Recommended Reads

Mystery Book Club: Monday, December 9, 2024

Alan Bradley, author of the most award-winning series debut of any year, returns with another irresistible Flavia de Luce novel

In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

Join us Monday, December 9, 2024, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, January 13, 2025

Lady Georgiana Rannoch learns that not everyone knows their table manners when a knife ends up in a duke’s back in the seventh Royal Spyness Mystery.

London, 1934. Entrusted by Her Majesty the Queen with grooming Jack Altringham—the Duke of Eynsford’s newly discovered heir fresh from the Outback of Australia—for high society, Georgie now has the luxurious opportunity to live in one of England’s most gorgeous stately homes. But upon her arrival at Kingsdowne Place, Georgie finds herself in a manor full of miscreants, none of whom are pleased with the discovery of her new ward.

Then the duke announces he wants to choose his own heir and causes quite the hubbub. Somewhere along the way Jack’s hunting knife ends up in the duke’s back. Eyes fall, backs turn, and fingers point to the young heir. As if the rascal weren’t enough of a handful, now he’s suspected of murder. But while Jack may be wild, Georgie would bet the crown jewels it wasn’t he who killed the duke...

Join us Monday, January 13, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, February 10, 2025

The New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor Mystery Series returns with this “genuinely thrilling and atmospheric novel” (The New York Times Book Review) as Cork races against time to save his wife, a mysterious stranger, and an Ojibwe healer from bloodthirsty mercenaries.

The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters fill the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to the healer for shelter and the gift of his wisdom.

Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. On the last journey he may ever take into this beloved land, Meloux must do his best to outwit the deadly mercenaries who follow.

Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on. Desperate, Cork begins tracking the killers but his own skills as a hunter are severely tested by nightfall and a late season snowstorm. He knows only too well that with each passing hour time is running out. But his fiercest enemy in this deadly game of cat and mouse may well be his own deep self-doubt about his ability to save those he loves.

New and longtime “fans will be enthralled” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) by this gripping and richly told addition to a masterful series.

Join us Monday, February 10, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, March 10, 2025

The New York Times bestselling “new Agatha Christie” (Air Mail) Ruth Ware returns with this adrenaline-fueled thriller that combines Mr. and Mrs. Smith with The Fugitive about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer in this unputdownable and heart-pounding mystery from an author whose “propulsive prose keeps readers on the hook and refuses to let anyone off until all has been revealed” (Shelf Awareness).

Join us Monday, March 10, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, April 14, 2025

New York Times bestselling author Susan Isaacs returns to a pair of her readers’ favorite characters, former FBI agent Corie Geller and her retired cop dad, who must solve one of the NYPD’s coldest homicide cases—before the crime’s sole survivor is killed.

When Corie Geller asked her parents to move from their apartment into the suburban McMansion she shares with her husband and teenage daughter, she assumed they'd fit right in with the placid life she’d opted for when she left the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force of the FBI.

But then her retired NYPD detective father gets a call from good-natured and slightly nerdy film professor April Brown—one of the victims of a case he was never able to solve. When April was a five-year-old, she’d emerged unscathed from the arson that killed her parents. Now, two decades later, April is asking for help. Someone has made an attempt on her life. It takes only a nanosecond for Corie and her dad to say yes, and they jump into a full-fledged investigation.

If they don’t move fast, whoever attacked April is sure to strike again. But while her late father, Seymour Brown, was the go-to money launderer for the Russian mob – a mercurial and violent man with a penchant for Swiss watches and cheating on his wife – April Brown has no enemies. Well-liked by her students, admired by her colleagues, her only connection to crime is her passion for the noir movies of Hollywood’s golden age. Who would want her dead now? And who set that horrific fire, all those years ago?

The stakes have never been higher. Yet as Corie and her dad are realizing, they still live for the chase. Savvy and surprising, witty and gripping, Bad, Bad Seymour Brown is another standout hit from the beloved Susan Isaacs.

Join us Monday, April 14, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, May 12, 2025

"This droll romp is a latter-day Miss Marple.” —Washington Post

Murder leaps off the page when crime novelists begin to turn up dead in this intricate new novel by internationally best-selling author Elly Griffiths, a literary mystery perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Agatha Christie.

