July 2016 New Mystery Releases!

I hope you're all having a wonderful summer; I know I am! First it was that great visit from our niece Daisy, and now I'm in full Summer Mode. What's full Summer Mode? Getting everything done before 2 PM which is when I take my "bucket" of iced green tea and my books out to the pool to sit and read in the cool and the shade until 6 or 7 PM. I know... the life of Riley (and I know how blessed I am)!

I've been reading some fantastic books out there in the pool, and you'll be reading about them on the blog. Of course I've been keeping my eye peeled for more candidates for my Best Reads of 2016 list, and here are my picks for new (mostly) crime fiction being released during the month of July.

They're sorted by release date and contain all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite "book procurement" sites. Synopses and book covers are courtesy of Amazon. Now let's check out my list!

=== July 5 ===

Title: Tag, You're Dead

Author: J.C. Lane (AKA Judy Clemens)

Standalone Thriller set in the Chicago area.

ISBN: 9781464206313

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Hardcover, 334 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Six young people play a dangerous Game of Tag in public, chasing through the crowds, streets, and buildings of Chicago. This secret, one-of-a-kind, wildly expensive Game offers a macabre twist to the childhood version…if you get Tagged, you get Dead.

Three "Its" have their reasons for buying a place in the Game. Surgically enhanced Brandy is obsessed with destroying a naturally beautiful girl. Untalented Robert covets his target's position as superstar of the basketball team. Brainiac Charles craves a battle against an intellectual equal. Given their elite social status, they reject any possible downside to the contest. Each expects the satisfaction of killing their prey, then walking away.

Hand-picked innocents play as “Runners,” under threat to their loved ones should they refuse to participate: lovely, small-town Laura; celebrated athlete Tyrese; and Amanda, gamer extraordinaire. Alone, hunted by their adversary, each feels a single hope…to survive. 

Technological wizardry controls the Game. As soon as Runners receive the “Go” signal on smartwatches locked to their wrists, the Game rockets them through the city, from the El to Michigan Avenue to the Lincoln Park Zoo. There is no time to rest. Every thirty minutes the Runner’s location is transmitted to the It, which steadily diminishes the Runner’s chance of ever reaching Home Base alive.

The Game will not end until someone is Tagged, so the Runners must choose how to play. Will they accept death? Murder their Its? Or find a way to use individual strengths to stop the Game before anyone dies?"

Title: Another One Goes Tonight

Author: Peter Lovesey

Series: #16 in the Peter Diamond police procedural series set in Bath, England.

ISBN: 9781616957582

Publisher: Soho Crime

Hardcover, 400 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Two police officers are about to head home after a long night shift when they receive one last call. En route to investigate, the patrol car spins off the road, killing one of the exhausted cops and leaving the other in critical condition.

Detective Peter Diamond is assigned to look into the case. His supervisor is desperately hoping Diamond will not discover the officers were at fault. Instead, Diamond discovers something even worse—a civilian on a motorized tricycle was involved in the crash and has been lying on the side of the road for hours. Diamond administers CPR, but the man’s fate is unclear. Soon, though, Diamond becomes suspicious of the civilian victim and begins a private inquiry that leads to a trail of uninvestigated deaths. As the man lingers on life support, Diamond must wrestle with the fact that he may have saved the life of a serial killer."   

Title: As Death Draws Near

Author: Anna Lee Huber

Series: #5 in the Lady Darby historical series set in Ireland.

ISBN: 9780425277720  

Publisher: Berkley

Paperback, 352 pages

Synopsis: "July 1831. In the midst of their idyllic honeymoon in England’s Lake District, Kiera and Gage’s seclusion is soon interrupted by a missive from her new father-in-law. A deadly incident involving a distant relative of the Duke of Wellington has taken place at an abbey south of Dublin, Ireland, and he insists that Kiera and Gage look into the matter.

Intent on discovering what kind of monster could murder a woman of the cloth, the couple travel to Rathfarnham Abbey school. Soon a second nun is slain in broad daylight near a classroom full of young girls. With the sinful killer growing bolder, the mother superior would like to send the students home, but the growing civil unrest in Ireland would make the journey treacherous.

