Blog Posts by Subject: Mysteries, Crime, Thrillers

Browsing the shelves for a good book to read can be intimidating. There’s thousands of new books published every year and how do you know if a book is good anyway? It’s cover? Haha! Every year the Young Adult Library Association (YALSA) publishes lists of books that have been certified by librarians and readers as excellent reads. One of those annual lists is the Alex Awards. The Alex Awards are given to books that have been written for adults but have special appeal for teen readers. 

Welcome back to the Reader's Den for the final post in our discussion of The Eyre Affair by Japer Fforde. Did you enjoy this literary silliness? As mentioned in the earlier posts, this is the first novel in the Thursday Next series.

In The Eyre Affair, we see LiteraTec Thursday return a kidnapped Jane Eyre to her novel (the "original" version in which she doesn't marry Rochester) and, through mishap and 

"The murders are tragic, obviously," I replied, "but Jane Eyre is the thing here... Jane Eyre is bigger than me and bigger than you."

“Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.”

Welcome back to the Reader's Den for the third week of our discussion of Jasper Fforde's romp into fantasy-mystery-alternate history, The Eyre Affair. If you've finished reading, you know that our protagonist, dedicated Litera Tec

Welcome back to My Mystery Summer. In Part I, I reported on some of my own summer reading and viewing and shared some lists of books and DVDs that we put together for our Mystery Summer program at the Mid-Manhattan Library. The previous post included some historical mysteries,

“Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.” 

And she can handle a gun... She, naturally, is our heroine, the intrepid Crimean War veteran and LiteraTec Thursday Next, and people who have read a lot of books are likely to find her cross-genre adventures highly entertaining. Welcome back to the Reader’s Den for week 2 of our discussion of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, the first book in the whimsical Thursday Next 

Welcome back to the Reader's Den. We've just finished reading The Maltese Falcon. This is the final post and finally — spoiler alert — the identities of the murderers will be revealed!

In these last five chapters there's another murder and the black bird gets delivered to Sam's office by the dying Captain Jacobi of the ship La Paloma. Gutman's daughter sends Sam on a wild goose chase, giving the thieves a chance to set up an ambush of sorts at Sam's apartment. When he returns 

So what have you been reading this summer? Here at Mid-Manhattan we’ve been celebrating Mystery Summer with a monster film noir series on Wednesdays and Sundays, mysterious

What could the NYPL have planned for the end of the summer? We know you’re on the edge of your seats! 

…Have you guessed it yet?

We're holding our first ever Google+ Hangout Book Club! (Did you guess correctly?)

Join us in reading this summer’s hit thriller, Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. We’ll be broadcasting live on September 12th at 6 p.m. EDT from

Welcome back to the New York Public Library's Reader's Den, a monthly online book discussion. For August, we are reading Dashiell Hammett's novel, The Maltese Falcon, as part of Mystery Summer.

In chapters 6-10, Sam Spade is very busy. Iva Archer is begging to see him. While Sam is trying to figure out how much of the truth Brigid O'Shaughnessy is telling, their relationship seems to become more intimate. Sam discovers a young man tailing him around town. He sets up a meeting with Brigid and Joel 

Welcome to the New York Public Library's Reader's Den, a monthly online book discussion. For August, we will be reading Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon as part of Mystery Summer.

You can borrow a print copy from the library or listen to the downloadable audiobook.

Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon was published 

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound? If somebody insults Will Halpin and he isn’t reading that person’s lips, does it still count as an insult?

In The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk, Will Halpin knows that he doesn’t fit into his new school. Transferring out of an all-deaf school and into a mainstream one has definitely been a difficult transition. He knows that his deafness makes him an outsider, as well 

Welcome to the New York Public Library's Reader's Den, a monthly online book discussion. For July, we will be reading G.K. Chesterton's 1908 novel The Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare as part of Mystery Summer.

Get a free copy of the book from any of the following sources.

Download FREE ebook:  Amazon (Kindle)

Thank you for participating in our online discussion of The Servants. You put forward some excellent insights and raised challenging points. I hope you enjoyed the book as much I did. I first read it years ago, re-read it last year, and — for the purposes of this discussion — read it again last month. On each reading, I found myself unwrapping another revelation or wondering about another mystery.

The essential metaphors become gradually apparent. The 

When a favorite author dies, we feel as if we have lost a good friend. When the author is the creator of a series whose characters we have lived with for many years, we feel as if we've lost a roomful of friends.

I was saddened last month when I turned a page in the New York Times and discovered an obituary for Reginald Hill, dead at the age of 75. For some time now, I have been following the adventures of several literary detectives, trying to remain 

Updated  Links March 2015! Do the names Lord Grantham, Mr. Carson, and Lady Violet mean anything to you? Can you discuss at length the love story of Mary and Matthew? Does the word week-end, bring to mind Maggie Smith’s impeccably-timed line delivery? If so, then you are a Downton-ite... or is it Downton-head? Whatever the case may be, it means that you are a fan of the ITV/Masterpiece Theater drama Downton Abbey. First airing on PBS in January 2011, this British series depicts life (upstairs 

I'm sure you've created a wish list in your mind that contains some impossibly unattainable items. For example, one of my wish list items includes a home on a private island. While my improbable wish list grows, I have started another list — an eNYPL wish list — where at least my reading dreams will come true.

My fellow eNYPL users: my number one 

Thank you to all the readers and followers of the Reader's Den!

I hope everyone enjoyed The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz and his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I sure did! I hope all the avid readers will come back for next months Reader's Den and hopefully Anthony Horowitz will continue the Sherlock Holmes series.

Here are two lists of books available at NYPL: the first is a series written