The Prodigal Daughter by Mette Ivie Harrison

 

First Line: Kurt and I were in marriage therapy again.

 

It is a fraught time in the Wallheim household. Linda and her husband Kurt, who is a bishop in the Mormon church, are going through marriage therapy. Too many things have happened in her life, and Linda's outlook and thinking have changed. Kurt resents the changes and wants the woman he married back.

 

In this time of tension and stress, Linda's son Joseph asks for her help. Sabrina Jensen, the babysitter for their infant daughter, has vanished, and he wants his mother to help find the young girl. As she begins to ask questions in order to form a better picture of her, she realizes that Sabrina has been under a great deal of pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter... and that she has been the victim of a horrible crime at the hands of her own classmates, good Mormon boys all and future church leaders.

 

Linda is sickened and determined to find Sabrina regardless of the cost to herself. Her search will lead her to the homeless on the dark, frigid streets of Salt Lake City, and what she discovers will make her question whether the Mormon community's most privileged and powerful will ever be called to task for past sins.

 

~

 

The Prodigal Daughter is often a very painful book to read, wrapped as it is in the #MeToo movement and the author's own life. Has the #MeToo movement made it easier to speak out about sexual assault in religious communities? Personally, I doubt it because it's much too easy to blame outsiders for the problem. It simply couldn't happen here, not with our good little boys raised in the teachings of the church! (Notice how I did not single out the Mormon church?)

Mette Ivie Harrison's life has become shredded due to her Linda Wallheim mysteries and her unflinchingly honest portrayal of crime in Mormon communities. I'd love to say that I'm shocked by the Mormon reaction to her writing, but after having lived in Provo, Utah, for three years, I am not. Her writing is honest. She talks about the good things the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does. She talks about what she strongly believes in. But-- and here's the rub-- she also talks about where the Church often fails.

 

In The Prodigal Daughter, it's the plight of runaway and thrown-away children who either can't deal with their parents' insistence on being the perfect Mormon child or who have been thrown out because they don't live up to their parents' expectations. Harrison also paints a clear picture of Mormonism, #MeToo, and women as second-class citizens. It's not pretty, but as Linda Wallheim says, "If the truth destroys something, then it probably wasn't real to begin with."

 

As I said earlier, The Prodigal Daughter is often painful to read as Linda tries to find Sabrina and provide her with safety and acceptance. The truth can hurt. But it's as if all the things Harrison has been living through as she wrote this book squeezed some of the heart out of it. It feels rushed and doesn't quite measure up to previous books in this excellent series, but that does not make it a bad book. Not in the slightest. If you like mysteries that provide you with a strong, clear look into another world, mysteries steeped with a sense of place so palpable that you can touch it, I strongly urge you to read Mette Ivie Harrison's series in its entirety. Begin with The Bishop's Wife.

The Prodigal Daughter by Mette Ivie Harrison

eISBN: 9781641292467

Soho Press © 2021

eBook, 264 pages

 

Amateur Sleuth, #5 Linda Wallheim mystery

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

May 2021 New Mystery Releases!

 

With my leg still going haywire, I think I'm going to find myself with my legs elevated much more than I'd like them to be, and I find that extremely frustrating at this time of year!

Fortunately, I never seem to be short of good books to read, and the afghan I'm knitting is growing by leaps and bounds. But still... Ah well. It is what it is, and whining about it won't do anyone any good.

But even if I whine a bit, I'm still keeping my eyes peeled for new mysteries to add to my Need to Read list. The following are my picks of the best new crime fiction being released throughout the month of May. They've been grouped according to their release dates, and the covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Let's see if I've managed to choose any that are on your own lists... or ones that you'll just have to add!

=== May 4 ===

Title: Thief of Souls

Author: Brian Klingborg

Standalone police procedural set in northern China.

288 pages 

Synopsis: "Lu Fei is a graduate of China’s top police college but he’s been assigned to a sleepy backwater town in northern China, where almost nothing happens and the theft of a few chickens represents a major crime wave. That is until a young woman is found dead, her organs removed, and joss paper stuffed in her mouth. The CID in Beijing―headed by a rising political star―is on the case but in an increasingly authoritarian China, prosperity and political stability are far more important than solving the murder of an insignificant village girl. As such, the CID head is interested in pinning the crime on the first available suspect rather than wading into uncomfortable truths, leaving Lu Fei on his own.

As Lu digs deeper into the gruesome murder, he finds himself facing old enemies and creating new ones in the form of local Communist Party bosses and corrupt business interests. Despite these rising obstacles, Lu remains determined to find the real killer, especially after he links the murder to other unsolved homicides. But the closer he gets to the heart of the mystery, the more he puts himself and his loved ones in danger."

Title: The Girl Who Died

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

Standalone thriller set in Iceland.

320 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn’t just one of Iceland’s most isolated villages, it is home to just ten people. Una’s only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm’s length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space―the site of a local legendary haunting―drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations." 

=== May 11 ===

Title: City of Dark Corners

Author: Jon Talton

Standalone historical mystery set in Phoenix, Arizona.

256 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Phoenix, 1933: A young city with big dreams and dark corners

Great War veteran and rising star Gene Hammons lost his job as a homicide detective when he tried to prove that a woman was wrongly convicted of murder to protect a well-connected man. Now a private investigator, Hammons makes his living looking for missing persons―a plentiful caseload during the Great Depression, when people seem to disappear all the time.

But his routine is disrupted when his brother―another homicide detective, still on the force―enlists his help looking into the death of a young woman whose dismembered body is found beside the railroad tracks. The sheriff rules it an accident, but the carnage is too neat, and the staging of the body parts too ritual. Hammons suspects it's the work of a "lust murderer"―similar to the serial strangler whose killing spree he had ended a few years earlier. But who was the poor girl, dressed demurely in pink? And why was his business card tucked into her small purse? As Hammons searches for the victim's identity, he discovers that the dead girl had some secrets of her own, and that the case is connected to some of Phoenix's most powerful citizens―on both sides of the law."

