Book picks similar to
House of Darkness by Ellery Queen


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Murder on the SS Rosa


Lee Strauss - 2017
    When the ship’s captain is found dead, Ginger is only too happy to lend her assistance to the handsome Chief Inspector Basil Reed.The SS Rosa delivers a convincing array of suspects - the wife, the mistress, a jealous crew mate. To Ginger’s dismay, her name has been added to the list! With a little help from Ginger’s dog Boss, Ginger and Haley navigate the clues (those wartime operative skills come in handy.) They must solve the case and clear Ginger’s name before they dock–and oh, whatever shall she wear!

Diagnosis Dead


Jonathan KellermanDoug Allyn - 1999
    With an introduction by editor Jonathan Kellerman and biographical headnotes for each author.Contents:Dream lawyer by Lia MateraBroken doors by Brendan DuBoisFour views of justice by Jon L. BreenThe bad boyz club by Doug AllynImage by John LutzVerdict by Nancy PickardThe back page by Faye KellermanHero by Jeremiah HealyTherapy by Jonathan KellermanNatural Deathby Inc. by Max Allan CollinsThe oath by Marilyn WallaceBackwater by Michael Z. LewinExpert opinion by Benjamin M. SchutzShow me the bones by Carolyn Wheat

Hand Me a Fig Leaf


James Hadley Chase - 1981
    As they prove to be uninterested, he turns instead to Colonel Parnell of the Parnell Detective Agency. It seems at first to be a simple case of a missing person but they soon find themselves in the middle of a complicated web of deceit, intrigue and murder.

Still Life with Murder


P.B. Ryan - 2003
    Born into dismal poverty, young Nell Sweeney scratches by on her wits and little else until fortune blesses her with a position as nursery governess to the fabulously wealthy Hewitts. But she soon learns that ugly secrets lurk beneath the surface of their gold-plated world.The Hewitts’ eldest son, William, a former Union Army battle surgeon and the black sheep of the family, was reported to have died three years before in a notorious Confederate prison camp. But one snowy February afternoon, his parents learn that he is, in fact, still alive—and in jail for having murdered a man while intoxicated on opium. Infuriated by his son’s deception and convinced of his guilt, August Hewitt forbids his wife from coming to Will’s aid, so she begs Nell to help exonerate him. Nell finds that she must delve into the kind of dark and treacherous underworld she thought she’d left far behind if she is to unearth the truth before the hangman’s noose tightens around William Hewitt’s throat.

Conspiracy


Dana Stabenow - 2011
    Living together in the state of chaotic disarray that is the bachelor's birthright, they little suspect the fate that others are preparing for them.

Die Buying


Laura DiSilverio - 2011
    But there's no time to be bored when someone 'liberates' a 15-foot python from the Herpetology Hut, and a mannequin turns out to be a very real corpse.

Absinthe of Malice


Pat Browning - 2001
    When Krill Press bought the rights in 2008 they repackaged the story with a new cover and marketed it as "Absinthe of Malice".Old crimes come back to haunt a small California town in this intriguing urban cozy. ABSINTHE OF MALICE introduces Penny Mackenzie, Lifestyle reporter for The Pearl Outrider, and a cast of unforgettable characters who find their lives turned upside down when old secrets and new secrets all come to light after chance discovery of a skeleton in a cotton field leads to murder...and romance.

Outrageous Fortune


Patricia Wentworth - 1933
    He was shipwrecked when the Alice Aiden, the coastal boat heading to Glasgow encountered a thick fog. This man lost his memory, he can’t say who he is but keeps talking in his sleep about a Jim Randall or Jim Riddel. The nurses advertise on the radio that a man named Jim Randall or Jim Riddel has been found; if anyone knows him, they can pick him up. Nesta Riddel hears the message and decides to go and fetch him, especially when she realizes that he relentlessly mentions the eight emeralds that she and her accomplice Jim Riddel have stolen from the rich New-Yorker Elmer van Berg. The robbery has been making the headlines for a few weeks as Elmer was shot by the thief and is in a coma. A few days after the injured man has left the hospital with Nesta, Caroline shows up there, explaining she thinks the man could be her cousin Jim Randal.Who is that man? Where are the stolen emeralds? Will Elmer van Berg wake up?

The Silver Gun


L.A. Chandlar - 2017
    In the midst of the Great Depression, the Big Apple is defiantly striving toward an era infused with art, architecture, and economic progress under the dynamic Mayor La Guardia. But those in City Hall know that tumultuous times can inspire both optimism and deadly danger . . . It s been six months since Lane Sanders was appointed Mayor Fiorella Fio La Guardia's new personal aide, and the twenty-three-year-old is sprinting in her Mary Janes to match her boss' pace. Despite dealing with vitriol from the Tammany Hall political machine and managing endless revitalization efforts, Fio hasn't slowed down a bit during his years in office. And luckily for Lane, his unpredictable antics are a welcome distraction from the childhood memories that haunt her dreams and the silver gun she'll never forget. When Lane gets attacked and threatened by an assailant tied to one of most notorious gangsters in the city, even the mayor can't promise her safety. The corrupt city officials seem to be using Lane as a pawn against Fio for disgracing their party in the prior election. But why was the assailant wielding the exact same gun from her nightmares? Balancing a clandestine love affair and a mounting list of suspects, Lane must figure out how the secrets of her past are connected to the city s underground crime network before someone pulls the trigger on the most explosive revenge plot in New York history . . ."

Hit Man


Lawrence Block - 1998
    Keller goes in, does the job, gets out: usually at a few hours’ notice . . . Often Keller’s work takes him out of New York to other cities, to pretty provincial towns that almost tempt him into moving to the woods and the lakeshores. Almost but not quite. But then one job goes wrong in a way Keller has never imagined and it leaves him with a big problem. Finding himself with an orphan on his hands, Keller's job begins to interfere with his carefully guarded life. And once you let someone in to your life, they tend to want to know what you do when you're away. And killing for a living, lucrative though it is, just doesn't find favour with some folks.

The Last of the Belles


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1929
    

The Collected Stories of Amanda Cross


Amanda Cross - 1997
    In her delicately menacing short fiction, assembled here in one volume, dangerous impulses seize the most unlikely individuals, and everyday existence is fast eclipsed by the bizarre. Among the compelling intrigues: The cold-blooded murder of Mrs. Byron Lloyd, shot dead during a writers' panel discussion . . . the enigma of the nameless toddler who walks out of the bushes one New England summer afternoon . . . the reappearance of a missing Constable drawing just where it can cause the most trouble . . . and other wonderful mysteries, many of which star the incomparable amateur sleuth Kate Fansler.

The Amersham Rubies


Rhys Bowen - 2011
    When heirloom rubies vanish from Lady Amersham’s neck, Molly relies on her wits to solve her first case. A short story prequel to mystery series.

Death of a Nurse


Richard Marsten - 1955
    Reissue.

Lupine Lies


Karen MacInerney - 2020
    You won't be able to put this seaside cozy mystery story down!