The one time of year that always goes too fast for my liking is summer. I've always been this way, probably because I suffer from SAD, and the brilliant sunlight and lack of clouds here in the desert go a long way to unburden me of that tiresome disorder.
With my enjoyment of my pool, wildlife watching, and reading, I can go through about seventy-five books over the summer, and that means that I have to keep my eyes peeled for new books constantly, greedy soul that I am.
The following are my picks of the new crime fiction being released during the month of July. They are grouped by release date and contain information that will help you add them to your Must Read lists. Book covers and synopses are courtesy of Amazon.
Let's get started!
=== July 1 ===
Title: The Cleaner
Author: Elisabeth Herrmann
Translated from the German.
Standalone Thriller set in present-day Germany.
460 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child Judith was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances—parentage unknown. And the East German secret police were always there, in the background. When Judith begins to ask questions, she becomes the target of some powerful enemies. And nothing will ever be the same again."
=== July 4 ===
Title: City of Masks
Series: #3 in the historical Oswald de Lacy series set in plague-stricken mid-fourteenth century England.
336 pages
Synopsis: "It’s 1358, and young Oswald de Lacy, Lord Somershill, is delayed in Venice as he awaits a pilgrim ship to the Holy Land. While the city is besieged by the King of Hungary, Oswald stays at the house of an English merchant, and soon comes under the spell of this decadent and dazzling island state that sits on the edge of Europe―where East meets West.
But Oswald has secrets. He is running away from something in England―a shadow that still haunts him, no matter how much he consoles himself with the delights of Venice. When he finds a dead man at the carnival, he is dragged into a murder investigation that draws him deep into the intrigues of this paranoid, mysterious city.
From the dungeons of the Doge’s Palace to the convent-brothel of Santa Lucia, Oswald must search for a murderer in this bewildering maze of alleys and canals. When he comes up against the feared Signori di Notte, the secret police, Oswald learns that he is not the only one with something to hide. Everyone is watching (or trailing) someone else, and nobody in Venice is who they appear to be. Masks, it seems, are not only for the carnival."
Title: Dead Storage
Series: #3 in the Maggie McDonald cozy series set in Silicon Valley, California.
216 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "As a professional organizer, Maggie McDonald brings order to messy situations. But when a good friend becomes a murder suspect, surviving the chaos is one tall task . . .
Despite a looming deadline, Maggie thinks she has what it takes to help friends Jason and Stephen unclutter their large Victorian in time for its scheduled renovation. But before she can fill a single bin with unused junk, Jason leaves for Texas on an emergency business trip, Stephen's injured mastiff limps home and Stephen himself lands in jail for murder. Someone killed the owner of a local Chinese restaurant and stuffed him in the freezer. Stephen, caught at the crime scene covered in blood, is the number one suspect. Now Maggie must devise a strategy to sort through secrets and set him free before she's tossed into permanent storage next . . ."
=== July 6 ===
Title: Watching You
Author: Arne Dahl
Translated from the Swedish.
Standalone thriller set in Sweden.
400 pages
UK Release
Synopsis: "At each abandoned crime scene there's a hidden clue: a tiny metal cog, almost invisible to the naked eye. Someone is sending Detective Sam Berger a message, someone who knows that only he will understand the cryptic trail.
When another teenage girl disappears without a trace, Sam must convince his superiors that they’re dealing with a serial killer. As the police continue the hunt to find the latest victim, Sam is forced to unearth long-buried personal demons. He has no choice if he is to understand the killer's darkly personal message before time runs out."
=== July 8 ===
Title: Penhale Wood
Author: Julia Thomas
Standalone suspense set in Cornwall, England.
312 pages
Synopsis: "On a cold December night in Cornwall, nanny Karen Peterson disappeared with three-year-old Sophie Flynn. The next day, the child’s body was found on a riverbank in Penhale Wood.
