This is my first spring sitting here in the living room to blog and look out the window, and since it is spring, I'm doing much more looking out the window than I am blogging. More and more birds are flocking to the birdbath that Denis placed outside this window, mainly because two cats (one feral and one whose owner thinks nothing of letting it roam all over the neighborhood) have the birdbaths in the back garden staked out. I don't think the cats have been very successful hunters the past few months since there have been no breeze-driven drifts of feathers for me to find. I don't know why the cats haven't staked out this birdbath as well. Perhaps because it's out front in plain view and they don't want anyone to catch them in their murderous ways.
Amidst all the nest-building, drinking, bathing, chattering, and fussing, I haven't forgotten to keep an eye peeled for new books to read. Don't forget, I'm Cathy the Magpie, always on the lookout for bright, shiny new mysteries to read!
The following are my picks of the best new crime fiction being released during the month of March. I've grouped them according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon. Let's see if any of my choices are already on your own personal wish lists!
=== March 1 ===
Title: Girl in Ice
Standalone thriller set in the Arctic Circle
304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Valerie 'Val' Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most
esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful
career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her
twin brother, Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a
remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim
of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below
zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul
play.
When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic,
discovers a scientific impossibility—a young girl frozen in the ice who
thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his
first call. Will she travel to the frozen North to meet this girl, and
try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate?
Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val
musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Arctic to solve
the mystery of her brother’s death.
The moment she steps off the
plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce,
and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is
special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is
terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving
her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data
be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s
brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen
odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she
has found in the most unexpected of places."
Title: Deadly Director's Cut
Series: #2 in the Catskill Summer Resort cozy series set in 1950s New York State.
304 pages
Synopsis: "Famous director Elias Theropodous has chosen Haggerman’s Catskills
Resort as a shooting location for his next film. It sounds glamorous to
much of the staff, but resort manager Elizabeth Grady is less
satisfied. Dealing with the ridiculous demands of the antagonistic
director is bad enough, and his attempts to walk all over Elizabeth are
making her feel like her position at the resort has been changed into a
bit part.
But when Elias is poisoned during a dinner at the
resort, the future of the film and the resort itself are on the line.
Between an aging movie star, a harried producer, and former victims of
the deceased director’s wrath, Elizabeth has a full cast of suspects to
examine, and she’ll need to investigate every lead to catch a killer."
Title: Sisters of Night and Fog
Standalone historical thriller set in World War II Europe
480 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "1940. In a world newly burning with war, andin
spite of her American family’s wishes, Virginia d’Albert-Lake decides
to stay in occupied France with her French husband. She’s sure that if
they keep their heads down, they’ll survive. But is surviving enough?
Nineteen-year-old
Violette Szabo has seen the Nazis’ evil up close and is desperate to
fight them. But when she meets the man who’ll change her life only for
tragedy to strike, Violette’s adrift. Until she enters the radar of
Britain’s secret war organization—the Special Operations Executive—and a
new fire is lit in her as she decides just how much she’s willing to
risk to enlist.
As Virginia and Violette navigate resistance,
their clandestine deeds come to a staggering halt when they are brought
together at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
The decisions they make will change their lives, and the world, forever."
Title: No Accident
Author: Steven F. Havill
Series: #24 in the Posadas County police procedural series set in southern New Mexico
288 pages
Synopsis: "When a driver slams his pickup truck―twice―into a tandem bike
being ridden by Carlos Guzman and his fiancée, Tasha, in Briones,
California, it's more than a simple hit-and-run; the driver clearly
intended to harm them. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman gets the call
with the news of her son's accident and wastes no time racing to his
side. She is greeted by Police Captain Eddie Mitchell, formerly of
Posadas County, who allows Estelle to "consult" on the investigation―but
only to a point.
While Carlos struggles with critical injuries,
an employee at the bike shop where Carlos bought the tandem is found
shot dead in a dumpster―the same man who had borrowed the truck that
mowed down Carlos and Tasha. The local cops aren't convinced there's any
connection between the two crimes. Not a believer in coincidence,
Estelle pursues every possible angle with a cop's determination to solve
the case, and a mother's resolve to keep her son safe at any cost."
