Wednesday, February 27, 2013

March 2013 New Mystery Releases!


February was one for the record books. I had one week of sheer reading nirvana with wonderful stories written by such authors as Colin Cotterill, Leighton Gage, Deborah Crombie, and Pamela Beason. It was a reading frenzy here! On Thursday, I'll post my review of a fascinating non-fiction book about two women who raced each other around the world-- see? I do read other genres!

February also made it into my record book because it's the first time since I moved to Phoenix in 1976 that I've seen the ground covered in snow. Technically it was graupel-- soft hail-- but it looked like snow to me!

March is going to be another splendiferous month for us here at Casa Kittling, and as always, I'm hoping to fill it with more excellent reads. The following are my picks of the new mysteries being released next month. They're grouped by release date, and I've provided all the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Let's see what they are!


=== March 5 ===


Title: Bowled Over
Series: #2 Vintage Kitchen mysteries set in Michigan
ISBN: 9780425251928
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has been estranged from her high school best friend Kathy Cooper since they were teenagers, but she never knew what turned Kathy against her. After fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her former friend in the park. On the ground nearby is Jaymie’s own Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two.

With her fingerprints all over the bowl and a troubled history with the victim, Jaymie suddenly finds herself at the top of the list of suspects. Did the killer intend to frame her for the murder? If so, she is ready to mix it up, because solving crimes is vintage Jaymie Leighton…
"


Title: Murder Below Montparnasse
Author: Cara Black
Series: #13 in the Aimée Leduc P.I. series set in Paris, France
ISBN:  9781616952150
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 326 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When Aimée’s long-term partner and best friend Rene leaves their detective agency for a new job in Silicon Valley, Aimée knows she can handle the extra workload. At least, that what she tells herself. Repeatedly.

But all bets are off when Yuri Volodya, a mysterious old Russian man, hires Aimée to protect a painting. By the time she gets to his Montparnasse atelier, the precious painting has already been stolen, leaving Aimée smelling a rat. The next day, Yuri is found tortured to death in his kitchen. To top it all off, it looks like Aimée isn’t the only one looking for the painting. Some very dangerous people are threatening her and her coworkers, and witnesses are dropping like flies. Now Aimée has to find the painting, stop her attackers, and figure out what her long-missing mother, who is on Interpol’s most wanted list, has to do with all this—fingers crossed she wasn’t Yuri’s murderer, despite clues pointing in that direction.

Obviously, Rene doesn’t need to worry. Aimee has things under control."


Title: Assaulted Pretzel
Author: Laura Bradford
Series: #2 Amish Mystery set in Pennsylvania
ISBN: 9780425252000
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

Synopsis: "The quiet town of Heavenly is buzzing with excitement over the latest guests at the local inn, Sleep Heavenly. Toy manufacturer Rob Karble is in town to meet the members of the Amish community who will soon be crafting a new toy line for his company. But when word gets out that Karble intends to use the Amish designs without employing the Amish to make them, someone sends the interloper to his final reward.

No one wants to believe anyone from the Amish community could commit such an act, but as Claire and Detective Fisher have learned, no one is above sin—or suspicion."


Title: Peach Pies and Alibis
Author: Ellery Adams
Series: #2 Charmed Pie Shoppe mystery set in Georgia
ISBN: 9780425251997
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in Havenwood, Georgia—which is not surprising since Ella Mae can lace her baked goods with enchantments. The shop’s extraordinary success seems destined to continue when Ella Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle the dessert buffet at their wedding.

But Ella Mae has a lot on her plate. She is also searching for the origin of her magical powers—and hoping to determine if the spark of attraction she feels for the handsome Hugh Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities gone awry.

Then Ella Mae discovers a high-standing member of the community dead, and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at the event she’s catering. Now she’ll have to use all her sleuthing skills and culinary talents to prove her pies don’t contain a killer ingredient . . .
"


Title: The Christie Curse
Author: Victoria Abbott
Series: #1 Jordan Kelly mystery set in New York State
ISBN:  9780425255285
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?

Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She’s back in Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law-abiding uncles, in debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans.

Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board, which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid book collector. There’s just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst—the most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.

