On My Radar: Allen Eskens' Saving Emma!

 

Allen Eskens' very first book, The Life We Bury, knocked my socks off. Perhaps it was because I have a very dear friend who was in a similar situation to young Joe Talbot's in the book, but-- putting that aside-- the story was powerful and beautifully written. Since then, I've learned not to ignore Allen Eskens because the man never disappoints; each of his books that I've picked up has been consistently excellent.

When I learn that he has a new book coming out, it's  cause for celebration, so let me share some of the details about Eskens' latest. I have a feeling that some of you will be celebrating right along with me!

Available September 19, 2023!

 

Synopsis: 

"When Boady Sanden first receives the case of Elijah Matthews, he’s certain there’s not much he can do. Elijah, who believes himself to be a prophet, has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past four years, convicted of brutally murdering the pastor of a megachurch. But as a law professor working for the Innocence Project, Boady agrees to look into Elijah’s file. When he does, he is alarmed to find threads that lead back to the death of his colleague and friend, Ben Pruitt, a man shot to death four years earlier in Boady’s own home.
 
Ben’s daughter, Emma, has lived with Boady and Boady’s wife Dee ever since that awful night. Now fourteen years old, Emma has been growing distant, and soon makes a fateful choice that takes her far from the safety of her godparents. Desperate to bring her home, and to free an innocent man, Boady must do all he can to investigate Elijah’s case while fighting to save the family he has deeply come to love.
 
Written with energy, propulsion, and his characteristic pathos and insight, Eskens delivers another pitch-perfect legal thriller that reveals a twisted murder and explores faith, love, family, and redemption along the way."

I'm really looking forward to Saving Emma-- especially since I already met Boady Sanden in one of my Best Reads of 2021, Nothing More Dangerous. Eskens' books aren't your garden variety series books, but they are tied together by the characters who appear in them. (I don't know about you, but sometimes I prefer this approach to the standard book series.)

If you haven't read any of Allen Eskens' books, I hope you will make an effort to pick one up. I can't recommend him highly enough.

The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens

 

First Line: Lila Nash counted her steps as she walked from the kitchen to the bathroom of her apartment.

 

It's been a long, difficult road, but Lila Nash is on the brink of landing her dream job as a prosecutor for Hennepin County, Minnesota. There are just two obstacles in her way: a vindictive boss who's made it his job to force her to quit, and a case with strong ties to Lila's past and the secret she's been hiding for eight lonely years.

Police are convinced that professional photographer Gavin Spencer is responsible for assaulting a Minneapolis woman and then dumping her body in the Mississippi River to drown. Miraculously, the woman survived, and police want to work fast to bring the man to justice. But there's just one problem: no evidence. It's almost as though Gavin Spencer saw what was coming and went to extraordinary lengths to erase every tiny detail that would tie him to the crime.

Lila Nash wants to see Spencer put behind bars for the rest of his life, especially when his name comes up in possible connections to crimes committed in the past, including the attack on Lila that tore her life apart. Lila and the police are going to have to give it everything they've got because the clock is ticking.

 

~

 

As I listened to The Stolen Hours unfold, I was blown away by Allen Eskens' meticulous precision in putting this story together. The excellent misdirection he employed to lead me straight down the garden path to the compost pile. The shifting points of view that gave me so much insight into each character. The way Gavin Spencer saying, "All you had to do was be nice!" made my blood run cold. The way Eskens made me wonder how Lila Nash was going to succeed despite her awful boss.

Allen Eskens has never ever disappointed me with any of his books that I've read. He has an incredible gift for the one-two punch: a fantastic story paired with characters with whom I become emotionally invested. The Stolen Hours is no exception. I wanted Gavin Spencer to learn that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was-- and I wanted Lila Nash to be the person to prove it to him. This book, about victims and the long road to healing and forgiveness that they must travel, is an intellectual and emotional banquet.

 

The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens

Narrated by MacLeod Andrews, Christine Laken, and Tina Huang.

ASIN: B09DDCXT32

Mulholland Books © 2021

Audiobook. 10 hours 1 minute.