A year later, Sophie’s mother, Iris Flynn, appears on the doorstep of investigating officer Rob McIntyre, determined to make him reopen her daughter’s case. McIntyre has his own personal demons, but Iris hijacks his life in order to find the woman she thinks is responsible for Sophie’s death. Following the slimmest of leads, they are soon confronting ghosts from the past and a chameleon-like killer who will do anything to stay hidden."
=== July 11 ===
Title: 30 Second Death
Series: #2 in the Tobi Tobias cozy series set in Missouri.
220 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "When Tobi Tobias opened her own advertising agency, Carter McDade was there for her every step of the way. A brilliant hairdresser, Carter has just landed his dream project: doing hair and makeup for a theatrical production of Rapunzel. But the dream turns into a nightmare when he runs into Fiona Renoir, a cruel, talentless starlet who won't let Carter touch a hair on her head.
To get Fiona out of Carter's hair, Tobi hires the difficult actress for a bit part in her latest commercial. But true to character, Fiona is a terror on set, and Tobi is starting to think she's made the biggest mistake of her life. But things get even worse when Fiona drops dead in the hairdresser's chair, and the only suspect is the man left holding the tainted hair dye, Carter McDade. And unless Tobi can prove his innocence, he'll never do hair in this town again."
Title: Down a Dark Road
Series: #9 in the Kate Burkholder police procedural series set in Ohio.
304 pages
Synopsis: "Two years ago, Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison. He was a “fallen” Amish man and a known drug user with a violent temper. Now King has escaped, and he’s headed for Painters Mill.
News of a murderer on the loose travels like wildfire, putting Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and her team of officers on edge. But this is personal for Kate. She grew up with Joseph King. As a thirteen-year-old Amish girl, she’d worshiped the ground he walked on. She never could have imagined the nightmare scenario that becomes reality when King shows up with a gun and takes his five children hostage at their Amish uncle’s farm. Armed and desperate, he has nothing left to lose.
Fearing for the safety of the children, Kate makes contact with King only to find herself trapped with a killer. Or is he? All King asks of her is to help him prove his innocence―and he releases her unharmed. Kate is skeptical, but when the facts and the evidence don’t align, she begins to wonder who she should trust. Spurned by some of her fellow cops, she embarks on her own investigation only to unearth an unspeakable secret―and someone who is willing to commit murder to keep it buried."
Title: Death on Delos
Series: #7 in the historical Athenian series set in and around classical Greece.
352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Greece, 454 BC: The sacred isle of Delos, the birthplace of the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, has been a most holy pilgrimage site for centuries. Delos is also home to the military fund kept by the Delian League, the alliance of city-states that defended Greece against the Persians, and that vast treasury is protected only by the priests and priestesses of the tiny isle and a scant armed guard.
Then one day the charismatic Athenian statesman Pericles arrives at the head of a small army to forcibly take the treasury back to the safety of Athens. With him are Nico, the only private agent in ancient Athens, and his heavily pregnant wife and partner in sleuthing, the priestess Diotima. She has been selected to give this year’s annual offering to holy Artemis.
In the face of righteous resistance from the priests, Pericles assigns Nico to bribe their leader. But before he can get very far with this dubiously unholy task, Nico ends up with a murder on his hands.
It is a crime against the gods to die or be born on the sacred island. Thanks to the violence over the treasury, the first blasphemy has already been committed. Can Nico solve the murder and get Diotima off the island before they accidentally commit the second?"
=== July 18 ===
Title: Collared
Series: #16 in the Andy Carpenter series set in Paterson, New Jersey.
336 pages
Synopsis: "Lawyer Andy Carpenter’s true passion is the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs with his friend Willie Miller. All kinds of dogs make their way to the foundation, and it isn’t that surprising to find a dog abandoned at the shelter one morning, though it was accompanied by a mysterious anonymous note. But they are quite surprised when they scan the dog’s embedded chip and discover that they know this dog. He is the 'DNA dog.'
