Murder by the Book - Regina Public Library’s mystery discussion group
Mystical Mysteries: “The Woo-Woo Factor”
These mysteries relate to the supernatural and the occult and various psychic
powers. The books sometimes overlap with Fantasy or Horror genres since many of
the detectives or their associates are just not human. They may be vampires, ghosts,
witches, psychics or sentient computer programs, and the crimes themselves may also
have an otherworldly quality about them. The guilty parties in these crimes are often
beings which cannot be killed or brought to justice by the usual means, and it takes
the arcane knowledge possessed only by the detective or his otherworldly helpers to
destroy these fiends.
You will probably enjoy this group of mysteries more if you are able to suspend your
disbelief and accept characters, settings and turns of plot that may or may not be
true to the universe we normally live in. Many of the books in this category appear to
be written somewhat tongue-in-cheek, with liberal splashes of black humor, and the
apocalyptic confrontations between good and evil they depict often have a
metaphorical quality to them.
Madeline Alt (Maggie O’Neill, an antique shop clerk, and her employer Felicity
Dow, a self-proclaimed witch, in Stony Mill, Indiana, in the Bewitching
mysteries)
- The Trouble with Magic (2006)
- A Charmed Death (2006)
- Hex Marks the Spot (2007)
- No Rest for the Wiccan (2008)
- Where There’s a Witch (2009)
Donna Andrews (Turing Hopper, a sentient artificial intelligence computer
program, who works with human assistants Maude and Tim)
- You've Got Murder (2002)
- Click Here for Murder (2003)
- Access Denied (2004)
- Delete All Suspects (2005)
Nancy Atherton (detective Lori Shepherd, who works with Aunt Dimity, a
former friend of her mother’s who is now a ghost) series includes:
- Aunt Dimity’s Death (1993)
Many in-between
- Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon (2009)
Nancy Bell (Texas grandmother Biggie Weatherford investigates a murder in a
haunted hotel)
- Biggie and the Quincy Ghost (2001)
Jim Butcher (Harry Dresden, the only wizard listed in the yellow pages in
Chicago, Illinois, in the Dresden Files)
- Storm Front (2001)
Many in-between
- Turncoat (2009)
Helen Chappell (reporter/detective Hollis Ball who is assisted by the ghost of
her former husband)
- Ghost of a Chance (1998)
Douglas Clegg (a woman investigating her husband’s murder finds that the trail
leads back to a school for psychic children)
- Afterlife (2004)
Catherine Dain (Mariana Morgan, a psychic healer, in Los Angeles, California, in
the New Age mysteries) First book: Angel in the Dark (1999)
- Darkness at the Door (2001) # 2
Shirley Damsgaard (Ophelia Jensen, a reluctant witch who is a librarian, and
her grandmother Abby, in a small town in Iowa)
- Witch Way to Murder (2005)
- Charmed to Death (2006)
- The Trouble with Witches (2006)
- Witch Hunt (2007)
- The Witch Is Dead (2007)
- The Witch’s Grave (2008)
- The Seventh Witch (due January 26, 2010)
Casey Daniels (Penelope “Pepper” Martin, a tour guide at a cemetery, who can
talk with a mob boss ghost, in Cleveland, Ohio)
- Don of the Dead (2006)
- The Chick and the Dead (2007)
- Tombs of Endearment (2007)
- Night of the Loving Dead (2009)
- Dead Man Talking (2009)
Phillip DePoy (academic folklorist Fever Devilin returns home to the Georgia
Appalachians)
- The Devil’s Hearth (2003) RPL doesn’t have
- The Witch’s Grave (2004)
- A Minister’s Ghost (2006)
- The Widow’s Curse (2007) RPL doesn’t have
- The Drifter’s Wheel (2008)
Dave Diotalevi (Twice dead, and equipped with a synesthetic brain -- he can
smell colors among other abilities -- Myx Amens is a unique fictional
"detective" who can't leave any mystery unsolved)
- Miracle Myx (2008)
James D. Doss (tribal police officer Charlie Moon uses the visions of his aunt
Daisy Perika, a Ute shaman, to solve crimes) First book: The Shaman
Sings (1994). series includes:
- The Shaman’s Bones (1997)
Many in-between
- Three Sisters (2007)
Rosemary Edghill (witch/detective Karen Hightower, Manhattan)
- Speak Daggers to Her (1994)
- Book of Moons (1995) RPL doesn’t have
- Bowl of Night (1996)
P.N. Elrod (former reporter Jack Fleming, now a vampire, in the Vampire Files)
First book: Bloodlist (1990). Series includes:
- The Dark Sleep (1999) # 8
- Song in the Dark (2005) # 11
Loren D. Estleman (Vampire)
- Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, or, The Adventure of the Sanguinary
Count / by John H. Watson as edited by Loren D. Estleman (2003,
c2000, originally published 1978).