Before long, Kiera starts to suspect that some of the girls may be hiding a sinister secret. With the killer poised to strike yet again, Kiera and Gage must make haste and unmask the fiend, before their matrimonial bliss comes to an untimely end..."  

Title: Gone With the Wool

Author: Betty Hechtman

Series: #4 in the Yarn Retreat cozy series set on the Monterey Peninsula of California.

ISBN: 9780425282670

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Every October, thousands of monarch butterflies flock to California’s Monterey Peninsula to spend the winter there. To welcome their colorful guests, Cadbury by the Sea holds a weeklong festival complete with a butterfly queen and her court.

Eager to show some town spirit, Casey Feldstein finds herself fluttering back and forth between setting up a yarn retreat, baking and helping out at the festival. But when a former butterfly queen is found dead with a knife in her back after a Bless the Butterflies service, Casey must set her loom aside to hook a killer with a score to settle."

Title: The Long Drop

Author: Denise Mina

Standalone Thriller set in Glasgow, Scotland.

ISBN: 9780316380577 

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Hardcover, 320 pages

UK Release

Synopsis: "A standalone psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of the Alex Morrow novels that exposes the dark hearts of the guilty...and the innocent.

The "trial of the century" in 1950's Glasgow is over. Peter Manuel has been found guilty of a string of murders and is waiting to die by hanging. But every good crime story has a beginning. Manuel's starts with the murder of William Watt's family. Looking no further that Watt himself, the police are convinced he's guilty. Desperate to clear his name, Watt turns to Manuel, a career criminal who claims to have information that will finger the real killer. As Watt seeks justice with the cagey Manuel's help, everyone the pair meets has blood on their hands as they sell their version of the truth. THE LONG DROP is an explosive novel about guilt, innocence and the power of a good story to hide the difference. "   

Title: Dressed to Kilt

Author: Hannah Reed

Series: #3 in the Scottish Highlands cozy series set in... Scotland!

ISBN: 9780425265840 

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Winter is leaving the residents of Glenkillen snowbound, but Eden isn’t about to let the weather dampen her spirits. With only a little time left in Scotland, she’s determined to make the most of it—starting with attending a fancy whisky tasting with local looker Leith Cameron. But her classy date turns into a major party foul after a woman is found drowned in one of the vats of alcohol.

Eden immediately steps in as a Special Constable to help solve the case, but her investigation turns sour when she realizes that the killer could be somehow connected to her own Scottish heritage. Now, in order to find the proof she needs to put the murderer behind bars, she’ll have to take a shot at unearthing her family’s past—before she herself winds up buried..."  

Title: Underground Airlines

Author: Ben H. Winters

Standalone, Speculative Mystery

ISBN: 9780316261241 

Publisher: Mulholland Books

Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right--with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation, and works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all--though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.

Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost.

Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe."

Title: Little Girl Gone

Author: Gerry Schmitt (AKA Laura Childs)

Series: #1 in the Afton Tangler police procedural series set in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ISBN: 9780425281765
Publisher: Berkley
Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "On a frozen night in an affluent neighborhood of Minneapolis, a baby is abducted from her home after her teenage babysitter is violently assaulted. The parents are frantic, the police are baffled, and, with the perpetrator already in the wind, the trail is getting colder by the second.

As family liaison officer with the Minneapolis P.D., it’s Afton Tangler’s job to deal with the emotional aftermath of terrible crimes—but she’s never faced a case quite as brutal as this. Each development is more heartbreaking than the last and the only lead is a collection of seemingly unrelated clues.

But, most disturbing of all, Afton begins to suspect that this case is not isolated.  Whoever did this has taken babies before—and if Afton doesn’t solve this crime soon, more children are sure to go missing ."   

=== July 12 ===

Title: Clear to Lift

Author: Anne A. Wilson

Standalone, Contemporary Fiction set in Nevada and California.

ISBN: 9780765378514

Publisher: Forge Books

Hardcover, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Alison Malone has been assigned to a search and rescue team based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, near the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and far from her former elite H-60 squadron. A rule follower by nature, Alison is exasperated and outraged every time she flies with her mission commander, "Boomer" Marks, for whom military procedures are merely a suggestion. Alison is desperate to be transferred out of the boonies, where careers stagnate, and back to her life and fiancé in San Diego.

