So far this summer has been an excellent time for reading. This past week I've read two "A+" books back to back. No wonder I call book time in the pool my PT (Prune Time)-- more than once it's been almost impossible for me to close the book and get out of the water!
The end of June is here, and it's time for me to share with you some of the books being released next month that I'm really anticipating. This month I succeeded in keeping the list to thirteen (my lucky number). I've included all the information you'll need to find any of these titles in your favorite book spots, and they are grouped by release date. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
I hope you're having as great a summer as I am-- Happy Reading!
=== July 1 ===
Title: The Riddle of Solomon
Series: #2 in the Sarah Weston Chronicles set in Israel, Saudi Arabia and India
ISBN: 9781605425290
Publisher: Medallion Press
Paperback, 472 pages
Synopsis: "Cambridge archaeologist Sarah Weston and anthropologist Daniel Madigan
team up for another expedition and adventure in this second book in the
Sarah Weston Chronicles. While working on the Qaryat al-Fau
archaeological site in Saudi Arabia, the pair uncovers a mysterious
ancient scroll composed as a riddle. As they attempt to date and
decipher the scroll, a flurry of ills befalls their expedition and the
scroll is stolen. A trail of clues leads to India, Jerusalem, and the
Judean wilderness, where the two discover the scroll was written by the
enigmatic King Solomon as a map to an ancient manuscript. Meanwhile a
privileged young Briton, Trent Sacks, has invested years and a fortune
looking for his manuscript. Believing he is the last descendant of the
House of David in the line of Solomon, Sacks will do whatever it takes
to amass the ancient relics which will prove he is the Jewish Messiah.
Leaving a string of murders in his wake, Sacks vows to crush Sarah and
Daniel for challenging his quest. Journeying through the worlds of the
occult, corporate greed, geopolitical conflict, Judaic mysticism, and
biblical archaeology, Sarah and Daniel race to uncover the powerful
ancient message that could have an explosive impact on modern Israel."
=== July 2 ===
Title: Tulle Death Do Us Part
Series: #6 in the Vintage Magic series set in Mystick Falls, Connecticut
ISBN: 9780425251935
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 272 pages
Synopsis: "Maddie’s love of classic fashion has made her Vintage Magic boutique a
success—even if the visions she experiences when touching certain items
often lead her into trouble. Decades ago, at a Mystic Country Club
costume ball, a secret scavenger hunt ended in an unexplained death,
hastily concealed.
Now, Maddie's invited to participate in a
similar anniversary event: but one touch of the vintage petticoat used
to hide evidence of the original crime hurtles Maddie into a scavenger
hunt of her own. She must find missing petticoat pieces and re-stitch
the clues it reveals...to expose a killer!"
Title: The Fire Witness
Series: #3 in the Joona Linna series set in Stockholm, Sweden
ISBN: 9780374298661
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Hardcover, 512 pages
Synopsis: "Flora Hansen calls herself a medium and makes a living by pretending to
commune with the dead. But after a gruesome murder at a rural home for
wayward girls, Hansen begins to suffer visions that are all too real.
She calls the police, claiming to have seen a ghost, but only one
detective puts aside his skepticism long enough to listen: Joona Linna.
Linna has spent more time at the scene of the crime than any other
detective would. The case seems obvious on the face of it: One of the
girls at the home escaped in the middle of the night, leaving behind a
bloody bed with a hammer under the pillow. But why does Hansen insist
that the murder instrument was a stone, not a hammer? And what’s the
story behind the dark red grain of sand, almost like a splinter from a
ruby, stuck beneath the dead girl’s fingernail? As Linna refuses to
accept easy answers, his search leads him into darker, more violent
territory, and finally to a shocking confrontation with a figure from
his past.
Just as Lars Kepler’s The Hypnotist and The Nightmare did, The Fire Witness has spent months at number one on the Swedish bestseller lists. As the newspaper Dagens Nyheter
put it, you start the thriller “on the subway home, keep reading at the
dinner table, and then don’t stop until well into the wee hours.”
Kepler writes with the force of Stieg Larsson and the plotting of Jo
Nesbø. The Fire Witness is an unflinching page-turner, sure to join the ranks of its predecessors as an international sensation."
Title: Dyeing Wishes
Series: #2 in the Haunted Yarn Shop series set in fictional Blue Plum, Tennessee
ISBN: 9780451239563
Publisher: Signet
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Synopsis: "Kath Rutledge’s grandmother left her a charming fiber and fabric
shop, a close-knit group of needlework lovers, and a television-addicted
ghost in the attic. She may also have inherited the special skills
required to untangle a murder.
