February was one for the record books. I had one week of sheer reading nirvana with wonderful stories written by such authors as Colin Cotterill, Leighton Gage, Deborah Crombie, and Pamela Beason. It was a reading frenzy here! On Thursday, I'll post my review of a fascinating non-fiction book about two women who raced each other around the world-- see? I do read other genres!
February also made it into my record book because it's the first time since I moved to Phoenix in 1976 that I've seen the ground covered in snow. Technically it was graupel-- soft hail-- but it looked like snow to me!
March is going to be another splendiferous month for us here at Casa Kittling, and as always, I'm hoping to fill it with more excellent reads. The following are my picks of the new mysteries being released next month. They're grouped by release date, and I've provided all the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Let's see what they are!
=== March 5 ===
Title: Bowled Over
Series: #2 Vintage Kitchen mysteries set in Michigan
ISBN: 9780425251928
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has been
estranged from her high school best friend Kathy Cooper since they were
teenagers, but she never knew what turned Kathy against her. After
fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her
former friend in the park. On the ground nearby is Jaymie’s own
Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two.
With her fingerprints
all over the bowl and a troubled history with the victim, Jaymie
suddenly finds herself at the top of the list of suspects. Did the
killer intend to frame her for the murder? If so, she is ready to mix it
up, because solving crimes is vintage Jaymie Leighton…"
Title: Murder Below Montparnasse
Series: #13 in the Aimée Leduc P.I. series set in Paris, France
ISBN: 9781616952150
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 326 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "
When Aimée’s long-term partner and best friend Rene leaves their
detective agency for a new job in Silicon Valley, Aimée knows she can
handle the extra workload. At least, that what she tells herself.
Repeatedly.
But all bets are off when Yuri Volodya, a mysterious
old Russian man, hires Aimée to protect a painting. By the time she gets
to his Montparnasse atelier, the precious painting has already been
stolen, leaving Aimée smelling a rat. The next day, Yuri is found
tortured to death in his kitchen. To top it all off, it looks like Aimée
isn’t the only one looking for the painting. Some very dangerous people
are threatening her and her coworkers, and witnesses are dropping like
flies. Now Aimée has to find the painting, stop her attackers, and
figure out what her long-missing mother, who is on Interpol’s most
wanted list, has to do with all this—fingers crossed she wasn’t Yuri’s
murderer, despite clues pointing in that direction.
Obviously, Rene doesn’t need to worry. Aimee has things under control."
Title:
Assaulted Pretzel
Author:
Laura Bradford
Series: #2 Amish Mystery set in Pennsylvania
ISBN: 9780425252000
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Synopsis: "
The quiet town of Heavenly is buzzing with excitement over the
latest guests at the local inn, Sleep Heavenly. Toy manufacturer Rob
Karble is in town to meet the members of the Amish community who will
soon be crafting a new toy line for his company. But when word gets out
that Karble intends to use the Amish designs without employing the Amish
to make them, someone sends the interloper to his final reward.
No
one wants to believe anyone from the Amish community could commit such
an act, but as Claire and Detective Fisher have learned, no one is above
sin—or suspicion."
Title:
Peach Pies and Alibis
Author:
Ellery Adams
Series: #2 Charmed Pie Shoppe mystery set in Georgia
ISBN: 9780425251997
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "
Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in Havenwood,
Georgia—which is not surprising since Ella Mae can lace her baked goods
with enchantments. The shop’s extraordinary success seems destined to
continue when Ella Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle
the dessert buffet at their wedding.
But Ella Mae has a lot on
her plate. She is also searching for the origin of her magical
powers—and hoping to determine if the spark of attraction she feels for
the handsome Hugh Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities gone
awry.
Then Ella Mae discovers a high-standing member of the
community dead, and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at the event
she’s catering. Now she’ll have to use all her sleuthing skills and
culinary talents to prove her pies don’t contain a killer ingredient . .
."
Title:
The Christie Curse
Author:
Victoria Abbott
Series: #1 Jordan Kelly mystery set in New York State
ISBN: 9780425255285
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "
In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?
Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She’s back in Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law-abiding uncles, in debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans.
Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board, which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid book collector. There’s just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst—the most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.
Jordan’s first assignment is to track down a rumored Agatha Christie play. It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to keep the play out of Vera’s hands. Jordan’s new job is good…but is it worth her life?"
Title:
A Dying Fall
Author:
Elly Griffiths
Series: #5 Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery set in England
ISBN: 9780547798165
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 400 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "
Ruth Galloway is shocked when she learns that her old university friend
Dan Golding has died tragically in a house fire. But the death takes on a
sinister cast when Ruth receives a letter from Dan written just before
he died.
The letter tells of a great archaeological discovery,
but Dan also says that he is scared for his life. Was Dan’s death linked
to his find? The only clue is his mention of the Raven King, an ancient
name for King Arthur.
Then Ruth is invited to examine the bones
Dan found. Ruth travels to Lancashire–the hometown of DCI Nelson–with
both her eighteen-month-old daughter, Kate, and her druid friend,
Cathbad, in tow. She discovers a campus living in fear of a sinister
right-wing group called the White Hand. She also finds that the bones
revealed a shocking fact about King Arthur–and they’ve mysteriously
vanished. When Nelson, visiting his mother in Blackpool, learns about
the case, he is drawn into the investigation, especially when Ruth and
his beloved Kate seem to be in danger. Who is willing to kill to keep
the bones a secret?"
Title:
The Good Cop
Author:
Brad Parks
Series: #4 Carter Ross mystery set in New Jersey
ISBN: 9781250005526
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages
Synopsis: "
As long as Newark Eagle-Examiner
reporter Carter Ross turns in
his stories on deadline, no one bats an eye if he doesn’t wander into
the newsroom until 10 or 11 in the morning. So it’s an unpleasant
surprise when he’s awakened at 8:38 a.m. by a phone call from his boss,
telling him a local policeman was killed and to get the story. Shaking
himself awake, Carter heads off to interview the cop’s widow. And then
he gets another call: the story’s off, the cop committed suicide.
But
Carter can’t understand why a man with a job he loved, a beautiful
wife, and plans to take his adorable children to Disney World would
suddenly kill himself. And when Carter’s attempts to learn more are
repeatedly blocked, it's clear someone knows more than he's saying about
the cop's death. The question is, who? And what does he have to hide?
Carter, with his usual single-minded devotion to a good story—and to the
memory of a Newark policeman—will do whatever it takes to uncover the
truth."
=== March 8 ===
Title: Tainted Mountain
Series: #1 Nora Abbott mystery set in Arizona
ISBN: 9780738734224
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Paperback, 360 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "All Nora Abbott
wants to do is make enough snow to save her ski resort from the drought
that is ravaging Northern Arizona. But now her husband has been
murdered; angry protestors have occupied her mountain; her overbearing
mother has blown into town; and energy tycoon Barrett McCreary has
launched what might just be a hostile takeover of the cash-strapped
resort.
To
make matters worse, the local Hopi tribe claims making snow on the
mountain will upset the balance of the earth, so Nora turns to the
ruggedly handsome Cole Huntsman for help. The only trouble is that
Huntsman seems to be playing from both sides of the deck. And when a
fortune in uranium claims are at stake, double-dealing is a deadly
strategy."
=== March 12 ===
Title: Paging the Dead
Series: #1 Family History mystery set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9781451661866
Publisher: Gallery Books
Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Genealogist Sophreena McClure is an expert at unearthing other people’s
secrets. Using old documents and photographs, Soph and her business
partner, Esme Sabatier—also a gifted medium—trace family histories and
create heritage scrapbooks. Their latest client, Dorothy Pritchett
Porter, is thrilled with their research into Morningside’s most
prestigious clan. But before Dorothy can proudly display her new
scrapbooks on Founders’ Day, she’s found murdered. It seems the ties
that bind can also strangle, for Dorothy has been killed using the
Pritchett family pearls.Pegged as prime suspects, Sophreena and Esme
turn their investigative skills from the dearly departed to the alive
and dangerous, hoping to pin down the real killer among Dorothy’s
kinfolk. Sophreena’s scrapbooking club members, crafty in more ways than
one, pitch in to help. As the Pritchett ancestral roots turn out to be
more tangled than anyone suspected, Sophreena wonders just how many
skeletons lurk in this family closet—and whether she and Esme are
destined to join them. . . ."
