The Whisperer by Karin Fossum

First Line: She wasn't beautiful, and she was of course perfectly aware of it.

Ragna Riegel is a woman most people don't even notice, but she's used to it. Unable to speak above a whisper, she insists on a life of order and routines, but when she finds a threatening letter in her mailbox, everything changes. There are more letters spaced out over time, and Ragna's life begins to spiral into a nightmare. Threatened by an unknown enemy, paranoid, unable to sleep, and isolated from everyone else, Ragna's nightmare ends in a death ... but she is the killer, not the victim.

When Inspector Konrad Sejer begins his interrogation of Ragna Riegel, he's certain it's an open-and-shut case. But is it?

Karin Fossum's The Whisperer is a fantastic character study that allows Inspector Sejer to do what he does best: listen. Ragna Riegel is a tough nut to crack, but the presence of Sejer's dog, Frank, helps lower some of the woman's defenses as the book alternates between the voices of Ragna and the inspector.

It's really not crystal clear through most of the book exactly why Ragna is in jail, and while these two characters talk, the reader is asking himself questions. What did she do? Prison for life? Murder? Could she really kill anyone? The more I read, the more I felt as though I were falling down the rabbit hole with Ragna, and I think a little of her paranoia rubbed off on me, which is a mark of some excellent storytelling.

The only thing I have to complain about is that the story drags badly at about the half- to the three-quarters mark. The lag time may not bother anyone else and that's fine, but if you're the type of reader who likes everything to be resolved by book's end, you're probably not going to like The Whisperer because it has a twist at the very end that sends your mind off to the races again-- and you're left wondering. You're left with questions, not closure.

I loved that twist at the end. In fact, I think I was expecting it. Karin Fossum had me thinking about the madness that can be found in everyday life, and she reminded me to question assumptions-- and that is a valuable reminder.

The Whisperer by Karin Fossum
Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson.

eISBN: 9781328612939

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt © 2019

eBook, 336 pages

Police Procedural, #13 Inspector Sejer mystery

Rating: A-

Source: Net Galley

August 2019 New Mystery Releases!

Summertime, and the readin' is easy... At least it is in my pool under the shade of my umbrellas and close to the waterfall where the hummingbirds like to bathe and drink. Sometimes I think I would stay out in that pool 24/7 if I could. Yes indeed, it's my favorite reading season of the year.

And if I'm going through books at a faster pace, it means that I have to keep my eyes peeled for new ones, doesn't it?

The following are my picks of new crime fiction being released throughout the month of August. (How did it get to be August already?!?) They are grouped according to their release dates, and covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon. Let's see how many titles we can add to our wishlists!

=== August 1 ===

Title: Tahoe Deep

Author: Todd Borg

Series: #17 in the Owen McKenna P.I. series set in Lake Tahoe, California.

352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "In 1940, a teenage blind boy named Danny Callahan witnessed the scuttling of the SS Tahoe Steamer, the grandest ship to ever sail Lake Tahoe. Eighty years later, a killer beats up old man Daniel Callahan, demanding to know the truth about a secret that went down with the ship. If Callahan doesn't tell all he knows, the people closest to Callahan will die..."

=== August 6 ===

Title: The Whisperer

Author: Karin Fossum

Series: #13 in the Inspector Konrad Sejer police procedural series set in Norway.

336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "How did a lonely, quiet woman come to kill a man—or did she?

Ragna Riegel is a soft-spoken woman of routines. She must have order in her life, and she does, until one day she finds a letter in her mailbox with her name on the envelope and a clear threat written in block capitals on the sheet inside. With the arrival of the letter, and eventually others like it, Ragna’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel into a nightmare—threatened by an unknown enemy, paranoid and unable to sleep, her isolation becomes all the more extreme. Ragna’s distress does culminate in a death, but she is the perpetrator rather than the victim.

The Whisperer shifts between Inspector Sejer’s interrogation of Ragna and the shocking events that led up to her arrest. Sejer thinks it is an open-and-shut case but is it? Compelling and unnerving, The Whisperer probes plausible madness in everyday life and asks us to question assumptions even in its final moments."

