Book picks similar to
Mister Mottley Gets His Man by Ellen Seltz


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Come Hell or Highball


Maia Chance - 2015
    As it turns out, all she inherits from Alfie is a big pile of debt. Pretty soon, Lola and her stalwart Swedish cook, Berta, are reduced to hiding out in the secret love nest Alfie kept in New York City. But when rent comes due, Lola and Berta have no choice but to accept an offer made by one of Alfie’s girls-on-the-side at his funeral: in exchange for a handsome sum of money, the girl wants Lola to retrieve a mysterious reel of film for her. It sounds like an easy enough way to earn the rent money. But Lola and Berta realize they’re in way over their heads when, before they can retrieve it, the man currently in possession of the film reel is murdered, and the reel disappears. On a quest to retrieve the reel and solve the murder before the killer comes after them next, Lola and Berta find themselves navigating one wacky situation after another in high style and low company.Charming, witty, often laugh-out-loud funny, Maia Chance's Come Hell or Highball introduces a sparkling new voice in crime fiction.

Alice and the Assassin


R.J. Koreto - 2017
    Clair, ex-cowboy and veteran of the Rough Riders. St. Clair quickly learns that half his job is helping Alice roll cigarettes and escorting her to bookies, but matters grow even more difficult when Alice takes it upon herself to investigate a recent political killing--the assassination of former president William McKinley.Concerned for her father's safety, Alice seeks explanations for the many unanswered questions about the avowed anarchist responsible for McKinley's death. In her quest, Alice drags St. Clair from grim Bowery bars to the elegant parlors of New York's ruling class, from the haunts of the Chinese secret societies to the magnificent new University Club, all while embarking on a tentative romance with a family friend, the son of a prominent local household.And while Alice, forced to challenge those who would stop at nothing in their greed for money and power, considers her uncertain future, St. Clair must come to terms with his own past in Alice and the Assassin, the first in R. J. Koreto's riveting new historical mystery series.

Bone Set


Bette Golden Lamb - 2016
    Compassionate to most, downright lethal to those who would harm her patients. This is an action-packed, shocking, take-no-prisoners series about the dark rough and tumble side of the medical profession and its adjuncts. Fans of hard-boiled medical thrillers will eat it up ... as will lovers of strong women sleuths, hospital mysteries, and all medical fiction, especially fans of Tess Gerritsen, Carolyn McCray, Eileen Dreyer, Lisa Genova, and Robin Cook. BONE DRY (#1) Carl Chapman, a young man with an excellent prognosis, dies--and Gina knows he shouldn't have. Another patient’s acting weird and desperate; a third, a teen-ager, has actually run away. Gina soon learns Carl’s cancer treatment had gone missing, in fact finds out her patients are being subjected to a form of blackmail so diabolical Hanibal Lecter could have dreamed it up. … a medical thriller "not for the squeamish."-Publishers Weekly, SIN AND BONE (#2) "Help me quit killing redheads." That’s the plea RN Gina Mazzio hears when she gets an anonymous call the night before her wedding. The cops say it’s a crank call. Her fiancé says she’s altar-shy. Her fellow workers call her “silly”. But Gina’s got a bad feeling… And then it turns out two of her fellow nurses at San Francisco’s Ridgewood Hospital are missing. Instead of a honeymoon, she’s plunged into the dark world of the black market trade in human body parts. Need we mention this is not medical suspense for the faint-hearted? BONE PIT (#3) Why does a hospital need bars on the windows? And why is the parking lot empty? As RNs Gina Mazzio and her fiancé Harry Lucke arrive for their new assignment as travel nurses, they suddenly have the chilling feeling of being about to enter a Stephen King novel—only in rural Nevada instead of Maine. This adventure’s supposed to be a respite from San Francisco, with its numbing memories of murder and kidnapping, but they seem to have signed up to work at a hospital with no windows on the first floor and barred windows on the second.

India Black and the Rajah's Ruby


Carol K. Carr - 2012
    Turning the tables, she proves that India Black answers to no man, no matter how attractive he may be…

Hubris


P.A. Wilson - 2011
    A suspicious car accident, a mouthy client. Will Charity survive her first case? When Charity Deacon witnesses a car crash, the police push her aside. But she can’t ignore what she saw; a bullet hole in the driver’s temple. In a new PI agency, clients are hard to find. So, when a teenager with an attitude bangs on her front door, Charity reluctantly agrees to search for a missing sister. Her first two cases lead her into the dark and violent world of gangs, drugs, prostitution, and people trafficking. Can she solve the cases before her life is ripped apart in retribution? Grab a copy of this mystery thriller today and join the fight for justice.

