I Have Fiona Barton Covered!

It never ceases to amaze me the things that inspire me to write posts. For this comparison series, authors have submitted covers, readers have made suggestions, and I've chosen a few as a reminder to read the next book in that author's series, but in this particular case, the author herself inspired me (completely unknowingly).

When I went to see Fiona Barton at The Poisoned Pen, she is the one who mentioned how dissimilar the US and UK covers are for her two published books, The Widow and The Child. Naturally when I returned home, I had to take a look to see what she meant.

Now it's time for everyone to take a look and share their opinions! 

May I go on record now as saying that none of the covers does much for me? Especially the US covers; they say absolutely nothing and aren't even particularly eye-catching. It's almost as if they (1) didn't want the books to sell, or (2) they had no clue as to how to market them.

To ease up on those folks a bit, I will say that neither book is simple to slap a label on. Books with multiple narrators are tricky. But still!

While the UK covers aren't particularly attractive, at least they tell us something about the books. While I don't think the author blurbs on the fronts are necessary, the ones that reveal a taste of what the book is about are very helpful-- especially the one for The Widow: "A loving husband or a heartless killer...she'd know, wouldn't she?" Those white lilies I always associate with funerals are fitting for a book with that title, and there's also something a bit creepy about the way the flowers are twined about the title-- or is it just me?

Before rubber bands or plastic bags, the local newspapers that I grew up with came rolled up with paper bands around their middles, so I immediately think of news stories and getting that ink all over my fingers as I turned the pages when I look at the cover of The Child. Between the graphic and "You can bury the story...but you can't hide the truth," I'm put in mind of a newspaper reporter digging up secrets for a big exposé. 

So... while both US covers do nothing much in promotion of Fiona Barton's books, the UK covers do manage to tantalize us a bit. If I were comparing these four covers on the basis of appearance alone (fonts/colors/graphics), I would choose none of them. However, if I were choosing on the basis of the information given on each cover, I would choose the UK cover of The Widow. 

What about you? Which covers do you prefer-- or do you not like any of them at all? Inquiring minds would love to know!
 

Fiona Barton at The Poisoned Pen!

Saturday, July 22 found me back in my old routine: Denis at work and me on the road to my favorite bookstore, The Poisoned Pen. Arriving in plenty of time to grab my preferred seat, I went up to the front desk and got the books they were holding for me, then back to the back of the bookstore I went to sit and read. Time flew, and before I knew what was happening, Barbara Peters and author Fiona Barton were sitting in front of us and beginning to speak. 

L to R: Barbara Peters and Fiona Barton

Barton had come to The Poisoned Pen last year in January or February before her first book (The Widow) was published-- and she complained of the heat then. I can't begin to imagine what she thought of our July weather! The Poisoned Pen was the only bookstore on her short tour last year, and the entire thing was a learning experience for her. Book publishing in the UK is a much smaller scene, and authors are not used to self-promotion or talking about themselves.

Barbara described Barton's two books as domestic suspense, or what she calls "Trust No One," and The Child brings back one of the characters from The Widow-- the journalist Kate Waters. 

Fiona Barton

As Barton explained, Kate wasn't the main character in The Widow. "I needed more voices so readers would learn not to trust what they were hearing. Of all the characters in that book, Kate was the one readers kept asking about."

At this point, Barbara and Fiona made it clear that The Child was not a sequel; this new book just happens to have one character from the first book. 

"There are books that I wouldn't want to have a sequel to," Peters said. "Like Scarlett O'Hara returning to Tara; you don't want to know what happens, you want to imagine it." They both agreed that an upcoming book, Shari Lapena's A Stranger in the House, is another one that should not have a sequel. 

Barton wanted a character who's a journalist to show that they aren't all bad. She herself has challenged the stereotype when people would express surprise that she was affected when she listened to a woman whose child had been murdered. "What? You didn't think we were human beings?" She then disclosed that in her next book she's torturing Kate by giving her a techno savvy young sidekick.

Available Now!

Barton believes that we live in a confessional age, an age in which people no longer need to talk to journalists in order for their stories to be told. Instead, all we have to do is go online to Facebook or Twitter. This gives us the power to present ourselves as we want others to see us... and to hide things about ourselves that we want no one else to see.

Fiona had been an award-winning journalist for thirty years and remembers seeing an article in the newspaper about the discovery of a mummified body of a baby. That image had stayed with her over the years. At the time, she thought of some of the same questions Kate did in her book, The Child.