Title: City of Windows

Author: Robert Pobi

Series: #1 in the Dr. Lucas Page series set in New York City

400 pages

Synopsis: "During the worst blizzard in memory, an FBI agent in a moving SUV in New York City is killed by a nearly impossible sniper shot. Unable to pinpoint where the shot came from, as the storm rapidly wipes out evidence, the agent-in-charge Brett Kehoe turns to the one man who might be able to help them― former FBI agent Lucas Page.

Page, a university professor and bestselling author, left the FBI years ago after a tragic event robbed him of a leg, an arm, an eye, and the willingness to continue. But he has an amazing ability to read a crime scene, figure out angles and trajectories in his head, and he might be the only one to be able to find the sniper’s nest. With a new wife and family, Lucas Page has no interest in helping the FBI―except for the fact that the victim was his former partner.

Agreeing to help for his partner’s sake, Page finds himself hunting a killer with an unknown agenda and amazing sniper skills in the worst of conditions. And his partner’s murder is only the first in a series of meticulously planned murders carried out with all-but-impossible sniper shots. The only thing connecting the deaths is that the victims are all with law enforcement―that is until Page’s own family becomes a target.

To identify and hunt down this ruthless, seemingly unstoppable killer, Page must discover what hidden past connects the victims before he himself loses all that is dear to him."

Title: Love and Death Among the Cheetahs

Author: Rhys Bowen

Series: #13 in the Royal Spyness historical series set in 1930s Kenya

304 pages

Synopsis: "I was so excited when Darcy announced out of the blue that we were flying to Kenya for our extended honeymoon. Now that we are here, I suspect he has actually been sent to fulfill another secret mission. I am trying very hard not to pick a fight about it because after all, we are in paradise! Darcy finally confides that there have been robberies in London and Paris. It seems the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. Since we are staying in the Happy Valley—the center of upper-class English life—we are well-positioned to hunt for clues and ferret out possible suspects.

Now that I am a sophisticated married woman, I am doing my best to sound like one. But crikey! These aristocrats are a thoroughly loathsome sort enjoying a completely decadent lifestyle filled with wild parties and rampant infidelity. And one of the leading lights in the community, Lord Cheriton, has the nerve to make a play for me. While I am on my honeymoon! Of course, I put an end to that right off.

When he is found bloodied and lifeless along a lonely stretch of road, it appears he fell victim to a lion. But it seems that the Happy Valley community wants to close the case a bit too quickly. Darcy and I soon discover that there is much more than a simple robbery and an animal attack to contend with here in Kenya. Nearly everyone has a motive to want Lord Cheriton dead and some will go to great lengths to silence anyone who asks too many questions. The hunt is on! I just hope I can survive my honeymoon long enough to catch a killer. . . ."

Title: Lost You

Author: Haylan Beck

Standalone Thriller

320 pages

Synopsis: "Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She's just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can't she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby's never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there's no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?

But three days into their vacation, Libby's fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:

"I'm his mother."

What follows is one of the most shocking, twisty, and provocative works of psychological suspense ever written. A story of stolen identity, of surrogacy gone horribly wrong, and of two women whose insistence that each is the "real" mother puts them at deadly cross-purposes, Lost You is sure to be one of 2019's most buzzed-about novels."

Title: Singapore Sapphire

Author: A.M. Stuart

Series: #1 in the Harriet Gordon historical series set in Singapore

384 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Singapore, 1910--Desperate for a fresh start, Harriet Gordon finds herself living with her brother, a reverend and headmaster of a school for boys, in Singapore at the height of colonial rule. Hoping to gain some financial independence, she advertises her services as a personal secretary. It is unfortunate that she should discover her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold--explorer, mine magnate and president of the exclusive Explorers and Geographers Club--dead with a knife in his throat.

When Inspector Robert Curran is put on the case, he realizes that he has an unusual witness in Harriet. Harriet's keen eye for detail and strong sense of duty interests him, as does her distrust of the police and her traumatic past, which she is at pains to keep secret from the gossips of Singapore society.

When another body is dragged from the canal, Harriet feels compelled to help with the case. She and Curran are soon drawn into a murderous web of treachery and deceit and find themselves face-to-face with a ruthless cabal that has no qualms about killing again to protect its secrets."

=== August 8 ===

Title: Bad Day at the Vulture Club

Author: Vaseem Khan

Series: #5 in the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in Mumbai, India.

384 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "The Parsees are among the oldest, most secretive and most influential communities in the city: respected, envied and sometimes feared.

When prominent industrialist Cyrus Zorabian is murdered on holy ground, his body dumped inside a Tower of Silence - where the Parsee dead are consumed by vultures - the police dismiss it as a random killing. But his daughter is unconvinced.

Chopra, uneasy at entering this world of power and privilege, is soon plagued by doubts about the case.

But murder is murder. And in Mumbai, wealth and corruption go in hand in hand, inextricably linking the lives of both high and low..."

=== August 13 ===

Title: The Bitterroots

Author: C.J. Box

Series: #1 in the Cassie Dewell series set in Montana.

320 pages

Synopsis: "Former sheriff’s investigator Cassie Dewell is trying to start her life over as in private practice. She’s her own boss and answers to no one, and that’s just the way she likes it after the past few tumultuous years. All that certainty changes when an old friend calls in a favor: she wants Cassie to help exonerate a man accused of assaulting a young woman from an influential family.

Against her own better judgment, Cassie agrees. But out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there's always something more to the story. The Kleinsassers have ruled this part of Montana for decades, and the Iron Cross Ranch is their stronghold. They want to see Blake Kleinsasser, the black sheep of the family, put away forever for the assault. As Cassie attempts to uncover the truth, she must fight against a family whose roots are tangled and deadly―as well as the ghosts of her own past that threaten to bring her down."

Title: Th1rt3en
Author: Steve Cavanagh
Series: #4 in the Eddie Flynn con-man-turned-lawyer series set in New York City.
336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "It’s the murder trial of the century. And Joshua Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house – and to be sure the wrong man goes down for the crime. Because this time, the killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury.

But there’s someone on his tail. Former-conman-turned-criminal-defense-attorney Eddie Flynn doesn’t believe that his movie-star client killed two people. He suspects that the real killer is closer than they think – but who would guess just how close?"

=== August 20 ===

Title: The Second Biggest Nothing

Author: Colin Cotterill

Series: #14 in the Dr. Siri Paiboun historical series set in Laos.

264 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Vientiane, 1980: For a man of his age and in his corner of the world, Dr. Siri, the 76-year-old former national coroner of Laos, is doing remarkably well—especially considering the fact that he is possessed by a thousand-year-old Hmong shaman. That is until he finds a mysterious note tied to his dog’s tail. Upon finding someone to translate the note, Dr. Siri learns it is a death threat addressed not only to him but to everyone he holds dear. Whoever wrote the note claims the job will be executed in two weeks.

Thus, at the urging of his wife and his motley crew of faithful friends, Dr. Siri must figure out who wants him dead, prompting him to recount three incidents over the years: an early meeting with his lifelong pal Civilai in Paris in the early ’30s, a particularly disruptive visit to an art museum in Saigon in 1956, and a prisoner of war negotiation in Hanoi at the height of the Vietnam War in the ’70s. There will be grave consequences in the present if Dr. Siri can’t decipher the clues from his past." 

Title: Old Bones

Authors: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Series: #1 in the Nora Kelly archaeologist series set in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.

384 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Nora Kelly, a young curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called "Lost Camp" of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who earned a terrible place in American history when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder, and cannibalism.

Benton tells Kelly he has stumbled upon an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it-to reveal its long-buried secrets.

Once in the mountains, however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case...only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last."

Title: This Poison Will Remain

Author: Fred Vargas

Series: #10 in the Commissaire Adamsberg police procedural series set in France.

416 pages

Synopsis: "A murder in Paris brings Commissaire Adamsberg out of the Icelandic mists of his previous investigation and unexpectedly into the region of Nîmes, where three old men have died of spider bites. The recluse has a sneaky attack, but is that enough to explain the deaths of these men, all killed by the same venom?

At the National Museum of Natural History, Adamsberg meets a pensioner who tells him that two of the three octogenarians have known each other since childhood when they lived in a local orphanage called The Mercy. There, they had belonged to a small group of violent young boys known as the "band of recluses." Adamsberg faces two obstacles: the third man killed by the same venom was not part of the "band of recluses", and the amount of spider venom necessary to kill doesn't add up.

Yet after the Nîmes deaths, more members of the old band succumb to recluse bites, leading the commissaire to uncover the tragedy hidden behind the walls of the orphanage." 

=== August 27 ===

Title: The Passengers

Author: John Marrs

Standalone futuristic thriller.

352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.”

Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.

From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?... And who should we kill first?""

There are certainly some very good books being released during the month of August, aren't there? And as far as covers go, I was shocked to see a full front view of a woman on Singapore Sapphire. Will wonders never cease? All sarcasm aside, which books tickled your fancy? Inquiring minds would love to know!

August 2016 New Mystery Releases!

So far, I've been having a bookworm's dream of a summer. Like many readers, I have a reading goal set at Goodreads, and as house guests and various other things put me farther and farther behind my goal, I was beginning to despair of ever catching up. Do I begrudge those guests and other things my lost reading time? It may sound like it, but I don't. Especially since I finally caught up and am back on track! It's just that competitive streak that I have-- and of which I have to be very careful.

But since I've been reading-- and finishing-- books left and right, you know what that means, don't you? You bet-- I have to keep my eyes peeled for new books!

The following books are my picks from the new crime fiction that's being released throughout the month of August. They are grouped by release date and contain all the information you'll need to add them to your own Must Read lists. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon. 

Let's see what's on my list....

=== August 1 ===

Title: Tahoe Dark
Author: Todd Borg 
Series: #14 in the Owen McKenna Thriller/P.I. series set in Lake Tahoe on the California and Nevada border
ISBN: 9781931296243  
Publisher: Thriller Press
Paperback, 351 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "When Tahoe resident Jonas Montrop is kidnapped, his father pays the ransom but is then murdered. The next day, four robbers in hoodies and hockey masks take down an armored truck loaded with cash destined for a casino at Lake Tahoe. The company's boss calls Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna. As McKenna tracks the robbers, he finds two of them murdered in the grisliest of ways. McKenna uncovers evidence that implicates a young woman named Evan Rosen in all three murders. Evan worked for the father of the kidnap victim, and she had a powerful motivation for wanting the robbers dead. Evan is arrested and charged with murder. The problem is that McKenna doesn't believe Evan did it. The only way to save her from death row is to find the real killer. But this killer is smarter and meaner than any McKenna has ever caught. It looks like McKenna and Evan are both going to die before the killer is finished..."    

=== August 2 ===

Title: The Darkness Knows

Author: Cheryl Honigford

Series: #1 in the Viv and Charlie historical series set in 1938 Chicago.

ISBN: 9781492628613 

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Paperback, 352 pages

Synopsis: "It's October 1938, and radio is king. Vivian Witchell is determined to be a star, and with her new role in the popular detective serial The Darkness Knows, everything she's dreamed of is finally within her grasp. Until the night she steps into the employee lounge and stumbles upon the body of the station's biggest--and most reviled--actress. Clutched in the dead woman's hand is a threatening letter that targets Vivian as the next victim. Suddenly, Viv's biggest worry isn't remembering her lines--it's staying alive." 

Title: Crowned and Dangerous

Author: Rhys Bowen

Series: #10 in the Her Royal Spyness historical series set in 1930s Ireland

ISBN: 9780425283486 

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "With Darcy driving me out of London in a borrowed motor car, I soon discover that he isn’t planning to introduce me to the pleasures of sinning in secret—as I had hoped—but to make me his wife! 

Of course, there are some quibbles to be dealt with, such as my needing special permission from the King to marry a Roman Catholic and the question of where we might live after the honeymoon. Though he will inherit a title, Darcy is as broke as I am. Even his family’s Irish castle has been sold to a rich American who now employes Darcy’s father as a hired hand. 

Throwing these cares to the wind, nothing could deter us from our mission—except perhaps the news that my future father-in-law has just been arrested. It seems the rich American was murdered and Darcy’s father had more than enough motive to do the deed. With the elopement postponed, we head for Ireland where he insists he’s innocent, and it’s up to us to prove it—for better or worse." 

Title: I Shot the Buddha

Author: Colin Cotterill

Series: #11 in the Dr. Siri Paiboun historical series set in 1970s Laos

ISBN: 9781616957223 

Publisher: Soho Crime

Hardcover, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Laos, 1979: Retired coroner Siri Paiboun and his wife, Madame Daeng, have never been able to turn away a misfit. As a result, they share their small Vientiane house with an assortment of homeless people, mendicants, and oddballs. One of these oddballs is Noo, a Buddhist monk, who rides out on his bicycle one day and never comes back, leaving only a cryptic note in the refrigerator: a plea to help a fellow monk escape across the Mekhong River to Thailand.

Naturally, Siri can’t turn down the adventure, and soon he and his friends find themselves running afoul of Lao secret service officers and famous spiritualists. Buddhism is a powerful influence on both morals and politics in Southeast Asia. In order to exonerate an innocent man, they will have to figure out who is cloaking terrible misdeeds in religiosity."     

Title: Silk Stalkings

Author: Diane Vallere

Series: #3 in the Material Witness cozy series set in central California

ISBN: 9780425270592

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The time has come for San Ladrón, California’s annual Miss Tangorli beauty pageant, and Poly has agreed to use Material Girl’s inventory of shimmery silks to create embellished gowns fit for a crown. But when millionaire Harvey Halliwell—the man who revived the city’s citrus trade with his imported tangorli tree—is found dead days before the pageant contestants are announced, something sour takes over the town.

To make matters worse, her friend, mechanic Charlie Brooks, is soon caught up in the crime, having been seen in the company of the case’s prime suspect. Now Poly’s on a mission to squeeze out the truth. But as she searches for a pattern, the killer seems intent on cutting up the evidence..."  

Title: The House Between Tides

Author: Sarah Maine

Standalone Romantic Suspense

ISBN: 9781501126918 

Publisher: Atria Books

Paperback, 400 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Kate Morton meets Daphne du Maurier in this atmospheric debut novel about a woman who discovers the century-old remains of a murder victim on her family’s Scottish estate, plunging her into an investigation of its mysterious former occupants.

Following the death of her last living relative, Hetty Deveraux leaves London and her strained relationship behind for Muirlan, her ancestral home in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. She intends to renovate the ruinous house into a hotel, but the shocking discovery of human remains brings her ambitious restoration plans to an abrupt halt before they even begin. Few physical clues are left to identify the body, but one thing is certain: this person did not die a natural death.

Hungry for answers, Hetty discovers that Muirlan was once the refuge of her distant relative Theo Blake, the acclaimed painter and naturalist who brought his new bride, Beatrice, there in 1910. Yet ancient gossip and a handful of leads reveal that their marriage was far from perfect; Beatrice eventually vanished from the island, never to return, and Theo withdrew from society, his paintings becoming increasingly dark and disturbing.

What happened between them has remained a mystery, but as Hetty listens to the locals and studies the masterful paintings produced by Theo during his short-lived marriage, she uncovers secrets that still reverberate through the small island community—and will lead her to the identity of the long-hidden body."    

=== August 9 ===

Title: The Night Bell

Author: Inger Ash Wolfe

Series: #4 in the Hazel Micallef police procedural series set in Ontario, Canada

ISBN: 9781681771656 

Publisher: Pegasus Books

Hardcover, 400 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "A discovery of the bones of murdered children is made on land that was once a county foster home. Now it's being developed as a brand new subdivision whose first residents are already railing against broken promises and corruption. But when three of these residents are murdered after the discovery of the children's bones, frustration turns to terror. While trying to stem the panic and solve two crimes at once, Hazel Micallef finds her memory stirred back to the fall of 1959, when the disappearance of a girl from town was blamed on her adopted brother. Although he is long dead, she begins to see the present case as a chance to clear her brother's name, something that drives Hazel beyond her own considerable limits and right into the sights of an angry killer."  

Title: The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown

Author: Vaseem Khan

Series: #2 in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series set in India 

ISBN: 9780316386845

Publisher: Redhook

Paperback, 368 pages

Synopsis: "For centuries, the Koh-i-Noor diamond has set man against man and king against king.

Now part of the British Crown Jewels, the priceless gem is a prize that many have killed to possess.

So when the Crown Jewels go on display in Mumbai, security is everyone's principal concern. And yet, on the very day Inspector Chopra visits the exhibition, the diamond is stolen from under his nose.

The heist was daring and seemingly impossible. The hunt is on for the culprits. But it soon becomes clear that only one man -- and his elephant -- can possibly crack this case..." 

=== August 30 ===

Title: A Great Reckoning

Author: Louise Penny

Series: #12 in the Armand Gamache police procedural series set in Quebec, Canada

ISBN: 9781250022134 

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 400 pages

Synopsis: "When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must.

And there he finds four young cadets in the Sûreté academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map.

Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees Amelia Choquet, one of the cadets. Tattooed and pierced. Guarded and angry. Amelia is more likely to be found on the other side of a police line-up. And yet she is in the academy. A protégée of the murdered professor.

The focus of the investigation soon turns to Gamache himself and his mysterious relationship with Amelia, and his possible involvement in the crime. The frantic search for answers takes the investigators back to Three Pines and a stained glass window with its own horrific secrets.

For both Amelia Choquet and Armand Gamache, the time has come for a great reckoning." 

Title: Death Among the Doilies

Author: Mollie Cox Bryan

Series: #1 in the Cora Crafts cozy series set in North Carolina

ISBN: 9781496704641

Publisher: Kensington Books

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "For thirty-something blogger Cora Chevalier, small-town Indigo Gap, North Carolina, seems like the perfect place to reinvent her life. Shedding a stressful past as a counselor for a women’s shelter, Cora is pouring all her talents—and most of her savings—into a craft retreat business, with help from close pal and resident potter Jane Starr. Between transforming her Victorian estate into a crafter’s paradise and babysitting Jane’s daughter, the new entrepreneur has no time for distractions. Especially rumors about the murder of a local school librarian . . . .

But when Jane’s fingerprints match those found at the grisly crime scene, Cora not only worries about her friend, but her own reputation. With angry townsfolk eager for justice and both Jane’s innocence and the retreat at risk, she must rely on her creative chops to unlace the truth behind the beloved librarian’s disturbing demise. Because if the killer’s patterns aren’t pinned, Cora’s handiwork could end up in stitches . . ." 

Title: Hell Fire

Author: Karin Fossum

Series: #12 in the Konrad Sejer police procedural series set in Norway

ISBN: 9780544633377 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Hardcover, 272 pages

Synopsis: "A gruesome tableau awaits Inspector Konrad Sejer in the oppressive summer heat: a woman and a young boy lay dead in a pool of blood near a dank camper. The details of the deaths of Bonnie Hayden and her five-year-old son Simon are mysterious. There is no sign of robbery or assault. Who would brutally stab a defenseless woman and her child? Sejer and his fellow investigator Jakob Skarre begin a hunt for the killer that will eventually lead them to a heartbreaking conclusion.

In a parallel storyline, masterfully fused, Fossum tells the story of Mass Malthe and her troubled son Eddie as they navigate a relationship that some would call too close. Eddie constantly thinks about his unknown father — someone his mother would rather forget. When long-held secrets are revealed, it turns out that Mass and Bonnie share more in common than Eddie could have ever guessed."   

Title: The Shattered Tree

Author: Charles Todd

Series: #8 in the Bess Crawford historical series set in World War I France

ISBN: 9780062386274  

Publisher: William Morrow

Hardcover, 304 pages

Synopsis: "At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire, stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to battlefield nurse Bess Crawford’s aid station, where she stabilizes him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital. The odd thing is, the officer isn’t British—he’s French. But in a moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German.

When Bess reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has continually shifted through history, most recently in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his sympathies really lie?

Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess remains uneasy—and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what was he doing so far from his own lines . . . and so close to where the Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight? When the French officer disappears in Paris, it’s up to Bess—a soldier’s daughter as well as a nurse—to find out why, even at the risk of her own life."  

Definitely some wonderful reading in store for us all in August! Most of the authors are "tried and true." I've read their books, I like the way they write, and I know I want to read more. Of the new-to-me authors, I have to say that I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Cheryl Honigford's The Darkness Knows. 

What about you? Which books tickled your fancy? This inquiring mind would love to know!