 

Standalone Legal Thriller

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Audible.

September 2022 New Mystery Releases!

 

After all the rain falling everywhere else but here at Casa Kittling, Mother Nature finally relented a bit and allowed us to have two lakes and a pond. (Yes, I measure monsoon storms by the amount of water left standing in the front yard.) The senita cactus, the Baja fairy duster, the yellow bells, the bougainvillea, they're all ecstatic. I swear I could look out the window and watch them grow.

 

But no matter how happy the plants and shrubs are at the front of the house, they don't hold a candle to the ones in the back. You see, evidently the rental property on the other side of the alley has been vacant for awhile, and no one's been around to raise the sluice gate to let the irrigation water flood the property for a good soak. Well, that water has to go somewhere once it backs up in the irrigation ditch, and it's been coming right over here. the oleanders, the Tombstone roses, and the Mexican birds of paradise are out of their minds in delight between the rains and the irrigation. I've never seen them so full and tall. 

 

So yes, I have been paying a lot of attention to the outside of the house, but you know that hasn't kept me from keeping my eyes peeled for new mysteries to read. I've grouped my picks for the best new crime fiction in September according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of one of my favorite showrooms, Amazon. Let's see if I've found anything that tickles your fancy!

 

 

=== September 1 ===

 

 

Title: A Deadly Covenant

Author: Michael Stanley

Series: #8 (but a prequel) in the Detective Kubu police procedural series set in Botswana.

395 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "This is the eighth book in the Detective Kubu series and the second with him as a young man.

While building a pipeline near the Okavango Delta, a contractor unearths the skeleton of a long-dead Bushman. Kubu and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to investigate, and MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons.

Then an elder of the nearby village is murdered at his home. The local police believe it was a robbery, but Kubu thinks otherwise. So does a strange woman who claims it was an angry river spirit. The situation gets more confusing when the strange woman is found dead, apparently killed by a crocodile.

Assistant Superintendent Mabaku joins them as accusations of corruption are levelled and international outrage builds over the massacre of the Bushman families. But how do the recent murders link to the dead Bushmen, if at all? As Kubu and his colleagues investigate, they uncover a deadly covenant and begin to fear that their own lives may be in danger.

The young Kubu’s second big case mixes local mythology and tradition with smart police work to make for a satisfyingly immersive mystery that begs resolution until the last, unpredictable moment." 

 

 

=== September 6 ===

 

 

Title: Back to the Garden

Author: Laurie R. King

Standalone mystery set in California the 1970s and the present day.

336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents—monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel—a woman who knows all about colorful pasts—the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate’s archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keeps bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled young Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob’s brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case—before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes."

Title: The Rising Tide

Author: Ann Cleeves

Series: #10 in the Vera Stanhope police procedural series set in the North of England.

384 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "For fifty years a group of friends have been meeting regularly for reunions on Holy Island, celebrating the school trip where they met, and the friend that they lost to the rising causeway tide five years later. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .

But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible . . ." 

 

 

Title: Deadly Spirits

Author: Mary Miley

Series: #3 in the Mystic's Accomplice historical series set in 1920s Chicago.

224 pages

 

Synopsis: "Summer, 1924. Young widow Maddie Pastore has been working for fraudulent spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for nearly a year - if 'work' you could call it. Investigating Carlotta's clients, and attending seances as her shill, keeps Maddie and her young son Tommy fed and clothed, and she's grown to love the kind, well-meaning spiritualist like family.

Still, Maddie - estranged from her abusive parents for over a decade - can't help but wonder what fates befell her brothers and sisters. So when she lucks into two free tickets to a glamorous Chicago speakeasy and recognizes the star performer as her pretty little sister Sophie, she's beyond delighted.

But before Maddie can meet with Sophie again, the telephone rings. It's Sophie's husband, calling in a panic to tell her that his wife is locked in the Cook County jail, charged with first-degree murder . . .

Enter a dark and deadly world of seances and speakeasies, populated by fake mediums, sultry singers and dangerous mobsters! An ideal pick for readers who enjoy glitzy Jazz Age mysteries with feisty female sleuths." 

