LGBTQ - Mystery

This list has been created by a Library Assistant at Wake County Public Libraries (WCPL) and encompasses *most* of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus other identitites such as, intersex, asexual, aromantic, demisexual, demiromantic, nonbinary, genderqueer, and more) titles categorized under "Mystery" in the WCPL collection as of July 21, 2025

Showing 1 - 20 of 23  There are a total of 61 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The last note of warning"
Star rating for The last note of warning
Description:
"Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she's a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city's wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York's underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found,...
Book cover for "Last dance before dawn"
Star rating for Last dance before dawn
Description:
"Last Dance before Dawn is the final book in the luscious, mysterious, and queer Nightingale mystery series by Katharine Schellman, set in 1920s New York. Vivian Kelly has finally created a home and a family at the glamorous speakeasy known as The Nightingale, where no one cares who you are in the daytime. After all, in the underground world of 1920s New York City, everyone has a secret to keep, and they're on the Nightingale's dance floor to leave...
Book cover for "The rivals"
Star rating for The rivals
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Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Claudia Lin--mystery novel superfan and, until recently, clichéd underemployed English major--has scored her dream job: co-running Veracity, a dating detective agency whose mission is to determine if chronically online New Yorkers are telling the truth about themselves to their prospective partners. Unfortunately, along the way, she and her colleagues--tech wizard Squirrel, and the beautiful and intimidating Becks--have uncovered a nefarious AI...
Book cover for "Charlotte Illes is not a detective"
Star rating for Charlotte Illes is not a detective
Series:
Not a detective volume 1.
Description:
"As a kid, Charlotte Illes' uncanny sleuthing abilities made her a minor celebrity. But in high school, she hung up her detective's hat and stashed away the signature blue landline in her "office"--aka garage--convinced that finding her adult purpose would be as easy as tracking down missing pudding cups or locating stolen diamonds. Now twenty-five, Charlotte has a nagging fear that she hit her peak in middle school living with her mom, scrolling...
Book cover for "Death in the spires"
Star rating for Death in the spires
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Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"1905. A decade after the grisly murder of Oxford student Toby Feynsham, the case remains hauntingly unsolved. For Jeremy Kite, the crime not only stole his best friend, it destroyed his whole life. When an anonymous letter lands on his desk, accusing him of having killed Toby, Jem becomes obsessed with finally uncovering the truth. Jem begins to track down the people who were there the night Toby died - a close circle of friends once known as the...
Book cover for "Cirque du slay"
Star rating for Cirque du slay
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Description:
Pint-sized Seattle middle school teacher and gay dating blogger Hayden McCall and his best friend Hollister are invited to a fundraiser for Bakers Without Borders. The celebrity performer, Kennedy Osaka, is the artistic director of Mysterium, an upscale circus arts show combining magic, acrobatics, and a Michelin-star dinner. But Kennedy is a no-show--until she's found dead in her hotel suite. When frenemy Sarah Lee is discovered in the room with...
Book cover for "Blood sisters"
Star rating for Blood sisters
Average Rating:
2.7 stars
Description:
"A powerful mystery about a Native American archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who must reckon with her past when she is called back to Oklahoma to investigate both the disappearance of her sister and a new case of a missing Native girl that turns up evidence with her name on it. Syd Walker fled her rural Oklahoma hometown-scarred by abandoned mines and a mounting opioid crisis-and never looked back. Now, she lives in Rhode Island as an...
Book cover for "A good day to pie"
Star rating for A good day to pie
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Series:
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"Daisy bakes a little murder into every pie she creates, and she and her dog, Zoe, deliver them to the town's worst cads. Now, Daisy's entered a televised, elimination-style competition and has a shot at $100k in prize money--but she still has a murder pie to deliver between filming. In a completely unexpected turn of events, she discovers that her intended victim is one of the competition judges, and he turns up dead before the pie even arrives....
Book cover for "The last drop of hemlock"
Star rating for The last drop of hemlock
Description:
"The rumor went through the Nightingale like a flood, quietly rising, whispers hovering on lips in pockets of silence. Life as a working-class girl in Prohibition-era New York isn't safe or easy. But Vivian Kelly has a new job at the Nightingale, an underground speakeasy where the jazz is hot and the employees look out for each other in a world that doesn't care about them. Things are finally looking up for her and her sister Florence... until the...