Two and a half years ago, Jill Hickman was a single mother of an adopted baby. Her baby and dog were kidnapped in broad daylight in Eastside Park, and they haven’t been seen since. A tip came in that ID’d a former boyfriend of Hickman’s, Keith Wachtel, as the kidnapper. A search of his house showed no sign of the child but did uncover more incriminating evidence, and the clincher that generated Wachtel’s arrest was some dog hair, notable since Wachtel did not have a dog. DNA tests showed conclusively that the hair belonged to Hickman’s dog. Wachtel was convicted of kidnapping, but the dog and baby were never found.
Now, with the reappearance of the dog, the case is brought back to light, and the search for the child renewed. Goaded by his wife’s desire to help a friend and fellow mother and Andy’s desire to make sure the real kidnapper is in jail, Andy and his team enter the case. But what they start to uncover is far more complicated and dangerous than they ever expected."
Title: The Late Show
Series: #1 in the Renée Ballard police procedural series set in Los Angeles, California.
448 pages
Synopsis: "Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns everything over to the day shift. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night she catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the investigations entwine, they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job, no matter what the department throws at her."
Title: Arrowood
Author: Mick Finlay
Series: #1 Arrowood historical mystery set in Victorian London.
368 pages
Synopsis: "London is scared. A killer haunts the city's streets; the poor are hungry; crime bosses are taking control; the police force is stretched to the breaking point.
The rich turn to Sherlock Holmes, but the celebrated private detective rarely visits the densely populated streets of South London, where the crimes are sleazier and the people are poorer.
In the dark corner of Southwark, victims turn to a man who despises Holmes, his wealthy clientele, and his showy forensic approach to crime: Arrowood—self-taught psychologist, occasional drunkard, and private investigator.
When a man mysteriously disappears and Arrowood's best lead is viciously stabbed before his eyes, he and his sidekick Barnett face their toughest quest yet: to capture the head of the most notorious gang in London…"
=== July 24 ===
Title: Bright Shiny Things
Author: Barbara Nadel
Series: #5 in the Arnold and Hakim private investigator series set in present-day London.
352 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books
Synopsis: "Out of the blue, private investigator and ex-soldier Lee Arnold receives a visit from an old army mate. Abbas al’Barri worked as a translator with him during the Second Iraq War. Now living in Ilford with his family, Abbas is convinced that he’s had a message from his estranged son Fayyaad, who was radicalized and was last thought to be fighting for ISIL in Iraq. Does Fayyaad’s message indicate a change of heart? Abbas is desperate for Lee’s help in establishing some contact with him, a point with which Lee’s Muslim assistant Mumtaz might be able to help. From the bright lights of the Western world, to the murky online recruitment techniques of radical Islamism, Lee and Mumtaz have little to guide them in who to trust as they begin a journey into the belly of the beast."
=== July 25 ===
Title: Deadfall
Series: #19 in the Alex Cooper legal thriller series set in New York City.
400 pages
Synopsis: "A wild heart beats within New York City. Amid concrete and skyscrapers, the Wildlife Conservation Society works to preserve and protect the animal kingdom both within and beyond the borders of the five boroughs. But dangerous creatures don't always have claws and fangs, as Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper and NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace know all too well. Predators lurk close to home, and in the aftermath of the shocking assassination of an iconic public figure—someone Alex has worked with for years—the trio must unravel the motive behind the shooting to discover who is the bigger snake: the killer or the victim.
The murder investigation provides more questions than answers, as a tangled mess of secrets slowly comes to light. From street gangs to secret societies, from big-game hunting to the illegal animal trade, from New York City zoos to the highest offices in city government, Alex has her work cut out for her—especially since the task force handling the investigation, led by the US Attorney, seems to be more against her than with her. As tensions rise between Alex and the feds, she must determine just how far she is willing to go to uncover the truth—and uphold the integrity of the office she has so proudly served."
Great lineup for July, isn't it? I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the newest S.D. Sykes mystery, and Michael Connelly's latest has really caught my eye, too. What about you? Which books made it to your own wishlists? Inquiring minds would love to know!
