Top 10 Los Gatos Library Mystery Novels

1. A darkness more than night, Michael Connelly

Terrence McCaleb is asked by the LAPD to help them investigate a series of murders that have them baffled. They are the kind of ritualized killings that McCaleb specialized in solving with the FBI, and he is reluctantly drawn from his peaceful new life back into the horror and excitement of tracking down a terrifying homicidal maniac.

2. "A" is for alibi, Sue Grafton

A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she’s got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

3. Bury your dead, Louise Penny

An obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

4. The Bridge of Sighs, Olen Steinhauer

Investigating murders for the post-World War II People's Militia, Emil Brod suspects political motives behind the killing of a state songwriter and finds himself accused of spying by his corrupt colleagues in the homicide department.

5. The patience of the spider, Andrea Camilleri

Still recovering from the gunshot wound he suffered in Rounding the Mark, Inspector Montalbano must overcome self-imposed seclusion and waxing self-doubt to penetrate a web of hatred and secrets in pursuit of the strangest culprit he’s ever hunted.

6. The Indian bride, Karin Fossum

When a woman's battered body is found on the day Gunder Jomann's bride is due to arrive from India, the town Elvestad is stunned -- no one can believe that one of them would be capable of such a brutal murder. But Inspector Sejer understands that no one is completely innocent -- not the cafe owner who knows to much, the girl who wants to be a star witness, or the bodybuilder with no outlet for his terrible strength.

7. Dead to the world, Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with a talent for reading minds, comes to the aid of Eric, a sexy vampire with amnesia, as she tries to save him from whoever took his memory and who now wants his life.

8. S is for silence, Sue Grafton

Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again.

9. Missing persons, Clare O'Donohue

The cause of death is "undetermined," but the cops peg Chicago television producer Kate Conway as the main suspect when her soon-to-be ex-husband, Frank, is found dead. To make matters worse-and weirder- Frank's new girlfriend suddenly wants to be friends. Happy for the distraction, Kate throws herself into a new work assignment for the television program Missing Persons: the story of Theresa Moretti, a seemingly angelic young woman who disappeared a year earlier.

10. The grass widow, Ralph M. McInerny

Father Dowling, of St. Hilary's Catholic Church in Fox River, gets involved in a police investigation when a woman is found dead in her hotel room shortly after seeking pastoral counsel from him. While the police investigate and uncover a related drug operation at the hotel, two additional murders occur, causing frightened hotel staff and friends of the murder victims to seek out Father Dowling rather than go to the police.