Book cover for "Death in the dark"
Star rating for Death in the dark
Description:
"Sparkle McCavity, young drag queen and employee of Miss Merkin, is missing, presumed kidnapped or even worse. Naturally, Merkin turns to reluctant sleuth and friend to the community Fi for help, but clues and suspects are worryingly thin on the ground--and the drag king Stan the Man is proving somewhat distracting. When Merkin's niece is then found murdered, spiked on a light pole in nightclub TRASH, it becomes clear that Fi's friends are in danger....
Book cover for "Survivor's guilt"
Star rating for Survivor's guilt
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Description:
Attorney and LGBTQ+ activist Robyn Gigl tackles the complexities of gender, power, public perception, and human trafficking with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot in her second legal thriller featuring Erin McCabe, a protagonist who, like the author, is a transgender attorney. Now she and her law partner are drawn into a dark world of offshore bank accounts, computer hacking, murder, and the devastating impact of sexual abuse...
Book cover for "The heron's cry"
Star rating for The heron's cry
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Series:
Two rivers volume 2.
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases. Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though,...
Book cover for "Board to death"
Star rating for Board to death
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Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"Back in his hometown of Sugar House running his familys board game shop and caf,̌ Ben Rosencrantz just cant seem to get his life to pass go, much less collect $200. Once he was a happily married English professor in Seattle. Now hes a divorced caregiver, looking after his ill father and a Chihuahua named Beans while still figuring out the rules of retail management st the town has become more LGBTQ+ friendly than when Ben...
Book cover for "Rehearsed to death"
Star rating for Rehearsed to death
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Description:
"Peter's first play is having its world premiere at Pleasant Woods's community theater. His handsome one and only, JP, has the lead. Rehearsals have begun. And New York City's award-winning, hotshot helmer, Xander Sherwood Deva, is directing. Unfortunately the controlling, arrogant, poison-barbed, egomaniacal diva has everyone on edge. No wonder he finally pushes someone over it ... Xander is found strangled to death in the same extra-long, imported...
Book cover for "Devil's chew toy"
Star rating for Devil's chew toy
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Description:
"Seattle teacher and part-time blogger Hayden McCall wakes sporting one hell of a shiner, with the police knocking at his door. It seems that his new crush, dancer Camilo Rodriguez, has gone missing and they suspect foul play. What happened the night before? And where is Camilo? Determined to find answers, pint-sized, good-hearted Hayden seeks out two of Camilo's friends--Hollister and Burley--both lesbians and both fiercely devoted to their friend...
Book cover for "Last call at the Nightingale"
Star rating for Last call at the Nightingale
Average Rating:
2.7 stars
Description:
"New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly's days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day. But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in...
Book cover for "Death in heels"
Star rating for Death in heels
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Fi McKinnery is full of nerves as the gorgeous Mae B...takes to the stage for her debut at drag club Trash, but Mae B is dazzling...that is until local queen Eve lampoons her performance and ruins the show. So when Eve turns up dead later that night, face down in the gutter of a rain-soaked Dublin street, the timing seems awfully suspicious...The police are quick to rule Eve's death an accident, but Fi is convinced it was foul play...But when another...
Book cover for "Renovated to death"
Star rating for Renovated to death
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Description:
"After a successful first season of Domestic Partners chronicling the renovation of their historic Craftsman Colonial, Peter and JP are taking on a renovation of a local Tudor Revival inherited by identical twin brothers Terry and Tom Cash. But linoleum floors and a pink-tiled bathroom aren't the only unwelcome surprises awaiting inside the house. Just as the show is set to start filming, Peter and JP discover Tom Cash dead at the foot of the house's...
Book cover for "Dead dead girls"
Star rating for Dead dead girls
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Average Rating:
2.3 stars
Description:
"The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the Harlem Renaissance from debut author Nekesa Afia. Harlem, 1926. Young black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead. Following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal when she was in her teens, Louise is doing everything she can to maintain a normal life. She's succeeding, too. She spends her days working at Maggie's Café and her nights at the Zodiac, Harlem's hottest speakeasy. Louise's...
Book cover for "By way of sorrow"
Star rating for By way of sorrow
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Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, William E. Townsend, Jr., son of a New Jersey State Senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteen-year-old transgender prostitute, is in custody, and given the evidence against her, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict. Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open, and doubtless...