 

 

=== May 25 ===

 

 

Title: Murder in a Scottish Garden

Author: Traci Hall

Series: #2 in the Scottish Shire cozy series set in northern Scotland.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "In the charming Scottish shire of Nairn, sweater shop owner Paislee Shaw must root out a garden variety killer...
 
Paislee's custom sweater and yarn business, Cashmere Crush, is the sole support for not only the single mum and her ten-year-old son Brody, but also her eccentric Gramps and Wallace, their black Scottish terrier. So when her landlord, Shawn Marcus, serves her an eviction notice and then pulls a disappearing act, she'll go to any lengths to find the man and reason with him.
 
Shawn is heir to the Leery Estate, which Brody's class will be visiting on a field trip. So Paislee volunteers to chaperone in the hopes of tracking down Shawn and killing two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, the only one killed is a man Paislee sees falling out of the hedges after being shot. It's not her missing landlord, but Lady Leery's nephew, Charles Thomson. Gruff DI Mack Zeffer is on the case, but Paislee also has a stake in flushing out the shooter. With suspects sprouting up like weeds, Paislee may need to hedge her bets until she can determine who is trying to lead her down the garden path..." 

Title: A Peculiar Combination

Author: Ashley Weaver

Series: #1 in the Electra McDonnell historical series set in World War II England.

304 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Electra McDonnell has always known that the way she and her family earn their living is slightly outside of the law. Breaking into the homes of the rich and picking the locks on their safes may not be condoned by British law enforcement, but World War II is in full swing, Ellie's cousins Colm and Toby are off fighting against Hitler, and Uncle Mick's more honorable business as a locksmith can't pay the bills any more.

So when Uncle Mick receives a tip about a safe full of jewels in the empty house of a wealthy family, he and Ellie can’t resist. All goes as planned―until the pair are caught redhanded. Ellie expects them to be taken straight to prison, but instead they are delivered to a large townhouse, where government official Major Ramsey is waiting with an offer: either Ellie agrees to help him break into a safe and retrieve blueprints that will be critical to the British war effort, before they can be delivered to a German spy, or he turns her over to the police.

Ellie doesn’t care for the Major's imperious manner, but she has no choice, and besides, she's eager to do her bit for king and country. She may be a thief, but she's no coward. When she and the Major break into the house in question, they find instead the purported German spy dead on the floor, the safe already open and empty. Soon, Ellie and Major Ramsey are forced to put aside their differences to unmask the double-agent, as they try to stop allied plans falling into German hands." 

Title: The Prodigal Daughter

Author: Mette Ivie Harrison

Series: #5 in the Linda Wallheim amateur sleuth series set in Utah.

264 pages

 

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

 

Synopsis: "Linda Wallheim, increasingly disillusioned with her religion, has begun marriage counseling with her husband, Kurt, a bishop in the Mormon Church. On other days, Linda occupies herself with happier things, like visiting her five grown sons and their families.

When Linda’s eldest son, Joseph, tells her his infant daughter’s babysitter, a local teenager named Sabrina Jensen, has vanished, Linda can’t help but ask questions. Her casual inquiries form the portrait of a girl under extreme pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter, and it eventually emerges that Sabrina is the victim of a terrible crime at the hands of her own classmates—including the high school’s golden boys and future church leaders.

Linda’s search for Sabrina will lead her to the darker streets of Utah and cause her to question whether the Mormon community’s most privileged and powerful will be called to task for past sins."

 

 

Title: City on the Edge

Author: David Swinson

Standalone thriller set in Lebanon.

288 pages

 

Synopsis: "In the wake of a baffling tragedy, 13-year-old Graham moves with his family to Beirut, Lebanon, a city on the edge of the sea and cataclysmic violence. Inquisitive and restless by nature, Graham suspects his State Department father is a CIA operative, and that their family’s fragile domesticity is merely a front for American efforts along the nearby Israeli border. Over the course of one year, 1972, Graham’s life will utterly change. Two men are murdered, his parent’s marriage disintegrates, and Graham, along with his two ex-pat friends, run afoul of forces they cannot understand. 

The City on the Edge is elegiac, atmospheric, and utterly authentic. It’s the story of innocents caught within the American net of espionage, of the Lebanese transformed by such interference, of the children who ran dangerously beside the churning wheel of history. One part Stephen King’s “The Body” and another John le Carre’s A Perfect Spy, it’s a transformative crime story told with heart and genuine experience."

 

 

=== May 27 ===

 

 

Title: The Coldest Case

Author: Martin Walker

Series: #14 in the Bruno Chief of Police series set in France.

352 pages

 

UK Release

 

Synopsis: "Bruno Courreges is Chief of Police of the lovely town of St Denis in the Dordogne. His main wish is to keep the local people safe and his town free from crime. But crime has a way of finding its way to him.

For thirty years, Bruno's boss, Chief of Detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, has been obsessed with his first case. It was never solved and Bruno knows that this failure continues to haunt J-J. A young male body was found in the woods near St Denis and never identified. For all these years, J-J has kept the skull as a reminder. He calls him 'Oscar'.

Visiting the famous pre-history museum in nearby Les Eyzies, Bruno sees some amazingly life-like heads expertly reconstructed from ancient skulls. He suggests performing a similar reconstruction on Oscar as a first step towards at last identifying him. An expert is hired to start the reconstruction and the search for Oscar's killer begins again in earnest."