Title: Killers of a Certain Age

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Standalone thriller

368 pages

 

Synopsis: "Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
 
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
 
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age." 

 

 

=== September 13 ===

 

 

Title: The Perfect Crime: 22 Crime Stories from Diverse Cultures Around the World

Edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski

Short Story Anthology

448 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "From Lagos to Mexico City, Australia to the Caribbean, Toronto to Los Angeles, Darjeeling to rural New Zealand, London to New York – twenty-two bestselling crime writers from diverse cultures come together from across the world in a razor sharp and deliciously sinister collection of crime stories.

 

Featuring Oyinkan Braithwaite, Abir Mukherjee, S.A. Cosby, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, J.P. Pomare, Sheena Kamal, Vaseem Khan, Sulari Gentill, Nelson George, Rachel Howzell Hall, John Vercher, Sanjida Kay, Amer Anwar, Henry Chang, Nadine Matheson, Mike Phillips, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Felicia Yap, Thomas King, Imran Mahmood, David Heska Wanbli Weiden and Walter Mosley."

 

 

Title: Murder on the Vine

Author: Camilla Trinchieri

Series: #3 in the Tuscan Mysteries set in Italy and featuring former NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle.

336 pages

 

Synopsis: "On a late October Sunday morning in Gravigna, local maresciallo Perillo is having breakfast with ex-NYPD detective Nico Doyle when he is called back to the station in Greve. Laura Benati, the young manager of Hotel Bella Vista, is worried—her bartender and good friend eighty-year-old Cesare Costanzi has been missing for three days. 
 
The next morning, Jimmy, co-owner of Bar All’Angolo, Gravigna’s local café, where Nico is a frequent patron, runs out of gas on his way back from Florence. When Nico meets him to help, Nico’s dog, OneWag, reacts to the smell coming from Jimmy’s trunk. Inside Nico finds a body wrapped in plastic: Cesare Costanzi, stabbed several times in the chest.
 
Why would anyone kill Cesare, and how did he end up in Jimmy’s car? That’s for Nico to find out, as Perillo once again turns to Nico for help with the investigation." 

Title: Marple: Twelve New Mysteries

Authors: Agatha Christie, Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware

Short Story Anthology 

384 pages

 

Synopsis: "Jane Marple is an elderly lady from St Mary Mead who possesses an uncanny knack for solving even the most perplexing puzzles. Now, for the first time in 45 years, Agatha Christie’s beloved character returns to the page for a globe-trotting tour of crime and detection.

Join Marple as she travels through her sleepy English village and around the world. In St Mary Mead, a Christmas dinner is interrupted by unexpected guests; the Broadway stage in New York City is set for a dangerous improvisation; bad omens surround an untimely death aboard a cruise ship to Hong Kong; and a bestselling writer on holiday in Italy is caught in a nefarious plot. These and other crimes committed in the name of love, jealousy, blackmail, and revenge are ones that only the indomitable Jane Marple can solve.

Bringing a fresh twist to the hallmarks of a classic Agatha Christie mystery, these twelve esteemed writers have captured the sharp wit, unique voice, and droll ingenuity of the deceptively demure detective. A triumphant celebration of Christie’s legacy and essential reading for crime lovers, Marple is a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains one of the most famous detectives of all time."

 

 

=== September 20 ===

 

 

Title: Mother Daughter Traitor Spy

Author: Susan Elia MacNeal

Standalone historical thriller based on a true story. Set in World War II Los Angeles.

336 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "June 1940. France has fallen to the Nazis, and Britain may be next—but to many Americans, the war is something happening “over there.” Veronica Grace has just graduated from college; she and her mother, Violet, are looking for a fresh start in sunny Los Angeles. After a blunder cost her a prestigious career opportunity in New York, Veronica is relieved to take a typing job in L.A.—only to realize that she’s working for one of the area’s most vicious propagandists.

Overnight, Veronica is exposed to the dark underbelly of her new home, where German Nazis are recruiting Americans for their devastating campaign. After the FBI dismisses the Graces’ concerns, Veronica and Violet decide to call on an old friend, who introduces them to L.A.’s anti-Nazi spymaster.

