Tuesday, October 6, 2026

November 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 3, 2026. We will be discussing The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan. This is the first book featuring Jazz Ramsey, a school administrator who trains cadaver dogs.

The book description from the publisher’s website is: “The way Jazz Ramsey figures it, life is pretty good. She owns her own home in one of Cleveland’s most diverse, artsy, and interesting neighborhoods. She has a job she likes as an administrative assistant at an all-girls school, and a volunteer interest she’s passionate about—Jazz is a cadaver dog handler. Jazz is working with Luther, a cadaver dog in training. Luther is still learning cadaver work, so Jazz is putting him through his paces at an abandoned building that will soon be turned into pricey condos. When Luther signals a find, Jazz is stunned to see the body of a young woman who is dressed in black and wearing the kind of make-up and jewelry Jazz used to see on the Goth kids back in high school. She’s even more shocked when she realizes that beneath the tattoos and the piercings and all that pale make up is a familiar face. The lead detective on the case is an old lover, and the murdered woman is a former student. Jazz finds herself sucked into the case, obsessed with learning the truth.”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm, and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.


 

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

October 2026 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 6, 2026. We will be discussing, Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead. This is the first book featuring Joseph Spector, who is a retired stage magician who helps the police with challenging crimes.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “In 1930s London, celebrity psychiatrist Anselm Rees is discovered dead in his locked study, and there seems to be no way that a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, the Scotland Yard detective on the case calls on retired stage magician-turned-part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. For who better to make sense of the impossible than one who traffics in illusions?

Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colorful cast of suspects among the psychiatrist’s patients and household, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets―or motives for murder. When the investigation dovetails into that of an apparently-impossible theft, the detectives consider the possibility that the two transgressions are related. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realize that the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm. For more information, and the Zoom link if interested, see Sara at the Reference Desk.


Tuesday, August 4, 2026

September 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday September 1 2026. We will be discussing My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni. This is the first book featuring Seattle detective Tracy Crosswhite who goes back to her hometown after her sister’s remains are found. 

The book description from the author’s website is, “Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah's disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn't believe that Edmund House-a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah's murder-is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.
When Sarah's remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past and open the door to deadly danger.”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.


 

Tuesday, July 7, 2026

August 2026 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday August 4, 2026. We will be discussing The Windsor Knot by S. J. Bennett. This is the first book that features Queen Elizabeth II acting as a detective along with her private secretary.

The book synopsis from the author’s website is, “On a perfect Spring morning at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II will go for a ride, carry out all her royal duties... and solve a murder. The morning after a ‘dine and sleep’ at Windsor Castle, eighty-nine-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a dressing-gown cord around his neck. When the police and MI5 begin to suspect her loyal servants, Her Majesty is certain they are looking in the wrong place. For the Queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her teenage years. Away from the public eye, she has a brilliant, secret knack for solving crimes. With her household's happiness on the line, can she and her trusted assistant private secretary, Rozie, catch the killer, without getting caught themselves?”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.


Tuesday, June 2, 2026

July 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 7, 2026. We will be reading The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey. This is the first book featuring Peter Diamond, an old school detective who is reluctant to embrace new technology. 

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “A nude female corpse has been found floating in a large reservoir just south of Bristol.  In order to solve the mystery of the “Lady in the Lake,” Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond must locate two missing letters attributed to Jane Austen and defy his superiors on the force to save a woman unjustly accused of murder.”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

June 2026 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. We will be discussing, Field of Blood by Denise Mina. This is the first book featuring Paddy Meehan, a girl from Glasgow in the early 1980s, who wants to be a journalist at a male dominated newspaper. 

The synopsis from the author’s website is, “Paddy Meehan has just started her new job as a copygirl at a Glasgow newspaper, where she dreams of becoming an investigative journalist.

A child goes missing in the city, taken from the front garden of his home - and the investigation leads the police to the doors of two young boys.

She starts looking into the case of the missing child but, unlike everyone else, does not believe the boys acted on their own. Convinced there is more to it than this, she begins to ask some very awkward questions.

But Paddy's investigation has repercussions she never anticipated. Shunned by those closest to her, she finds herself dangerously alone...”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.


