Instead, I think I will force my mind to think about the new mysteries coming out in October. Let's face it-- it's not a difficult thing for me to do, but it's always hard to pare down the list. If I get it down to twelve or thirteen, I consider myself lucky.
All the books are grouped according to their release dates, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book spots. (Just to let you know, I get most of my information from Amazon. I love to do my research there and then buy the books elsewhere... not that I'm contrary or anything!)
Let's take a look at my picks for the month of October!
=== October 1 ===
Title: The Taste of Wormwood
Author: Keith McCarthy
Series: #9 in the Eisenmenger and Flemming series set in England
ISBN: 9780727881908
Publisher: Severn House
Hardcover, 224 pages
Synopsis: "Arthur Meadows has just returned home from a trip to southwest Europe,
supposedly bringing back a consignment of cloth, but actually bringing
back something far more deadly. Meanwhile, a young Asian couple are
murdered in their small house in Gloucester, the killings done with
ruthless efficiency. Beverley Wharton, now Chief Inspector, does not
relish the investigation of the murders: partly due to the choice of
pathologist, Charles Sydenham. She would have preferred John
Eisenmenger, but he has his own problems trying to work out why Arthur
Meadows died so unexpectedly . . ."
=== October 2 ===
Title: The Woman Who Died A Lot
Author: Jasper Fforde
Series: #7 in the Tuesday Next series set in an England that never was
ISBN: 9780670025022
Publisher: Viking Adult
Hardcover, 384 pages
Synopsis: "The Bookworld’s leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been
forced into a semiretirement following an assassination attempt,
returning home to Swindon and her family to recuperate.
But Thursday’s children have problems that demand she become a mother of invention: Friday’s career struggles in the Chronoguard, where he is relegated to a might-have-been; Tuesday’s trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield, needed in time to thwart an angry Deity’s promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday’s third child, Jenny, who doesn’t exist except as a confusing and disturbing memory.
With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from the Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday’s convalescence is going to be anything but restful as the week ahead promises to be one of the Next family’s oddest."
But Thursday’s children have problems that demand she become a mother of invention: Friday’s career struggles in the Chronoguard, where he is relegated to a might-have-been; Tuesday’s trouble perfecting the Anti-Smote shield, needed in time to thwart an angry Deity’s promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth; and the issue of Thursday’s third child, Jenny, who doesn’t exist except as a confusing and disturbing memory.
With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, and a call from the Bookworld to hunt down Pagerunners who have jumped into the Realworld, Thursday’s convalescence is going to be anything but restful as the week ahead promises to be one of the Next family’s oddest."
Title: Black Heart on the Appalachian Trail
Author: T.J. Forrester
Standalone
ISBN: 9781439175613
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Paperback, 208 pages
Synopsis: "In the vast wilderness of the Appalachian Trail, three hikers are
searching for answers. Taz Chavis, just released from prison, sees the
thru-hike as his path to salvation and a way to distance himself from a
toxic relationship. Simone Decker, a young scientist with a dark secret,
is desperate to quell her demons. Richard Nelson, a Blackfoot Indian,
seeks a final adventure before taking over the family business back
home. As they battle hunger, thirst, and loneliness, and traverse the
rugged terrain, their paths begin to intersect, and it soon becomes
clear that surviving the elements may be the least of their concerns.
Hikers are dying along the trail, their broken bodies splayed on the
rocks below. Are these falls accidental, the result of carelessness, or
is something more sinister at work?"
Title: A Fatal Stain
Author: Elise Hyatt
Series: #3 in the Daring Finds series set in Goldport, Colorado
ISBN: 9780425255230
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "As her wedding to detective Cas Wolfe approaches, Candyce "Dyce"
Dare, sole owner (and employee) of the furniture refinishing business
Daring Finds desperately needs to find something to do to avoid sitting
down and planning the event with her mother and her best
friend (particularly since she suspects their plans involve having her
cat dress in a tuxedo). Working on a table she recently bought at a yard
sale fits the bill.
Until her sanding efforts
uncover a disturbing stain—one that looks like it might be blood. Dyce
knows that, with a fiancé who’s a policeman, parents who own a mystery
bookstore, and a recent history of inadvertent involvement in murder
cases, she can be prone to seeing things that aren’t there. But then she
discovers that the table’s previous owner has gone missing—and once
more, she is drawn into a solve-it-yourself mystery project. And when
Dyce starts a project, she just has to see it through…"
Title: Invisible Murder
Authors: Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis
Series: #2 in the Nina Borg series set in Denmark
ISBN: 9781616951702
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 339 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "In the ruins of an abandoned Soviet military hospital in northern
Hungary, two impoverished Roma boys are scavenging for old supplies or
weapons they could sell on the black market when they find more than
they ever anticipated. The resulting chain of events threatens to blow
the lives of a frightening number of people into bits and pieces.
