It doesn't happen very often but when it does, I always wonder how I got myself into such a bind. What bind? It's in my review policy that I will review new books either on their release date or sometime during their first week of release. This month, five of my review books are being released on the same day, which means I have a lot of reading to do. So... I'd better get myself in gear, eh?
The following is my list pf picks for the best new crime fiction being released during the month of December. I've grouped my choices by their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Let's see if I've managed to choose anything that tickles your fancy!
=== December 1 ===
Title: At First Light
Series: #1 in the Dr. Evan Wilding police procedural series set in Chicago.
395 pages
*Reviewed yesterday on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "
On the muddy banks of the Calumet River, a body has been found posed
next to a series of mysterious glyphs and bearing wounds from a
ritualistic slaying. Chicago detective Addie Bisset knows only one man
who can decipher the message left by the killer: her friend Dr. Evan
Wilding. A brilliant forensic semiotician, Evan decodes the etchings as
Viking Age runes. They suggest either human sacrifice or righteous
punishment. But to what god? And for what sins?Only one thing is clear from the disturbing runic riddles: there are more victims to come.
As
Evan races to determine the identity of the Viking Poet, he and Addie
uncover the killer’s most terrifying secret yet: the motive. This
startling discovery puts Evan’s life in mortal danger, and verse by
ancient verse, time is running out."
=== December 7 ===
Title:
Murder Under Her Skin Series: #2 in the Pentecost & Parker historical series set in Virginia.
368 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Someone’s put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and
Willowjean “Will” Parker’s former knife-throwing mentor has been
stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss,
world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel south to the circus
where they find a snakepit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets
worth killing for.
New York, 1946: The last time Will Parker
let a case get personal, she walked away with a broken face, a bruised
ego, and the solemn promise never again to let her heart get in the way
of her job. But she called Hart and Halloway’s Travelling Circus and
Sideshow home for five years, and Ruby Donner, the circus’s tattooed
ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse the prime suspect is
Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about
putting a knife where it needs to go.
To suss out the real
killer and keep Kalishenko from a date with the electric chair, Will and
Ms. Pentecost join the circus in sleepy Stoppard, Virginia, where the
locals like their cocktails mild, the past buried, and big-city
detectives not at all. The two swiftly find themselves lost in a
funhouse of lies as Will begins to realize that her former circus
compatriots aren’t playing it straight, and that her murdered friend
might have been hiding a lot of secrets beneath all that ink.
Dodging fistfights, firebombs, and flying lead, Will puts a lot more
than her heart on the line in the search of the truth. Can she find it
before someone stops her ticker for good?"
Standalone thriller set in the Florida Keys.
288 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Magda Trudell is the present-day caretaker of Whimbrel Estate, the Key
West home of the famous poet Isobel Reyes. Isobel's suicide at the
residence in 1918 has nearly overshadowed her creative legacy--but
Magda, a botanist and avid historian, is determined to protect it. Over
the past decade, Magda has lovingly restored the house to the exact
condition Isobel would have known. And even though a fierce October
hurricane is headed straight for the Keys, she isn't about to abandon
her life's work to evacuate.
As the mighty storm makes landfall,
the dangers mount. First, a fire and flood threaten to destroy the
house. Then the storm claims most of Magda's supplies. When part of the
house collapses, she unearths an old steamer trunk in the rubble that
contains a woman's remains. Is there more to Isobel's story than Magda
knows?
The unexpected appearance of a teenage girl and her father
seeking shelter from the storm poses unnerving new questions. Are they
really who they seem? And could they have a connection to the house's
shadowy past? As the storm rages, Magda desperately tries to solve the
real mystery of Isobel's death--and keep the living in one piece."
Series: #3 in the Alaska Wild amateur sleuth series set in Alaska.
288 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Winter is falling in the remote town of Benedict, Alaska, and with the
cold comes a mysterious guest. The dreaded "census man," seemingly
innocuous, is an unwelcome presence to those members of this secretive
community who would prefer to keep their business to themselves.
Meanwhile, thriller writer Beth Rivers has received her own unexpected
company: her mother. The last Beth heard, Mill Rivers had gone
underground in the lower forty-eight, in search of Beth’s kidnapper, and
Beth can't help but be a little alarmed at her appearance: If Mill was
able to track down her daughter, who knows who else might be able to?
Beth
doesn't have time to ponder this for long, after a battered woman
stumbles into the town bar one night, and her husband is found dead the
next morning. Suspicions immediately turn to the census man, but when
he, too, goes missing, everyone in Benedict―including the police
chief―is suspected, and Beth and Mill must work to uncover the truth."
Title: The Hanged Man's Tale
Author: Gerald Jay
Series: #2 in the Inspector Mazarelle police procedural series set in Paris, France.
320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "A murdered man is discovered dangling inside the tunnels of a Paris
canal--the only clue, the tarot card in his pockets: the Hanged Man.
When an innocent suspect is railroaded into prison for the homicide,
Mazarelle sets off on the hunt for the real killer.
For the charming, hot-tempered, impulsive Frenchman--now
back from the provinces and leading his own homicide unit out of
Paris’s famed Quai des Orfevres--it’s an investigation that takes him
far from the comforts of Beaujolais and bouillabaisse, and plunges him
into an underworld of ruthless white supremacists looking for scapegoats
in Paris’s growing immigrant community, corrupt cops eager to cover up a
shady side business, and a conspiracy of secrets that threaten his own
life.
Meanwhile, Claire Girard, an irresistible and ambitious
journalist at a popular tabloid, is wrapped up in the same story. On the
trail of the Tarot Card killer, Mazarelle finds himself blindsided by
their growing attraction. And when his team’s case collides with
Girard's latest scoop, and the body count keeps rising, Mazarelle
himself becomes a prime suspect who must clear his own name. Gerald
Jay’s latest Mazarelle adventure is a riveting, fast-paced thriller
about a classic French detective making his way through the dangerous
streets of a very modern world."
Title: Absence of Mallets
Series: #9 in the Fixer-Upper cozy series set in California.
304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Shannon could not be happier that her hunky thriller-writing boyfriend,
Mac, has moved in, and it is a good thing they are living together
because they are both busier than ever. Mac is hosting writing retreats
at his now vacant lighthouse mansion, while Shannon and her crew build
Homefront, a quaint Victorian village of tiny homes for veterans in
need. Mac’s latest guests are proving to be a handful though, and
Shannon has heard some grumbling from the luminaries of Lighthouse Cove
about her latest passion project. But nothing can throw a wrench in
their plans except a malicious murder.
When one of Shannon’s new
friends is found brutally bludgeoned with a mallet near the lighthouse
on Mac’s property, the couple hammers out a suspect list and searches
for a motive. As they drill deeper for clues, more violence strikes and a
new victim winds up in a coma. The pressure is on, and Shannon and Mac
will have to move fast to find an unhinged killer dead set on
demolishing anyone who gets in their way. . ."
Title: Bryant & May: London Bridge Is Falling Down
Series: #18 in the Peculiar Crimes Unit serio-comic police procedural series set in London.
464 pages
Synopsis: "When ninety-one-year-old Amelia Hoffman dies in her top-floor flat on a
busy London road, it’s considered an example of what has gone wrong with
modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system.
But
detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have
their doubts. Mrs. Hoffman was once a government security expert, though
no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady
and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible
murder has been committed.
Mrs. Hoffman wasn’t the only one at
risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden
talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of
London Bridge.
With the help of some of their more certifiable
informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an
investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the
city’s oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer.
But just
when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs. Hoffman was
smarter than anyone imagined. There’s a bigger game afoot that could
have terrible consequences."
Title: Stitched in Crime
Series: #2 in the Craft Fair Knitters cozy series set in Pennsylvania.
304 pages
Synopsis: "The Craft Fair may have hit a few snags lately, but knitting enthusiast
Lia Geiger is hopeful her quiet life will return to its usual patterns
in no time. Her daughter has officially moved back home, and sure, the
house is a little crowded with Hayley's take-home work from the alpaca
farm, but that's a price Lia will happily pay. All seems well until Cori
Littlefield, a new vendor with a gift for crochet, is found dead,
sending shock waves through all of Crandalsburg.
What begins as a
tragic accident turns into a snarled spool of lies that only the
combined efforts of the Ninth Street Knitters can untangle. When Lia
makes a connection between Cori's death and a decades-old murder, it's
up to her to weave together the clues and find the truth."
Looks like there's a little something for everyone in December. Let's talk covers and titles for a minute...
My favorite cover is The Bone Cay with Absence of Mallets a close second. For those who like a little menace on their crime fiction covers, I don't think you can go wrong with Paige Shelton's Dark Night. (Not only menace but a touch a frostbite!) And Kate Carlisle has one of the most inventive minds for book titles. I love the title Absence of Mallets! American cozies have two Must-Haves: fantastic covers and inventive (often punny) titles. I may not buy many, but I love scanning the cozy table at The Poisoned Pen just to take a look at the covers and titles.
What about you folks? Which of my choices are on your own personal wish lists? You know that inquiring minds would love to know!
