If you have an ebook reader, you will have already noticed that a new ebook borrowing site has been added for Regina Public Library card holders:
Freading
Read the description of this collection here, including information about the app you'll need

Here are some tips for finding mysteries in Freading:
- Under Categories, chose Mysteries
and also
- Under Categories, chose Fiction, then scroll to the bottom of the page, and browse through the Subcategories (e.g. Crime, Legal, Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Thrillers)

Overdrive (library2go) is still available.

You can now have more ebooks checked out at the same time (some in Freading and some in library2go). And if you find a book you want in Freading, it is always available to be borrowed - no holds.

Questions? Have a look through the Freading FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Keeper of Lost Causes alternate title: Mercy
by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Nordic noir/police procedural

Book # 1 with Carl Mørck, an experienced homicide detective in Department Q, and his assistant Assad, in Copenhagen, Denmark

from the eurocrime review: "MERCY (also published as THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES) is an excellent debut from Denmark, containing all the elements I like best in crime novels. First, there is a fully rounded detective, Carl Mørck, not only disillusioned, traumatised and lazy but who has lived before the first page, both at work and outside it. Second, there is a believable depiction of the police force, including personal interactions between colleagues and plenty of bureaucracy and politics, infused throughout with black humour. Third, there's a good plot - Mørck is insubordinate and has constantly annoyed his superiors, but cannot be sacked as he's served for many years and has recently been seriously wounded in the course of duty. Therefore he is hived off to set up and run a cold-case department (Q), code for sticking him in the basement and forgetting about him while the mainstream force spends Q's assigned budget on its own investigations. The "cold case" theme has provided a fruitful line for other fictional detectives, and looks set to do the same for Mørck. ..." read more

Not all these books were published in 2012 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2012.
The brief reviews are mine.
Click here to download the entire list and see all 10 mysteries.

Sharon

Graham Hurley: Happy Days (2012)
British police procedural.
Book # 12 with troubled DI Joe Faraday and fellow police officer, now retired Paul Winter, set in Portsmouth, England.

Paul Winter is still working for crime boss Bazza MacKenzie, but wants to get out – he takes an undercover assignment from his friend police officer Jimmy Suttle to get Bazza into trouble. This is the last book in this series, but Hurley has started a new series, using police officer Jimmy Suttle.

First book: Turnstone

* * *

Peter James: Not Dead Yet (2012)

British police procedural.

Book # 8 with D.S. Roy Grace, Sussex, England. Roy’s wife Sandy disappeared years before and he has finally given up looking for her.

Roy is assigned to protect superstar singer Gaia, coming to Brighton to star in a movie. A stalker has not only threatened her, but has already killed her look-alike assistant.

First book: Dead Simple

* * *

Val McDermid: The Retribution (2011)
British police procedural.
Book # 7 with Tony Hill, a psychologist who does criminal profiling for the police, and his friend DI Carol Jordan.

Serial killer Jacko Vance has escaped from prison and starts killing people in revenge for his imprisonment. Carol and Tony are on the list.

First book: The Mermaids Singing

* * *

Ian Rankin: Standing in Another Man’s Grave (2012)
British police procedural.
Book # 19 with the now-retired D.S. John Rebus in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rebus is now working as a civilian in the cold case unit. The case: the mother of a teenaged girl missing several years ago convinces Rebus to look at the old case. He soon discovers a link to several other similar disappearances of teenage girls along the same stretch of highway, including a recent one. It’s good to have Rebus back.

First book: Knots and Crosses

* * *

Scott Thornley: The Ambitious City (2012)
Canadian police procedural.
Book # 2 with MacNeice, a senior police detective in the fictional Ontario city of Dundurn.
A project to raise a couple ships sunk in the War of 1812 brings several bodies to light – some are very old, but a couple appear to be within the last 10 years. There is also a serial killer attacking and killing young women of colour – we observe some of the killer’s internal conversations – interesting and creepy.

First book: Erasing Memory

## Related posts:

Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2012, part one

and from the previous year:
Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part one

Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Lewis Man
by Peter May

Investigator/British police procedural

Book # 2 with Fin Macleod, a detective inspector in Edinburgh, returns to his birthplace, the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland

from the eurocrime review: "another fantastic book and every bit as excellent as THE BLACKHOUSE, the first one. Fin McLeod is once again the central character. He has resigned from his job as a detective inspector in Edinburgh and returned to Lewis, in an attempt to rebuild his life, as well as his parents' old house.
Meanwhile, a body has been discovered in the peat. It is originally thought to be one of the prehistoric bog men but the Elvis Presley tattoo on its arm dates it as being rather more recent. ..." read more

Not all these books were published in 2012 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2012.
The brief reviews are mine.

