Series: #2 in the Agnes Lüthi police procedural series set in Switzerland.
Series: #10 in the Alafair Tucker historical mystery series set in 1918 Oklahoma.
Series: #11 in the Ava Lee series featuring a Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant whose work is based in Hong Kong.
400 pages.
Uncle Chang asks Ava to fly to Manila to meet with his friend, Senator Miguel Ramirez. Ramirez asks Ava to investigate a college in Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the Philippines, which he suspects is training terrorists. Ava’s investigation leads to a partnership with a CIA agent, and together they attempt to stop an international plot, horrific in size and scope, only to have it turn on them. Ava’s judgment and morals — which Uncle helped her forge — are tested like never before."
Title: Force of Nature
Series: #2 in the Aaron Falk police procedural series set in Australia.
336 pages
Synopsis: "
When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.
But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?"
=== February 8 ===
Title: Death & the Viking's Daughter
Series: #4 in the Auction Block cozy series set in Missouri.
288 pages
Synopsis: "
Auctioneer Wren Morgan and her private eye fiancé Death (pronounced "Deeth") Bogart are ready to meet each other's parents and settle down together. But their sleuthing days are far from over. While Death and Wren are helping prepare auction items at an old supper club, a Viking reenactor nearly dies at the historical settlement next door. The cause? Seeing the ghost of his daughter, who went missing twenty years ago.
As Wren looks into what happened to the Viking's daughter, Death is hired to investigate the theft of historical items that have high sentimental value. When their respective investigations turn out to be connected, the couple gets caught in a deadly conflict."
Title: The Dark Angel
Series: #10 in the Dr. Ruth Galloway series set in Italy.
368 pages
*UK Release
Synopsis: "
Dr. Ruth Galloway is flattered when she receives a letter from Italian archaeologist Dr. Angelo Morelli, asking for her help. He's discovered a group of bones in a tiny hilltop village near Rome but doesn't know what to make of them. It's years since Ruth has had a holiday, and even a working holiday to Italy is very welcome!
So Ruth travels to Castello degli Angeli, accompanied by her daughter Kate and friend Shona. In the town she finds a baffling Roman mystery and a dark secret involving the war years and the Resistance. To her amazement she also soon finds Harry Nelson, with Cathbad in tow. But there is no time to overcome their mutual shock - the ancient bones spark a modern murder, and Ruth must discover what secrets there are in Castello degli Angeli that someone would kill to protect."
===February 13 ===
Title: The Cat of the Baskervilles
Series: #3 in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop cozy series set on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Legendary stage and movie star Sir Nigel Bellingham arrives on Cape Cod to star in a stage production of The Hound of the Baskervilles put on by the West London Theater Festival. When Sir Nigel, some of the cast, and the director visit the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop at 222 Baker Street, Gemma Doyle realizes that Sir Nigel is not at all suited to the role. He is long past his prime and an old drunk to boot.
The cast, in particular the much younger actor who previously had the role, are not happy, but the show must go on.
Before the play opens, Leslie Wilson, mother of Gemma’s best friend Jayne, arranges a fundraising afternoon tea to be catered by Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room. The tea is a huge success, but when it’s time to leave, Sir Nigel has gone missing―only to be found at the bottom of the rocky cliff, dead. Along with the dead body, Gemma finds evidence incriminating Leslie Wilson. When the police, in the presence of handsome detective Ryan Ashburton and suspicious detective Louise Estrada, focus their attention on Leslie despite the numerous other suspects, the game is once again afoot and it’s again up to the highly perceptive Gemma and the ever-confused but loyal Jayne to clear Jayne’s mother’s name."
Title: A Dangerous Crossing
Series: #4 in the Esa Khattak & Rachel Getty police procedural series set in various European countries.
352 pages
Synopsis: "
For Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty, the Syrian refugee crisis is about to become personal. Esa’s childhood friend, Nathan Clare, calls him in distress: his sister, Audrey, has vanished from a Greek island where the siblings run an NGO. Audrey had been working to fast-track refugees to Canada, but now, she is implicated in the double-murder of a French Interpol agent and a young man who had fled the devastation in Syria.
Esa and Rachel arrive in Greece to a shocking scene, witnessing for themselves the massive fallout of the Syrian war in the wretched refugee camps. Tracing Audrey’s last movements, they meet some of the volunteers and refugees―one of whom, Ali, is involved in a search of his own, for a girl whose disappearance may be connected to their investigation. The arrival of Sehr Ghilzai―a former prosecutor who now handles refugee claims for Audrey’s NGO―further complicates the matter for Esa, as his feelings towards her remain unresolved.
Working against time, with Interpol at their heels, Esa and Rachel follow a trail that takes them from the beaches of Greece to the Turkish–Syrian border, and across Europe, reaching even the corridors of power in the Netherlands. Had Audrey been on the edge of a dangerous discovery, hidden at the heart of this darkest of crises―one which ultimately put a target on her own back?"
=== February 20 ===
Title: The Tuscan Child
Standalone set in Italy.
352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.
Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father’s history—and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that some would prefer the past be left undisturbed, but she has come too far to let go of her father’s secrets now…"
=== February 27 ===
Title: The Pajama Frame
Series: #5 in the Madison Night cozy series set in Texas.
268 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "
Interior decorator Madison Night is no stranger to the occasional odd inheritance. But when an octogenarian friend dies and leaves her a pajama factory, the bounty is bittersweet.
Once a thriving business, Sweet Dreams closed decades ago after a tragic accident took the life of a young model. Or was that simply a cover-up?
Between her friend’s death and her own stagnant life, Madison is tempted to hide under a blanket of willful ignorance.
But when family members and special interest groups lobby to expose the secrets of the factory, Madison gets caught in a tangle of secrets and lies and discovers that sometimes, the bed you make is not your own."
Title: I Know What You Bid Last Summer
Series: #5 in the Garage Sale cozy series set in Massachusetts.
320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "When it comes to running a successful garage sale, Sarah Winston believes in doing her homework. She also believes in giving back. But when she agrees to manage an athletic equipment swap, she doesn't bargain on an uncharitable killer. The day of the event, the school superintendent is found dead in the gymnasium.
Suddenly the murder suspects are the school board members—including the husband of a very difficult client who's hired Sarah to run a high-end sale and demands she do her bidding. In between tagging and haggling, Sarah studies the clues to see who wanted to teach the superintendent a lesson. But as she closes in on the truth, the killer intends to give her a crash course on minding her own business . . ."
I think you'll agree with me that February is a strong month for new mysteries. I'm especially pleased that two of my favorite British authors-- Kate Ellis and Elly Griffiths-- have new books out.
Book I'm looking forward to the most? The Dark Angel. Ruth Galloway in Italy? Count me in! Most striking cover? I'd have to make a choice between Force of Nature, Forty Dead Men, and The Dark Angel, and I think the nod would go to Force of Nature.
What say all of you? Which titles are you looking forward to the most? Inquiring minds would love to know!
