CLUES UNLIMITED

A mystery bookstore
3146 E. Ft. Lowell Rd
Tucson, AZ 85716-5317
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Books we particularly recommend are in red

February/March 2010

New and Forthcoming in Hardcover

Allan, Barbara. Antiques Bizarre (Kens, 22.00) Mar. Mississippi antiques dealer Vivian Borne and her daughter investigate when the donor of a Fabergé egg at a charity auction for flood victims is poisoned at the auction and the highest bidder for the piece is pushed down a flight of stairs in the fourth in this comic cozy series.

Ault, Sandi. Wild Penance (Brk, 24.95) Feb. BLM agent Jamaica Wild believes that a dramatic death that she witnesses may be the result of Los Penitentes, a New Mexico religious group that practices ritual penance in re-enactments of the death of Christ.

Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity Down Under (Vik, 24.95) Feb. Lori Shepherd travels to New Zealand to track down her dying neighbors’ scapegrace brother who was banished to the Antipodes long ago.

Banks, Ray. No More Heroes (HMH, 25.00) Mar. Manchester PI Cal Innes must deal with a case of arson that may be related to the English National Socialists in the latest in this terrific hardboiled series.

Bass, Jefferson. The Bone Thief (HC, 24.99) Mar. Bill Brockton, the head of the human decomposition team known as the Body Farm is asked by the FBI to work undercover in a case against an unscrupulous tissue bank.

Bartulin, Lenny. Death by the Book (STM, 24.99) Jan. A used-book dealer in Sydney who is asked to find copies of the work of an obscure poet is the hero of this first in a hard-boiled series, and when bodies begin to turn up, the police see him as the ideal suspect given his shady past.

Berenson, Alex. The Midnight House (Put, 25.95) Feb. CIA agent John Wells gets a call when two agents are gunned down after participating in an interrogation team investigating Islamic terrorists operating out of a secret base in Poland, and what he discovers is that security has been compromised from within.

Bernhardt, William. Capitol Betrayal (Ball, 26.00) Mar. Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid has lost his senate bid and is working on legal issue for the newly-elected president when news of an impending missle attack sends everyone to an underground shelter, where the vice president makes a bid to replace the president and Kincaid must defend him against the charge of acting erratically.

Boyd, William. Ordinary Thunderstorms (HC, 26.99) Feb. A tale of criminal and corporate skullduggery set in London, where a climatologist interviewing for a job meets an immunologist, whose body he happens across later, and fearing that he may be the target of the murderers, he takes the man’s papers and goes into hiding. A well-written Hitchcockian wrong-man whodunit.

Carkeet, David. From Away (Vik, 25.95) Mar. A comic mystery set in a small Vermont town where a stranger stranded in the town assumes the identity of a local man who had disappeared years before only to find himself the chief suspect in the murder of a woman.

Childs, Laura. The Teaberry Strangler (Brk, 24.95) Mar. Charleston shop owners sponsor a Dickensian evening, but when the night is over tea-shop owner Theodosia Browning discovers the body of another shop owner in the alley and the police think the murder may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Coben, Harlan. Caught (Dut, 27.95) Mar. After a tabloid TV reporter accuses a man of being a sexual predator, she discovers a link between the father of one of his victims and others felled by scandal and realizes not only that he may be innocent, but also that she may be a killer’s next victim.

Compton, Julie. Rescuing Olivia (STM, 25.99) Feb. When his girlfriend is left in a coma after a hit-and-run motorcycle accident, a man journeys to Kenya to uncover a horrifying cover-up involving a pharmaceutical company and the discovery of a powerful new drug.

Conant-Park, Jessica and Susan Conant. Cook the Books (Brk, 23.95) Mar. Chloe Carter needs money, so she goes to work for a famous Boston cookbook writer, but in the process of compiling recipes from the city’s top chefs, she find the body of her ex’s best friend.

Cussler, Clive with Jack du Brul. The Silent Sea (Put, 27.95) Mar. Cabrillo and the crew of the USS Oregon are chasing the remnants of a crashed satellite in the Argentine jungle when they stumble across an artifact left by an ancient Chinese expedition to South America, an artifact that appears to be cursed.

Cutler, Judith. Staging Death (A&B, 29.95) Mar. Retired actress Vena Burford has been working part-time for her estate agent brother showing potential buyers around expensive country houses near Stratford-upon-Avon, but when a series of couples who don’t fit the usual client profile demand to explore every nook and cranny of the elegant homes, she becomes alarmed and turns amateur sleuth.

Dorsey, Tim. Gator A-Go-Go (HC, 24.99) Feb. Vigilante serial killer Serge A. Storms decides to enjoy spring break in Florida, and must protect an innocent college student who is the target of vengeful drug dealers and federal agents in another romp that combines tidbits of Florida history with over-the-top humor.

Edwards, Martin. The Serpent Pool (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Feb. DCI Hannah Scarlett of the Cold Case Squad has a case that involves antiquarian booksellers and the brilliant nineteenth-century writer Thomas de Quincey in the latest in this excellent British police procedural series.

Fairstein, Linda. Hell Gate (Dut, 26.95) Mar. New York ADA Alexandra Cooper is investigating the sex scandal of a rising politician who has fallen from grace, when the shipwreck of a freighter carrying contraband cargo of female sex slaves from Asia and the appearance of a tattoo shows that the two cases are connected.

Fielding, Joy. The Wild Zone (SS, 25.00) Mar. In this intense thriller set in Miami, two brothers tangle with a beautiful woman who is looking for someone to kill her abusive husband. This has a great surprise ending.

Fluke, JoAnne. Apple Turnover Murder (Kens, 24.00) Mar. When Hannah Swensen reluctantly agrees to set up an apple turnover stand at a massive three-day fundraising event and agrees to stand in as a magician’s assistant for the talent show as well, little does she know that she must add sleuthing to her duties when she stumbles over the body of the local community college professor who is host for the show.

Goodman, Carol. Arcadia Falls (Ball, 25.00) Mar. An atmospheric gothic tale set in an upstate New York boarding school where a widow accepts a teaching job along with her teenaged daughter, but her research into the death of one of the founders of the school reveals secrets, secrets that are behind the ghost sightings and the mysterious death of a bright student.

Graysmith, Robert. The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shower (Brk, 25.95) Feb. A true crime thriller about the mysterious murder of the actress/model who was the body double for Janet Leigh in the movie Psycho, who faded into obscurity only to be murdered by a serial killer in 1988. An intriguing unsolved show-biz murder.

Graves, Sarah. Crawlspace (BDD, 25.00) Jan. Jake Tiptree’s son is snatched by a psychopathic killer who may have murdered both his wife and his sister-in-law in this latest in this home repair series set in Maine.

Green, Norman. Sick Like That (STM, 24.99) Mar. Brooklyn detective Alessandra Martillo turns the routine work over to another woman while she is taking over for her boss who’s recuperating from a gunshot wound, and while the new woman tries to locate the estranged stepson for a wealthy client, Martillo hunts for a missing husband in the second in this cleverly-plotted series.

Green, Tim. False Convictions (GC, 24.99) Feb. On her first assignment for the Freedom Project, defense attorney Casey Jordan takes on the case of a black man whom she believes has been falsely convicted of a brutal rape and murder, but her investigation in the small upstate New York town creates savage resistance from the locals who are hiding dirty political secrets of blackmail and violence.

Grippando, James. Money to Burn (HC, 25.99) Mar. When the star performer at a premier Wall Street investment firm becomes the victim of identity theft, it rocks his marriage and almost destroys his firm as well as his life, but why he specifically is targeted is the question—and the answer goes back seven years to the death of his first wife in a taut thriller filled with timely references to subprime loans and Ponzi Schemes.

Hall, Parnell. The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady (STM, 24.99) Jan. A Japanese bestselling author of sudoku puzzles arrives in Connecticut to challenge Cora that she can solve crimes just as well, and when a local woman is found dead, she gets her chance to show Cora up—or will she?

Hart, Erin. False Mermaid (SS, 26.00) Mar. The third in the series set in Ireland that combines history, archaeology, and forensics finds Nora Gavin returning home to try to bring her brother-in-law to justice for the murder of her sister, while her partner in Ireland must deal with the return of his dying father and a fisherman’s wife who disappeared a century ago.

Hill, Joe. Horns (HC, 25.99) Mar. When a man wakes up one morning to discover a pair of satanic horns sprouting from his forehead, he also discovers that he has the ability to know the private thoughts of anyone he touches, an ability that he uses to hunt for the murderer of his girlfriend.

Hirahara, Naomi. Blood Hina (STM, 24.99) Mar. Los Angeles gardener Mas Arai, who survived the attack on Hiroshima when he was a boy, must help the elderly fiancé of an old friend find two missing hina dolls used in purification ceremonies, an inquiry that leads him to drug runners and several murders in the latest in this excellent series with memorable characters and a fascinating look at Japanese-American subculture.

Hogan, Chuck. Devils in Exile (SS, 25.00) Feb. A fast-moving crime novel about an Iraq war veteran in Boston who joins a group of veterans who rip-off drug dealers, but things start to unravel quickly when he begins an affair with the girlfriend of the group’s leader.

GKaufman, Thomas. Drink the Tea (STM, 24.99) Mar. An impressive debut crime novel featuring a DC Pi who is asked by a famous jazz musician to locate his missing daughter, but the case attracts the interest of an ambitious right-wing politician in a taut tale of violence and corruption.

Kostova, Elizabeth. The Swan Thieves (LB, 26.99) Jan. A novel of obsession about a psychiatrist whose patient, a renowned painter, has been hospitalized since attempting to slash a painting in the National Gallery. Although the patient is uncooperative, he gives the psychiatrist permission to talk to anyone in his life, and as the psychiatrist digs further into his patient’s motives, he himself becomes obsessed.

Lelic, Simon. A Thousand Cuts (Vik, 24.95) Mar. DI Lucia May investigates a school shooting that becomes more complex as she pieces together the testimony of various witnesses in a debut police procedural set in Brighton.

Lin, Ed. Snakes Can’t Run (STM, 24.99) Mar. NYPD detective Robert Chow investigates the murder of two Asian men shot and dumped under a Manhattan bridge in a case that sets him on the trail of the head of a ring of human smugglers in the second of this police procedural series set in Chinatown.

Lowe, Tom. The 24^th Letter (STM, 25.99) Mar. A former Miami homicide detective must race to save a man he helped send to death row when another convict names the real killer, who tries to cover his tracks by committing more murders.

Lutz, Lisa. The Spellmans Strike Again (SS, 25.00) Mar. The final installment in the funny series about a family of PIs in San Francisco finds Izzy blackmailed into dating lawyers by her mother while at the same time she works on a case that involves hunting through the garbage to find evidence of plagiarism.

Martin, Nancy. Our Lady of Immaculate Deception (STM, 24.99) Mar. The first in a new series set in Pittsburgh, featuring a sexy sleuth who gets into trouble when a wealthy philanthropist is killed and his mother’s house is torched, and she takes an ancient Greek garden statue to protect it from the killer.

Martinez, A. Lee. Divine Misfortune (Orbit, 19.99) Mar. In a second comic fantasy, two slackers looking for some divine assistance settle on Lucky, a raccoon god of good fortune, but Lucky had a falling out with another ancient god and the two find that the world of divine powers is no walk in the park.

McCrery, Nigel. Tooth and Claw (RH, 24.95) Feb. DCI Mark Lapslie, who suffers from synesthesia, is assigned to the murder of a television newscaster whose body was found with the left arm completely stripped of flesh.

McFetridge, John. Let it Ride (STM, 24.99) Feb. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan joins forces with a Toronto whore with big plans to steal a jackpot in gold as they maneuver through crime-ridden Toronto, filled with warring gangs and corrupt cops.

McKevett, G.A. Wicked Craving (Kens, 22.00) Feb. When the unpopular wife of a philandering diet guru is found dead, plus-size sleuth Savannah Reid and her policeman beau discover a major secret about the couple and a host of suspects.

Mercer, Ken. Slow Fire (STM, 24.99) Feb. A debut about a former LAPD narcotics officer, an ex-heroin addict, who takes the job as police chief of a small California town, but he hasn’t left drugs behind him, because the town has a thriving meth industry.

Mina, Denise. Midnight (LB, 24.99) Mar. A police detective in Glasgow is faced with her most puzzling case when armed men enter a suburban house demanding an unknown man, and in the ensuing confusion shoot one family member and abduct another.

Mosley, Walter. Known to Evil (Png, 25.95) Mar. NYC PI Leonid McGill is asked by the power-behind-the-throne at City Hall to help him find a young girl who has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake in the second in Mosley’s powerful new series.

Nasaw, Jonathan. The Boys from Santa Cruz (SS, 25.00) Feb. There are times when nothing will do but a grisly serial killer mystery, and Nasaw’s most recent one is first rate. His rumpled, endearingly flawed investigator is a delight and provides a comic counterpoint to the psychotic villains.

Norman, Michael. On Deadly Ground (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Mar. When an environmentalist is found shot in Kaneb, Utah, Law Enforcement Ranger J.D Books discovers that the physical evidence points to a personal rather than political motive.

Palmer, Michael. The Last Surgeon (STM, 26.99) Feb. A medical thriller featuring a doctor who runs a mobile clinic in Baltimore, offering medical aid to the homeless, investigates when several homeless men go missing in a plot involving high-level politicians and a secret CIA program.

Parker, Robert B. Split Image (Put, 25.95) Feb. Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall join forces when a low-level mob hit proves to be anything but low-level when a high-ranking crime boss is found dead on Paradise Beach. Parker died in January while working on a new mystery.

Parshall, Sandra. Broken Places (PP, 24.95hc, 14.95tp) Feb. When veterinarian Rachel Goddard hears the murder of two 1960’s activists in a case that may have repercussions on her relationship with the local sheriff, whose former girlfriend was the dead couple’s daughter.

Patterson, James. Worst Case (LB, 27.99) Feb. NYPD Detective Michael Bennett teams up with an FBI agent when children from privileged families are being kidnapped.

Picoult, Jodi. House Rules (SS, 28.00) Mar. A young man with Asperger’s Syndrome (a kind of autism whose victims have trouble expressing themselves and reading social cues) is fascinated by forensic science and shows up a crime scenes, often helping the police, is accused of murder when his tutor is found dead and his disease makes him look like someone with a guilty secret.

Porter, Henry. The Bell Ringers (AtlM, 24.00) Feb. A scary thriller set in the near future in the UK where the former lover of the prime minister’s head of intelligence inherits his estate when he dies and with it the dangerous secrets about a new program that keeps tabs on every facet of the citizens’ lives.

Ramirez, Misa. Hasta La Vista, Lola! (STM, 23.95) Feb. Sacramento PI Lola Cruz is the victim of identity theft, which she discovers when a woman identified as Lola is found dead, but even more disturbing is that the woman left behind a missing child wham Lola is determined to find. I really liked the first of this funny series.

Read, Cornelia. Invisible Boy (GC, 23.99) Mar. Former socialite Madeline is shocked to discover the skeleton of a three-year-old boy in her family cemetery across the East River from Manhattan, and her attempt to find out his identity forces her to confront serious questions about the huge gap between rich and poor in New York.

Regan, Mararet. The Death of Josseline (HMH, 25.95) Feb. A real-life look at the border issues facing us in southern Arizona by a writer who lives and works here in Tucson.

Robb, J.D. Fantasy in Death (Put, 26.95) Feb. Eve Dallas is faced with a locked-room mystery when the founder of a computer-gaming company is found dead in his private playroom.

Rollins, David. Hard Rain (BDD, 26.00) Mar. In an exciting thriller special agents Vin Cooper and Anna Masters are sent to Istanbul to investigate the murder of a U.S. air attaché to Turkey who’s been chopped in little pieces, and as they investigate they discover a plot on the part of a number of countries that do not have the best interests of the U.S. at heart.

Rosenfelt, David. Down to the Wire (STM, 24.99) Mar. A New Jersey reporter is on the trail of a psychopathic killer on a killing spree using remotely detonated bombs and poisoned darts in a stand-alone thriller with terrific plot twists.

Scottoline, Lisa. Think Twice (STM, 26.99) Mar. After her evil identical twin leaves Bennie Rosato to die in a field, she takes over her sister’s identity, her job at the all-female Philadelphia legal firm, and even her boyfriend.

Seeber, Claire. Lullaby (STM, 24.99) Jan. A debut thriller set in London about an abducted baby and a distraught mother, filled with a host of possible suspects from the husband, to his ex-wife, to a sexy French nanny, to a brother with a serious drug problem. Well-written and well-plotted.

Stabenow, Dana. A Night Too Dark (STM, 24.99) Feb. Alaska PI Kate Shugak investigates when the bear-eaten remains of a man are found near the site of a recently-opened gold mine on leased land within the Iqaluk Wildlife Refuge.

