Now that I'm spending more time in the house, I keep getting sidetracked by chores and my reading has slacked off like it always does. But that doesn't mean that I've stopped keeping my eyes peeled for new mysteries. No indeed! If my wish list goes below 200 books, I start feeling jittery.
I'm sharing a baker's dozen of my picks from November's new crop of crime fiction. I've sorted them by release date, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite "book procurement" locations. Synopses are courtesy of my favorite showroom, Amazon. Also-- stay tuned for my upcoming picks for new Christmas themed mysteries. (Hey! At least I'm waiting until November!)
Happy Reading, fellow bibliophiles!
=== November 3 ===
Title: The Burning Room
Author: Michael Connelly
Series: #19 in the Harry Bosch police procedural series set in Los Angeles
ISBN: 9780316225939
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, 400 pages
Synopsis: "In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other clues are virtually nonexistent. Even a veteran cop would find this one tough going, but Bosch's new partner, Detective Lucia Soto, has no homicide experience. A young star in the department, Soto has been assigned to Bosch so that he can pass on to her his hard-won expertise.
Author: Michael Connelly
Series: #19 in the Harry Bosch police procedural series set in Los Angeles
ISBN: 9780316225939
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, 400 pages
Synopsis: "In the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other clues are virtually nonexistent. Even a veteran cop would find this one tough going, but Bosch's new partner, Detective Lucia Soto, has no homicide experience. A young star in the department, Soto has been assigned to Bosch so that he can pass on to her his hard-won expertise.
Now
Bosch and Soto are tasked with solving a murder that turns out to be
highly charged and politically sensitive. Beginning with the bullet that
has been lodged for years in the victim's spine, they must pull new
leads from years-old evidence, and these soon reveal that the shooting
was anything but random.
As their investigation
picks up speed, it leads to another unsolved case with even greater
stakes: the deaths of several children in a fire that occurred twenty
years ago. But when their work starts to threaten careers and lives,
Bosch and Soto must decide whether it is worth risking everything to
find the truth, or if it's safer to let some secrets stay buried."
=== November 4 ===
Title: Lethal Letters
Author: Ellery Adams
Series: #6 in the Books by the Bay cozy series set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9780425270837
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Everyone’s got their hands full in Oyster Bay, North Carolina. Aside
from two upcoming weddings, there’s also the historical society’s annual
fund-raiser: the Secret Garden Party and Candlelit Ball. Adding to the
excitement, Olivia witnesses the discovery of a time capsule in the
foundation of a local church. The historical society president hopes to
display its contents at their party, but when the items are finally
revealed to the public, Olivia notices one of them has vanished.
After a frightening find beneath the pier—the body of Ruthie Holcomb—Olivia is certain there’s a connection between the young woman’s death and the missing piece from the time capsule. With the help of her fellow Bayside Book Writers, Olivia sets out to uncover some clues and ensure a killer has no reason to celebrate…"
After a frightening find beneath the pier—the body of Ruthie Holcomb—Olivia is certain there’s a connection between the young woman’s death and the missing piece from the time capsule. With the help of her fellow Bayside Book Writers, Olivia sets out to uncover some clues and ensure a killer has no reason to celebrate…"
Title: Risky Undertaking
Author: Mark de Castrique
Series: #6 in the Buryin' Barry series set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9781464203060
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 300 pages
Synopsis: "When Cherokee burial remains are unearthed on the site expanding a local
cemetery, the dual occupations of Barry Clayton, part-time deputy and
full-time undertaker, collide. Then, during the interment of the wife of
one of Gainesboro, North Carolina’s most prominent citizens, Cherokee
activist Jimmy Panther leads a protest. Words and ¬ fists fly. When
Panther turns up executed on the grave of the deceased woman, Barry is
forced to confront her family as the chief suspects. But the case
lurches in a new direction with the arrival of Sheriff Tommy Lee
Wadkin’s Army pal, Boston cop Kevin Malone. He’s on the trail of a
Boston hit man who arrived at the Cherokee reservation only days before
the murder. Malone is convinced his quarry is the triggerman. But who
paid him? And why? The accelerating investigation draws Barry onto the
reservation where Panther’s efforts to preserve Cherokee traditions
threatened the development of a new casino, a casino bringing millions
of dollars of construction plus huge yearly payouts to every member of
the tribe. Leading an unlikely team —his childhood nemesis Archie
Donovan and his elderly fellow undertaker Uncle Wayne—Barry goes
undercover. But the stakes are higher than he realized in this risky
undertaking. And the life of a Cherokee boy becomes the wager. Barry
must play his cards very carefully…"
Title: For the Dead
Author: Timothy Hallinan
Series: #6 in the Poke Rafferty series set in Thailand
ISBN: 9781616951146
Publisher: Soho Crime
Hardcover, 352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "After seven years in Bangkok, American travel writer Poke Rafferty
finally feels settled: his family is about to grow larger, and his
adopted Thai daughter, Miaow, seems to have found her place at junior
high school at last. All that is endangered when Miaow helps her
boyfriend buy a stolen iPhone that contains photographs of two murdered
police officers. As Miaow’s carefully constructed personal life falls
apart, Rafferty discovers that the murders are part of a conspiracy that
reaches the top rungs of Bangkok law enforcement and beyond. Miaow’s
discovery threatens the entire family, and in order to survive, they may
ultimately have to depend on someone who has betrayed them in the past."
