Central Kansas Library System

Considered the first true detective story Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868) is a 19th-century British epistolary novel. Originally serialized in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round, it introduced many hallmarks of detective fiction, including an English country house setting, bungling local policemen, and a large number of false suspects. In it, Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday...

"In May 1940, as the German army blitzes Europe and Parisians flee their city, the chief curator of the Musée de l'Armée is ordered to get a mysterious piece of cargo out of the country. When he arrives at the port of Le Havre and learns that his intended ship has been sunk, he places the object on a decrepit steamer that sails out under German fire. In the present day, National Underwater and Marine Agency Director Dirk Pitt is on a diving expedition...

"The New York Times bestselling author of Ming Tea Murder serves up heists, homicides, and herbal blends in the latest in the Tea Shop mysteries. Catering a high-class trunk show at Heart's Desire Jewelry is a shining achievement for Theodosia and the Indigo Tea Shop. After all, a slew of jewelers, museums, and private collectors will be there to showcase their wares and sip some of Theo's best blends. But just as Theo settles in to enjoy the fruits...

Eva's teacher, Miss Featherbottom, is getting married, but when her special necklace disappears, Eva and her friends set out to track down the thief and return the necklace before the wedding.

"Vacationers love Chickadee Lake especially when people start sighting a strange creature in the water. Soon the game warden is called in to help track down the monster. Evidence suggests that the monster was built, could it be that it was built to divert attention from the crime that is about to be committed?"--Amazon.com.

"When Sarah decides to make a quilt depicting her favorite view from Mount Greylock, she hikes to the area, bringing her granddaughters, a sketchbook, and a camera. The girls videotape each other goofing off at the top of the hill, and later, Sarah notices something odd in their footage: a man, barely visible through the bushes, struggling with something on the ground. Who is he? What was he doing there?"--Cover, p. [4].

In three separate stories, boy detective Saxby Smart exposes a comic book counterfeiter, restores a slandered dead man's good name, and uncovers a massive case of identity theft. As Saxby notes, "I don't have a sidekick, so that part I'm leaving up to you.

"As the annual Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival is set to begin, Priscilla accompanies Mildred and a group of islanders to receive delivery of one of the giant sharks used as a prop in the blockbuster hit Jaws, which had been filmed on the island. But when they arrive on the beach where the shark was to be delivered, it's not there. Mildred quickly enlists Priscilla's help in finding the shark, but Priscilla doesn't even know where to...

It's Hero Day at Loch Mallaig Elementary, and Bread on Arrival bakehouse owner Carol MacCallan thinks she's really made the grade when her granddaughter, Maisie, gives her top marks for her amateur detective work. Others at the Michigan town's grade school have caught wind of Carol's skills as well, and a handful of teachers ask her to look into the disappearance of some odd supplies from their classrooms. Unfortunately, the simple theft investigation...