Stansberry, Domenic. Naked Moon (STM, 24.99) Mar. San Francisco PI Dante Mancuso is caught in a vise when his cousin is threatened by a policewoman investigating a Chinatown secret society and his former employer, a shadowy intelligence agency, offers to stop the investigation if he will help them find out who has leaked secrets.

Thomson, Keith. Once a Spy (BDD, 24.95) Mar. A darkly funny debut thriller featuring a father-son spy duo on the run from CIA assassins without knowing why they are being targeted in an action-packed novel of international intrigue with poignant themes of love and redemption.

Tope, Rebecca. Fear in the Cotswolds (A&B, 29.95) Mar. House-sitter Thea Osborne is caring for an isolated house deep in the countryside when she finds a body of a man in a field after a winter storm, but the body disappears before the police arrive.

Torres, Steven. Blackout in Precinct Puerto Rico (STM, 23.99) Mar. Sheriff Gonzales must find the man who assaulted a beautiful high school girl in the small town of Angustias, a case made more difficult by the girl’s inability to describe her attacker.

Vorhaus, John. The California Roll (RH, 23.00) Mar. A comic thriller about the misadventures of a Los Angeles con-man who is looking for the perfect con that will set him up for life, but even he is no match for a sexy con-woman who lures him into a con of her own.

White, Kate. Hush (HC, 24.99) Feb. A newly-divorced marketing consultant is being sued by her ex-husband for custody of the children, and when a one-night-stand is murdered in his penthouse, she must investigate in order to clear her name, only to discover that someone is stalking her. Very suspenseful with a twisty plot.

White, Randy Wayne. Deep Shadow (Put, 25.95) Mar. Escaping from a dive accident that has trapped his two friends, Doc Ford is captured by two men who need his expertise in finding the remains of a legendary plane wreck supposedly filled with gold from the Cuban treasury. A stunning masterpiece of suspense as Ford struggles to save himself and his friends.

Wiley, Michael. The Bad Kitty Lounge (STM, 24.99) Mar. The second in the series featuring Chicago PI Joe Kozmarski whose latest client unleashes a torrent of crimes when he suspects his wife is unfaithful.

Wilson, Dolores J. Dark Secrets of the Old Oak Tree (Med., 24.95) Mar. After a bitter divorce a woman returns to her hometown in Georgia, and while sitting in her childhood tree house she sees a mentally challenged man burying the nude body of her high school friend, and after she reports the murder to the police, more bodies pile up in a novel that examines the deadly nature of secrets and lies.

Yancey, Richard. The Highly Effective Detective Plays the Fool (STM, 24.99) Mar. In the third in this funny series featuring eccentric PI Teddy Ruzak, he is hired to track down an unfaithful husband, and when his client disappears, he suspects foul play, even as he fights with the licensing commission charging him with practicing detection without a license and his landlord about his pet dog.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Reprint

Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon (Png, 7.99) Feb.

Barclay, Linwood. Fear the Worst (BDD, 7.99) Mar.

Berenson, Alex. The Silent Man (Brk, 9.99) Feb.

Bernhard, William. Capitol Offense (BB, 7.99) Mar.

Brown, Sandra. Exclusive (GC, 7.99) Feb.

Carrington, Tori. Working Stiff (STM, 7.99) Mar.

Childs, Laura. Oolong Dead (Brk, 7.99) Mar.

Coben, Harlan. Long Lost (NAL, 9.99) Mar.

Connelly, Michel. Scarecrow (GC, 9.99) Feb.

Connolly, John. The Lovers (Pkt, 7.99) Mar.

Cussler, Clive with Jack Du Brul. Corsair (Brk, 9.99) Mar.

Dugoni, Robert. Wrongful Death (Pkt, 7.99) Mar.

Emerson, Earl. Cape Disappointment (BB, 7.99) Feb.

Fielding, Joy. Still Life (Pkt, 7.99) Feb.

Fletcher, Jessica and Donald Bain. Murder She Wrote: Madison Avenue Shoot (NAL, 6.99) Mar.

Fluke, JoAnne. Carrot Cake Murders (Kens, 6.99) Feb.

Francis, Dick. Comeback (Brk, 7.99) Mar.

Green, Tim. Above the Law (GC, 7.99) Feb.

Haddam, Jane. Living Witness (STM, 7.99) Feb.

Harris, Rosemary. The Big Dirt Nap (STM, 7.99) Feb.

Kellerman, Jonathan. Evidence (BB, 9.99) Mar.

Margolin, Philip. Fugitive (HC, 9.99) Feb.

Martinez, A. Lee. Monster (LB, 7.99) Feb.

Parker, Robert B. Night and Day (Brk, 9.99) Feb.

Parker, T. Jefferson. The Renegades (NAL, 9.99) Feb.

Patterson, Richard North. Degree of Guilt (STM, 9.99) Feb. Reissue.

Peters, Elizabeth. The Falcon at the Portal (HC, 7.99) Mar. Reissue.

Rice, Christopher. Blind Fall (Pkt, 7.99) Feb.

Rivers, Joan with Jerrilyn Farmer. Murder at the Academy Awards (Pkt, 7.99) Feb.

Robards, Karen. Pursuit (NAL, 7.99) Feb.

Robinson, Peter. All the Colors of Darkness (HC, 7.99) Mar.

Rossett, Sara. Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder (Kens, 6.99) Mar.

Spindler, Erica. Breakneck (STM, 7.99) Feb.

White, Randy Wayne. Dead Silence (Brk, 9.99) Mar.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Original

Bentley, Jennie. Plaster and Poison (Brk, 6.99) Mar. Home renovator Avery Baker is hired to renovate a Maine carriage house for a soon-to-be-married friend, but when she stumbles over a dead body, she must unravel a matrimonial murder.

Brennan, Alison. Original Sin (BB, 7.99) Feb. The first in a seven-book paranormal series based on the seven deadly sins.

Carlisle, Kate. If Books Could Kill (NAL, 6.99) Feb. The second in the series set in an antiquarian bookstore in San Francisco finds book restoration expert at the Edinburgh Book Fair where her ex shows her a scandalous text that could humiliate the British monarchy and then becomes a murder victim.

Casey, Elizabeth Lynn. Death Threads (Brk, 6.99) Mar. The second in the Southern Sewing Circle mysteries finds librarian Tori Sinclair investigating when a local author reveals an unflattering secret about the town’s history and then disappears, leaving a bloody trail behind.

Collins, Kate. Sleeping with Anemone (NAL, 6.99) Feb. Florist Abby Knight finds that her protests against a large agro-biz corporation are met with violent retaliation when she is almost abducted three times—and then the stakes are raised to murder.

Connolly, Sheila. Red Delicious Death (Brk, 6.99) Mar. Orchard-owner Meg Corey is pleased when two chefs plan to open a restaurant specializing in local foods, but when she discovers one of the chefs dead in a pig wallow, she must find a homegrown killer.

Damsgaard, Shirley. The Seventh Witch (HC, 7.99) Feb. Ophelia and her grandmother Abby travel to North Carolina for her great-aunt’s 100^th birthday celebration, but things turn deadly when another witch wants Abby dead in a case of magic and mystery.

Davis, Krista. The Diva Paints the Town (Brk, 6.99) Feb. Sophie, the Domestic Diva, honors the final wish of her neighbor, a reclusive professor, who wanted a dinner party as his send-off, but she doesn’t count on the corpse of a student that she finds in his house.

Haywood, B.B. Town in a Blueberry Jam (Brk, 6.99) Feb. The first in a new series set in a seaside village in Maine, where a woman who has a small farm investigates when an aging playboy and the newly-crowned Blueberry Queen are found dead.

Hechtman, Betty. A Stitch in Crime (Brk, 7.99) Feb. Crochet maven Molly and her Tarzana Hookers must find a new instructor and a murderer when one of the teachers for a creative retreat on the Monterey Peninsula is found dead.

Laurie, Victoria. Ghouls Gone Wild (NAL, 6.99) Mar. Psychic M J Holliday and her friends go to a small town in Scotland to film the first installment of their new cable TV show, when a maintenance worker is murdered in a way reminiscent of an old legend involving a witch’s curse.

Marriotte, Jeff. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Blood Quantum (Pkt, 7.99) Mar. The chairman of the Paiute Tribe is found dead after a free-spending night at a Las Vegas nightclub, and the investigators find themselves investigating what could be a crime of revenge—but no one from the tribe is talking.

McKinlay, Jenn. Sprinkle with Murder (Brk, 6.99) Mar. Two owners of a cupcake bakery are the chief suspects when a bridezilla who’d ordered five hundred wedding cupcakes is found dead after eating a sample cupcake.

Olson, Karen E. Pretty in Ink (NAL, 6.99) Mar. Las Vegas tattoo artist Brett Kavanaugh investigates when someone begins targeting the city’s flamboyant drag queens.

Orgain, Diana. Motherhood is Murder (Brk, 6.99) Mar. New mother and detective Kate Connelly and her husband are invited to a dinner cruise, but the death of the group’s leader forces Kate to play sleuth on her night out in the second in this San Francisco-based series.

Parrish, P.J. The Little Death (Pkt, 7.99) Feb. Louis Kincaid has a high-profile case when the headless corpse of a young man washes ashore in Palm Beach and the most likely suspect is a female U.S. Senator with a penchant for sadistic and dangerous sex.

Prentiss, Alex. Night Tides (BDD, 7.99) Feb. A diner-owner falls in love with a lake spirit who grants her visions—including a vision of the man who is going to kill her—in a sexy paranormal debut thriller.

Stanton, Mary. Avenging Angels (Brk, 7.99) Feb. Attorney Bree Beaufort has inherited her great-uncle’s haunted law firm, so when a banker who supposedly committed suicide asks for her help, she notices that the evidence is mounting that it was murder—and that if she’s not careful she may be joining him.

Warner, Penny. How to Host a Killer Party (NAL, 6.99) Feb. The first in a new series by a veteran mystery writer featuring a San Francisco party planner whose first big booking—the mayor’s surprise wedding for his socialite fiancée set on Alcatraz—turns into major headache when the fiancée is found dead and the original party planner murdered.

Webber, Heather. Truly, Madly (STM, 7.99) Feb. The first in a funny, new paranormal mystery series featuring a psychic matchmaker who is hired by a new client with a skeleton in his past—literally.

Wells, Melinda. The Proof Is in the Pudding (Brk, 7.99) Feb. Cable cooking show star Della Carmichael is one of three judges for a celebrity cook-off, but the celebrities are getting bumped off.

New and Forthcoming in Quality Paperback

Bell, James Scott. Try Darkness (LB, 11.99) Feb. Los Angeles attorney Ty Buchanan agrees to help a mother being illegally evicted from a transient hotel, but when she is murdered, he must protect her six-year-old daughter while he tries to find the killer. The second in a first-rate legal series.

Berry, Jedediah. The Manual of Detection (Png, 15.00) Feb. When the most illustrious detective is murdered, a lowly clerk at a huge detective agency is promoted and embarks on a bizarre quest to solve the crime in a noir debut.

Brady, Joan. Venom (SS, 15.00) Mar. A gripping tale of international corporate intrigue about a physicist who becomes the target of a major pharmaceutical company intent on stopping her development of a new medication to cure radiation poisoning, and who must join forces with an ex-con to save her life.

Burke, James Lee. Lay Down my Sword and Shield (SS, 15.00) Feb. The reissue of an early crime novel set in Texas where an attorney attempts to overturn the conviction of an old army buddy and finds himself embroiled in the seamy side of Texas politics.

Carkeet, David. Double Negative (Png, 14.95) Mar. A funny mystery set at the Wabash Institute, dedicated to the study of toddlers and the development of linguistic ability, where one of the academics is found bludgeoned to death and the chief suspect must take time off from teaching imaginary words to little children in order to hunt for a murderer.

Carl, JoAnna. Chocolate to Die For (NAL, 14.00) Mar. The first two chocoholic mysteries together in one volume. All you need is a cup of hot cocoa….

Carmichael, Kathy. Diary of a Confessions Queen (IPG, 15.95) Feb. A funny cozy filled with eccentric characters featuring a true confessions author who is blackmailed just as she is about to have her missing husband officially declared dead, but when a friend who is helping her is killed, she becomes a suspect in his murder.

Challinor, C.S. Phi Beta Murder (MidInk, 14.95) Mar. Scottish barrister Rex Graves is visiting his son at college in Florida when a student is found dead in his locked dorm room in the third in this cozy series.

Christofano, David. The Girl She Used to Be (GC, 13.99) Mar. A young girl who has been in the Witness Protection Program with her family since she was six is horrified and intrigued when the dangerous Mafioso hit man sent by the crime family to hunt her down recognizes her and promises to help her and her family.

Corbett, David. Do They Know I’m Running? (Ball, 15.00) Mar. After his uncle is deported to El Salvador, a young man journeys to smuggle him back along with a mysterious Palestinian asylum seeker, but when he agrees to help a young girl escape being delivered to a vicious border crime leader, things become dangerous as they are pursued by narcos, police, and the FBI. An excellent, hard-hitting look at the violence of Mexico and Central America and the plight of the border crossers.

D’Amato, Brian. In the Courts of the Sun (NAL, 16.00) Mar. An inventive novel that brings together Mayan history, modern science, game theory, and the apocalypse of December 12, 2012 foretold by the Mayan calendar. This had the potential to be mind-numbingly stupid, but is, in fact, an imaginative adventure through time.

Fulmer, David. The Fall (5 Stones, 14.00) Mar. A stand-alone thriller about a New York City actor who returns to his Pennsylvania hometown when his best friend falls to his death from a cliff, a death that he is convinced is a murder.

Gordon, David. The Serialist (SS, 14.00) Mar. A darkly funny debut mystery about a New York writer who is forced to play detective in a real-life murder mystery after he is hired by a convicted serial killer to write his memoirs—and three women with connections to the earlier cases turn up dead. I really enjoyed this.

Harris, Charlaine. From Dead to Worse (Brk, 14.00) Mar. The early Sookie Stackhouse mysteries are being reissued in trade paperback format, so replace your tattered old books!

Hill, Susan. The Risk of Darkness (Png, 13.95) Mar. DI Simon Serrailler must find the murderer of a woman whose widowed husband is becoming deranged while at the same time dealing with his unexpected feelings for the new female priest on the Cathedral staff.

Jenoff, Pam. Almost Home (SS, 15.00) Feb. A young intelligence officer who returns to London for the first time in years after the drowning death of her lover discovers that his death was, in fact, murder. Furthermore she discovers that his research into dark secrets of WWII had made him the target of dark forces bent on keeping the past dark.

Lutz, Lisa. Revenge of the Spellmans (SS, 25.00) Mar. The third in the hilarious saga of a family of dysfunctional PIs in San Francisco may be the best with the focus on a dark secret kept hidden by the only sane member of the family, attorney David Spellman.

Maines, Bethany. Bulletproof Mascara (SS, 15.00) Mar. A funny debut about a desperate young woman who accepts a job selling cosmetics door-to-door only to find herself working for an intelligence agency whose sole purpose is helping women, and soon she is armed with weapons disguised as cosmetics and hunting for a missing human-rights activist.

McCarry, Charles. The Better Angels (Png, 14.95) Feb. A scary political thriller originally published thirty years ago about a hotly-contested presidential race where the right-wing candidate is tied to the energy industry and an oil-rich Arab prince who uses suicide bombings within the US to further his anti-Israel agenda.

Mina, Denise. Slip of the Knife (LB, 13.99) Mar. When her former boyfriend is killed, reporter Paddy Meehan inherits his notes and discovers that he was working on the case that made his death inevitable.

Morton, Kate. The Forgotten Garden (SS, 15.00) Mar. When a young woman visits Cornwall, she discovers a cottage with a secret garden that contains the answers to her grandmother’s mysterious past.

Mosley, Walter. The Long Fall (NAL, 14.00) Feb. The first of a new series set in contemporary New York, featuring an old-school PI, not afraid to bend the rules a little, he finds himself in over his head in a case that proves that the newly-cleaned up city is far more corrupt and dangerous than before.

Myers, Tamar. Butter Safe than Sorry (NAL, 14.00) Feb. Pennsylvania Dutch innkeeper Magdalena Yoder is in the bank with her young son when three armed Amish men burst in to rob it, but a sharp observation from her son sets Magdalena on the trail of some criminals who are anything but Amish.

Perrin, Kayla. Spring Break (STM, 14.99) Mar. Set during spring break on the Caribbean island of Artula, this romantic thriller centers on the hunt for a missing college student by a New York journalist researching a story on human trafficking, who has discovered that 19 woman have disappeared in the last seven years.