Title: On Borrowed Time
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Series: #5 in the Library Lover's cozy series set in Connecticut
ISBN: 9780425260739
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Between preparing the library for the holidays and juggling the
affections of ex-boyfriend, Captain Mike Sullivan, and her new crush,
actor Robbie Vine, Lindsey has her hands full. But the mysterious
disappearance of her world-traveling playboy brother takes precedence
over all.
Afraid that involving the police could brew trouble for Jack, Lindsey takes matters into her own hands. But as her quest for her brother embroils her in a strange case involving South American business dealings and an enigmatic and exotic woman, it’ll take the help of both her library book club—the crafternooners—and her eager-to-please suitors to keep Jack from ending up in hot water…"
Afraid that involving the police could brew trouble for Jack, Lindsey takes matters into her own hands. But as her quest for her brother embroils her in a strange case involving South American business dealings and an enigmatic and exotic woman, it’ll take the help of both her library book club—the crafternooners—and her eager-to-please suitors to keep Jack from ending up in hot water…"
Title: Plagued by Quilt
Author: Molly MacRae
Series: #4 in the Haunted yarn Shop cozy series set in Tennessee
ISBN: 9780451471307
Publisher: Signet
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Synopsis: "Kath and her needlework group TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) are
preparing to teach a workshop at the Holston Homeplace Living History
Farm, but their lesson in crazy quilts is no match for the crazy antics
of the assistant director, Phillip Bell. Hamming it up with equal parts
history and histrionics, Phillip leads an archaeological dig of the
farm’s original dump site—until one student stops the show by uncovering
some human bones.
When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can’t help but wonder if it’s somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it’s up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history."
When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can’t help but wonder if it’s somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it’s up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history."
Title: Suede to Rest
Author: Diane Vallere
Series: #1 in the Material Witness cozy series set in California
ISBN: 9780425270578
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "When Poly Monroe was little, she loved playing in her family’s textile
store. But after a fatal family tragedy, Land of A Thousand Fabrics was
boarded up and Poly never expected to see the inside again. Now, as
inheritor of the long-shuttered shop, she’s ready to restore the family
business. However her two new kittens, Pins and Needles, aren’t the ones
causing a snag in her plans…
Not everyone wants Poly back in San Ladrón, especially a powerful local developer pressuring her to sell—and leave town fast. But even when the threats turn deadly, she’s not ready to bolt. Because Poly is beginning to suspect that the murder behind the shop is tied to a mystery in her family’s unsettled past that she’s determined to solve…before her own life is left hanging by a thread."
Not everyone wants Poly back in San Ladrón, especially a powerful local developer pressuring her to sell—and leave town fast. But even when the threats turn deadly, she’s not ready to bolt. Because Poly is beginning to suspect that the murder behind the shop is tied to a mystery in her family’s unsettled past that she’s determined to solve…before her own life is left hanging by a thread."
Title: The Fourth Secret
Author: Andrea Camilleri
Series: a digital short story that's part of the Inspector Salvo Montalbano police procedural series set in Sicily
eISBN: 9781497686465
Publisher: Mondadori
Digital Short Story, 77 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "There have been six events euphemistically called “tragedies in the
workplace” in the past month. Six deaths caused by an inexplicable
disregard for safety regulations. When the local magistrate opens an
investigation, Inspector Montalbano is on the case. But Montalbano soon
discovers that these seemingly unrelated incidents are only part of a
larger network of crimes."
Title: Bad Country
Author: C.B. McKenzie
Debut mystery, winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize
ISBN: 9781250053541
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 304 pages
Synopsis: "Rodeo Grace Garnet lives with his old dog in a remote corner of Arizona known to locals as El Hoyo.
He doesn't get many visitors in The Hole, but a body found near his
home has drawn police attention to his front door. The victim is not one
of the many undocumented immigrants who risk their lives to cross the
border in Rodeo's harsh and deadly "backyard," but a member of a major
Southwestern Indian tribe, whose death is part of a mysterious rompecabeza—a
classic crime puzzler—that includes multiple murders, cold-blooded
betrayals, and low-down scheming, with Rodeo caught in the middle.
Retired
from the rodeo circuit and scraping by on piecework as a bounty hunter,
warrant server, and divorce snoop, Rodeo doesn't have much choice but
to say yes when offered an unusual case. An elderly Indian woman from
his own Reservation has hired him to help discover who murdered her
grandson, but she seems strangely uninterested in the results. Her
attitude seems heartless, but as Rodeo pursues interrelated cases, he
learns that the old woman's indifference is nothing compared to true
hatred, and aligned against a variety of creative and cruel foes, the
hard-pressed PI is about to discover just how far hate can go."