When it was time to come up with the idea for her second book, she had one. This image of the mummified baby was something that she referred to as "a back of a fag [cigarette] packet idea." When her editor didn't like her original idea for the second book, she talked about this image that had stayed with her for so long, and her editor liked it a lot better.

Fiona Barton

Barton then went on to show us how a story can spread in the press. Kate Waters saw the story about the mummified baby in a local paper. She knew there was a story there, so she wrote an article that appeared in a national paper and that paper's website. "I don't think I could write these books without my experience as a journalist," she said.

Barbara Peters then talked a bit about how-- almost always-- the second book an author writes is never as popular as the first. Fiona nodded her head. "Some of the fairy dust has fallen off," she said.

"I was fifty-one, our children were raised, when my husband and I decided to quit our jobs and do volunteer work in Sri Lanka. This was in 2008 when I'd been a journalist for thirty years. Doing this allowed me to have some time, to have some space in my head, and an idea began to cook. 

"My idea was about the women one finds on the edge of stories-- what they knew, what they didn't want to share. When we returned from Sri Lanka, I began to write. It turned into ten chapters which I then put in a drawer, as you do. After two years, we moved to France. I joined a writing group which was a great help. But in many ways I think my experience as a journalist made it harder for me to write. I had the facility of writing-- I could write a thousand words about any given subject at a moment's notice, but writing about something that wasn't real was anathema to me, and I had to overcome that."

Fiona Barton

"The great thing about your professional background is that you've heard a lot of stories, and that also had to be a great help in writing dialogue," Peters observed.

Barton agreed, but stressed, "Kate is not me, but I've worked with Kate.

"I think when people think of journalists, they think of them pounding on doors and shouting through letterboxes, but that was never my way. I always wanted to make a human connection.

"There was one news editor who famously suggested that we have a Cornish pasty in our pocket-- do you know what a Cornish pasty is? [with the Cornish Pasty-- PAST-ee-- Company a block away most of us knew]-- so that if we had someone who told us that they didn't want to talk to us, we could pull the pasty out and say, 'All right, but could I just step inside for a minute to warm up my pasty in your microwave?'"

Barton's editor insisted that the journalists dress as though they were going to tea with the Queen or to speak to someone bereaved, so she was used to being very formally dressed. In fact, she once found herself wearing her high heels in an elephant enclosure in the dark in order to get a story about cruelty to elephants. "I was in mud up to my ankles," she said.

In talking about the titles of her books, Barton told us that The Widow had been the one and only title, but that 'The Silence' eventually became The Child. There is no working title for the third book "that I'll share." She then mentioned the marked difference between the UK and US covers for her books, so don't be surprised if she's the subject of my cover comparison post on Wednesday!

I will now encourage you to watch the Livestream recording of this event so you can see everything and hear every word. For those of you who do decide to watch the video, the very low-pitched whispering you hear about midway through comes from a man in the back corner who was reading a book to his young son sitting on his lap. The conversation between Barbara and Fiona is still perfectly clear.

I think I could sit and listen to Fiona Barton tell stories for hours-- and I'm wondering what that untitled third book is all about. While I'm wondering, I did pick up a book or two to tide me over....

The Child by Fiona Barton

First Line: My computer is winking at me knowingly when I sit down at my desk.

When a tiny skeleton is discovered buried on the grounds of an old house that's being demolished, journalist Kate Waters knows that this is a story that deserves much more attention than a throwaway sentence or two in her newspaper. As she investigates, she finds connections to a sensational crime that happened decades earlier: a newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and never found.

But Kate learns that there is even more to the story, and she is quickly drawn into the lives, and the pasts, of the people who once lived in the neighborhood. Ultimately becoming the keeper of three women's secrets means Kate is constantly walking the tightrope between what she can and cannot tell.

Fiona Barton's The Child is a story that rapidly draws you in and won't let you go until everyone's secrets have been revealed. The style of this book is reminiscent of Kate Atkinson in the manner in which the story unfolds. Told in alternating chapters by Kate and the three women involved-- Angela, Emma, and Jude-- the voices may not be particularly distinctive, but their stories kept me guessing clear through to the end.

Barton definitely has a knack for creating memorable characters and strong storylines. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
 

The Child by Fiona Barton

eISBN: 9781101990506

Berkley © 2017

eBook, 384 pages

Suspense, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

June 2017 New Mystery Releases!