Mystery at the Regal Rose Hotel: A 1920s Historical Murder Mystery


C. Jane Reid - 2019
     When a new acquaintance is charged with murder, Lola calls upon her trio of friends to clear his name. It will mean setting aside cocktail parties, night clubs, and late lie-ins, but Lola is willing to sacrifice much more to save an innocent man. Calling on her sophisticated upbringing as an Englishwoman's daughter and the Get It Done attitude taught by her Texan father, Lola will charm self-righteous hotel clerks, square off with cranky detective inspectors, and even tolerate a pompous German ex-officer to do what she knows is right. Welcome to the Regal Rose Hotel, the new posh and elegant hotel catering to the rich, famous, and eccentric in Jazz Age London. Try the hotel's signature drink, The Rose, at the Portage Club nightclub, dance the night away to the music of Dot and the Four Grooves, and sit with Lola Rose and her companions as they indulge in jazz, cocktails, rumors, and mysteries.

Secrets at Wallisford Hall


C.G. Oster - 2017
    Domestic service had never been an intended career for Dory, but a plea from family could never be ignored, even, as it turns out, when her predecessor had been murdered in the very house Dory now worked. A stranger was blamed for the death, and Lord and Lady Wallisford and their grown children were not giving Detective Inspector Ridley from the Met an easy time to investigate alternative theories. No strangers had been seen in the district and Dory, with her position in the house, is increasingly drawn in the help.

Slow Bleed


Tim Adler - 2014
     How do you convince police to search for a dead woman? As her world falls apart, Jemma realises she is the only one who can save her son. If somebody took your only child, how far would you go to get him back?

Relative Fortunes


Marlowe Benn - 2019
    For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to launch her own new private press. But as a woman, Julia must fight for what’s hers—including the inheritance her estranged half brother, Philip, has challenged, putting her aspirations in jeopardy.When her friend’s sister, Naomi Rankin, dies suddenly of an apparent suicide, Julia is shocked at the wealthy family’s indifference toward the ardent suffragist’s death. Naomi chose poverty and hardship over a submissive marriage and a husband’s control of her money. Now, her death suggests the struggle was more than she could bear.Julia, however, is skeptical. Doubtful of her suspicions, Philip proposes a glib wager: if Julia can prove Naomi was in fact murdered, he’ll drop his claims to her wealth. Julia soon discovers Naomi’s life was as turbulent and enigmatic as her death. And as she gets closer to the truth, Julia sees there’s much more at stake than her inheritance…

Murder by Misrule


Anna Castle - 2014
    He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss — and in danger — until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

Murder in the Crypt


Irina Shapiro - 2020
    Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk his own safety to apprehend the killer. With no suspects, no motive, and few leads to follow, Redmond and Haze must solve the crime before one of them becomes the murderer’s next victim. Murder in the Crypt is the exciting first installment of this Victorian murder mystery series set in a quaint British village.

The Affair of the Blood-Stained Egg Cosy


James Anderson - 1975
    Inspector Wilkins is called in to investigate, but it's going to take some intricate sleuthing to uncover who killed whom and why.

Murder on the Flying Scotsman


Jessica Baker - 2020
    Accompanied by only her maid, Molly, she thinks she’s in for another long, dull trip aboard the Flying Scotsman.The last thing she expects to find as they departed from London is a body in her compartment. Despite Molly being accused of the murder, Thea knows her maid is innocent. Aided by a young Scotland Yard inspector and an American heiress, Thea uses the detective skills she learned from reading Sherlock Holmes to track down the real murderer, but will she find them before they can strike again?

City of Saints


Andrew Hunt - 2012
    Its wide roads, huge Mormon temple topped by a horn-blowing angel, and orderly neighborhoods give it the appearance of the ideal American city. But looks can be deceiving.  When beautiful socialite Helen Kent Pfalzgraf turns up dead, Salt Lake County Deputy Art Oveson—a twenty-something husband, dad, and devout Mormon just getting his start—finds himself thrust into the role of detective. With his partner, a foul-mouthed, vice-ridden former strikebreaker, he begins to pursue Pfalzgraf’s murderer—or murderers. Their search takes them into the dark underbelly of Salt Lake City, a place rife with blackmail, corruption and murder.  Throw in a cowardly sheriff seeking reelection, a prominent local physician with a host of skeletons in his closet, and swirling rumors of an affair between the murder victim and an elusive Hollywood star, and you’ve got City of Saints, a mystery based on a true yet largely forgotten murder that once captivated the nation but still remains unsolved eighty years later.

Maui Widow Waltz


JoAnn Bassett - 2011
    But then Pali learns the lavish wedding must take place on Valentine’s Day—only nine days away. Oh, and one other little hitch—the groom’s been missing at sea for more than a week. But no worries, the bride assures Pali, with or without the groom the wedding will take place. She’s struck a deal with the groom’s best friend to be his proxy, if necessary. Two days before the nuptials, a male corpse floats ashore on a South Maui beach. Looks like the groom’s shown up just in time. But what’s it gonna be—a wedding…or a funeral?Show More Show Less