Mystery & Crime

... Read The Last Thing He Told Me Summary

... Read The Last to Vanish Summary

... Read The Ledge Summary

Susan Orlean, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and best-selling author of The Orchid Thief, returned to narrative nonfiction with The Library Book (2018). Through the story of the Los Angeles Central Library, Orlean provides a history of libraries, examining what we stand to lose as the world’s base of knowledge transitions into the digital realm. Orlean received a Goodreads Choice Awards nomination for Best Nonfiction and a place on Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine... Read The Library Book Summary

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The Lies of Locke Lamora, written by Scott Lynch and published in 2006, is the first entry in the Gentleman Bastards series. These novels mix caper stories and fantasy stories and include adventure, violence, dark humor, and intimate friendships. The Lies of Locke Lamora is an international best seller and was nominated for multiple awards. The other entries in the series are Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves, and The Thorn of... Read The Lies of Locke Lamora Summary

In The Life We Bury, author Allen Eskens combines literary fiction and suspense to tell the tale of the mystery surrounding a young girl’s murder. The book is set in Eskens’ native Minnesota in the year 2010. However, its events center around the 30-year-old murder of a young girl, Crystal Marie Hagan, which took place in 1980. Told from the first-person perspective of Joe Talbert, a 21-year-old college student at the University of Minnesota, the... Read The Life We Bury Summary

Michael Connelly is a prolific New York Times bestselling author. His legal thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer, won the Shamus Award and Macavity Award in 2006. The book was then successfully adapted to film. Connelly is widely regarded as one of the best American mystery writers. Other works by this author include The Black Echo, The Drop, and The Fifth Witness.This guide refers to the 2005 Hieronymus, Inc. edition.Plot SummaryMichael “Mick” Haller is a criminal defense... Read The Lincoln Lawyer Summary

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The Lock Artist, published in 2010, is a standalone, young adult crime novel by Steve Hamilton, a prolific crime author known for the Alex McKnight series. The Lock Artist won the 2011 Edgar Award for best novel.Plot SummaryThe Lock Artist is narrated in the first person by Mike (or Michael), a young man who possesses an extraordinary talent for picking locks and cracking safes. He has not spoken a word since a trauma he survived... Read The Lock Artist Summary

The Long Way Home (2014) is the 10th novel in the Inspector Gamache series written by the Canadian author Louise Penny. Like the other books in the series, the novel revolves around the village of Three Pines, Quebec, although it also encompasses events in other places. In addition to a central mystery focused on a wife’s attempt to find her estranged husband, the novel explores themes of art, creativity, ambition, and loss. This guide references... Read The Long Way Home Summary

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The Lovely Bones, written by American author Alice Sebold and published in 2002, tells the tragic story of Susie Salmon. Susie is 14-year-old girl from suburban Norristown, Pennsylvania, whom her neighbor, George Harvey, rapes and murders. After her death, Susie narrates the novel in the first person from heaven as she uses her omniscience to observe her friends and family. The novel focuses on how those who knew Susie react to her death and attempt... Read The Lovely Bones Summary

Four women become trapped in their own web of deceit in Ruth Ware’s psychological thriller, The Lying Game (2017). A text from their old school friend, Kate, sends Thea, Fatima, and Isa to the coastal village of Salten where the body of Kate’s father, Ambrose, surfaces on the beach. The problem: The four girls hid the body 17 years ago and told no one. Now, their lies are catching up to them. Ware deftly moves... Read The Lying Game Summary

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) is a detective novel that was first serialized in the magazine Black Mask. As Hammett’s third novel, The Maltese Falcon includes the introduction of Sam Spade as the protagonist, a departure from the nameless Continental Op who narrated his previous stories. Spade’s hard exterior, cool detachment, and reliance on his own moral code would become staples of the hardboiled genre, and The Maltese Falcon has since been named one... Read The Maltese Falcon Summary

The Man Who Was Thursday is a thriller novel published in 1908 by the English author G.K. Chesterton. Subtitled A Nightmare, the book weaves together elements of mystery, comedic farce, and allegory around the threat of anarchy in turn-of-the-century London. For over a century after its publication, The Man Who Was Thursday inspired numerous adaptations, including a 1938 Mercury Theatre radio-play written by Orson Welles. Other works by Chesterton include Orthodoxy, The Ball and the... Read The Man Who Was Thursday Summary

“The Masque of the Red Death,” originally published as “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy,” is a short story in the Gothic horror genre by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. The story is set in an unidentified country infested with a plague known as the “Red Death.” Amid this plague the prince of the land, Prospero, holds a masquerade ball for his courtiers in a secluded abbey. The Red... Read The Masque of the Red Death Summary

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written by Agatha Christie in 1920, is the first of her novels to feature Hercule Poirot. The small, fastidious Belgian is one of her most iconic characters and among the most famous fictional detectives in the world. The novel is exemplary of the “cozy mystery,” in which well-heeled figures work out the solutions to complex, puzzle-like murders within comfortable settings. This one takes place during the years of the Great... Read The Mysterious Affair at Styles Summary