Top Ten Valentine’s Day Mysteries
Yeah, the human race is pretty odd, we read mysteries set during Christmas and we even have a dedicated group of fans who love to read mysteries set during Valentine’s Day! With that in mind, here’s a list of the top ten mysteries set during this card, chocolate, florist holiday of the year!
- Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovitch
Stephanie Plum is playing Cupid and in real life odd things can happen when you play Cupid (I tried once and failed!). In Stephanie’s case, things end up turning deadly!
- Deadly Valentine by Carolyn Hart
Carolyn is known as one of the most unassuming and warm authors around, but the edge of her pen or typewriter can be deadly! In this wonderful little novel, jealousy, gossip, and murder ruin a wonderful little Valentine’s day soiree!
- Your Heart Belong to Me by Dean Koontz
Dean Koontz has been scaring the pants off of us for decades and he’s still going strong and is showing no signs of slowing down. In this novel, an innocent every day heart transplant has a huge side effect, in the form of someone claiming to own to the heart that the guy has beating in his chest. They always say that surgery isn’t as safe as those smiling men and women wearing white coats claim it is!
4.Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton
Hamish Macbeth has a list of the girl he’s jilted that’s probably twice as long as the number of parents who’ve gotten tired of listening to Barney the Dinosaur’s “I love You” song. In this story, Macbeth is getting engaged to a wonderful girl name Josie who happens to have nabbed the eligible bachelor. Unfortunately before they have a chance to officially tie the knot they need to investigate an exploding Valentine’s Day parcel that kills a local woman.
- A Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
I knew we had to get into something serious and depressing. Until her passing last year Rendell was one of the most critically psychological suspense authors in the world and had that unique talent to delve into the minds of all sorts very disturbed people which would give me a pause before I ever offered my neighbors the keys to my house to feed the cat when I went on vacation! In this nasty little tale, four people are killed mercilessly on Valentine’s Day and this leads to a headache for the unfortunate detective who chose police work as a career rather than bagging groceries.
- Bleeding Hearts by Jane Haddam
This Armenian-American author wrote a dark and literally deadly book where Inspector Gregor Demarkian tries to save his neighbor from spending the odd few decades in jail after she’s caught red-handed over the corpse of her unfortunate with a weapon! It should be noted that her recently departed husband was tried for the murder of his first wife. Good grief—I think exonerated for homicide should now be on the Mr. Right checklist!
- Love Lies Bleeding by Susan Wittig Albert
China Bryan is having a bad week, she is feeling a bit suspicious of her own relationship after overhearing an interesting conversation and she is investigating the murder of a Texas Ranger who was shot dead with a gun belonging to his wife—as if one gun in the household wasn’t enough!
- Killing Cupid by Laura Levine
Poor Jaine Austen has always dreamt of playing Cupid and is working for a matchmaking agency. Her boss is mean and nasty, and in mystery novels mean and nasty people end up dead quicker than you can say Colonel Sanders! To add insult to injury, her boss is murdered on Valentine’s day at one of those singles mixers where everybody leaves disappointed!
- St Valentine’s Day Murder by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Poor Robert Amiss an unhappy bureaucrat, along with a young detective Ellis, and a real life detective investigate and try to get to the bottom of why people are getting poisoned by boxes of chocolates sent for Valentine’s Day. Always call first before you open up a box of chocolates that doesn’t have the Hershey’s logo.
- Valentine Murder by Leslie Meier
Poor Lucy Stone is new on the job as a librarian at Tinker’s Cove and she finds after baking her cupcakes before they’ve sufficiently cooled down, she finds her boss has been killed—something like that can ruin this wonderful holiday and make making cupcakes a bad memory.
Remember, buy some flowers and chocolates for the lady in your life and support the greeting card industry—they’re relying on you!