Top 10 Los Gatos Library Mystery Books

1. Smokin' seventeen, Janet Evanovich   

Where there's smoke there's fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. The bail bonds office has burned to the ground, and bodies are turning up in the empty construction lot.

2. Red mist, Patricia Daniels Cornwell

Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings.

3. Bury the lead, David Rosenfelt

Defence attorney Andy Carpenter has been successfully avoiding taking on new cases until his sometime friend and newspaper owner, Vince Sanders, calls and asks him for a favour. Daniel Cummings, Vince's star reporter, is being used as the mouthpiece for a serial killer. (amazon).

4. Echo Park, Michael Connelly

Eleven years after his investigation into the 1995 disappearance of Marie Gesto goes cold, Harry Bosch finally gets a chance to put the case to rest when a man accused of two brutal killings agrees to come clean about several others.

5. Columbo: the Hoover files, William G. Harrington

In Columbo's newest adventure, a tell-all biographer threatens to expose scathing secrets buried in the notorious Hoover files. But a retired FBI agent will stop at nothing to protect the memory of "The Director"--including murder. (amazon)

6. The body in the sleigh: Katherine Hall Page    

All the Fairchilds are spending the Christmas holidays on idyllic Sanpere Island. While the Reverend Thomas Fairchild recuperates from surgery, his caterer wife, Faith, rejoices in the rare family-time together. But Faith's high spirits are dampened when she discovers the body of a young woman in an antique sleigh in front of the Historical Society.

7. The pure in heart, Susan Hill

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler investigates the kidnapping of a young boy, a case that is influenced by a critically ill disabled woman and an ex-con who is struggling to stay honest.

8. One step behind, Henning Mankell

On Midsummer's Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the still-sun-lit northern night, they don costumes and begin to role play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion.(amazon)

9. The watchman, Robert Crais

Working as a bodyguard for a spoiled federal witness, Joe Pike hatches a desperate plan to disappear with the woman in the underworld of Los Angeles and turn on her would-be killers, an effort in which he enlists the help of private investigator Elvis Cole.

10. Undue influence, Steve Martini

Defense attorney Paul Madriani is mired in a complex web of intrigue and murder when the sister of his late wife, embroiled in a bitter custody battle with her former husband, becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her ex-husband and his new young wife. (amazon)