Books like Design For Murder — picked by fans

I tore through this book in a day and a half because it was such a page-turner. It was right up my alley as a neonatal nurse practitioner with newborns as the central theme. Add kidnapping and a black market to the mix, and it’s a great medical thriller.

The plot was strong, with some great twists at the end. The male authors tried and mostly succeeded in adding some heart to the story by adding scenes of the protagonist returning to her childhood home in West Virginia to see her ailing mother, father, and drug-addicted brother. It’s heavy in plot and a little light in character development, but for James Patterson, that’s what he does best.

Agatha Christie isn’t called “the Queen of Crime” for nothing. She invented many of the tropes that have characterized the mystery genre since, plus contributed two of the best-known detectives of all time. But this book features neither of them. Instead, it drops Charles Hayward, fiancé of a murdered millionaire’s granddaughter, into the midst of a family that is happy on the outside and is anything but on the inside.

I put this book at the top of Christie’s many fine works because the mystery has such a chilling resolution. Very few mystery authors, I suspect, would go to the place she did with this work. 

The narrator is likable and a bit goofy, somewhat like Bertie Wooster in the Jeeves stories by PG Wodehouse, but more intelligent, and his dogged spirit and attention to random details get him to the solution of the murders in the end.

The mysteries are complicated and puzzling. The 1920s setting adds some fun elements, like challenges with phone lines or driving in poor weather. Plus, it’s a long series, 17 books as of this writing, so it will keep you occupied for a while! 

I was already a fan of Clare Mackintosh’s standalone thrillers, but when I found out she was launching a police procedural series, I was so excited! Set in Wales, this compelling book stars the complex, courageous character of DC Ffion Morgan as she tries to get to the bottom of who killed Rhys Lloyd during his New Year’s Eve party and dumped his body in the freezing lake.

I won't reveal much about the plot itself because I want you to experience the twists and turns for yourself. I want your heart to pound like it wants to escape your chest. I want you to lose hours of sleep because 'one more chapter' turned into twenty. You'll order the next book faster than I can say 'no comment.'

Edgar Award-winner Bluebird, Bluebird, is the first in the Jay Porter Series. Black Texas Ranger, Jay Porter, tried to escape East Texas and become a lawyer, but his home and people clawed him back. Jay is on the verge of losing his prestigious job, his reputation in tatters, when he heads to a tiny rural town to investigate the death of a visiting Black lawyer from Chicago and the seemingly separate death of a local white woman. Locke deftly reveals how the persistent stain of racism continues to poison many facets of life, while the law enforcement hierarchies and jurisdictional infighting threaten to undo Jay’s best efforts.

I love realistic heroes who are fallible yet, to their core, have a sense of morals. Throw in the verisimilitude of police procedurals (or military), plus a good mystery, and you’ve got me. Author Michael Connelly has juxtaposed an aging main character, retired LA Detective Harry Bosch, with a younger LA detective, Renée Ballard. In the old-school, patriarchal LAPD, Ballard had quite a challenge conducting the detective work she was passionate about.

I’m impressed with the three-dimensional characters of the two generations, each equally dedicated to getting justice in the cases they’re working on. Connelly's Bosch is far from perfect, and Ballard, the rising next-gen, are two characters I am compelled to follow.

I love this book! A famous female pianist in Boston who kills bad people, and she has quirks. She also changes boy toys during the story; that whole dynamic is sexy and unusual. 

One of my new favorite books. I hate heavy procedural books, and this is not one. The FBI is involved, but not how you think. The railroad killer was also very creative. She does have the FBI chasing her and has friends in the FBI, which is unique, too. The beginning is good, with lots of action and intrigue, and the middle holds up with a bang for an ending.

There are a few surprises here and there, but it is just a solid story.

What I loved about this book (which was also adapted into a film starring Elisabeth Taylor) was my first exposure to a female murderer. I liked the backstory of what motivated this woman to kill a seemingly innocent person at a party. Being a psychiatrist myself, my fascination with women who kill has inspired me to create a fictional serial killer in some of my own works.

Furthermore, the importance of a woman’s innate desire to become a mother when robbed of such happiness added to my interest in women’s psychopathology on how horrific memories of the past leave an imprint that can haunt us forever.

Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. The Big Easy is where she was born and adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her after Ricki’s teen mother disappeared from the hospital.

Ricki’s dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, the city’s legendary restauranteur. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation—collecting vintage cookbooks—into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a box of donated vintage cookbooks contains the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricki has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy… show more.

I loved this book because I worked in hotels before I became a butler, and the protagonist is a maid. You can walk into many situations in a hotel room, so a murder mystery is no big stretch. I love hotel or rich home dramas, especially if they portray the staff correctly. Domestic staff are generally likable, meticulous, quiet, and honest. This is a really nice, cozy murder mystery.