Mark Billingham: Good as Dead (2011)
British police procedural.
Book # 10 with loner DI Tom Thorne in London.

A hostage situation depends on Thorne looking into the supposed suicide of a young man in prison at the request of the hostage-taker, a formerly mild-mannered storekeeper. Even more fast-paced than usual.

First book: Sleepyhead

* * *

Lyndsay Faye: The Gods of Gotham (2012)
Historical/police.
Book # 1 with Timothy Wilde, set in 1845 in New York City. Ex-bartender Wilde is one of the brand new police officers in the new city police force.

The crime was interesting and sad (several bodies of young children have been found buried in a field) but the characters, the city, the politics and the language raise this above the ordinary.

* * *

Charles Finch: A Death in the Small Hours (2012)
Historical/investigator.
Book # 6 with Charles Lenox, consulting detective, Victorian gentleman and new Member of Parliament.

In the countryside seeking privacy, Charles takes a break from speech writing by looking into a series of vandalisms in the village. When a young police officer is murdered, Charles is determined to get to the bottom of it all.

First book: A Beautiful Blue Death

* * *

Tana French: Broken Harbour (2012)
Irish police procedural.
This is one of her books about the Dublin murder squad. This book features murder detective Mick Kennedy.

A young family has been killed in their house in an abandoned development by the beach - the only survivor, the mother, is in intensive care. This is an excellent mix of police procedural and the personal, as Kennedy battles with memories of his childhood connection to the murder location.

* * *

Alex Grecian: The Yard (2012)
Historical/British police procedural.
Book # 1 with newly appointed Scotland Yard detective Walter Day, set in 1889 London.

On his first day on the job, Walter is assigned the case of the murder of a fellow detective, the body found stuffed in a trunk in the train station.

posted by Sharon

Watch for upcoming post: Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Bad Little Falls
by Paul Doiron

Book # 3 with Mike Bowditch, a game warden in Maine

Description: Summoned to a rustic cabin during a blizzard, Maine game warden Mike Bowdich embarks on a dangerous investigation involving a notorious drug dealer, a beautiful woman with a dark past, and her troubled young son. NoveList

The Girls he Adored
By Jonathan Nasaw

Book 1 with FBI Agent E.L Pender

This book appealed to my psychology background and was a real treat. Nasaw does a great job at creating a character who suffers from both the controversial Dissociative Identity Disorder phenomena and all of the implications that go with the disorder, and meshed it so brilliantly with Antisocial Personality Disorder in such a believable way. Max actually reminded me of a new and more twisted Hannibal Lector.

What I loved about this book is the amount of time and detail the author spends developing the antagonist. We go way back into Max’s childhood and learn of the repeated atrocities and abuse that played such a large role in shaping him into the monster he eventually became. You actually felt sorry for the little boy who lost so much at such a young age (which, albeit, doesn’t excuse him from becoming a serial killer when he grew up). So many criminal/forensic/thrillers spend so much time developing the protagonist and focusing on the mere chase of the “bad guy(s)” that they often neglect to fully divulge motives of the killer. Kudos to Nasaw for depicting such a fleshed out antagonist.

Note: Not for the faint of heart

Posted by Shiela

Here is a non-fiction book about one of my favourite fictional private investigators, California-based Kinsey Milhone and her author, Sue Grafton.

Kinsey and Me: Stories by Sue Grafton

Description: In 1982, Grafton introduced readers to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Grafton is a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Grafton delivers stories that reveal Kinsey's origins and the author's past.

Read Grafton's interview with Oprah magazine here. She talks about writing, her childhood and her new book, Kinsey and Me.

or check out Sue Grafton's website
". . . Kinsey and Me has two parts: The nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), each a gem of detection; and the And Me stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much of Kinsey is a distillation of her creator's past even as they reveal a child who, free of parental interventions, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance. . ."

## Related posts:
MBTB review of T is for Trespass # 20

MBTB review of U is for Undertow # 21

Here is the full list of titles featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private eye in fictional Santa Teresa, California at Stop, You're Killing Me!

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Eleven Pipers by C.C.Benison

Book # 2 with Father Tom Christmas, a widower with a 9-year-old daughter. He is the new vicar in Thornford Regis, a picturesque village in England

Summary: The annual Burns dinner at Thornford Regis is an occasion for bagpipes, haggis and scotch. It ends up an occasion for tragedy when Will Moir, one of the pipers, is found alone, in a tower, dead of an apparent heart attack. Father Tom Christmas, the vicar of the town, is privy to all of the secrets of its inhabitants, and is one of the first to find out that Will Moir was poisoned. NoveList

First book: Twelve Drummers Drumming

This list was published in the Globe & Mail December 7, 2012.
The mini-reviews following the book titles are Cannon's.

GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn

One of the best mystery plots I’ve ever read. Unexpected, unguessable, altogether great.
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DEFENDING JACOB, by William Landay

Brilliantly plotted, with great characters and an unforgettable ending.
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THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY, by Louise Penny
# 8 with Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec

Murder in a monastery. The book mixes music and history, and is Penny’s best to date.
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CREOLE BELLE, by James Lee Burke
# 19 with Dave Robicheaux, a deputy sheriff in New Iberia, Louisiana

A master class for all aspiring crime writers, as Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel fight personal demons and unravel a murder.
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STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE, by Ian Rankin
# 18 with John Rebus, a detective sergeant in Edinburgh, Scotland

John Rebus returns to duty to solve a very cold case.
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MISSION TO PARIS, by Alan Furst

It’s Paris in 1938, and a Hollywood star is spying on Hitler’s Germany. The best espionage novel of the year.
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UNTIL THE NIGHT, by Giles Blunt
# 6 with John Cardinal, a police detective near Algonquin Bay, Ontario, Canada

John Cardinal returns in another Algonquin Bay mystery, and Blunt remains one of Canada’s best crime authors.
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THE IMPEACHMENT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Stephen L. Carter

One of the best alternative history novels ever, period.
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THE VANISHING POINT, by Val McDermid

Riveting tale with a complex plot and unforgettable characters.
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BEASTLY THINGS, by Donna Leon
# 21 with Guido Brunetti, a police commissario in Venice, Italy

One of the best of the Guido Brunetti books. Leon never disappoints, but this one is special.

* * *
Watch for the upcoming post Sharon's Top Mystery Reads 2012
posted by Sharon

Rebus fans are rejoicing. After a stand-alone (Doors Open), and a couple of books featuring Internal Affairs officer Malcolm Fox (The Complaints, The Impossible Dead), author Ian Rankin has returned to the Edinburgh world of John Rebus, who is now retired from the police force, but working as a civilian on the Cold Case squad.
.

Standing in Another Man's Grave **** ½
by Ian Rankin

Here's what the Guardian review had to say:
Did anyone really believe Ian Rankin was going to stop writing about John Rebus, the cantankerous, alcoholic detective who was retired by his creator, to much mourning, in 2006? In retrospect, we should all have known better: Rankin was always going to find a way to keep Rebus on the page. He's just too good a character to let lie.
In Standing in Another Man's Grave – the book is dedicated to the late Scottish singer Jackie Leven; the title is Rebus's mishearing of Leven's line "another man's rain" – we find Rebus back on the case, working for the serious crime review unit, albeit in a civilian capacity. Still smoking, still drinking, he's looking into cold cases, working "with the long dead, murder victims forgotten by the world at large", when a woman arrives with a story. Her daughter vanished from Aviemore, on the A9, in 1999, and she believes the disappearance of a string of other young women from towns near the road over the next 12 years are linked. She's got nowhere with her theory but Rebus decides to listen, particularly as an ongoing missing person case also has links to the same road. more....

Read the EuroCrime review here.

* * *

See the full series in order here, starting with Knots and Crosses

Related post: MBTB review of Exit Music # 17

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Confession
by Charles Todd

Historical/British police procedural

Book # 14 with Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked World War I veteran returning to his job at Scotland Yard, in London, England

Description: Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails fromn a village east of London. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own.

Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. Searching for answers, Rutledge discovers that the dead man was not who he claimed to be. What was his real name — and who put a bullet in his head?

As January rolls around, there's nothing like curling up in front of the fireplace with a good dead body or two. This time of the year I like to reach for my favorite type of mystery...the historicals!! Here is a list of historical mysteries that is sure to warm those cold nights.

Dark Entry (2011)
By M. J. Trow

First in the thrilling new Kit Marlowe historical mystery series - Cambridge, 1583. About to graduate from Corpus Christi, the young Christopher Marlowe spends his days studying and his nights carousing with old friends. But when one of them is discovered lying dead in his King’s College room, mouth open in a silent scream, Marlowe refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide. Calling on the help of his mentor, Sir Roger Manwood, Justice of the Peace, and the queen’s magus, Dr John Dee, a poison expert, Marlowe sets out to prove that his friend was murdered.

