Vicki Delany - Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels

The Sixth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery is now available.

“The mystery is a good one in A Curious Incident, filled with green-thumbed red herrings and gardening trophies, and with the plot and a fantastic cast of characters, I just settled down, opened the book, began to read, and plain flat-out had fun. You will, too.” Kittling Books

“The solution is very clever and appropriately Sherlockian. But for Gemma a killer would not have been found.” Mysteries and More

“A Curious Incident just might be my favorite in Vicki Delany’s series… Delany plays fair with the reader. It’s not her fault that I didn’t catch her most obvious clue in A Curious Incident.” Lesa’s Book Critiques

It’s up to Gemma and Jayne to root out the killer in national bestselling author Vicki Delany’s sixth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery when the winner of a garden tour trophy is left pushing up daisies.

“I am not a Consulting Detective,” Gemma Doyle reluctantly tells 10-year-old Lauren Tierney, when the little girl comes to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium to beg Gemma to find her missing cat, Snowball. Gemma might not be able to follow the clues to find the cat, but her dog Violet follows her nose to locate the missing kitten in a neighbor’s garden shed. Gemma and Violet proudly return Snowball to her grateful owner, and Gemma basks in praise for a job well done. But a few days later Lauren is back with ten dollars in hand, wanting to once again hire a consulting detective, and this time for a far bigger job: Her mother has been accused of murdering her garden club rival.
Sheila Tierney’s garden, which everyone said was the one to beat for the West London Garden Club trophy, had been vandalized the night before the club’s early summer tour. Sheila confronted her former friend and gardening partner Anna Wentworth in a towering rage, and the women nearly came to blows. Later that night, after having won the trophy for best garden, Anna is found murdered and Sheila Tierney is the police’s prime suspect.
Despite herself, and despite the disapproval of her police detective boyfriend Ryan Ashburton, the game is once again afoot, and Gemma finds herself and Jayne Wilson using their powers of deduction to ponder yet another curious incident.

“Exceptional…Cozy queen Gates (a pen name of Vicki Delany) is at the top of her game.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A tricky mystery and charmingly quirky characters.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The writing is strong with good description, heavy tension, and a good location.”
—New York Journal of Books

When her former director is found dead in the water, librarian Lucy Richardson will have to get to the bottom of the mystery before the killer ends her tale.

It’s summertime in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Bertie James’s college class is having their 40th anniversary reunion. The opening night reception is held at the Lighthouse Library and Lucy and her colleagues have assembled an exhibit of library artifacts showing how libraries have changed over the years. After the reception, some of the women take a walk down the boardwalk to the pier, using flashlights to illuminate the dark path, but what’s scarier than the dark is finding the former director of the Lighthouse Library floating lifeless in the water.

Helena Sanchez, the former director, wasn’t much loved and spent the party being rude to almost everyone there. As a result, Lucy finds herself in deep water as she rocks the boat, questioning several suspects. But she’ll have to batten down the hatches and fast before she’s left high and dry…and right in the killer’s crosshairs.