 

 

=== May 31 ===

 

 

Title: Collectibles

Editor: Lawrence Block

Standalone short story anthology

 

Synopsis: "A COLLECTION… OF COLLECTIONS What leads one person to collect stamps and another coins, one fine art and another butterflies? Who can say? But one thing is certain: those who've got the collecting bug care passionately—sometimes violently—about the objects of their obsession. No one covets like a collector; and as you will find in the pages of this brand new anthology from MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block, a truly dedicated collector will ignore the other nine commandments, too, in his quest for his personal Holy Grail. From Joyce Carol Oates' tale of the ultimate Marilyn Monroe collectible to Dennis Lehane's bookseller with a penchant for other people's tragic correspondence, from Lee Goldberg's Hollywood hustler with a collection of unaired TV shows to Joe R. Lansdale's stylish foray into noir, culminating in Lawrence Block's own classic story of a killer with a unique approach to choosing his victims, Collectibles illustrates the range of the collecting impulse and the lengths people will go to in their hunger to possess the perfect piece." 

Well, did I manage to add any books to your wish lists? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!

On My Radar: Mette Ivie Harrison's The Prodigal Daughter

 

I attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormons). I am not LDS, but I did not advertise the fact, and almost all the people I associated with assumed that I was. (In other words, I was not a wild and crazy young woman way back then.) The years I spent there were eye-opening, and when Mette Ivie Harrison's first Linda Wallheim mystery, The Bishop's Wife, was published I had to read it. I was stunned by Harrison's even-handed portrayal of her church, and her continuing honesty has cost her dearly.

I have consistently recommended this (now) five-book series to readers who like to learn about other cultures because, to most people, Mormonism will seem like stepping into a foreign country. The fact that there is a strong female lead solving intriguing mysteries is a decided plus as well. So... it should come as no shock to you when I was happy to see that the next Linda Wallheim mystery will be released in May. Let's find out more about it.

Available May 25, 2021!

Synopsis:

 

"In the wake of the #MeToo movement, has it become easier to speak out about sexual assault in religious communities?

Linda Wallheim, who is increasingly jaded with the Mormon church, has begun marriage counseling with her bishop husband, Kurt, hoping to reconcile their household and philosophical disagreements. On other days, Linda occupies herself with happier things, like visits to see her five grown sons and their families.

When Linda's eldest son, Joseph, tells her his infant daughter's babysitter, a local teenager named Sabrina Jensen, has vanished, Linda can't help but ask questions. Her casual inquiries form the portrait of a girl under extreme pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter, and it eventually emerges that Sabrina is the victim of a terrible crime at the hands of her own classmates—including the high school's academic and athletic superstars.

Linda's search for Sabrina will lead her to the darker streets of Utah and once again cause her to question whether the Mormon community's most privileged and powerful will be called to task for past sins."

 

 

Harrison is a talented writer whom I admire. Here are some words I wrote after attending a panel she was on at Left Coast Crime in Phoenix in 2016. They will explain why I feel the way I do about Mette Ivie Harrison.

 

"Mette had to fire her agent who'd insisted that she not write The Bishop's Wife. ("That made me braver than I'd ever been before.") Her father-in-law is pressuring her son to go on a mission for the Mormon Church, and-- due especially to the issues she brings up in her second book His Right Hand-- she fears excommunication daily. This is a woman who has truly suffered for writing something that she believes in with all her heart and soul. After an emotion-filled pause, Mette said, "If I knew what would happen, I don't think I would've written these books."

I don't think there was a single person in that room who didn't want to wrap her in a hug. I was (and still am) upset. I lived in Provo, Utah for three years, and after reading her two mysteries, I honestly couldn't see how she could escape some dire consequences. We may have free speech in this country, but many times it comes at a very high price."

 

 

These books (which ideally should be read in order) will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope some of you will feel adventurous and give one a try. They are good mysteries with fascinating insight into another culture.

Not of This Fold by Mette Ivie Harrison

First Line: Every year on the Friday night before Halloween, we put on a ward Trunk or Treat in the gym for the whole neighborhood, Mormon and not.

All five of Linda Wallheim's sons have now flown the nest, and she has a lot of time on her hands. She's spent that time becoming close with one of the women in her ward, Gwen Farris, as well as worrying about the state of the country and of her openly gay youngest son who is on his mission in Boston.

Gwen is losing faith in the church, and it has a lot to do with the local "Spanish ward," which is comprised of both legal and undocumented immigrants. When her friend, Gabriela Gonzalez, is found strangled to death at a gas station, Gwen's feeling of guilt is overwhelming. Gabriela's last call was to her, and Gwen ignored it. When she decides the police aren't doing enough to find Gabriela's killer, she seeks justice herself, and Linda finds herself a reluctant partner who's mainly involved in order to keep her young friend out of harm's way.

I have a great deal of admiration for Mette Ivie Harrison. Yes, she's writing mysteries-- a genre that some literary snobs dismiss with a sniff-- but she's also testifying to the current state of her church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's the most even-handed, honest portrait of the Church I've read, and it's put Harrison in danger of being excommunicated. In this series, main character Linda Wallheim has dealt with various aspects of her religion as she solves crimes. A continuing issue in Not of This Fold is its stance on LGBT rights, as Linda's youngest son is openly gay and on a mission for the church. But the main issue here is the one of immigrants-- how they are seen by the church and how they are treated. I've probably made this book (and the series) sound as though they do nothing but preach religion, and they do not. NOt at all. However, the Mormon Church is the backdrop, the cultural setting, and to understand it a little is to be better able to unravel the mystery. For most readers, Not of This Fold will resemble reading a mystery set in a foreign country, and more knowledge is always a good thing.

Linda Wallheim is proud of her cooking and is picky about what she eats from other cooks' tables. But first and foremost, Linda is a mother. It's the primary gene in her DNA. With all her sons out of the house, she has found herself drawn to Gwen Farris, who is the age Linda's daughter would have been if she'd lived. Linda is aware of her maternal feelings, and she certainly needs those protective instincts because Gwen has never met an impulse she didn't give into. During the course of their investigation into Gabriela's death, Gwen constantly puts their lives in danger, and these TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) moments are infuriating. (Yes, I did have a difficult time with this character. With behavior like that, if Gwen does make it through the police academy, she's not going to live long when she gets out on the street.)

The mystery in Not of This Fold is first-rate, with plenty of red herrings, and it was so good to see Linda's husband, the eternal eye-roller and naysayer, getting involved. The added bonus of learning more about another culture makes Harrison's entire series one you won't want to miss. I know I don't.

Not of This Fold by Mette Ivie Harrison

ISBN: 9781616959425

Soho Crime © 2018

Hardcover, 360 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #4 Linda Wallheim mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the publisher
 

 

December 2018 New Mystery Releases!

Yikes! When I typed the post header, it dawned on me that the next one of these would be for 2019. Too bad a person isn't allowed to having a savings account in which time can be stored.

At the time of writing, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and the week following, which is when my second cataract surgery will be done. I'm listening to children playing next-door and a bird on the windowsill that seems to want my attention. Instead, I'll share with you my picks of the new crime fiction being released throughout the month of December.

I've grouped these picks of mine according to their release dates. I hope I've chosen some that tickle your fancy and that you'll include on your own wishlists. Book covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon. So without further ado, let's take a look at the brand-new mysteries coming out in December!

=== December 1 ===

Title: Bleak Harbor

Author: Bryan Gruley

Series: #1 in the Bleak Harbor series set in Michigan.

378 pages

Synopsis: "Summertime in Bleak Harbor means tourists, overpriced restaurants, and the Dragonfly Festival. One day before the much-awaited and equally chaotic celebration, Danny Peters, the youngest member of the family that founded the town five generations ago, disappears.

When Danny’s mother, Carey, and stepfather, Pete, receive a photo of their brilliant, autistic, and socially withdrawn son tied to a chair, they fear the worst. But there’s also more to the story. Someone is sending them ominous texts and emails filled with information no one else should have. Could the secrets they’ve kept hidden—even from one another—have led to Danny’s abduction?

As pressure from the kidnapper mounts, Carey and Pete must face their own ugly mistakes to find their son before he’s taken from them forever."

=== December 4 ===

Title: Not of This Fold

Author: Mette Ivie Harrison

Series: #4 in the Linda Wallheim series set in Utah.

361 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Now that all five of her sons have left home, Mormon bishop’s wife Linda Wallheim has quite a bit of time on her hands, most of which she spends worrying about the state of the country and how her youngest son, Samuel, who is openly gay, is faring on his mission in Boston. She has also become close with one of the women in her ward, Gwen Ferris.

But Gwen is quickly losing faith in the church, and her issues with the Mormon power structure are only reinforced by her work in Draper’s local “Spanish ward.” The ward’s members comprise both legal and undocumented immigrants who aren’t always getting the community support they should be from their church.

When Gabriela Gonzalez, a young mother and Gwen’s friend in the Spanish Ward, is found strangled at a gas station, Gwen is paralyzed with guilt. The dead woman’s last phone call was to Gwen, and her voicemail reveals that she knew she was in danger. When Gwen decides the police aren’t doing enough to get justice for Gabriela, who was undocumented, she decides to find the killer herself. Linda reluctantly takes part in Gwen’s vigilante sleuthing, fearing for her young friend’s safety, but what the pair discovers may put them both in danger."

Title: Bryant & May: Hall of Mirrors

Author: Christopher Fowler

Series: #16 in the Bryant & May police procedural series set in England.

420 pages

Synopsis: "Hard to believe, but even positively ancient sleuths like Bryant and May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit were young once . . . or at least younger. Flashback to London 1969: mods and dolly birds, sunburst minidresses—but how long would the party last?

After accidentally sinking a barge painted like the Yellow Submarine, Bryant and May are relegated to babysitting one Monty Hatton-Jones, the star prosecution witness in the trial of a disreputable developer whose prefabs are prone to collapse. The job for the demoted detectives? Keep the whistle-blower safe for one weekend.

The task proves unexpectedly challenging when their unruly charge insists on attending a party at the vast estate Tavistock Hall. With falling stone gryphons, secret passageways, rumors of a mythical beast, and an all-too-real dismembered corpse, the bedeviled policemen soon find themselves with “a proper country house murder” on their hands.

Trapped for the weekend, Bryant and May must sort the victims from the suspects, including a hippie heir, a blond nightclub singer, and Monty himself—and nobody is quite who he or she seems to be."

Title: Mind Games

Author: Nancy Mehl

Series: #1 in the  Kaely Quinn Profiler series set in St. Louis.

336 pages

Synopsis: "Kaely Quinn's talents as an FBI behavior analyst are impossible to ignore, no matter how unorthodox her methods. But when a reporter outs her as the daughter of an infamous serial killer, she's demoted to field agent and transferred to St. Louis.

When the same reporter who ruined her career claims to have received an anonymous poem predicting a string of murders, ending with Kaely's, the reporter's ulterior motives bring his claim into question. But when a body is found that fits the poem's predictions, the threat is undeniable, and the FBI sends Special Agent Noah Hunter to St. Louis.

Initially resentful of the assignment, Noah is surprised at how quickly his respect for Kaely grows, despite her oddities. But with a brazen serial killer who breaks all the normal patterns on the loose, Noah and Kaely are tested to their limits to catch the murderer before anyone else--including Kaely herself--is killed."

Title: Murder at the Mill

Author: M.B. Shaw

Series: #1 in the Iris Grey series set in rural England

387 pages

Synopsis: "Iris Grey rents a quaint cottage in a picture-perfect Hampshire village, looking to escape from her crumbling marriage. She is drawn to the neighboring Wetherby family and is commissioned to paint a portrait of Dominic Wetherby, a celebrated crime writer.

At the Wetherby's Christmas Eve party, the mulled wine is in full flow - but so are tensions and rivalries among the guests. On Christmas Day, the youngest member of the Wetherby family, Lorcan, finds a body in the water. A tragic accident? Or a deadly crime?

With the snow falling, Iris enters a world of village gossip, romantic intrigue, buried secrets, and murder."

=== December 5 ===

Title: Broken Ground

Author: Val McDermid

Series: #5 in the Karen Pirie police procedural series set in Scotland.

432 pages

Synopsis: "Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, and her gripping, masterfully plotted novels have garnered millions of readers from around the globe. In Broken Ground, cold case detective Karen Pirie faces her hardest challenge yet. 

Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise―a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Pirie is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. And as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is. 

An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of the best crime writers of her generation."

=== December 6 ===

Title: Death of an Eye

Author: Dana Stabenow

Series: #1 in the Eye of Isis historical mysteries set in Egypt in 47 BCE.

400 pages

Synopsis: "Alexandria, 47BCE: Cleopatra shares the throne with her brother Ptolemy under the auspices of Julius Caesar, by whom Cleopatra is heavily pregnant with child. A shipment of new coin meant to reset the shaky Egyptian economy has been stolen, the Queen’s Eye has been murdered and Queen Cleopatra turns to childhood friend Tetisheri to find the missing shipment and bring the murderer to justice."

=== December 11 ===

Title: The Big Empty

Author: Stan Jones & Patricia Watts

Series: #6 in the Nathan Active police procedural series set in Alaska.

264 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Evie Kavoonah, a young mother-to-be, and her fiancé, Dr. Todd Brenner, are on a flight over the Brooks Range when their bush plane runs out of gas and hits a ridge, instantly killing them both. Chukchi police chief Nathan Active doubts he’ll find anything amiss when his close friend, Cowboy Decker, asks him to look into the possibility of foul play. Evie was like a daughter to Cowboy, who trained her to fly, and he insists there’s no way his protégée made a fatal mistake that day. Nathan reluctantly plays along and discovers that Cowboy’s instincts are correct—the malfunction that led to the crash was carefully planned, and several people in the village have motives for targeting the pair.

Meanwhile, Nathan’s wife, Gracie, is pregnant, but so scarred by memories of domestic abuse that she isn’t sure she should have the baby. Nathan must support her and their adopted daughter, Nita, while managing an increasingly complex and dangerous murder case." 

Title: A Suspicion of Silver

Author: P.F. Chisholm

Series: #9 in the Sir Robert Carey historical series set in Elizabethan England.

300 pages 

Synopsis: "Edinburgh, 1593. The new year begins.

Sir Robert Carey has just foiled a double plot against King James. He rides for Leith hunting the would-be assassin now identified as Joachim Hochstetter, also known as Jonathan Hepburn. Has he taken ship for the Continent, or ridden nearly 130 miles south and west into England? There at Keswick, his family, originally from Augsburg, runs a mining operation that pays a royalty to Queen Elizabeth in gold. It's ruled by the widow Radagunda Hochstetter, his mother.

Sir Robert's other problem? His dour, difficult, and now treasonous henchman, Sergeant Henry Dodd, has disappeared somewhere on the snowy moors. Why can't anyone find Dodd's body?

Before going after Hochstetter, Carey must escort Dodd's widow back to her home at Gilsland. It's a complex operation involving a cart, Widow Ridley and Skinabake Armstrong. That's the man who sold Janet Dodd to Wee Colin, the Elliot headman, on her way to Edinburgh before Dodd disappeared.

If Hochstetter goes to ground in Keswick, how far will the colony of German miners go to protect Radagunda's favourite child? He may be an outlaw in Scotland, and King James certainly wants his head, but Carey has no official authorization to kill the man in England.

Predictably, the Hochstetter family is politely obstructive. But something else is going on. What in the name of everything unholy is that well-known reiver, Wattie Graham of Netherby, doing so far over the border in peaceful Keswick?

Sir Robert is tested to the utmost in chasing the traitor (underground), solving a murder, arranging a duel - and then his courtship of another man's wife takes a deadly turn."

=== December 13 ===

Title: Carrion Comfort

Author: Aline Templeton

Series: #2 in the DI Kelso Strang police procedural series set in rural Scotland.

329 pages

UK Release

Synopsis: "Gabrielle, daughter of a brilliant and charismatic local businessman, thinks she’s losing her mind. Recovering from a nervous breakdown triggered by her father’s death and the loss of her unborn child, her sanity is pushed to the brink when she starts suffering memory lapses. Knowing that the other major shareholder of her father’s business is looking for any excuse to squeeze her out, Gabrielle can’t trust anyone.

When a man’s body is found in a dilapidated cottage, DCI Kelso Strang is drafted in from Edinburgh to take charge of the investigation. Still grieving the loss of his wife, battle-scarred Strang finds himself burdened with an over-eager detective constable and a lazy, obtuse detective sergeant. With inadequate resources at his fingertips, and his boss breathing down his neck to wrap up the case quickly and without embarrassment to the force, Strang must pick his way through the minefield of the local relationships and resentments of the sleepy village community. But will he be able to put this case to rest before more lives are destroyed?"

=== December 18 ===

Title: Liars' Paradox

Author: Taylor Stevens

Series: #1 in the Jack and Jill thriller series.

320 pages

Synopsis: "They live in the shadows, Jack and Jill, feuding twins who can never stop running. From earliest memory they’ve been taught to hide, to hunt, to survive. Their prowess is outdone only by Clare, who has always been mentor first and mother second. She trained them in the art of espionage, tested their skills in weaponry, surveillance, and sabotage, and sharpened their minds with nerve-wracking psychological games. As they grew older they came to question her motives, her methods—and her sanity . . .

Now twenty-six years old, the twins are trying to lead normal lives. But when Clare’s off-the-grid safehouse explodes and she goes missing, they’re forced to believe the unthinkable: Their mother’s paranoid delusions have been real all along. To find her, they’ll need to set aside their differences; to survive, they’ll have to draw on every skill she’s trained them to use. A twisted trail leads from the CIA, to the KGB, to an underground network of global assassins where hunters become the hunted. Everyone, it seems, wants them dead—and, for one of the twins, it’s a threat that’s frighteningly familiar and dangerously close to home . . ."

Most publishers must think that no one has time to read in December because the selection is a bit light compared to other months, but there's still plenty of good reading to be found. And if we're talking covers, isn't Dana Stabenow's Death of an Eye eye-catching?

Did I manage to choose any books that made it onto your personal wishlists? Which ones? You know inquiring minds would love to know!

The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers

From the Foreword by Peter Lovesey: I believe Christmas has inspired more short stories than any other theme.

There's nothing like a good mix of crime and Christmas to put you in the holiday spirit, and Soho Crime has come up with a winning collection of short stories for a wide range of reading preferences.

These eighteen stories are written by bestselling and award-winning authors. With crime and Christmas as their common themes, they range from laugh-filled to heartwarming to the most hardboiled of holiday noir. They're also set all over the world: Sweden, England, South Korea, Thailand, Cuba, Ireland, the United States-- and the list goes on.

These stories do run the gamut of styles, and some of the authors contributed something different from what their fans may be used to. For example, Gary Corby, who writes the wonderful Athenian mysteries set in ancient Greece, has a very different subject and setting this time. (I do enjoy it when my favorite authors "branch out" from time to time.)

There are so many gems in The Usual Santas, but I will at least mention the ones that shone the brightest for me: Helene Tursten's "An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace at Christmas Time," Mick Herron's "The Usual Santas," Ed Lin's "Martin," and Colin Cotterill's "There's Only One Father Christmas, Right?" And I feel guilty for not listing them all. 

There's also an added bonus to reading a short story collection like this. Have you wondered if you'd like these authors' books? Then this collection is an excellent starting point for you. Don't be surprised if you find yourself heading to the bookstore or library with a long list of new authors after reading The Usual Santas. Oh, the wonderful reading you have in store!

The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers

ISBN: 9781616957759

Soho Crime © 2017

Hardcover, 416 pages

Short Story Collection

Rating: A

Source: the publisher

For Time and All Eternities by Mette Ivie Harrison

First Line: My fourth son, Kenneth, pulled in the driveway as I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

Marriage to the daughter of a polygamous family is something that Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim never envisaged for her son Kenneth. Polygamy is a practice Linda abhors, feeling that it dehumanizes women and makes children vulnerable to unhealthy family structures. But when family patriarch Stephen Carter invites Linda and her husband for a visit, they accept. Reluctantly. 

With his five wives and twenty-two children, Stephen is convinced that his way of life is righteous, but Linda cannot get over the feeling that something is deeply wrong-- even though she has no concrete proof. When one of the family members is found murdered, Linda vows to stay at the compound as a sort of liaison between the unworldly wives and children and the police who must investigate the crime. It's a situation in which she does good for others at great personal cost to herself. 

Mette Ivie Harrison continues her engaging series in this third book to feature Linda Wallheim, a caring and compassionate Mormon bishop's wife who would nurture the world if given half the chance. In For Time and All Eternities, she explores not only polygamy but the November 2015 exclusion policy in which the Mormon Church took an unforgiving stance against the LGBT community within its ranks. Linda, her husband, and sons show a modern Mormon family facing challenges that we all must face-- except for Linda's penchant for solving murders. While Linda investigates, she sheds light on her faith, helping non-Mormons understand what her religion is all about. Being acquainted with the Mormon lifestyle has given me a great appreciation of Harrison's books, although I am certain that the devout have given her more grief than she ever thought possible. It's what the devout of all faiths do.

Although the mystery is good in For Time and All Eternities, I thought it easily solved just by observing human behavior. Fan though I am of this series, I found this book to be too personal, that it dwelt too much on church matters. It's as though Harrison couldn't maintain a necessary degree of objectivity and it weakens the story she tells. There's no doubt about it. Mette Ivie Harrison is a very talented writer. She's also very brave for writing these books. I look forward to seeing what the future holds in store for her.
   

For Time and All Eternities by Mette Ivie Harrison

ISBN: 9781616956660

Soho Crime © 2017

Hardcover, 336 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #3 Linda Wallheim mystery

Rating: C+

Source: the publisher

January 2017 New Mystery Releases!

I hope the holidays are treating you with kindness. I know that isn't always the case. The very first Christmas I faced alone, I made myself throw a Christmas Eve party. I've never been much of a drinker, but I made a big bowl of sparkling raspberry punch that had a bit of a kick to it, and then several of my friends brought their own refreshments. My punch disappeared in less than five minutes, and it was on to all the food and other fizz. A friend who was also facing Christmas Day solo spent the night, and we got to share our hangovers. 

However, I'm not wanting to share hangovers with you right now. I have a few Poisoned Pen gift cards burning holes in my wallet, so I'm going to take a look at my picks of the new crime fiction being released in January to get an idea of how to spend my bounty. I've grouped them by release dates, and I've included all the information you'll need to find them at your own favorite book procurement sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon. Let's take a look at this list of mine!

=== January 1 ===

Title: The Murder Book

Author: Jane A. Adams

Series: #1 in the Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone historical series set in 1928 London.

ISBN:  9780727886552

Publisher: Severn House

Hardcover, 240 pages

Synopsis: "Lincolnshire, England. June 1928. When three freshly-buried bodies are unearthed in the front yard of a rented cottage, DCI Henry Johnstone, a specialist murder detective from London, is summoned to investigate. Two of the victims are identified as Mary Fields, known to have worked as a prostitute, and her seven-year-old daughter Ruby. But who is the third victim and what was he doing at the cottage?

Johnstone is determined to do things by the book, but his use of forensic science and other modern methods of detection soon ruffles feathers. Frustrated by the unhelpful attitude of the local constabulary, Johnstone fears the investigation is heading nowhere. Then he’s called out to another murder . .."  