In this feverishly anticipated follow-up to 2011’s critically acclaimed The Boy in the Suitcase, Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg doesn’t realize she is putting life and family on the line when she tries to treat a group of sick Hungarian gypsies who are living illegally in a Copenhagen garage. Nina has unwittingly thrown herself into a deadly nest of the unscrupulous and the desperate, and what is at stake is much more terrifying than anyone had realized."
In this feverishly anticipated follow-up to 2011’s critically acclaimed The Boy in the Suitcase, Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg doesn’t realize she is putting life and family on the line when she tries to treat a group of sick Hungarian gypsies who are living illegally in a Copenhagen garage. Nina has unwittingly thrown herself into a deadly nest of the unscrupulous and the desperate, and what is at stake is much more terrifying than anyone had realized."
Title: Bear Bait
Author: Pamela Beason
Series: #2 in the Sam Westin wildlife biologist series
ISBN: 9780425251652
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Synopsis: "Sam Westin is working on a twelve-week project for the National
Park Service as a biologist and a volunteer firewatcher when, one night,
she hears an explosion. Above a nearby lake, fire lights the sky. She
calls it in and is the first on the scene to do battle. When the blaze
is finally extinguished, a body is discovered in the embers. It’s a
young woman who was working on the park’s trail crew for the summer—and
she’s still clinging to life.
Sensing something
sinister, Sam starts asking questions. Who started the fire? Was the
young woman involved? Does this have something to do with an old gold
mine? Is the recent sighting of an illegal bear hunter just coincidence?
Sam wants the answers—but someone else wants her out of the way before
she finds them..."
Title: Postcards from the Dead
Author: Laura Childs
Series: #10 in the Scrapbooking Mysteries series set in New Orleans, Louisiana
ISBN: 9780425252758
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Hardcover, 336 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "There’s a parade rolling through the historic French Quarter, with
gigantic floats, silver beads, and dizzying lights—and Kimber Breeze of
KBEZ-TV is broadcasting live from a small balcony on the fourth floor of
the Hotel Tremain, interviewing locals and capturing the spectacle down
below. Her next subject will be Carmela Bertrand, owner of Memory Mine
scrapbooking shop. Carmela has never been a fan of Kimber, but she isn’t
about to turn down the chance of good publicity for her shop.
But before Carmela’s shop gets its five minutes of fame, a killer slips onto the balcony and strangles Kimber with a cord, leaving her body dangling above the parade. Carmela is horrified, but she quickly discovers the nightmare isn’t over. Because someone is now leaving strange postcards at Carmela’s shop—signed by the dead Kimber. Now Carmela and her friend Ava will have to risk their own necks to find out who’s posing as a ghost—and to expose a killer…"
But before Carmela’s shop gets its five minutes of fame, a killer slips onto the balcony and strangles Kimber with a cord, leaving her body dangling above the parade. Carmela is horrified, but she quickly discovers the nightmare isn’t over. Because someone is now leaving strange postcards at Carmela’s shop—signed by the dead Kimber. Now Carmela and her friend Ava will have to risk their own necks to find out who’s posing as a ghost—and to expose a killer…"
Title: The Vanishing Point
Author: Val McDermid
Standalone
ISBN: 9780802120526
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Hardcover, 416 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Young Jimmy Higgins is snatched from an airport security checkpoint
while his guardian watches helplessly from the glass inspection box. But
this is no ordinary abduction, as Jimmy is no ordinary child. His
mother was Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer and
alienated from her unreliable family, entrusted the boy to the person
she believed best able to give him a happy, stable life: her ghost
writer, Stephanie Harker. Assisting the FBI in their attempt to recover
the missing boy, Stephanie reaches into the past to uncover the motive
for the abduction. Has Jimmy been taken by his own relatives? Is
Stephanie’s obsessive ex-lover trying to teach her a lesson? Has one of
Scarlett’s stalkers come back to haunt them all?"
Title: Iced Chiffon
Author: Duffy Brown
Series: #1 in the Consignment Shop mystery series set in Savannah, Georgia
ISBN: 9780425251607
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Reagan’s messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down
Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan
makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her
home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her
rich-wife wardrobe.
