Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

The Expectant Detectives is first in a delightful new mystery series following a group of pregnant women who meet at a prenatal class and team up to solve the murder of someone in their village. (Description from catalog)

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, must exonerate her father of murder. Armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together and examine new suspects, she begins a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. (Description from catalog)

Raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists, 20-something Clayton Summer, when the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in his life passes away, bestowing her final puzzle on him, embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, which will change him, and the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, forever.
(Description from NoveList)

While staying in post-World War II Paris with her grandfather, Tabitha Knight becomes friends with her neighbor and fellow American, Julia Child, and must clear both their names when a woman they both knew is murdered with a knife from Julia's kitchen and a note from Tabitha in her pocket.
(Description from catalog)

A witty, fast-paced mystery series following struggling suspense novelist and single mom Finlay Donovan, whose fiction treads dangerously close to the truth as she becomes tangled in real-life murder investigations.
(Description from catalog)

From New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz comes Magpie Murders, a brilliant and strikingly original reimagining of the classic whodunit (a la Agatha Christie) with a contemporary mystery wrapped around it. (Description from NoveList.)

Down a quiet Kyoto backstreet, "food detectives" Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the proprietors of the Kamogawa Diner, through ingenious investigations, recreate dishes from a person's treasured memories, which hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. (Description from NoveList)

When her former novice’s dependable letters stop, Nora Breen asks to be released from her vows. Haunted by a line in Frieda’s letter, Nora arrives at Gulls Nest, a charming hotel in Gore-on-Sea in Kent. A seaside town, a place of fresh air and relaxed constraints, is the perfect place for a new start.
(Description from NoveList)

Mary Russell's long-lost Uncle Jake reappears and is somehow connected to the infamous theft of the Irish Crown Jewels, pulling her into a mystery and pitting her against Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft and her own loyalties.
(Description from NoveList)

Former private investigator and middle-aged widow Muriel Blossom's vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery -- that only she can solve.
(Description from NoveList)

When the murder of a surprisingly hated local reporter disrupts preparations for the annual Inversgail Literature Festival in Scotland, the four owners of a new bookshop comb through the victim's hate mail for clues about the killer. (Description from NoveList)

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
(Description from catalog)

After a fortune teller in 1965 predicts her murder, Frances spends her life searching for her best friend who disappeared at a county fair until she actually is murdered 60 years later, leaving her grand-niece Annie to solve both crimes.--Description by NoveList

Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a recent widow in her seventies, is settling into retirement in Florida while dealing with her 98-year-old father and fielding requests for money from her beloved children and grandchildren. Thankfully, her new hip hasn't changed her killer tennis game one bit. One night Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson Will, who desperately needs ten thousand dollars to get out of a jam. Of course, Loretta obliges. By morning, Mrs. Plansky has lost everything.
(Description from catalog)

In David Rosenfelt's newest series - a spinoff of the much beloved Andy Carpenter mysteries - Andy's wife forms an investigative team with a former detective and his German shepherd partner. (Description from NoveList.)

In a Cornish seaside village, Nova Davies and her dysfunctional book club members become amateur sleuths after a theft threatens their community center, a murder implicates a missing member, and secrets among them complicate their quest to solve the case and restore order.
(Description from NoveList)

As a kid, Charlotte Illes' uncanny sleuthing abilities made her a minor celebrity. But in high school, she hung up her detective's hat and stashed away the signature blue landline in her "office"--aka garage--convinced that finding her adult purpose would be as easy as tracking down missing pudding cups or locating stolen diamonds. Now twenty-five, Charlotte has a nagging fear that she hit her peak in middle school. And then, her old blue phone rings... (Description from catalog)

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady-ah, lady of a certain age-who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing-a dead man in the middle of her tea shop.
(Description from catalog)

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.
(Description from NoveList)