Aimée is faced with a tight deadline on a computer security contract when a telephone call from a stranger leads her to an abandoned infant. She brings the baby to her home and names her Stella. She expects the mother to reclaim the child, but days pass as Aimée tries in vain to discover her identity. Her partner, René, urges her to turn the baby over to the authorities, but for Aimée this is too close to her own abandonment by her mother.   The search brings her among ecological protesters and oil company tycoons, newspapermen and would-be actresses, as demonstrators near her home on the Ile Saint-Louis, in the heart of Paris, march against the pollution of the North Sea only to be dispersed by armed police.   Two murders and an abortive bombing keep Aimée running until, in the sewers beneath the Seine, she finds the woman she has been looking for, only to discover that the man she has just fallen for is a cold-hearted criminal.

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 7)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Cara Black

Mystery

Soho Crime

Moonlight Downs

Hyland, Adrian

Outsider in Amsterdam

On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, the founder of a new religious society/commune—a group that calls itself “Hindist” and mixes elements of various “Eastern” traditions—is found hanging from a ceiling beam. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances. This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, worldly-wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.

Literature & Fiction

Van De Wetering, Janwillem

United States

Maria van Buren, a beautiful, high-class prostitute, is found dead with a knife in her back in her houseboat on an Amsterdam canal. Grijpstra and de Gier must solve the murder. Her tony clients all have sound alibis. Before the murderer is caught, the detectives and their commissaris will investigate allegations of black magic, travel to Curaçao, and pursue the clues to a chilly island off the coast of Holland.

Tumbleweed (Amsterdam Cops)

Genre Fiction

In the wee hours of a 1960s Tokyo morning, a dead body is found under the rails of a train, and the victim's face is so badly damaged that police have a hard time figuring out the victim’s identity. Only two clues surface: an old man, overheard talking in a distinctive accent to a young man, and the word “kameda.” Inspector Imanishi leaves his beloved bonsai and his haiku and goes off to investigate—and runs up against a blank wall. Months pass in fruitless questioning, in following up leads, until the case is closed, unsolved. But Imanishi is dissatisfied, and a series of coincidences lead him back to the case. Why did a young woman scatter pieces of white paper out of the window of a train? Why did a bar girl leave for home right after Imanishi spoke to her? Why did an actor, on the verge of telling Imanishi something important, drop dead of a heart attack? What can a group of nouveau young artists possibly have to do with the murder of a quiet and “saintly” provincial old ex-policemen? Inspector Imanishi investigates.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Soho Crime)

MATSUMOTO, Seichô

Almost twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the U.S. Military is still present throughout South Korea, and tensions run high. Koreans look for any opportunity to hate the soldiers who drink at their bars and carouse with their women. When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman, is found brutally murdered in a torched apartment in the Itaewon red-light district of Seoul, it looks like it might be the work of her American soldier boyfriend. Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, Military Police for the U.S. 8th Army, are assigned to the case, but they have nothing to go on other than a tenuous connection to an infamous prostitute. As repressed resentments erupt around them, the pair sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to find evidence that will absolve their countryman.

Jade Lady Burning

Martin Limón

Ex-con Frank Cullen is trying to straighten up his act after serving time in a Florida prison, but his boss's wife and her younger sister want to pull him back into the robbery business.

Cons

Watts, Timothy

A set of disreputable characters, including con man Nicky, sadistic killer Wesley, and Nicky's flashy wife Katherine--along with a lone innocent, ex-marine Jimmy--pursue their love of money along a South Carolina trail littered with murder and blackmail. Tour.

The Money Lovers

The night hours turn Frank Fontana on. So does bad company, like the well-heeled, well-armed gangsters who regularly convoy their bosses to Fontana's supper club just across the river in Queens to play craps. Sometimes, however, it doesn't pay to win, when the sore loser is a neurotic loan shark with a possessive attitude about his money. Or a mob boss with an attitude about you.

Come On

Cirni, Jim

A young Australian woman comes alone to Marapai on the island of New Guinea to find out why her husband committed suicide. It is hard to believe that drink and debt could have affected David Warwick, a distinguished anthropologist in charge of protecting the natives from exploitation. Stella must penetrate deep into the heart of the jungle to solve the mystery of her husband's death.

Beat Not the Bones

Jay, Charlotte

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