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Cold Cases Crime Fiction Booklist
Page Modified: June 1, 2007
Unsolved mysteries from the past are resurrected.
A list of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist (BL), Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus, and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on this list. Titles are alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
- The Burying Field:
Danny Chaisson
Author: Abel, Kenneth
Publisher: Putnam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0399147969 Date: 2002
Booklist
Abel returns to Louisiana politics with a mystery that pits the Old South against the new, as a racist crime drags up a murder that is 30-years-old, involving a few powerful men who have an interest in keeping it secret. With compelling characters and dead-on dialogue, The Burying Field is an enthralling crime novel.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
Updated 3/26/02 - Cold Case Squad
Author: Buchanan, Edna
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 22.95 ISBN: 0743250532 Date: 2004
Kirkus
Twelve years later after her husband's death in a freak explosion, a widow turns to Miami's Cold Case Squad to reopen the case and use new forensic techniques to investigate. Soon, they're faced with more questions than answers.
Updated 4.8.04 - The Ice Maiden
Author: Buchanan, Edna
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0380973324 Date: 2002
Kirkus
The unspeakable evil unleashed by an old unsolved crime continues to shadow lives and destroy reputations until it erupts into new murders more than a decade later. "The Ice Maiden, " a beautiful young artist and survivor of that cold case, is again swept into a whirlpool of terror and passion. Can she and Miami News reporter Britt Montero survive to solve the mystery?
Updated 9.9.02 - Bloodlines
Author: Burke, Jan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 074322390X Date: 2005
PW
Intrepid reporter Irene Kelly covers the groundbreaking of a shopping center--and the discovery of a buried car containing human remains. Old cases are resurrected, and new dangers arise as she pursues a story that may end her career--and her life.
Updated 12.27.04 - Lost Light
Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601 Date: 2003
Kirkus
Booklist
PW
LJ
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
Updated 3.31.03 - A Fine and Private Place
Author: Davies, Freda
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 078670909x Date: 2001
Kirkus
Back in 1940s wartime Gloucestershire, a young Gl stationed at the village of Tolland disappears. Fifty years later a skeleton is unearthed, bearing the Gl's name on the dogtag buried beside it. In the search for his killer the fresh corpse of another victim is uncovered. It transpires that this was a blackmailer--but of whom, and for what reason? Keith Tyrell, the fast-track Detective Inspector sent to Tolland, tries to get under the skin of the village and it ways. The repercussions of the Gl's untimely death are still felt by some of the inhabitants and the identity and secrets of the blackmailer are destined to shake up the quiet village life. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 9/7/01 - The Shape of Sand
Author: Eccles, Marjorie
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312352328 Date: 2006
PW
A scandal catapults a family into the headlines--and near ruin. Nearly four decades pass, and still the exact events remain a mystery. When an old diary is unearthed, it finally seems answers are within reach--until a mummified corpse is found in the ruins of the estate.
Suggested Reading: Traditional British
Updated 10.24.05 - Alone at Night
Author: Erickson, K.J.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN:031231471x Date: 2004
Kirkus Booklist
Minneapolis Special Detective Mars Bahr tackles his first "cold case" investigation, the unsolved 15-year-old disappearance of a teenage girl.
Updated 7.6.04 - Steps to the Altar
Author: Fowler, Earlene
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime $ 22.95 ISBN: 0425183491 Date: 2002
PW
Ninth in the Agatha Award-winning series that's been hailed as "engrossing" (Publishers Weekly), Steps to the Altar finds California folk art expert Benni Harper preparing for two upcoming weddings, digging up clues to a decades-old unsolved murder, and struggling with a very personal crisis of the heart.
Updated 3/21/02 - O is for Outlaw
Author: Grafton, Sue
Publisher: Henry Holt List Price: $ 26 ISBN: 0805059555 Date: 1999
Booklist
Kirkus
Library Journal
PW
Delving more deeply into P.I. Kinsey Millhone's past than any of Grafton's previous 14 novels, O is for Outlaw finds Kinsey dealing with a man who has purchased the contents of a defaulted storage unit - for 30 bucks, he'll sell her the lot. A letter she finds amid childhood memorabilia forces her to reexamine her beliefs about the breakup of her first marriage - and about an old unsolved murder.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
- S is for Silence
Author: Grafton, Sue
Publisher: Putnam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0399152970 Date: 2005
Kirkus LJ
In Kinsey Millhone's 18th excursion into the world of suspense and misadventure, a daughter wants the solace of closure in the mystery surrounding her mother's absence. Thirty-four years earlier, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again.