=== March 8 ===
Author: D'Arcy Kavanagh
Series: #1 in the Paul Burke journalist series set in the French Riviera
398 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "It’s another beautiful day on the French Riviera until Paul Burke
and a group of bicyclists participating in a vintage bike race come
across a disturbing scene: two skeletons dressed in Nazi memorabilia
linking major race sponsor Bosco Yablonski to one of the worst periods
in history.
Although the authorities dismiss it as a hoax aimed
at discrediting the sponsor, Burke isn't convinced. As he continues to
cover vintage races for his newspaper, more bizarre incidents occur. And
when two bodies turn up, Paul knows serious threats to Yablonski and
the cyclists loom in upcoming events. But who would want to harm the
race or its sponsor?
Paul soon finds himself involved in a
mystery with deadly consequences as the vintage bike race escalates into
a national news story."
Title: The Old Woman with the Knife
Author: Gu Byeong-Mo
Standalone thriller set in South Korea
288 pages
Synopsis: "At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives
modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named
Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her
age—that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But
Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.
Double-crossers,
corporate enemies, cheating spouses—for the past four decades, Hornclaw
has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known
about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career,
she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection
with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a
dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter
in her career may also mark her own bloody end.
A sensation in South Korea, and now translated into English for the first time by Chi-Young Kim, The Old Woman with the Knife
is an electrifying, singular, mordantly funny novel about the
expectations imposed on aging bodies and the dramatic ways in which one
woman chooses to reclaim her agency."
=== March 15 ===
Title: Bruno's Challenge: And Other Stories of the French Countryside
Short Story Anthology featuring Bruno Chief of Police set in southwestern France
256 pages
Synopsis: "Martin Walker presents his first collection of stories
featuring all the familiar characters from his Bruno novels and the
glories of the Périgord region of France, with ample helpings of food
and wine.
After a prisoner breaks parole to see his son
on Christmas, Bruno must track him down before he throws away his chance
at eventual freedom. When a Senegalese man’s coffee sells superbly at
the market, some café owners become incensed by the new competition and
take matters into their own hands. As a Swiss tourist and a St. Denis
native fall in love over the fruit-and-veggie stall, one of their family
members takes drastic steps to break them up. A fledgling tour bus
business is sabotaged, leading Bruno to take a closer look at a town
love triangle. Called in to investigate a case of stolen oysters, our
beloved policeman reunites with an old flame to catch the shellfish
thieves.
In story after story, Bruno settles town disputes,
mediates family quarrels, and tracks down lawbreakers in his adored
village of St. Denis and its environs. Featured meals in the collection
include a fatty Christmas goose, a savory nettle soup with crème
fraîche, and a fluffy quiche Lorraine."
Title: Fallen Creed
Series: #7 in the Ryder Creed K-9 law enforcement series set in Nebraska
358 pages
Synopsis: "
K9 handler, Ryder Creed and his scent dog, Grace return to
Nebraska to join FBI Agent, Maggie O'Dell on the same task force that
helped rescue his sister, Brodie a year ago. But their job is
interrupted when a rural Postal carrier finds a black, plastic bag
discarded in a grassy roadside ditch. What's inside is shocking to even
these seasoned investigators.
Just
that morning another young woman has gone missing. Is her disappearance
connected? Did she run away? Or was she taken? And is it only a matter
of time before she ends up in a roadside ditch?
Ryder
agrees to search for her, but an early snowstorm threatens to replace
the warm fall temperatures. His scent dog, Grace has never worked in
cold and snowy conditions.
The
snow blurs the landscape and grinds life to a halt. As Maggie O'Dell
searches for answers about the victim, she begins to uncover a
cold-blooded, ruthless killer who has murdered before. By the time
Maggie realizes no one has heard or seen Ryder since before the snow
began to fall, she fears he and Grace may have walked into the killer's
path."
=== March 18 ===
Title:
Murder at Primrose Cottage Series: #3 in the Flora Steele cozy series set in 1950s Cornwall, England
289 pages
Synopsis: "Cornwall, 1956: When Flora Steele sets off for a peaceful vacation with crime writer Jack Carrington in his little red Austin, the last thing she expects to find is a body at their pretty rental cottage!