Publishers have definitely geared up for the summer because I had a difficult time narrowing my June picks down to the usual baker's dozen. Better too many choices than not enough, eh?

This month's choices are a good blend of the new and promising, and of the familiar and favored. Something tells me that I should get right down to business, so I will.

My picks for June are grouped together by their release dates, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book spots. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Let's get started!

=== June 5 ===

Title: A Grave Calling

Author: Wendy Roberts

Series: #1 in the Bodies of Evidence series paranormal mystery series.

Publisher: Carina Press

199 pages

Synopsis: "Twenty-five-year-old Julie Hall has a unique ability: when she takes up a dowsing rod, she finds not water but bodies. To Julie, it's a curse, not a gift, and one she rarely uses—she prefers her quiet life in a trailer, with her grandfather and her dog for company. But when FBI agent Garrett Pierce shows up at her door seeking help with a case, she has no choice but to assist with their search. 

Three girls are still missing. The killer is still out there. As bodies are discovered and more girls disappear, the case becomes almost more than Julie can bear. And when the killer turns his sights toward her, even her growing relationship with the protective Agent Garrett may not be enough to save her."

=== June 6 ===

Title: Death on Nantucket

Author: Francine Mathews

Series: #5 in the Merry Folger police procedural series set on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

Publisher: Soho Crime

288 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Spencer Murphy is a national treasure. A famous Vietnam War correspondent who escaped captivity in Southeast Asia, he made a fortune off of his books and television appearances. But Spence is growing forgetful with age; he’s started to wander and even fails to come home one night. When a body is discovered at Step Above, the sprawling Murphy house near Steps Beach, Nantucket police detective Meredith Folger is called in to investigate.

The timing couldn’t be worse: It’s the Fourth of July, and tourists are arriving in droves to celebrate on Nantucket’s beaches, so the police force is spread thin. On top of that Merry is planning her wedding to cranberry farmer Peter Mason, and her new boss, an ex-Chicago police chief with an aggressive management strategy, seems to be trying to force her to quit. Merry can’t conclude the Murphy investigation quickly enough for him. As she grapples with a family of unreliable storytellers—some incapable of recalling the past, and others determined that it never be known—she suspects that the truth may be forever out of reach, trapped in the failing brain of a man whose whole life may be a lie."

Title: Murder in Saint-Germain

Author: Cara Black

Series: #17 in the Aimée Leduc private investigator series set in Paris, France.

Publisher: Soho Crime

336 pages

Synopsis: "Paris, July 1999: Private investigator Aimée Leduc is walking through Saint-Germain when she is accosted by Suzanne Lesage, a Brigade Criminelle agent on an elite counterterrorism squad. Suzanne has just returned from the former Yugoslavia, where she was hunting down dangerous war criminals for the Hague. Back in Paris, Suzanne is convinced she’s being stalked by a ghost—a Serbian warlord her team took down. She’s suffering from PTSD and her boss thinks she’s imagining things. She begs Aimée to investigate—is it possible Mirko Vladić could be alive and in Paris with a blood vendetta?

Aimée is already working on a huge case; plus, she’s got an eight-month-old baby to take care of. But she can’t say no to Suzanne, whom she owes a big favor. Aimée chases the few leads she has, and all evidence confirms Mirko Vladić is dead. It seems that Suzanne is in fact paranoid, perhaps losing her mind—until Suzanne’s team begins to die in a series of strange, tragic accidents. Are these just coincidences? Or are things not what they seem?"

Title: Magpie Murders

Author: Anthony Horowitz

Standalone mystery set in England

Publisher: Harper

496 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective."

=== June 8 ===

Title: Death Around the Bend

Author: T.E. Kinsey

Series: #3 in the Lady Hardcastle historical cozy series set in England.

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

316 pages

Synopsis: "September 1909, and Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, have been invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. They both agree that it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday. But when one of the drivers dies in a crash during the very first race, they discover that what seemed like an uncharacteristic error in judgment may have a more sinister explanation…

Closer investigation reveals that the driver’s car was sabotaged—and the driver murdered. The local constabulary are quick to dismiss the case, but Flo and Lady Hardcastle are determined to find out just who has committed this dastardly act, and why.

As the pair begin to make enquiries of Lord Riddlethorpe’s servants and guests, it seems that, below stairs and above, there is more to this case than meets the eye. And, even in the quiet of the countryside, death is always just around the bend."

