Thursday: Book Titles: Mystery

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Hi! I’m brumeier, and this week we’re going to be hitting the library shelves for some titles because I love me some books. Today’s theme is Book Titles: Mystery! Your prompts can be any book title that fits this theme, whether or not the actual book is in that genre.

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and fandom's full name for ease adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the spoiler cut.
If there are possible triggers in your story, please warn for them in the subject line!

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get the ball rolling...

+ MI5|Spooks, Any, The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton)

+ Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne +/ Any, The Soldier and the Spy (Annabelle Greene)

+ Any, Any, The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)

+ The Sentinel, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg, The Cascade Killer (Rob Phillips)

We use AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2016 collection. See further notes on this new option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? Check out Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 1 (not very current), Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet 2, or the Calendar Archives, or for more recent prompts, you can use LJ's advanced search options to find prompts to request and/or fill.

While the Lonely Prompts Spreadsheets and LJ's advanced search options are available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching for in the future.

tag=book titles/mystery

Comments

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

MI5|Spooks, Any, The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton)

Fill: Warning - Swear word

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

“Lucas!” Harry Pearce’s shout could probably be heard throughout the whole building and not just from his office to the seat where Lucas North was sitting.

Lucas smiled, looking as if butter wouldn’t met in his mouth. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“This time you have excelled yourself.”

“Thank you.”

“And no, that is not a compliment. You have stolen an entire train!”

“What?” Jo’s head jerked up.

“I see you, at least, weren’t in on the plot,” Harry said. “I suppose I should be grateful for small mercies.”

“I haven’t actually stolen it,” Lucas objected. “I did intend to give it back. I just couldn’t see how else I was to retrieve the information in the time available.”

“For the benefit of Jo, and anyone else who has been in blissful ignorance of Lucas’ latest bit of tomfoolery,” Harry said, “He stole one of the trains from Bekonscot miniature village.”

Jo laughed and Harry glared at her.

“I was right,” Lucas protested. “The train was being used to pass information.”

“I know. I agree you had to do something. However, that doesn’t make it any better. Anyway, your next assignment is to return the bloody thing.”

Lucas grinned and turned to Jo. “Fancy a trip to a model village?” he asked.

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne +/ Any, The Soldier and the Spy (Annabelle Greene)

Fill 1/2: The (retired) Airman and the Spook, Evan + Ros (Spooks)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

“You’re a spook,” Evan said to the woman who stood on the other side of the counter.

“Is that what Lucas told you to call us?” She was tall and elegant, her hair pulled back in a French twist, with round cheeks and a narrow nose and lovely dark golden hair.

“He refers to you as his coworkers.” Evan smiled and boxed up a half dozen eclairs for her.

She paid for a credit with a name on it that probably wasn’t hers, but Evan wasn’t about to call her on it. “So you’ve noticed us.”

“I try to make a note of regular customers,” Evan said. “And I’ve noticed how Lucas reacts to you, when you come in.”

“We’re not close-minded about his choice of romantic partner,” the woman said. “But our supervisor does have questions about you.”

“My name is Evan Lorne, and I used to serve in the United States Air Force, and now I run a bakery.”

“Anyone who becomes involved with one of us has to be vetted. Your background came up with a few blank spots, shall we say.” The woman accepted the box of eclairs but made no move to actually leave the bakery.

She’d come in during a lull. She’d probably planned it that way.

“Probably more like black holes, I’m guessing.” Evan wiped down the counter even though he didn’t really need to. Lucas was often oblique about what he meant; Evan had thought it was just part of his personality, or perhaps that vaunted British politeness he’d always heard so much about (Canadian politeness being a bit more of a myth, between Rodney McKay’s short fuse and Chuck Campbell’s snark and passive aggression).

Now Evan was realizing that Lucas’s tendency to talk around what he meant was probably a professional habit.

The woman arched an eyebrow. “You much interested in astrophysics?”

“Once dated an astrophysicist and was commanded by another,” Evan said. That Samantha Carter had once been his commanding officer would have been left in his file.

“What has Lucas told you about his job?”

“I don’t ask about it, and he doesn’t ask about my old job, and we’re both safer that way.” Both physically and emotionally.

Lucas still had nightmares about what had happened to him in Russia; Evan only knew because sometimes Lucas cried out in Russian when things were particularly bad.

“I know the basics, of course,” Evan added. “You’re with Five, not Six.”

The woman nodded.

“But I know how to not ask questions.”

“Hazard of your old job,” the woman guessed. She wasn’t referring to his being in the military so much as his being involved in the highly classified Stargate Program.

Evan nodded.

The woman pressed her lips into a thin line and eyed him. Then she cleared her throat. “In our line of work, it doesn’t really pay to have friends, or lovers, or really any close emotional relationship that can be turned into leverage against us. However, I do consider Lucas a -- very respectable colleague, one I trust with my life.”

