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Booklists
Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.
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Booklists and Suggested Reading
Adult Books for Teens Booklist
Crime Fiction
Page Modified: April 5, 2008
Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers, for ages 12+
Not all books on this list are suitable for all readers, parental guidance should be used.
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
- Murder on the Leviathan: An Erast Fandorin Mystery
Author: Akunin, Boris
Publisher: Random $ 21.95 ISBN: 1400060516 Date: 2004Kirkus
Paris, March, 1878: When Lord Littleby is discovered in his rue Grenelle residence with his head bashed in, surrounded by the bodies of seven servants and two children who appear to have died from overdoses of morphine, the distinguished Paris police commissioner Gauche is determined to solve the case.
Updated 2.23.04- High Country
Author: Barr, Nevada
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151443 Date: 2004
It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is investigating the disappearance of four seasonal park employees in Yosemite National Park. She follows the scent of evil, taking a solo hike up a snowy trail to the high country, seeking answers. What waits for her is a nightmare of death and greed--and perhaps her final adventure.
Updated 11.25.03- Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
Author: Barron, Stephanie
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553802224 Date: 2003
The scintillating sleuth returns for another dazzling installment of murder-most-refined in the bestselling series hailed by Library Journal as "history mystery at its best!"
Updated 5.12.03- Pride and Prescience: Or, a Truth Universally Acknowledged; a Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery
Author: Bebris, Carrie
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 076530589 Date: 2004
Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, the joyous newlyweds from Pride and Prejudice, have not even left for their honeymoon when they find themselves embroiled in a mystery involving one of their wedding guests.
Updated 1.10.04- The Enemy: A Jack Reacher Novel
Author: Child, Lee
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336675 Date: 2004
Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier's son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army's brightest stars. But in every soldier's life, there is a turning point. One case that can shatter a career or turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case....
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Conspiracy Theory
Updated 3.22.04- Killing Raven
Author: Coel, Margaret
Publisher: Prime Crime $ 22.95 ISBN: 042519261x Date: 2003
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Dancer comes a new story of the Wind River Reservation, where Father John O'Malley and his friend, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden, enter a deadly struggle over vice, virtue, and murder.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman
Updated 8.18.03- Lost Light
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601 Date: 2003
The bestselling author of City of Bones and Chasing the Dime brings lone wolf Harry Bosch out of retirement and on a wild excursion into evil, seeking the truth about a cold case that still haunts the LAPD, movie studios--and Bosch himself.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Cold Cases
Updated 3.31.03- Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936
Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743222016 Date: 2004
Called the reigning "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People), Deaver has written a gripping international thriller--with a range of real political figures and Olympic athletes--that introduces his most psychologically complex hero to date.
Updated 5.20.04- Sensei
Author: Donohue, John
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288123 Date: 2003
When many of America's great martial artists are murdered, college professor and martial artist Connor Burke is dragged into the investigation by the NYPD. With the help of master warrior Yamashita Sensei, Burke follows a trail of clues that leads him to confront his own fear--and the ruthless killer.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 3.27.03- Metro Girl
Author: Evanovich, Janet
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060584009 Date: 2004
Evanovich's spectacular new novel about a woman in search of her missing brother comes complete with high stakes, hot nights, murder, and graft--not to mention car chases, car races, car explosions, and much more.
Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | If You Like Janet Evanovich . . .
Updated 11.2.04- The Warlord's Son
Author: Fesperman, Dan
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004
In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
Suggested Reading: Afghanistan
Updated 8.16.04- Lost in a Good Book
Author: Fforde, Jasper
Publisher: Viking Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031909 Date: 2003
Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed The Eyre Affair. To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.
Updated 3.13.03- Avenger
Author: Forsyth, Frederick
Publisher: St Martins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0312319517 Date: 2003
In this heart-stopping thriller of murder, intrigue, deception, and revenge, attorney Calvin Dexter is called upon to settle an old score. But the game is changing, and this time CIA agent Kevin McBride must find a way to stop Dexter before his quest for vengeance throws the world into chaos.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.08.03- Full Dark House
Author: Fowler, Christopher
Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 0553803875 Date: 2004
When a bomb claims the life of his partner of over 50 years, Detective Arthur Bryant must revisit their first case to uncover the killer's identity. Fowler combines dark drama and black comedy in this deliciously sinister crime novel.
Updated 3.25.04- Pattern Recognition
Author: Gibson, William
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149864 Date: 2003
Numb at the loss of her ex-security expert father at the World Trade Center, Cayce Pollard refuses to give up on a secret assignment which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia to investigate Internet videos that are attracting a cult following. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death.