At once, the women go undercover to gather enough information about the California Reich to take to the authorities. But as the news of Pearl Harbor ripples through the United States, and President Roosevelt declares war, the Grace women realize that the plots they’re investigating are far more sinister than they feared—and even a single misstep could cost them everything.

Inspired by the real mother-daughter spy duo who foiled Nazi plots in Los Angeles during WWII, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a powerful portrait of family, duty, and deception that raises timeless questions about America—and what it means to have courage in the face of terror." 

Title: Forsaken Country

Author: Allen Eskens

Series: #6 in the Max Rupert series set in Minnesota.

352 pages

 

Synopsis: "Max Rupert has left his position as a Minneapolis homicide detective to live in solitude. Mourning the tragic death of his wife, he's also racked by guilt—he alone knows what happened to her killer. But then the former local sheriff, Lyle Voight, arrives with a desperate plea: Lyle’s daughter Sandy and his six-year-old grandson Pip have disappeared. Lyle’s certain Sandy's ex-husband Reed is behind it, but the new sheriff is refusing to investigate. 

When Max reluctantly looks into their disappearance, he too becomes convinced something has gone very wrong. But the closer Max and Lyle get to finding proof, the more slippery Reed becomes, until he makes a break for the beautiful but formidable Boundary Waters wilderness with vulnerable Pip in tow.

Racing after the most dangerous kind of criminal—a desperate father—and with the ghosts of their own pasts never far behind, Max and Lyle go on the hunt within a treacherous landscape, determined to bring an evil man to justice, and to bring a terrified child home alive." 

 

 

=== September 27 ===

 

 

Title: Treasure State

Author: C.J. Box

Series: #6 in the Cassie Dewell P.I. series set in Montana.

288 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Private Investigator Cassie Dewell’s business is thriving, and her latest case puts her on the hunt for a slippery con man who’s disappeared somewhere in the “treasure state”. A wealthy Florida widow has accused him of absconding with her fortune, and wants Cassie to find him and get it back. The trail takes Cassie to Anaconda, Montana, a quirky former copper mining town that’s the perfect place to reinvent yourself. As the case develops, Cassie begins to wonder if her client is telling her everything.

On top of that, Cassie is also working what's easily one of her strangest assignments ever. A poem that promises buried treasure to one lucky adventurer has led to a cutthroat competition and five deaths among treasure-hunters. But Cassie’s client doesn’t want the treasure. Instead, he claims to be the one who hid the gold and wrote the poem. And he’s hired Cassie to try to find him. Between the two cases, Cassie has her hands full.

In Montana, a killer view can mean more than just the scenery, and Cassie knows much darker things hide behind the picturesque landscape of Big Sky Country. Treasure State, C. J. Box's highly anticipated follow-up to The Bitterroots, is full of more twists and turns than the switchbacks through the Anaconda Range."

 

 

Title: Shrines of Gaiety

Author: Kate Atkinson

Standalone thriller set in 1920s England.

416 pages

 

Synopsis: "1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.  
 
The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
 
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time." 

Holy moley-- what a line-up for September! The only authors I haven't read in these picks of mine are in the two short story anthologies. All the rest-- King, Cleeves, Miley, Raybourn, Trinchieri, MacNeal, Eskens, Box, Atkinson-- I've read and enjoyed, and at least half of them have been on my Best Reads lists over the years. What an embarrassment of riches!

Which books on my list are on your own wish lists already? Did I tempt you to add any new ones? Do tell-- you know how inquiring minds want to know!

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

First Line: I was fifteen years old the day I learned that Ms. Lida Poe had gone missing.

 

Fifteen-year-old Boady Sanden is busily saving up money to leave his suffocating little hometown of Jessup, Missouri. One day soon-- poof!-- he's going to be gone. He doesn't think his mother, who's still grieving the death of Boady's father, will miss him, and he certainly won't miss being bullied at St. Ignatius High School.