Honora Finkelstein and Susan Smily (Ariel Quigley, a college English teacher
with psychic powers, in Alexandria, Virginia)
- The Chef Who Died Sautéing (2006)
- The Lawyer Who Died Trying (2007) RPL doesn’t have
- The Reporter Who Died Probing (2008)
Antonia Fraser (television reporter Jemima Shore’s research into ghosts at a
country house turns into a murder investigation)
- The Cavalier Case (1991)
Mark Frost (Arthur Conan Doyle is helped by a friend who may or may not have
died ten years before)
- Six Messiahs (1995)
Yasmine Galenorn (Emerald O’Brien, a tea shop owner and psychic, in the
Chintz’n China Mysteries) First book: Ghost of a Chance (2003)
- Legend of the Jade Dragon (2004) RPL doesn’t have
- Murder Under a Mystic Moon (2004)
- A Harvest of Bones (2005)
- One Hex of a Wedding (2006)
Dorothy Gilman (clairvoyant Madame Karitska joins forces with Detective
Lieutenant Pruden)
- The Clairvoyant Countess (1975)
- Kaleidoscope (2002)
Joseph Glass (psychic psychiatrist Dr. Susan Shader, who helps the Chicago
police) First book: Eyes (1997)
- Blood (2000)
Carol Goodman (novelist Ellis Brooks goes to an old country estate to research
the role a spiritualist medium played in a series of murders that
happened there in the late 1800s)
- The Ghost Orchid (2006)
Deborah Grabien (Ringan Lane, British folk musician, is able to contact the
ghosts of people whose lives have been immortalized in folk ballads; The
Haunted Ballads series)
- The Weaver and the Factory Maid (2003)
- The Famous Flower of Serving Men (2004)
- Matty Groves (2005)
Heather Graham (The Flynn Brothers, private investigators inheriting a
haunted mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana)
- Deadly Night (2008)
- Deadly Harvest (2008)
- Deadly Gift (2008)
Simon R. Green (investigator John Taylor, works in the dark underworld
beneath the streets of London) The Nightside series:
- Something from the Nightside (2003)
- Agents of Light and Darkness (2003)
- Nightingale’s Lament (2004)
- Hex and the City (2005)
Several in-between
- Just Another Judgement Day (2009)
Andrew M. Greeley (Nuala Anne McGrail, a young Irish immigrant psychic and
singer in Chicago, Illinois)
- Irish Gold (1994)
Many in-between
- Irish Tweed (2009)
Michael Gruber (Jimmy Paz, Afro-Cuban Miami homicide detective; Paz
becomes involved in some eerie cases that involve African witchcraft,
voodoo, Santeria , magic, Catholic saints, Shamanism)
- Tropic of Night (2003)
- Valley of Bones (2005)
- Night of the Jaguar (2006)
Carolyn Haines (Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney, an unconventional
Southern Belle in Mississippi, gets advice from the ghost of her greatgreat-grandmother’s nanny). The “Bones” series. First two: Them Bones
(1999); Buried Bones (2000). The rest of the series:
- Splintered Bones (2002)
- Crossed Bones (2003)
- Hallowed Bones (2004)
- Bones to Pick (2006)
- Ham Bones (2007)
- Wish Bones (2008)
- Greedy Bones (2009)
Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic vampire) the Southern
Vampire series:
- Dead until Dark (2001)
- Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
- Club Dead (2003)
- Dead to the World (2004)
- Dead as a Doornail (2005)
- Definitely Dead (2006)
- All Together Dead (2007)
- From Dead to Worse (2008)
- Dead and Gone (2009)
- A Touch of Dead (short stories) (2009)
Charlaine Harris (after being struck by lightning as a teenager, Harper
Connelly develops the ability to find dead bodies and see how they died)
- Grave Sight (2005)
- Grave Surprise (2006)
- An Ice Cold Grave (2007)
- Grave Secret (2009)
Carolyn Hart (Bailey Ruth Raeburn, who dies during a storm and then returns as
a ghost to help solve crime in her hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma)
- Ghost at Work (2008)
John Harwood (Growing up with a distant father and a mother in perpetual
mourning for a lost child, Constance Langton takes her mother to a
séance hoping to help her find peace, only to be left alone to deal with a
legacy of a decaying mansion in rural England.)
