August 2024 New Mystery Releases!

 

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

Author: Todd Borg

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

Author: Kate Ellis

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."

 

 

Title: Witness 8

Author: Steve Cavanagh

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

Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor

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

Author: Spencer Quinn

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.'" 

 

 

Title: The Rose Arbor

Author: Rhys Bowen

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 Own

Author: Scott Phillips

Standalone 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

Author: T.J. Newman

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 ===

 

 

Title: Sanctuary

Author: Garry Disher

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

Author: Peggy Ehrhart

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

Author: Ann Cleeves

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!