I had this post 33% complete when it simply vanished. I still don't know what I did to make it disappear. I almost shut everything down so I could pick up the very good book that I've been reading, but I'm stubborn. I at least wanted to get this back to where it was before it disappeared. So I started again and the formatting went haywire. Therefore, this is my third attempt. Fasten your seatbelts. This may get ugly!
The following list contains my picks for the best new crime fiction being released throughout the month of June. I have them grouped according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Did I choose any titles that are already on your own wish lists? Did I choose any that new-to-you titles that you just couldn't resist? Now's the time to find out!
=== June 1 ===
Title: The Bombay Prince
Author: Sujata Massey
Series: #3 in the Perveen Mistry historical series set in 1920s Bombay, India.
360 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Bombay’s first female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring
justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as
Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule. Sujata
Massey is back with this third installment to the Agatha and Mary
Higgins Clark Award-winning series set in 1920s Bombay.
November 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a fourmonth tour. The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn’t surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. But she’s horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college.
Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident. Feeling guilty for failing to have helped Freny in life, Perveen steps forward to assist Freny’s family in the fraught dealings of the coroner’s inquest. When Freny’s death appears suspicious, Perveen knows she can’t rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger?"
November 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a fourmonth tour. The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn’t surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. But she’s horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college.
Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident. Feeling guilty for failing to have helped Freny in life, Perveen steps forward to assist Freny’s family in the fraught dealings of the coroner’s inquest. When Freny’s death appears suspicious, Perveen knows she can’t rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger?"
Title: On Skein of Death
Author: Allie Pleiter
Series: #1 in the Riverbank Knitting cozy series set in Maryland.
304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Libby has come home to Collinstown, Maryland to live her dream and open
her own yarn shop, aptly named Y.A.R.N., along the Chester River. To
Libby, Y.A.R.N. stands for "You're Absolutely Ready Now." But the
acronym changes whenever inspiration strikes, and customers add to the
list of suggestions that fill the blackboard wall in a shop stuffed with
color, fiber, and comfort.
Libby is thrilled when she lands famous Norwegian knitting celebrity Perle Langager for a series of events at Y.A.R.N. Libby's English bulldog, Hank, has been modeling one of Perle's doggie sweaters, and customers just can't wait to see Perle in action. The mayor of Collinstown even decrees a Collinstown Yarn Day to celebrate. But once Perle arrives in town, she seems distracted and on edge. And when she's found strangled with a skein of red yarn, Libby knows she has to solve a knotty mystery before her new life unravels."
Libby is thrilled when she lands famous Norwegian knitting celebrity Perle Langager for a series of events at Y.A.R.N. Libby's English bulldog, Hank, has been modeling one of Perle's doggie sweaters, and customers just can't wait to see Perle in action. The mayor of Collinstown even decrees a Collinstown Yarn Day to celebrate. But once Perle arrives in town, she seems distracted and on edge. And when she's found strangled with a skein of red yarn, Libby knows she has to solve a knotty mystery before her new life unravels."
Title: The Mystic's Accomplice
Author: Mary Miley
Series: #1 in the Mystic's Accomplice historical series set in 1920s Chicago.
224 pages
Synopsis: "It's 1924, and Maddie Pastore has it made. A nice house, a loving husband with a steady job - even if it is
connected to Chicago's violent Torrio-Capone gang - and a baby on the
way. But then Tommy is shot dead, and she learns her husband had a
secret that turns her life upside down.
Penniless and grieving, Maddie is only sure of two things: that she will survive for the sake of her baby, and that she'll never turn to the mob for help. So when she's invited to assist a well-meaning but fraudulent medium, she seizes the chance. She's not proud of her work investigating Madam Carlotta's clients, but she's proud of how well she does it.
When Maddie unearths potential evidence of a dark crime, however, she faces a terrible dilemma: keep quiet and let a murderer go unpunished, or follow the trail and put herself and her baby in mortal danger . . ."
Penniless and grieving, Maddie is only sure of two things: that she will survive for the sake of her baby, and that she'll never turn to the mob for help. So when she's invited to assist a well-meaning but fraudulent medium, she seizes the chance. She's not proud of her work investigating Madam Carlotta's clients, but she's proud of how well she does it.
When Maddie unearths potential evidence of a dark crime, however, she faces a terrible dilemma: keep quiet and let a murderer go unpunished, or follow the trail and put herself and her baby in mortal danger . . ."
Title: Forest of Secrets
Author: Fiona Buckley
Series: #19 in the Ursula Blanchard historical series set in Elizabethan England.
240 pages
Synopsis: "May, 1586. Ursula and her retinue return home from a lengthy
trip to discover she has an unexpected visitor. Etheldreda Hope is a
simple countrywoman who has come to Ursula with disturbing tales of
strange goings-on in her rural village. Fearing that Etheldreda's
reports of mysterious forest rites indicate a possible conspiracy to
overthrow Queen Elizabeth in favour of her cousin, Mary Stuart, the
queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, orders Ursula to travel to
Etheldreda's home to find out what's really going on.
