Collection: Mystery, Thrillers, & Crime

Don't miss the JOE PICKETT series--now streaming on Paramount+

Joe Pickett's pursuit of a killer through the rugged mountains of Wyoming takes a horrifying turn when his beloved foster daughter is kidnapped in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

It's an hour away from darkness, a bitter winter storm is raging, and Joe Pickett is deep in the forest edging Battle Mountain, shotgun in his left hand, his truck's detached steering wheel handcuffed to his right--and Lamar Gardiner's arrow-riddled corpse splayed against the tree in front of him. Lamar's murder and the sudden onslaught of the snowstorm warn: Get off the mountain. But Joe knows this episode is far from over. And when his own daughter gets caught up in his hunt for the killer, Joe will stop at nothing to get her back...

"A female investigator every bit as brainy and battle-hardened as Lisbeth Salander."
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air, on Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie's intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.

The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found--and lost--an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.

In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

Holly and Trixie meet a strange new dog in Wagtail that leads them right into murder. . . .

Holly Miller is looking forward to finally taking a few days to relax. Enjoying an early morning on her terrace, she spots an unfamiliar reddish-gold pooch across the lake. She's intrigued, but never expects to find the very same dog smiling at her in bed when she wakes up the next morning! Trixie and Twinkletoes appear to accept this cute stranger, but Holly doesn't know to whom he belongs.

Oma thinks the dog looks familiar, and it turns out the wayward pooch belongs to Holly's cousin Josh. Holly knew her cousin well as a child, but she hasn't seen him in over a decade. He's camping with his girlfriend across the lake. Holly returns the cute dog to Josh's campsite twice, but the second time, Josh and his girlfriend are nowhere to be found. Instead, a guest of the Sugar Maple Inn is dead in their tent. Now it's up to Holly and Trixie to suss out a sneaky killer.

In this queer YA psychological thriller from the author of Some Girls Do, perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, the sole surviving counselors of a summer camp massacre search to uncover the truth of what happened that fateful night, but what they find out might just get them killed.

"Shocking, captivating, and utterly chilling. A delicious thriller that will have you tearing through pages to get to the end, where you won't be disappointed." --Jessica Goodman, bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us

Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.

But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor--she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan only becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next?

"One of my ten best reads of the year. Easy five stars." -- Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of None of This is True

A twisty and consuming thriller, Perfectly Nice Neighbors asks: When your dream home comes with nightmare neighbors, how far will you go to keep your family safe?

Salma Khatun is hopeful about Blenheim, the suburban development into which she, her husband, and their son have just moved. The Bangladeshi family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like just the place.
Soon after they move in, Salma spots her White neighbor, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in the front garden. Avoiding confrontation, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning, she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.
When she does speak to Tom, battle lines are drawn between the two families. As racial and social tensions escalate and the stakes rise, it's clear that a reckoning is coming . . .
And someone is going to get hurt.

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, and fled to outer space to avoid it...but when one of the new human arrivals on a space shuttle is murdered, she's back in the game.

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her--and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory's best friend from high school. Mallory doesn't believe in coincidences, and so she's not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It's the story of her life, after all.

Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory's deductive abilities are strained. If she can't find out what's going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur....

The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk is normally an idyllic place. Until death arrives on recently widowed bookstore owner Clark Thomas' doorstep.

When the body of a local businesswoman and environmentalist gets dumped by the back door of his shop, Clark finds himself in a unique position to investigate the crime. But should he? When it comes to murder, something else drives him he doesn't want to admit.

As he launches his own search for the killer, Clark comes across a variety of colorful Boardwalk inhabitants who might have had reason to kill an otherwise beloved person.

Can he do it and start putting his wife's death behind him in the process, or will it open up a fresh wound?

Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, Where the Body Was is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!

A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she's a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in Where the Body Was, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?

Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence.

Where the Body Was is a tour-de-force readers will be obsessed with from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips--the bestselling multiple Eisner award winning creators of Pulp, Reckless, Criminal, and the recent critical hit Night Fever.

