Speaking of knitting up a storm, I'm beginning to wonder if I should have winter book giveaways that include an afghan? I'll bet no one else has done that! But I digress.
The following are my picks of the best in new crime fiction being released throughout the month of September. I've grouped them by their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Let's get right down to the fun part-- going through my list! Hopefully, I've chosen a title or two that makes its way to your own reading list. Let's take a look!
=== September 1 ===
Authors: Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent
Short Story Anthology, 352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "A stellar line-up of historical mystery novelists weaves the tale of a priceless and cursed gold watch as it passes through time wreaking havoc from one owner to another. As the hours and years pass, the characters are irrevocably linked by fate, each playing a key role in breaking the curse and destroying the watch once and for all.
From 1733 Italy to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in 1870 London, and a lethal game of revenge decades later, the watch touches lives with misfortune, until it comes into the reach of one young woman who might be able to stop it for good.
As much a book of curses as a book of destinies, The Deadly Hours is a breathtaking anthology rich with atmosphere and intrigue that encapsulates the exquisite destruction, heartbreak, and redemption wrought by fate.
- This outstanding collaboration of authors includes:
- Susanna Kearsley - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of compelling time slip fiction.
- C.S. Harris - USA Today bestselling author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series.
- Anna Lee Huber - award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries.
- Christine Trent - author of the Lady of Ashes Victorian mystery series."
Title: One for the Books
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Series: #11 in the Library Lovers cozy series set in Connecticut
320 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and
boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The
entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully's plan
for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon
attending the event of the year.
When Lindsey and her
crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate
the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body
washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as
the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding
ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can't help but
wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve
the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it's even
begun...."
=== September 8 ===
Title: Hanging Falls
Author: Margaret Mizushima
Series: #6 in the Timber Creek K-9 police procedural series set in Colorado.
288 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "A deluge has flooded the high ground near Hanging Falls--but heavy rains
aren't the only menace descending on Timber Creek. While on a scouting
mission to pinpoint trail damage, officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9
partner Robo stumble upon a body floating at the edge of a lake. Robo
catches human scent, which leads to an enigmatic forest-dweller who
quickly becomes suspect number one.
With help from veterinarian
Cole Walker, Mattie identifies the victim, and discovers an odd
religious cult whose dress and manners harken back to the 19th century.
As the list of suspects grows, an unexpected visit from members of
Mattie's long-lost family sheds new light on her childhood as they help
Mattie piece together details of the fateful night when she was abducted
at age two.
The tangled threads of the investigation and family
dynamics begin to intertwine--but darkness threatens to claim a new
victim before Mattie and Robo can track down the killers."
Title: One by One
Author: Ruth Ware
Standalone thriller set in the French Alps
384 pages
Synopsis: "Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French
Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when
there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a
cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that
company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain,
something to lose, and something to hide.
When the cofounder of
Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip
for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat
like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up
by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder
upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer,
tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the
chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating
avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world.
Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the
avalanche hit.
As each hour passes without any sign of rescue,
panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles
further…one by one."
Title: The Sleeping Nymph
Author: Ilaria Tuti
Series: #2 in the Teresa Battaglia police procedural series set in Italy
456 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "A decades-old murder investigation has landed on Superintendent Teresa
Battaglia's desk. DNA analysis has revealed that a painting from the
final days of World War II contains matter from a human heart. Teresa is
able to trace the evidence to Val Resia, one of Italy’s most isolated,
untouched regions.
When Teresa’s investigation hits too close to
the truth, a fresh human heart is hung at the valley’s entrance, a
warning not to cross its threshold. As she hunts a ruthless killer,
Teresa must face down her own rapidly deteriorating physical and
cognitive abilities, as well as someone she hoped never to see again—a
man who has just become her supervisor."
Title: The Darkest Evening
Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: #9 in the Vera Stanhope police procedural series set in northern England.
384 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope
sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she
misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has
skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she
stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the
owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is
strapped in the back seat.
Vera takes the child and, driving on,
she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house
in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s
also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full
swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the
revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.
As the blizzard traps
the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn
begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her
investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past."
Title: Little Bookshop of Murder
Author: Maggie Blackburn
Series: #1 in the Beach Reads cozy series set in North Carolina
304 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Summer Merriweather's career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a
bookbinder's thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a
viper's pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a
scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published,
impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her
mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart
attack.
Returning to Brigid's Island, NC, for the funeral,
Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom's embarrassingly
romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by
Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: "Sell
the bookstore or die."
Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid's
Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The
police insist there's not enough evidence to launch a murder
investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage
to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy's
beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid's Island than
are dreamt of in the Bard's darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can't
find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean
tragedy's worth of corpses--including her own."
=== September 15 ===
Title: Forging Fire
Author: Lisa Preston
Series: #3 in the Horseshoer amateur sleuth series set in Oregon and California
288 pages
Synopsis: "Days before her wedding, Rainy Dale jumps at a chance to visit the
fabled Black Bluff bull sale down in California, but things go awry when
she is assaulted and her truck is stolen.
In this twist on the
“locked-room” form, more than one mystery is hidden on the ranch where
Rainy and her dog, Charlie, end up. Everyone—the owners, ranch hands,
angry neighbors, and perhaps even the deliveryman who brings coke coal
for the ranch’s old-fashioned forge—is harboring a damaging secret. When
Rainy realizes that even her dog knows a grisly hidden truth, the
stakes are raised as high as life and death."
=== September 22 ===
Title: The Thursday Murder Club
Author: Richard Osman
Series: #1 in the Thursday Murder Club series set in England.
368 pages
Synopsis: "Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to...
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
In
a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the
Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves
The Thursday Murder Club.
When a local developer is found dead
with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder
Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?"
Title: Escaping Dreamland
Author: Charlie Lovett
Standalone literary mystery set in New York City
352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Robert Parrish's childhood obsession with series books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift inspired him to become an author. Just as his debut novel becomes a bestseller, his relationship with his girlfriend, Rebecca, begins to fall apart. Robert realizes he must confront his secret demons by fulfilling a youthful promise to solve a mystery surrounding his favorite series the Tremendous Trio.
Guided by twelve tattered books and an unidentified but tantalizing fragment of a story, Robert journeys into the history of the books that changed his life, hoping they can help him once again. His odyssey takes him to 1906 Manhattan, a time of steamboats, boot blacks, and Fifth Avenue mansions, but every discovery he makes only leads to more questions.
Robert's quest intertwines with the stories of three young people trying to define their places in the world at the dawn of a new and exciting century. Magda, Gene, and Tom not only write the children's books that Robert will one day love, together they explore the vibrant city on their doorstep, from the Polo Grounds to Coney Island's Dreamland, drawing the reader into the Gilded Age as their own friendships deepen.
The connections between the authors, their creations, and Robert's redemptive journey make for a beautifully crafted novel that is an ode to the children's series books of our past, to New York City, and above all, to the power of love and friendship."
Title: Next to Last Stand
Author: Craig Johnson
Series: #16 in the Sheriff Walt Longmire police procedural series set in Wyoming.
336 pages
Synopsis: "One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist."
There's no doubt about it-- September is a stellar month for new crime fiction! Craig Johnson! Ann Cleeves! Charlie Lovett! And the list goes on. Which books from my list are on your own Must Read list? Inquiring minds would love to know!