Thanks to his cunning lawyer
Walker Boone, her ex got everything else, including the Lexus—not to
mention a young blond cupcake. When Reagan finds the cupcake dead in the
Lexus, she’s determined to beat Boone to finding the murderer. As it
turns out, the gossip fiends flooding Reagan’s shop will give her a lot
more than just their unwanted clothes—they have information more
precious than a vintage Louis Vuitton…"
=== October 16 ===
Title: Princess Elizabeth's Spy
Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Series: #2 in the Maggie Hope mystery series set in World War II England
ISBN: 9780553593624
Publisher: Bantam
Paperback, 384 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against
German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. Spirited,
strong-willed, and possessing one of the sharpest minds in government
for mathematics and code-breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad
to gather intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great
disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle,
where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth in math. Yet castle
life quickly proves more dangerous—and deadly—than Maggie ever expected.
The upstairs-downstairs world at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a
shocking murder, which draws Maggie into a vast conspiracy that places
the entire royal family in peril. And as she races to save England from a
most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick wit is her best
defense, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest secrets,
even within her own family."
=== October 23 ===
Title: Pago Pago Tango
Author: John Enright
Series: #1 in the Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua Jungle Beat mystery series set in American Samoa
ISBN: 9781612185002
Publisher: Thomas and Mercer
Paperback
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua spent seven years in the San
Francisco Police Department, where the job was just a job and solving
crimes required cool detachment. But back home on American Samoa, life
is personal—especially for a cop. Because on a small island where no
one is a stranger and secrets are widely known but never discussed,
solving crimes requires a certain…finesse.
Here, Apelu must walk
the line between two cultures: Samoan versus American, native versus
new. And that gulf never yawns wider than when a white family’s home in
Pago Pago is burglarized. And what appears to be a simple,
open-and-shut case turns out to anything but. As the evidence piles up,
Apelu follows a tangled trail between cultures, dead bodies, hidden
codes, and a string of lies on his hunt for the ugly truth buried at
the heart of paradise."
=== October 25 ===
Title: A Question of Identity
Author: Susan Hill
Series: #7 in the Simon Serailler police procedural series set in England
ISBN: 9781468300505
Publisher: Overlook
Hardcover, 336 pages
Synopsis: "A particularly unpleasant murder, that of a very old woman in a housing
project, rocks the town of Lafferton. The murderer has left a
distinctive "sign" on the body and at the scene of crime. A couple of
weeks later, a similar murder occurs, and a month or so later, so does
another.
Initial investigations discover that the mysterious "sign" left on the body was the calling card of a suspect who was charged with several murders in the northwest of the country, tried but acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All indications suggest that this person has simply vanished. Or is he right under their noses?"
Initial investigations discover that the mysterious "sign" left on the body was the calling card of a suspect who was charged with several murders in the northwest of the country, tried but acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All indications suggest that this person has simply vanished. Or is he right under their noses?"
=== October 30 ===
Title: A Small Hill to Die On
Author: Elizabeth J. Duncan
Series: #4 in the Penny Brannigan mystery series set in Wales
ISBN: 9781250008244
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 272 pages
Synopsis: "The North Wales market town of Llanelen is abuzz when a Vietnamese
family moves into Ty Brith Hall. It isn’t long before the family’s
business dealings have the townsfolk wondering what’s really going on up
at the big house on the hill.
Things take a sinister turn when Penny Brannigan, spending a midwinter afternoon sketching the magnificent views that surround the town, discovers the body of the new family’s teenage daughter. Many secrets lie buried in the shallow grave, along with the girl, who Penny identifies by the snakeskin manicure she received at Penny’s salon. When an elderly woman returns to Llanelen to care for her ailing brother, Penny discovers the truth about another death at Ty Brith Hall, one that hits very close to home. Though Penny's romantic interest, Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies, warns her to stay away, Penny can't resist getting involved, and her urge to help will ultimately put her in danger."
Things take a sinister turn when Penny Brannigan, spending a midwinter afternoon sketching the magnificent views that surround the town, discovers the body of the new family’s teenage daughter. Many secrets lie buried in the shallow grave, along with the girl, who Penny identifies by the snakeskin manicure she received at Penny’s salon. When an elderly woman returns to Llanelen to care for her ailing brother, Penny discovers the truth about another death at Ty Brith Hall, one that hits very close to home. Though Penny's romantic interest, Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies, warns her to stay away, Penny can't resist getting involved, and her urge to help will ultimately put her in danger."
How's that for an excellent month of new mysteries? Of the new-to-me authors, I have to admit that I'm looking forward to traveling to American Samoa in John Enright's Pago Pago Tango. I wonder if my armchair can get frequent flier miles???
Did any of these titles find their way onto your own wish lists? Which ones? You know I just have to ask!