 

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

May 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 5, 2026. We will be discussing, Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman. This is the first book, which takes place in 1920’s New York, featuring Vivian Kelly, who becomes an amateur detective to help her friends at the Nightingale, a speakeasy.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly's days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day. But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in the music. No one asks where she came from or how much money she has. No one bats an eye if she flirts with men or women as long as she can keep up on the dance floor. At The Nightingale, Vivian forgets the dangers of Prohibition-era New York and finds a place that feels like home. But then she discovers a body behind the club, and those dangers come knocking. Caught in a police raid at the Nightingale, Vivian discovers that the dead man wasn't the nameless bootlegger he first appeared. With too many people assuming she knows more about the crime than she does, Vivian finds herself caught between the dangers of the New York's underground and the world of the city's wealthy and careless, where money can hide any sin and the lives of the poor are considered disposable...including Vivian's own.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 PM in the First Floor Conference Room, and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.


 

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

April 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery and Adult Book Clubs on Tuesday April 7, 2026. We will welcome Vanessa Lillie, local author of Blood Sisters. This is her first book featuring Cyd Walker, an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The book description from the author’s website is, “As an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land’s Indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own. While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Even though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling.

What happens to the land happens to the women.

When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, disappears, Syd knows she must return to Oklahoma. She refuses to let her sister, or the remains, go ignored as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.

But not everyone is glad to have Syd home. The search for Emma Lou puts Syd in the crosshairs of local drug dealers looking to build an empire and vengeful vigilantes policing the abandoned mines, while government officials silence tribal rights.

The truth will be unearthed.

The deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing Indigenous women cases trailing back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.”

We will be meeting in the Community Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk or Mary at the Circulation Desk.

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

March 2026 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday March 3, 2026, as we discuss Killing Floor by Lee Child. This is the first book featuring ex-Army MP Jack Reacher. This book series is also the basis for the show Reacher.

The book synopsis from the author’s website is “Jack Reacher steps off a bus. He walks fourteen miles in the rain to reach Margrave, a no-account little town in Georgia, in search of a dead guitar player. But Margrave has just had its first homicide in thirty years. And Reacher is the only stranger in town. As the body count mounts, only one thing is for sure. They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.”

We will meet in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, see Sara at the Reference Desk.


Tuesday, January 6, 2026

February 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday February 3, 2026. We will be discussing The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. This is the first book featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire. This is the basis for the television series "Longmire".

The book synopsis from the author’s website is “The body of a young man is found in Absaroka County, Wyoming. It is possible that Cody Pritchard is the victim of a hunting accident, or is he? After all, he was one of the four boys who lured Melissa Real Bird, a Cheyenne girl with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, into a basement and raped her. Cody and his friends received what amounted to suspended sentences. Is someone seeking revenge? Will the specter of race relations and lingering retribution claim more lives? Or will the only thing that stands between them and a Sharps .45-70 buffalo rifle be Sheriff Walt Longmire?  On the autumnal side of twenty-four years as sheriff of Absaroka County, which is located at the base of the Big Horn Mountains and next to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Walt is looking for a quiet period to finish out his tenure but instead finds himself embroiled in the most volatile and challenging case of his career. With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Morretti, and a cast of characters tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

January 2026 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday January 6, 2026. We will be discussing Gin and Daggers by Donald Bain. This is the first novel featuring Jessica Fletcher the character from the television series “Murder She Wrote”. The character is also listed as the author.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Jessica Fletcher is off to London to deliver the keynote address at a mystery writers convention. She's also looking forward to seeing her mentor, Marjorie Ainsworth, who's hosting a party on her estate to celebrate her latest book. But a routine business trip becomes murderous business—when Jessica discovers Marjorie stabbed to death in her own bedroom...".

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

December 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday December 2, 2025. We will be discussing A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones. This is the first book featuring Sunshine Vicram, the newly elected sheriff in her hometown.

The book description from the author’s website is “Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, it’s strong cups of coffee―and a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff—an election her adorably meddlesome parents entered her in—and she expects her biggest crime wave to involve an elderly flasher named Doug. But a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of it’s reminding Sunny why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that trouble at her daughter’s new school and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and Sunshine has her hands full.

Enter sexy almost-old-flame Levi Ravinder and a hunky US Marshall, both elevens on a scale of one to blazing inferno, and the normally savvy sheriff is quickly in over her head. Now it’s up to Sunshine to juggle a few good hunky men, a not-so-nice kidnapping miscreant, and Doug the ever-pesky flasher. And they said coming home would be drama-free.”