Perry, Thomas. Runner (HMH, 14.95) Jan. Jane Whitefield, a woman who specializes in helping people disappear, returns in a suspenseful thriller that begins when a young pregnant girl tracked by a team of hired killers.

Ramsland, Katherine. The Forensic Psychology of Criminal Minds (Brk, 15.00) Feb. A behind-the-scenes look at the real-life cases that have inspired the hit television series.

Read, Cornelia. The Crazy School (GC, 13.99) Feb. Former socialite Madeline Dare is teaching at a boarding school for disturbed teenagers in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts where she discovers that the founder’s bizarre therapeutic methods lead to a murder, and she must join forces with the students in order to save her life. The second mystery in this series confirms the promise of the first. This is excellent.

Sewell, Kitty. Blood print (SS, 16.00) Feb. A psychotherapist who flees Florida after the death of her husband for the tranquility of the English city of Bath finds that an abused patient with a young daughter has a terrifying connection to her in a tale of black magic, human traffickers, and murder.

Swierczynski, Duane. Expiration Date (STM, 13.99) Mar. A time-travel thriller about a man who moves into his grandfather’s apartment in a seedy part of Philadelphia after he loses his job, and wakes to find himself in 1972, the day he was born, trying to prevent the murder of his musician father.

Taylor, Andrew. A Stain on the Silence (Hyp, 15.99) Feb. When the daughter that he never knew he had turns up wanted for murder, a man who has spent years creating the perfect life for himself finds his past secrets on the verge of being exposed.

Terrell, Heather. Brigid of Kildare (Ball, 15.00) Mar. A mystery that interweaves past and present as an appraiser asked to assess the value of the relics of the convent of St. Brigid discovers an ancient illuminated manuscript that surpasses the beauty of the Book of Kells, and as she and a Trinity college professor investigate the manuscript’s origins, the author traces the life of Brigid and her faithful scribe.

Tremblay, Paul. No Sleep Till Wonderland (STM, 14.00) Feb. Boston PI Mark Genevich who suffers from narcolepsy is asked by a fellow member of his therapy group to protect a female bartender from a stalker, an assignment that places him on the police radar as a suspect in an arson.

Zollinger, Norman. Riders to Cibola (Png, 13.95) Jan. The return to print of a classic adventure story set in New Mexico from the raid by Pancho Villa to WWII, where a young Mexican orphan lives through the beginning of the modern west.

New and Forthcoming in International Mysteries

Becker, James. The Moses Stone (NAL, 9.99) Mar. Detective Chris Bronson is called to Morocco when an English couple is murdered after discovering a clay tablet, plunging him into a mystery from biblical times.

Black, Cara. Murder in the Latin Quarter (SOHO, 14.00) Mar. When a Haitian woman arrives at the office of Leduc Investigations claiming to be Aimée’s sister, she is plunged into murky Haitian politics leading to murder.

_____. Murder in the Palais Royal (SOHO, 24.00) Mar. Parisian investigator Aimée Leduc is the chief suspect when her partner is shot, in a case of revenge that is tied to her first case when her testimony sent a young man to jail.

Brooke, P.J. A Darker Night (SOHO, 24.00) Feb. Max Romero, half-Scots, half-Spanish inspector in the Spanish National Police is called in to a case of the murder of a gypsy ex-convict outside of Granada in the second in this police procedural series.

Dahl, K.O. The Last Fix (STM, 24.99) Mar. In the third in this excellent Norwegian police procedural series, intense DI Gunnarstranda and his easygoing aide must solve the murder of a recovering drug addict, who arrived at a party with one man and left with another.

Dershowitz, Alan. The Trials of Zion (GC, 26.99) Mar. A gripping thriller set in Israel, where a Jewish-American lawyer joins the defense team of an accused Palestinian terrorist, whose guilt is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Djian, Phillipe. Impardonnables (SS, 24.00) Mar. The English translation of a prize-winning French crime novel about a writer who must find his daughter, a famous actress who has suddenly disappeared, while at the same time his marriage is collapsing.

Fitzgerald, Conor. The Dogs of Rome (STM, 25.00) Mar. The first in a new series featuring police commissioner Alec Blume, an expatriate American who has been living in Rome since he was a teenager, and who investigates the murder of a prominent animal-rights activist who is the husband of a politician.

Gómez-Jurado, Juan. The Moses Expedition (SS, 15.00) Mar. Fr. Anthony fowler, a member of the Vatican’s secret service tracks down a Nazi war criminal, who has in his possession a stolen Jewish relic that sends the priest to Jordan based on an ancient map where he must fight Islamic terrorists who are also looking for the treasure.

Liang, DianeWei. Paper Butterfly (SS, 15.00) Mar. The second in the Beijing-based series to feature female PI Mei Wang who is hired to unravel the disappearance of a Chinese pop star in a case that has its roots in the past of the forced labor camps.

Mankell, Henning. The Man from Beijing (RH, 25.95) Feb. A massacre in a remote Swedish village of 19 mostly elderly people is tied to a kidnapping of a Chinese immigrant in the U.S. in the nineteenth century according to a diary uncovered by the investigating judge, who journeys to Beijing to test her theory that the motive for the horrific murder is tied to the past.

May, Peter. Blacklight Blue (PP, 14.95) Mar. Enzo MacLeod has bet that he can solve ten cold cases, but as he is investigating the third he becomes the target of someone intent on destroying his relationships and getting him arrested for murder.

_____. Freeze Frame (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Mar. Forensics expert Enzo Macleod is working on the fourth of the ten cold cases that he bet he could solve, a case that takes place on an island off the coast of Brittany, where the locals are not happy with his reopening a case they’d prefer to leave alone.

_____. The Killing Room (PP, 14.95) Feb. American pathologist Margaret Campbell goes to Shanghai when the mutilated bodies of eighteen woman are discovered in a mass grave and Investigator Li Yan asks for her help.

_____. The Runner (PP, 24.95 hc, tp) Feb. When two Chinese Olympic-level athletes die in accidents, Beijing Detective Li Yan asks his retired American pathologist friend to autopsy the bodies to see if perhaps they were unnatural deaths that threaten international athletics.

Nesbø, Jo. The Devil’s Star (HC, 25.99) Mar. Oslo police inspector Harry Hole returns in the case of a woman whose finger has been amputated and a red diamond stuck under her eyelid, a murder that appears to be random until more bodies appear, each with an identical five-pointed diamond left at the scene. A first-rate series.

Rees, Matt Beynon. The Fourth Assassin (SOHO, 24.00) Feb. Visiting his son in Brooklyn, Palestinian schoolteacher Omar Youssef must investigate when his son is arrested for the beheading of his roommate.

_____. The Samaritan’s Secret (HMH, 13.95) Feb. Palestinian schoolteacher Omar Yussef is pulled into the investigation into the murder of a Samaritan man who worked for the Palestinian Authority, controlling hundreds of millions of dollars—now missing.

Smith, Martin Cruz. The Golden Mile (SS, 25.95) Mar. Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko returns in a case involving a mysterious teenaged mother, a dead prostitute, and as always in Moscow, police corruption.

Taibo, Paco Ignacio, ed. Mexico City Noir (Akashic, 15.95) Feb. An introduction to a number of Mexican crime writers little known here in the U.S. as well as an introduction to the rampant violence and cynicism of a city where the police cannot be trusted to keep the citizens safe.

Smith, Roger. Wake Up Dead (STM, 25.00) Feb. A stellar thriller set in Cape Town where a car hijacking leads to an unexpectedly violent revenge on the part of the American wife of the victim, as an honest policeman tries to protect the hijacker from her as well as a sociopathic killer and a corrupt cop.

Theroux, Paul. A Dead Hand (HMH, 26.00) Feb. Theroux’s first mystery is a tale of murder and obsession set in Calcutta where an American travel journalist is asked by a mysterious devotee of the goddess Kali to help solve the murder of a young boy. Beautifully written.

Vásquez Montabán, Manuel. Tattoo (Serpent’s Tail, 14.95) Feb. Barcelona PI Pepe Carvalho is asked to investigate when the corpse of an unknown man with a tattoo is found off the coast of Barcelona in a case that takes him to Amsterdam in a quest to discover the victim’s identity.

Walters, Michael. Shadow Walkers (Brk, 7.99) Mar. A mass market reissue of the first in a series set in Ulan Baatar, Mongolia, where the Serious Crimes Team calls in a senior British investigator to help find a killer who is leaving his victims in remote areas with their head and hands cut off.

December 2009/January 2010

Armstrong, Lori. No Mercy (SS, 25.00) Jan. In the first in a new series, a former Army sniper returns from Iraq to her family farm in South Dakota after the death of her father, and while she’s deciding what to do, the body of a Native American is found on her land and she begins to investigate.

Barbieri, Maggie. Final Exam (STM, 24.99) Dec. College professor Alison Bergeron is stuck working in a student dormitory when the Resident Director disappears, and must call on her NYPD boyfriend to help when she discovers drugs in his room. I really like this series for its smart protagonist and humorous touches.

Bauer, Belinda. Blacklands (SS, 24.00) Jan. A debut psychological thriller by a British writer short-listed for the CWA Debut Dagger award, featuring a young boy who writes to a convicted child-killer seeking information about the disappearance of his uncle on Exmoor years before.

Beaton, M.C. Death of a Valentine (GC, 23.99) Jan. Hamish MacBeth is getting married to a woman he got to know during the investigation of the murder of a woman in the neighboring village who received a mysterious Valentine’s Day card shortly before her death.

Berry, Steve. The Paris Vendetta (Ball, 26.00) Dec. US Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is asked by a Danish billionaire to discover who masterminded the shooting outside a Mexico City courtroom that killed his son, and he discovers that a wealthy British aristocrat and a cabal of financiers are plotting to destabilize the world economy

Bourney, Lou. Gutshot Straight (HC, 24.99) Jan. A fast moving caper novel about an ex-con who resolves to stay “free and clear,” only to find himself involved with a powerful Armenian crime boss and an exotic and very dangerous con-woman within 48 hours, searching for extremely rare, highly unusual religious artifacts and seeking to extricate himself from a complex and deadly situation.

Bruen, Ken. London Boulevard (STM, 24.99) Dec. A newly-released convict finds a job working at the Holland Park mansion of an aging movie actress, but his dark past catches up with him in a dark twist on the classic Sunset Boulevard.

Cardieri, Anthony J. Luck of the Draw (STM, 24.99) Dec. A debut police procedural set in New York at Christmastime with an NYPD detective faced with a vicious killer who wipes out entire families leaving no forensic evidence.

Charles, Paul. Family Life (Dufour, 29.95) Jan. Irish DI Starrett and his team investigate the drowning death of a farmer whose corpse turned up in a warehouse with his hair dry and combed.

Clement, Blaize. Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs (STM, 23.99) Jan. Pet sitter Dixie Hemingway meets a young mixed-race girl at the vet where she is bringing in a wild rabbit hit by the car, but later the girl disappears, and Dixie must find her before three young thugs do.

Clinch, Wendy. Double Black: A Ski Diva Mystery (STM, 24.99) Jan. In the first of a funny, cozy series set in Vermont, grad student turned ski bum Stacy Curtis discovers the body of a dead man strangled by the chain of a chain saw on the slopes, and turns amateur sleuth with the help of a hunky ski patroller.

Colley, Barbara. Dusted to Death (Kens, 22.00) Jan. New Orleans housecleaner Charlotte is hired to care for a gorgeous Victorian home while a Hollywood studio uses it for a movie shoot, but she must dig up the dirt when a man is found dead in the dressing room of the film’s difficult star.

Crawford, Isis. A Catered Birthday Party (Kens, 22.00) Dec. When caterers Libby and Bernie are hired by a wealthy woman to cater a birthday party for her pug, all goes well—or as well as can be with five pugs around the table—until the woman is poisoned by a glass of wine, and the sisters must investigate in the world of the super-rich.

Crais, Robert. The First Rule (Put, 26.95) Jan. Joe Pike agrees to help an old friend who is suspected of murdering his whole family in a case that entangles him in a web of ancient grudges and cutthroat criminality.

D’Amato, Barbara, Jeanne Dams, and Mark Richard Zubro. Foolproof (STM, 24.99) Dec. A global thriller that exposes a terrorist plot to topple democracies worldwide, as two software entrepreneurs establish a clandestine division inside their company that covertly tracks terrorists.

Dobson, Joanne. Death Without Tenure (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Jan. Karen Pelletier is up for tenure after six years in the English Department at exclusive Enfield College, but when her rival for the position is found dead, she must focus her attention on saving herself from a murder charge in the latest in this first-rate academic series.

Doetsch, Richard. The 13^th Hour (SS, 25.99) Jan. A man accused of murdering his wife is given a mysterious device by a stranger that allows him to change the past by allowing him to go back in time, but what he discovers is that saving his wife means untangling a plot that includes a robbery committed by corrupt cops, a plan crash, and a family secret—and that his tampering with the past brings death to friends and allies.

Estleman, Loren D. Alone (STM, 24.99) Dec. The second in the wonderful series featuring film archivist and movie-palace owner Valentino finds him scrambling to keep the Oracle from being condemned before it can be reopened while at the same time he agrees to help a real estate developer who is accused of killing his assistant who was blackmailing him over a steamy letter from Greta Garbo to the developer’s wife. I loved the first in this series and was very unhappy when the paperback was cancelled.

Fforde, Jasper. Shades of Grey (Vik, 25.95) Jan. A satire that envisions a terrifying dystopia where an employee of the Color Control Agency who can see only red and shades of gray joins forces with a woman who is a Grey Nightseer to plan revolutionary action against the rulers of a world where the black and white of moral certainty have been reduced to shades of gray.

Fowler, Christopher. Bryant & May on the Loose (BDD, 25.00) Dec. When a beheaded corpse is found in the heart of London’s King’s Cross neighborhood, May uses the discovery to gain the disbanded Peculiar Crimes Unit a new lease on life, arguing that unsolved gang activity could negatively impact the 2012 Olympic Games. A very welcome reprieve for one of the best crime series around with its unique blend of the comic and the grotesque.

Gash, Jonathan. The Faces in the Pool (STM, 24.99) Dec. Lovejoy is released from jail with the help of a millionairess who runs a speed dating agency and needs his help in tracking down her former husband.

Glynn, Alan. Winterland (STM, 24.99) Dec. A noir novel of suspense set in contemporary Dublin where the death of two men with the same name on the same night—one a gangland killing and one in a road accident—leads a family member to investigate despite threats from powerful people.

Grafton, Sue. U is for Undertow (Put, 27.95) Dec. The twenty-first book in the series features a mystery that moves between the 1960’s and the 1980’s when Kinsey accepts a job helping a young man who believes that he witnessed a murder when he was seven and wants Kinsey to look for the body of a four-year-old girl.

Griffiths, Ely. The Crossing Places (HM, 25.00) Jan. A first mystery featuring an archaeologist living in Norfolk’s Saltmarsh region, who is asked by DCI Nelson to use her expertise in identifying human remains found in the marsh, hoping to find the body of a child kidnapped ten years ago.

Gunn, Elizabeth. Ten-Mile Trials (Severn, 27.95) Dec. When a dead man is found in a suburban house used as a drug lab, Jake Hines investigates in a case indicating that a ruthless Eastern European gang is operating in Minnesota.

Hall, M.R. The Disappeared (SS, 23.00) Dec. A debut thriller featuring coroner Jenny Cooper whose inquiry into the presumed death of a long-missing university student escalates into a far-reaching cover-up of desperate crimes.

Hamilton, Steve. The Lock Artist (STM, 24.99) Jan. An offbeat stand-alone thriller about a man who has been mute since a traumatic incident at the age of eight and who is known for his two talents: art and lock-picking.

Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia. Fell Purpose (Severn, 28.95) Jan. Bill Slider returns to investigate when a student at an all-girls church school is found dead, and her father’s unsavory past makes him a prime suspect.

Hayder, Mo. Skin (Grove, 22.00) Jan. Bristol’s DI Jack Caffery looks into the case of the missing wife of a football player, but meanwhile police diver DS Flea Marley uncovers two alleged suicides that appear to be related to case, and possibly to African black magic. Hayder is always creepy and always good.

Hess, Joan. The Merry Wives of Maggody (STM, 24.99) Jan. Arly Hanks must investigate when the winner of the first Maggody Charity Golf Tournament is found dead, his head bashed in by a golf club.

Higgins, Jack. The Wolf at the Door (Put, 26.95) Jan. Sean Dillon investigates when someone targets an elite intelligence unit known as “the Prime Minister’s private army.”

Hime, James. Where Armadillos Go to Die (STM, 25.99) Dec. Retired Texas Ranger Jeremiah Spur investigates the disappearance of a generally-unpleasant restaurant owner who has recently invented a machine that big-time venture capitalists are looking to invest in.