Alison's defenses start to slip when she meets mountain guide Will Cavanaugh during a particularly dicey mission. Will introduces her to a wild, beautiful world of adventure that she has never known before. Stranded on a mountain during a sudden dangerous blizzard, Alison questions every truth she thought she knew about herself. When Will braves the storm to save her life, she must confront the fact that she has been living a lie. But is it too late to change course?

Full of action and adventure, dangerous and heart-stopping rescues, blizzards and floods, family secrets and second chances, Clear to Lift by Anne A. Wilson is a thrilling woman's journey as she finds confidence, truth, love, and herself against the majestic backdrop of the Sierra Nevada." 

Title: Among the Wicked

Author: Linda Castillo

Series: #8 Kate Burkholder police procedural series set in New York.

ISBN: 9781250061577

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 320 pages 

Synopsis: "Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called upon by the sheriff's department in rural, upstate New York to assist on a developing situation that involves a reclusive Amish settlement and the death of a young girl. Unable to penetrate the wall of silence between the Amish and "English" communities, the sheriff asks Kate to travel to New York, pose as an Amish woman, and infiltrate the community. 

Kate's long time love interest, State Agent John Tomasetti, is dead set against her taking on such an unorthodox assignment, knowing she'll have limited communication - and even less in the way of backup. But Kate can't turn her back, especially when the rumor mill boils with disturbing accounts of children in danger. She travels to New York where she's briefed and assumes her new identity as a lone widow seeking a new life. 

Kate infiltrates the community and goes deep under cover. In the coming days, she unearths a world built on secrets, a series of shocking crimes, and herself, alone... trapped in a fight for her life."

=== July 19 ===

Title: The Branson Beauty

Author: Claire Booth

Series: #1 Sheriff Hank Worth mystery set in Branson, Missouri.

ISBN: 9781250084385

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "The Branson Beauty, an old showboat, has crashed in the waters of an Ozark mountain lake just outside the popular tourist destination of Branson, Missouri. More than one hundred people are trapped aboard. Hank Worth is still settling into his new role as county sheriff, and when he responds to the emergency call, he knows he’s in for a long winter day of helping elderly people into rafts and bringing them ashore. He realizes that he’ll face anxiety, arguments, and extra costs for emergency equipment that will stretch the county’s already thin budget to the breaking point.

But he is absolutely not expecting to discover high school track star Mandy Bryson’s body locked inside the Captain’s private dining room. Suddenly, Hank finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation, with the county commissioner breathing down his neck and the threat of an election year ahead of him. And as he wades deeper into the investigation, Hank starts to realize he’s up against a web of small town secrets much darker and more tangled than he could have ever imagined.

In her captivating debut novel, Claire Booth has created a broad cast of wonderfully compelling characters, and she perfectly blends humor with the emotional drama and heartache of a murder investigation." 

=== July 28 ===

Title: The Dead House

Author: Harry Bingham

Series: #5 in the Fiona Griffiths police procedural series set in Wales.

ISBN: 9781409152750

Publisher: Orion

Paperback, 464 pages

UK Release

Synopsis: "When the body of a young woman is found in an old 'dead house' - the annexe where the dead were stored before burial in medieval times - of a tiny church in a small town in Wales, it seems that past and present have come together in a bizarre and horrifying way. For DC Fiona Griffiths, the girl - a murder victim whose corpse was laid out with obvious tenderness - represents an irresistibly intriguing puzzle, given Fiona's unusual empathy for the dead. And when her investigations lead her to an obscure and secretive monastery hidden in a remote valley, she finds that the murder victim is far from the only victim of a dark and disturbing melding of modern crime and medieval religious practices. Only Fiona is capable of solving this brilliantly crafted mystery." 

I can tell you that there are some treats in store for all of us in July! Any time there's a new Fiona Griffiths mystery, you know I'm doing my happy dance around the house. I am passionate about that series! I've already read the latest books by Peter Lovesey and Anne A. Wilson, and-- sneak preview-- they are very good. Sit in the pool until you're permanently pruned good.

Which ones of my picks caught your fancy? Inquiring minds would love to know!