The Illusion of Murder (2011)
By Carol McCleary
Book # 2 with Nellie Bly, an American investigative reporter, in Paris and around the world, starting in 1889

This is a Library Journal starred review:

Attempting to beat Jules Verne's round-the-world record, Victorian Age reporter Nellie Bly hides from official records the secret details about a mysterious death in the bustling harbor city of Port Said where she is targeted by a killer and embroiled in an international plot.
Book # 1 The Alchemy of Murder

A Mortal Terror (2012)
By James R. Benn
Book # 6 with Billy Boyle, World War II

This is a Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

1943: Billy Boyle is sent to Caserta, Italy, to investigate the murders of two American officers stationed there. The methods of murder are completely different, and it seems like the officers had no connection to each other, but one frightening fact links the murders: each body was discovered with a single playing card: the Lieutenant, the ten of hearts; the Captain, the jack of hearts. The message seems to be clear — if the murderer isn't apprehended, the higher ranks will be next. As the invasion at Anzio begins, Billy needs to keep a cool head amidst fear and terror as the killer calculates his next moves.
Book # 1 Billy Boyle

A Double Death on the Black Isle (2011)
By A. D. Scott
Book # 2 with journalists in the offices of the Highland Gazette, in the mid-1950s in the highlands of Scotland

Struggling over how to report a double murder in which a close friend has been implicated, Joanne Ross, a Scottish newspaper employee who is longing for her big break, helps to uncover dark secrets with origins in bitter cultural rivalries.
Book # 1 A Small Death in the Great Glen

Happy New Year!!

posted by Shiela

Here's the link to the December 22, 2012 Globe & Mail Crime Fiction review column by Margaret Cannon with the full reviews. These all have Christmas or winter themes.

The Dead of Winter
by Peter Kirby
Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa has brought crime fans a brand-new detective series set in Montreal, and it’s terrific.
Irish-Canadian lawyer Peter Kirby’s Inspector Luc Vanier is just what the readers ordered for a Christmas-themed murder mystery.....read more
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* * *

The Snow White Christmas Cookie
by David Handler
Funny, smart and the perfect antidote to the seasonal treacle, The Snow White Christmas Cookie – the ninth novel by David Handler in the excellent Mitch Berger and Desiree Mitry series – turns the Christmas cozy on its head....read more

The series with Mitch Berger, a New York film critic, and Desiree “Des” Mitry, a black police detective, in Dorset, Connecticut starts with The Cold Blue Blood

* * *

A Fatal Winter
by G.M. Malliet
Those who love updated puzzle plots and solid English mysteries need look no further than this superb series featuring Anglican priest/sleuth Max Tudor. Malliet has managed to pay homage to Agatha Christie, while at the same time taking her favoured settings into the 21st century....read more

First book: Wicked Autumn

* * *

All is Clam
by Hilary MacLeod
Mountie Jane Jamison returns in this delightful Christmas confection set in The Shores, that lovely fictional spot just off the coast of Prince Edward Island. There’s not yet snow, but there is murder...read more

Previous books in the Shores mystery series:
Revenge of the Lobster Lover
Mind Over Mussels

posted by Sharon
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A new Christmas mystery that I'm looking forward to reading:
The Twelve Clues of Christmas
by Rhys Bowen

# 6 with Lady Georgiana, minor royalty in 1930s England, in the Royal Spyness series

Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say:
Set at Christmas-time 1933, Bowen's sixth whodunit featuring the irrepressible Lady Georgiana Rannoch may be her best yet. Despite her connections (albeit attenuated) to the Crown (she's 35th in the line of succession), Georgiana finds herself at the mercy of her brother's ghastly family. Escape comes just in time for the holidays when she answers an advert and is hired to help Lady Hawse-Gorzley with a large Christmas party at Hawse-Gorzley's home in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, Devonshire. Accompanied by the anti-Jeeves, her bumbling, if endearing, maid Queenie, Georgiana arrives in Tiddleton-Under-Lovey only to find that a series of apparently accidental deaths has begun to plague the rustic community. With one villager dying each day, the amateur sleuth suspects that the accidents are anything but....

Want more Christmas mysteries?
Christmas Mystery Book Selections by MysteryNet.com

The Mystery Lover's Bookshop Christmas Mysteries selections

and the wonderful extensive lists on Mystery Fanfare website:
Christmas Mysteries Authors A-D
Christmas Mysteries Authors E-H
Christmas Mysteries I-N
Christmas Mysteries Authors O-R
Christmas Mysteries Authors S-Z

Previous MBTB posts:
Want more Christmas mysteries 2011?

Christmas Mysteries 2011

Holiday Mystery Update 2010

posted by Sharon