Updated 1.20.03- Alms for Oblivion
Author: Gooden, Philip
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 07786711426 Date: 2003
An actor is dead, and the cast of suspects grows, but the finger of the coroner is pointing at amateur detective Nick Revill. With as many twists to its plot as a Shakespearean play and betrayals compounded as often as in Troilus and Cressida, Gooden offers, as Library Journal notes, "authentic settings and a solid and intriguing plot Ythat? result in a fine historical mystery."
Updated 5.14.03- Pompeii
Author: Harris, Robert
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679428895 Date: 2003
Ancient Rome is the setting for the superb new novel from Robert Harris, author of the number one bestsellers Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
Updated 10.23.03- Skeleton Man
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060563443 Date: 2004
"New York Times" bestselling author Tony Hillerman is back with another blockbuster novel featuring the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman . . .
Updated 10.19.04- The Sinister Pig
Author: Hillerman, Tony
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 006019443x Date: 2003
The bestselling author of The Wailing Wind brings back Chee and Leaphorn, who investigate a motiveless murder with hazy federal connections. This leads a frightened Washington power broker to fly west and initiates the hunt for a pig that is sinister indeed.
Updated 5.14.03- Exit Wounds
Author: Jance, J.A.
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0380977311 Date: 2003
The next bestseller from the author of Partner in Crime brilliantly evokes the beauty, loneliness, and brutality of the Southwest desert country. Sheriff Joanna Brady probes the macabre death of a loner and her 17 dogs and discovers that secrets of the past can run deeper and darker than she's ever imagined.
Updated 6.19.03- The Devil You Know
Author: Johnson, Wayne
Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0609609645 Date: 2004
The Devil You Know combines the breathtaking intensity of a first-rate literary thriller with the complexity and heart of a classic coming-of-age novel as a 15-year-old boy struggles to protect his family on a wilderness trip.
Updated 2.23.04- Moon Over Manhattan
Author: King, Larry & Thomas Cook
Publisher: New Millennium $ 24.95 ISBN: 1893224570 Date: 2003
From the host of CNN's "Larry King Live" and an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer comes a madcap caper about the bright lights and dimwits of Manhattan. " A delightful farce . . ."--"Publishers Weekly."
Updated 3.31.03- The Game
Author: King, Laurie R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801945 Date: 2004
From the award-winning author of Justice Hall and Folly comes a new novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars
Updated 1.26.04- Life Expectancy
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 0553804146 Date: 2004
With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Koontz returns with an emotional rollercoaster tale of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy--a story that will challenge the way readers perceive good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.
Updated 11.15.04- The Taking
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 055380250x Date: 2004
Epic in scope, searingly intimate and immediate in its perspective, The Taking delivers a novel of surpassing suspense and visceral terror, telling the story of a small town's encounter with doomsday.
Updated 5.7.04- Odd Thomas
Author: Koontz, Dean
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553802496 Date: 2003
Fate and destiny converge in this haunting tale of love and terror, suspense and self-discovery. Odd Thomas is an unassuming young hero who regularly communicates with the dead--a gallant sentinel called upon to stop a mysterious man on a day of catastrophe.
Updated 1.6.04- Every Secret Thing
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060506679 Date: 2003
The acclaimed author's first stand-alone novel is a shocking tale of lost innocence, murder, and betrayal.
Updated 7.1.03- Sleeping Beauty
Author: Margolin, Phillip
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060083263 Date: 2004
With a blend of dizzying plot twists and thrilling suspense, Margolin creates a terrifying suspense novel about a young woman on the run from her parents' killer.
Updated 2.2.04- High Country Fall
Author: Maron, Margaret
Publisher: Mysterious $ 24 ISBN: 0892968087 Date: 2004
With friends and family overreacting to her announcement that she plans to marry Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, Judge Deborah Knott gratefully seizes the opportunity to work a week on the bench at Cedar Gap. But Deborah's peaceful break is interrupted by murder.
Updated 6.21.04- The Full Cupboard of Life: More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422188 Date: 2004
Here is the fifth novel in the internationally bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency hit series. Once again we are transported to Gaborone, capital city of Botswana, and into the world of Mma Ramotswe and her friends. - Book Jacket.
Updated 3.29.04- Distant Echo
Author: McDermid, Val
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312301995 Date: 2003
Four students stumble upon the body of a young woman who has been raped and murdered. When the case is reopened 25 years later, two of the four former students die suspiciously, and Alex must find the real killer before he becomes the next victim.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
Updated 9.08.03- Cat Fear No Evil
Author: Murphy, Shirley Rousseau
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066209498 Date: 2004
Following several trails, Joe and Dulcie claw out the truth in this delightful ninth Joe Grey Mystery from an award-winning author.