 

But all that changes when Thomas Elgin moves in across the road. Becoming acquainted with the Elgins-- a Black family settling in a community with strict notions of "us" and "them"-- forces Boady to rethink the world he's always taken for granted. He begins to notice, really notice, the people around him: his mother who still wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor with a mysterious past, the quiet boss with his own secret.

 

But the biggest secret of all is what happened to Lida Poe, the Black woman who keeps the books at a local plastics factory. The rumor mill has it that Ms. Poe left town with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. What Boady doesn't realize is that-- although he's never met Ms. Lida Poe-- the threads of her life are securely woven into the very fabric of his own world, and when it comes to race and class, he's going to be forced to choose sides. 

~

 

Young Boady Sanden has the type of voice that grabs hold of me and drags me right into the heart of a story. He's a typical fifteen-year-old boy who is blind to everything unless it has some impact on his own personal wants or desires. Boady isn't an "Us Versus Them" type of person, he's a good kid at heart, but author Allen Eskens does a superb job of showing how Boady has absorbed facets of racism without even realizing that he has done so. This is a lesson that many people need to learn, and Boady begins to learn his when the Elgins move in across the street.

 

Parts of the mystery surrounding what happened to Lida Poe are relatively easy to deduce, but not all of them, and the journey to Truth is mesmerizing. The scales begin to fall from Boady's eyes, and as he finally starts seeing people like his mother and his neighbor Hoke Gardner and his boss as individuals with their own lives and wants and needs, so do readers.

 

Nothing More Dangerous is a coming of age story that inexorably gathers momentum until it blossoms into something much larger than the sum of its parts. Boady Sanden's going to be with me for a long time, and I think he will be with you, too.

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

eISBN: 9780316509749

Mulholland Books © 2019

eBook, 305 pages

 

Historical Mystery, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskens

First Line: I raise the ax handle for the third time and my arm disobeys me.

Homicide detective Max Rupert has never stopped grieving for his wife. He's never accepted her death, even when he believed she was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. When Max learns that Jenni was murdered, he goes off the rails. 

Now he's got to balance his workload and tap dance around an impossible superior officer while he devotes himself to hunting down the people responsible for killing his wife. All this leads him to a frozen lake on the border of Minnesota and Canada where he will make decisions that will change his life.

I've been a fan of Allen Eskens' mysteries since the very first one, The Life We Bury. The four books so far are all loosely gathered around the character of Max Rupert. Readers have seen what a decent, dedicated, hard-working man he is from one book to the next, and now in The Deep Dark Descending, we all have front-row seats to watch what grief and rage can do to such a good man. 

The mystery is solid. Why on earth would anyone want to kill a woman who dedicated herself to helping endangered children? The official case Rupert is involved in deals with catching a man who killed a woman, put her body in a minivan, and then set the vehicle on fire. The two cases are a study in contrasts because the minivan murderer could easily be eligible for a Darwin Award. 

As with all of Eskens' mysteries so far, these books are about much more than merely figuring out whodunit. They are rich character studies. In The Deep Dark Descending, Max Rupert's descent into uncontrollable vengeance is told in two converging, clearly marked storylines. We see Max on that frozen lake at the Canadian border, and we watch Max in Minneapolis during the days leading up to his journey north. This is compelling storytelling that often elicits strong emotional responses. 

I look forward to Allen Eskins' next book with a great deal of anticipation. This man can write.

The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskens

ISBN: 9781633883550

Seventh Street Books © 2017

Paperback, 285 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Max Rupert mystery

Rating: A

Source: the publisher

October 2017 New Mystery Releases!

For the month of October, my eyes were almost bigger than my stomach, at least when it comes to reading. So many good new books. So many available advance reading copies. Yikes! But I remember the year in which I burned out on those advance reading copies. I promise publishers and authors to have my reviews of their particular books up either on the day of their release or within the following two days.  If I accept too many of these, it's like having a tall pile of assigned reading, and that can make me grumpy. Reading isn't nearly as much fun when you have to do it in a certain order and with deadlines.

