Books like Murder on the prowl by Rita Mae Brown

In an elite New England college, a charismatic classics professor lures a group of eccentric students into obsessive study, leading them from intellectual curiosity to corruption, betrayal, and ultimately murder.

Hard‑boiled detective Sam Spade races to recover a priceless, gem‑encrusted statuette while double‑crosses and danger creep from every corner.

A charming and clever women detective, Precious Ramotswe, solves mysteries in Botswana's small town of Midsomin, South Africa, from 1986 to 1997, facing dangers and love in the process. The novel is beloved by readers worldwide for its clever dialogue and characters who are as flawed as the rest of us. The book is a bestseller and has been translated into 45 languages, including Polish, German, and Japanese, among others. It was also voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

A 1980 class reunion turns deadly: a class womanizer is murdered, and another note heralds a second death. Mrs. Murphy, a postal worker with a sly tiger cat, and detective Harry Haristeen must solve the mystery before time runs out.

At Crozet’s annual steeplechase, postmistress “Harry” Haristeen battles social intrigue and a brutal murder when a jockey is found dead with a Queen of Clubs impaled in the wound. With her fierce cat, Mrs. Murphy, on the case, the mystery unravels through hidden motives and the glamorous, dangerous world of horse racing.

In Crozet, Virginia, postmistress Mary “Harry” Haristeen’s tiger cat, Mrs. Murphy, and Welsh Corgi, Tucker, help unravel a string of murders linked to a mysterious postcard that reads "Wish you were here."

In Shelbyville, Kentucky, renewed romance and mystery collide as former couple Harry and Fair Haristeen investigate a series of horse-related thefts and a brutal murder during a famed saddlebred show.

Fiction, Ghost story, Setting - England

Rita Mae Brown’s witty New York Times bestseller follows sleuth Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her feline allies as they investigate a murder at a celebratory fundraiser.

In the quiet Virginia town of Crozet, sleuth Mary Haristeen and her feline partners uncover a plot to murder prominent men as the town prepares for Christmas, involving a mysterious death beneath a town tree and secrets of a local monastic organization.

In the light‑hearted mystery Puss ’n Cahoots, the curious cat and his companion investigate quirky crimes, delivering sharp wit and gentle suspense for teens and adults alike.

In small Crozet, Virginia, postmistress Mary “Harry” Haristeen and her tiger cat Mrs. Murphy investigate a string of murders during the Dogwood Festival, discovering a hidden plot and a trail of stolen money.

In wintry Crozet, Virginia, postmistress Mary "Harry" Haristeen stumbles into a murder investigation when a hospital gossip source is found dead. With the help of her tiger cat Mrs. Murphy, and canine companions, she unravels a chilling conspiracy.

In rural Crozet, Virginia, detective Mary "Harry" Haristeen and her feline side‑kicks investigate the murder of wealthy Mrs. Carla Paulson, balancing the case with gardens, new marriage and a suspicious architect.

In Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a miraculous crying statue fuels a murder mystery. Cat detectives Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, with corgi Tee Tucker, help Mary “Harry” Haristeen unravel a cold case at Mount Carmel monastery.

Rita Mae Brown returns to her beloved Charlotte‑style sleuth, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, as she tackles a string of bizarre car wrecks in Crozet, Virginia, aided by her sly cats, corgi, and other animal allies.

**Cool & Lam Mystery #8** (1943) Donald Lam is off "whooping it up in Europe" when Everett G. Belder approaches Bertha Cool for help getting out of a financial jam. Simple. Straightforward. But not for long. An anonymous letter-writer aims to stir up trouble between Belder and his perennially suspicious wife, Mabel, who controls all the couple's assets. His mother-in-law has descended, Mabel has gone missing, and the maid--well. Poor Bertha has her hands full, trying to hold everything together long enough to collect her fee.

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story--of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school's tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder--but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse....An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions--and a rich literary delight.From the Hardcover edition.

In the bleak midwinter, newly ordained priest Clare Fergusson faces suspicion in Millers Kill after a baby is abandoned and a mother is murdered, forcing her to navigate town secrets and a tense partnership with Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne.