The Sans Pareil Mystery by Karen Charlton

First Line: "Me Ma says send a constable! Quick!"

The death of the young actress April Clare has Detective Stephen Lavender and his partner Constable Woods discovering that nothing is as it seems in London's Sans Pareil Theatre.

It's 1810, and the Napoleonic War blazes on the other side of the Channel. Spies are a real concern. As Lavender and Woods follow clues from Covent Garden through to the upper ranks of society, they begin to wonder if this case is much bigger than they'd imagined.

This follow-up to the first Detective Lavender mystery, The Heiress of Linn Hagh, is set in an actual theatre of the time that was run by a woman. And speaking of women, Lavender's love interest, the beautiful Spanish Magdalena, plays a much more important role in this book-- both as lover and in having her share of the action. In that day attitudes towards Catholics generally were not at all sympathetic, especially the opinions of people in authority. If Lavender marries Magdalena, it could be a career-ending (or at least -limiting) move. It will be interesting to see how Charlton deals with this in future books.

The pacing of The Sans Pareil Mystery tends to be slow until just before the end when all the pieces of the puzzle start coming together. It's a solid entry in this fledgling series and holds a great deal of promise for the future.

The Sans Pareil Mystery by Karen Charlton

eISBN: 9781503947825

Thomas and Mercer © 2015

eBook, 336 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Detective Lavender mystery

Rating: B

Source: the author 

The Missing Heiress by Karen Charlton

First Line: The two-wheeled hackney carriage sped down Mile End Road towards Whitechapel, weaving in and out of more sedate vehicles, farm carts and barrow boys.

Northumberland, England, November 1809. A young heiress has gone missing from her locked bedroom and is feared dead. While the townspeople are nodding and muttering about witchcraft, the local constable is baffled, and two of London's Bow Street Runners are sent for. What Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods stumble into are highwaymen, gypsies, surly farmers, and siblings who don't seem to care that Helen Carnaby is missing. It's obvious that there are many secrets swirling through the corridors of Linn Hagh, the ancient pele tower where the young woman lived and from which she disappeared. What isn't so obvious is what actually happened to her.

Based on actual events uncovered by work on her family history, Karen Charlton's The Missing Heiress is an absorbing glimpse into a Regency England far from London. Detective Stephen Lavender and his partner, Constable Woods, must deal with people who dislike any sign of authority-- farmers and gypsies-- and as they delve deeper into the facts of the case, they begin to understand why. I loved the way Lavender conducted his investigation and how he pieced the clues together. The comradery and humor he and Woods share is welcome relief from their dealings with suspicious townsfolk and supercilious gentry.

Although there was little doubt as to who instigated Helen Carnaby's disappearance and why, Charlton really made me wonder just how far those people would go to get what they wanted. All in all, a most satisfactory case for the detective, although I did have one small quibble.... In a very exciting scene at the beginning of the book, Detective Lavender comes in contact with a mysterious (and very attractive) Spanish woman. Yes, she did provide a bit of mystery and romantic interest, but I found this entire subplot unnecessary and distracting. Charlton hooked me with her eery, suspenseful tale and I didn't want to be pulled away from it for a second.

Now after seeing how Lavender and Woods can solve a case, I have only one thing to say: I want more!

The Missing Heiress by Karen Charlton

ISBN: 9781908483706

Knox Robinson Publishing © 2013

Hardcover, 376 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Detective Lavender mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the author 

Karen Charlton: Using Family History as a Framework for a Novel

Warning: The truth can be stranger than fiction! 

 If we are honest, most people who look into their family roots are not just hoping to discover where their ancestors came from but what they might have got up to. Nobody really believes that they will stumble across a forgotten "family pile" or an unclaimed inheritance, but the prospect of a bit of mystery or salacious gossip, and the odd skeleton in the cupboard does add spice to the search. And maybe, just maybe, somewhere amongst those generations of lost ancestors they may stumble across a story which is worth turning into a novel for a wider audience to enjoy.

My late husband and I shared a mutual interest in genealogy, and I was an aspiring historical novelist. I felt that I had won the jackpot when we shook our family tree and a convict fell out.
 
Back in 1810, hubby’s four x great-grandfather was convicted of Northumberland’s most notorious robbery:  £1,157 of rent money was stolen from the local manor house.  Our Jamie Charlton was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales, Australia.  But Jamie was not just any old criminal.  According to the judge at his trial, the mystery of the burglary at Kirkley Hall had never been properly solved.   Even by Regency standards Jamie’s conviction was dodgy, and there was a public outcry amongst the influential and literate middle-classes following the trial.  A subscription was raised to pay for his appeal and the case became a local cause célèbre.

We had uncovered a potential Regency miscarriage of justice and the perfect plot for a historical novel had just landed in my lap. 

We spent years researching the facts and minute details behind this story.  We found newspaper reports, transcripts of the trial and an eighteen penny pamphlet written about the case which was sold to raise money for Jamie’s appeal and to support his wife and five young children. Bit by bit, the story came together.  By January 2009, I had enough information to start writing the novel – and then the real hard work began.

Originally, I began Catching the Eagle with a scene where our impoverished ancestor asks for credit in a local haberdashery.  He is refused by the owner and thrown out of the shop.  I then went on to show him in conflict with his nemesis (the evil steward, Michael Aynsley) and arguing with his wife about their dire financial situation. All these incidents were based on fact and the dialogue between the characters discussed events which we had meticulously researched.  I thought that they established the main characters, highlighted the poverty in rural England in 1809 and gave great background to the plot.

Fortunately I had a lot of honest, helpful and constructive criticism from friends, family and other authors. The feedback I received from my readers went along these lines:  "You’ve promised us the story of Northumberland’s most notorious Regency robbery and a miscarriage of justice - but you take ages to get there.  You need to move quicker towards these events – that’s your story, not Jamie’s credit rating."

Yes, it hurt.  Novelists need a thick skin.  But eventually I heeded their advice, dropped the first two chapters (10,000 words) and began the novel on the day of the robbery.  It worked; I got a publisher. 

Fiction readers (and fiction publishers) look for drama, tension, strong characterisation, a plot which enthralls them and reaches a satisfactory emotional conclusion.  A novelist needs to subtly blend the historical detail into the narrative and remember that in fiction, the plot must always come first. 

As I showed above with the tale of my first three chapters, minute historical detail or flying off on a tangent can slow down the pace of the narrative and damage any chances of publication. The family historian who aspires to become a historical novelist sometimes needs to distance themselves from their research, keep their head above the genealogy parapet and focus on the main event. This can lead to tough decisions about what to put into the book and what to leave out.

Who to leave in and who to leave out is another issue which also crops up.   They had big families back in the nineteenth century and most of them were called "John."  A cast of thousands may have worked well in the Bible but it rarely works in modern fiction.  The habit of naming children after other family members helps genealogists trace their relatives back through the centuries but if you have a mother, grandmother and a daughter all called "Ann" in the same book, it confuses the hell out of the reader. 

Fortunately, novelists can use artistic license.  In Catching the Eagle I changed names, killed off some characters early and brought forward a wedding by three years. I did this because I wanted the fun and the emotional high of the marriage celebrations to fit in with a chapter which was essentially "the calm before the storm."  Fiction – even a novel based on a true story - is for storytellers, not historical record keepers. 

Catching the Eagle was eventually published on 8th December 2011, by Knox Robinson Publishing.  They have also published my latest historical crime fiction novel, The Missing Heiress.

This second novel is pure fiction and was a joy to write. It flew off my keyboard like silk, and I completed it in ten months. It‘s a Regency whodunit revolving around the mystery of a beautiful heiress who vanishes from a locked bedchamber.  As far as I was concerned, there were only two policemen in England who could crack this mysterious case:  Detective Stephen Lavender and his sidekick Constable Woods.  Lavender was the real-life Bow Street policeman who had a minor part in my first book.  Ultimately, Stephen Lavender was the man who charged our ancestor with stealing the Kirkley Hall rent money and placed him in the dock - but I’ve never held that against him. I became really fond of these two characters. I particularly enjoyed the humorous banter they shared and I didn’t want to let them go after I had completed Catching the Eagle.  Lavender was the natural choice for the detective in my second novel. In my mind, he had grown from an interesting minor character to a fully-fledged and fascinating protagonist.

However, even with a purely fictional novel, I still found that I was influenced by the stories we had uncovered in our genealogical research.  Another one of our Charlton ancestors had written a rather startling Last Will & Testament two days before he died in 1770; this poor man didn’t trust his own offspring as far as he could throw them.  This document inspired me to create the dysfunctional Carnaby family of Linn Hagh who feature in The Missing Heiress.   I included this will - nearly word for word – in the novel.  Unfortunately, this was one of those times when the truth was definitely more idiosyncratic than fiction.  The editor at Knox Robinson did not appreciate the archaic legal terms or the erratic eighteenth century grammar and punctuation and she changed it.

Yes, using family history in novels can be a frustrating process at times!

© Karen Charlton

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for this fascinating look into your creative process, Karen!

I think most genealogists have "name problems." When my mother and grandmother were sleuthing our family history, their problem name was "James." The women tended to have the interesting names-- like "Mourning Sylvania Jane."

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for my review of Karen's pageturning historical mystery, The Missing Heiress!  

Scene of the Crime with Author Karen Charlton!

After growing up with two genealogists in the family, I enjoy mysteries that involve shaking family trees in order to dislodge secrets and crimes. (The fact that I'm related to Black Bart and Jesse James may also have a bearing on my interest.) Authors like Charlotte Hinger in the U.S. and Steve Robinson in the U.K. know how to use historical documents to discover whodunit. This week's featured author, Karen Charlton, may not have a character who's a genealogist/ sleuth, but she does know how to search for fascinating tidbits in her own family history and use them in her books. Today, you'll be treated to my interview with Karen. Wednesday, she'll be a guest here on Kittling: Books to tell us how she uses family history as a framework for her novels, and on Thursday you'll be able to read my review of Karen's latest book, The Missing Heiress, on the day of its release in the U.S. Welcome to Karen Charlton Week here on Kittling: Books!

Karen Charlton

I've done a bit of my own research in order to provide you with some links so that you can learn more about this talented writer:

Karen's website

Karen's blog

Karen on Facebook

Karen on Goodreads

I'm so pleased that Karen is my guest this week, and I refuse to wait any longer-- on to the interview!

What was the very first book you remember reading and loving? What makes that book so special?

I can’t remember the first book I ever read – but I do remember the first book that made me cry:  J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Hobbit.   I was enthralled by Tolkien’s imagination and the wonderful world of elves, dragons and hobbits he created.  Sadly, at the end of the story my two favourite dwarves were killed in battle and I burst into tears in the classroom.  I was about eight years old at the time, and I can still remember the concerned teacher asking me if I was alright.  This was an unforgettable incident; I had no idea how powerful literature could be before then. 





Outside of your writing and all associated commitments, what do you like to do in your free time?

Apart from my interest in genealogical research, I enjoy reading, the theatre, and a weekly trip to the village pub quiz.  My quiz team rarely win but we have a good chat, drink a few beers and thoroughly enjoy ourselves.


If I were to visit your hometown, where would you recommend that I go? (I like seeing and doing things that aren't in all the guide books.)

The Ship Inn, Marske-by-the-Sea

I live in a small, sleepy fishing village on the North East coast of England called Marske-by-the-Sea.  Our village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, that great survey of England and Wales which was instigated by William the Conqueror.  Sadly, nothing of the original medieval village remains but parts of it are still very quaint and olde-worlde, and we have a fabulous eight mile stretch of golden sand on our doorstep.  So if you fancy a bracing walk beside the North Sea anytime Cathy, please just give me a call!

[It would be my pleasure-- and not my first bracing walk beside the North Sea!]


You have total control over casting a movie based on your life. Which actor would you cast as you?

Dame Helen Mirren

For my life story we would need an incredibly versatile and skilled actress who can flit backwards and forwards from comedy and the down-right ridiculous to grim tragedy in a couple of scenes.  For that reason, I would cast Dame Helen Mirren as me.







Who is your favorite recurring character in crime fiction?

Sherlock Holmes.  His genius is undeniable. 


If you could have in your possession one signed first edition of any book in the world, which book would that be? Why that particular book?

 I would love to own a signed first edition copy of the first book in the Poldark series by Winston Graham:  Ross Poldark.  I loved that series and read it over and over again.  Graham was a master at reproducing the sights, sounds, smells and dialect of late eighteenth century Cornwall.  He could spin a good plot too and created many memorable characters that still people my imagination. Apart from those brilliant main characters, Ross, Demelza, Elizabeth and the brooding George Warleggan, I thoroughly enjoyed the minor characters:  the crude and hilarious Paynters, the lecherous Sir Hugh Bodrugan and the tragic Morwenna.  A master storyteller, it would be an honour to own a signed first edition of one of Winston Graham’s novels.



How did you celebrate when you first heard you were to be published? What did you do the first time you saw one of your books on a shelf in a bookstore? 

It was quite late in the evening when I first discovered that a publisher was interested in my debut novel, Catching the Eagle.  Knox Robinson Publishing sent me an email which requested the full manuscript for consideration.  I had already gone to bed when my husband, Chris, spotted this email in my inbox.  Snoozing is a favourite hobby of mine and I tend to be rather unpleasant when disturbed in the middle of the night, so this situation threw Chris into a terrible dilemma; did he leave it until the morning to tell me – or should he risk a barrage of abuse and wake me up? 

Eventually, the brave man decided to go with the latter course of action.  He came upstairs, shook me roughly on the shoulder and hissed in my ear:  "Don’t shout at me.  You need to come downstairs and see a message on the computer."

Half-asleep, I grumbled (but didn’t shout) and padded downstairs in my slippers and nightie to read the email.  We were ecstatic.  It was only a request to see the full manuscript – not an offer of publication - but I had got a baby toe in the door of a publishing house.  We were too excited to go back to sleep and stayed up for hours drinking tea in the kitchen and celebrating.


Name one thing on your Bucket List.

Greece, perhaps?

I would love to own an apartment (complete with swimming pool) somewhere in the Mediterranean.  This summer has been glorious in the UK, but unfortunately this meteorological phenomenon only happens once every thirty years. The weather in Britain can get me down –especially in the winter - and I would love to have a bolt hole somewhere in the Med where I can sit and write books in warm, winter sunshine.


You've just received a £100 gift card to the bookstore of your choice. Which bookstore are you making a bee-line for?

Guisborough Bookshop.  It is a small, friendly and privately owned little store which has supported me ever since I became a published author.   I did my last book launch there and am regularly invited back to do book signings.  Lovely people.

Available September 4!

Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Karen. It was a pleasure to be able to get to know you a little better. May your book sales do nothing but increase!

Don't forget to stop by on Wednesday and Thursday as Karen Charlton Week continues! Karen will be telling us how she uses family history in her books, and I'll let you know all about her latest book, The Missing Heiress!

September 2013 New Mystery Releases!

I don't know about you, but I can't believe it's almost Labor Day! My favorite season always flies by much too quickly.

I've been motoring through books from my to-be-read shelves, which is a great feeling. I've created quite a few spaces throughout that run of bookcases, and they'll quickly be filled with new acquisitions. You'd probably get a good laugh watching me work on those shelves. I sort through the books to be shelved and make smaller alphabetical stacks. Then I get in my wheeled office chair and roll back and forth in front of the bookcases, shelving the books. Sure wish I could've done this when I was a kid working in our village library!

September is another bumper crop of new crime fiction, and I had a difficult time keeping my list down to anything that remotely resembled a manageable level. My choices are all sorted by release date, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book procurement locations. All book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.  Happy Reading!

=== September 3 ===

Title: Mykonos After Midnight

Author: Jeffrey Siger 

Series: #5 in the Andreas Kaldis police procedural series set in present-day Greece

ISBN: 9781464201837

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Paperback, 250 pages

Synopsis: "Mykonos holds tight to its past even as it transforms from an obscure, impoverished Aegean island into a tourist mecca and summertime playground for the world’s rich, a process making the Mykonian people some of the wealthiest in Greece. Yes, the old guard is still a force to be reckoned with despite the new money.

One of them, a legendary nightclub owner, has been found savagely bludgeoned in his home. All evidence points to obvious thugs. Yet the murder has put long hidden, politically explosive secrets in play and drawn a dangerous foreign investor to the island paradise. Andreas Kaldis, feared head of Greece’s special crimes division, is certain there’s a far more complex solution to the murder than robbery, and he vows to find it.

His quest for answers cuts straight into the entrenched cultural contradictions that give Mykonos so much of its magic and soon has him battling ruthless opportunists preying on his country’s weakened financial condition. Kaldis learns there is a high, unexpected price to pay for his curiosity as he becomes locked in a war with a powerful, clandestine international force willing to do whatever it takes to change and wrest control of Mykonos, no matter the collateral damage. Such is global crime. And the need for a wily hero to stand against it."

Title: Murder, Plain and Simple

Author: Isabella Alan

Series: #2 in the Amish Quilt Shop series set in present-day fictional Rolling Brook, Ohio

ISBN: 9780451413635

Publisher: Signet

Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages

Synopsis: "When Angela Braddock inherits her late aunt’s beautiful Amish quilt shop, she leaves behind her career and broken engagement for a fresh start in Holmes County, Ohio.

With her snazzy cowboy boots and her ornithophobic French bulldog, Angie doesn’t exactly fit in with the predominantly Amish community in Rolling Brook, but her aunt’s quilting circle tries to make her feel welcome as she prepares for the reopening of Running Stitch.

On the big day, Angie gets a taste of success as the locals and Englisch tourists browse the store’s wares while the quilters stitch away. But when Angie finds the body of ornery Amish woodworker Joseph in her storeroom the next morning, everything starts falling apart.

With evidence mounting against her, Angie is determined to find the culprit before the local sheriff can arrest her. Rolling Brook always appeared to be a simple place, but the closer Angie gets to the killer, the more she realizes that nothing in the small Amish community is as plain as it seems...." 

Title: A Cruise to Die For

Authors: Charlotte and Aaron Elkins

Series: #2 in the Alix London art consultant series based in present-day Seattle, Washington

ISBN: 9781477805077

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

Paperback, 256 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "This should be the cushiest job Alix London’s ever had. The second Alix London mystery finds the art restorer in a world brimming with idle luxury, spectacular locations, and deadly intrigue. 

Surrounded by art and wealth and the sun-drenched Greek isles, she’s aboard a sumptuous mega-yacht with no responsibilities save the occasional lecture to the guests of her temporary employer, Panos Papadakis, one of the world's richest men. But there’s a catch: Papadakis has long been suspected of being at the center of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and Alix is actually there as an undercover operative of FBI special agent Ted Ellesworth, a member of the Bureau’s Art Crime Team. They hope Alix can gather the inside information they need to finally put the cagey Papadakis away. 

Alix’s exposure to the enormous wealth of high-end collectors and the shadier aspects of the art trade—the avarice, naked greed, and ingenious scams—somehow brings her closer to her charming, "reformed" rogue of a father, and helps crystalize in her own mind just where she fits into the mix. 

Moguls, murders, a forged Manet, and the Albanian mafia all play a role and send this pleasure cruise into brutally dangerous waters. 

Set on the Aegean—Homer's fabled 'wine-dark sea'—with stops at enchanted islands where ancient legends still live, A Cruise to Die For delivers a witty blend of suspense and mystery, as well as an insider’s take on the contemporary art world and its eccentric characters. It’s all served up with the style and sophistication with which Charlotte and Aaron Elkins have rewarded mystery readers for the past 30 years."

Title: North Sea Requiem
Author: A.D. Scott
Series: #4 in the Highland Gazette series set in Inverness, Scotland in the 1950s
ISBN: 9781451665796
Publisher: Atria Books
Paperback, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When a small-town Scottish woman discovers a severed leg in the boot of one of the local hockey players’ uniforms, it’s a big scoop for the Highland Gazette. But reporter Joanne Ross wants a front-page story of her own, and she hopes to find it in Mae Bell, an American jazz singer whose husband disappeared in an aircraft accident five years ago and who is searching the Highlands for her husband’s colleagues.

Things take a very sinister turn when Nurse Urquhart, who dis-covered the limb, suffers a hideous and brutal attack. Even stranger, she was the recipient of letters warning her to keep her nose out of someone’s business—letters that Mae Bell and the staff of the Highland Gazette also received. What could it all mean?

Unfolding against a gorgeously rendered late 1950s Scottish countryside, North Sea Requiem captures the mores and issues of another era, especially in Joanne Ross—a woman wrestling with divorce, career, and a boss who wants to be more than just her superior. The result is a poignant, often haunting mix of violence, loss, and redemption in a narrative full of unnerving plot twists and unforgettable characters."

Title: Killing Custer
Author: Margaret Coel 
Series: #17 in the Wind River series set on the Arapahoe Reservation in present-day Wyoming
ISBN: 9780425264638
Publisher: Berkley
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "The whole town of Lander has turned out for the big parade celebrating the start of the new rodeo season. The main spectacle this year is the appearance of Colonel Edward Garrett—a spot-on impersonator of General George Armstrong Custer—and a troop of men acting as the ill-fated Seventh Cavalry.

The problem is they are being followed by a group of Arapaho warriors from the Wind River Reservation, who proceed to encircle Garrett and his men in a “dare ride” just to remind them exactly who won the Battle of the Little Bighorn. But when the ride is over, history seems to have repeated itself: Garrett is dead in the street with a bullet hole in his chest.

No one is sure what happened, but public sentiment quickly turns against the Arapaho—and the prime suspect is Colin Morningside, a descendant of Crazy Horse. When a local attorney connected to Morningside disappears, the accusations only grow stronger.

Father John O’Malley knows in his heart the Arapaho are not guilty. And Vicky Holden finds herself professionally and personally compromised from getting involved. But what begins as a murder soon reveals itself as a conspiracy that neither Father John nor Vicky could have foreseen. And someone wants to ensure that the truth they discover will die with them…."

Title: Japantown
Author: Barry Lancet
Series: #1 in the Jim Brodie series based in present-day San Francisco, California
ISBN: 9781451691696
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Hardcover, 416 pages

Synopsis: "San Francisco antiques dealer Jim Brodie recently inherited a stake in his father’s Tokyo-based private investigation firm, which means the single father of six-year-old Jenny is living a busy intercontinental life, traveling to Japan to acquire art and artifacts for his store and con­sulting on Brodie Security’s caseload at home and abroad.

One night, an entire family is gunned down in San Francisco’s bustling Japantown neighbor­hood, and Brodie is called on by the SFPD to decipher the lone clue left at the crime scene: a unique Japanese character printed on a slip of paper drenched in blood.

Brodie can’t read the clue. But he may have seen it before—at the scene of his wife’s death in a house fire four years ago.

With his deep array of Asian connections and fluency in Japanese, Brodie sets out to solve a seemingly perfect crime and at the same time learn whether his wife’s tragic death was more than just an accident. And as he unravels a web of intrigue stretching back centuries and con­nected to the murders in San Francisco, the Japantown killer retaliates with a new target: Brodie’s daughter."

=== September 4 ===

Title: The Missing Heiress

Author: Karen Charlton 

Series: #1 in the Detective Lavender series set in Regency England

ISBN: 9781908483706

Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing

Hardcover, 376 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Northumberland, November 1809. A menacing figure stalks women through Hareshaw Woods. When Helen Carnaby, a beautiful young heiress, disappears from her locked bedchamber, everyone fears the worst. The townsfolk cry 'witchcraft' and the local constabulary are baffled. Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods now face their toughest and most dangerous assignment. Lavender and Woods are alarmed to discover a sinister, murderous world of madness, violence, and secrets lurking behind the heavy oak door of the ancient pele tower at Linn Hagh. Why did Helen Carnaby flee on that wintry October night? Hindered by Helen's uncooperative siblings, distracted by gypsies, rebellious farmers, highwaymen, and an attractive and feisty Spanish senora, Helen Carnaby's disappearance is to prove one of the most perplexing mysteries of Lavender's career. Set in the beautiful market town of Bellingham, The Missing Heiress is the first in a planned series of Regency whodunits featuring Detective Lavender and Constable Woods."

=== September 10 ===

Title: W Is for Wasted

Author: Sue Grafton

Series: #23 in the Kinsey Milhone series set in Santa Teresa, California in the 1980s

ISBN: 9780399158988

Publisher: Putnam

Hardcover, 496 pages

Synopsis: "Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.

The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him.

Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.

But as Kinsey digs deeper into the mystery of the John Doe, some very strange linkages begin to emerge. And before long at least one aspect is solved as Kinsey literally finds the key to his identity. 'And just like that,' she says, 'the lid to Pandora’s box flew open. It would take me another day before I understood how many imps had been freed, but for the moment, I was inordinately pleased with myself.'

In this multi-layered tale, the surfaces seem clear, but the underpinnings are full of betrayals, misunderstandings, and outright murderous fraud. And Kinsey, through no fault of her own, is thoroughly compromised."

Title: The Bones of Paris

Author: Laurie R. King

Series: #2 in the Stuyvesant and Grey series set in 1920s Paris

ISBN: 9780345531766

Publisher: Bantam

Hardcover, 432 pages

Synopsis: "Paris, France: September 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, the assignment is a private investigator’s dream—he’s getting paid to troll the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The American agent has a healthy appreciation for la vie de bohème, despite having worked for years at the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two year old from Boston who has been living in Paris, modeling and acting. Her family became alarmed when she stopped all communications, and Stuyvesant agreed to track her down. He wholly expects to find her in the arms of some up-and-coming artist, perhaps experimenting with the decadent lifestyle that is suddenly available on every rue and boulevard.

As Stuyvesant follows Philippa’s trail through the expatriate community of artists and writers, he finds that she is known to many of its famous—and infamous—inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Company’s Sylvia Beach to Ernest Hemingway to the Surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp, disturbing turn. At the Grand-Guignol, murder, insanity, and sexual perversion are all staged to shocking, brutal effect: depravity as art, savage human nature on stage.

Soon it becomes clear that one missing girl is a drop in the bucket. Here, amid the glittering lights of the cabarets, hides a monster whose artistic coup de grâce is to be rendered in blood. And Stuyvesant will have to descend into the darkest depths of perversion to find a killer . . . sifting through The Bones of Paris."

Title: The Red Queen Dies

Author: Frankie Y. Bailey

Series: #1 in the Hannah McCabe series set in the Albany, New York of the near future

ISBN: 9780312641757

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The year is 2019, and a drug used to treat soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder, nicknamed 'Lullaby,' has hit the streets. Swallowing a little pill erases traumatic memories, but what happens to a criminal trial when the star witness takes a pill and can't remember the crime? When two women are murdered in quick succession, biracial police detective Hannah McCabe is charged with solving the case. In spite of the advanced technology, including a city-wide surveillance program, a third woman is soon killed, and the police begin to suspect that a serial killer is on the loose. But the third victim, a Broadway actress known as 'The Red Queen,' doesn’t fit the pattern set by the first two murders.

With the late September heat sizzling, Detective Hannah McCabe and her colleagues on the police force have to race to find the killer in a tangled web of clues that involve Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Fast-paced and original, this is a one-of-a-kind mystery from an extremely talented crime writer."

=== September 17 ===

Title: Aunty Lee's Delights

Author: Ovidia Yu

Series: #1 in a possible series set in present-day Singapore

ISBN: 9780062227157

Publisher: William Morrow

Paperback, 288 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could have become one of Singapore's 'tai tai,' an idle rich lady. Instead she is building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee's Delights, where spicy Singaporean meals are graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore's tourist havens and one of her guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two events are likely connected.

The murder and disappearance throws together Aunty Lee's henpecked stepson, Mark, his social-climbing wife, Selina, a gay couple whose love is still illegal in Singapore, and an elderly Australian tourist couple whose visit may mask a deeper purpose. Investigating the murder are Police Commissioner Raja and Senior Staff Sergeant Salim, who quickly discover that Aunty Lee's sharp nose for intrigue can sniff out clues that elude law enforcers.

Wise, witty, and charming, Aunty Lee's Delights is a spicy mystery about love, friendship, and food in Singapore, where money flows freely and people of many religions and ethnicities coexist peacefully, but where tensions lurk just below the surface, sometimes with deadly consequences."

=== September 24 ===

Title: Treasure Hunt

Author: Andrea Camilleri

Series: #16 in the Inspector Montalbano series set in present-day Sicily

ISBN: 9780143122623

Publisher: Penguin

Paperback, 288 pages

Synopsis: "In Treasure Hunt, Montalbano is hailed as a hero after news cameras film him scaling a building—gun in hand—to capture a pair of unlikely snipers. Shortly after, the inspector begins to receive cryptic messages in verse from someone challenging him to go on a 'treasure hunt.' Intrigued, he accepts, treating the messages as amusing riddles—until they take a dangerous turn."

Title: Anything But Civil

Author: Anna Loan-Wilsey

Series: #2 in the Hattie Davish traveling secretary series set in the USA during the 1890s

ISBN: 9780758276360

Publisher: Kensington

Paperback, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Hattie Davish is delighted to be ably assisting her wealthy employer, Sir Arthur Windom-Greene, an English scholar who is fluent in Civil War history and hard at work putting together a definitive biography of General Cornelius Starrett.  Their research takes them to Galena, Illinois, where they quickly learn that time has done little to heal old battle wounds.  Distrust and betrayal seem to linger in everyone's minds, none more so than the General's pompous son Henry.  And Hattie is certain he has something to do with a string of bizarre incidents in town-especially when he turns up dead....

Between her work for Sir Arthur, preparing for Christmas, and unscheduled visitors from her past, Hattie hardly has time to investigate a murder, but soon she is lost in a labyrinth of secrets and deceit that leads to more questions than answers.  Henry had a knack for finding trouble and making enemies, and there's no shortage of suspects-including Sir Arthur.  Now, Hattie must uncover the truth while maintaining her civility in a most uncivil situation...."

Title: King's Mountain

Author: Sharyn McCrumb

Series: #10 in the Appalachian Ballad series

ISBN: 9781250011404

Publisher: Thomas Dunne

Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "John Sevier had not taken much interest in the American Revolution, he was too busy fighting Indians in the Carolinas and taming the wilderness. But when an arrogant British officer threatened his settlement—promising to burn the farms and kill families—the war became personal.

That arrogant officer is Patrick Ferguson of the British Army—who is both charmingly antagonistic and surprisingly endearing. Inventor of the Ferguson rifle, and the devoted lover to his mistress, Virginia Sal, Patrick becomes a delightful anti-hero under McCrumb’s watchful eye.

Through varying perspectives, King’s Mountain is an elegant saga of the Carolina Overmountain Men—the militia organized by Sevier (who would later become the first governor of Tennessee) and their victory in 1780 against the Tories in a battle that Thomas Jefferson later called, 'The turning point of the American Revolution.'

Peppered with lore and the authentic heart of the people in McCrumb’s classic Ballads, this is an epic book that will build on the success of The Ballad of Tom Dooley and her recent return to the New York Times bestseller list. Featuring the American Revolutionary War, this a huge draw to readers old and new, and special to McCrumb who can trace her lineage to the character John Sevier."

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I know that the latest Sharyn McCrumb novel doesn't sound much like a mystery, but I love her Ballad series so much that it was impossible for me to leave it out.

September seems to have a little something for everyone, doesn't it? Which titles found their way to your own personal wish lists?