Titles starting with N from Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Poke Rafferty turns to sleuthing in Bangkok so that he and his ex-hooker girlfriend can afford to adopt a street-urchin child. He soon finds himself on the trail of an Australian bondage connoisseur and in the pay of the powerful and dangerous Madame Wing.

Originally published in "The Miami Herald", this comic novel of suspense was penned serially by 13 writers associated with Florida. The authors, including Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, and Edna Buchanan, each added a chapter before passing along the manuscript to the next in line.

Edinburgh host the G8 Summit and Inspector Rebus hunts the murderer of a rapist in Ian Rankin’s NAMING OF THE DEAD. The always contentious Rebus has to watch his steps as he investigates the death of one of the conference delegates, as well. Rankin tangles global economic politics and local Scottish flavors into a knotted plot that’s a thrill to unravel.

What type of snake bit Dr. Roylott in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band?" What is the true identity of the "Illustrious Client" who sought to prevent Violet de Merville's marriage to the villainous Baron Adelbert Gruner? Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Holmes's creation, this two-volume set of all 56 of the Sherlock Holmes stories attempts to answer these vital questions, and many more. The red-printed annotations explain various Victorian cultural references and explore concordances and potential inconsistencies. Maps, tables, and other supplemental materials are also provided, and black-and-white illustrations from many sources accompany the text, including several of the famous Sidney Paget pictures, which appeared with the stories' initial publication in the Strand Magazine. Readers may be amused by the editor's conceit that Sherlock Holmes and his faithful chronicler, John Watson, were real people, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle merely Watson's "literary agent." Although perhaps not the best reference for the serious academic, the set--winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical work--will provide endless hours of enjoyment for devoted nitpickers and the gloriously obsessed.

Following up his two-volume annotated set of Sherlock Holmes short stories, Leslie S. Klinger turns his obsessive eye to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s four Holmes novels: A STUDY IN SCARLET, THE SIGN OF FOUR, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and THE VALLEY OF FEAR. Drawing upon his own scholarly work and that of others, he provides historical context to various points in the novels and also documents various inconsistencies (e.g. how early Holmes usually got up in the morning). As in the short-story collection, the copiously footnoted text is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations from various editions of the novels as well as photo stills from filmed versions.