We will be meeting at 6:30 pm in the First Floor Conference Room and through Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

November 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday November 4, 2025. We will be discussing Think of a Number by John Verdon. This is the first book featuring retired detective Dave Gurney.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Threatening letters arrive in the mail over a period of weeks, ending with a simple declaration: “Think of any number . . . picture it . . . now see how well I know your secrets.” Those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. But when oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle quickly ignite into a massive serial murder investigation, police are confronted with a baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air.

Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney, a recently retired NYPD homicide investigator, soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney’s tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and he wonders if he’s met an adversary who can’t be stopped.”

We will meet at 6:30 pm in the First Floor Conference Room, and through Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

October 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday October 7, 2025. We will be discussing The Burning by Jane Casey. This is the first book featuring detective Maeve Kerrigan.  

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “A serial killer who wants to watch you burn. The media call him The Burning Man, a brutal murderer who has beaten four young women to death, before setting their bodies ablaze in secluded areas of London's parks. And now the fifth victim has been found. Maeve Kerrigan is an ambitious detective constable, keen to make her mark on the murder task force. Her male colleagues believe Maeve's empathy makes her weak, but the more she learns about the latest victim, Rebecca Haworth, from her grieving friends and family, the more determined Maeve becomes to bring her murderer to justice.  But how do you catch a killer no one has ever seen? And when so much of the evidence they leave behind has gone up in smoke. . .?”  

We will be meeting in the Conference Room at 6:30 PM and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

September 2025 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. We will be discussing Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. This is the first book featuring Jackson Brodie, a former policeman, turned private investigator.

The book summary from the author’s website is, “Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer.

To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet – Lost on the left, Found on the right – and the two never seem to balance.

Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realize that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…”

We will be meeting in the Conference Room at 6:30 pm, and on Zoom. For more information, see Sara at the Reference Desk.

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

August 2025 Book Selection

 

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday, August 12, 2025*. We will be discussing Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza. This is the first book featuring Kate Marshall a former police officer, now working as a college lecturer.

The book description from the author’s website is: “Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them. A copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. Success promises redemption, but there’s much more on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim…and his successor means to finish the job.”

We will be meeting on the second Tuesday in August in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm, and on Zoom. Please see Sara at the Reference Desk for more information.



Tuesday, June 3, 2025

July 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday July 1, 2025. We will be discussing IQ by Joe Ide. This is the first book featuring Isaiah Quintabe “IQ”, a high school dropout, who works as an unlicensed private detective to help people in his neighborhood.

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “A resident of one of LA’s toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores. East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood’s high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can’t or won’t touch. They call him IQ. He’s a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he’s forced to take on clients that can pay. This time, it’s a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room and on Zoom at 6:30 pm. For more information, see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

June 2025 Book Selection

 Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday June 3, 2025 as we discuss A Rising Man by Abir Mukerjee. This is the first book featuring Captain Sam Wyndham, an English policeman who joins the Calcutta, India police force in the 1920s.

The book description from the author’s website is, “India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta’s police force.

He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.

With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them…”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm and on Zoom. For more information, ask Sara at the Reference Desk.


Tuesday, April 1, 2025

May 2025 Book Selection

Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday May 6, 2025. We will be discussing, The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan. This is the first book featuring Cormac Reilly, a detective in Galway, Ireland.

The book description from the author’s website is, “Responding to a call that took him to a decrepit country house, young Garda Cormac Reilly found two silent, neglected children – fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lay dead upstairs. Since then Cormac’s had twenty high-flying years working as a detective in Dublin, and he’s come back to Galway for reasons of his own. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him. What ties a recent suicide to that death from so long ago? And who among his new colleagues can Cormac really trust? Betrayal is at the heart of this unsettling small-town noir and the Ireland it portrays. In a country where the written law isn’t the only one, The Ruin asks who will protect you when the authorities can’t – or won’t.”

We will be meeting in the Conference Room and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.

 

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

April 2025 Book Selection


Join the North Providence Mystery Book Club on Tuesday April 1, 2025 as we discuss, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. This is the first book featuring Ernest Cunningham, an Australian writer who takes his inspiration from the authors of the “Golden Age” of mystery writing. 

The book description from the publisher’s website is, “Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let’s get started. EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, My brother, my stepsister, my wife, my father, my mother, my sister-in-law, my uncle, my stepfather, my aunt, Me.”

We will be meeting in the First Floor Conference Room at 6:30 pm, and on Zoom. For more information, please see Sara at the Reference Desk.