- The Séance (2008)
Daniel Hecht (parapsychologist and ghost investigator Cree Black)
- City of Masks (2003)
- Land of Echoes (2004)
- Bones of the Barbary Coast (2006)
Kay Hooper (Noah Bishop leads a special team of FBI agents, all of whom have
psychic abilities)
- Stealing Shadows (2000)
- Hiding in the Shadows (2000)
- Out of the Shadows (2000)
- Touching Evil (2001)
- Whisper of Evil (2002)
- Sense of Evil (2003)
- Hunting Fear (2004)
- Chill of Fear (2005)
- Sleeping with Fear (2006)
- Blood Dreams (2007)
- Blood Sins (2008)
Tanya Huff (private detective Vicki Nelson and vampire Henry Fitzroy) series:
- Blood Price (1991)
- Blood Trail (1992)
- Blood Lines (1993)
- Blood Pact (1993)
- Blood Debt (1997)
- Blood Bank (short stories) (2008)
Tanya Huff (former ally of private detective Vicki Nelson and vampire Henry
Fitzroy, one-time street kid Tony Foster embarks on a new career as a
producer of a syndicated TV series about the adventures of a vampire
detective)
- Smoke and Shadows (2004)
- Smoke and Mirrors (2005)
- Smoke and Ashes (2006)
Charlie Huston (Joe Pitt, vampire private detective)
- Already Dead (2005)
Dean James (Simon Kirby-Jones, a gay American writer who became a vampire
in Houston, now living in Snupperton Mumsley, a small village in England)
- Posted to Death (2002)
- Faked to Death (2003).
- Decorated to Death (2004)
- Baked to Death (2005)
Alice Kimberly (Penelope Thornton-McClure, a bookshop owner, and Jack
Shepard, the store’s resident ghost-sleuth, in Quindicott, Rhode Island,
in the Haunted Bookshop mysteries)
- The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (2004)
- The Ghost and the Dead Deb (2005) RPL doesn’t have
- The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library (2006)
- The Ghost and the Femme Fatale (2008)
- The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion (2009)
Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas, a fry cook who can communicate with the dead, in
the fictional small town of Pico Mundo, California)
- Odd Thomas (2003)
- Forever Odd (2005)
- Brother Odd (2006)
- Odd Hours (2008)
Jayne Ann Krentz (Arcane Society, a secret organization devoted to
paranormal research. This series can be described as Romantic Suspense)
- Second Sight (2006) written as Amanda Quick
- White Lies (2007)
- Sizzle and Burn (2007)
- The Third Circle (2008) written as Amanda Quick
- Running Hot (2008)
- The Perfect Poison (2009) written as Amanda Quick
Mercedes Lackey (Jennifer Talltree, private investigator and Osage shaman-intraining)
- Sacred Ground (1994)
Victoria Laurie (Abby Cooper, private investigator, psychic intuitive, in the
Psychic Eye mysteries)
- Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye (2004)
- Better Read than Dead (2005)
- A Vision of Murder (2005)
- Killer insight, a Psychic Eye Mystery (2006)
- Crime Seen (2007)
- Death Perception (2008)
- Doom with a View (2009)
Victoria Laurie (M.J. Holliday, a medium and ghostbuster, and her partner
Gilley, in the Ghost Hunter mysteries:)
- What’s a Ghoul to do? (2007)
- Demons are a Ghoul’s Best Friend (2008)
- Ghouls Just Haunt To Have Fun (2009)
- Ghouls Gone Wild (2010)
Joyce and Jim Lavene (Mary Catherine Roberts, a four-time widow and a radio
show pet psychic, in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Pet Psychic
mysteries)
- The Telltale Turtle (2008) # 1
Martha Lawrence (Elizabeth Chase, parapsychologist and private investigator,
California). First book: Murder in Scorpio (1995)
- The Cold Heart of Capricorn (1997)
- Aquarius Descending (1999)
- Pisces Rising (2000) RPL doesn’t have
- Ashes of Aries (2001)
T. Jefferson Parker (Robbie Brownlaw is a San Diego homicide detective with
the extra-sensory gift of synesthesia; the condition allows him to
sometimes tell when people are lying.)