=== January 3 ===

Title: The Return of the Raven Mocker

Author: Donis Casey

Series: #9 in the Alafair Tucker historical series set in 1918 Oklahoma.

ISBN: 9781464207549

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Hardcover, 226 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "World War I is raging in Europe, but as the deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 sweeps like a wildfire through Boynton, Oklahoma, Alafair Tucker is fighting her own war. Her daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter Kelley, have both come down with the flu, and Alafair has moved into town to care for them after quarantining her young children at their sister’s farm. Boynton as a whole isolates itself like an old English plague village, discouraging anyone from coming into town and the residents from traveling outside. A new doctor applies science to treating the stricken, but Alafair applies all she knows about hygiene, nutrition, and old and trusted country remedies. Unable to aid her sons and sons-in-law fighting overseas, this is danger she can combat.

One autumn afternoon, screams coming from next door alert Alafair that Alice’s neighbor, Nola Thomason, and her son Lewis have suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed. Yet there is something about the way the pair died that causes Alafair to suspect their deaths were due to poison rather than to influenza. The epidemic is so overwhelming that it is many days before the only doctor left in town can confirm Alafair’s suspicions; neither Nola nor Lewis died of the flu. The only witness to their deaths, twelve-year-old Dorothy Thomason, a special friend of Alafair’s daughter, Sophronia, is so traumatized that she is rendered mute. Were Nola and her son murdered, and if so, why?

The usual motives for murder are greed, or jealousy, or hatred. Or could it be, as Alafair fears, that the Raven Mocker, the most dreaded of the Cherokee wizards or witches, the evil spirit who takes to the air in a fiery shape to rob the old, the sick, and the dying of their lives, is hunting victims and bringing misery to the innocent?" 

Title: Assault and Beret
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Series: #5 in the Hat Shop cozy series set in Paris.
ISBN: 9780425279595
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "London milliner Vivian Tremont and her American cousin and partner, Scarlett Parker, tip their caps to their beloved shop on Portobello Road in Notting Hill and set off for Paris, where Viv can’t wait to teach a hat-making class. But she has another reason to travel to the City of Light: to find the man she impulsively eloped with years ago and have their marriage annulled.

William Graham is not only handsome and charming, but he also has a glamorous job as an insurance investigator who works with priceless pieces of art, most recently a small Renoir that has been discovered in a junk shop. But when both Will and the masterpiece suddenly disappear, it’s up to the ladies from London to follow the trail of clues. They’ll need to hold on to their chapeaux, however, because someone is a master in the art of deception..."

=== January 10 ===

Title: For Time and All Eternities

Author: Mette Ivie Harrison

Series: #3 in the Linda Wallheim series set in Draper, Utah.

ISBN: 9781616956660

Publisher: Soho Crime

Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim is stunned to learn her son Kenneth has gotten engaged to a young woman from a polygamous family. Naomi Carter may have left the religion she grew up in, but the Carters will still be the Wallheims' in-laws once Kenneth and Naomi are married.

Stephen Carter, Naomi's father and the patriarch of the Carter clan, invites the Wallheims over to the Carter family compound in the remote foothills of the mountains outside Salt Lake City. Stephen Carter wishes to extend an olive branch to his future in-laws and introduce them to his five wives and twenty-two children. But Linda suspects he also wants to try to persuade the Wallheims that his way of life is truly righteous. 

From Linda's point of view, polygamy is an abhorrent practice, one that dehumanizes women and makes children vulnerable to unhealthy family structures. She and her husband, Kurt, arrive at the Carter compound braced for trouble—Linda has her eyes peeled for signs that Stephen's wives and children are unhappy or abused. Although she can't find concrete evidence of mistreatment, Linda's gut instinct tells her that something on the Carter family compound is deeply wrong. She can't quite put her finger on what—until it's too late, and one of the family members is found murdered. 

Afraid that Stephen Carter's unworldly, sequestered wives and children might suffer at the hands of investigating police, Linda vows to stay at the compound until the murderer is found and the survivors are safe. But even if she manages to do more good than harm with her snooping and interfering, Linda can't unsee what she has seen during her time at the Carters'—now, confronting the legacy of polygamy in her own Mormon family raises even more questions about her already shaky faith."

Title: The Ripper's Shadow

Author: Laura Joh Rowland

Standalone historical mystery

ISBN: 9781683310051

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Hardcover, 368 pages

Synopsis: "The year is 1888 and Jack the Ripper begins his reign of terror.

Miss Sarah Bain, a photographer in Whitechapel, is an independent woman with dark secrets. In the privacy of her studio, she supplements her meager income by taking illicit “boudoir photographs” of the town's local ladies of the night. But when two of her models are found gruesomely murdered within weeks of one another, Sarah begins to suspect it's more than mere coincidence.

Teamed with a motley crew of friends--including a street urchin, a gay aristocrat, a Jewish butcher and his wife, and a beautiful young actress--Sarah delves into the crime of the century. But just as she starts unlocking the Ripper's secrets, she catches the attention of the local police, who believe she knows more than she's revealing, as well as from the Ripper himself, now bent on silencing her and her friends for good.

Caught in the crosshairs of a ruthless killer, Sarah races through Whitechapel's darkest alleys to find the truth...until she makes a shocking discovery that challenges everything she thought she knew about the case. Intelligent and utterly engrossing, Laura Joh Rowland's Victorian mystery The Ripper's Shadow will keep readers up late into the night."  

Title: Where I Can See You

Author: Larry D. Sweazy

Standalone  

ISBN: 9781633882119

Publisher: Seventh Street Books

Paperback, 255 pages

Synopsis: "Haunted by the disappearance of his mother when he was eight years old, detective Hud Matthews begins his own investigation to find out what really happened so many years before. When a rare murder occurs in the lakeside community, Hud's veteran skills are called upon to capture the killer. Pulled deep into the threads of the community with ties to the past, Hud quickly becomes a target, not only of the killer but of those who wish the past to be left alone. As Hud gets closer to discovering the truth about the crimes, he has to face a choice of enforcing the law, or stepping outside of it to make sure that his version of justice is served."  