On reaching Chenston village, deep in the New Forest, Ursula discovers an isolated, suspicious community; the locals deeply in thrall to the old pagan traditions and beliefs. But are these ancient customs harmless - or are they part of a genuine conspiracy against the queen? And, if so, who is behind it?
It's not until the night of Halloween that Ursula will discover the shocking truth."
On reaching Chenston village, deep in the New Forest, Ursula discovers an isolated, suspicious community; the locals deeply in thrall to the old pagan traditions and beliefs. But are these ancient customs harmless - or are they part of a genuine conspiracy against the queen? And, if so, who is behind it?
It's not until the night of Halloween that Ursula will discover the shocking truth."
=== June 8 ===
Title: A Rogue's Company
Author: Allison Montclair (pseudonym of Alan Gordon)
Series: #3 in the Sparks & Bainbridge historical series set in post-World War II England.
352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In London, 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is getting on its feet
and expanding. Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are making
a go of it. That is until Lord Bainbridge―the widowed Gwen's
father-in-law and legal guardian―returns from a business trip to Africa
and threatens to undo everything important to her, even sending her
six-year-old son away to a boarding school.
But there's more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter―and now their very survival is at stake."
But there's more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter―and now their very survival is at stake."
=== June 22 ===
Title: Suburban Dicks
Author: Fabian Nicieza
Standalone Thriller set in New Jersey
400 pages
Synopsis: "From the cocreator of Deadpool comes a hilariously
entertaining debut featuring two unlikely and unforgettable amateur
sleuths. An engrossing and entertaining murder mystery full of skewering
social commentary, Suburban Dicks examines the racial tensions exposed in a New Jersey suburb after the murder of a gas station attendant.
Andie Stern thought she'd solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station--and stumbles across a murder scene. An attendant has been killed, and the bumbling local cops are in way over their heads. Suddenly, Andie is obsessed with the case, and back on the trail of a killer, this time with kids in tow.
She soon crosses paths with disgraced local journalist Kenneth Lee, who also has everything to prove in solving the case. A string of unusual occurrences--and, eventually, body parts--surface around town, and Andie and Kenneth uncover simmering racial tensions and a decades-old conspiracy. Hilarious, insightful, and a killer whodunit, Suburban Dicks is the one-of-a-kind mystery that readers will not be able to stop talking about."
Andie Stern thought she'd solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station--and stumbles across a murder scene. An attendant has been killed, and the bumbling local cops are in way over their heads. Suddenly, Andie is obsessed with the case, and back on the trail of a killer, this time with kids in tow.
She soon crosses paths with disgraced local journalist Kenneth Lee, who also has everything to prove in solving the case. A string of unusual occurrences--and, eventually, body parts--surface around town, and Andie and Kenneth uncover simmering racial tensions and a decades-old conspiracy. Hilarious, insightful, and a killer whodunit, Suburban Dicks is the one-of-a-kind mystery that readers will not be able to stop talking about."
Title: Teacher's Threat
Author: Diane Vallere
Series: #8 in the Madison Night cozy series set in Texas
260 pages
Synopsis: "A professor murdered during office hours. A decorator enrolled in his
course. Can she outsmart the killer who designed the perfect crime?
Madison Night just learned that business isn’t sexy. She modeled her
decorating career on a Doris Day movie, but after losing her company in a
legal battle, the local banks are unimpressed with her unique sales
angle. Determined to get her MBA, she attends night school – until her
professor is found dead after an intensely-heated lecture. Now the only
degree she can think about is murder in the first. While the college
recovers, Madison’s last hope for a loan is denied. The dean resumes the
coursework himself, and Madison can’t help wondering if the curriculum
holds the clues to the murder. Continuing her education is not without
risk; pursuing her MBA may leave her DOA. Can Madison’s sleuthing make
the grade or will failure be a fatal lesson?"
=== June 29 ===
Title: The Night Hawks
Author: Elly Griffiths
Series: #13 in the Dr. Ruth Galloway police procedural series set in England
368 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Ruth is back as head of archaeology at the University of North Norfolk
when a group of local metal detectorists—the so-called Night
Hawks—uncovers Bronze Age artifacts on the beach, alongside a recently
deceased body, just washed ashore. Not long after, the same detectorists
uncover a murder-suicide—a scientist and his wife found at their
farmhouse, long thought to be haunted by the Black Shuck, a humongous
black dog, a harbinger of death. The further DCI Nelson probes into both
cases, the more intertwined they become, and the closer they circle to
David Brown, the new lecturer Ruth has recently hired, who seems always
to turn up wherever Ruth goes."
Title: The Keepers
Author: Jeffrey B. Burton
Series: #2 in the Mace Reid K-9 mysteries set in Chicago
288 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Mason “Mace” Reid lives on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in
human remains detection―that is, he trains dogs to hunt for dead bodies.
He calls his pack of cadaver dogs The Finders, and his prize pupil is a
golden retriever named Vira.
When Mace Reid and Vira are called in to search Washington Park at three o'clock in the morning, what they find has them running for their very lives. The trail of murder and mayhem Mace and CPD Officer Kippy Gimm have been following leads them to uncover treachery and corruption at the highest level, and their discoveries do not bode well for them . . . nor for the Windy City itself.
The Keepers is an exciting, fast-paced mystery filled with courageous dogs you'll want to root for."
When Mace Reid and Vira are called in to search Washington Park at three o'clock in the morning, what they find has them running for their very lives. The trail of murder and mayhem Mace and CPD Officer Kippy Gimm have been following leads them to uncover treachery and corruption at the highest level, and their discoveries do not bode well for them . . . nor for the Windy City itself.
The Keepers is an exciting, fast-paced mystery filled with courageous dogs you'll want to root for."
Title: Bad Moon Rising
Author: John Galligan
Series: #3 in the Bad Axe County procedural series set in Wisconsin.
336 pages
Synopsis: "Sheriff Heidi Kick has a dead body on her hands, a homeless young man
last seen alive miles from the Bad Axe. Chillingly, the medical examiner
confirms what Sheriff Kick has been experiencing in her own reoccurring
nightmares of late: the victim was buried alive. As the relentless
summer heat bears down and more bodies are discovered, Sheriff Kick also
finds herself embroiled in a nasty reelection campaign. These days her
detractors call her “Sheriff Mommy”—KICK HER OUT holler the opposition’s
campaign signs—and as her family troubles become public, vicious rumors
threaten to sway the electorate and derail her investigation.
Enter Vietnam veteran Leroy Fanta, editor-in-chief of the local paper who believes Heidi’s strange case might be tied to a reclusive man writing deranged letters to the opinions section for years. With his heart and liver on their last legs, Fanta drums up his old journalistic instincts in one last effort to help Heidi find a lead in her case, or at least a good story..."
Enter Vietnam veteran Leroy Fanta, editor-in-chief of the local paper who believes Heidi’s strange case might be tied to a reclusive man writing deranged letters to the opinions section for years. With his heart and liver on their last legs, Fanta drums up his old journalistic instincts in one last effort to help Heidi find a lead in her case, or at least a good story..."
Title: Little Black Book
Author: Kate Carlisle
Series: #15 in the Bibliophile cozy series set in Scotland
384 pages
Synopsis: "Brooklyn and her hunky husband, security expert Derek Stone, have just
returned from a delightful trip to Dharma, where the construction of
their new home away from home is well underway, when a little black book
arrives in the mail from Scotland. The book is a rare British first
edition of Rebecca, and there’s no return address on the package. The
day after the book arrives, Claire Quinn shows up at Brooklyn and
Derek’s home. Brooklyn met Claire when the two women worked as expert
appraisers on the television show This Old Attic. Brooklyn appraised
books on the show and Claire’s expertise was in antique British
weaponry, but they bonded over their shared love of gothic novels.
Claire reveals that during a recent trip to Scotland she discovered her beloved aunt was missing and her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt’s belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt’s are in danger and worries that her past may be coming back to haunt her.
But just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered, stabbed with a priceless jeweled dagger. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek page through the little black book, where they discover clues that will take them to the shadows of a medieval Scottish castle on the shores of Loch Ness. Under the watchful gaze of a mysterious laird and the irascible villagers who are suspicious of the strangers in their midst, Brooklyn and Derek must decode the secrets in Rebecca to keep their friend’s past from destroying their future...."
Claire reveals that during a recent trip to Scotland she discovered her beloved aunt was missing and her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt’s belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt’s are in danger and worries that her past may be coming back to haunt her.
But just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered, stabbed with a priceless jeweled dagger. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek page through the little black book, where they discover clues that will take them to the shadows of a medieval Scottish castle on the shores of Loch Ness. Under the watchful gaze of a mysterious laird and the irascible villagers who are suspicious of the strangers in their midst, Brooklyn and Derek must decode the secrets in Rebecca to keep their friend’s past from destroying their future...."
Title: Survive the Night
Author: Riley Sager
Standalone Thriller set "on the road"
336 pages
Synopsis: "It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House,
Nirvana's in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie
Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
What follows is a game of cat and mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing—survive the night."
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
What follows is a game of cat and mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing—survive the night."
Good gravy, talk about a bumper crop of new books-- I don't know which one I'm the most excited about! Of course, there's Elly Griffiths, The Night Hawks-- I love Dr. Ruth Galloway-- but there's also a new Perveen Mistry to take me to 1920s India, and a new Sparks & Bainbridge (I'm so glad I discovered the face behind the Allison Montclair pseudonym), and a new Madison Night, and a new Riley Sager to keep me up at night, and... whew!
Which ones are you most excited about reading? Inquiring minds would love to know! (By the way, the third time was a charm. I finished this post without further mishap. Now I can pick up that book and dive in!)