“Comrades-in-arms. I get that,” Evan said.

The woman nodded. “I’m sure you do. That being said, I do actually care about Lucas, and --”

“Wait, is this a shovel talk?”

The woman blinked. “Pardon?”

“You know, the whole if you hurt him they’ll never find your body, which coming from you is actually kind of terrifying.” Evan was only mildly amused and mostly unimpressed.

A faint blush colored the woman’s round cheeks. “Is that what they call it in America?”

“You know that’s kind of paternalistic and outdated, right?” Evan said. “Do you think Lucas can’t take care of himself? I know the whole shovel talk is your way of showing you care about Lucas, but if you really do care about him, threatening someone he cares about is probably not a great way to demonstrate that.”

The blush vanished, and the woman’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Any, Any, The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

The Sentinel, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg, The Cascade Killer (Rob Phillips)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Astro, Any, Ghost Detective (Scott William Carter)

[cozy-coffee.livejournal.com]

9-1-1, Eddie/Buck, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

[cozy-coffee.livejournal.com]

any, any, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitake

[cozy-coffee.livejournal.com]

Any, any, Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre

[cozy-coffee.livejournal.com]

Any, any, This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Any, Any, A Beginner’s Guide to Murder (Rosalind Stopps)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, ensemble, The Mystery of the Bones (C.S. Poe)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Lucifer, Lucifer + Chloe Decker + any of the team Why Kill the Innocent (C.S. Harris)

*p.s. now we're in my genre!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Malcolm Bright, Martin Whitly, John Watkins, In the Woods (Tana French)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

The X-Files, Dana Scully, Fox Mulder Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles (A.L. Herbert)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Edrisa Tanaka + any Speaking from Among the Bones (Alan Bradley)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, any, Killing at the Carnival (L. A. Nisula)

Fill 1/2: Edrisa + Malcolm + Dani + JT (Monster Hunters 'verse)

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

“If there’s some killer clown behind this, I’m out,” JT said.

“You watch too many horror movies,” Dani replied dismissively.

“Hello? We live over a Hellmouth. Our lives are horror movies.”

“I don’t think they have clowns at the Winter Carnival,” Malcolm said. He looked over at Edrisa, eyebrows raised with his unasked question.

She offered half-hearted smile. “Last year there was a mime.”

“Just as bad,” JT said.

Shadyfell’s annual Winter Carnival was underway on the village green, which had been transformed with fairy lights and ice sculptures and vendor tents and even a little ice-skating rink. Edrisa normally loved going, and it should have been even more fun having friends to hang out with this year, but the unwanted voice in her head put a damper on things.

Malcolm loved the carnival when he was little. We’d get hot cocoa and watch the ice sculptors.

Martin Whitly, aka the demon known as the Surgeon, aka Malcom’s dad, had been chattering away in Edrisa’s head all day. He was probably happy to have a captive audience, since he was presumably alone in whatever pocket universe he’d been banished to.

Edrisa had expected to be scared, subjected to horrible accounts of the Surgeon’s homicidal past. Instead, he sounded…wistful. Like a dad who missed his son. It was weird and she didn’t know how to feel about it.

“Back here,” Dani said. She led them to the area behind the Port-A-Johns, which was taped off with police caution tape. “This is where they found the body.”

“Not the best place for a final rest,” Malcolm remarked. He squatted down and pulled out his phone, using the flashlight to get a better look at the dirt. “No blood?”

“Completely drained,” Dani confirmed.

“So? Vampire. You stake him and we’re done.” JT looked over at the food trucks. “Anyone want a taco?”

“Not just drained,” Dani said. “Completely frozen, too.”

“It’s winter.”

Dani gave JT a sour look. “Frozen like a pot pie, inside and out. In about two hours.”

It would take twelve hours at least, depending on a whole host of factors, Martin said helpfully. I once kept a body in a standard chest freezer for –

“Unless liquid nitrogen was used, that would be impossible,” Edrisa said hastily. “Not in two hours. The low temperature last night was thirty-two degrees. He could’ve died from exposure, but his body wouldn’t have frozen solid. You know, my neighbor’s cat died last year and he kept it in a bag in the freezer until he could bury it, right there with the frozen peas, and I told him that was unsanitary but he –”

Malcolm put his hand on Edrisa’s shoulder and she closed her mouth so fast she nearly bit her tongue.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice little more than a whisper.

Edrisa shook her head. “No.”

“I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but it has to wait,” Dani said. She sounded angry, and Edrisa felt her face flushing because Dani was probably mad at her specifically. “We have to find this ice vampire thing and stop it before it kills someone else.”

“What are we supposed to look for?” JT asked. “Icicles hanging from its eyelashes?”

“Remember that app I had you guys download last month? The thermal imaging one? You can use that. We’re looking for someone with no body heat.”