=== June 13 ===

Title: Bad Housekeeping

Author: Maia Chance

Series: #1 in the Agnes & Effie cozy series set in the Finger Lakes area of New York state. 

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When 28-year-old Agnes Blythe, the contented bifocals-wearing half of an academic power couple, is jilted by her professor boyfriend for the town Pilates instructor, her future is suddenly less than certain. So when her glamorous, eccentric Great Aunt Effie arrives in town and offers a job helping to salvage the condemned Stagecoach Inn, what does Agnes have to lose? But work at the inn has barely begun when the unlikely duo find the body of manipulative Kathleen Todd, with whom Agnes and Effie both have recently had words. Words strong enough to land them at the top of the suspect list.

The pair has clearly been framed, but no one else seems interested in finding the real murderer and Agnes and Effie's sleuthing expertise is not exactly slick. Nevertheless, they're soon investigating a suspect list with laundry dirtier than a middle school soccer team's and navigating threats, car chases, shotgun blasts, and awkward strolls down memory lane.

In Bad Housekeeping, the first novel in the Agnes & Effie cozy mystery series by Maia Chance, danger mounts, deadlines loom, ancient knob-and-tube wiring is explored, and the ladies learn a thing or two about the awful, wonderful mistake that is going back home."

Title: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

Author: Matthew Sullivan

Debut mystery set in a bookstore.

Publisher: Scribner

336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long-buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page." 

Title: Knife Creek

Author: Paul Doiron

Series: #8 in the Mike Bowditch game warden series set in Maine.

Publisher: Minotaur Books

352 pages

Synopsis: "When Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is tasked with shooting invasive feral hogs that are tearing up the forest in his district, he makes a horrific discovery ― a dead baby buried in a shallow grave.

Even more disturbing: evidence suggests the infant was the child of a young woman who was presumed to have died four years earlier after she disappeared from a group rafting trip.

As Bowditch assists the reopened investigation, he begins to suspect that some of his neighbors aren’t who they seem to be. When violence strikes close to home, he realizes that his unknown enemies will stop at nothing to keep their terrible secrets.

Mike Bowditch has bucked the odds his whole career, but this time the intrepid warden may have finally followed his hunches one step too far." 

Title: The Templars' Last Secret

Author: Martin Walker

Series: #10 in the Bruno Chief of Police series set in southwestern France

Publisher: Knopf

336 pages

Synopsis: "When a woman's body is found at the foot of a cliff near St. Denis, Bruno suspects a connection to the great ruin that stands on the cliff above: the Château de Commarque, a long-ago Knights Templar stronghold which, along with the labyrinth of prehistoric caves beneath it, continues to draw the interest of scholars. With the help of Amélie, a young newcomer to the Dordogne, Bruno learns that the dead woman was an archaeologist searching for a religious artifact of incredible importance, the discovery of which could have dramatic repercussions throughout the Middle East--not to mention in St. Denis. And the woman's ties to Islamic terrorists can only heighten the pressure on Bruno to unravel the centuries-old mystery. Meanwhile, an old flame of Bruno's is assigned to work with him on the case, and the two find time, naturellement, to enjoy the supreme pleasures of the wine, food, and beauty of the Dordogne."

=== June 27 ===

Title: The Right Side

Author: Spencer Quinn

Standalone thriller set in Washington state

Publisher: Atria Books

336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "In this riveting new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone.

LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.

Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, and her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington state that Marci had called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side."

Title: The Child

Author: Fiona Barton

Series: #2 in the Kate Waters investigative reporter series set in England

Publisher: Berkley

384 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers a tiny skeleton, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who is the Building Site Baby?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell…"

Title: A Ghostly Light

Author: Juliet Blackwell

Series: #7 in the Haunted Home Renovation cozy series set in California.

Publisher: Berkley

336 pages

Synopsis: "When her friend Alicia hires Turner Construction to renovate a historic lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay, Mel Turner can’t wait to get her hands dirty. Alicia plans to transform the island property into a welcoming inn, and while Mel has never attempted a project so ambitious—or so tall—before, she’s definitely up for the challenge.

But trouble soon arises when Alicia’s abusive ex-husband shows up to threaten both her and Mel, and later turns up dead at the base of the lighthouse stairs. With no other suspects in sight, things start looking choppy for Alicia. Now, if Mel wants to clear her friend’s name, she’ll need the help of the lighthouse’s resident ghosts to shine a light on the real culprit..."

