In many areas of the world, summer is already waning, but fortunately for me my favorite season still has most of the month of September to run. I'll have to drain what I can of it to the very dregs because I'm going to be incredibly busy this month-- so much so that it will be October before I can tell you what I've been up to.
But no matter how busy I am, you know that I always keep my eyes peeled for new crime fiction! These are my picks for new mysteries being released during the month of September. I've grouped them by release date, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite "book procurement" sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Happy Reading!
=== September 1 ===
Title: A Curious Beginning
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: #1 in the Veronica Speedwell series set in Victorian England
ISBN: 9780451476012
Publisher: NAL
Hardcover, 352 pages
Synopsis: "London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s
golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own.
After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume
her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional
romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is
fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened
hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now
gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But
fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own
abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her
mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot
against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his
friend Stoker—a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is
bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to
reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered.
Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive
assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth. "
Title: All Sales Final
Author: Josie Belle (AKA Jenn McKinlay)
Series: #5 in the Good Buy Girls cozy series set in Virginia
ISBN: 9780425271377
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Synopsis: "There’s something 100% off about Maggie and her fiancé Sam’s new dream
home in the historic section of St. Stanley. The lights flicker, the
doors blow shut, and their cat, Marshall Dillon, hisses at empty space.
And there’s something in the basement that’s definitely not a bargain . .
.
After Maggie discovers a skeleton in the root cellar, she’s
convinced her house is haunted by a murdered man’s ghost. With the help
of her Good Buy Girls, Maggie works to tag a killer. But she’ll need to
be careful as she digs into the history of her new digs. Someone is
willing to keep the truth buried at all costs . . ."
Title: Booked for Trouble
Author: Eva Gates (AKA Vicki Delany)
Series: #2 in the Lighthouse Library cozy series set on North Carolina's Outer Banks
ISBN: 9780451470942
Publisher: NAL
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Lucy has finally found her bliss as a librarian and resident of the
Bodie Island Lighthouse. She loves walking on the beach, passing her
evenings with the local book club, bonding with the library cat,
Charles, and enjoying the attention of not one, but TWO eligible men.
But then her socialite mother, Suzanne, unexpectedly drops in,
determined to move Lucy back to Boston—and reunite her with her
ex-fiancé.
To make matters worse, Suzanne picks a very public
fight at the local hotel with her former classmate Karen Kivas. So, when
Karen turns up dead outside the library the next morning, Suzanne is
immediately at the top of the suspect list. Now Lucy must hunt down a
dangerous killer—before the authorities throw the book at her poor
mother…"
Title: Knot the Usual Suspects
Author: Molly MacRae
Series: #5 in the Haunted Yarn Shop cozy series set in Tennessee
ISBN: 9780451471314
Publisher: NAL
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Synopsis: "It’s time for Handmade Blue Plum, an annual arts and crafts fair, and
Kath and her knitting group TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) plan to
kick off the festivities with a yarn bombing. But they’re not the only
ones needling Blue Plum. Bagpiper and former resident Hugh McPhee had
just returned after a long absence, yet his reception is anything but
cozy. The morning after his arrival, he’s found dead in full piper’s
regalia.
Although shaken, Kath and her knitting group go forward
with their yarn installation—only to hit a deadly snag. Now, with the
help of Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, Kath and TGIF need to
unravel the mystery before someone else gets kilt!"
Title: The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady
Author: Susan Wittig Albert
Series: #6 in the Darling Dahlias series set in 1930s Alabama
ISBN: 9780425260623
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Hardcover, 320 pages
Synopsis: "The eleven o’clock lady has always been one of garden club president Liz
Lacy’s favorite spring wildflowers. The plant is so named because the
white blossoms don’t open until the sun shines directly on them and
wakes them up.
But another Eleven O’Clock Lady is never going to
wake up again. Rona Jean Hancock—a telephone switchboard operator who
earned her nickname because her shift ended at eleven, when her
nightlife was just beginning—has been found strangled with her own silk
stocking in a very unladylike position.