Hoag, Tami. Deeper than the Dead (Dut, 26.95) Jan. An intense thriller set in 1984, when the discovery of a woman’s body by three schoolchildren and their teacher marks the end of the innocence of a small California community when an FBI agent arrives with a new forensic technique—profiling.

Hosp, David. Among Thieves (GC, 24.99) Jan. Boston attorney Scott Finn learns that one of his clients was part of a twenty-year-old heist of artwork from a museum when members of the criminal underground turn up dead, killed in ways that suggest someone trained by the IRA. Hosp is excellent.

Houston, Charlie. Sleepless (Ball, 25.00) Jan. Set in a postapocalyptic Los Angeles where people are dying from an ailment that causes insomnia, where an LAPD detective investigating an online game into which people are retreating, tries to halt the lawlessness and crime of the city and save himself and his family.

Hunter, Stephen. I, Sniper (SS, 26.00) Dec. When a sniper kills four people associated with the 1960s peace movement, the FBI suspects that the killer is a famous sniper, but Bob Lee Swagger sets out to prove the man’s innocence and find the real sniper who is using cutting-edge electronic sniper gear.

James, Bill. In the Absence of Iles (Countryman, 23.95) Jan. ACC Davidson decides that the only way to bring down a criminal gang disguised as a legal guild is to have an undercover police officer inside, but when things go wrong she must make a life-or-death decision.

Jance, J.A. Trial by Fire (SS, 25.99) Dec. Ali Reynolds has taken a position with the Yavapai County Police Department in media relations, and when a fire that engulfs a subdivision leaves an unknown victim injured in the fire, Ali realizes that her attempts to track down the woman’s identity may be exposing the victim to a killer bent on finishing the job.

Jones, Stan. Village of the Ghost Bears (Soho, 24.00) Dec. The latest featuring Alaska State Trooper Nathan Active, an Inupiat raised in Anchorage and returned to his native village, who must find the connection between the death of a hunter and a fatal plane crash that killed eight people, a connection that involves the lucrative poaching of polar bears.

Knopf, Chris. Short Squeeze (STM, 24.99) Jan. Lawyer Jackie Saitkowski takes center stage in this mystery set in the Hamptons, after her client is found beaten to death shortly after retaining her to help him in a battle with his sister-in-law over the house where he lived with his deceased wife.

Lescroart, John. Treasure Hunt (Dut, 26.95) Jan. A young investigator for Wyatt Hunt’s private investigative service learns the hard lessons of life when he investigates the death of a charismatic fundraiser for various San Francisco charities, a man whose death reveals some shady secrets in the glamorous charity circuit.

May, Peter.Virtually Dead (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Jan. A crime scene photographer enters into a virtual world called Second Life as a form of therapy discovers that murder is not confined to the real world, and when he investigates he discovers a series of killings that is part of a scam netting millions for the murderer.

McLean, Russel D. The Good Son (STM, 24.99) Dec. A Scottish debut novel that has had wide acclaim featuring a Dundonian PI who investigates the death of a farmer’s brother in a case that becomes more difficult when two vicious London gangsters appear and more people are dying.

Murphy, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Striking Back (HC, 19.95) Dec.

Morris, Bob. Baja Florida (STM, 24.99) Jan. Zack Chasteen agrees to hunt for the daughter of a dying friend who disappeared while sailing her boat from Charleston to the Bahamas.

O’Shaughnessy, Perri. Dreams of the Dead (Pkt, 25.00) Jan. Lake Tahoe attorney Nina Reilly hires a grave exhumation expert to help locate a client’s missing son in a case that triggers a cat-and-mouse game between her former investigator and a brilliant killer.

Parker, T. Jefferson. Iron River (Dut, 26.95) Jan. LA sheriff’s deputy Charlie Hood is working on an operation to halt—or at least, slow—the flow of money and guns across the US-Mexican border, but when the son of the head of a powerful drug cartel is killed during a botched weapons buy, he becomes the target of cartel soldiers seeking revenge.

Parks, Brad. Faces of the Gone (STM, 24.99) Dec. A debut mystery set in Newark with an investigative reporter who looks for help from a stripper and a gay intern to find the truth when four people are found dead in a vacant lot.

Preston, Douglas. Impact (STM, 25.99) Jan. Former CIA operative Wyman Ford is asked to look into the sudden appearance of radioactive gemstones in Cambodia while a professor discovers evidence of gamma rays emanating from Mars in a scientific thriller with an engaging setup.

Purser, Ann. Tragedy at Two (Brk, 23.95) Dec. Lois Meade is asked by Inspector Cowgill to help out when her daughter’s boyfriend is found beaten to death and suspicion falls on gypsies camped in a local field.

Quinn, Spencer. Thereby Hangs a Tail (SS, 25.00) Jan. Private investigators Chet and Bernie are called to investigate threats to a pampered show dog, and what seems like a joke turns serious when both the dog and her owner are abducted. A must for dog lovers and fans of classic mysteries.

Rankin, Ian. Doors Open (LB, 24.99) Jan. Three friends, bored with their lives and interested in art, decide to “liberate” several paintings from the National Gallery after making the acquaintance of a London crime boss.

Reilly, Matthew. 5 Greatest Warriors (SS, 25.00) Jan. In another fast-paced international adventure Jack West and his team must uncover the secrets of the five greatest warriors to rescue us all from Armageddon. As PW describes the series: “…Screams. Splashing. Crunching. Blood.” Who could ask for more?

Roker, Al and Dick Lochte. The Morning Show Murders (BDD, 26.00) Dec. A television chef turns sleuth after the executive producer of his reality food show is murdered after eating poisoned coq-au-vin in a solidly-plotted debut mystery set in the world of network television.

Stroby, Wallace. Gone ‘til November (STM, 24.99) Jan. A powerful thriller featuring the lone female sheriff’s deputy in a rural Florida county who arrives on the scene after her former lover has just shot a young black man for allegedly fleeing a traffic stop, but further investigation reveals that things are not so simple.

Wambaugh, Joseph. Hollywood Moon (LB, 26.99) Dec. The eccentric detectives at the Hollywood station are involved in various cases that all lead to a dangerous and deadly web of high-tech crime.

Webb, Betty. Desert Lost (PP, 24.95) Dec. Scottsdale PI Lena Jones investigates when a group of polygamous Mormons establishes a stronghold in Phoenix in a case that demonstrates the kinds of child abuse that come from this practice, including the expulsion of adolescent boys from the communities to live as best they can on the street.

West, Eugenia Lovett. Overkill (STM, 25.99) Dec. When Emma Streat brings her niece back to Boston from Venice, her niece is stricken by a case of Avian flu and Emma must deal with a dangerous international network that sells stolen viruses.

Woods, Stuart. Kisser (Put, 25.95) Jan. Stone Barrington returns to New York and becomes involved with a Broadway actress whose shady past is coming back to haunt her.

Zellerbach, Merla. Mystery of the Mermaid (Firefall, 27.95) Dec. An old-fashioned romantic mystery set aboard a luxury liner on a South American cruise where a breast cancer survivor and a journalist work to solve the murder of passenger amid a plethora of eccentric suspects.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Reprint

Acevedo, Mario. Jailbait Zombie (HC, 7.99) Dec.

Andrews, Mary Kay. Blue Christmas (HC, 7.99) Dec.

Bass, Jefferson. Bones of Betrayal (HC, 7.99) Jan.

Beaton, M.C. Death of a Witch (GC, 6.99) Jan.

Berry, Steve. The Charlemagne Pursuit (BDD, 9.99) Dec.

Brown, Rita Mae. Santa Clawed (BDD, 7.99) Dec.

Byrnes, Michael. The Sacred Blood (HC, 7.99) Dec.

Cannell, Stephen J. On the Grind (STM, 7.99) Jan.

Child, Lincoln. Terminal Freeze (BDD, 7.99) Jan.

Clement, Blaize. Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof (STM, 7.99) Dec.

Conant-Park, Jessica and Susan Conant. Fed Up (Brk, 7.99) Jan.

Cussler, Clive and Dirk Cussler. Artic Drift (Brk, 9.99) Dec.

Ephron, Hallie. Never Tell a Lie (HC, 7.99) Jan.

Evanovich, Janet. Plum Spooky (STM, 7.99) Jan.

Fairstein, Linda. Lethal Legacy (BDD, 7.99) Dec.

Ferris, Monica. Thai Die (Brk, 7.99) Dec.

Goldberg, Lee. Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop (NAL, 7.99) Dec.

Graves, Sarah. A Face at the Window (BDD, 7.99) Dec.

Greeley, Andrew M. Irish Tweed (STM, 6.99) Jan.

Grippando, James. Born to Run (HC, 7.99) Dec.

Harrison, Kim. White Witch, Black Curse (HC, 7.99) Dec.

Hosp, David. Innocence (GC, 7.99) Jan.

Iles, Greg. The Devil’s Punchbowl (Pkt, 9.99) Jan.

McKevett, G.A. A Body to Die For (Kens, 6.99) Jan.

Morris, Bob. A Deadly Silver Sea (STM, 7.99) Dec.

Murphy, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Playing Cupid (HC, 7.99) Jan.

Myers, Tamar. Batter off Dead (NAL, 6.99) Jan.

Palmer, Michael. The Second Opinion (STM, 9.99) Jan.

Patterson, James and Maxine Paetro. 7^th Heaven (GC, 7.99) Dec.

Pollero, Rhonda. Fat Chance (Pkt, 7.99) Dec.

Rankin, Ian. Exit Music (GC, 7.99) Dec.

Rollins, David. A Knife Edge (BDD, 7.99) Jan.

Woods, Stuart. Loitering with Intent (NAL, 9.99) Dec.

Yessayan, Raffi. Eight in the Box (BDD, 7.99) Jan.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Original

Barton, Mary. Dying Scream (Kens, 6.99) Jan. When a woman receives an anniversary card from her dead husband, she at first thinks that it is a ghastly joke, but when women’s grisly remains are found on his property, she joins forces with a detective investigating the case.

Birken, Gary, MD. Code 15 (Brk, 7.99) Dec. When a series of deaths due to preventable medical errors rise at a large urban hospital, the chief of emergency medicine decides to investigate and discovers a plot by a vengeful madman that threatens her own life.

Bliss, Miranda. Murder Has a Sweet Tooth (Brk, 6.99) Dec. In the latest Cooking Class mystery, Annie and Eve are planning for Annie’s big day with her former cooking instructor when murder takes the cake.

Burcell, Robin. Bone Chamber (HC, 7.99) Jan. FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick investigates the Freemasons and their connection to a map leading to the lost Templar treasure. This is also available in a hardcover edition ($24.95) from Poisoned Pen Press.

Childs, Laura. Eggs Benedict Arnold (Brk, 7.99) Dec. When one of the Cackleberry Club delivers a pie to the local undertaker, she discovers him dead on the embalming table, and then she herself is drugged with chloroform.

Christopher, Paul. The Templar Cross (NAL, 9.99) Jan. A retired Army Ranger officer teaching at West Point is asked by a young Israeli archaeologist to help find his niece who has been kdnapped in a case that takes them across the globe following a conspiracy involving the Knights Templar.

Dennison, Hannah. Exposé (Brk, 6.99) Dec. Vicky Hill, obituary writer for the newspaper in a small English town, is covering the death of a local celebrity when she learns of the woman’s shaky finances and marriage.

Griffin, Laura. Untraceable (Pkt, 7.99) Dec. A private investigator specializing in helping people disappear is asked to track down a former client who has inherited money and discovers that she has really disappeared.

Hale, Rebecca M. How to Wash a Cat (Brk, 6.99) Jan. First in a new series featuring a San Francisco curio shop owner and her two curious cats, who investigate when an uncle leaves them a surprising inheritance that leads to a trail of deception going back to Gold Rush days.

Holt, Hazel. Mrs. Malory and Any Man’s Death (NAL, 6.99) Dec. Sheila Malory realizes that the death of the village’s local busybody from a nasty case of mushroom poisoning is tied to the secrets that she has uncovered while compiling the history of Mere Barton in the latest in this charming British cozy series.

Hughes, Charlotte. High Anxiety (Brk, 7.99) Jan. When therapist Kate Holly needs a temporary secretary, she hires a woman with more issues than a subscription to Psychology Today in the latest in this funny series.

Hyzy, Julie. Eggsecutive Orders (Brk, 7.99) Jan. Preparations for the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn are interrupted when an NSA bigshot dies after eating dinner at the White House, and the Secret Service arrives to find out what’s being cooked up in the kitchen in the latest in this series featuring executive chef Olivia Paras.

Johnston, Linda O. Howl Deadly (Brk, 7.99) Dec. Pet Sitter Kendra must find a mother she-wolf that disappears from a millionaire’s animal sanctuary in a case where pet-napping turns to murder.

Kelner, Toni L. P. Who Killed the Pinup Queen? (Brk, 6.99) Jan. In the second in the series that focuses on classic television shows, entertainment reporter Tilda Harper is working on two articles simultaneously—one about a former pinup model and one about an old western show—but when she finds the model brutally murdered, she finds that the two stories have some disturbing connections.

Kennedy, Mary. Dead Air (NAL, 6.99) Jan. First in a new series featuring a Florida talk-show psychologist who investigates the death of a new-age prophet after her roommate becomes the chief suspect.

Morgan, Kaye. Ghost Sudoku (Brk, 6.99) Jan. Puzzle master Liza Kelly must uncover the clues in the puzzles left behind by a murdered classmate in a case that involves dirty politics.

Palov, C. M. Ark of Fire (Brk, 7.99) Dec. When a photographer witnesses a murder and the theft of an ancient Hebrew relic, she turns to a historian for help, not realizing that both will become the targets of a murderous conspiracy.

Rabkin, William. Psych: The Call of the Mild (NAL, 6.99) Jan. Sham psychic investigator Shawn Spencer is hired to solve a baffling case of industrial espionage in a case that takes him on a grueling backpacking mountain trek. Based on the television series.

Resnick, Laura. Doppelgangster (DAW, 7.99) Jan. In the second in this funny series, singing waitress Esther Diamond teams up with Max the Magician and his slobbering canine familiar Nelli to discover how and why New York mobsters are being duplicated before a gang war is triggered, while her hunky detective friend would prefer a case with less magic.

Roberts, Wendy. Dead and Kicking (NAL, 6.99) Dec. Psychic Sadie Novak cleans up crime scenes for a living and while cleaning out the house of a compulsive hoarder, she comes across an angry ghost and dark secrets hidden in the mess.

Robinson, Gina. Spy Games (Ken, 5.99) Jan. A new novel of romantic suspense by a writer who combines humor and intrigue.

Stanley, Jennifer. Stirring up Strife (STM, 7.99) Jan. The first in a charming new series featuring a woman grappling with the end of a five-year romance who is invited to Hope Street Church by a client, but when she goes, she discovers that the woman has been murdered and her husband has been arrested, and gets caught up in the faith-based detecting by the Bible study group.

New and Forthcoming in Quality Paperback

Allingham, Margery. More Work for the Undertaker (F&M, 14.95) Jan. The police are unable to help protect the inhabitants of a Dickensian corner of London from a crime boss, so Albert Campion goes undercover to help out.

Atkinson, Kate. When Will There Be Good News? (LB, 13.99) Jan. Past crimes and present problems collide in a novel that brings together four people, including PI Jackson Brodie, all affected by an appalling crime that took place in the English countryside thirty years ago. Highly recommended.

Ault, Sandi. Wild Sorrow (Brk, 14.00) Forced to seek refuge in an abandoned Indian School, BLM agent Jamaica Wild discovers the body of a woman frozen to the floor in the latest in this series set in New Mexico.

Berkeley, Anthony. The Case of the Poisoned Chocolates (F&M, 14.95) Jan. A classic detective story first published in 1929, this is a brilliant puzzle taken up by the Crime Circle, a group of society intellectuals who feel they can succeed where the police are baffled, after a caddish nobleman is poisoned and the list of suspects could fill the London phone book. This affirms why we all started reading mysteries.

Berkowitz, Ira. Sinner’s Ball (RH, 14.00) Dec. Former NYPD detective Jackson Steeg must help out his mob-connected brother when a warehouse catches fire killing three squatters and two firefighters, but it is the discovery of six sexually-mutilated bodies in the basement that impels his search for the real culprit.

Campbell, Duncan. If It Bleeds (F&M, 14.95) Jan. In the U.S. debut of a satire of the London Mob, the last of the English Mobster decides to write a tell-all memoir with the help of a ghost writer, but is murdered leaving the ghost writer in deep trouble.

