I've really been enjoying my reduced blogging time. It's been better for my persnickety legs, and I've had more reading time. I am going to continue with this, although I'll have to come up with a way to keep you abreast of what I've been reading (shorter format, less time sitting at the computer). We'll see what I come up with.
In the meantime, you know that I've been keeping track of new crime fiction to read. I've grouped my choices according to their release dates, and I've included links to author websites where available as well as the books' entries on Amazon US. Book covers and synopses are also courtesy of Amazon.
Let's see if I can tempt you with any of these titles!
=== November 5 ===
Series: #1 in the Maggie Walker cozy series set in western Massachusetts
336 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be
back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a
child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a
fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to
sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.
When
opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners
are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot
buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly,
the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions
about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s
going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.
The Gardener’s Plot
takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur
sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Minotaur Books/Mystery
Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut."
Series: #6 in the DCI Arthur St. Just series set in England
240 pages
Synopsis: "
Something is bothering Sir Flyte Rascallian, renowned art
expert and Master of Hardwick College at the University of Cambridge.
Are the grimy paintings he recently inherited from his aunt as worthless
as he claims?
Curator Ambrose
Nussknacker believes one of the paintings could be a genuine Rembrandt.
Why is Sir Flyte so reluctant to get it authenticated, and so determined
to avoid the tributes due to the discovery of one of the world’s great
lost treasures?
When Sir
Flyte is found murdered in the Master’s Lodge, Detective Chief
Inspector Arthur St. Just must unravel his unusual actions to solve the
death of the old master. College fellows, staff, and students all agree
something was amiss. But as St. Just investigates, he quickly becomes
entangled in a web of deception following the trail of priceless artwork
people would kill to possess."
Series: #1 in the Marigold Manners historical mystery series set in New England.
320 pages
Synopsis: "Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her
old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman
and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with
poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue
her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on
Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of
superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her
trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New
England for a date with fate.
Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a
moldering, gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in
the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the
recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned
plans to manage their lives lead to malice—and murder. Marigold spies a
body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her
suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives
when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the
only one.
When another dead body is found in the garden of the
estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an
eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and
everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed,
the question of “who done it?” turns into “who didn’t do it?” and
Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her
very sense of self."
=== November 7 ===
Standalone Thriller set in the UK.
352 pages
*UK Release
Synopsis: "A new job. A new home. A new start.
It's all Anna wants.
But in a closed rural community, strange traditions and a suspicion of outsiders mean everything is not as it seems.
Three teenage girls have vanished at the annual Gathering as they reach their sixteenth birthday.
No one seems to be investigating.
And a fourth girl begs Anna for help, fearing that she will be next to disappear.
Everyone has secrets.
Anna is watching everyone.
But who is watching Anna?
An unpredictable and wild page-turner, with shocks, surprises and a killer twist for a finale."
=== November 12 ===
Title:
Those Opulent Days Author:
Jacquie PhamStandalone historical mystery set in 1920s colonial Vietnam.
304 pages
Synopsis: "
Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond have been best friends since
childhood. Now, as young men running their families’ formidable
businesses, they make up Saigon’s most powerful group of friends in 1928
Vietnam’s elite society.Until one of them is murdered.
In
a lavish mansion on a hill in Dalat, all four men have gathered for an
evening of indulgence, but one of them won’t survive the night. Toggling
between this fatal night and the six days leading up to it, told from
the perspectives of the four men, their mothers, their servants, and
their lovers, an intricate web of terror, loyalty, and well-kept secrets
begins to unravel.
As the story creeps closer to the
murder, and as each character becomes a suspect, the true villain
begins to emerge: colonialism, the French occupation of Vietnam, and the
massive economic differences that catapult the wealthy into the
stratosphere while the poor starve on the streets."
=== November 19 ===
Series: A Walt Longmire prequel
208 pages
Synopsis: "Tooth and Claw follows Walt and
Henry up to Alaska as they look for work after they both returned from
serving in Vietnam. While working for an oil company in the bitter cold
of winter, they soon encounter a ferocious polar bear who seems
hell-bent on their destruction. But it’s not too long until they realize
the danger does not lurk outside in the frozen Alaskan tundra, but with
their co-workers who are after priceless treasure and will stop at
nothing to get it.
Fans of Longmire will thrill to this
pulse-pounding and bone-chilling novel of extreme adventure that adds
another indelible chapter to the great story of Walt Longmire."
Title:
The Bones of Bascom Hall Authors: Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden
Series: #5 in the Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler series set in Wisconsin
224 pages
Synopsis: "Campus police at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are baffled
by the discovery of human remains in the attic of the administration
building. Drawn into the investigation, visiting professor Nora Barnes
connects the bones to the Vietnam-era bombing of Sterling Hall. But
someone doesn’t want her probing the past. She’s side-swiped by a car
while riding a bicycle and almost crushed in the art library’s motorized
book stacks. Meanwhile, her high-spirited husband, Toby Sandler, is hot
on the trail of lost architectural plans drafted by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Inspired by an event that traumatized Madison and shocked the nation,
this absorbing novel blends fact and fiction and is sure to delight both
mystery enthusiasts and UW alumni."