Suggested Reading: Private Eyes
Updated 10.24.05 - Ash & Bone
Author: Harvey, John
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151011397 Date: 2005
LJ Booklist
Detective Sergeant Maddy Birch and retired Detective Inspector Frank reconnect when a phone call persuades the unsettled, unhappy Elder out of retirement--to find that a cold case has a devastating present-day impact.
Suggested Reading: British Police
Updated 11.2.05 - Murder Book
Author: Kellerman, Jonathan
Publisher: Ballantine $ 26.95 ISBN: 0345452534 Date: 2002
PW
New York Times bestselling author Kellerman delivers another knockout novel of suspense featuring psychologist-detective Alex Delaware in a gripping story of power and influence, corruption and politics.
Updated 9.16.02 - The Moon Tunnel
Author: Kelly, Jim
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 031234922x Date: 2005
PW Booklist
Looking for buried Anglo-Saxon treasure on-site at a former POW camp, journalist Philip Dryden is on hand when excavators find the skeletal remains of a man trapped in an underground tunnel. No one can explain the bullet hole in his forehead and the direction of his body: he was crawling in, not out.
Updated 9.23.05 - Shadow Men: Max Freeman
Author: King, Jonathon
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525948074 Date: 2004
Booklist
PW
It begins with an 80-year-old mystery. Three men--a father and his two sons--vanished while working as laborers on a dangerous project to build the first road through the Florida Everglades. Now, years later, a series of letters are unexpectedly discovered by a descendant of these men.
Suggested Reading: Priviate Investigators
Updated 2.23.04 - The Last Place
Author: Lippman, Laura
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0380978199 Date: 02002
Kirkus
With each novel, Lippman enhances her reputation as one of the premier suspense writers alongside Janet Evanovich and Patricia Cornwell. In this latest installment, P.I. Tess Monaghan faces her darkest demons--and possibly a serial killer--when she's hired to research a series of unsolved homicides that might be overlooked cases of domestic violence.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 8.13.02 - Last Lessons of Summer
Author: Maron, Margaret
Publisher: Penzler $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967803 Date: 2003
Kirkus PW
In this dark and suspenseful departure from her critically acclaimed Deborah Knott series, award-winning author Maron follows a young publisher's search for answers to old murders.
Updated 7.7.03 - Distant Echo
Author: McDermid, Val
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312301995 Date: 2003
Booklist PW
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.
Updated 9.08.03 - Point Deception
Author: Muller, Marcia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892966904 Date: 2001
Booklist
Muller makes a major departure from her Sharon McCone series in this thrilling tale chronicling the investigation of murder in a cozy California town.
Updated 5/17/01 - Back Story: Spenser
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149775 Date: 2003
Booklist
Spenser tries to solve a 30-year-old murder as a favor to an old friend in this brilliant new mystery from the Grand Master. The lack of clues and a missing FBI intelligence report force Spenser to reach out in every direction, testing his resourcefulness and his courage.
Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
Updated 1.25.03 - Raveling
Author: Smith, Peter Moore
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316442178 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Library Journal
In a stunning debut novel of psychological suspense, a man must uncover the secret of his sister's disappearance 20 years earlier, or lose his mind trying.
Updated 5/1/00 - Concrete Desert
Author: Talton, Jon
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312269536 Date: 2001
Booklist
Summer in Phoenix gets a lot hotter when unemployed history professor David Mapstone returns home to discover a world of danger and corruption.
Updated 6/20/01 - Manner of Death
Author: White, Stephen
Publisher: Dutton Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525944400 Date: 1999
PW
New York Times bestselling author Stephen White delivers a tightly constructed thriller about the power of a man to delve into the past and examine the deaths of associates from his post-medical school days.
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