Top 10 Los Gatos Mystery Books

1. Dead Like You, Peter James

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is forced to delve into his shattered past—a time before his beloved wife went missing and his world was destroyed—to find the key to unlocking the current mystery. 

2. Portobello, Ruth Rendell

Walking to the shops one day in London's Notting Hill, fifty-year-old Eugene Wren discovers an envelope on the street bulging with cash. A man plagued by a shameful addiction, Wren hatches a plan to find the money's rightful owner. 

3. Blue Lightning, Ann Cleeves

Inspector Jimmy Perez takes his fiancé home to Fair Isle, the tiny island he comes from, to meet his parents. The island is a magnet for bird watchers, who congregate at the local inn and lighthouse. When a local married celebrity, who had an eye for the lads, is murdered, Perez discovers that the suspects are very close to him indeed. 

4. Devil's Food Cake Murder, Joanne Fluke

After her best friend Claire and her new husband, the Reverend Bob Knudson, leave for their long-awaited honeymoon, Hannah Swensen stumbles upon the body of Bob's substitute, Matthew Walters, a Lutheran minister with a sweet tooth and a penchant for robbery, in the rectory. 

5. The Sentry, Robert Crais

There’s no doubt that Elvis Cole is a winning character. But critics agreed that Joe Pike, who first abandoned his role as second fiddle to Cole in The Watchman, is a worthy main protagonist in his own right.  

6. Nine Dragons, Michael Connelly

The murder of John Li, a South L.A. liquour store owner, hits LAPD Detective Harry Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer. As he uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad--a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.--his world instantly explodes and the person he holds most dear is taken from him. 

7. Live Wire, Harlan Coben

Myron Bolitar has always dreamed about the voluptuous femme fatale walking into his office and asking for help. The woman standing in his doorway has killer curves, all right: She's eight months pregnant, which kind of ruins the fantasy. 

8. One For The Money, Janet Evanovich                  

A New Jersey bounty hunter with attitude, bail-bonds apprehension agent Stephanie Plum pursues a former vice cop, now on the run, with whom she shares a sordid history and a powerful chemistry. (catalog)

9. Outwitting Trolls, William G. Tapply

Brady Coyne is a Boston attorney who focuses on a few private clients and the legal drudgery of their everyday life, which leads to a generally unexciting life. Brady, however, gets a call from an old friend and former neighbor, a man from his past. 

10. Fadeaway Girl, Martha Grimes

Martha Grimes returns to her 12-year-old heroine, Emma Graham, in this suspenseful sequel to the bestselling Belle Ruin.

—Compiled by Los Gatos librarian Henry Bankhead