The weather here in Phoenix has been perfect if you like being charbroiled the second you walk out the door. Perfect weather for having a close personal relationship with a pitcher of iced tea, a stack of books, and your air conditioner.
And it would seem that publishers both here and in the UK would agree because there's a little something for everyone during the month of August. Yes, indeed, it looks like a book-budget-busting month for crime fiction lovers.
The following are my picks for the best new crime fiction in August. I've grouped them according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Let's see if I can tempt you with any of my picks... not that any of you need help!
=== August 1 ===
Title: Tahoe Rescue
Series: #22 in the Owen McKenna private investigator series set in Lake Tahoe.
360 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Livvy Paar was working as a waiter and a sidewalk busker in
Cambridge, Mass, when she got a job as a personal secretary for
cosmetics tycoon, Georgia Connor. Georgia let Livvy work and live at her
mansion on the shore of Lake Tahoe.
Life
was good until Georgia died in a car accident. In a moment, Livvy lost
the world she’d come to love. Worse, Livvy began to think that the car
accident was rigged, and that Georgia was murdered.
When
Livvy showed up at McKenna’s office, he never could have imagined that
he would become involved with modern-day pirates who were after a stolen
painting worth tens of millions, a painting so valuable they would
eliminate anyone who got in their way.
The
pirates felt invincible. But they didn’t realize what would happen when
they went up against McKenna and his Great Dane Spot. Maybe they would
simply kill him. Or maybe he would take them all down…"
Title:
Coffin Island Series: #28 in the Wesley Peterson police procedural series set in Devon, England
400 pages
UK Release
Synopsis: "Despite many years living in South Devon, DI Wesley Peterson has
never visited the tiny island of St Rumon's. That is until erosion from a
storm reveals three bodies buried outside the local churchyard.
Two
are ancient skeletons, but one is far more recent, and Wesley realises
he has uncovered a case of murder. But whose remains are they? And who
killed them?
The island has only a small number of inhabitants.
Yet one resident keeps cropping up in Wesley's investigation: the author
and self-styled academic, Quentin Search.
Meanwhile Wesley's
friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, becomes fascinated by the remains of
the island's old priory. His discovery of a journal, written by a
sixteenth century cleric, reveals an eerie tale of strange rituals and
disturbing deaths.
As Wesley begins to wonder whether the past
might be repeating itself, another murder occurs . . . There is a
calculated killer on the island - one whose grip is as deadly as the
rising tide.
Whether you've read
the whole series, or are discovering Kate Ellis's DI Wesley Peterson
novels for the first time, this is the perfect page-turner if you love
reading Ann Cleeves and Elly Griffiths."
Series: #9 in the Eddie Flynn legal thriller series set in New York City.
400 pages
UK Release
Synopsis: "Ruby Johnson is a nanny and maid to wealthy families in Manhattan's West 74th Street.
She knows their routines. Their secrets. One night, on her way home, Ruby witnesses a neighbour's murder.
She knows the victim. She knows the killer.
She makes an anonymous call to the police and names the murderer. But Ruby didn't tell the truth... Because there's something wrong with Ruby Johnson.
Eddie Flynn, conman turned trial lawyer, must defend an innocent man accused of this terrible crime. As Ruby's deadly game begins, one thing is certain. It won't be the last murder this witness is involved in..."
=== August 6 ===
Title: Agony Hill
Series: #1 in the Frank Warren historical mystery series set in 1960s Vermont.
320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In the hot summer of 1965, Bostonian Franklin Warren arrives in
Bethany, Vermont, to take a position as a detective with the state
police. Warren's new home is on the verge of monumental change; the
interstates under construction will bring new people, new opportunities,
and new problems to Vermont, and the Cold War and protests against the
war in Vietnam have finally reached the dirt roads and rolling pastures
of Bethany.
Warren has barely unpacked when he's called up to a
remote farm on Agony Hill. Former New Yorker and Back-to-the-Lander Hugh
Weber seems to have set fire to his barn and himself, with the door
barred from the inside, but things aren’t adding up for Warren. The
people of Bethany―from Weber’s enigmatic wife to Warren's neighbor,
widow and amateur detective Alice Bellows ― clearly have secrets they’d
like to keep, but Warren can’t tell if the truth about Weber’s death is
one of them. As he gets to know his new home and grapples with the
tragedy that brought him there, Warren is drawn to the people and
traditions of small town Vermont, even as he finds darkness amidst the
beauty."
Title: A Farewell to Arfs
Series: #15 in the Chet & Bernie private investigator series set in Arizona.
288 pages
Synopsis: "
Chet the dog, 'the most lovable narrator in all of crime fiction' (Boston Globe)
and his human partner PI Bernie Little are on to a new case, and this
time they're entangled in a web of crime unlike anything they've ever
seen before.
