Mysteries for Adults

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books for adults
• A variety of mysteries

Sweetness at the Bottom of thePie

C. Alan Bradley

MYSTERY BRADLEY Flavia #1

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is found murdered on the grounds of her family's decaying English mansion and Flavia's father becomes the main suspect.

Old City Hall

By Robert Rotenberg

F ROTENBER

It should have been an open and shut case. Canada's leading radio talk show host came to the door of his luxury condominium, his hands bloody, and said to the newspaper deliveryman, "I killed her." Yet, the discovery that the victim was a self-destructive alcoholic, the presence of strange fingerprints at the crime scene, and the refusal of the accused to say anything--even to his attorney--lead to a hotly contested murder trial.

The War against Miss Winter

By Kathryn Miller Haines

MYSTERY HAINES Rose Wi #1

Struggling with missing her enlisted boyfriend, a lack of employment, and the growing impact of World War II on her New York City home, aspiring actress Rosie Winter reluctantly accepts work with a lowbrow detective agency and is caught up in a high-society mystery when her new boss is murdered.

The Curious Incident of the Dogin the Night-time

By Mark Haddon

F HADDON

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Size 12 Is Not Fat

By Meg Cabot

MYSTERY CABOT Heather #1

Former pop star Heather Wells has left behind hordes of screaming fans to settle into a new life, but when strange things start happening at her college, she finds herself once again in the spotlight, this time as a detective.

Teen Adventure Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen fiction
• Adventure 
• Books available as either ebooks or downloadable audiobooks (via Overdrive)

Shelter

By Harlan Coben

YA F COBEN

eBook

After tragic events tear Mickey Bolitar away from his parents, he is forced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron and switch high schools, where he finds both friends and enemies, but when his new girlfriend, Ashley, vanishes, he follows her trail into a seedy underworld that reveals she is not what she seems to be.

Unwind

By Neal Shusterman

YA F SHUSTERM

Downloadable Audiobook

In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.

The Warrior Heir

By Cinda Williams Chima

YA F CHIMA Heir #1

eBook

After learning about his magical ancestry and his own warrior powers, sixteen-year-old Jack embarks on a training program to fight enemy wizards.

Stoneheart

By Chris Fletcher

J F FLETCHER Stonehea #1

eBook, Downloadable Audiobook

When twelve-year-old George accidentally decapitates a stone statue in London, England, he falls into a parallel dimension where he must battle ancient "live" statues and solve a dangerous riddle. 

Airborn
By Kenneth Oppel
YA F OPPEL Airborn #1
Downloadable Audiobook
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone,
team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

Fiction That Transports You to Another World

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• Fiction

The Flight of Gemma Hardy

By Margot Livesey

F LIVESEY

After her widowed father drowns, Gemma Hardy leaves Iceland to live with family in Scotland where she encounters many difficulties as she grows up. Eventually she accepts a post as an au pair on the Orkney Islands where she finds herself attracted to her employer, Mr. Sinclair. When Gemma returns briefly to Iceland to search for her family she understands more about herself. 

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

F MORTON

Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern

F MORGENST

A fierce competition is underway, a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

The Rose of Sebastopol

By Katherine McMahon

F MCMAHON

When her fiancé falls ill while serving in the Crimean War, Mariella Lingwood travels to Italy to care for him only to discover that her cousin, a volunteer in Florence Nightingale's nursing corps, has gone missing.

The Rules of Civility

By Amor Towles

F TOWLES

A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

Entertaining Stories with Witty Dialogue

Try these books if you're looking for:

•  Fiction
• Witty dialogue 

The Peach Keeper

By Sarah Addison Allen

F ALLEN

Returning to the hometown of her youth after a failed marriage, Willa struggles to find her place in a community where she no longer feels like she belongs, uncovers a 60-year family feud and falls for a strangely secretive man.

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

F MORTON

Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

Peace Like a River

By Leif Enger

F ENGER

The quiet 1960s Midwestern life of the Land family--father Jeremiah, and children, Reuben, Davy and Swede--is upended when Davy kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family. On the morning of his sentencing, Davy escapes from his cell and the Lands set out in search of him. Their search is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world.

Stardust

By Neil Gaiman

SCI-FI GAIMAN

Living in a Victorian countryside town overshadowed by an imposing stone barrier, Tristran is compelled to retrieve a fallen star for the woman he loves and crosses to the wondrous other side of the barrier, where he encounters dangerous rivals for the star.

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty

By Joshilyn Jackson

F JACKSON

Three generations of women live under one roof. The first two were unwed mothers while still in their teens and the third is desperate to create a different kind of future for herself. But she will her family’s past is hard to escape and the installation of a pool in the back yard of their home uncovers a mystery that will unsettle them all.

Clean Historical Fiction

 Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction
• Clean reads

The Dressmaker

By Kate Alcott

F ALCOTT

Tess meets world-renowned fashion designer Lucile Duff Gordon just moments before boarding the Titanic. Lucile’s agreement to hire Tess as her maid sends the women on a trajectory of volatile friendship, loyalty, and conflict, all of which comes to a head in the wake of their survival.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy

By Margot Livesey

F LIVESEY

This is a more contemporary retelling of the Jane Eyre story. Gemma leaves Iceland to live with family in Scotland where she encounters many difficulties as she grows up. Eventually she accepts a post as an au pair on the Orkney Islands where she finds herself attracted to her employer, Mr. Sinclair.

Miss Peregrine's Home forPeculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

YA F RIGGS

After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there. This book starts in the present day, and bounces back and forth between the present and World War II.

The American Heiress

By Daisy Goodwin

F GOODWIN

Cora Cash suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Unfortunately, she finds that life is not quite as ideal as she expected.

The Twentieth Wife

By Indu Sundaresan

F SUNDARES

A novel set against the exotic backdrop of the Mughal dynasty of sixteenth-century India chronicles the life and times of Mehrunnisa, an intelligent, ambitious, and beautiful young woman who became one of India's legendary heroines.