Washoe County Library System

Richard Peck returns with a third tale starring his beloved and charming character, Grandma Dowdel. In 1958, a new family moves in next door to Grandma. As they get to know each other, Grandma becomes an essential part of this Methodist family. As the holiday season rolls in, they find comfort in each other and receive memorable gifts.

"It's 1935, and ever since the big crash and her father's subsequent suicide, Henrietta Von Harmon has been left with the job of caring for her antagonistic mother and seven younger siblings. In desperation, Henrietta finally agrees to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall. Just as she's beginning to enjoy herself, however, the floor matron suddenly turns up dead. When the aloof Inspector Howard appears on the scene to investigate, he...

A conscience can weigh a PI down more than the heaviest firearm—and get her into more trouble too. It’s that nagging conscience that makes V. I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls’ basketball team at her South Chicago alma mater—which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V. I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad. But conscience seems to be in short...

"An epic love story that explores the American Dream between the monolith of Jim Crow, the inflexible world of the original Black upper class, and the violence of 1920s Chicago"-- "When a rich Black debutante enlists the help of a low-level speakeasy manager to identify the head of an underground crime syndicate, the two are thrust into the dangerous world of Prohibition-era Chicago. The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue...

They say blood is thicker than water. Private eye V. I. Warshawski has her doubts, especially when it comes to the bad blood between her and her great-aunt Rosa. But when the old lady reaches out, V. I. answers the call. The good friars at St. Albertus Magnus Priory, Rosa's long-time employers, have cashed in on valuable securities from their safe...only to discover they were counterfeits. Suspended under a cloud of suspicion, Rosa wants V. I. to...

"1930. Nell Fagan is a journalist on the trail of an intriguing and bizarre mystery: in 1606, a man vanished from a locked gatehouse in a remote Yorkshire village, and 300 years later, it happened again. Nell confides in the best sleuth she knows, judge'sdaughter Rachel Savernake. Thank goodness she did, because barely a week later Nell disappears, and Rachel is left to put together the pieces of the puzzle. qLooking for answers, Rachel travels to...

Dave Spritz is a local weatherman in his home town of Chicago. His career is going well, but his personal life is spiraling downward. His relationship with his perfectionist writer father, his neurotic ex-wife, and his now-separated children have him feeling that his life is out of control. Despite being both loathed and loved by the local masses, Dave is a guy who just doesn't seem to have it all together. An attractive job offer from New York City...

"Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny used to live in a boxcar. Now they have adventures everywhere they go. At a lighthouse, the children find a mystery in the night!"

"Phoenix, 1933: A young city with big dreams and dark corners Great War veteran and rising star Gene Hammons lost his job as a homicide detective when he tried to prove that a woman was wrongly convicted of murder to protect a well-connected man. Now a private investigator, Hammons makes his living looking for missing persons-a plentiful caseload during the Great Depression, when people seem to disappear all the time. But his routine is disrupted...

"In this compelling new time-slip mystery, a little girl goes missing from her family’s castle in the Thousand Islands of New York. Eighty-five years later, a journalist teams up with a woman living on Koster Isle to find out what happened to Poppy, once and for all. 1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle;...