Their elderly next door neighbor, Mr. Parsons,
thought he was doing the right thing by loaning his ne'er do well son,
Billy, some money to help get himself settled. But soon, Mr. Parsons
discovers that his entire life savings is gone. A run-of-the-mill scam?
Bernie isn’t so sure that the case is that simple, but it's Chet who
senses what they're really up against.
Only Billy knows the
truth, but he's disappeared. Can Chet and Bernie track him down before
it's too late? Someone else is also in the hunt, an enemy with a
mysterious, cutting-edge power who will test Chet and Bernie to their
limit―or maybe beyond. Even poker, not the kind of game they're good at,
plays a role.
Spencer Quinn's A Farewell to Arfs ups the ante in the action-packed and witty New York Times and USA Today bestselling series that Stephen King calls 'without a doubt the most original mystery series currently available.'"
Standalone dual timeline historical mystery set in England.
379 pages
Synopsis: "
London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer
at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the
city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She
already has a scoop: her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer
assigned to the case.Liz follows Marisa to Dorset,
where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier,
three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found
murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen
again.
As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to
the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during
the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly
link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place
Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?"
Title:
The Devil Raises His OwnStandalone historical thriller set in the early days of Hollywood.
384 pages
Synopsis: "Los Angeles, 1916: Photographer Bill Ogden has opened a portrait
studio in the seedy noir world of early Hollywood, where he is joined by
his granddaughter, Flavia—a woman in need of a fresh start after
bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita. Though his
business is mainly legit, Bill finds himself brushing up against the
“blue movie” porn industry growing in the shadows of the motion picture
mainstream.
When a series of grisly murders take place across the
city, Bill and his capable granddaughter are pulled into events as
tricky and tangled as anything this side of The Big Sleep.
We meet dreamers, opportunists, washed-up former stars and starry-eyed
newcomers, a cast of unforgettable characters living on the margins
looking to make a quick buck, launch a career, or just keep their family
together. The Devil Raises His Own is at once a stripped-down noir thriller and a panoramic look at Los Angeles at the beginning of motion pictures—a Boogie Nights set in the era of D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin from one of the best crime novelists working today."
=== August 13 ===
Title:
Worst Case Scenario Standalone thriller st in Minnesota.
336 pages
Synopsis: "
When
a pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet, a commercial airliner
filled with passengers crashes into a nuclear power plant in the small
town of Waketa, Minnesota, which becomes ground zero for a catastrophic
national crisis with global implications.
The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has
seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record:
Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now.
In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people—power plant employees,
firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends— are thrust
into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their
lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination
of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the
fate of humanity at large."
=== August 15 ===
Standalone thriller set in Australia.
352 pages
UK Release
Synopsis: "Grace is a thief - a good one. But she's always on the move,
always looking over her shoulder, always alone. It's not the life she
wants. Then a run-in with an old associate forces her to lie low in a
small rural town, where she happens across an antiques shop. The owner
Erin is timid but friendly, and has a room to rent. And Grace glimpses a
different life, and perhaps a home.
But there are dangerous men
watching her, and Grace should know better than to let her guard slip.
Because no matter how far she runs, her past is always just a few steps
behind...
From the multiple Ned Kelly Award-winning author of Consolation comes a stunning new standalone thriller for readers of Jane Harper, Ian Rankin and Chris Hammer."
=== August 20 ===
Title: A Dark and Stormy Knit
Series: #11 in the Knit & Nibble cozy series set in New Jersey.
336 pages
Synopsis: "
Pamela
Paterson and Bettina Fraser call their crafting group Knit and Nibble,
in honor of its two main activities. But on a stormy Halloween night,
their peaceful chat over spiced cider and cookies is interrupted by
homicide . . .
With the houses of Arborville, New
Jersey, decked out in festively frightening decorations, it’s easy to
mistake a real dead body for a fake. But Pamela and Bettina are alerted
by the screams of teenage trick-or-treaters to the corpse next door.
Their neighbor Adrienne’s sister, visiting from New York City, is
slumped on the porch, fatally stabbed. And with countless people
traipsing around in costume, the killer might be as elusive as an apple
in a bucket of water.
The victim was a charismatic college
professor and fierce feminist, and soon the women are infiltrating her
social and academic circles to collect clues. But some scandalous local
gossip also suggests that Adrienne, not her sister, might have been the
target. Now, Pamela and Bettina will need all their creative skills to
solve this ghoulish crime . . ."
=== August 27 ===
Title:
The Dark Wives Series: #11 in the Vera Stanhope police procedural series set in Northumberland, England.
384 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog
walker in the park outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens in the
coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who
was due to work the previous night but never showed up.
DI Vera
Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue
being the disappearance of one of the home’s residents,
fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that
a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss
the possibility.
Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are
soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found
near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland
countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera
knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in
their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever
believed possible."
Wow! A month that begins and ends with two of my favorite authors, and look at all the goodies available in between! August is definitely a book-budget-busting month. Which books do you have your eyes on? Inquiring minds would love to know!
