An American customs agent looks into a murder in Mexico as a hurricane bears down on the tropical landscape in this “first-rate” mystery (Kirkus Reviews). US Customs Service agent and amateur sleuth Hugh Rennert has been invited to Hacienda Flores, an isolated mountain retreat in Mexico. A consortium of Texas investors with an interest in the place have asked him to investigate a murder that could be bad for business . . . But confronting a killer isn’t the only danger Rennert faces as an epic storm approaches in this mystery filled with twists and turns that, according to the New York Times Book Review, are “guaranteed to keep the reader interested and greatly puzzled.”

A customs agent must track down a killer on a train barreling across the Texas border into Mexico . . . When a train leaves Laredo en route to Mexico City, the trip turns terrifying as one passenger after another falls victim to murder. Will anyone make it to their destination alive? Fortunately, Hugh Rennert—US Customs agent and amateur detective—is on board, and his investigation will proceed full steam ahead . . . “You won’t go wrong in giving Todd Downing a try.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

An American family in Mexico hosts a group of archaeologists—butis there an assassin among them? “Satisfactorily sinister . . . class-A sleuthing” (Saturday Review). “Unconquered” is the family motto of the Faudrees, whose ancestor, a Confederate officer, fled to Mexico decades ago. Now his two granddaughters, Lucy and Monica, live there in a beautiful old house near some black lava fields. The fields have recently attracted a team of archaeologists from an American university, and they’ll be the sisters’ guests during their expedition to Pedregal. But Lucy and Monica soon discover the visiting academics may be unearthing trouble: A professor has died. Strange and threatening letters have been sent. And oddly, owls seem to be invading. To dig up the truth about what’s going on, the Faudree sisters will need some help from US Customs agent and amateur sleuth Hugh Rennert, in this tale featuring “good background, atmosphere and characters” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “You won’t go wrong in giving Todd Downing a try.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

In this Mexico-set mystery with “excellent atmosphere” featuring a sheriff and an amateur sleuth, a bullfighter is dead—but was the killer man or beast (Kirkus Reviews)? In Matamoras, Mexico, the last trumpet has sounded in the bullring, but this time it’s not the bull who’s died. Carlos Campos has been fatally gored. But soon a shocking discovery is made: the apparent accident is actually a murder . . . To solve the case, former US Customs agent and Texas citrus farmer Hugh Rennert will team up with Sheriff Peter Bounty to identify a motive and a suspect. And there’s no time to lose as the killer hasn’t limited himself to a single victim . . . “You won’t go wrong in giving Todd Downing a try.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Hugh Rennert investigates a strange series of suicides in near-rural Mexico.

The renowned British crime writer’s classic locked-room Golden Age mystery that introduced amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham. A party at Layton Court, the country house of Victor Stanworth, is disrupted when the host is found shot through the forehead in his own library, a suicide as far as the police are concerned. After all, the gun is found in his hand, a note has been left, and the room is locked from the inside. But one of the guests, author Roger Sheringham, has his doubts. The bullet wound is not positioned where it could have been easily self-inflicted. With a house full of partygoers and servants, suspects abound. It will take Sheringham’s sharp wit and fearless investigating to deduce who brought the festivities to a fatal end. The founder of the Detection Club in London, along with Agatha Christie and other writers, Anthony Berkeley wrote numerous novels, sometimes using the pseudonyms Francis Iles and A. Monmouth Platts. The Layton Court Mystery is his first book in the Roger Sheringham Cases, which includes The Poisoned Chocolates Case and The Silk Stocking Murders, among other titles. “Certainly, Berkeley’s short and fascinating career deserves to be saluted. For fans of the classic English crime novel, his books remain enjoyable to this day. Nobody has ever done ironic ingenuity better than Anthony Berkeley.” —Mystery Scene “He was one of the most influential crime novelists of the 1920s and 1930s, but has languished somewhat in obscurity since. A troubled, dark, incredibly innovative writer . . .” —Shedunnit