Early praise for Where the Body Was:

"Prolific collaborators Brubaker and Phillips follow their surrealistic thriller Night Fever with this playfully experimental, though no less grittily gripping, stand-alone whodunit-style murder mystery set in a suburban neighborhood over the summer of 1984...VERDICT A fast-paced mystery, propelled by a fascinating cast of characters, that builds to a profoundly moving and deeply romantic climax. Absolutely not to be missed." --Library Journal, starred review

"A masterfully-told puzzle box mystery with a fiercely beating human heart." --Jordan Harper, Edgar Award winning author of Everybody Knows and She Rides Shotgun

"Brubaker and Phillips have done it again--a crime story that somehow, in its twists, turns, and thrills, reminds us of the poignancy of lost dreams, missed connections, and a past we'll always crave but never return to." --Sara Gran, author of Come Closer and the Claire DeWitt series

"Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker represent the gold standard for comics noir--brutal, beautiful, and best." --Ian Rankin, bestselling author of the John Rebus books

Select praise for Brubaker & Phillips:

"Brubaker and Phillips's books have always been about eight years ahead of their time." --Brian K. Vaughan, SAGA, Paper Girls

"Brubaker & Phillips continue to make sweet music together, broadcast to you in the form of the best comics around." --Robert Kirkman, Invincible, The Walking Dead

"Ed and Sean are that rare longterm collaboration that never become complacent, each project is a new revelation, the love visibly increased, the enthusiasm for the craft only growing over time. You don't have to consider the purchase, you make it on instinct at this point." --Rick Remender, Deadly Class, Black Science

"Like Scorsese and De Niro, Brubaker and Phillips are the unmatched masters of a certain kind of storytelling--those fables of doomed and deluded men who are ready to die bloody, defending the tatters of their soiled American dreams. A new title from the sharpshooters behind Criminal and Fatale is reason enough to go on living." --Joe Hill, Locke & Key, Horns, NOS4A2

"Brubaker and Phillips have achieved the sort of creative consistency that'd justify critics filing their INSTANT CLASSIC reviews before they even read whatever they put out next." --Kieron Gillen, The Wicked + The Divine, Die

"I've been reading Ed Brubaker comics since the first appearance of Ed Brubaker comics and every single time he announces a new title I mutter to myself: 'ugh! I wish I would've thought of that!'" --Brian Michael Bendis, Powers

"I'm a pretty easy mark for any Brubaker-Philips creation..." --Jonathan Hickman, East of West, House of X

"Two of the best in the business, no contest." --Kelly Sue DeConnick, Captain Marvel, B*tch Planet

Mac B. is back... and this time, a new enemy is after the Crown Jewels! Will Mac solve this locked-room mystery in time?

An instant New York Times bestseller!The Crown Jewels are in danger... again! When the jewels go missing from inside a locked room, Mac's spy skills are put to the test. How did the thief break in? Where did the jewels go? And will Mac be able to solve this locked room mystery before the thief escapes? This mystery isn't just a whodunit... it's a howdunit!The action in this adventure is nonstop, as Mac travels to an ancient Irish castle to solve the mystery. There, he encounters everything from killer king cobras to bizarre ice sculptures... and even a revenge plot dating back hundreds of years! Will you be able to solve the mystery before Mac does? Also features historical facts masterfully woven throughout the plot, and full-color illustrations on every page. Don't miss the installment of this totally smart and sidesplittingly funny New York Times bestselling series, Mac B., Kid Spy.

The brilliant and beloved gang from the New York Times bestselling series is back -- and ready to face new threats, dangerous dilemmas, and irresistible adventures.
The Mysterious Benedict Society is a modern classic, drawing comparisons to J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl, named a Time magazine "Best Young Adult Book of All Time," and selling over three million copies. Some time has passed since the inimitable quartet of Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance have had a mission together. But with the arrival of a new Society member -- and a new threat -- they must reunite to face dilemmas more dangerous than ever before, including the villainous Mr. Curtain and a telepathic enemy tracking their every move, not to mention a dramatically preteen Constance.
In its triumphant return, the Society encounters all new challenges, but the series' trademark sly humor, sweet camaraderie, hairsbreadth escapes, and mind-bending puzzles are all as engaging as ever. Fans of the series will be thrilled to see the Society has grown up a little with them, while a new generation of readers will fall in love with this irresistible series.

New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix takes readers on a thrilling adventure filled with mysteries and plot twists aplenty in this absorbing series about family and friendships. Perfect for fans of A Wrinkle in Time and The City of Ember!

What makes you you?

The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best--acting silly and being adored. They've been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom.

But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children reach the Greystone kids, and they're shocked by the startling similarities between themselves and these complete strangers. The other kids share their same first and middle names. They're the same ages. They even have identical birthdays. Who, exactly, are these strangers?

Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a sudden work trip and leaves them in the care of Ms. Morales and her daughter, Natalie. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down.