Gossip sprouts like weeds
in a small town, and Rona Jean’s somewhat wild reputation is the topic
of much speculation regarding who might have killed her. As the Darling
Dahlias begin to sort through Rona Jean’s private affairs, it appears
there may be a connection to some skullduggery at the local Civilian
Conservation Corps camp. Working at the camp, garden club vice president
Ophelia Snow digs around to expose the truth…before a killer pulls up
stakes and gets away with murder."
Title: The Girl in the Spider's Web
Author: David Lagercrantz
Series: #4 Lisbeth Salander mystery continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium series
ISBN: 9780385354288
Publisher: Knopf
Hardcover, 416 pages
Synopsis: "She is the girl with the dragon tattoo—a genius hacker and
uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of
the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.
Late
one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to
have information vital to the United States. The source has been in
contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone
Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering.
Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to
Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they
are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies,
cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is
prepared to kill to protect it . . .
The duo who captivated millions of readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest join forces again in this adrenaline-charged, uniquely of-the-moment thriller."
Title: The Marsh Madness
Author: Victoria Abbott
Series: #4 in the Book Collector cozy series set in New York State
ISBN: 9780425280348
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Jordan works hard to improve Vera Van Alst’s collection of classic
detective stories. So when Chadwick Kauffman—heir to the Kauffman
fortune—offers a very good price on a fine collection of Ngaio Marsh
first editions owned by his recently deceased stepfather, she is
thrilled to meet with him at his fabled summer estate, Summerlea.
The
next day, Jordan and Vera are shocked to read that Chadwick has died in
a fall from the grand staircase at Summerlea. But when the picture in
the paper is of a different man, it becomes clear that the ladies are
victims of a scam. And they’ll have to unmask the imposter fast, because
someone is trying to frame them for murder…"
Title: Dark Places
Author: Reavis Z. Wortham
Series: #5 in the Red River historical series set in 1960s Texas
ISBN: 9781464204241
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Paperback, 370 pages
Synopsis: "At the tail end of 1967, the Parker family once again finds it
impossible to hide from a world spinning out of control.
Fourteen-year-old Top still can't fit in with their Center Springs,
Texas, community or forget recent, vicious crimes. His near-twin cousin
Pepper, desperate to escape her own demons, rashly joins the Flower
Children flocking to California―just as two businessmen are kidnapped
and murdered in the Red River bottoms on the same night a deadly hit and
run kills a farmer. Constable Ned Parker wonders if these crimes are
connected, but he goes after Pepper, leaving the investigation in the
hands of Sheriff Cody Parker. Parker hires Deputy Anna Sloan, an
investigator with an eye toward detail as everyone is eyeing her. Yet it
is instinct that propels her after killers through a world nearly
forgotten, the hunt’s backdrop one of continuous rain, gloomy skies, and
floods. When she’s ambushed, the investigation accelerates into
gunfire, chases, and hair-raising suspense. What of Pepper? Out on Route
66, the Mother Road to California, a man named Crow isn't what he
seems. Lies, deceptions, and a band of outlaw motorcyclists proves to
the Parkers that no matter where you turn, no matter what you do, the
world is full of such darkness that even grandmothers are capable of
unspeakable deeds."