Jordan’s first assignment is to track down a rumored Agatha Christie play. It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to keep the play out of Vera’s hands. Jordan’s new job is good…but is it worth her life?
"



Title: A Dying Fall
Author: Elly Griffiths
Series: #5 Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery set in England
ISBN: 9780547798165
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 400 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Ruth Galloway is shocked when she learns that her old university friend Dan Golding has died tragically in a house fire. But the death takes on a sinister cast when Ruth receives a letter from Dan written just before he died.

The letter tells of a great archaeological discovery, but Dan also says that he is scared for his life. Was Dan’s death linked to his find? The only clue is his mention of the Raven King, an ancient name for King Arthur.

Then Ruth is invited to examine the bones Dan found. Ruth travels to Lancashire–the hometown of DCI Nelson–with both her eighteen-month-old daughter, Kate, and her druid friend, Cathbad, in tow. She discovers a campus living in fear of a sinister right-wing group called the White Hand. She also finds that the bones revealed a shocking fact about King Arthur–and they’ve mysteriously vanished. When Nelson, visiting his mother in Blackpool, learns about the case, he is drawn into the investigation, especially when Ruth and his beloved Kate seem to be in danger. Who is willing to kill to keep the bones a secret?
"



Title: The Good Cop
Author: Brad Parks
Series: #4 Carter Ross mystery set in New Jersey ISBN: 9781250005526
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "As long as Newark Eagle-Examiner reporter Carter Ross turns in his stories on deadline, no one bats an eye if he doesn’t wander into the newsroom until 10 or 11 in the morning. So it’s an unpleasant surprise when he’s awakened at 8:38 a.m. by a phone call from his boss, telling him a local policeman was killed and to get the story. Shaking himself awake, Carter heads off to interview the cop’s widow. And then he gets another call: the story’s off, the cop committed suicide.

But Carter can’t understand why a man with a job he loved, a beautiful wife, and plans to take his adorable children to Disney World would suddenly kill himself. And when Carter’s attempts to learn more are repeatedly blocked, it's clear someone knows more than he's saying about the cop's death. The question is, who? And what does he have to hide? Carter, with his usual single-minded devotion to a good story—and to the memory of a Newark policeman—will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth.
"


=== March 8 ===


Title: Tainted Mountain
Author: Shannon Baker
Series: #1 Nora Abbott mystery set in Arizona
ISBN:  9780738734224
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Paperback, 360 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books. 

Synopsis: "All Nora Abbott wants to do is make enough snow to save her ski resort from the drought that is ravaging Northern Arizona. But now her husband has been murdered; angry protestors have occupied her mountain; her overbearing mother has blown into town; and energy tycoon Barrett McCreary has launched what might just be a hostile takeover of the cash-strapped resort. 
  To make matters worse, the local Hopi tribe claims making snow on the mountain will upset the balance of the earth, so Nora turns to the ruggedly handsome Cole Huntsman for help. The only trouble is that Huntsman seems to be playing from both sides of the deck. And when a fortune in uranium claims are at stake, double-dealing is a deadly strategy."


=== March 12 ===


Title: Paging the Dead
Author: Brynn Bonner
Series: #1 Family History mystery set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9781451661866 
Publisher: Gallery Books
Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Genealogist Sophreena McClure is an expert at unearthing other people’s secrets. Using old documents and photographs, Soph and her business partner, Esme Sabatier—also a gifted medium—trace family histories and create heritage scrapbooks. Their latest client, Dorothy Pritchett Porter, is thrilled with their research into Morningside’s most prestigious clan. But before Dorothy can proudly display her new scrapbooks on Founders’ Day, she’s found murdered. It seems the ties that bind can also strangle, for Dorothy has been killed using the Pritchett family pearls.Pegged as prime suspects, Sophreena and Esme turn their investigative skills from the dearly departed to the alive and dangerous, hoping to pin down the real killer among Dorothy’s kinfolk. Sophreena’s scrapbooking club members, crafty in more ways than one, pitch in to help. As the Pritchett ancestral roots turn out to be more tangled than anyone suspected, Sophreena wonders just how many skeletons lurk in this family closet—and whether she and Esme are destined to join them. . . .