Title: Booked 4 Murder

Author: J.C. Eaton

Series: #1 in the Sophie Kimball cozy series set in Arizona

Publisher: Kensington Books

320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Sophie 'Phee' Kimball is not a cop. She’s a divorced, middle-aged mom who works as an account clerk for the police department in a small city in Minnesota. But her retired mother, Harriet Plunkett, is convinced Phee is the only one who can solve the mystery of a cursed book. According to Harriet, four members of her book club have already succumbed to the deadly curse. Harriet insists Phee catch the next plane to her retirement community in Sun City West, Arizona, to investigate.

Is her mother just bored and lonely? She does have a new pet—a long-haired chiweenie (half Chihuahua, half Dachshund)—for company and a host of pals (although that number is admittedly dwindling). Phee is certain that their book club selection isn’t cursed, but is somebody really knocking off the ladies? As Phee starts to uncover dark secrets hidden in plain sight under the blazing Arizona sun, she’ll need to read between the lines before it’s someone else’s final chapter...."

Good lineup for June, isn't it? 

Which titles caught your eye and were included on your wish lists? Inquiring minds need to know!

The Widow by Fiona Barton

First Line: I can hear the sound of her crunching up the path.

When the police began showing up at the door... when they began asking questions...  Jean Taylor was circumspect, a woman standing by her wrongly accused husband. When her husband dies, Jean doesn't have to be that woman any more.

There's a lot Jean could say about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She's no longer busy being the perfect wife. And believe you me, there are people who would do almost anything to get Jean to tell her story. What was it like to live with Glen Taylor? Jean could tell them that there were secrets-- just like there are in any marriage.

But is Jean Taylor actually going to tell any of those people the truth?

I am glad that I didn't see all the Gone Girl and Girl on a Train hype before I decided to read this book. If I had, I wouldn't have read it. Gone Girl may be flavor of the month, but it left a very bad taste in my mouth, hence my reluctance to fall for any hype linking a new book to it. Fortunately The Widow is not Gone Girl, so if that's been making you nervous, you can relax. 

This is the story of Jean Taylor, a woman who has tried her best for a very long time to be a perfect wife for Glen Taylor, a man who is less than perfect himself. As a matter of fact, readers slowly learn that Glen Taylor is one of the lower forms of pond scum. Orbiting around Jean like twin asteroids are Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes, the police officer who desperately wants to bring closure to a victim's family, and journalist Kate Stone, a woman with a knack for prying headline-grabbing stories from reluctant people. Just what does Jean know? What really happened? Is she going to tell Sparkes and Stone what they want to hear? These are questions that follow the reader throughout the book.

Jean Taylor's voice is a compelling one, and she gains sympathy very early on. This story is a gradual-- often mesmerizing-- unraveling of events, and the author often held me right in the palm of her hand. Barton made only one misstep: there is one important fact that Jean Taylor is withholding, and Barton telegraphs it too early. This takes away some of the power of the ending, but even so, this debut novel has me wanting to get my hands on the author's next book!
     

The Widow by Fiona Barton

eISBN: 9781101990469

NAL © 2016

eBook, 368 pages

Psychological Thriller, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley 


 

February 2016 New Mystery Releases!

A disturbing new trend is emerging, and it has everything to do with my newly recovered passion for knitting. I like knitting gifts for people, and I don't expect payment of any sort. I'd be making the stuff anyway; it's good to know that I can send some of these things to people who will enjoy them.

But they're sending me gift cards as a thank you, and since they know I'm passionate about books, they are gift cards to bookstores. Yikes-- no wonder I have to keep my eye peeled for the latest in crime fiction titles! 

Here are my picks for the newest mystery titles being released in February. They're grouped by release date and have all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book procurement sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Here we go. Let's take a look!

=== February 1 ===

Title: Tundra Kill

Author: Stan Jones

Series: #5 in the Nathan Active police procedural series set in Alaska

ISBN: 9780979980381 

Publisher: Bowhead Press

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Nathan Active, the top cop in a swath of the Alaskan tundra that is larger than fifteen U.S. states, has a new mystery to unravel after a dog musher is killed by a snowmobile. When the case is connected with Alaska’s gorgeous female governor, Active is swept into the bizarre family affairs and outsized political ambitions of the most dangerous woman he has ever met.  Now the counter-moves that have been put into place by the governor threaten the lives of both his beloved Grace Palmer and her daughter, Nita. With his career on the line, Active has to outwit the governor and save the people he cares for most before time runs out." 

