Sunday, April 29, 2012

May 2012 New Mystery Releases!

I love this time of year. Everything seems to be blooming, I get to sit in my back garden and watch baby birds learn the ropes, the pool water's warming up.... Bliss!

The only trouble I have is in trying to figure out where the time went. Any of you have that problem?

I also have a problem narrowing down my list of new mystery releases to twelve. It hurts to cut any out, yet I don't want a post that's five miles long. (2¾ miles will do nicely, thank you!)

Here is my May list of the books that I can't wait to get my hands on. As usual, the books are grouped by release dates, and I've included the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Hopefully I've chosen a title or two that you just can't do without. (I don't want to be alone....) Happy reading!


=== May 1 ===


Title: Getaway
Standalone
ISBN: 9781616952402
Publisher: Soho Press
Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Michelle Mason tells herself she’s on vacation. A brief stay in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta. It’s a chance to figure out her next move after the unexpected death of her banker husband, who’s left behind a scandal and a pile of debt. The trip was already paid for, and it beats crashing in her sister’s spare room. When a good-looking man named Daniel approaches her on the beach, the margaritas have kicked in and she decides: why not?

But the date doesn’t go as either of them planned. An assault on Daniel in her hotel room, switched cell phones and an encounter with a “friend” of Daniel’s named Gary gets Michelle enmeshed in a covert operation involving drug runners, goons, and venture capitalists. Michelle already knows she’s caught in a dangerous trap. But she quickly finds that running is not an option. If she’s not careful, she’ll end up buried in the town dump, with the rest of the trash. Now she needs to fight smart if she wants to survive her vacation."


Series:#1 in the Vintage Kitchen mysteries set in Michigan
ISBN: 9780425248010
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

From the back cover: "When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920s Hoosier brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it’s love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister that the 19th-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie’s “junk,” she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier.

But that night on the summer porch where they’ve left the Hoosier to be cleaned up, a man is murdered, struck on the head with  the steel meat grinder that is part of the cabinet. Who is this stranger—and what was he doing on their porch? Does his death have anything to do with the Hoosier?

As the police struggle to determine the man’s identity, Jaymie can’t help doing a little digging on her own, accompanied by her three-legged Yorkie Poo, Hopalong. But in her bid to uncover the truth about the hidden secrets of the Hoosier, Jaymie may be the one who ends up going, going…gone."


Series: #2 in the Professor Bradshaw mysteries set in Seattle in the early 1900s
ISBN: 9781590586143
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Paperback, 250 pages

*Upcoming review of the first in the series, A Spark of Death, on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Seattle, 1901. The race to win an electrical competition incites Professor of Electrical Engineering Benjamin Bradshaw's obsession for invention in the second entry this exciting historical series. The contest winner's telephonic system will deliver music from the Seattle Grand Theater to homes throughout the city, and Bradshaw is confident he can win.

The contest is in full swing when President McKinley is assassinated, casting Bradshaw and the entire nation into shock. Then Bradshaw uncovers a crime closer to home: a gypsy peddler's cart is suddenly abandoned behind his house. What happened to the father and child who lived in this cart? When Bradshaw discovers the peddler's child may have witnessed a murder, he follows the girl's trail, plunging into a seedy underworld of bars and brothels.

Frustrated by the police department's apathy and caught between power struggles, he doesn't know whom to trust. Each step of his investigation entangles him deeper in crime and corruption until he realizes that to save the child, he must transform his contest entry into a trap to catch a killer and to protect his own household.

Bradshaw's electrical forensic and investigative skills, combined with a keen understanding of human nature, bring the Seattle police—and murder—to his doorstep during the social and scientific turmoil of the early twentieth century."


Series: #1 in the Rosie the Riveter mysteries set in 1942 New York City
ISBN: 9780758267580
Publisher: Kensington
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

From the back cover: "Life is definitely not easy for 32-year-old Rosie O'Doyle Keefe, but she can handle working in New York City's World War II shipyards - until her foreman winds up dead - right after she rebuffed his 'requirements' for a promotion. Never one to sit back and hope for the best, Rosie discovers that everyone who knew the foreman had good reasons to kill him off. She also finds that she has a surprise ally in the darkly handsome police lieutenant Jack Riordan. But Jack also has to produce a viable suspect for his captain in five days - even if it has to be Rosie. Before long, the mystery spirals onto the streets of wartime New York. With the clock ticking and her freedom on the line, Rosie and Lieutenant Riordan will need to join forces to find the truth and catch the now very desperate killer ...who may be much closer then they think."


Title: Fun House
Series: #7 in the Ceepak and Boyle series set in New Jersey
ISBN: 9781605983363
Publisher: Pegasus
Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "What if a reality TV show like Jersey Shore set up production in the fictional seaside resort Sea Haven? What if hitting the gym, tanning, and doing a little laundry aren't the only things the contestants get into?

By-the-book officer John Ceepak and his wisecracking young partner, Danny Boyle, have to babysit the buff and boozy kids partying it up in a Jersey shore rental house for TV’s summertime hit Fun House while simultaneously trying to stop the rowdy kids from breaking the law up and down the beach.

But even Ceepak and Danny can’t stop one young cast member from being murdered—and others from being threatened with the same fate."


=== May 8 ===


Standalone
ISBN:  9781250005533
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "Five years ago, while William Rees was still recovering from his stint as a Revolutionary War soldier, his beloved wife died. Devastated, Rees left his son, David, in his sister’s care, fled his Maine farm, and struck out for a tough but emotionally empty life as a traveling weaver. Now, upon returning unexpectedly to his farm, Rees discovers that David has been treated like a serf for years and finally ran away to join a secluded religious sect—the Shakers.

Overwhelmed by guilt and hoping to reconcile with his son, Rees immediately follows David to the Shaker community. But when a young Shaker woman is brutally murdered shortly after Rees’s arrival, Rees finds himself launched into a complicated investigation where the bodies keep multiplying, a tangled web of family connections casts suspicion on everyone, and the beautiful woman on the edge of the Shaker community might be hiding troubling ties to the victims. It quickly becomes clear that in solving Sister Chastity’s murder, Rees may well expose some of the Shaker community’s darkest secrets, not to mention endanger his own life."


Title: The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots
Author: Tamar Myers
Series: #3 in the Amanda Brown series set in the 1950s Belgian Congo
ISBN:  9780061997730
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Paperback, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "A decades-old murder, a strange superstition, an enormous snake, and one giant secret are about to rock the beautiful Belle Vue to its core.

It is a time of great upheaval for the Belgian Congo and Belle Vue is not safe from the changes. But there are more pressing problems as an unsolved disappearance brings up issues for some of the denizens of the village. Add to that a sudden influx of strangers and a horrible storm that literally divides the village in half, and suddenly danger seems to be everywhere.

The lovely young American missionary Amanda, the police chief Captain Pierre Jardin, and the local witch doctor and his wise-woman wife, Cripple, all become embroiled in the mystery as evil omens and strange happenings at every turn suggest that more lives will be lost before the true killer is unmasked."


=== May 15 ===


Author: Craig Johnson
Series: #8 in the Sheriff Walt Longmire series set in Absaroka County, Wyoming 
ISBN:  9780670023516
Publisher: Viking Adult
Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Embarking on his eighth adventure, Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire has a more important matter on his mind than cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married to the brother of his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti. Walt and old friend Henry Standing Bear are the de facto wedding planners and fear Cady’s wrath when the wedding locale arrangements go up in smoke two weeks before the big event.

The pair set out to find a new site for the nuptials on the Cheyenne Reservation, but their scouting expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior’s majestic cliffs. It’s not Walt’s turf, but the newly appointed tribal police chief and Iraqi war veteran, the beautiful Lolo Long, shanghais him into helping with the investigation. Walt is stretched thin as he mentors Lolo, attempts to catch the bad guys, and performs the role of father of the bride."


=== May 22 ===


Author: Anne Cassidy
Series: #1 in the Murder Notebooks series set in the UK
ISBN:  9780802723512
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Hardcover, 352 pages

From the back cover: [Ages 12 and up] "When Rose was twelve, her mother and stepfather went out for dinner and never came back. Now seventeen, she lives with her grandmother and goes to school in London. She’s always wondered about her stepbrother, Joshua, whom she only lived with briefly and who was also relocated after their parents’ disappearance. When Rose and Joshua meet again, they find they have much in common, including a desire to uncover the mystery surrounding their parents’ disappearance . . . and a mutual attraction to each other. But when Rose witnesses the murders of not one but two of her classmates, she must uncover who is behind these violent crimes. And when she and Joshua discover that a much larger conspiracy is underway, both of their lives will be in danger."