Always up for trying
something new, Kath and her friends from the fiber and needlework group
TGIF—Thank Goodness it’s Fiber—are visiting Cloud Hollow Farm for the
day to learn the fine art of dyeing. With spring in the air, the
friends head out to greet the sheep. But the sheep are more interested
in something else—two bodies spread under a tall tree. And one of those
bodies is someone they know.
Kath’s friends nudge her to
investigate, and no one is more adamant than Geneva, the ghost who loves
to play assistant sleuth. But when Kath discovers another murder cut
from the same cloth, she’s more determined than ever to hang a roving
killer out to dry…"
Title: Not the Killing Type
Series: #7 in the Booktown series set in fictional Stoneham, New Hampshire
ISBN: 9780425252222
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Hardcover, 320 pages
Synopsis: "It’s November in Stoneham, New Hampshire, and that means it’s time for
the Chamber of Commerce elections. The race is already a bit heated, as
the long-standing Chamber president is being challenged by a former
lover—Tricia’s own sister, Angelica. Then local small business owner
Stan Berry throws his hat in the ring.
Unfortunately, it’s
not there for long when he’s found murdered in the Brookview Inn. The
murder weapon is a brass letter opener belonging to the inn’s
receptionist. Tricia knows there’s no way the receptionist is a killer.
And when Angelica asks Tricia to help clear her name and win the
election, she sees little choice except to start snooping.
She soon uncovers a ballot box full of lies and betrayals, and a
chamber full of people who had grudges against the victim. But were they
serious enough to lead to murder? And who truly had something to gain?
Tricia will have to do some serious sleuthing before she pulls the lever
on a killer."
Title: Final Sentence
Series: #1 in the Cookbook Nook series set in fictional Crystal Cove, California
ISBN: 9780425258040
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Welcome to A Cookbook Nook Mystery series,
where Jenna Hart, an avid reader,
admitted foodie, and new owner of a cookbook store and café in
picturesque Crystal Cove, California, is up to her neck in trouble when
she finds her college roommate, celebrity chef Desiree Divine, buried on
the beach, and a fellow shop owner accuses Jenna of murder."
Title: A Murder in Passing
Series: #4 in the Sam Blackman series set in Asheville, North Carolina
ISBN: 9781464201516
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Paperback, 250 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "
In Asheville, North Carolina, the Blackman & Robertson
Detective Agency faces a disturbing reality – no clients. Sam Blackman
finds inactivity intolerable. So when partner Nakayla Robertson suggests
a mushroom hunt on the site of an historic, freed-slave commune called
The Kingdom of the Happy Land, Sam reluctantly agrees. When he stumbles
across a skeleton, his adventure mushrooms into a case of murder. But it
isn’t his case. He has no client, and the local authorities tell him to
butt out.
Then Marsha Montgomery comes to the
office asking Sam and Nakayla to investigate a burglary at her mother’s
home. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph of Marsha’s mother,
grandmother, and great grandmother taken in 1932 by renowned
photographer Doris Ulmann. The site of the photograph is The Kingdom of
the Happy Land. The date of the burglary, 1967. Marsha’s visit is no
coincidence. Sam’s being played. But why?
When
Marsha’s eighty-five-year-old mother Lucille is arrested for murder, Sam
has his answer and his case. Is the skeleton that of Jimmy Lang,
Marsha’s white father and her mother’s lover, who disappeared in 1967
right after interracial couples were allowed to marry in North
Carolina? Jimmy’s brother says no. Jimmy left to seek his fortune after
Lucille rejected his marriage proposal. But others stood to gain from
his disappearance. A veil of betrayal and deceit hides a killer
desperate to protect a dark secret, and no one, not even Sam, is safe
from the deadly consequences of a murder in passing."
Title:
The Fame Thief
Author:
Timothy Hallinan
Series: #3 in the Junior Bender series set in Los Angeles, California
ISBN: 9781616952808
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 336 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "
There are not many people brave enough to say no to Irwin Dressler,
Hollywood’s scariest mob boss-turned-movie king. Even though Dressler is
ninety-three years old, LA burglar Junior Bender is quaking in his
boots when Dressler’s henchman haul him in for a meeting.
Dressler wants
Junior to solve a 'crime' he believes was committed more than sixty
years ago, when an old friend of his, once-famous starlet Dolores La
Marr, had her career destroyed after compromising photos were taken of
her at a Las Vegas party. Dressler wants justice for Dolores and the
shining career she never had.
Junior can’t help but think the
whole thing is a little crazy. After all, it’s been seventy years. Even
if someone did set Dolores up for a fall from grace back then, they’re
probably long dead now. But he can't say no to Irwin Dressler (no one
can, really). So he starts digging. And what he finds is that some
vendettas never die—they only get more dangerous."
=== July 4 ===
Title: An Act of Kindness
Author: Barbara Nadel
Series: #2 in the Hakim and Arnold series set in London
ISBN: 9780857387783
Publisher: Quercus
Paperback, 464 pages
Synopsis: "London's East End has always been a social and racial melting pot and
never more so than today. PI Lee Arnold and his assistant Mumtaz Hakim
don't mind - it keeps them on their toes. It is November. The days are
getting darker and they have a new case on their hands. A young Asian
couple moves into a dilapidated house in Upton Park. The woman, Nasreen,
spends much of her time working alone on the house, her husband
Abdullah preoccupied with his job. John Sawyer is a veteran of the war
in Afghanistan. Since his discharge, he has been volatile and is now
homeless. An unlikely friendship develops between Nasreen and John, one
that her husband would frown upon. When John's body is discovered,
Nasreen's suspicions light upon Abdullah. Did he know they were friends?
Reluctant to go to the police, Nasreen reaches out to the Arnold
Detective Agency. Mumtaz Hakim begins to dig into Abdullah's past and
into the house itself which, she finds, holds its own grim secrets."
=== July 9 ===
Title: The Devil's Cave
Series: #5 in the Bruno Chief of Police series set in southwestern France
ISBN: 9780385349529
Publisher: Knopf
Hardcover, 352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "It’s spring in St. Denis. The village choir is preparing for its Easter
concert, the wildflowers are blooming, and among the lazy whorls of the
river a dead woman is found floating in a boat. It’s another case for
Bruno, the town’s cherished chief of police. With the discovery of
sinister markings and black candles near the body, it seems to him that
the occult might be involved. And as questions mount—regarding a
troubling real estate proposal in the region; a suspicious, violent
death made to look accidental; and the sudden reappearance of a
politically controversial elderly countess—Bruno and his colleagues and
friends are drawn ever closer to a climactic showdown in the Gouffre de
Colombac: the place locals call the Devil’s Cave.
With the enchanting backdrop of France’s pastoral heartland, a cast of local
characters as vibrant as their surroundings, enough sumptuous repasts to
satisfy any literary gourmand, and a hero winningly capable of
balancing the good life with a dogged dedication to solving the crimes
that threaten it, The Devil’s Cave invites readers to raise a glass and turn the page."
=== July 10 ===
Title: Care Homes Are Murder
Series: #5 in the Geezer-Lit series featuring Paul Jacobson, an 80-something amateur sleuth with short-term memory loss
ISBN: 9781432826925
Publisher: Five Star
Hardcover, 268 pages
Synopsis: "In this the fifth of the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series
crotchety octogenarian Paul Jacobson returns to Hawaii for a vacation
with his family and becomes involved in a series of crimes while
struggling with the problems of his short-term memory loss. Paul finds a
dead body in the Honolulu Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and must deal with a
murder in the care home where his friends reside. He has to use all his
geezer resources to solve a case involving the local drug cartel."
=== July 16 ===
Title: Countdown City
Series: #2 in the Last Policeman trilogy set in Concord, New Hampshire
ISBN: 9781594746260
Publisher: Quirk Books
Paperback, 320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "The Last Policeman received the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original--along with plenty of glowing reviews.
Now Detective Hank Palace returns in Countdown City
, the second volume of the Last Policeman trilogy.
There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth,
and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force
operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days
of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help
finding her missing husband.
Brett Cavatone disappeared without a
trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to
tell whether someone’s gone 'bucket list' or just gone. With
society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can,
on a search that leads him from a
college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal
landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off 'impact zone' refugees.
Countdown City
presents
another fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once
again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond 'whodunit.' What do
we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be
civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?"
=== July 30 ===
Title: The Highway
Standalone
ISBN: 9780312583200
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 400 pages
Synopsis: "When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to
visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone
might ever hear from them again. The girls—and their car—simply vanish.
Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and has
fallen off the wagon after a long stretch of sobriety. Convinced by his
son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, he begins the drive
south to the girls’ last known location. As Cody makes his way to the
lonely stretch of Montana highway where they went missing, Cassie
discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren’t the first girls who
have disappeared in this area. This majestic landscape is the hunting
ground for a killer whose viciousness is outmatched only by his
intelligence. And he might not be working alone. Time is running out
for Gracie and Danielle…Can Cassie overcome her doubts and lack of
experience and use her innate skill? Can Cody Hoyt battle his own
demons and find this killer before another victim vanishes on the highway?"
I wonder if any of the rest of you noticed the same thing I did with the book covers. Take a look at all the book covers for the cozy mysteries I listed. I wonder if July is Put a Cat on a Book Cover Month? *wink*
Hopefully my list includes a few titles that you just have to put on your wish lists. Which books jumped out at you and yelled, "Buy me! Buy ME!" ??? Inquiring minds want to know!