Updated 2.2.04- War At Home
Author: Nelscott, Kris
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312325274 Date: 2005
Smokey Dalton confronts the anti-Vietnam war movement when a radical Yale student disappears into the activist population of New York City in the next thrilling crime novel from award-winner Kris Nelscott.
Updated 3.3.05- The Lake House
Author: Patterson, James
Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316603287 Date: 2003
The six children who escaped horrifying government experiments in James Patterson's When the Wind Blows are back at last--in a new thriller that tests the limits of the imagination. All they want is to return to the one place where they ever felt protected--the waterfront cabin known as the Lake House.
Updated 5.14.03- Balance of Power
Author: Patterson, Richard North
Publisher: Ballantine $ 27.95 ISBN: 0345450175 Date: 2003
The #1 New York Times bestselling author confronts one of America's most emotional and divisive issues--gun violence--in this novel of politics, law, and power.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars | Political Fiction
Updated 7.28.03- Shoulder the Sky
Author: Perry, Anne
Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345456548 Date: 2004
The taut, inspiring sequel to No Graves As Yet continues Perry's acclaimed World War I series, which follows the lives of the Reavley family amid the horrors of war.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 7.26.04- Brimstone
Author: Preston, Douglas & Lincoln Child
Publisher: Warner $ 25.95 ISBN: 044653143x Date: 2004
Teaming with Police Officer Vincent D'Agosta (The Relic), Agent Pendergast is determined to solve a case that appears to defy everything except supernatural logic. Has the Devil, in fact, come to collect his due?
Suggested Reading: If You Like Michael Crichton
Updated 7.6.04- Remember When
Author: Roberts, Nora & J.D. Robb
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151060 Date: 2003
A thrill-ride of a novel that blends present-day romance and futuristic suspense, Remember When is a tale of deceit and secrets, of strong women and fascinating men--a brilliant combination of the incomparable talents of the two sides of Nora Roberts.
Updated 9.08.03- Point of Honour
Author: Robins, Madeleine E.
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 031287202x Date: 2003
In the first title of a brand-new series, danger, intrigue, and romance are rampant on the mean streets of Regency London, where Sarah Tolerance, the "fallen" daughter of a noble, has invented a new role for herself: Agent of Inquiry.
Updated 5.29.03- Playing With Fire
Author: Robinson, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 006019877x Date: 2004
Multiple-prize-winning and international bestselling author Robinson returns with a new novel of burning suspense, as a deadly case of arson leads Inspector Banks into his most dangerous case yet.
Suggested Reading: On Fire
Updated 11.25.03- A Gladiator Dies Only Once: Gordianus the Finder
Author: Saylor, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312271204 Date: 2005
This is the second compilation of short pieces featuring Gordianus the Finder, filling in the gaps between the novels Roman Blood and Catilina's Riddle.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 4.7.05- Judgment of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Author: Saylor, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312271190 Date: 2004
In the late days of the Roman civil war, Gordianus the Finder is caught in Egypt in the midst of the last struggle between Pompeii and Julius Caesar, and between Ptolemy and Cleopatra while he searches for his missing wife.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Egyptian Stars
Updated 5.10.04- A Grave Denied: Kate Shugak
Author: Stabenow, Dana
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312306814 Date: 2003
Stabenow takes her Edgar Award-winning Kate Shugak series to new heights with a masterful thriller about a murdered mystery man.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 7.8.03- Nobody Runs Forever
Author: Stark, Richard
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967986 Date: 2004
Master criminal Parker is back and in deeper, darker trouble than ever before. The classic anti-hero is forced to use every trick in his dubious arsenal to avoid having to pay the ultimate price for his questionable line of work.
Updated 10.12.04- Tracking Bear
Author: Thurlo, Aimee & David
Publisher: Forge $24.95 ISBN: 0765304767 Date: 2003
A group of businessmen is working to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed--or is he?
Updated 5.14.03- Final Witness
Author: Tolkien, Simon
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508821 Date: 2003 Date: 2003
The grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien makes a thrilling debut as a novelist in this suspenseful family drama about a teenage boy who accuses his stepmother of murdering his mother, Lady Anne Robinson. Thomas's father, Sir Peter Robinson, is the British minister of defense and refuses to believe his son. Instead, he will be the trial's final witness.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Legal Stars
Updated 10.24.02- Sims
Author: Wilson, F. Paul
Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765305518 Date: 2003
A new science thriller, Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated, and manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims", genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human.
Updated 2.23.03- Maisie Dobbs
Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 1569473307 Date: 2003
"Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie--and a rare treat for mystery fans."--Charles Todd, A Fearsome Doubt.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Debuts
Updated 6.19.03Hotlists
Crime Fiction - embedded
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