=== March 19 ===
Title: The Leviathan Effect
Series: #2 Jon Mallory thriller based in Washington, D.C.
ISBN: 9781616952495
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Homeland Security Secretary Catherine Blaine receives a frightening
communication from a hacker identified only by the pseudonym Janus. The
message is the latest in a series correctly predicting natural disasters
around the world—disasters that, Janus claims, were manufactured, not
natural at all. And, according to the email, unless the United States
does as Janus instructs, another disaster is coming—a Category 5
hurricane that will hit the Eastern Seaboard and destroy the lives of
tens of millions of people.
Unaware of the crisis in
Washington, investigative journalist Jon Mallory stumbles on a list of
seven prominent scientists who have been murdered over the past dozen
years. When the person who gave him the list disappears herself, Jon
realizes he has unwittingly become part of a deadly chain of events and
contacts his brother, private intelligence contractor Charles, for help.
Meanwhile, Catherine Blaine has also come to Charles for help tracking
down the hacker Janus and uncovering the frightening new weather
technology that threatens the world."
Title: The Missing File
Series: #1 Inspector Avraham Avraham mystery set in Israel
ISBN: 9780062195371
Publisher: Harper
Hardcover, 304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In The Missing File
, Israeli detective Avraham
Avraham must find a teenage boy gone missing from the suburbs of Tel
Aviv in this first volume in a fresh new literary crime series by D. A.
Mishani.
Crimes in Avraham’s quiet suburb are generally not all
that complex. But when a sixteen-year-old boy goes missing and a
schoolteacher offers up a baffling complication, Avraham finds himself
questioning everything he thought he knew about his life.
Told through alternating points of view, The Missing File
is an emotionally wrought, character-driven page-turner with plenty of
twists and turns. It’s a mystery that will leave readers questioning the
notions of innocence and guilt, and the nebulous nature of truth."
=== March 21 ===
Title: Helsinki Blood
Series: #4 Kari Vaara mystery set in Finland
ISBN: 9780399158889
Publisher: Putnam
Hardcover, 320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Kari Vaara is recovering from the physical and emotional toll of solving
the Lisbet Söderlund case when he’s approached with a plea: an Estonian
woman begs him to find her daughter, Loviise, a young woman with Down
syndrome who was promised work and a better life in Finland . . . and
has since disappeared.
One more missing girl is a drop in
the barrel for a police department that is understaffed and
overburdened, but for Kari, the case is personal: it’s a chance for
redemption, to help the victims his failed black-ops unit was intended
to save, and to prove to his estranged wife, Kate, that he’s still the
man he once was. His search will lead him from the glittering world of
Helsinki’s high-class clubs to the darkest circles of Finland’s
underground trade in trafficked women . . . and straight into the path
of Loviise’s captors, who may be some of the most untouchable people in
the country.
As Kari works his new case, a past one comes
back to haunt him when powerful enemies return to settle unfinished
business. In a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, he is propelled toward a
reckoning in which the stakes are life or death . . . and only the
victors will be left standing."
=== March 26 ===
Title: Leaving Everything Most Loved
Series: #10 Maisie Dobbs mystery set in England
ISBN: 9780062049605
Publisher: Harper
Hardcover, 352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In Leaving Everything Most Loved by New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs investigates the murder of Indian immigrants in London.
The
year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has
come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two
months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and
there is reason to believe they failed to conduct a thorough
investigation. The case becomes even more challenging when another
Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview.
Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a
distraction, as does a new development in Maisie's personal life.
Bringing a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs to a close, Leaving Everything Most Loved marks a pivotal moment in this outstanding mystery series."
What a phenomenal month of reading we have in store for us! I can't wait to get my hands on so many of these! Of the books by authors who are new to me, I think I'm most anxious to read The Christie Curse and Tainted Mountain. I'm not even going to start raving about all the ones by some of my favorite writers!
What about all of you? Which of these books are you adding to your own wish lists? Do tell!