No grumps are allowed here, so I'm going to get right down to it. The following books are my picks of the new crime fiction being released throughout the month of October. They are grouped according to their release dates, and I hope that you'll be able to find a title or two (or three) that tickle your fancy. Book covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon. Now-- let's get this show on the road!

=== October 3 ===

Title: Old Scores

Author: Will Thomas

Series: #9 in the Barker& Llewelyn historical series set in 1890 London.

304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "In 1890, the first Japanese diplomatic delegation arrives in London to open an embassy. Cyrus Barker, private enquiry agent and occasional agent for the Foreign Service Office, is enlisted to display his personal Japanese garden to the visiting dignitaries.

Later that night, Ambassador Toda is shot and killed in his office and Cyrus Barker is discovered across the street, watching the very same office, in possession of a revolver with one spent cartridge.

Arrested by the Special Branch for the crime, Barker is vigorously interrogated and finally released due to the intervention of his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, and his solicitor. With the London constabulary still convinced of his guilt, Barker is hired by the new Japanese ambassador to find the real murderer.

In a case that takes leads Barker and Llewelyn deep into parts of London's underworld, on paths that lead deep into Barker's own mysterious personal history, Old Scores is the finest yet in Will Thomas's critically acclaimed series."

Title: The Deep Dark Descending

Author: Allen Eskens

Series: #4 in the Max Rupert police procedural series set in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

285 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Homicide Detective Max Rupert never fully accepted his wife’s death, even when he believed that a reckless hit-and-run driver was to blame. Haunted by memories both beautiful and painful, he is plagued by feelings of unfinished business. When Max learns that, in fact, Jenni was murdered, he must come to terms with this new information—and determine what to do with it.

Struggling to balance his impulses as a vengeful husband with his obligations as a law enforcement officer, Max devotes himself to relentlessly hunting down those responsible. For most of his life, he has thought of himself as a decent man. But now he’s so consumed with anguish and thoughts of retribution that he finds himself on the edge, questioning who he is and what he stands for.

On a frozen lake at the US–Canadian border, he wrestles with decisions that could change his life forever, as his rage threatens to turn him into the kind of person he has spent his entire career bringing to justice." 

Title: Hidden Scars

Author: Mark de Castrique

Series: #6 in the Sam Blackman private investigator series set in Asheville, North Carolina.

256 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "When Asheville, NC, private eyes Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson are asked by an eighty-year-old client to investigate the suspicious death of her brother, they warn her there is little chance of success. Paul Weaver died nearly seventy years earlier. The only documentation she has is the sole surviving copy of a coroner's report stating his death was caused by an accidental fall while hiking.

There's a red flag: local son Weaver knew every inch of the mountain trails. The returning World War II veteran had enrolled at Black Mountain College, a liberal local school with an international reputation for innovation, thanks to its stellar faculty and advisers like Buckminster Fuller and Albert Einstein. The college of the 1940s is currently being portrayed in a film being shot on the site of its former location. The plot is based on a book by a local author. The research behind both may provide a lead in the Weaver case.

One is drawn from movie crew member Harlan Beale, an octogenarian mountaineer who knew Weaver. In a late-night voice message, Beale tells Sam he's found something to show him. Then Beale is discovered dead in the Black Mountain College Museum. His murder turns the cold case white hot. When a second killing follows, the question becomes how to separate dark doings in the present from dark days and hidden scars of the post-war past. In typical de Castrique fashion, the answers aren't what you expect.

No-nonsense Nakayla and veteran Sam with his prosthetic leg love their investigations which always carry a thread from the past, and love each other. An interracial couple in the South, even the new South around Asheville, they've surrounded themselves with a terrific support team including an unorthodox lawyer and a veteran cop, and use humor both to bind them all together and to deflect insults. Plus, it helps deal with the tragedies their work uncovers."

=== October 8 ===

Title: Weycombe

Author: G.M. Malliet

Literary Mystery, Standalone, set in the county of Surrey, England in the present day.

360 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Living in the gated, wealthy village of Weycombe with her titled English husband is a fantasy come true for American Jillian White. But the murder of a local estate agent mars the so-pretty surface of her life and home. Worried about a killer on the loose, Jill tries to piece together clues hidden in the many versions of truth she hears from her suspicious neighbors. As Jill plunges deep into the investigation, her own suspicions grow into a warped web of lies and treachery.