=== March 19 ===


Title: The Leviathan Effect
Series: #2 Jon Mallory thriller based in Washington, D.C.
ISBN:  9781616952495 
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Homeland Security Secretary Catherine Blaine receives a frightening communication from a hacker identified only by the pseudonym Janus. The message is the latest in a series correctly predicting natural disasters around the world—disasters that, Janus claims, were manufactured, not natural at all. And, according to the email, unless the United States does as Janus instructs, another disaster is coming—a Category 5 hurricane that will hit the Eastern Seaboard and destroy the lives of tens of millions of people.

Unaware of the crisis in Washington, investigative journalist Jon Mallory stumbles on a list of seven prominent scientists who have been murdered over the past dozen years. When the person who gave him the list disappears herself, Jon realizes he has unwittingly become part of a deadly chain of events and contacts his brother, private intelligence contractor Charles, for help. Meanwhile, Catherine Blaine has also come to Charles for help tracking down the hacker Janus and uncovering the frightening new weather technology that threatens the world.
"
 


Title: The Missing File
Author: D.A. Mishani
Series: #1 Inspector Avraham Avraham mystery set in Israel
ISBN:  9780062195371 
Publisher: Harper
Hardcover, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "In The Missing File, Israeli detective Avraham Avraham must find a teenage boy gone missing from the suburbs of Tel Aviv in this first volume in a fresh new literary crime series by D. A. Mishani.

Crimes in Avraham’s quiet suburb are generally not all that complex. But when a sixteen-year-old boy goes missing and a schoolteacher offers up a baffling complication, Avraham finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about his life.

Told through alternating points of view,
The Missing File is an emotionally wrought, character-driven page-turner with plenty of twists and turns. It’s a mystery that will leave readers questioning the notions of innocence and guilt, and the nebulous nature of truth."



=== March 21 ===



Title: Helsinki Blood
Series: #4 Kari Vaara mystery set in Finland
ISBN: 9780399158889
Publisher: Putnam
Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Kari Vaara is recovering from the physical and emotional toll of solving the Lisbet Söderlund case when he’s approached with a plea: an Estonian woman begs him to find her daughter, Loviise, a young woman with Down syndrome who was promised work and a better life in Finland . . . and has since disappeared.

One more missing girl is a drop in the barrel for a police department that is understaffed and overburdened, but for Kari, the case is personal: it’s a chance for redemption, to help the victims his failed black-ops unit was intended to save, and to prove to his estranged wife, Kate, that he’s still the man he once was. His search will lead him from the glittering world of Helsinki’s high-class clubs to the darkest circles of Finland’s underground trade in trafficked women . . . and straight into the path of Loviise’s captors, who may be some of the most untouchable people in the country.

As Kari works his new case, a past one comes back to haunt him when powerful enemies return to settle unfinished business. In a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, he is propelled toward a reckoning in which the stakes are life or death . . . and only the victors will be left standing.
"


=== March 26 ===


Title: Leaving Everything Most Loved
Series: #10 Maisie Dobbs mystery set in England
ISBN:  9780062049605
Publisher: Harper
Hardcover, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "In Leaving Everything Most Loved by New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs investigates the murder of Indian immigrants in London.

The year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and there is reason to believe they failed to conduct a thorough investigation. The case becomes even more challenging when another Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview. Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a distraction, as does a new development in Maisie's personal life.

Bringing a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs to a close,
Leaving Everything Most Loved marks a pivotal moment in this outstanding mystery series."



What a phenomenal month of reading we have in store for us! I can't wait to get my hands on so many of these! Of the books by authors who are new to me, I think I'm most anxious to read The Christie Curse and Tainted Mountain. I'm not even going to start raving about all the ones by some of my favorite writers!

What about all of you? Which of these books are you adding to your own wish lists? Do tell!


7 comments:

  1. Cathy - Ohhhh, some interesting books coming down the line. A Winspear, a Griffiths, and a few others that caught my eye too. Good thing I didn't have my credit card with me when I checked this post. ;-)

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  2. Oh my, a new Ruth Galloway?! Thanks for letting me know!

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  3. Certainly the new Ruth Galloway, but some of the others sounds very good too, particularly Tainted Mountain. Look forward to your review of that.

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    Replies
    1. I should be finishing it this evening, Cath. :-)

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  4. The Christie Curse sounds tempting. It's going right on my Goodreads To Read shelf.

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