Before I go off to clean the bathroom floor and then sort through an almost 30-year-old yarn stash, let's see what new books being released in April have me adding to my wish lists.
The titles are grouped by release dates, and I've included the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. I hope one or two of these titles have you drooling, too!
==April 5==
Title: The Hanging Wood
Author: Martin Edwards
Series: #5 in the Lake District mystery series set in England and featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett of the Cold Case Squad and retired historian Daniel Kind
ISBN: 9781590588529
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2011
Hardcover, 278 pages
"Twenty years ago, a teenage boy, Callum Hinds, went missing in England’s Lake District. His uncle was suspected of having done the boy harm and interviewed by the police. When he committed suicide close to his cottage in the Hanging Wood, everyone assumed it was a sign of guilt. But the body of the boy was never found.
Now his sister, Orla Payne, has returned to the Lakes and takes up a job in an atmospheric residential library, close to her father’s farm, the upmarket caravan park, and the Hanging Wood. She wants to find the truth about Callum’s disappearance, and--at the prompting of Daniel Kind--making a drunken call, tries to interest DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of Cumbria’s Cold Case Review Team, in the case."
Title: The Fifth Witness
Author: Michael Connelly
Series: #4 in the Mickey Haller series set in Los Angeles, California
ISBN: 9780316069359
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2011
Hardcover, 448 pages
"Connelly's compelling fourth legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller finds the maverick L.A. lawyer who uses his Lincoln town car as an office specializing in "foreclosure defense." Haller's first foreclosure client, Lisa Trammel, is fighting hard to keep her home, maybe too hard. The bank has gotten a restraining order to stop Trammel's protests, and she becomes the prime suspect when Mitchell Bondurant, a mortgage banker, is killed with a hammer in his office parking lot. A ton of evidence points to Trammel, but Haller crafts an impressive defense that includes "the fifth witness" of the title. Connelly has a sure command of the legal and procedural details of criminal court, and even manages to make the arcane, shady world of foreclosure interesting. While the prose may lack some of the poetic nuance of his early novels, the plot is worthy of a master storyteller."
Author: Michael Connelly
Series: #4 in the Mickey Haller series set in Los Angeles, California
ISBN: 9780316069359
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2011
Hardcover, 448 pages
"Connelly's compelling fourth legal thriller featuring Mickey Haller finds the maverick L.A. lawyer who uses his Lincoln town car as an office specializing in "foreclosure defense." Haller's first foreclosure client, Lisa Trammel, is fighting hard to keep her home, maybe too hard. The bank has gotten a restraining order to stop Trammel's protests, and she becomes the prime suspect when Mitchell Bondurant, a mortgage banker, is killed with a hammer in his office parking lot. A ton of evidence points to Trammel, but Haller crafts an impressive defense that includes "the fifth witness" of the title. Connelly has a sure command of the legal and procedural details of criminal court, and even manages to make the arcane, shady world of foreclosure interesting. While the prose may lack some of the poetic nuance of his early novels, the plot is worthy of a master storyteller."
Author: Mary Jane Maffini
Series: #5 in the Charlotte Adams professional organizer series set in upstate New York
ISBN: 9780425240601
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, 2011
Paperback, 304 pages
Title: Dogs Don't LieSeries: #1 in the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series set in New York state
ISBN: 9781590588628
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2011
Paperback, 260 pages
"Pru Marlowe isn't your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad that her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, her person. Now Charles is dead, and Lily looks good for it. After all, Lily is a pit bull, a fighting-ring dropout, and way too traumatized to give Pru a clear picture of what she has witnessed. But Pru knows something about bad girls trying to clean up, and, with a sense of justice strong enough to overcome her dislike of human society, she takes the case. Listening to the animals, Pru picks up clues--and learns there are secrets in the pretty little town that make murder look simple. Unable to tell anybody about her psychic abilities, uncertain at times about her own sanity, Pru comes to realize that if she clears Lily, she’ll likely become the prime suspect--or the next victim. While the only creature she can totally trust is her crotchety tabby Wallis, Pru’s got to uncover the real killer--and find a way to live with her gift--before the real beasts in the town savage her and those she has come to love."
==April 7==
Author: Shamini Flint
Series: #4 in the Inspector Singh series based in Singapore
ISBN: 9780749953478
Publisher: Piatkus Paperback, 2011
Paperback, 320 pages
"Inspector Singh is in Cambodia - wishing he wasn't. He's been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore. But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise. It isn't long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he's witnessed - the roots of which lie in the dark depths of the Cambodian killing fields."
Title: The Devil's Edge
Author: Stephen Booth
Series: #12 in the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series set in England's Peak District
ISBN: 9781847444790
Publisher: Sphere, 2011
Hardcover, 352 pages
*UK Release*
"The newspapers call them the Savages: a band of home invaders as merciless as they are stealthy. Usually they don't leave a clue. This time, they've left a body. The first victim is found sprawled on her kitchen floor, blood soaking the terracotta tiles. Before long, another corpse is discovered, dead of fright. As the toll rises, it's up to DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry to track down the killers. But the enemy isn't who they think it is. Beneath the sinister shadow of the mountain ridge called the Devil's Edge, a twisted game is in play - a game more ruthless than the detectives can imagine."
Author: Stephen Booth
Series: #12 in the Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series set in England's Peak District
ISBN: 9781847444790
Publisher: Sphere, 2011
Hardcover, 352 pages
*UK Release*
"The newspapers call them the Savages: a band of home invaders as merciless as they are stealthy. Usually they don't leave a clue. This time, they've left a body. The first victim is found sprawled on her kitchen floor, blood soaking the terracotta tiles. Before long, another corpse is discovered, dead of fright. As the toll rises, it's up to DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry to track down the killers. But the enemy isn't who they think it is. Beneath the sinister shadow of the mountain ridge called the Devil's Edge, a twisted game is in play - a game more ruthless than the detectives can imagine."
==April 11==
Title: Murder to Music
Author: Lesley Cookman
Series: #6 in the Libby Sarjeant series set in Kent, England
ISBN: 9781907726545
Publisher: Accent Press Ltd., 2011
Paperback, 368 pages
*UK Release*
*UK Release*
"Libby Sarjeant and her friend Fran are invited by Fran's creative writing tutor to investigate a house that is reputedly haunted. For once, Libby can be as nosy as she likes without ploughing straight into a murder investigation, for the only deaths here appear to have occurred over a hundred years ago. But perhaps someone alive today doesn't want Libby to continue? And if so, will she be safe?"
==April 20==
Title: Guilt by Association
Author: Marcia Clark
ISBN: 9780316129510
Publisher: Mulholland Books, 2011
Hardcover, 368 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*
"L.A. prosecutor Rachel Knight is stunned when her office soul-mate, Jake Pahlmeyer, is found shot to death in a sleazy motel along with a 17-year-old boy, raising ugly suspicions that she doesn't want to acknowledge. Given Jake's top case to work--the rape of the teenage daughter of one of the DA's prominent contributors--Rachel is warned by her boss to leave her colleague's death alone. But with her big heart and hard head, she uses her network of sources and risks career and safety to pursue both cases, teaming up with Detective Bailey Keller and following leads to Hispanic gangs and porno rings in the seamiest parts of the city. Clark offers a real page-turner here, with smart, fast-moving prose; a skillfully constructed plot; and a protagonist well worth knowing. Rachel, whose past is only hinted at, is a well-rounded character who's as tough with suspects as she is sensitive with young victims. A top-notch legal thriller that will leave readers wanting more."
==April 26==
Title: Death on Tour
Author: Janice Hamrick
Series: #1 in the Jocelyn Shore series based in Austin, Texas
ISBN: 9780312679460
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2011
Hardcover, 320 pages
"A passport's not needed to enjoy Hamrick's ditzy debut, the first in a new cozy series and the winner of the 2010 Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur Books First Crime Novel Competition. While Austin, Texas, high school teacher Jocelyn Shore and her fashionista cousin and best friend, Kyla Shore, are on an Egyptian tour, one of their group, unpopular 55-year-old Millie Owens, takes a fatal plunge off the great pyramid of Khafre outside Cairo. The police later determine that Millie was murdered, stabbed in the neck. Entries in a journal that Jocelyn finds in Millie's bag suggests someone on the tour might be dangerous. Good-looking Alan Stratton, who's traveling alone and wears no wedding ring, adds romantic interest. Hamrick does a good job capturing life on an exhausting budget tour as her snazzy if snarky amateur sleuth, who tends to be hard on the middle-aged and elderly, investigates some fishy fellow tourists with a hypercritical eye."
Are you eagerly awaiting any of these titles, too? Which ones? Do tell!
I have read books in a couple of these series - Martin Edwards (only 1 read still) and I think I read a Stephen Booth book a long time ago. What I'm really interested in is DEATH ON TOUR based in Austin. How did I miss knowing about that one? I'll definitely have to find a copy of that one! Even if this book mostly takes place in Egypt. Thanks for the list, Cathy!
ReplyDeleteKay-- Austin caught my eye on that one, too! LOL
ReplyDeleteFortunately I have already read Martin Edwards´ new book so you cannot tempt me with that one :D
ReplyDeleteI think I´ll have to have some more Stephen Booth though - I am probably faaar behind but it´s never too late, is it?
Dorte-- I was thinking of you when I was typing the section on The Hanging Wood! ;) You're right; it's never too late. I'm only on the second book in Booth's series!
ReplyDelete