From award-winning author G.M. Malliet comes a gripping psychological tale of murder and deception in which few can be trusted and nothing is as perfect as it seems."

Title: The Question of the Absentee Father

Author: Jeff Cohen AKA E.J. Copperman

Series: #4 in the Asperger's Mystery cozy series set in New Jersey and California.

288 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Samuel Hoenig, proprietor of a business called Questions Answered, doesn't have strong feelings about his estranged father. After all, you can't miss what you never had. But when Samuel's mother receives an enigmatic letter and asks him where his father lives, Samuel is duty bound to provide an answer.

Unfortunately, answering this question means taking a trip to Los Angeles with his associate, Ms. Washburn. The personality traits of Asperger's Syndrome make flying across the country a major challenge for Samuel. Little does he know that as troubling as flying is, it's nothing compared to the danger they'll face when they land."

Title: Hunting the Five Point Killer

Author: C.M. Wendelboe

Series: #1 in the Bitter Wind mysteries featuring former Denver homicide detective Arn Anderson and set in Wyoming in the present day.

432 pages

Synopsis: "Retired detective Arn Anderson never thought he’d be broke enough to take on a cold murder case. Or desperate enough to team up with a TV reporter. Or pathetic enough to go back to his rundown childhood home after he swore he’d left Cheyenne for good. But here he is, hunting a serial killer who also appears to have come out of retirement. On the anniversary of the Five Point Killer’s crimes, Arn’s only option is to survive the carnage of a murderer who may be too twisted―and too brilliant―to catch."

=== October 10 ===

Title: Nail's Crossing

Author: Kris Lackey

Series: #1 in the Maytubby/Bond police procedural series set in Oklahoma.

185 pages

Synopsis: "This debut mystery from a fresh voice in Southwestern fiction stakes out the common ground between Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy.

In a remote corner of the Chickasaw Nation, tribal Lighthorse policeman Bill Maytubby and county deputy Hannah Bond discover the buzzard-ravaged body of Majesty Tate, a young drifter with a blank past. They comb Oklahoma's rock prairie, river bottoms, and hard-bitten small towns for traces of her last days.

Tate was seen dancing with Austin Love, a violent local meth dealer fresh out of prison. An Oklahoma City motel clerk connects her with an aspiring politician. An oil-patch roustabout and a shady itinerant preacher provide dubious leads. Ne'er-do-wells start dying off.

A fluke lead propels Maytubby deep into Louisiana's bayou country, where a Cajun shrimper puts him on the scent of a bizarre conspiracy. He and Bond reunite in the Chickasaw Nation for the eventual face-off at Nail's Crossing."

=== October 17 ===

Title: Righteous

Author: Joe Ide

Series: #2 in the Isaiah Quintabe private investigator series set in Los Angeles.

336 pages

Synopsis: "For ten years, something has gnawed at Isaiah Quintabe's gut and kept him up nights, boiling with anger and thoughts of revenge. Ten years ago, when Isaiah was just a boy, his brother was killed by an unknown assailant. The search for the killer sent Isaiah plunging into despair and nearly destroyed his life. Even with a flourishing career, a new dog, and near-iconic status as a PI in his hometown, East Long Beach, he has to begin the hunt again-or lose his mind.

A case takes him and his volatile, dubious sidekick, Dodson, to Vegas, where Chinese gangsters and a terrifying seven-foot loan shark are stalking a DJ and her screwball boyfriend. If Isaiah doesn't find the two first, they'll be murdered. Awaiting the outcome is the love of IQ's life: fail, and he'll lose her. Isaiah's quest is fraught with treachery, menace, and startling twists, and it will lead him to the mastermind behind his brother's death, Isaiah's own sinister Moriarty."

=== October 24 ===

Title: Dying to Live

Author: Michael Stanley

Series: #6 in the Detective Kubu police procedural series set in Botswana.

