit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets worth killing for.Will called Hart & Halloway’s Traveling Circus and Sideshow home for five years, and Ruby Donner, the circus’s tattooed ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about putting a knife where it needs to go.To uncover the real killer and keep Kalishenko from a date with the electric chair, Will and Ms. Pentecost join the circus in sleepy Stoppard, Virginia, where the locals like their cocktails mild, the past buried, and big-city detectives not at all. The two swiftly find themselves lost in a funhouse of lies as Will begins to realize that her former circus compatriots aren’t playing it straight, and that her murdered friend might have been hiding a lot of secrets beneath all that ink.

The “wickedly clever and devilishly amusing”* Veronica Speedwell returns for a rousing adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey Mysteries.London, 1887. At the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task—saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Ramsforth, accused of the brutal murder of his mistress, Artemisia, will face the hangman’s noose in a week’s time if the real killer is not found.But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of many secrets Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural-historian colleague, Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer. From a Bohemian artists’ colony to a royal palace to a subterranean grotto with a decadent history, the investigation proves to be a very perilous undertaking indeed...*SusanElia MacNeal

It's no-holds-barred murder, in the latest page-turning Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Hitting the Books. Lindsey Norris is finally getting married to the man of her dreams--but it's not all roses for Briar Creek's beloved library director, as gardening enthusiast and town newcomer Aaron Grady gives the term "book lover" a whole new meaning. Inappropriate looks and unwelcome late-night visits to Lindsey's house have everyone from the crafternooners to Lindsey's fianc , Sully, on edge. When Grady's dead body is found staged outside the library and all the clues point to Sully, Lindsey knows it's up to her to dig through the hidden chapters of Grady's previous life to find the real culprit and clear Sully's name. But becoming a thorn in the killer's side is not without its consequences, and the closer Lindsey gets to the truth, the more determined the murderer is to make her just a footnote.

A sunny evening, a tranquil garden—and an old man brutally gunned down on his doorstep. In a pretty and tranquil town, a proposed superstore development has divided the population in an increasingly bitter war. The low-level aggression of bored youth that is generally tolerated has become sinister. The bloodied carcass of a sheep abandoned in the streets is more than just unpleasant vandalism, and teenage bikers, terrorizing a woman to the breaking point, are impossible to control. When a second victim is killed in what seems like a random shooting, the fear in the town becomes palpable. Detective Fleming will not accept that the crimes are motiveless, but she struggles to make sense of the two murders when nothing makes sense anymore and no one will believe anything. Not even the truth.

'Deftly entertaining ... satisfyingly pushes all the requisite Agatha Christie-style buttons' Barry Forshaw, The Independent DEATH IN PARADISE is one of BBC One's most popular series which averages 9 million viewers. DI Richard Poole is hot, bothered and fed up. He's stuck on the tropical island of Saint-Marie, forced to live in a rickety old shack on a beach, and there isn't a decent cup of tea to be found anywhere. When a boat explodes in the harbour, Richard and his team soon realise there's a new murderer on the loose. But who is it? And why did the killer leave behind a ruby at the scene of the crime? As the police dig deeper, they uncover secrets that go back decades, and a crime from the past that can never be forgiven. Worse still, they soon realise this is only the beginning. They've got to catch the killer before there's another death in paradise... An original story from the creator and writer of the hit BBC One TV series, Death in Paradise, featuring on-screen favourite detective, DI Richard Poole. READERS LOVE ROBERT THOROGOOD 'Fabulous, compulsive reading' 5* Amazon Review 'Another wonderful read' 5* Amazon Review 'Another excellent Death in Paradise novel' 5* Amazon Review 'Highly recommended' 5* Amazon Review 'Good fun' 5* Amazon Review