“Most vampires would show up blue,” Malcolm said, pulling out his phone. “Unless they’ve just fed on someone, and there would be residual heat from the blood they drank.”

JT sighed. “Lovely.”

[goddess47]

Teen Wolf, any, The Secret of Chimneys (Agatha Christie)

[goddess47]

Any, Any, Secret of the Stars (Andre Norton)

[goddess47]

Stargate Multiverse, Any, The Spellbound Child (Mercedes Lackey)

Fill 1/3: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay + Jeannie + Madison

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

The spellbound child was all anyone in the magical community could talk about. No-one knew her name, who her family was, or how to break the spell she was under. She was front page news every day in the Dresden Times, and the various methods that had thus far been used to try and rouse the child had been hotly debated and discussed.

None of those reporters and talking heads had actually seen the girl, who was under special care at Laveau’s. MagiCorps officers had been called in to keep the press and the lookie-loos away.

John had been the one to find her.

MagiCorps did routine sweeps of the empty, condemned buildings on Lower Madison, which were squats for homeless norms, and a place for casters to play around with darker magic.

The spellbound child had been there, laid out on the floor inside a chalk circle lined with candles that had all burned themselves out. Young – only four or five, maybe – and blonde, she’d been wearing a white party dress. John remembered there’d been tiny white flowers in her hair.

“You’re brooding,” Rodney said over breakfast. “Not that I mind, because you have the face for it, but why are you brooding?”

“It’s nothing.” Rodney just stared at him until John gave in. He was really good at doing that. “I can’t stop thinking about that girl.”

Rodney’s stern countenance immediately softened. “There was nothing you could’ve done for her.”

“Yeah. I know.”

But he’d never forget how tiny and weightless she’d seemed in his arms when he carried her out of the building and into the sunshine. Ford had called for paramedics, but John hadn’t been able to leave her on that cold concrete, in a room that smelled of dead animals and human waste.

“Jeannie’s been visiting her,” Rodney said. “I think she feels some sort of connection, through the girl’s circumstances aren’t the same.”

His sister had also been a guest at Laveau’s, trapped in a coma thanks to some power-hungry Darksiders who’d been trying to use her to get to Rodney. It was the rare caster who made it out of there upright; most of the residents were elderly, or terminally ill.

“We’ve been working overtime, trying to find anyone who knows her or her family,” John said. “Evan’s been like a man possessed. I think he’s been living in the records room.”

Everyone in the caster community was pulling together to help the little girl, and the news outlets the norms used had also picked up the story since no-one knew if the girl was from a caster family or not. The fact that all that hard work had yet to pay off was concerning. How was it a little girl could be so casually tossed aside, and not be missed by someone?

“They called in that Dreamcaster,” Rodney said. “Beckman? Becker?”

“Beckett. Honestly, McKay. The man helped save Jeannie’s life. The least you could do is remember his name.” John stared into his cup of coffee for a long moment, then looked over at Rodney. “You know what they haven’t tried yet?”

“Dowsing? Casting the bones? Ouijah?” Rodney replied sarcastically.

“They haven’t consulted the most powerful caster of our age.”

Rodney snorted. “I’m not a medical doctor. I’m an actor.”

“You’re a genius,” John pointed out.

Which was true. There was no-one in the world who could do what Rodney did, casting multiple spells while also acting, putting on massive one-man shows that people couldn’t get enough of.

“You’re laying it on a bit thick.”

John sighed. “Couldn’t you just go see her? Maybe you’d sense something no-one else can.”

“I need to get to the theater,” Rodney said dismissively.

With a flick of his hand, his breakfast dishes transported themselves to the kitchen sink. He gave John a quick kiss on his way to the door.

“Let me think about it,” he said.

“That’s all I’m asking,” John replied. He pulled Rodney in for a more thorough kiss.

*o*o*o*

[goddess47]

Any, any, Today We Choose Faces (Roger Zelazny)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

BBC Robin Hood, any, Footprints Under the Window (Hardy Boys Mystery)

Fill: Drabble: Guy

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Guy looked out of the window in the castle. His room was on the far side from where the sheriff resided, which meant he was one of the last to know the sheriff’s latest plans. It also meant he had a certain amount of privacy, which, to Guy, was of far greater importance. As was the case at the moment. If he looked straight down, he could see a few clear footprints. Guy smiled. It meant that Much had been there, probably just before daylight. And the pattern of the footprints told him where Much would be waiting for him.

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, any, The Criss-Cross Shadow (Hardy Boys Mystery)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

MI-5|Spooks, any, The Secret Agent on Flight 101 (Hardy Boys Mystery)

Fill:

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

In the end the plane was only delayed by fifteen minutes. As they taxi-ed across the tarmac at Heathrow Airport, the man stretched and gave a heartfelt sigh.