Canadeo, Anne. Knit, Purl, Die (Pkt, 14.00) Jan. When one of the Black Sheep knitters discovers the town’s merry—and very wealthy--widow dead in her swimming pool shortly after her marriage to a much younger man, she and the other Black Sheep decide to untangle the real story behind the death in the second in this charming series set in small-town Massachusetts.

Connelly, Michael, ed. In the Shadow of the Master (HC, 14.99) Jan. A collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe with commentary from contemporary mystery writers.

Connor, John. Unsafe (IPG, 14.95) Dec. West Yorkshire DS Karen Sharpe has her hands full with her personal life when a new trainee who is attracted to her teenaged daughter as well as her own relationship with a criminal she is investigating while at the same time investigating the murder of a young woman.

Dorsey, Tim. Nuclear Jellyfish (HC, 13.99) Jan. Florida booster and psychopathic killer Serge A, Storms discovers the Internet—and it may never recover—in the latest in this comic series.

Erhart, Margaret. The Butterflies of Grand Canyon (Plume, 15.00) Dec. An charming mystery set in Northern Arizona, where a young woman from St.Louis visiting her husband’s family becomes involved in solving a thirteen-year-old mystery. I really enjoyed this.

Ferris, Monica. Sew Far, So Good (Brk, 14.00) Dec. The first three mysteries featuring needlework-shop owner Betsy Devonshire collected in one volume.

Ford, Michael Thomas. Jane Bites Back (Ball, 14.00) Jan. Jane Austen, undead and now a bookseller in upstate New York, is upset by all the Pride and Prejudice knockoffs that fly out her store, but when she finally gets a manuscript accepted she is appalled by the publishing world and the attacks she is sujected to by a blogger who accuses her of stealing a manuscript. Very funny!

Havill, Steven. Dead Weight (PP, 14.95) Dec. A reissue of an early Bill Gastner, who investigates when a backhoe crushes a man to death.

Hiaasen, Carl. Skin Tight (Brk, 14.00) Jan. A reissue of a very funny mystery that has long been out of print.

Malliet, G.M. Death at the Alma Mater (MidInk, 14.95) Jan. Inspector St. Just is called in when a wealthy and beautiful alumna of a prestigious--but impecunious—college is found strangled during a fundraising weekend in the third in this award-winning series.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (RH, 15.00) Jan. The latest chronicle of life at 44 Scotland Street finds Bertie’s parents engaged in a parental power struggle as they argue about whether his becoming a scout is a good thing.

McGarrity, Michael. Dead or Alive (NAL, 15.00) Dec. Kevin Kerney returns to New Mexico when an escaped prisoner cuts a murderous path through the state, and he and his half-Apache son must hunt down the psychotic killer.

Morgan, Brooke. Tainted (HC, 14.99) Dec. A debut mystery set on Cape Cod about a single mother who impulsively marries an Englishman who is not at all what he seems, and whose interest in her daughter is suspect.

Morgenroth, Kate. Through the Heart (Plume, 15.00) Jan. A crime novel told in the two voices of a Kansas waitress and a Manhattan millionaire who meet and fall in love in a fairy-tale story complete with a dead body.

O’Neal, Barbara. The Secret of Everything (BDD, 15.00) Jan. When a woman returns to her birthplace in New Mexico after a traumatic accident, she plans on leaving soon, but while looking through the town history she discovers a secret that calls into question everything she believes about her parents.

Rankin, Ian. Black and Blue (STM, 14.99) and Let it Bleed (STM, 14.99) Dec. The latest in the re-issues of the early Inspector Rebus novels set in Glasgow.

Regan, Linda. Dead Like Her (Dufour, 14.95) Dec. The third in a fine British police procedural series finds DCI Banham investigating a London crime lord when Marilyn Monroe look-alikes working at his nightclub start meeting untimely ends.

Sansom, Ian. The Bad Book Affair (HC, 14.99) Jan. The fourth in the series featuring Israel Armstrong, librarian for the mobile-book library in a small town in Northern Ireland.

Stone, Nick. King of Swords (HC, 14.99) Dec. A very creepy mystery set in Miami where the bodies of Haitian immigrants are found in murderous tableaux in a series of crimes that have their roots in voodoo. I love this series.

New and Forthcoming in International Mysteries

Adam, Paul. Paganini’s Ghost (STM, 24.99) Jan. In the second mystery featuring luthier Gianni Castiglione, he agrees to help out his policeman friend after an art dealer is murdered and some mysterious Paganini artifacts appear, in a case that takes the two around Europe searching for a killer. A fascinating plot, well-researched historical details, and strong characterization make this a standout.

Alvtegan, Karin. Shame (F&M, 14.95) Jan. Two very different Swedish women are tormented by their bad memories, and when they come together by chance the past leads to startling violence in a brilliant novel of psychological suspense.

Benoit, Charles. Noble Lies (PP, 14.95) Dec. A Desert Storm veteran working as a bouncer in a bar in Phuket, Thailand agrees to help an American woman track down her missing brother.

Camilleri, Andrea. The Wings of the Sphinx (Png, 14.00) Jan. Inspector Montalban investigates the murder of a young woman linked to the underworld sex-trade in the latest in this charming series set in Sicily.

Cappellani, Ottavio. Sicilian Tragedee (STM, 15.00) Dec. A hilarious novel set in present-day Sicily where a mid-level Mafioso falls in love with the daughter of a rival gangster, and the arrival of a flamboyant theatrical director turns a Romeo-and-Juliet tragedy into comic opera.

Gage, Leighton. Buried Strangers (Soho, 13.00) Jan. Brazilian police detective Mario Silva and his team investigate when hundreds of corpses are found in the jungle outside of São Paulo, many would-be travelers to North America.

______. Dying Gasp (Soho, 24.00) Jan. When the granddaughter of a prominent politician disappears, Mario Silva finds her in Manaus where an evil female doctor is making gory snuff films.

Kaminsky, Stuart. A Whisper to the Living (STM, 23.99) Jan. Rostnikov pursues a serial killer named after the Moscow park where his elderly victims have been bludgeoned to death in the sixteenth of this Russian-based series.

Piñiero, Claudia. Thursday Night Widows (Bitter Lemon, 14.95) Jan. The discovery of three bodies lying at the bottom of a swimming pool in a gated country estate near Buenos Aires is the beginning of a novel of psychological suspense that dissects a society of despair by an award-winning Argentine writer.

Ramsay, Frederick. Predators (PP, 24.95) Dec. The first in a new series set in Botswana with a corporate CEO looking to find peace and a dying lion that crosses his path, in a crime investigated by a female game warden.

Siger, Jeffrey. Assassins of Athens (PP, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Jan. The second in the series featuring Chief Inspector Kaldis of the Greek Police’s Special Crimes Division finds him investigating when the body of a boy from one of Athens’ most prominent families turns up in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods. The first in this series, Murder in Mykonos (PP, 14.95) will be available in December.

Thompson, James. Snow Angels (Put, 24.95) Jan. A debut thriller set in Finland where a small-town policeman investigates a murder of a beautiful Somali immigrant in Lapland, a case that could be a hate crime or a sex crime or both.

Verhoef, Esther. Close-Up (F&M, 14.95) Jan. In this psychological thriller by an award-winning Dutch writer, a recently divorced woman is persuaded to go on a weekend trip to London, where much to her surprise she is taken up by a sexy photographer, but little does she imagine what he has in store for her.

New and Forthcoming in Historical Mysteries

Ash, Maureen. Murder at Christ’s Mass (Brk, 7.99) Dec. The fourth in the series featuring Templar Knight Bascot de Marins who discovers that the murder of the clerk of the mint in the town of Lincoln is part of a plot against King Stephen.

Atkins, Ace. White Shadow (Brk, 15.00) Dec. Set in Tampa in 1955, a city filled with Sicilian and Cuban gangsters, this is a powerful novel of revenge and greed where the murder of a retired kingpin threatens to reveal secrets that could destroy a criminal empire.

Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers (LB, 19.99) Jan. A very creepy horror novel that takes place during the Great Depression as a man hunts for the mysterious scarred man responsible for the death of his daughter, and comes to suspect that he is hunting something more than human.

Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable Creatures (Dut, 26.95) Jan. Two young women in nineteenth-century England must join together to achieve recognition for their scientific discoveries that support Darwin’s theories.

Clark, Cassandra. The Red Velvet Turnshoe (STM, 24.99) Dec. The second in the series set in fourteenth-century Yorkshire featuring Abbess Hildegard, who embarks on the quest for a precious relic with the English Crown at stake and many enemies set to stop her.

Davis, Lindsey. Rebels and Traitors (STM, 27.99) Jan. A sprawling epic of the English Civil War that begins in 1634 at the beginning of the events that culminate with the beheading of Charles the First in 1649, seen through the eyes of a London printer who takes up arms against the king.

Frazer, Margaret. A Play of Treachery (Brk, 7.99) Dec. Joliffe journeys to France to act as a servant to the widowed Duchess of Bedford—while actually training in spycraft—but when a member of the household is murdered, he must put his training in practice.

Gordon, Alan. The Parisian Prodigal (STM, 25.99) Jan. Theophilos the Fool is asked to investigate when a swashbuckling stranger shows up at the chateau of the ruler of Toulouse claiming to be the count’s brother in the latest in this engaging thirteenth-century series.

Harper, Karen. Mistress Shakespeare (NAL, 15.00) Jan. A lively tale spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history and moving from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this is the narrative of Anne Whately, the woman that William Shakespeare loved, even though he was forced to marry the pregnant Anne Hathaway.

Harrison, Cora. A Secret and Unlawful Killing (STM, 14.99) Dec. The second in the series set in sixteenth-century Ireland where a female Brehon Judge is called in when a steward’s body is found during the Michaelmas Fair.

_____. Sting of Justice (STM, 25.99) Dec. Set in western Ireland in the sixteenth century, a Brehon judge investigates when the body of a man stung to death by bees is found on the church steps after the funeral of a local priest.

_____. Writ in Stone (Severn, 27.95) Dec. This is a first for this newsletter: three books by the same author in one month! When the Irish King’s cousin is bludgeon to death, Brehon Mara investigates in a mystery that combines accurate historical detail, a well-characterized detective, and a clever puzzle plot.

Jones, J. Sydney. Requiem in Vienna (STM, 24.99) Jan. The second in the series set in Vienna in 1899 where an attorney teams up with a criminologist when Gustav Mahler becomes the target of a series of “accidents” that kill a soprano during a rehearsal at the Vienna Court Opera.

Kent, Rebecca. Murder Has No Class (Brk, 6.99) Jan. In the third in this cozy series set in Edwardian England, the headmistress of Bellhaven House, a school for girls, is haunted by the ghost of an earl who was hanged for the murder of his father despite his claims of innocence.

Kurland, Michael, ed. Sherlock Holmes: the American Years (STM, 24.99) Jan. Ten all-new original tales chronicle the sleuth before he established himself in London’s Baker Street, written by Steve Hockensmith, Peter Tremayne, Rhys Bowen, and others.

Lee, Janice Y.K. The Piano Teacher (Png, 15.00) Dec. An exquisite tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong where an Englishman has an affair with a beautiful Eurasian socialite from whom he is separated by the Japanese invasion, and ten years later, when a woman arrives in Hong Kong to work as a piano teacher, the past influences the present as she embarks on a fateful affair.

Littell, Robert. The Revolutionist (Png, 16.00) Jan. An epic saga of the first decades of the Soviet Union, that begins with the idealism of the October Revolution in 1917 and ends with the brutal rise of Josef Stalin.

Nayman, Shira. The Listener (SS, 25.00) Jan. A riveting first novel set in a psychiatric hospital just after World War II where the psychiatrist treating a charismatic soldier suffering from severe Battle Fatigue finds his own sanity under attack.

Parker, Robert B. Appaloosa (Brk, 14.00) Jan. When two lawmen arrive in the small New Mexico town of Appaloosa they discover that that villainy has taken over and that loyalties are tested.

Pearce, Michael. A Dead Man in Naples (Soho, 25.00) Dec. Seymour of the Special Branch is sent to Naples when the British consul is stabbed to death in the latest in this amusing series set in Europe in the period before WWI. In addition, all of the early mysteries in the series will be appearing in December in paperback beginning with A Dead Man in Trieste (Soho, 14.00) and ending with A Dead Man in Barcelona (Soho, 14.00).

Ramsay, Frederick. Judas: The Gospel of Betrayal (PP, 14.95) Jan. A religious historical mystery focused on Judas Iscariot, the illegitimate son of a Jewish woman and a Roman soldier, who struggles to find himself amid the revolutionary fervor of first century Jerusalem, joining a group led by a revolutionary Rabbi Jesus.

Roberts, David. Sweet Poison (Soho, 14.00) Jan. The first in a charming series set between the two World Wars features Lord Edward Corinth, the young son of a duke, and Verity Browne, a leftist journalist, who join forces to discover who murdered a decorated general at a country house in 1935. Highly recommended.

_____. Sweet Sorrow (Soho, 25.00) Jan. A self-absorbed poet—and friend of Virginia Woolf--moves to the countryside to escape the bombing in London at the outset of WWII to a cottage near where Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne live and is beheaded during a pageant put on by his children

Roberts, John Maddox. SPQR XII: Oracle of the Dead (STM, 14.99) Dec. When Decius Caecilius Metellus visits a pre-Roman cult site with a party of friends, he stumbles on a murder that threatens to explode in religious and ethnic violence that underlies the pax romana.

Simonsen, Mary Lydon. Searching for Pemberley (SB, 14.99) Dec. A literary mystery set in post-WWII London featuring an American woman who goes to work in London and comes to know the families said to be the real-life basis for Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, whose letters and diary entries provide the mystery.

Stuckart, Diana A. S. A Bolt from the Blue (Brk, 14.00) Jan. In the third in the series set in fifteenth-century Milan, and featuring Leonardo da Vinci as sleuth, one of the apprentices helping Leonardo develop a flying machine is murdered and he and his favorite apprentice hunt for the killer.

Taylor, Andrew. Bleeding Heart Square (Hyp, 15.99) Jan. A wonderfully Dickension mystery set in a small section of London filled with eccentric characters and a chilling mystery. I loved this.

Willig, Lauren. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Dut, 25.95) Jan. A standalone historical thriller set in nineteenth-century India where a young aristocratic woman discovers a dangerous plot to destabilize the British Empire when she is sent to the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Willig is a master of combining adventure, mystery, and romance.

_____.The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (NAL, 15.00) Jan. The Duke of Dovedale infiltrates the notorious Hellfire Club in order to avenge the death of his mentor, and accepts the help of a childhood friend, Charlotte Lansdowne, who has been investigating a plot against the king, when the two cases converge.

October/November 2009

Arsenault, Emily. The Broken Teaglass (BDD, 25.00) Oct. In an arresting debut two lexicographers who find the clues to an old murder hidden in the files at the dictionary company where they work, and as they follow the clues they come to realize that the killer is among their current co-workers.

Arsenault, Mark. Loot the Moon (STM, 24.95) Oct. Former journalist Billy Povich investigates the death of a well-respected Superior Court judge killed by a two-bit thief who later dies in a car crash when the facts of the case don’t add up and the police are content to close the case.

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. A Glass of Water (AtlM, 23.00) Oct. A searing novel of brotherhood and revenge featuring two sons of illegal immigrants who must decide how to respond to the brutal murder of their mother.

Baldacci, David. True Blue (GC, 27.99) Nov. A disgraced former D.C. policewoman is working on the case of a murdered attorney whose death takes her on unexpected turns through the public and private worlds of the nation’s capitol.

Barclay, Linwood. Fear the Worst (BDD, 24.00) Aug. A car salesman is up to his ears in job and marital problems when his teenaged daughter disappears from her summer job at a hotel. Barclay specializes in depicting ordinary people who are plunged into dangerous and difficult situations.

Barr, Nevada. 13 ½ (Vngrd, 25.95) Oct. A woman who suffered a horrible and abusive childhood falls in love and marries a man whose increasingly dark moods begin to scare her, as does his possible connection to a child who murdered his entire family years ago. A brilliant novel of psychological suspense about two emotionally-scarred people who attempt to have normal lives.

Beaton, M. C. There Goes the Bride (STM, 24.99) Oct. Agatha Raisin is the main suspect when her ex-husband’s much younger bride-to-be is shot dead right before the wedding ceremony, and she and her sleuthing sidekick must clear her name before she’s behind bars.

Belzer, Richard. I am not a Psychic (SS, 24.00) Oct. The veteran stand-up comic and actor on Law & Order flies to Las Vegas where he must unravel the conspiracy behind the untimely death of a Hollywood starlet.

Bernhardt, William. Capitol Offense (Ball, 26.00) Oct. Although he has a political campaign to run, Tulsa attorney Ben Kincaid agrees to help a man accused of shooting the police detective who inexplicably refused to open a missing-persons report on his wife who died after being trapped in her car for a week.

Billingham, Mark. Death Message (HC, 25.95) Oct. DI Thorne receives photos of two dead men who were members of a notorious biker gang in London in a case that may be a revenge killing.

Brady, Rachel. Final Approach (PP, 24.95) Oct. A debut mystery featuring a skydiving protagonist who travels to Houston to investigate the disappearance of a young boy that is tied to a skydiving establishment.

Bruns, Don. Stuff to Spy For (Midpoint, 25.95) Nov. A funny thriller about a pair of bumbling South Florida sleuths who agree to help out an old friend from high school update her firm’s security system, but it turns out that she is the mistress of the firm’s married owner and that there are some funny goings-on. Highly recommended.

Carl, JoAnna. The Chocolate Cupid Killings (NAL, 21.95) Oct. Aunt Nettie and Lee have been secretly helping an organization that aids abused women, but when private detective Derrick Valentine is murdered while looking for one of the missing women, Aunt Nettie becomes the chief suspect in a case that’s far from sweet.

Chan, Cassandra. The Spider on the Stairs (STM, 25.99) Nov. Scotland Yard DI Jack Gibbons is spending the Christmas holidays investigating a murder in Yorkshire that may be the work of a serial killer, while Phillip Bethancourt is spending the holidays in Yorkshire visiting family in another charming cozy in the tradition of Dorothy Sayers.

Chaney, Roy. The Ragged Edge of Nowhere (STM, 24.99) Nov. This debut is the winner of the second annual Tony Hillerman Prize and features a former CIA agent who returns home to Las Vegas when his brother is killed shortly after returning from a tour of duty in the French Foreign Legion.

Chiaverini, Jennifer. Quilter’s Holiday (SS, 19.95) Nov. One of the Elm Creek quilters takes up a quilt project when her mentor becomes ill and gifts it to her bone marrow donor in a holiday novel filled with messages of hope and giving.

Childs, Laura. Tragic Magic (Brk, 24.95) Oct. In the latest in the scrapbooking series, Carmela is hired by a woman who is fixing up an old mansion in the Fauberg-Marigny district as a haunted house for an upcoming horror convention, but when the woman is killed, Carmela must crop out a killer.

Clegg, Douglas. Isis (Vngrd, 15.95) Oct. A very scary, beautifully illustrated gothic novel set in a mysterious castle in England, where a young girl tries to bring her brother back to life after his accidental death.

Coggins, Mark. The Big Wake-Up (BH, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Nov. San Francisco PI August Riordan appears in his fifth outing, hired by an Argentine family to find the location of the body of a dead aunt, whose remains were shipped from Milan, but it becomes clear that the Argentines have not been truthful—the body is that of Evita Perón.

Connelly, Michael. 9 Dragons (GC, 27.99) Oct. Just as Harry Bosch is moving in on the suspected killer of a Chinese liquor store owner, a member of a Hong Kong triad, he gets worse that his daughter, living with her mother in Hong Kong, has disappeared. Signed copies.

Connolly, John. The Gates (SS, 24.00) Oct. A droll and frothy fantasy tale that you can share with the children and grandchildren, this is the story of an eleven-year-old boy who discovers while trick or treating in Biddlecomb, England, that an engineered portal to Hades has opened up and possessed four suburban sorcerers, leading to an influx of demons in the area. I loved this.

Coyle, Cleo. Holiday Grind (Brk, 23.95) Nov. Greenwich village barista Clare Cosi finds the body of a Santa in the snow and soon discovers that his death was more than a random mugging.

Crombie, Deborah. Necessary as Blood (HC, 24.99) Oct. In this police procedural set in London’s East End, Scotland Yard’s Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid join forces professionally as well as personally when a young mother disappears, her Pakistani husband is murdered, and their child is in jeopardy.

Delany, Vicki. Winter of Secrets (PP, 24.95) Nov. Molly Smith, Trafalgar B.C. constable, has a case of what first appears an accident, when two privileged young men from Toronto are found in an SUV sunk in an icy river, but things don’t add up, and soon she’s hunting for a murderer.

Doss, James D. The Widow’s Revenge (STM, 24.99) Nov. Tribal investigator Charlie Moon investigates when a widow who has complained bitterly and often about a brood of witches living on oil-company land adjacent to her property is found dead.

Dunnett, Kaitlyn. A Wee Christmas Homicide (Kens, 22.00) Oct. When shop owners in Moosetookalook Maine decide to use highly collectible stuffed bears as part of a twelve days of Christmas promotion little do they realize that a frenzy of bear hunters will descend on them, including a murderer, in the third in this cozy series that stirs together smugglers, thieves, and bear fanatics in a delicious Christmas pudding.

Ebisch, Glen. Ghosts from the Past (Avalon, 23.95) Oct. The editor of a local New England magazine looks into a small town coverup of a sadistic multiple murder after she gets a tip about three young men found hanging in a barn in 1944, a case that proves far from cold when the tipster is found murdered.

Evanovich, Janet. Between the Plums (STM, 27.99) Oct. Three of the between-the-numbers books in one volume complete with Stephanie, her very strange family, her co-workers, and the incredibly sexy Diesel.

Ferris, Monica. Blackwork (Brk, 24.95) Oct. When a man blames the Wiccan owner of a local microbrewery for a series of ‘accidents’ and then is found dead with no marks on his body, Betsy Devonshire, needlework shop owner and part-time sleuth, hunts for clues to save her friend.

Fiffer, Sharon. Scary Stuff (STM, 24.99) Oct. Antique picker Jane Wheel is visiting her family in California when she discovers that her brother is the victim of identity theft and that very dangerous things are happening in her hometown.

Fletcher, Jessica and Donald Bain. Murder She Wrote: A Fatal Feast (NAL, 22.95) Oct. Jessica is hosting Thanksgiving dinner for her friend, Scotland Yard Inspector George Sutherland, and an after-dinner stroll leads to the discovery of a body with a carving knife in its chest.

Fluke, Joanne. Plum Pudding Murder (Kens, 24.00) Oct. Hannah Swenson stops by the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot and finds the owner’s dead body, which according to her “slay-dar” is a case of murder in a cozy holiday mystery.

Flynn, Vince. Pursuit of Honor (SS, 27.95) Oct. In another tale of espionage, covert intelligence, and counter-terrorism Mitch Rapp fights again to keep the US safe in a covert war that is secret even from political leaders.

Folsom, Allan. The Hadrian Memorandum (STM, 25.99) Oct. An adventure set in Equatorial Guinea where an oil company’s discovery of a vast ocean of oil leads to an attempt to destabilize the government and replace it with a puppet government, a plot that the president of the USA asks Nicholas Marten to disrupt.

Friedman, Kinky. Kinky’s Celebrity Pet Files (SS, 21.00) Oct. The founder of the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch in Texas, Kinky Friedman is a well-known animal lover and his stories about the pets of his famous friends are charming and offbeat.

Griffin, H. Terrell. Wyatt’s Revenge (Midpoint, 24.95) Nov. When an academic friend is shot to death while researching the Nazis and Vichy France, retired Florida attorney Matt Royal investigates in an action-packed thriller.

Guthrie, Allan. Slammer (HM, 25.00) Nov. A rookie prison officer in a Scottish prison for violent offenders begins to crack when a group of cons use outside help to threaten his family to force him to do them “favors,” driving him to the breaking point in a crime novel that is both bleakly funny and very noir.

Harris, Charlaine. Grave Secret (Brk, 24.95) Nov. Harper and her stepbrother return to visit family in Texas, but the news that their father is out of jail and wants to make contact ensnares them in a web of family secrets, including the disappearance of Harper’s sister many years before.

_____. A Touch of the Dead (Brk, 23.95) Oct. The complete Sookie Stackhouse short stories in one volume.

Hart, Carolyn. Merry, Merry Ghost (HC, 24.99) Nov. Guardian ghost Bailey Ruth Raeburn returns to help a young orphan and an elderly woman who discovers that she has a four-year-old grandson, and whose decision to change the beneficiary of her will leads one of her greedy relatives to ignore the message of the Christmas season.

Hart, Ellen. Mirror and the Mask (STM, 25.99) Nov. Jane Lawless solves her first case as a real PI, but after finding Annie Andrews’ father, she feels that there’s much more that’s still missing in this story.

Havill, Steven. Red, Green, or Murder (PP, 24.95) Nov. A prequel to the series, this Posadas County, NM mystery takes place after Bill Gastner has left the sheriff’s department and is working as a livestock inspector where he helps with the search for a missing ranch hand and with the suspicious death of a retired gun dealer.

Hellman, Libby Fischer. Doubleback (BH, 24.95 hc, 14.95 tp) Oct. Chicago PI Georgia Davis teams up with filmmaker Ellie Foreman when a young girl disappears only to reappear a few days later completely unharmed, but when the girl’s mother dies in a suspicious accident, they are plunged into a case involving bank fraud, extortion, a suspicious paramilitary contractor, drugs, and murder that moves from Wisconsin to Arizona. Highly recommended.

Hill, Reginald. Midnight Fugue (HC, 25.99) Oct. Dalziel agrees to help a woman whose policeman husband has been missing for seven years, but after seeing a recent magazine photo that shows him or his double, she believes he could still be alive.

Hill, Susan. The Vows of Silence (Png, 24.95) Nov. DCI Simon Serrailler investigates when a gunman is terrorizing young women in the cathedral town of Lafferton, trying to discover the link between what appears to an apparently random series of murders.

Johansen, Iris. Blood Game (STM, 27.99) Oct. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan returns in a case that pits her against a ruthless killer who drains the blood from his victims—and leaves a goblet of blood in Eve’s refrigerator.

Judson, Daniel. The Violet Hour (STM, 25.99) Oct. A Bridgehampton mechanic discovers that the friend for whom he has been working is hiding a deadly secret in a compelling noir set in the glitzy Hamptons.

Kellerman, Jonathan. Evidence (Ball, 28.00) Oct. Milo is investigating the death of an architect and an unknown woman in an unfinished mansion in Los Angeles, but no one knows who owns the house or why the two would be murdered in a case where rumors swirl and good old-fashioned police work saves the day.

Lazar, Zachery. Evening’s Empire: The Story of my Father’s Murder (GC, 24.99) Nov. When the author was only 7 years old, his accountant father was murdered in a gangland-style murder after becoming involved in a multi-million dollar real estate scandal.

MacBride, Stuart. Blind Eye (STM, 26.99) Oct. DCI Logan McRae is assigned the thankless task of investigating a series of cases involving brutal assaults against businessmen from the Polish community in Aberdeen—a case that could be good old-fashioned Scottish xenophobia or a mob turf war.

Maitland, Barry. Dark Mirror ( STM, 24.99) Oct. In the latest in this top-notch British police procedural series, newly promoted DI Kathy Kolla is called in when a student is dead from arsenic poisoning, and the investigation reveals that the victim is as mysterious as the crime.

Manfredo, Lou. Rizzo’s War (STM, 24.99) Oct. An gripping debut police procedural set in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where a decades-long police veteran passes on his years of experience to his ambitious young partner as they work on the case of the runaway daughter of a city councilman, who may be less worried about her safety as the safety of some papers she has taken from him.

Mayor, Archer. The Price of Malice (STM, 24.99) Oct. Vermont lawman Joe Gunther is investigating the murder of a man who was involved with both a woman and her twelve-year-old daughter and, at the same time he is unofficially helping investigate the possible murder of his girlfriend’s father and brother.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Lost Art of Gratitude (RH, 23.95) Oct. Isabel Dalhousie is asked by a friend to investigate when it appears someone is out to get her, perhaps as revenge for revealing a serious case of insider trading.

McFadyen, Cody. Abandoned (BDD, 25.00) Nov. FBI agent Smoky Barrett must fight against a vicious psychopath who kidnaps women whose husbands would like to be rid of them and imprisons them until the insurance money is paid for their supposed deaths. When she herself is abducted, she must choose between her own freedom or the almost-certain death of her young FBI colleague. McFadyen is a master of the character-driven psychological thriller.

McInerny, Ralph. Stained Glass (STM, 24.99) Oct. With St. Hilary’s in dire financial straits, Father Dowling must protect a wealthy parish family targeted by a killer.

McManus, Patrick F. The Double Jack Murders (SS, 24.00) Nov. Blight County Sheriff Bo Tully returns with his hands full of elusive killers, backwoods characters, and irresistible women as he tries to draw out a mentally unstable man who has escaped from prison with plans to kill him. This series is wonderfully funny as well as finely plotted.

Mortimer, John. A Rumpole Christmas (Viking, 21.95) Nov. A collection of five Christmas-themed stories never-before collected in book form—a present for those of us mourning the death of the author.

Muller, Marcia. Locked In (GC, 24.99) Oct. Sharon McCone must count on her friends to help after she is shot in the head and suffers from Locked-In Syndrome, where she is conscious but completely paralyzed.

Murphey, Shirley Rousseau. Cat Striking Back (HC, 19.99) Nov. Tomcat Joe Gray and his feline friends discover a cat-hating murderer after a policewoman finds traces of a crime but no body in a swimming pool in Molina Point, CA. The cats receive more time than their dimwitted human companions, so this is perfect to read aloud to your favorite feline.

Neville, Stuart. The Ghosts of Belfast (Soho, 24.00) Oct. An IRA killer in Northern Ireland is haunted by the ghosts of the people he assassinated now that peace has come and tries to expiate his guilt by systematically murdering those who gave him his orders.

Niffenegger, Audrey. Her Fearful Symmetry (SS, 26.99) Oct. When their English aunt dies and leaves her apartment near Highgate Cemetery in London to her twin nieces, they move from the Chicago suburbs and discover family secrets and the tenacity of life—even after death.

Nikitas, Derek. The Long Division (STM, 24.99) Nov. An Atlanta woman who reunites with the teenaged son she gave up for adoption and takes him on a road-trip encounters a deputy who is trying to cover-up his ties to a drug-related double murder in an explosive thriller that received a starred review from PW.

Page, Katherine Hall. The Body in the Sleigh (Morrow, 24.99) Nov. Faith Fairchild and her family are spending the holidays on an island in Maine’s Penobscot Bay, when the discovery of a body tucked between the mannequins in a Christmas display and the further discovery of a baby in the manger of a reclusive goat farmer’s barn leads her into a dangerous investigation.

Parker, Robert B. The Professional (Put, 26.95) Oct. Spenser is hired by a Boston attorney who is being blackmailed by a man who has had affairs with her and her wealthy friends, but Spenser must look for a murderer when the women start turning up dead.

Patterson, James. I, Alex Cross (GC, 27.99) Nov. Alex is investigating the murder of his niece, a woman who knew some very powerful and very dangerous people in Washington’s powerful elite, members of an infamous club where every fantasy is possible if one has the credentials to join.

Penny, Louise. The Brutal Telling (STM, 24.99) Oct. Chief Inspector Gamache faces a case that sends him from Three Pines to the Pacific coast when a man is found murdered in Olivier’s bistro, and Olivier’s past must investigated and secrets revealed from clues that involve first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre. Penny is a mystery writer for those who enjoy complex and well-plotted cozies.

Penzler, Otto. The Lineup (GC, 25.99) Nov. Top mystery writers explain the genesis of their most enduring characters, why for example Jack Reacher is a drifter or Harry Bosch a Vietnam veteran.

Rendell, Ruth. Monster in the Box (SS, 26.00) Oct. Since he was a young policeman, Inspector Wexford has suspected that a local man is a serial killer, but without any real evidence he has been unable to act even as the seemingly motiveless murders continue.

Robb, J.D. Kindred in Death (Put, 26.95) Nov. Eve Dallas is asked to head the investigation when the teenaged daughter of the newly-promoted captain of the NYPSD is found horrifically murdered in their home.

Robbins, Harold and Junius Podrug. The Shroud (STM, 25.99) Oct. When art investigator Madison Dupre is offered $20,000 to fly to Dubai to value an ancient art-work that was buried with Christ, she agrees against her better judgment only to find herself up to her neck in conspiracies and art theft as she travels from Dubai to Istanbul, to Venice, and finally to a cathedral where the most sacred object of Christendom is stored.

Robinson, Peter. The Price of Love and other Stories (HC, 24.99) Oct. A collection of crime short stories including two novellas featuring Inspector Banks.

Sandford, John. Rough Country (Put, 26.95) Oct. Minnesota investigator Virgil Flowers is asked to investigate a murder at a woman-only resort in the remote area of north woods where he discovers that this is actually the second murder in an area filled with greed, jealousy, and blackmail.

Shuman, George D. Second Sight (SS, 25.00) Sept. Blind psychic Sherry Moore touches the body of a mental patient who was a guinea pig in a mind control experiment in 1950, and discovers that the secret government base where the experiments took place still holds danger for anyone investigating further.