336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Michael Stanley's Dying to Live is the sixth crime novel to feature the humble and endearing Detective Kubu, set against the richly beautiful backdrop of Botswana.

"A fantastic read. Brilliant!" -Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author of The Long Way Home

A Bushman is discovered dead near the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Africa. Although the man looks old enough to have died of natural causes, the police suspect foul play, and the body is sent to Gaborone for an autopsy. Pathologist Ian MacGregor confirms the cause of death as a broken neck, but is greatly puzzled by the man’s physiology. Although he’s obviously very old, his internal organs look remarkably young. He calls in Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu. When the Bushman’s corpse is stolen from the morgue, suddenly the case takes on a new dimension."

Title: The Usual Santas

Authors: A wonderful group of writers published by Soho Press

Short Story Collection

416 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Finally: the perfect stocking stuffer for the crime fiction lover in your life! With a foreword by CWA Diamond Award-winner Peter Lovesey, these eighteen delightful holiday stories by your favorite Soho Crime authors contain laughs, murders, and plenty more.

This captivating collection, which features bestselling and award-winning authors, contains laughs aplenty, the most hardboiled of holiday noir, and heartwarming reminders of the spirit of the season.

Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Niccolò Machiavelli sets out to save an Italian city. Sherlock Holmes’s one-time nemesis Irene Adler finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this delectable volume will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe, from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.

Includes Stories By (In Order of Appearance):
Helene Tursten, Mick Herron, Martin Limón, Timothy Hallinan, Teresa Dovalpage, Mette Ivie Harrison, Colin Cotterill, Ed Lin, Stuart Neville, Tod Goldberg, Henry Chang, James R. Benn, Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis, Sujata Massey, Gary Corby, Cara Black, Stephanie Barron and a Foreword and story by Peter Lovesey."

=== October 31 ===

Title: The Secret, Book & Scone Society

Author: Ellery Adams

Series: #1 in the Nora Pennington cozy series set in North Carolina.

304 pages

Synopsis: "Miracle Springs, North Carolina, is a place of healing. Strangers flock here hoping the natural hot springs, five-star cuisine, and renowned spa can cure their ills. If none of that works, they often find their way to Miracle Books, where, over a fresh-baked “comfort” scone from the Gingerbread House bakery, they exchange their stories with owner Nora Pennington in return for a carefully chosen book. That’s Nora’s special talent—prescribing the perfect novel to ease a person’s deepest pain and lighten their heaviest burden.

When a visiting businessman reaches out to Nora for guidance, she knows exactly which novels will help. But before he can keep their appointment at Miracle Books, he’s found dead on the train tracks.

Stunned, Nora forms the Secret, Book, and Scone Society, a group of damaged souls yearning to gain trust and earn redemption by helping others. To join the society, members must divulge their darkest secret—the terrible truth that brought each of them to Miracle Springs in the first place.

Determined to uncover the truth behind the businessman’s demise, the women meet in Nora’s cramped and cozy bookstore to share stories and trade support. And as they untangle a web of corruption, they also discover their own courage, purpose, and a sisterhood that will carry them through every challenge—proving it’s never too late to turn the page and start over . . ."

Title: Thread the Halls

Author: Lea Wait

Series: #6 in the Mainely Needlepoint cozy series set in Maine.

320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "This Yuletide season, there's no time for Angie Curtis and Patrick West to linger under the mistletoe. Patrick's being needled by his mother—movie star Skye West—to set the stage for a perfect white Christmas as she brings her costar, screenwriters, and director home for the holidays. With his mother's long list of wishes, Patrick's becoming unraveled. To help, the Mainely Needlepointers offer to decorate Skye's Victorian mansion and create needlepoint pillows as gifts for the guests.

But not long after the celebrity celebrants invade Haven Harbor, an unscripted tragedy occurs. Then some questionable Christmas cookies make Patrick sick. Before Santa arrives at the town pier on a lobster boat, Angie and the Needlepointers need to trim down the naughty list, catch a cold-hearted killer, and wrap up the case . . ."

A strong batch of new books for the month of October, isn't it? There's even a couple of titles to get us ready for Christmas. Which books did you add to your own wish lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!