Title:
Silent Are the DeadSeries: #2 in the Mud Sawpole amateur sleuth series set on ancestral Kiowa tribal land.
320 pages
Synopsis: "While back on tribal land, Mud Sawpole uncovers an illegal
fracking operation underway that threatens the Kiowas’ ancestral
homeland. But there’s an even greater threat: a local businessman
involved in artifact thefts is murdered, and a respected tribe elder
faces accusation of the crime. After being roped in by her cousin,
Denny, they begin to investigate the death while also pursuing evidence
to permanently stop frackers from destroying Kiowa land, water, and
livelihoods.
When answers evade her, Mud heeds her grandfather's
and great-aunt’s words of wisdom and embraces Kiowa tribal customs to
find the answers that she seeks. But her ceremonial sweat leads to a
vision with answers wrapped in more questions.
Mud
and Denny race against the clock to uncover the real killer and must
face the knowledge that there may be a traitor—and a murderer—in their
midst. It’s already too late for one victim—and Mud may be next."
World War II historical mystery featuring Women's Army Auxiliary Corps member Dottie Lincoln. Set in Algiers.
304 pages
Synopsis: "Algiers, North Africa, 1943. After
her abusive German husband left her for dead and took their daughter
with him behind enemy lines, Dottie Lincoln learned that it’s better to
be a trained soldier rather than a victim. As a newly minted squad
leader in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, she spends her days moving
men and materials to the front and her nights attending mandatory dances
to boost the morale of the men. Despite the grueling nature of her job,
she has found a sanctuary amongst the women in the Army. When Ruth, a
member of her squad, is murdered, she’s devastated and determined to get
to the bottom of the murder.
Dottie’s company is the first
group of American women assigned to a combat theater, and with Ruth’s
death, the entire operation is being questioned. Determined to do
everything she can to help win the war, bring justice to her friend, and
hopefully reunite with her daughter, Dottie must rise to the occasion
before the killer strikes again.
But when her past comes back to
haunt her, Dottie must prove she’s not a German spy and put a stop to a
deadly conspiracy that threatens the entire American war effort."
Amateur sleuth mystery set in Hawaii
288 pages
Synopsis: "After the newspaper she works for folds and the freelance
assignments no longer pay the bills, Maya Wong reluctantly returns to
her native Hawaiʻi to ghostwrite controversial land developer Parker
Hamilton's biography. But when the Hamilton patriarch is found dead
under suspicious circumstances, Maya is unwittingly drawn into the
investigation.
Maya’s family and friends aren't happy about her
work for Hamilton. And now, with her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, on the
case, she’s forced to contend with the very person she was determined to
avoid.
All too soon, Maya is dodging assailants and digging for
clues while juggling girls’ nights out with her old BFFs and weekly
family dinners. Convinced the police are after the wrong man, Maya is
determined to stop the killer before it’s too late.
Exploring timely issues in Hawaiʻi, including locals getting priced out of paradise, Ghosts of Waikīkī is an engrossing mystery in the vein of The Verifiers."
=== November 21 ===
Series: #6 in the DCI Kelso Strang series set in Scotland.
384 pages
Synopsis: "There's something sinister about Drumdalloch Woods in the Black
Isle near Inverness. It is a place of tangled growth and shadowy
darkness, it has business opportunists, biological scientists and
conflicted family members all competing for a say in its future. Then a
body is found, and everything starts to look suspicious.
As DCI
Kelso Strang's investigation grows more complex, he unearths layers of
hatred, greed and revenge that cast doubt even on the local police
force. Having only just found happiness with his new girlfriend, Cat
Fleming, Strang faces an existential threat not only to his career but
to his very life."
=== November 28 ===
Series: #5 in the Malabar House historical series set in India.
352 pages
*UK release
Synopsis: "Bombay, 1951. A political rally
ends in tragedy when India's first female police detective, Persis
Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive
new defence minister, a man calling for war with India's new
post-Independence neighbours.
With the Malabar House team tasked
to hunt down the assassin's co-conspirators - aided by agents from
Britain's MI6 security service - Persis is quickly relegated to the
sidelines. But then she is given a second case, the burned body of an
unidentified white man found on a Bombay beach. As she pursues both
investigations - with and without official sanction - she soon finds
herself headed to the country's capital, New Delhi, a city where ancient
and modern India openly clash.
Meanwhile, Persis's colleague,
Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, lies in a hospital fighting
for his life as all around him the country tears itself apart in the
prelude to war..."
There are quite a few intriguing new mysteries coming out in November, aren't there? Did I manage to tempt you with any of them? Or... had you already been tempted? Which books? Inquiring minds would love to know!