Title: The Dungeon House
Series: #7 in the Lake District series set in England and featuring historian Daniel Kind and DCI Hannah Scarlett
ISBN: 9781464203183
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 276 pages
Synopsis: "The magnificent Dungeon House and gardens overlook Cumbria's remote
western coast with its mix of beaches, dunes, and fells, Roman ruins,
and nuclear plant. Twenty years ago the wealthy Whiteleys called it
home. But not a happy one. Malcolm Whiteley had begun to disintegrate
under financial and emotional pressures. He suspected various men in
their social circle of being his wife's lover. After a disastrous party
for the neighbours, Lysette told Malcolm their marriage was over. Sadly
an old Winchester rifle he had been hiding was at hand…. Fast forward to
today. Hannah Scarlett's cold case team is looking into the three-year
old disappearance of Lily Elstone whose father Gray had been Malcolm's
accountant. The investigation coincides with yet another disappearance
of a teenage girl: Shona Whiteley, daughter of Malcolm's nephew Nigel,
who now lives in the Dungeon House despite its tragic history. As
Hannah's team digs down into the past, doubts arise about what really
happened the night Malcolm killed his wife and 16-year-old daughter
Amber, then himself. Most of the people once close to the Whiteleys
still live nearby. And one Joanna Footit, and her secrets, now returns
from London. While Hannah leads the complex police inquiries, it is her
lover, historian Daniel Kind, who supplies Hannah with the lead that
unlocks the whole. Does it come too late?"
Title: A Beam of Light
Author: Andrea Camilleri
Series: #19 in the Inspector Salvo Montalbano police procedural series set in Sicily
ISBN: 9780143126430
Publisher: Penguin Books
Paperback, 288 pages
Synopsis: "When Inspector Montalbano falls under the charms of beautiful gallery
owner Marian, his longtime relationship with Livia comes under threat.
Meanwhile, he is also troubled by a strange dream as three crimes demand
his attention: the assault and robbery of a wealthy merchant's young
wife, shady art deals, and a search for arms traffickers that leads him
deep into the countryside, where the investigation takes a tragic turn."
=== September 8 ===
Title: Make Me
Series: #20 in the Jack Reacher series
ISBN: 9780804178778
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Hardcover, 416 pages
Synopsis: "“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants
to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a
thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen
and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who
mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private
investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to
get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with
her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But
before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago,
Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the
internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right
back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the
worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me."
=== September 15 ===
Title: The Zig Zag Girl
Series: #1 in the Magic Men historical series set in 1950s England
ISBN: 9780544527942
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 336 pages
Synopsis: "Brighton, 1950. The body of a girl is found cut into three pieces.
Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is convinced the killer is mimicking a
famous magic trick—the Zig Zag Girl. The inventor of the trick, Max
Mephisto, is an old war friend of Edgar’s. They served together in a
shadowy unit called the Magic Men, a special ops troop that used stage
tricks to confound the enemy.
Max is on the traveling show
circuit, touring seaside towns with ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and
dancing girls. He’s reluctant to leave this world to help Edgar
investigate, but advises him to identify the victim quickly — it takes a
special sidekick to do the Zig Zag Girl. Those words come back to
haunt Max when the dead girl turns out to be Ethel, one of his best
assistants to date. He’s soon at Edgar’s side, hunting for Ethel’s
killer.
Another death, another magic trick: Edgar and Max
are sure the answer to the murders lies in their army days. And when
Edgar receives a letter warning of another “trick” on the way — the Wolf
Trap — he knows they’re all in the killer’s sights."
=== September 22 ===
Title: Those We Left Behind
Series: #4 in the Belfast series set in Ireland
ISBN: 9781616956363
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 368 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Ciaran Devine, who made Belfast headlines seven years ago as the
“schoolboy killer,” is about to walk free. At the age of twelve, he
confessed to the brutal murder of his foster father; his testimony
mitigated the sentence of his older brother, Thomas, who was also found
at the crime scene, covered in blood. But DCI Serena Flanagan, the only
officer who could convince a young, frightened Ciaran to speak, has
silently harbored doubts about his confession all this time.
Ciaran’s
release means several things: a long-anticipated reunion with Thomas,
who still wields a dangerous influence over his younger brother; the
call-to-action of a man bent on revenge for his father’s death; and
major trouble for Ciaran’s assigned probation officer. Meanwhile, Serena
Flanagan has just returned to the force from her battle with breast
cancer, only to endure the pitying looks of her coworkers and a mountain
of open case files. She will soon discover that even closed cases can
unleash terror on the streets of Belfast."
Another good month for crime fiction, isn't it? Which books made it onto your wish lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!