=== November 8 ===
Title: Tradition of Deceit
Author: Kathleen Ernst
Series: #5 in the Chloe Ellefson series set in 1980s Wisconsin
ISBN: 9780738740782
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Paperback, 360 pages
Synopsis: "Curator and occasional sleuth Chloe Ellefson is off to Minneapolis to help her friend Ariel with a monumental task. Ariel must write a proposal for a controversial and expensive restoration project: convert an abandoned flour mill, currently used as shelter by homeless people, into a museum. When a dead body is found stuffed into a grain chute, Chloe's attention turns from milling to murder.
Back in Milwaukee, Chloe's love interest Roelke has been slammed with the news that a fellow officer was shot and killed while on duty. Sifting through clues from both past and present, Chloe and Roelke discover dangerous secrets that put their lives—and their trust in each other—at risk."
Author: Kathleen Ernst
Series: #5 in the Chloe Ellefson series set in 1980s Wisconsin
ISBN: 9780738740782
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Paperback, 360 pages
Synopsis: "Curator and occasional sleuth Chloe Ellefson is off to Minneapolis to help her friend Ariel with a monumental task. Ariel must write a proposal for a controversial and expensive restoration project: convert an abandoned flour mill, currently used as shelter by homeless people, into a museum. When a dead body is found stuffed into a grain chute, Chloe's attention turns from milling to murder.
Back in Milwaukee, Chloe's love interest Roelke has been slammed with the news that a fellow officer was shot and killed while on duty. Sifting through clues from both past and present, Chloe and Roelke discover dangerous secrets that put their lives—and their trust in each other—at risk."
=== November 18 ===
Title: The Paris Winter
Author: Imogen Robertson
Standalone, Historical Suspense
ISBN: 9781250051837
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Hardcover, 368 pages
Synopsis: "Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint, and to
flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage
to escape, but Paris, she quickly realizes, is no place for a light
purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the
Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading
another cold Paris winter, she stumbles upon an opportunity when
Christian Morel engages her as a live-in companion to his beautiful
young sister, Sylvie.
Maud is overjoyed by her good fortune. With
a clean room, hot meals, and an umbrella to keep her dry, she is able
to hold her head high as she strolls the streets of Montmartre. No
longer hostage to poverty and hunger, Maud can at last devote herself to
her art.
But all is not as it seems. Christian and Sylvie, Maud
soon discovers, are not quite the darlings they pretend to be. Sylvie
has a secret addiction to opium and Christian has an ominous air of
intrigue. As this dark and powerful tale progresses, Maud is drawn
further into the Morels' world of elegant deception. Their secrets
become hers, and soon she is caught in a scheme of betrayal and revenge
that will plunge her into the darkness that waits beneath this
glittering city of light."
Title: The Murder of Harriet Krohn
Author: Karin Fossum
Series: #7 in the Inspector Konrad Sejer police procedural series set in Norway
ISBN: 9780544273399
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 256 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "On a wet, gray night in early November, Charlo Torp, a former gambler
who’s only recently kicked the habit, makes his way through the slush
to Harriet Krohn’s apartment, flowers in hand. Certain that paying off
his debt is the only path to starting a new life and winning his
daughter’s forgiveness, Charlo plans to rob the wealthy old woman’s
antique silver collection. What he doesn’t expect is for her to put up a
fight.
The following morning Harriet is found dead, her antique
silver missing, and the only clue Inspector Sejer and his team find in
the apartment is an abandoned bouquet. Charlo should feel relieved, but
he’s heard of Sejer’s amazing record — the detective has solved every
case he’s ever been assigned to.
Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterward?"
Everywhere he turns, Shan finds new secrets
that seem to lead to the last agonizing chapter of his life. Shan must
make a final desperate effort to uncover the Commission's terrible
secrets whose painful truth could change Shan’s life - and possibly that
of many Tibetans - forever."
Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterward?"
=== November 25 ===
Title: Soul of the Fire
Author: Eliot Pattison
Series: #8 in the Inspector Shan Tao Yun series set in Tibet
ISBN: 9780312656034
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 304 pages
Synopsis: "When Shan Tao Yun and his old friend Lokesh are abruptly dragged away by
Public Security, he is convinced that their secret, often illegal,
support of struggling Tibetans has brought their final ruin. But his
fear turns to confusion as he discovers he has been chosen to fill a
vacancy on a special international commission investigating Tibetan
suicides. Soon he finds that his predecessor was murdered, and when a
monk sets himself on fire in front of the commissioners he realizes that
the Commission is being used as a tool to whitewash Tibet’s
self-immolation protests as acts of crime and terrorism. Shan faces an
impossible dilemma when the Public Security officer who runs the
Commission, Major Ren, orders the imprisoned Lokesh beaten to coerce
Shan into following Beijing’s script for the Commission. He has no
choice but to become part of the hated machine that is devouring Tibet,
but when he discovers that the most recent immolation was actually
another murder, he realizes the Commission itself is riddled with crime
and intrigue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well-- those are my picks for November. Several old favorites like Hallinan, Fossum, and Camilleri, but I have to admit that from the newcomers, I'm really looking forward to C.B. McKenzie's Bad Country.
How about you? Are you looking forward to any of these books? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!
