Frank Carlson Library

"Of #1 New York Times-bestselling author Sue Grafton, NPR's Maureen Corrigan said, "Makes me wish there were more than 26 letters." With only two letters left, Grafton's many devoted readers will share that sentiment. X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss. X: The shortest entry in Webster's Unabridged. Derived from Greek and Latin and commonly found in science, medicine, and religion. The most graphically dramatic letter....

Lucas Davenport pursues a prolific serial killer who has gone undetected for years in the newest nail-biter by best selling author John Sandford. It was a relatively minor criminal matter, but enough that the U.S. Marshals obtained a warrant to enter the home. They didn't expect to unearth trophies from a score of killings. Now Davenport is on the trail of a serial murderer, one who was able to operate for years without notice or suspicion. But there's...

"Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he's ever encountered. McEvoy investigates--against the warnings of the police and his own editor--and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. But his inquiry hits a snag when he himself...

SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has sworn to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As Lindsay prepares to celebrate her own daughter's birthday, she clashes with rising Chief Charlie Clapper over a family case. When a distraught mother pleads with Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, Tara, and baby granddaughter, Lorrie, Cindy immediately loops in SFPD. But Tara's schoolteacher husband, Lucas Burke,...

"Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing of his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes--or their identities--behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement's history of ignoring their disappearances. A cold case has just...

"When authorities contact the FBI about bodies found on freight trains-all killed the same way-Alex Donavan is forced to confront her troubled past when she recognizes the graffiti messages the killer is leaving behind. In a race against time, Alex must decide how far she will go-and what she is willing to risk-to put a stop to the Train Killer"-- Alexandra "Alex" Donavan overcame her troubled upbringing and is now a member of the FBI's elite Behavioral...

"There's chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year's Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not...

Rehearsals for the local amateur dramatic production are in full swing, but the real tragedy is unfolding offstage. The star of the show has been found dead, and the spotlight falls on Mordecai Tremain, whose reputation in the field of crime-solving precedes him. Will he be able to derail the killer's performance, before it's curtains for another victim?

Picking up a stalled FBI case involving three murdered Coast Guardsmen, Lucas Davenport teams up with detective Virgil Flowers to investigate the suspicious activities of a sophisticated boat and mysterious diver. "An off-duty Coast Guardsman is fishing with his family when he calls in some suspicious behavior from a nearby boat. It's a snazzy craft, slick and outfitted with extra horsepower, and is zipping along until it slows to pick up a surfaced...

"In Oslo, after the first snow of the season has fallen, a woman disappears, and a sinister snowman is left in her wake. As irascible detective Harry Hole realizes that this is only one of multiple disappearances, he begins to think a serial killer may be at work--and may be drawing in Hole personally and intentionally"--