=== May 29 ===


Title: The Watchers
Author: Jon Steele
Standalone
ISBN:  9780399158742
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Hardcover, 592 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books!

From the back cover: "Lausanne, Switzerland. In the cathedral tower lives a strange boy with a limp who talks to the bells. In a luxury penthouse lives a high-class prostitute who's in mortal danger. And in a low-rent hotel lives a private investigator who has no idea how he got there. Jay Harper finds himself in Switzerland on the trail of a missing Olympic athlete. A hard drinker, he can barely remember how he got home last night, let alone why he accepted this job. When he meets the stunning but aloof Katherine in a hotel bar, he quickly realises that he's not the only one in town who's for hire. She's a high-class hooker who can't believe her luck. Which is about to change. For the worse.In the meantime, Marc Rochat spends his time in the belfry talking to the statues, his cat and the occasional ghost. His job is to watch over Lausanne at night and to wait for the angel his mother told him he'd one day have to save. When he sees Katherine, he thinks his moment has come. Which indeed it has. But not in a good way…."


Title: The Yard
Author: Alex Grecian
Series: #1 in the Murder Squad series set in Victorian England
ISBN: 9780399149542
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Hardcover, 432 pages

From the back cover: "Victorian London is a cesspool of crime, and Scotland Yard has only twelve detectives—known as 'The Murder Squad'—to investigate countless murders every month. Created after the Metropolitan Police’s spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. But no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own . . . one of the twelve . . .

When Walter Day, the squad’s newest hire, is assigned the case of the murdered detective, he finds a strange ally in the Yard’s first forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley. Together they track the killer, who clearly is not finished with The Murder Squad . . . but why?

Filled with fascinating period detail, and real historical figures, this spectacular debut in a new series showcases the depravity of late Victorian London, the advent of criminology, and introduces a stunning new cast of characters sure to appeal to fans of The Sherlockian and The Alienist."


=== May 31 ===


Title: Kissing the Demons
Author: Kate Ellis
Series: #3 in the DI Joe Plantagenet series set in North Yorkshire, England
ISBN: 9780727879844
Publisher: Severn House
Hardcover, 336 pages

From the back cover: "Thirteen Torland Place is a house with a disturbing past. When a student living there is found murdered, DI Joe Plantagenet wonders whether her death has anything to do with its grim history. Then other, similar deaths come to light and he fears that a ruthless serial killer is at work. Could the deaths be connected to Obediah Shrowton, an executed murderer whose presence still seems to linger in the house? Or is there a yet more sinister and dangerous explanation?"


Whew, that was quite a list! Which books tickled your fancy? 'fess up!



14 comments:

  1. Cathy - I want the Grabenstein, the Johnson and the Hamilton. Now. ;-). Thanks for letting us know what's up-and-coming.

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  2. What a great bunch of books this month! I'm gonna have to give up my day job (you know, cleaning house, cooking, doing laundry!) to get more reading time in!

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  3. I love your choices especially A SIMPLE MURDER and A DEADLY GRIND.

    THE YARD looks good too.

    THANKS.

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  4. Some catchy titles for next month. I'm going to have to watch for The Yard on audio. I have way too many books already but I like to get in on the first book in a new series and I like historical mysteries.

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  5. Fun House sounds intriguing. And I'm not just saying that because I live in New Jersey and just a few minutes from The Jersey Shore. I'm just as intrigued by "whogotit" as "whodunnit" thanks to the 'spellbinding' cultural 'icons' featured in The Jersey Shore.

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    Replies
    1. It does sound good, doesn't it? And I live in a whole nuther world from the Jersey Shore!

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  6. I have Myer's book in my TBR pile and it looks good...but I am also a fan of Graberstein and must get his latest. And it is not because I too live minutes from the jersey shore...but because they are fun books, great summer reads.

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  7. I hadn't heard of Chris Grabenstein until this week when I saw a review for Fun House. I was interested enough that I have made a note to track down the series.
    Dead Time showed up in my mailbox yesterday.

    Shelleyrae @ Book'd oUt

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    1. By all means, track down this series-- it's wonderful! I'll have to keep an eye peeled for your review of Dead Time.

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