Spencer-Fleming, Julia. One Was a Soldier (STM, 24.99) Nov. Reverend Clare Fergusson returns from Iraq completely traumatized and joins a support group for veterans, but when one of the group dies, her insistence that the death was murder, leads her into conflict with police chief Russ van Alstyne and puts their wedding plans on hold—maybe forever.

Tapply, William G. Dark Tiger (STM, 24.99) Oct. Stoney Calhoun, who woke with amnesia—but with some unexplained talents for espionage—is asked to go to Maine to look into the suspicious death of a government operative found dead in a staged suicide pact involving a local sixteen-year-old girl.

Thompson, Richard A. Frag Box (PP, 24.95) Nov. The second mystery to feature Minnesota bail bondsman Herman Jackson who joins forces with a newspaper reporter when a repeat customer, a homeless Vietnam vet, is found murdered after bequeathing Herman a mysterious box.

Thurlo, Aimée and David. Earthway (STM, 24.99) Nov. Navajo Tribal Police Special Investigator Ella Clah must cope with the case of an anti-nuclear fanatics who want to sabotage the nuclear power plant at Shiprock as well as a sniper who is targeting Ella and her possible romantic interest, a Christian missionary.

Washburn, Livia J. Huckleberry Finished (Kens, 22.00) Nov. Literary travel agent Delilah is leading a Mark Twain-themed tour on a Mississippi River steamboat when one of her charges is found dead and all the others are harboring dark secrets.

Webb, Peggy. Elvis and the Grateful Dead (Kens, 22.00) Oct. The second in the funny series featuring a basset hound who may be in reincarnation of the King and his human companions is set at the Elvis Festival in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis impersonators start dropping dead, poisoned by drinking peach nectar.

Wong, David. John Dies at the End (STM, 24.99) Oct. A laugh-out-loud cult online serial about two slackers who must save the planet from an occult horror that is taking over the earth one drug-user at a time.

Zelvin, Elizabeth. Death Will Help you Leave Him (STM, 25.99) Oct. When an Al-Anon member is suspected by the police of having killed her abusive boyfriend, her sponsor Bruce Kohler searches for evidence to clear her in the second in this addictive series.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Reprint

Allen, Barbara. Antiques Flea Market (Kens, 6.99) Nov.

Billingham, Mark. In the Dark (HC, 7.99) Oct.

Brown, Sandra. Envy (GC, 7.99) Oct.

Carl, JoAnna. The Chocolate Snowman Murders (NAL, 6.99) Oct.

Childs, Laura. Death Swatch (Brk, 7.99) Oct.

Clark, Mary Higgins and Carol Higgins Clark. Dashing through the Snow (Pkt, 7.99) Nov.

Coyle, Cleo. Espresso Shot (Brk, 7.99) Oct.

DeMille, Nelson. The Gate House (GC, 9.99) Nov.

Doss, James D. Snake Dreams (STM, 6.99) Oct.

Estleman, Loren D. Frames (STM, 7.99) Oct.

Hart, Carolyn. Ghost at Work (HC, 7.99) Nov.

Hayder, Mo. Ritual (Png, 7.99) Oct.

Hess, Joan. Closely Akin to Murder (STM, 6.99) Oct. Reissue.

Hill, Reginald. The Price of Butcher’s Meat (HC, 7.99) Nov.

Hunter, Stephen. Night of Thunder (Pkt, 9.99) Oct.

Jance, J. A. Cruel Intent (Pkt, 7.99) Nov.

Johansen, Iris. Deadlock (STM, 7.99) Nov.

Kellerman, Jonathan. True Detectives (BDD, 9.99) Oct.

Lashner, William. Blood and Bone (HC, 7.99) Nov.

Mayor, Archer. The Catch (STM, 6.99) Sept.

McFadyen, Cody. The Darker Side (BDD, 7.99) Oct.

Meier, Leslie. Mistletoe Murder (Kens. 6.99) Oct.

Muller, Marcia. Burn Out (GC, 7.99) Oct.

O’Connell, Carol. Bone by Bone (Brk, 9.99) Nov.

O’Shaughnessy, Perri. Show no Fear (Pkt, 7.99) Nov.

Patterson, James. Cross Country (GC, 9.99) Oct.

Peters, Elizabeth. Laughter of Dead Kings (HC, 9.99) Oct.

Purser, Ann. Warning at One (Brk, 7.99) Nov.

Rosenfelt, David. Don’t Tell a Soul (STM, 7.99) Oct.

Sandford, John. Heat Lightning (Brk, 9.99) Oct.

Sefton, Maggie. Fleece Navidad (Brk, 7.99) Nov.

Washburn, Livia J. The Christmas Cookie Killer (NAL, 6.99) Nov.

_____. Frankly My Dear, I’m Dead (Kens, 6.99) Oct.

New and Forthcoming in Paperback Original

Barrett, Lorna. Bookplate Special (Brk, 7.99) Nov. Bookstore owner Tricia Miles finally kicks out her freeloading college roommate after discovering that she has stolen money from her, but the day she leaves her body is found in a dumpster.

Brant, Kylie. Waking Evil (Brk, 7.99) Oct. The second in the Mindhunters series featuring a forensic investigator called in to an investigation in a rural town after two women are found murdered in ways that suggest a supernatural element. The third in the trilogy, Waking the Dead (Brk, 7.99) will be released in November, and features a former forensic anthropologist and an outdoor guide who search for clues to seven deaths in the Oregon wilderness.

Butcher, Shannon K. Love You to Death (GC, 6.99) Oct. When her sister disappears, a woman is drawn into the web of a killer, and the only one who can help is the sister’s hunky ex-cop neighbor.

Cassidy, Carla. Up Close and Personal (NAL, 7.99) Oct. A police detective and single mother finds herself in danger when her old friends from school are killed off one by one in a gripping novel of psychological suspense.

Collett, Chris. Blood Money (TSP, 8.95) Sept. A British police procedural featuring DI Tom Mariner who investigates the disappearance of an infant from a daycare center, a case made difficult by the plethora of possible suspects and motives.

Cortez, Donn. CSI: The Killing Jar (Pkt, 7.99) Nov. Las Vegas CSI is pitted against a killer who uses insects to commit murder.

Daniels, Casey. Dead Man Talking (Brk, 7.99) Oct. Cemetery tour guide Pepper Martin is asked to be part of a local reality television series filmed at Cleveland’s Monroe Street Cemetery, but she’s busy helping the ghost of a wrongly convicted killer clear his name in the latest in this funny, spooky series.

Englert, J.F. A Dog at Sea (BDD, 7.99) Oct. Harry and Randolph, his beloved Labrador, are on the open sea searching for their lost love Imogen in the third of this witty series.

Evans, Christy. Sink Trap (Brk, 6.99) Oct. The first in a new series featuring a plumber’s apprentice who plunges in when she finds the brooch of a retired librarian clogging a sink, and then the body belonging to the brooch, leading to her flushing out a killer.

Galenorn, Yasmine. One Hex of a Wedding (Brk, 7.99) Nov. A reissue of the fifth in the series featuring Emerald O’Brien who finds wedding bells turning to sour notes when her fiancé is wounded by gunfire and someone is stalking the maid of honor. It’s enough to turn a girl into bridezilla!

Grace, Margaret. Mourning in Miniature (Brk, 7.99) Oct. Murder interrupts miniaturist Gerry Porter’s thirtieth high school reunion when a former star athlete is found dead.

Greaney, Mark. The Gray Man (Brk, 9.99) Oct. A debut thriller about a covert operative who is on the run when his superiors decide he has outlived his usefulness to them,

Harris, Charlaine. The Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Brk, 63.92) Oct. The perfect gift for your friend, relative, or yourself, all eight genre-bending novels featuring a Louisiana cocktail waitress with mental telepathy and a thing for vampires.

Hyatt, Elise. Dipped, Stripped, and Dead (Brk, 6.99) Oct. In the first in a new series, a divorcee with a furniture refinishing business is dumpster diving for discarded furniture when she uncovers a corpse.

Killian, Diane. Dial Om for Murder (Brk, 6.99) Nov. The second in the series featuring yoga instructor AJ who investigates when a celebrity student is murdered and another is accused of the crime.

Lovelace, Merline. All the Wrong Moves (Brk, 6.99) Nov. The first in a new series featuring an Air Force Lieutenant working on a program testing cutting-edge gizmos for the military, but when she stumbles across two dead bodies in the desert, she must join forces with a Border Patrol agent to find a murderer.

Lyons, CJ. Urgent Care (Brk, 7.99) Nov. Set in the ER of a large urban hospital, this thriller features a charge nurse who must confront her deepest secret when a coworker is assaulted and killed. I must admit a fondness for these books, probably because I devoured Cherry Ames mysteries when I was a kid.

McCoy, Judi. Heir of the Dog (NAL, 6.99) Oct. Professional dogwalker Ellie Engleman and her terrier mix find the corpse of a troubled homeless man while walking through Central Park, and Ellie becomes the main suspect when it turns out that her dog is the beneficiary of the victim’s inheritance.

McInerny, Ralph. Relic of Time (Brk, 7.99) Nov. The second in the series featuring retired CIA agent Vincent Taggert who investigates when the cloak with the portrait of the Virgin de Guadalupe disappears, threatening the stability of the Mexican church.

Peeler, Nicole. Tempest Rising (GC, 7.99) Nov. The first in a new fantasy series featuring a bookstore clerk and selkie in a small town in Maine who discovers a murder victim while swimming in the ocean and when she joins a supernatural creature sent to investigate—a creature who is very attractive—she learns that there is someone out there who is trying to pit humans against supernatural creatures.

Viets, Elaine. The Fashion Hound Murders (NAL, 6.99) Nov. Mystery shopper Josie Marcus has been hired to check out a big pet store’s involvement with puppy mills, but when the employee who blew the whistle is killed, she realizes that things have become deadly.

Watson, Wendy Lynn. I Scream, You Scream (NAL, 6.99) Oct. First in a new series featuring the owner of a Texas ice cream parlor, who serves up the sundae that kills her ex-husband’s new girlfriend and now must churn up small-town secrets to uncover the real culprit before she finds herself on ice. Includes ice cream recipes.

New and Forthcoming in Quality Paperback

Allingham, Margery. Pearls Before Swine (F&M, 14.95) Nov. When an impertinent girl decides to derail her son’s wedding by taking a fatal overdose of pills in his bed, the Dowager Marchioness of Carados decides to tidy up the problem by dumping the body in the empty flat belonging to Campion, whose unexpected return changes all her plans.

_____. Traitor’s Purse (F&M, 14.95) Sept. Albert Campion wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how he got there, but he does know that he is in trouble for killing a policeman and that he may be an international spy.

Aubert, Rosemary. Free Reign (F&M, 14.95) Nov. A man from a prominent Toronto family who has become homeless finds a corpse wearing a signet ring that was part of his law-school graduation ceremony and decides to investigate.

Barbeau, Adrienne and Michael Scott. Vampyres of Hollywood (STM, 14.99) Oct. When people start dropping dead all over Hollywood a horror film star and a hunky detective team up to find the villain, but what the cop doesn’t know is that most of the agents, actors, and producers in Hollywood—as well as his beautiful partner—are really vampires.

Bishop, Claudia. A Plateful of Murder (Brk, 14.00) Oct. A reissue of the first two Hemlock Falls mysteries in one volume.

Broderick, Damien and Rory Barnes. I’m Dying Here: A Comedy of Bad Manners (Point Blank, 16.95) Aug. An offbeat crime novel set in Australia featuring an investigator with Feng Shui Solutions whose office is invaded by a Mack truck in a case that involves camel-doping, UFO mutilations, and cyber stalking.

Bruen, Ken. Once Were Cops (STM, 14.99) Nov. A psychopathic member of the Irish Garda is part of an exchange program with the NYPD, where he is partnered with a corrupt cop, leading to disastrous and violent results.

Chang, Henry. The Year of the Dog (Soho, 13.00) Nov. NYPD Detective Jack Yu must confront triad bosses, Chinatown turf wars, and international fraud when his beat in New York’s Chinatown demonstrates the closeness of Chinese communities from Hong Kong to New York.

Cohen, Stuart Archer. The Army of the Republic (STM, 14.00) Oct. A political thriller set in the near future in an America where a billionaire government crony is harassed by armed militants led by a young revolutionary who finds his idealism threatened by violence and anarchy.

Crispin, Edmund. Sudden Vengeance (F&M, 14.95) Sept. Gervase Fen is hired to consult on a film based on the biography of Alexander Pope, and even the glamour of show biz can’t keep murder from the film set.

Deaver, Jeffrey. The Best American Mystery Stories 2009 (Hm, 14.00) Oct. A collection of short stories by contributos such as Michael Connelly, Stephen King, and Joyce Carol Oates.

DeMille, Nelson. Wild Fire (GC, 14.99) Oct. Detective John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield investigate the death of a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force that leads to evidence of a shocking conspiracy against the country by the powerful members of an exclusive men’s club.

Fletcher, Jessica and Donald Bain. Murder She Wrote: Murder Never Takes a Holiday (NAL, 16.00) Oct. Two Christmas-themed mysteries together in one volume.

Green, Dennis, ed. Tastes Like Chicken (STM, 15.99) Nov. This collection of true stories of cannibalism is the perfect stocking stuffer for those hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives with a special taste in reading!

Hannah, Sophie. The Wrong Mother (Png, 15.00) Oct. A wife and mother learns that a man with whom she had a brief fling has just found his wife and daughter dead, and she fears that her own family could be in danger in a chilling novel of psychological suspense.

Harrison, Colin. Risk (STM, 13.00) Oct. An intricate mystery with an honest lawyer, a Czech hand model, and a box of mysterious Christmas ornaments that begins when an elderly widow asks one of the firm’s attorneys to find out the truth of her son’s violent death.

Hart, Ellen. Sweet Poison (STM, 16.99) Nov. Jane Lawless must leave aside her restaurants when her father’s political campaign falls apart after a volunteer is murdered and she must find the killer to salvage her father’s political career.

Hill, Reginald. A Killing Kindness (F&M, 14.95) Sept. Dalziel and Pascoe are faced with the case of the “Yorkshire Choker,” who has been calling to brag about the women he’s strangled, but things only get worse for Dalziel when Pascoe decides to call in a clairvoyant.

Hill, Tobias. The Hidden (HC, 14.99) Oct. A disaffected Oxford classics student runs off to Greece where he has the chance to work on an archaeological dig in Sparta, but once there he is surprised by the secrecy of the group, only to discover that they have a sinister hidden agenda.

Ironside, Elizabeth. The Art of Decption (F&M, 14.95) Nov. A fascinating character study of an art historian whose world turns upside down when his loving wife demands a divorce and he finds himself involved with a beautiful, mysterious woman whose ties to the Russian Mafya create problems for both of them.

Kandel, Susan. Dial H for Hitchcock (HC, 14.99) Nov. Biographer CeCe Caruso is at the movies watching Vertigo when someone else’s cell phone is put in her purse, and when she goes to try to return it, she witnesses the murder of a young woman, leading her to try to solve the mystery before she becomes the main suspect.

Kenner, Julie. Demon Ex Machina (Brk, 14.00) Oct. Demon-hunting soccer mom Kate Connor is faced with the task of freeing her ex-husband from the demon that is possessing him without destroying the man inside, while she juggles motherhood and a job teaching self defense classes.

Krueger, William Kent. Boundary Waters (SS, 15.00) June. Cork O’Connor leads a desperate rescue mission in the Quetico-Superior Wilderness to find a missing country-western singer in a reissue of the first in this award-winning series.

Leever, Jeffrey. The University (SBC, 14.95) Nov. A scary blend of horror and mystery when an investigative journalist begins looking into the disappearance of a student at a local university where the academic façade covers conspiracies, murder, and cover-ups.

Lehane, Dennis, ed. Boston Noir (Akashic, 15.95) Nov. Eleven short stories set in a Boston that is from the enclave of WASP Brahmins and Ivy League college students that often define the city for outsiders.

Lippman, Laura. Hardly Knew Her (HC, 13.99) Oct. A collection of short stories by the award-winning Baltimore mystery writer.

MacBride, Stuart. Flesh House (STM, 14.99) Oct. Aberdeen DS Logan McRae is faced with a killer who is strewing body parts all over the dock area, the m.o. of a killer who was let off on a technicality twenty years earlier and who is now missing.

Madsen, Diane Gilbert. A Cadger’s Curse (MidInk, 14.95) Nov. Insurance investigator D.D. McGil doesn’t mind working over the Christmas holidays until she finds the electrocuted corpse of her ex-brother-in-law in a case that may be tied to her aunt’s recent discovery of a Robert Burns manuscript.