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing out of the ordinary when Peggy’s caretaker, Natalka, begins to recount Peggy Smith’s passing.

But Natalka had a reason to be at the police station: while clearing out Peggy’s flat, she noticed an unusual number of crime novels, all dedicated to Peggy. And each psychological thriller included a mysterious postscript: PS: for PS. When a gunman breaks into the flat to steal a book and its author is found dead shortly thereafter—Detective Kaur begins to think that perhaps there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

And then things escalate: from an Aberdeen literary festival to the streets of Edinburgh, writers are being targeted. DS Kaur embarks on a road trip across Europe and reckons with how exactly authors can think up such realistic crimes . . .

Join us Monday, May 12, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, June 9, 2025

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

Join us Monday, June 9, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, July 14, 2025

This thrilling addition to the Martha’s Vineyard Mystery series follows hero J.W. as he navigates threats to his family and protecting friends from his past.

For year-round Vineyard residents J.W. Jackson and his wife, ​Zee, winter brings its own beauty, with uncrowded streets and cozy nights by the fire, but it can also bring danger.

There’s a chill in the air one January day when J.W. receives a surprising visit from long-ago pal Clay Stockton. Clay has come to J.W. not to relive the reckless days of their youth but to ask J.W. for help.

He’s in big trouble and needs to lie low on the Vineyard. And it isn’t just Clay who needs J.W.’s assistance; J.W.’s pal Bonzo has made a frightening discovery and becomes a “person of interest” to the police.

With two friends in trouble and his own family receiving threats, J.W. must summon all of his investigative skills to try to restore order to his beloved island home, where fishing and good food should always take precedence over murder.

Join us Monday, July 14, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, August 11, 2025

Joe Gunther gets the call that every law enforcement person hates and every friend and family member of a policeman fears–-a cop has been murdered in the line of duty. Deputy Sheriff Brian Sleuter has been shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can been seen on the cruiser’s tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they are a couple of Boston-based drug runners who were stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston.

That brings Gunther and his major crimes team into the investigation―-and eventually to Alan Budney, the disaffected son of a Maine lobsterman, now a drug kingpin, who uses the closed, clannish lobster fishing community, and his extended family in particular, to move drugs along the New England coast.

Join us Monday, August 11, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.

Mystery Book Club: Monday, September 8, 2025

It’s Lights, Action, Murder as tea maven Theodosia Browning scrambles for clues in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series.

When Theodosia Browning reads the tea leaves on the set of the movie, Dark Fortunes, things go from spooky to worse. Lights are dimmed, the camera rolls, and red hot sparks fly as the film’s director is murdered in a tricky electrical accident.

Or was it an accident? Though the cast and crew are stunned beyond belief, nobody admits to seeing a thing. And when Theodosia’s friend, Delaine, becomes the prime suspect, Theodosia begins her own shadow investigation. But who among this Hollywood cast and crew had murder on their mind? The screenwriter is a self-centered pot head, the leading actress is trying to wiggle out of her contract, the brand new director seems indifferent, and nobody trusts the slippery-when-dry Hollywood agent.

Between hosting a Breakfast at Tiffany’s Tea, a Poetry Tea, and trying to launch her own chocolate line, Theodosia doggedly hunts down clues and explores the seemingly haunted Brittlebank Manor where the murder took place. And just when she’s ready to pounce, a Charleston Film Board member is also murdered, throwing everything into total disarray. But this clever killer will go to any lengths to hide his misdeeds as Theodosia soon finds out when she and her tea sommelier, Drayton, get caught up in a dangerous stakeout.

Join us Monday, September 8, 2025, at Southbury Parks and Recreation Department from 3:00pm - 4:00pm!

Registration is requested, not required. Mystery Book Club selections may change. Final selections will weigh your feedback, book availability, and genre balance. Any changes made will be announced at book club meetings, in our newsletter, and on the library's website.

New members are always welcome to the Mystery Book Club! Please sign up so we know how many people to expect and to receive event updates! For more information call the Reference Desk at 203-262-0626 ext. 2.