- The Fallen (2006)
Terri Persons (Bernadette “Cat” Saint Clare, an FBI agent with paranormal
powers, in St. Paul, Minnesota)
- Blind Spot (2007)
- Blind Rage (2008)
- Blind Sight (2009)
Kat Richardson (Harper Blaine, a private investigator who can see ghosts,
zombies, and the like, after being dead for two minutes, in Seattle,
Washington, in the Greywalker series)
- Greywalker (2006)
- Poltergeist (2007)
Wendy Roberts (Sadie Novak, a former teacher gifted with second sight, is
now running Scene-2-Clean, a cleaning company specializing in cleaning up
death scenes, in Seattle, Washington; the Ghost Dusters series)
- The Remains of the Dead (2007)
- Devil May Ride (2008)
- Dead and Kicking (2009)
Elena Santangelo (Pat Montella, whose sleuthing is aided by her ability see and
hear ghosts, on an estate near Fredricksburg, Virginia)
- By Blood Possessed (1999)
- Hang My Head and Cry (2001)
George Shuman (blind psychic Sherry Moore works as a police consultant. She
can see the last 18 seconds before death if she holds a murder victim’s
hand)
- 18 Seconds (2006)
- Last Breath (2007)
- Lost Girls (2008)
- Second Sight (2009)
Steven G. Spruill (Vampires)
- Rulers of Darkness (1995) (police detective Merrick Chapman hunts a
bloodthirsty killer and tries to prevent the woman he loves from
becoming the next victim)
Mary Stanton (Brianna Winston-Beaufort, a lawyer who inherits a haunted law
firm, in Savannah, Georgia, in the Beaufort & Co. series)
- Defending Angels (2008)
- Angel’s Advocate (2009)
L.L. Thrasher (Lizbet Lange, heiress and ex-waitress, who can see murdered
undercover police officer Charlie Bilbo)
- Charlie’s Bones (1998)
- Charlie’s Web (2000)
David and Amy Thurlo (FBI agent Diane Lopez teams up with New Mexico state
police officer--and Navajo vampire--Lee Nez)
- Second Sunrise (2002)
- Blood Retribution (2004)
- Pale Death (2005)
- Surrogate Evil (2006)
F. Paul Wilson (Repairman Jack --a freelance, off-the-books paladin who rights
wrongs and fixes evil-doers, often fighting slipping into the secret world
of the supernatural) First book: The Tomb (1984)
- Legacies (1998) # 2
Many in-between
- By the Sword (2008)
- Ground Zero (2009)
Stephen Woodworth (an alternate world where a few people are born to every
generation with violet-colored eyes and the ability to channel the dead)
- Through Violet Eyes (2004)
- With Red Hands (2004)
- In Golden Blood (2005)
- From Black Rooms (2006)
(descriptions and book list borrowed liberally from NoveList and Wakefield Public Library’s Supper
Sleuths lists. Some series descriptions from the Stop, You’re Killing Me! website)