Introduction A captivating debut novel, Norwegian by Night is by turns a pulse-pounding thriller and a luminous meditation on fate. Grudgingly leaving New York to move in with his granddaughter and her new husband in Norway, widower Sheldon Horowitz grapples with memories of loss, from the unspeakable scenes he witnessed as a Marine sniper in [...]
Archive of posts tagged mystery
The Diviner’s Tale by Bradford Morrow
About the Book Hired by a developer to dowse a lonely forested valley in upstate New York, Cassandra Brooks happens upon a girl hanged from a tree. When she returns with the authorities, the body has vanished, leaving in question Cassandra’s sanity. The next day, a dazed, mute girl emerges from the woods, alive and [...]
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
Introduction Harrison Opuku is standing in the street watching the police block off a body, the body of one of his classmates—who seems to have been murdered for his dinner. The police have no leads, so Harri and his best friend Dean launch into action. Armed with camouflage binoculars and detective techniques absorbed from television, [...]
The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Poetzsch
Introduction Magdalena, the clever and headstrong daughter of Bavarian hangman Jakob Kuisl, lives with her father outside the village walls and is destined to be married off to another hangman’s son—except that the town physician’s son is hopelessly in love with her. And her father’s wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. [...]
The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook
Introduction George Gates was a travel writer who specialized in places where people disappeared — Judge Crater, the Lost Colony. Then his eight-year-old son was murdered, the killer never found, and Gates gave up disappearance. Now he writes for the town paper, stories of redemptive triviality about flower festivals and local celebrities, and spends his [...]
Deep Creek: A Novel by Dana Hand
Idaho Territory, June 1887. A small-town judge takes his young daughter fishing, and she catches a man. Another body surfaces, then another. The final toll: over 30 Chinese gold miners brutally murdered. Their San Francisco employer hires Idaho lawman Joe Vincent to solve the case. Soon he journeys up the wild Snake River with Lee [...]
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
Reading Group Guide Introduction Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas, Ontario, and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, [...]
London Bridges by Jane Stevenson
A Los Angeles Times Best Mystery “An exhilarating read . . . refreshingly lighthearted, urbanely witty, and evocative of place.” — Sunday Telegraph “[Stevenson's] shrewd smarts and stinging way with a phrase are in ample evidence . . . She makes palpable the layers of history waiting to be discovered in the very fabric [...]
The Obituary Writer by Porter Shreve
Downloadable Guide for Group Discussion and Classroom Use “A fine novel, whose surprises are—very pleasingly—inevitable and right.” —Charles Baxter “It’s a delightful read, the kind of book one simply wants to nestle into . . . The reader is propelled forward quite willingly through the book’s own special world.” —Elizabeth Strout “It’s a gem [...]