“Glad to have made it?” the man sitting next to him asked.

“Yes. I have a meeting arranged this evening and I was afraid I would be late. Now it looks like I should make it after all,” he replied.

“I thought you seemed rather nervous,” his companion said. “I presume it’s something important.”

“It was difficult finding times when everyone could be there together. I’d have been very annoyed to miss it after all the effort that’s been put in to arranging it.”

They stood, and both men retrieved their luggage from the overhead locker. As the man left the plane, he became conscious that his companion was still close behind. Of course, everyone was heading in the same direction, but this man was just a little bit too close.

They reached passport control with no incident and once on the far side he thought he was now alone. He lengthened his stride wanting to get clear of the airport as quickly as possible. Then he heard footsteps, and glancing back saw his companion was once again following him.

Panicked he started to run, but another man stepped into his path and he found himself pinioned between the two of them.

“Good evening, Mr Kuznetsov,” the newcomer said. “And welcome to London. However, your stay here will be no more than an hour, as you have been booked onto the next flight to Moscow.”

“And unfortunately, you won’t make your meeting after all,” his earlier companion added.

“You have no right to hold me,” Kuznetsov protested. “I demand you let me go.”

“Quite correct. We cannot hold you, but we don’t want you, so we are simply ensuring your safe departure.”

As soon as Kuznetsov was on his next flight, Adam Carter turned to Lucas North and said, “I presume you found all you needed in time.”

“Oh yes,” Lucas replied. “We found enough to justify getting rid of Kuznetsov. There wasn’t time to gather enough evidence to charge him, but it was much less effort to send him back anyway. How was the flight?”

“Tedious, as ever. And I didn’t fancy the food, so how about we stop for something on the way home?”

“Good idea.”

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Hawaii Five-0, any, The Jungle Pyramid (Hardy Boys Mystery)

Fill: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Sentinel AU

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

“What the hell is a pyramid doing in Hawaii?” Danny asked, staring at it with his hands on his hips.

“Haven’t you heard of the mounds in Samoa?”

“A mound is not a pyramid, Steven.”

Danny used his annoyance to mask his fear. The pyramid, crumbling and as covered over with vines as it was, made his Guide senses quiver. There was power inside it, old and incomprehensible, and Danny wanted to get far away from it.

So of course his Sentinel was drawn there like a magnet.

“It looks just like I dreamed it,” Steve said. “Can you hear that?”

“You know I can’t, Man Bat.”

“It’s like a song.” Steve cocked his head to the side. “No, not a song. But something like that.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Oh, well, that clears it right up, then. Thanks.”

Normally Steve would’ve grilled Danny about the strain in his voice, or the way his heart was beating too fast, but he was completely enthralled. That scared Danny even more than the power bleeding out of the pyramid.

Danny clapped his hands together. “Hello! Over here! Remember me? Your Guide?”

Steve frowned at Danny, but at least he was looking at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“This whole thing is what’s wrong with me!” Danny gestured at the pyramid with one hand. “It’s dangerous. I don’t want you going inside.”

“It wants me to,” Steve replied.

“Which is why you shouldn’t. There’s not telling what could happen.”

Steve ignored him and moved closer to the pyramid, splaying one hand against it. “It was built for Sentinels. To expand our minds, deepen our senses.”

“Scramble your brain, you mean.”

Danny would never know what it was like to be a Sentinel, to use those enhanced senses. He would never know what it was like to experience the world the way Steve did, in such great detail and complexity. Just as Steve would never know what it was like to get feelings through the Guide sense, flashes of information that needed to be interpreted, analyzed.

Danny moved between Steve and the pyramid, moving Steve’s hand so it covered Danny’s heart.

“You don’t need this.”

Steve’s hand tightened, pulling at the shirt.

“We’ll go back to HQ, let Chin do his thing, and see what it’s all about. If you still have to come back, I’ll come with you.”

Danny knew better than to get in the way of the mystic, and if the pyramid was really meant to help Steve and wasn’t just a siren call of doom, he’d keep his word. And Steve knew it.

“Okay, Danno,” he conceded. “It’s a long hike back out to civilization, though. I might need some motivating.”

“If I must,” Danny replied with a put-upon sigh that was wholly manufactured.

He pulled Steve in for a kiss, feeling the echo of his own pleasure through their bond. When they got back home, and Danny had washed off the sweat from slogging through the jungle, he’d show Steve a more enjoyable way of expanding his mind.

“Let’s get out of here before something poisonous tries to bite me,” Danny murmured against Steve’s lips.

“It’s the snails you have to watch out for,” Steve replied, hands slipping down to cup Danny’s ass.

“Don’t start with me, Steven.”

Steve kissed him again, and it seemed the call of the pyramid had been drowned out by the call of something far more primal.

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

The Losers, Cougar/Jensen, Game Plan for Disaster (Laurence Swinburne)