Title: She Stopped for Death

Author: Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

Series: #2 in the Little Library cozy series set in Michigan.

ISBN: 9781683310136

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "Jenny Weston and her mother, Dora, have been receiving strange midnight visits. Bear Falls's own elusive and highly secretive poet, Emily Sutton, has lived her life cloistered away with her sister in a house at the edge of Pewee Swamp. But now, Emily's started leaving scraps of poetry in Dora's Little Library, and Dora makes it her mission to befriend the sheltered woman.

Meanwhile Zoe Zola, almost famous author, Little Person, and the Westons' quirky next-door neighbor, is hard at work on a new book, this one about the inner life of Emily Dickinson. And once again, Zoe's literary work starts making uncanny connections with the events in her own world as Emily Sutton reemerges into society. But Zoe begins to suspect things aren't anywhere near normal at Emily's swamp house or in the lives of the people she claims have abandoned her...until looking further into the poet's half-truths leads Zoe and Jenny to a horrible murder.

The chaos surrounding the ensuing investigation grows even more hectic with Emily’s increasingly erratic behavior, the arrival of a young woman searching for her missing poet uncle, and yet another betrayal in Jenny's love life. And only poetry can set the truth free in Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's charming second Little Library mystery, She Stopped for Death." 

=== January 17 ===

Title: Scheduled to Death

Author: Mary Feliz

Series: #2 in the Maggie McDonald cozy series set in northern California.

ISBN: 9781601836663 

Publisher: Lyrical Underground

Paperback, 236 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.

Synopsis: "Maggie McDonald is hoping to raise the profile of her new Orchard View organizing business via her first high-profile client. Professor Lincoln Sinclair may be up for a Nobel Prize, but he’s hopeless when it comes to organizing anything other than his thoughts. For an academic, he’s also amassed more than his share of enemies. When Sinclair’s fiancée is found dead on the floor of his home laboratory—electrocuted in a puddle of water—Maggie takes on the added task of finding the woman’s murderer. To do so, she’ll have to outmaneuver the suspicious, obnoxious police investigator she’s nicknamed “Detective Awful” before a shadowy figure can check off the first item on their personal to-do list—Kill Maggie McDonald." 

=== January 31 ===

Title: Justice Delayed

Author: Patricia Bradley

Series: #1 in the Memphis Cold Case suspense series set in Tennessee.

ISBN: 9780800727086

Publisher: Revell

Paperback, 352 pages

Synopsis: "It's been eighteen years since TV crime reporter Andi Hollister's sister was murdered. The confessed killer is behind bars, and the execution date is looming. But when a letter surfaces stating that the condemned killer didn't actually do it, Detective Will Kincaide of the Memphis Cold Case Unit will stop at nothing to help Andi get to the bottom of it. After all, this case is personal: the person who confessed to the crime is Will's cousin. They have less than a week to find the real killer before the wrong person is executed. But much can be accomplished in that week--including uncovering police corruption, running for your life, and falling in love.

With the perfect mixture of intrigue and nail-biting suspense, award-winning author Patricia Bradley invites her readers to crack the case--if they can--alongside the best Memphis has to offer."

Title: The Hanging Tree

Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Series: #6 in the Rivers of London urban fantasy series featuring Peter Grant, a police constable, apprentice wizard, and all around nice guy.

ISBN: 9780756409678   

Publisher: DAW

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "Where the Marble Arch stands today in London was once the Tyburn gallows—also known as The Hanging Tree. The walk toward those gallows along Oxford Street and past the Mayfair mansions has a bloody and haunted history as the last trip of the condemned. Some things never change. For both blood and ghosts have returned to those mansions of the super-rich. And it’s up to Peter Grant—England’s last wizard and the Metropolitan Police’s reluctant investigator of all things supernatural—to get to the bottom of the sinister doings."  

Title: Snowblind

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

Series: #1 in the Dark Iceland police procedural series set in northern Iceland.

ISBN: 9781250096074  

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Hardcover, 320 pages

My review of the UK edition. 

Synopsis: "Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors--accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.

Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik--with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theater, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness--blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.

Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from the extraordinary new talent Ragnar Jonasson." 

Title: Rather Be the Devil

Author: Ian Rankin

Series: #23 in the John Rebus series set in Scotland.  

ISBN: 9780316342575

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "As he settles into an uneasy retirement, Rebus has given up his favorite vices. There's just one habit he can't shake: he can't let go of an unsolved case. It's the only pastime he has left and up until now, it's the only one that wasn't threatening to kill him. But when Rebus starts reexamining the facts behind the long-ago murder of a glamorous woman at a luxurious hotel - on the same night a famous rock star and his entourage were also staying there - the past comes roaring back to life with a vengeance.

And as soon as Rebus starts asking questions about the long forgotten crime, a fresh body materializes. His inquiries reunite him with his old pals- Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox- as they attempt to uncover the financial chicanery behind the savage beating of an upstart gangster, a crime that suggests the notorious old-school crime boss Big Ger Cafferty has taken to retirement as poorly as Rebus himself.

As he connects the mysteries of the past to the those of the present, Rebus learns - the hard way - that he's not the only one with an insatiable curiosity about what happened in that hotel room forty years ago, and that someone will stop at nothing to ensure that the crime remains ancient history.

A twisted tale of power, corruption, and bitter rivalries in the dark heart of Edinburgh, Rather Be the Devil showcases Rankin and Rebus at their unstoppable best."  

 

I don't know about you, but I certainly found a title or two to purchase with my gift cards. Which titles intrigue you the most? Inquiring minds would love to know!