After suspicion falls on Lizzie’s friend,
she and her fellow book club members discover that Derek wasn’t who he
pretended to be. Cracking this case means going up against Lizzie’s
boyfriend, police chief Mark Dreyfus, and unearthing a novel’s
worth of nasty secrets. And as they get closer to uncovering Derek’s
scandalous final manuscript, someone hiding in plain sight is out to
write finis to Lizzie’s sleuthing for good…"
Title: Hidden Heritage
Series: #3 in the Lottie Albright series, set in Kansas
ISBN: 9781464200762
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Paperback, 250 pages
Synopsis: "After a gruesome murder at the Carlton County Livestock Feedyard, the
KBI enlists Undersheriff Lottie Albright to work undercover. Agent Dimon
believes Sheriff Sam Abbot is turning a blind eye toward illegal
activities between the bullhaulers and Mexican immigrants working at the
feedyard. As a cover for her sleuthing, Lottie calls for stories from
Mexican families whose ancestors were part of colonization groups into
Kansas. Francisca Diaz, a mysterious old Spanish woman comes into the
historical society to contribute her family history. When she is
brutally murdered, the family's history overlaps with the murder at the
feedyard."
Title: The Doctor of Thessaly
Series: #3 in the Hermes Diaktoros series, set in Greece
ISBN: 9780316217873
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Hardcover, 272 pages
Synopsis: "A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach. A local doctor is attacked in an
isolated churchyard. Trouble arrives at a bad time to the backwater
village of Morfi, just as the community is making headlines with a visit
from a high-ranking government minister. Fortunately, where there's
trouble, there's Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis
shoes are always pristine and whose investigative methods are always
unorthodox.
Hermes must investigate a brutal crime, thwart the
petty machinations of the town's ex-mayor and his cronies, and try to
settle the troubled waters of two sisters' relationship. But how can he
unravel a mystery that not even the victim wants solved?"
Title: A Killer Maize
Series: #4 in the Farmer's Market series, set in South Carolina
ISBN: 978042525174
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "The last person Becca expects to run into at the Swayton County Fall
Festival is her ex-husband, Scott Triplett, who’s operating a shooting
gallery. Honesty was not always Scott’s policy, and their unexpected
reunion is further complicated when the festival becomes a crime scene.
On Becca’s second day there, Ferris wheel operator Virgil Morrison is
found hanging from his rickety ride, dead from a gunshot.
As
Becca starts to notice Scott suspiciously sneaking around the
fairgrounds, she begins to worry her ex may be involved in the murder.
Then there’s the shadow she sees in the creepy corn maze and rumors of a
gypsy curse—not to mention Virgil’s mysterious spider tattoo. Now Becca
must search through a labyrinth of lies, secrets, and superstition to
find a kernel of truth…before the killer starts stalking her."
~~~ December 11 ~~~
Title: My First Murder
Author: Leena Lehtolainen
Series: #1 in the Detective Maria Kallio series, set in Finland
ISBN: 9781612184371
Publisher: AmazonCrossing
Paperback, 257 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Maria Kallio has just been assigned her first murder investigation. To prove to herself and
her squad that she has what it takes to be a detective, she’ll have to
solve the death of Tommi Peltonen. Found floating facedown at the
water’s edge of his Helsinki villa, Tommi had invited his choir group
to spend a weekend at his retreat. But beneath the choir’s seemingly
tight-knit bonds seethed bitter passion and jealousy. As Maria sets out
to determine the difference between friends and foes, she uncovers the
victim’s unsavory past—and motives for all seven suspects. Now it’s up
to her to untangle a complex set of clues before the killer strikes
again."
~~~ December 27 ~~~
Title: Western Approaches
Series: #1 in the DS Jimmy Suttle series, set in western England
ISBN: 9781409131533
Publisher: Orion
Hardcover, 352 pages
Synopsis: "DS Jimmy Suttle has finally tired of the relentless struggle against
the rising tide of urban crime in Portsmouth. Surely a job in Major
Crimes in the West Country will offer some respite? He finds a remote
cottage nestled in a fold of Dartmoor and, with his wife and
two-year-old daughter, heads West for what he is sure will be a saner
existence. How wrong could he be? Soon he is investigating the murder of
a long-distance rower in the small town of Exmouth. The man rowed in
the same 5-man boat as a man who, two years before, dodged a murder
charge when his wife went missing during a cross Atlantic rowing
challenge. There had been tensions between the two. Has a killer killed
again? As the job takes over, Lizzie, Suttle's wife, is increasingly
unhappy about the move. Trying to juggle family life with her own new
job on a local paper, isolated in a lonely cottage with a demanding
toddler and struggling to make new friends, Lizzie thought the whole
point of the move was that she and Suttle could at least see more of
each other. As his marriage frays at the edges and his first
investigation becomes mired Suttle begins to feel the hills around their
cottage crowding in, the wind over the moors above ever chillier, the
waters ever greyer. He really has reached land's end..."
~~~ December 31 ~~~
Title: A Deal to Die For
Series: #2 in the Good Buy Girls series, set in Virginia
ISBN: 9780425251850
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 272 pages
Synopsis: "Letting no good deal go undone, the Good Buy Girls are ready to pounce
on the St. Stanley flea market, where wealthy Vera Madison is selling
off her vintage clothing. The widow’s wardrobe is just what Maggie
Gerber needs to give her second-hand shop, My Sister’s Closet, the edge
over vindictive rival Summer Phillips, who’s opened her own second-hand
shop across the street.
But when Vera is found dead, it turns
out that she collected enemies like Dior gowns—and had more than a few
skeletons in her walk-in closet. Now it’s up to Maggie and the Good Buy
Girls to sort through the racks of suspects for the killer and get back
to the business of bargains…"
Title: Murder Hooks a Mermaid
Series: #2 in the Haunted Souvenir Shop series, set in Florida
ISBN: 9780425251843
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Synopsis: "
Inheriting her great-uncle Louis’s bayside souvenir shop should
have been a breeze for Glory. Instead it’s been one headache after
another—with a lot of them generated by Bluebeard, a parrot with a mouth
like a sailor and a personality a lot like her late great-uncle. But
Glory’s troubles pale in comparison to those of her best friend Karen,
whose ex may still have the personalized key chain to her heart, but
whose brother-in-law is about to get locked up.
A
diver has been found with a gaff hook in his chest, and Karen turns to
Glory to help get her brother-in-law off the hook for his murder. But
casting the net for the real killer won’t be easy. Glory and Bluebeard
are about to find out that the secrets in Keyhole Bay run deeper than
anyone ever imagined…"
~~~
December certainly seems to be the month for new cozies, doesn't it? (Not that I'm complaining, mind!) Do any of these books tickle your fancy? Which ones? Inquiring minds always want to know!