=== February 2 ===

Title: A Disguise to Die For

Author: Diane Vallere

Series: #1 in the Costume Shop cozy series set in Nevada

ISBN: 9780425278284

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, her family’s costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to die for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a carving knife over a very dead Blitz.

For Margo, clearing Ebony’s name is anything but elementary, especially after Ebony flees town. Now Margo is left to play real-life detective in a town full of masked motives, cloaked secrets, and veiled vendettas. But as she soon learns, even a killer disguise can’t hide a murderer in plain sight for long."  

Title: A Turn for the Bad

Author: Sheila Connolly

Series: #4 in the County Cork cozy series set in Ireland

ISBN: 9780425273425 

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "After calling Ireland home for six months, Boston expat Maura Donovan still has a lot to learn about Irish ways—and Sullivan’s Pub is her classroom. Maura didn’t only inherit a business, she inherited a tight-knit community. And when a tragedy strikes, it’s the talk of the pub. A local farmer, out for a stroll on the beach with his young son, has mysteriously disappeared. Did he drown? Kill himself? The child can say only that he saw a boat.

Everyone from the local gardai to the Coast Guard is scouring the Cork coast, but when a body is finally brought ashore, it’s the wrong man. An accidental drowning or something more sinister? Trusting the words of the boy and listening to the suspicions of her employee Mick that the missing farmer might have run afoul of smugglers, Maura decides to investigate the deserted coves and isolated inlets for herself. But this time she may be getting in over her head..." 

Title: Off the Books
Author: Lucy Arlington
Series: #5 in the Novel Idea cozy series set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9780425276679 
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The Novel Idea Literary Agency has planned a wedding-themed week for Inspiration Valley, celebrating not only North Carolina’s best vendors but also some of the agency’s most popular bridal books. The fact that Lila can use the event to plan her own impending nuptials is just the icing on the cake.

But wedding bells turn to warning bells when Lila finds a dead man facedown in the frosting. Soon it’s discovered that the victim was connected to several Novel Idea authors, all of whom quickly become suspects in the case. It’s up to Lila and her fellow agents to find the real killer before one of their clients winds up scribbling stories from behind bars..."  

Title: Unreasonable Doubt
Author: Vicki Delany
Series: #8 in the Constable Molly Smith police procedural series set in British Columbia, Canada
ISBN: 9781464205132   
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 266 pages

Synopsis: "What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you? Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it. The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D’Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison―or dead. But for Trafalgar’s police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn’t kill Sophia, someone else did. So, case reopened. It lands on Winters’ desk. The records are moldering. One investigating officer is dead, the other is retired―and not talking. The police are instructed to treat Walt as if he’d never been arrested or convicted. Someone else apparently killed Sophia, someone still walking free. But too many minds remain closed. It’s good luck for Walt that a group of women in town for the dragon boat race are staying in the B&B where he’s booked, women with no local prejudices. But then a townswoman, then a boat woman, are attacked by a rapist, the media gets active, and tempers dangerously flare."  

Title: The Killing Forest
Author: Sara Blaedel
Series: #8 in the Louise Rick/Camilla Lind police procedural series set in Denmark
ISBN: 9781455581542  
Publisher: Grand Central 
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She's assigned a case involving a fifteen-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend's long-ago death . . . 

Louise's investigation takes her on a journey back through time. She reconnects with figures from her past, including Kim, the principal investigator at the Holbaek Police Department, her former in-laws, fanatic ancient religion believers, and her longtime close friend, journalist Camilla Lind. As she moves through the small town's cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets." 

Title: Murder at the Manor:Country House Mysteries

Editor: Martin Edwards

Standalone

ISBN: 9781464205736

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Paperback, 384 pages

Synopsis: "The English country house is an iconic setting for some of the greatest British crime fiction. This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic ‘closed circle’ plot, in which the assorted guests at a country house party become suspects when a crime is committed. In the more sinister tales featured here, a gloomy mansion set in lonely grounds offers an eerie backdrop for dark deeds.

Many distinguished writers are represented in this collection, including such great names of the genre as Anthony Berkeley, Nicholas Blake and G.K. Chesterton. Martin Edwards has also unearthed hidden gems and forgotten masterpieces: among them are a fine send-up of the country house murder; a suspenseful tale by the unaccountably neglected Ethel Lina White; and a story by the little-known Scottish writer J.J. Bell." 

=== February 9 ===

Title: Runaway

Author: Peter May

Standalone set in Glasgow and London

ISBN: 9781623657895

Publisher: Quercus

Hardcover, 432 pages

Synopsis: "Glasgow, 1965. Headstrong teenager Jack Mackay cannot allow for even the possibility of a life of predictability and routine. The seventeen-year-old has just one destination on his mind--London--and successfully convinces his four friends, and fellow bandmates, to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom.

Glasgow, 2015. Jack Mackay dares not look back on a life of failure and mediocrity. The heavy-hearted sixty-seven-year-old is still haunted by what might have been. His recollections of the terrible events that befell him and his friends some fifty years earlier, and how he did not act when it mattered most is a memory he has tried to escape his entire adult life.

London, 2015. A man lies dead in a one-room flat. His killer looks on, remorseless. What started with five teenagers following a dream five decades before has been transformed over the intervening decades into a waking nightmare that might just consume them all.

Runaway is a tense crime thriller spanning a half-century of friendships solidified and severed, dreams shared and shattered, passions ignited and extinguished, all set against the backdrop of two unique cities at two unique and transformational periods of recent history." 

=== February 16 ===

Title: The Quality of Silence
Author: Rosamund Lupton
Standalone, Psychological Thriller set in Alaska
ISBN: 9781101903674
Publisher: Crown
Hardcover, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric, The Quality of Silence is the story of Yasmin, a beautiful astrophysicist, and her precocious deaf daughter, Ruby, who arrive in a remote part of Alaska to be told that Ruby's father, Matt, has been the victim of a catastrophic accident. Unable to accept his death as truth, Yasmin and Ruby set out into the hostile winter of the Alaskan tundra in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realizes that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them. And with no one else on the road to help, they must keep moving, alone and terrified, through an endless Alaskan night." 

Title: The Widow
Author: Fiona Barton
Standalone Psychological Thriller set in England
ISBN: 9781101990261
Publisher: NAL
Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...

But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.

There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.

The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…" 

Title: Apricot's Revenge
Author: Song Ying
Standalone Thriller about an investigative journalist set in China
ISBN: 9781250016447
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "A business tycoon in China is found dead; he apparently suffered a heart attack while swimming. His body is washed onto a beach in a popular resort known as the Hawaii of the East. But soon it becomes clear that he was murdered. Three immediate beneficiaries of his death become the suspects: the vice president of the company, Zhou, who is in line to take over his position; his young widow, Zhu, who stands to inherit a huge amount of wealth; and his arch business rival, Hong, who is competing in a bid over a piece of hot property.

Nie Feng, a young investigative reporter for a magazine, interviewed the victim just a few days before he died. Through his own research, Nie Feng discovers a new suspect who is not on the police’s radar.

Apricot’s Revenge is an absorbing detective novel and more. Song Ying uses an ingenious plot to investigate social problems in modern China, which makes the book a profound and captivating read, leaving readers thinking long after reaching the last page." 

Title: The Blood Strand
Author: Chris Ould
Series: #1 Faroes novel, a police procedural set in the Faroes Islands
ISBN: 9781783297047
Publisher: Titan Books
Paperback, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Having left the Faroes as a child, Jan Reyna is now a British police detective, and the islands are foreign to him. But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Then a man’s body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna’s father responsible?

Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother’s flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good." 

Title: The Silence of the Sea
Author: Yrsa Sigurđardóttir
Series: #6 in the lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series set in Iceland
ISBN: 9781250051486
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "As The Silence of the Sea opens, a luxury yacht crashes into a Reykjavik pier. But the boat is empty; no one is on board. What has happened to the crew? And what has happened to the family who were very much present when the yacht left Lisbon?

What should Thora Gudmundsdottir, the series sleuth, make of the rumors that the vessel was cursed? She is spooked even more when she boards the yacht and thinks she sees one of the missing children. Where is Karitas, the glamorous young wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore?" 



There's a little something for everyone in this month's choices, isn't there? I have to admit that the one I'm most excited about is Stan Jones' Tundra Kill. It's been seven long years since his last Nathan Active book, and that's much too long for this excellent series that really gives you a feel for the culture and the landscape of the Arctic. 

Which titles caught your eye? Inquiring minds need to know these things!