Praise for The Strangers:

"A secret-stacked, thrilling series opener about perception, personal memories, and the idiosyncrasies that form individual identities." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

* Winter 2018-2019 Kids' Indie Next List Pick * Indie Bestseller * Time for Kids Book Club: Top 10 Summer Reads *

Set in the fan-favorite Amish village of Harvest, Ohio, the latest novel in USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower's Amish Matchmaker Mysteries brings back the unlikely sleuthing duo of a widowed Amish matchmaker and her zany, four-times-divorced Englisch best friend as they must solve the murder of a quilting competition judge. Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries, small-town mysteries, wholesome romance, inspirational fiction, and readers of Jennifer Beckstrand, Charlotte Hubbard, Rachel J. Good, and other authors of Amish fiction. It's August in Holmes County, and that means it's time for the Holmes County Fair. It's the county's biggest annual event, drawing tourists and locals alike to see livestock, eat too much fried food, and watch the rodeo and speed racing contests. This year, Millie has entered the quilting competition-while her very not Amish best friend, Lois Henry, is distracted by her new dating app and her search for husband number five. In a place where quilting is a way of life, the competition is fierce-especially this year, when an anonymous donor doubles the winning cash prize. Amish and English women are up against each other, and some will do anything to win-even murder . . . When someone attacks the quilt barn by slashing the quilt display, it's unsettling enough. But when a quilting judge is found murdered, Millie knows it's time to for Lois to get off her app and help her hunt for a killer instead-before the competition is wiped out for good . . .

Former small-town sheriff Cork O'Connor leads a desperate search-and-rescue mission into the unforgiving Minnesota wilderness in this "gritty, bloody adventure" (Publishers Weekly) from critically acclaimed author William Kent Krueger's award-winning mystery series.

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh--a country-western singer at the height of her fame--has disappeared.

Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O'Connor to find his daughter. Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on Shiloh's trail as well--men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.

As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death--violent and sudden--stalks them.

The 2022 Edgar Award Winner for Best Juvenile Mystery!

What if you had no name, no past, and no home?

Ivette. Joanna. And now: Katrina

Whatever her name is, it won't last long. Katrina doesn't know any of the details about her past, but she does know that she and her parents are part of the Witness Protection Program. Whenever her parents say they have to move on and start over, she takes on a new identity. A new name, a new hair color, a new story.

Until their location leaks and her parents disappear. Forced to embark on a dangerous rescue mission, Katrina and her new friend Parker set out to save her parents--and find out the truth about her secret past and the people that want her family dead.

But every new discovery reveals that Katrina's entire life has been built around secrets covered up with lies and that her parents were actually the ones keeping the biggest secret of all. Katrina must now decide if learning the whole truth is worth the price of losing everything she has ever believed about herself and her family.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the critically acclaimed author of One of Us Is Lying comes a new page-turning mystery. Be sure to keep your friends close . . . and your secrets closer.

Four years ago, Brynn left Saint Ambrose School following the shocking murder of her favorite teacher--a story that made headlines after the teacher's body was found by three Saint Ambrose students in the woods behind their school. The case was never solved. Now that Brynn is moving home and starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, she's determined to find out what really happened.

The kids who found Mr. Larkin are her way in, and her ex-best friend, Tripp Talbot, was one of them. Without his account of events, the other two kids might have gone down for Mr. Larkin's murder--but instead, thanks to Tripp, they're now at the top of the Saint Ambrose social pyramid. Tripp's friends have never forgotten what Tripp did for them that day, and neither has he. Just like he hasn't forgotten that everything he told the police was a lie.

Digging into the past is bound to shake up the present, and when Brynn begins to investigate what happened in the woods that day, she uncovers secrets that might change everything--about Saint Ambrose, about Mr. Larkin, and about her ex-best friend, Tripp Talbot.

Four years ago someone got away with murder. More terrifying is that they might be closer than anyone thinks.

Beloved heroes Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are up against a powerful vigilante group with an eye on vengeance in the latest in the beloved series by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

"We're going to murder people who need to be murdered." So begins a press release from a mysterious group known only as "The Five," shortly after a vicious predator is murdered in San Francisco. The Five is believed to be made up of vigilante killers who are very bored...and very rich. They target the worst of society--rapists, murderers, and thieves--and then use their unlimited resources to offset the damage done by those who they've killed, donating untraceable Bitcoin to charities and victims via the dark net. The Five soon become the most popular figures on social media, a modern-day Batman...though their motives may not be entirely pure.

After a woman is murdered in the Twin Cities, Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport are sent in to investigate. And they soon have their hands full--the killings are smart and carefully choreographed, and with no apparent direct connection to the victims, The Five are virtually untraceable. But if anyone can destroy this group, it will be the dynamic team of Davenport and Flowers.