Make Laugh Tracks to An Entertaining Mystery

Skinny-Dipping  by Claire Matturo
“I, Lilly Rose Cleary, have a nearly endless capacity for driving myself crazy.” Thus begins one of the sharpest and funniest legal mysteries to come along in years. The excursions into trial-related chaos are worth the book price in themselves (Lilly defends a kayak-whiplash case), but Matturro presents a fast, funny story in which screwball humor abounds without getting in the way of a clever, twisty plot.

Bermuda Schwartz  by Bob Morris
A young scuba guide, scouting new dive sites in the shipwreck-laden reefs that rim Bermuda, makes a fatal discovery: below these waters lies a treasure more valuable than gold or jewels. And some people are willing to kill for it. Enter Zack Chasteen, knockabout palm-tree farmer and his inscrutable associate, Boggy, who have been dragged to Bermuda by Zack's ladylove, Barbara Pickering.

Withering Heights  by Dorothy Cannell
Ellie Haskell – the formerly plump girl turned Thin Woman and happily married mother of three – is also a sometime sleuth and a Gothic romance addict. When her husband's young cousin, Ariel, turns up unexpectedly and begs Ellie to come to the Yorkshire moors to investigate some strange events, Ellie and her housekeeper Roxanne can’t resist the opportunity.

Murder Gets a Life  by Anne George
Those effervescent sisters from Birmingham, big Patricia Anne and little Mary Alice, strike again. While snooping into the backwoods background of Patricia's son's intended, they discover a dead body in the family trailer. Great fun!

Basket Case  by Carl Hiaasen
Hiassen doesn't skimp on the funny stuff as he follows the adventures of Jack Tagger, down-on-his-luck journalist relegated to the obit beat at a small ltown Florida daily. While researching a death notice, Jack stumbles by accident upon an actual news story: former rocker Jimmy Stoma has drowned while diving in the Bahamas and his widow, wannabe star Cleo Rio, can't convince Jack that his death was accidental.

The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza  by Lawrence Block
Bernie Rhodenbarr, the Greenwich Village bookseller who moonlights as a burglar, "happens" to discover a rare coin in someone else's apartment. The next day, two dead bodies are found there, one belonging to the owner, the other to Bernie's fence. To clear himself of a murder charge, Bernie must clear up the mystery, which he does with timeless style and wit.

The Hanging in the Hotel  by Simon Brett
Brett’s sleuths are middle-aged women in the seaside village of Fethering: Carole, an acerbic retiree from the Home Office and Jude, a blowsy, New Age freethinker. Jude finds a body at the local hotel while helping out; strangely, everyone seems to want to dismiss it as an accident or suicide. This cozy mystery has intricate plotting and wry comedy.

A Mammoth Murder  by Bill Crider
When a dead body turns up in a Blacklin County forest better known for its bigfoot sightings, Texas Sheriff Dan Rhodes hopes the murderer won't be as hard to catch as the legendary monster itself. When the corpse turns out to be the town character’s best friend and when another murder takes place nearby not long after, things really get complicated. You will enjoy this playful romp with a Texas drawl.

This Old Souse  by Mary Daheim
As the busy proprietor of a bed and breakfast one would probably figure that Judith McMonigle Flynn has enough to do without looking for trouble elsewhere. But whether it is a flaw in her nature or just a quirk Judith seems to find herself easily embroiled in mayhem and murder without even trying. When Judith finds a dead milkman in her trunk, she needs help from her cousin/accomplice Renie and a few white lies to find out who wants to frame her for murder

The Naked Detective  by Laurence Shames
When pseudo private detective Pete Amsterdam is visited by a man wearing a dress and makeup who asks him to retrieve two bags of stolen property, Pete declines. After all, he is only listed in the Key West Yellow Pages as a private detective to dodge paying his taxes. When the potential client is found dead the next morning, Amsterdam begins to investigate, thus putting himself and everyone he comes in contact with in immediate danger.

Watch Your Back!  by Donald Westlake
Hapless burglar John Dortmunder and his crew of irrepressible ex-cons plan to rob the Manhattan penthouse of billionaire reprobate Preston Fareweather. But when the motley entourage gathers to discuss the heist, they’re confronted with the grim reality that their longtime meeting place – The O. J. Bar & Grill – is being squeezed by the Mob. Mayhem ensues as Dortmunder must divide his abbreviated attention span between scoring the booty and saving the pub.

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon  by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow, a temporary switchboard operator at her brother Rob's computer-game company, Mutant Wizards, must find the real killer when a co-worker is accused of strangling the office pest to death with a computer mouse cable. The office boasts a menagerie of remarkable pets, notably George, a buzzard with only one wing who has a perch by Meg's desk. The author lets crackling dialogue propel the plot, and there's a smile on nearly every page.

Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer
Bubbles Yablonsky, a 34-year-old hairdresser/divorcee, may dress and look like a blonde Barbie-doll bimbo, but she aspires to a more brain-intensive job as an investigative journalist. She grabs her main chance when she and a hunky but elusive photographer named Stiletto discover a dead body along with the apparent perpetrator, who is drunk and just happens to be the anti-drug-crusading wife of a local steel magnate.

Murder @ maggody.com  by Joan Hess
The tiny Arkansas town of Maggody is in an uproar because one of the local high school teachers has obtained a grant to set up a computer lab for students and citizens. The new technology provokes a fiery debate in the town hall, where the mayor's wife argues that the Internet's easy access to smut makes it the work of the devil. Murder ensues and it's up to level-headed police chief Arly Hanks to find the causes of murder and anonymous pornography online.