Morrell, David. The Spy who Came for Christmas (Vngrd, 10.00) Nov. A Christmas story set on a snowy Christmas Eve in Santa Fe about a desperate spy who must save a baby from the Russian mafia.

O’Donohue, Clare. A Drunkard’s Path (Plume, 13.00) Oct. Nell Fitzgerald is encouraged by the quilting circle at her aunt’s quilting shop to take an art class with a famous artist, but the charming artist may be skilled in the art of murder when the bodies of two women are found in Archers Rest.

Olear, Greg. Totally Killer (HC, 13.99) Oct. A funny debut thriller that combines satire and conspiracy theory in the story of a Midwestern girl who finds the perfect job at the Quid Pro Quo Employment Agency. Or is it too perfect?

Pendavis, Jack. Shut Up, Ugly (Mac Adam/Cage, 14.00) Oct. A funny riff on the noir detective story featuring an out-of-work greeting card executive who obtuseness keeps getting him into trouble when a sexy clerk hires him to track her father, an artist supported by the “Willoughby Institute Monthly Stipend for Reluctant Geniuses.”

Pyper, Andrew. The Killing Circle (STM, 15.00) Oct. A widower with a small son joins a local writing group where the work of one of the writers is so powerful that it appears that her character, a killer named Sandman, has leapt off the page and is stalking members of the group. A good, creepy read.

Radley, Sheila. Fate Worse than Death (F&M, 14.95) Sept. In the fifth Inspector Quantrill, the theft of a garden gnome in a cozy English village is the first in a series of escalating crimes leading to the disappearance of a village teenager.

Redhead, Leigh. Peepshow (Outfit, 16.95) Nov. Set in a Melbourne suburb and featuring an aspiring PI working as a striptease dancer, who goes undercover at a sleazy club to find the murderer of the club’s owner in an offbeat crime debut by an Australian author, who is herself a striptease dancer.

Santlofer, Jonathan. The Murder Notebook (HC, 14.99) Oct. NYPD forensic sketch artist Nate Rodriguez is faced with a gruesome wave of murder suicides. The two mysteries in the series are fresh and different because Santlofer intersperses the text with sketches that illuminate the mystery. Highly recommended.

Washburn, Livia J. Killer Crab Cakes (NAL, 14.00) Nov. Phyllis agrees to babysit her cousin’s bed-and-breakfast for a couple of weeks, but the discovery of a dead body during the annual Just Desserts competition turns the holiday bitter.

Winkowski, Mary Ann and Maureen Foley. The Book of Illumination: A Novel from the Ghost Files (RH, 14.00) Oct. A debut mystery featuring a woman who sees ghosts hired to investigate disruptions at the Boston Athenaeum, where she discovers ghostly monks protecting a newly-donated twelfth-century illuminated manuscript in a case that plunges her into the intrigues of the international antiquities black market.

New and Forthcoming in International Mysteries

Ammaniti, Niccolo. As God Commands (AtlM, 14.95) Oct. Three friends in the economically-depressed industrial town in Italy decide to change their fortunes, but the plan goes hideously awry. Ammaniti is the prize-winning author of I’m not Scared.

Bizzio, Sergio. Rage (Bitter Lemon, 14.95) Nov. Set in Buenos Aires, this crime novel reveals the social and economic crisis of Argentina as a workman who kills his foreman is hidden by his girlfriend, the maid in an elegant mansion, and what he sees from his vantage point goads him into killing again.

Bolaño, Roberto. 2666 (STM, 18.00) Nov. Set in a fictionalized Juárez where hundreds of young factory workers have disappeared—as they have in real life—Bolaño’s final novel is a sprawling, beautifully-written masterpiece, filled with a throng of characters from an American sportswriter to a teenager caring for her mentally unstable father. The Mexican journalist who provided the factual basis for the novel is living in fear for his life.

Böll, Heinrich. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Png, 15.00) Oct. A crime novel that begins with a confession as a woman becomes the target of journalists after it is revealed that she has had an association with a hunted criminal.

Burdett, John. The Godfather of Kathmandu (RH, 25.95) Oct. Bangkok policeman Sonchai Jitpleecheep investigates the murder of a Hollywood director who frequently visited Thailand to sample the sexual delights available and whose murder suggests Hannibal Lector with his skull opened up for someone to dine on his brains.

Cole, Sam. Cape Greed (STM, 23.99) Nov. Two PIs in Cape Town, South Africa, are hired for very different cases: one to follow an adulterous financial consultant and the other to find the thief stealing from an abalone farm, but the two cases converge and lead to a mesmerizing villain—an international gangster.

Cumming, Charles. The Spanish Game (STM, 14.99) Oct. After being drummed out of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Alec Milius has moved to Madrid where he becomes embroiled in an international conspiracy when a Basque politician goes missing under mysterious circumstances.

_____. Typhoon (STM, 25.99) Nov. A spy novel that begins in Hong Kong in 1997 where a young operative for SIS (MI6) loses both his girlfriend and his first high-profile asset to a hard-bitten CIA agent. Ten years later he is again in China during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics where he encounters his nemesis with a CIA plot to destabilize China by using an Islamic group, a plot SIS wants to thwart.

Edwardson, Ǻke. Death Angels (Png, 15.00) Oct. An English translation of the first in the Erik Winter series finds the police inspector teamed up with Scotland Yard to solve the mysterious parallel killings of young British and Swedish tourists.

Fasman, Jon. The Unpossessed City (Png, 15.00) Nov. An American ex-pat working as a translator in Russia begins interviewing former inmates of the Gulag for a research project and becomes involved in a dangerous plot with the CIA, Russia’s Interior Ministry, and Central Asian arms dealers.

Goodman, Pete. Smoking Frog Lives (PGW, 14.95) A debut mystery set in the Mexican jungle in the crumbling ruins of the Mayan temple of Yaxnax where a murderer dressed as a great war chief beheads a bound captive, a member of a group of archaeologists.

Johnson, Diane. Lulu in Marrakech (Png, 15.00) Oct. A CIA agent goes undercover to Marrakech, ostensibly to rekindle a romance with a worldly Englishman, but actually to trace the flow of money from well-heeled donors to radical Islamic groups.

Kettenbach, Hans Werner. David’s Revenge (Bitter Lemon, 14.95) Oct. When a friend from Georgia comes to stay with a German schoolmaster, he becomes increasingly suspicious of the Georgian’s motives and his paranoia takes its toll on his sanity and his family.

Khadra, Yasmina. Dead Man’s Share (Toby, 14.95) Oct. The latest by the former Algerian army officer now living in France has Supt Brahim Llob investigating a fellow policeman whose gun is found near the body of the murdered limo driver for the wealthy man who has stolen his girlfriend. This series is wonderfully written with great insight into a country that is teetering between cruelty and beauty.

Limón, Martin. G.I. Bones (Soho, 24.00) Nov. Officers Sueño and Bascom of Military Intelligence must retrace the founding of Seoul’s red-light district in order to solve the murders of Korean gangsters even as they are trying to find the bones of a missing US soldier whose ghost is haunting a Korean fortuneteller.

Magnan, Pierre. The Messenger of Death (STM, 13.99) Oct. Police Commissaire Laviolette is coaxed out of retirement to solve a bizarre crime in Provence. I loved this.

_____. The Murdered House (STM, 24.99) Nov. When the sole survivor of a massacre at a house in Upper Provence returns twenty years later to avenge his family’s killers, he sets in motion an unraveling of deadly secrets. Magnan writes wonderfully atmospheric mysteries with strong characters and a perfect sense of place.

Massimo, Carlotto and Marco Videtta. Poisonville (Europa, 15.00) Oct. A powerful noir thriller set in the northeast of Italy, once the richest and most powerful area, now infested with organized crime, where the scion of one of the area’s richest families must decide whether to go along with the corruption or make a dangerous break with the past.

May, Peter. Chinese Whispers (PP, 24.95) Oct. Beijing CID chief, Li Yan investigates when a Chinese-American scientist is brutally murdered by a serial killer called the Beijing Ripper and it appears that her death may have been due to a new law enforcement tool that uses brain scans for “mental fingerprints.”

Mayle, Peter. The Vintage Caper (Knopf, 24.95) Oct. An American attorney and gourmand is sent to France to investigate the theft of an expensive collection of wines, and in Bordeaux, he hooks up with a French insurance investigator, also a bon-vivant, who leads him to Marseille and, with the help of her journalist cousin, to the culprit. A light caper with a somewhat predictable plot, but wonderful descriptions of food and drink consumed in the loveliest place on earth.

Moore, Christopher G. Paying Back Jack (AtlM, 19.95) Nov. A simple surveillance job pulls Bangkok PI Vincent Calvino into a web of political corruption and murder in the latest in this prize-winning series set in Thailand.

Myers, Tamar. The Witch Doctor’s Wife (HC, 13.99) Oct. Based on the author’s experiences as the child of missionaries in the Belgian Congo, this is the story of a young missionary who goes to Africa and becomes involved in the life of the villagers, but when the second wife of the local witch doctor trips over a large uncut gemstone, events are set in motion that could lead to murder.

Nesbø, Jo. Nemesis (HC, 14.99) Oct. Oslo police detective Harry Hole wakes up after an evening with a former girlfriend to find that she has been murdered and he has no memory of the last twelve hours, and while he works to clear his name, he must also investigate a series of audacious bank robberies.

Nunn, Malla. A Beautiful Place to Die (SS, 15.00) Oct. Set in a small town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique, this debut introduces an English police detective who investigates the murder of an Afrikaans police officer, but he runs into problems with the Afrikaner Secret Police as he follows the clues of the officer’s double life. This is one of a number of first-rate crime novels that are coming out of Africa now.

Pattison, Eliot. Water Touching Stone (STM, 15.99) Oct. A reissue of the second in the series set in Tibet and featuring Shan Tao Yun, exiled Beijing police inspector.

Roslund, Anders and Börge Hellström. Box 21 (FSG, 26.00) Oct. A taut and nuanced thriller featuring a police detective who is haunted by an accident that left his police officer wife an invalid and who vows to put the notorious criminal who did it away for life, but meanwhile the near-murder of a teenaged prostitute immerses him in a case of human-trafficking in young girls from Lithuania.

Somer, Mehmet Murat. The Gigolo Murder (Png, 14.00) Oct. In the second in the Turkish Delight series, Istanbul’s drag-queen club owner finds a hunky new man, but when their tryst is interrupted by news that his brother-in-law has been arrested for the murder of a notorious gigolo, she decides to find out the truth.

Sussman, Paul. The Hidden Oasis (AtlM, 24.00) Oct. When a woman arrives in Cairo after learning of her sister’s death, she joins forces with an archaeologist friend who believes that there may be a connection between the death and his seach for a mythic hidden oasis, a kind of desert Atlantis.

Taibo, Paco Ignacio II. No habrá final feliz (HC, 21.99) Oct. the complete series of mysteries set in Mexico City and featuring detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne are available in one volume and in Spanish.

Theorin, Johan. The Darkest Room (BDD, 15.00) Oct. A very creepy mystery set in northern Sweden where a schoolmaster and a police detective continue to investigate after his wife mysteriously drowns, discovering that the place has a history of mysterious deaths.

August/September 2009

New and Forthcoming in Hardcover

Abel, Kenneth. Down in the Flood (STM, 24.95) Aug. New Orleans prosecutor Danny Chaisson is hired to look into a crime of embezzlement, but when Hurricane Katrina arrives the criminals take advantage of the chaos to make a daring escape.

Andrews, Donna. Swan for the Money (STM, 24.95) Aug. Meg Langslow’s parents have begun cultivating roses and competing in rose shows, so when the Caerphilly Garden Club decides to sponsor a rose show, Meg volunteers to help out, but the competition is cut-throat and it isn’t long before a dead body is found on the grounds.

Bartlett, Allison Hoover. The Man who Loved Books too Much (Png, 24.95) Sept. A look at the world of book collecting and two men who operate within it—one an obsessed, unrepentant book thief and the other the “bibliodick” who vows to catch him. While focusing on this story, Bartlett also explores the history of book lust as well as a history of book theft.

Black, Lisa. Evidence of Murder (HC, 24.99) Sept. Cleveland forensic scientist Theresa MacLean investigates the death of a former escort who may be a suicide according to the police, but when a man claiming to be her former boyfriend shows up to claim the body and custody of her infant, Theresa suspects he may be a stalker in a fast-paced mystery with detailed forensics.

Bowen, Michael. Service Dress Blues (PP, 24.95) Sept. Milwaukee lawyer Rep Pennyworth and his English professor wife are pursuing different cases with a family connection to a political activist who is murdered.

Brown, Sandra. Smash Cut (SS, 26.95) Aug. A particularly memorable villain—a sociopath obsessed with re-enacting scenes from classic Hitchcock films—makes this romantic thriller memorable, as an art gallery owner friend of the murder victim and an attorney who refuses to defend the killer become themselves his next targets.

Cain, Chelsea. Evil at Heart (STM, 24.99) Sept. The third in the series featuring a seductive psychopathic serial killer and her adversary, police detective Archie Sheridan, who fears that she has begun killing again when he is lured to the scene of a grisly murder. Imagine a female Hannibal Lector.

Castrique, Mark de. The Fitzgerald Ruse (PP, 24.95) Aug. Former US military CID officer in Iraq Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson have set up a detective agency in Asheville, N.C. and their first client is an eccentric elderly woman who hires them to retrieve a locked box that contains a purloined F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript, and when the box is stolen and a security guard is killed it isn’t clear whether the crime is related to a secret American fascist organization that flourished in the 1930’s or rogue Blackwater mercenaries after Sam.

Cavender, Chris. A Slice of Murder (Kens, 22.00) Aug. The first in a cozy series featuring a North Carolina pizzeria owner who discovers her customer dead when she delivers his pizza, and because the local police chief wants to pin the crime on her, she and her sister decide to investigate.

Cleeves, Ann. Red Bones (STM, 24.99) Sept. When an archaeologist discovers a set of human remains on the Shetland Islands and then an elderly woman is shot, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. The Shetland Island setting makes this police procedural series a standout.

Coel, Margaret. The Silent Spirit (Brk, 24.95) Sept. When the body of a young man who left the Wind River Reservation to go to Hollywood to discover what happened to his great-grandfather, an extra in a 1920’s silent movie, is found, Father John and Vicky must discover the connection between two deaths almost 100 years apart.

Cohen, Gabriel. Neptune Avenue (STM, 24.95) Aug. NYPD detective Jack Leightner becomes personally involved when a friend is murdered and his chief suspect is a thuggish local entrepreneur in the third in an excellent police procedural series set in Brooklyn.

Cook, Robin. Intervention (Put, 25.95) Aug. A thriller where DNA science, biotechnology, and religion collide when a New York doctor is asked by the Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York to look into a controversial discovery made by an archaeologist in Rome.

Douglas, Carole Nelson. Cat in a Topaz Tango (STM, 24.95) Aug. Temple Barr and her fiancé agree to participate in a Las Vegas charity event “Dancing with the Celebs,” but a killer has signed up for the event as well, so Midnight Louie has his paws full keeping everyone safe.

Elias, Gerald. Devil’s Trill (STM, 25.99) Sept. A reclusive blind violin teacher becomes a suspect when a priceless violin is stolen during a recital at Carnegie Hall in a debut mystery set in the world of classical music written by the director of the Salt Lake City Symphony. Signing.

Elkins, Aaron. Skull Duggery (Brk, 24.95) Sept. While on vacation in Mexico, Gideon is asked to examine two bodies that have been misidentified in ways that suggest more than incompetence—in fact, discovering why the “mistakes” were made puts him in the crosshairs of a dangerous killer.

Ellis, David. The Hidden Man (Put, 25.95) Sept. A Midwestern attorney is hired to defend a childhood friend whose two-year-old sister was abducted twenty-seven years ago for the murder of the main suspect in the long-ago disappearance, but the man who has hired him is very suspicious, the friend is uncooperative, and questions begin to mount. Recommended.

Etchells, Olive. Devil at the Crossroads (Soho, 25.00) Aug. DCI Channon must investigate when a body is found at the crossroads of a small village, and the discovery threatens to tear apart of peaceful fabric of village life.

Farrell, Fiona. Mr. Allbones’ Ferrets (STM, 23.95) Aug.

Finder, Joseph. Vanished (STM, 25.99) Aug. A high-powered investigator with a corporate intelligence firm returns home to find that his brother has vanished, and, more startling, that his investigation into his brother’s disappearance pits him against powerful interests in Washington, including his own boss who has dark secrets to protect.

Francis, Dick and Felix Francis. Even Money (Put, 25.95) Aug. A bookmaker who has taken over the small family firm from his grandfather is