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Murder by Toaster
Deaths by surprisingly lethal weapons, in which unexpected or usually harmless items are employed as effective murder weapons.

 

Caution: This list is full of spoilers, so beware!

CASS FIC HEYER
Behold, Here’s Poison
Georgette Heyer
A British country house sets the scene for murder, as Inspector Hannasyde must unravel the motives of servants and houseguests alike after a tube of toothpaste injected with nicotine kills two family members.

CASS FIC SAYERS
The Nine Tailors
Dorothy L. Sayers
East Anglia is known for its splendid churches, but even Lord Peter Wimsey is perplexed by this case, in which he finds a murder by church bell.

CASS FIC SAYERS
Busman’s Honeymoon
Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey and his new bride Harriet Vane can’t escape the world of crime-solving as their honeymoon at a country house is interrupted by the discovery of a body, murdered with a hanging flowerpot.

JSC DAHL
Lamb to the Slaughter
In Skin and Other Stories
Roald Dahl
In Alfred Hitchcock's favorite Dahl story,. a woman whose husband is abandoning their marriage kills him by battering him with a frozen leg of lamb, then later feeds the evidence to the investigating officers.

FIC DORSEY
Florida Roadkill
Tim Dorsey
In this crime spree through South Florida , strange murders include a man killed with a pair of women's designer jeans put on him while he's unconscious in a bathtub. As they shrink, he slowly dies of lack of circulation.

FIC ECO
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
Brother William of Baskerville is sent to investigate charges of heresy against Franciscan monks at a wealthy Italian abbey but finds his mission overshadowed by seven bizarre murders. In one case, a monk poisons the pages of the scandalous book Poetics by Aristotle; when anyone licks his fingers to turn the pages, they ingest the poison.  

FIC KING
Misery
Stephen King
Graphic horror novel about an author who is stalked and threatened by his 'Number 1 fan.' The author finally kills the retired nurse who has been holding him captive by crushing her skull with a manual typewriter.

FIC PARSONS
The Courtship Gift
Julie Parsons
In this psychological thriller, Anna, an entomologist, returns from work to find her husband dead of anaphylactic shock brought on by a bee sting, and suspects foul play when she discovers a package delivered to him on the day of his death.

MYS ANDREWS
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
Donna Andrews
In this wacky, fast-paced read, the practical joker in a software gaming company is strangled with a mouse cord while riding throughout the office on the automated mail cart.

MYS BOWEN
Evans to Betsy
Rhys Bowen
While Constable Evans is looking into the death of the director of the Center for Celtic Spirituality in Wales , he uncovers a murder by a locked steam room turned to maximum heat.

MYS BOX
Savage Run
C. J. Box
After an environmental activist is done in by an exploding cow, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is called on to investigate the strange incident, and soon unravels a dangerous conspiracy.

MYS EDWARDS
Clubbed to Death
Ruth Dudley Edwards
A copy of The Economist magazine is used for one murder in this crime novel set in a London gentlemen's club whose members are being killed off one by one.

MYS FLEMING
Goldfinger
Ian Fleming
A woman is murdered by a full-body gilding of gold paint, which cut off air to the skin, causing her death. Meanwhile, James Bond must stop the evil Goldfinger from robbing Fort Knox .

MYS GRAFTON
CASS FIC GRAFTON
“B” is for Burglar
Sue Grafton
A clever, fast-plotted mystery featuring PI Kinsey Millhone searching for a missing wealthy widow. A window weight from a sash window that had been pried out is used to bludgeon someone to death, and then put back in plain sight.

MYS JAMES
Posted to Death
Dean James
Reformed vampire-turned-sleuth from the American South, Simon Kirby-Jones, settles in an English village to investigate the murder of a mean-spirited postmistress. While looking into the crime, Simon faces an attempt on his life by the villainess, who tries to murder him with a garlic canapé.

MYS WHITE
If Looks Could Kill
Kate White
When her young nanny dies after eating poisoned chocolates meant for her, magazine editor Cat Jones enlists the help of freelance crime writer Bailey Weggins, a single, thirty-something, true crime writer for a leading Manhattan woman's magazine.

PBK DERESKE
Miss Zukas and the Library Murders
Jo Dereske
A librarian working at a library that is in the process of converting from a card catalog to a computerized network becomes an amateur sleuth after discovering a body in the fiction stacks, a card catalog drawer rod through the victim's heart.

 

*This list was compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L Readers' Advisory mailing list.

 

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