Shocked by the discovery, inquisitive Flora joins forces with handsome Jack to find out how the poor man came to such an untimely end in the overgrown orchard of Primrose Cottage. They discover Roger Gifford was a man with plenty of friends and the villagers seem devastated by his sudden death…
So why was he murdered? And who has blood on their hands – his estranged wife Beatrice, his wayward younger brother Lionel, or the suspicious newcomer Mercy Dearlove?
The
baffling case gets even more complicated when a second man is found
dead and a set of puzzling clues lead them to an intriguing wartime
mystery connected to Jack’s estranged father.
As old secrets
emerge and Jack receives an unsettling letter, it seems the crime writer
is in danger of a fate befitting his fictional characters. Will Flora be able to crack the case and save Jack? Or will this be one murder too many for Flora Steele?"
=== March 22 ===
Series: #2 in the Leilani Santiago amateur sleuth series set in Hawaii
225 pages
Synopsis: "It's the middle of the pandemic and Hawaii has been virtually closed to tourists.
So
when Leilani Santiago and her young sisters save a mysterious woman
wearing an unusual lei from drowning in Waimea Bay in Kaua‘i, questions
abound. Who is she and where did she come from? Leilani suddenly finds
herself in the middle of a murder investigation when the lei is traced
back to her best friend, the very pregnant Courtney Kahuakai, and her
family’s flower business.
While the woman is in a
medically-induced coma at a local hospital, Leilani sets out to discover
her identity and her connections to the island. She is drawn deeper
into the mystery, only to stumble into secrets that prove deadly. When
Leilani’s investigation puts her family in danger, her survival and the
safety of those dearest to her will depend on her sense of ingenuity and
the strength of her island community."
=== March 29 ===
Series: #3 in the Underwater Investigation Unit law enforcement series set in Florida
301 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "A distress call draws rescuers Sloan McPherson and the
Underwater Investigation Unit to a cruise ship off the coast of Fort
Lauderdale that’s sinking from a mysterious explosion. When it appears
to be the work of an ecoterrorist and other ships are threatened, it
becomes a race against time. More clues are discovered, and evidence is
in danger of being washed away by a coming tropical storm. Sloan grows
concerned that key details are being ignored, and a strange lack of
urgency by authorities sets off alarms.
As the troubling questions
compound, Sloan is determined to chase down every lead she has. Her
persistence is getting her closer to the truth: that there’s something
far more troubling at play than the official explanation. It’s also
putting Sloan on a collision course with an enemy more powerful than she
realizes, in a case so complex and deadly it may be impossible to
prove. Now cracking the case is a matter of staying one step ahead of
someone with every resource imaginable to bury Sloan and everything she
knows."
Series: #4 in the Kinship historical series set in 1920s Ohio
288 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "As July 4, 1928 approaches, Sheriff Lily Ross and her family look
forward to the opening of an amusement park in a nearby town, created by
Chalmer Fitzpatrick―a veteran and lumber mill owner. When Lily is
alerted to the possible drowning of a girl, she goes to investigate, and
discovers schisms going back several generations, in an ongoing dispute
over the land on which Fitzpatrick has built the park.
Lily's
family life is soon rattled, too, with the revelation that before he
died, her brother had a daughter, Esme, with a woman in France, and
arrangements have been made for Esme to immigrate to the U.S. to live
with them. But Esme never makes it to Kinship, and soon Lily discovers
that she has been kidnapped. Not only that, but a young woman is indeed
found murdered in the fishing pond on Fitzpatrick's property, at the
same time that a baby is left on his doorstep.
As the two crimes
interweave, Lily must confront the question of what makes family: can we
trust those we love? And what do we share, and what do we keep secret?"
Wow! There is lots of excellent reading in store during the month of March, isn't there? I have to admit that I'm most excited by The Echoes because I love that series, but there are plenty of other good'uns in the batch.
As far as covers go, the one for The Old Woman with the Knife reminds me of the movie Psycho. Am I the only one?
Which books tickled your fancy from my March list? Inquiring minds would love to know!
The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn
