Ghost Light by Stan Jones & Patricia Watts

 

First Line: Lucy Brophy crashed into Nathan Active as he passed her office on the second floor of the Chukchi Public Safety building.

 

Tommie Leokuk has dementia, and it's not unusual for her to slip the bonds of those who care for her late, late at night to roam the streets of the small Inupiat village of Chukchi in northern Alaska. When she brings something home after one of her rambles, her husband, Oscar, brings her to see Chief of Public Safety Nathan Active. Out of the pouch of her atiqluk, Tommie pulls a human jawbone with one molar still attached. But Tommie can't tell Nathan where she found the jawbone, for- as her husband explains it-- "She lost her brain a few years ago."

 

This leads to some late hours for Nathan, as he watches Tommie to see where she wanders at night. His persistence pays off, and the expertly dismembered remains of a woman are found in the ice cellar of an abandoned Inupiat fish camp. 

As Active struggles with PTSD from a shootout in his last case, he finds himself in the middle of an investigation that grows more complicated by the day.

~

Stan Jones' Nathan Active series has long been my favorite mystery series set in Alaska. Raised by white parents in Anchorage, Active's job with the Alaska Highway Patrol soon leads him to the small Inupiat village of Chukchi on Alaska's north coast where he is now Chief of Public Safety. The backbone of this series is its depiction of village life and how Active slowly becomes a part of it and of his heritage.

 

Now married and with a small child, Nathan finds monitoring Tommie Leokuk's midnight rambles a tough assignment, and I loved the solution one of his men came up with. When you live in a small indigenous village at the end of a very long food chain, you have to think smart because there's just no money available, and these "fixes" that everyone comes up with are just one way Chukchi village life feels so real. 

Nathan's investigation leads him to the oil fields and a phrase that I wish would be erased from our vocabulary within my lifetime ("Boys will be boys") to the streets of Chukchi. The dead woman had two lovers, one male and one female, and Active almost wore a rut in the road being led in circles between the two suspects. This is a mystery where readers know one of two people did it, and they have to wade through all the lies to deduce which one is guilty. 

 

Good-old fashioned armchair sleuthing in a hostile, fascinating environment that's brought to life by a master. If you're a reader, this is one of life's pleasures. If you're new to the series and want to give it a try, start at the beginning (White Sky Black Ice) so you won't miss all-important character development.

Ghost Light by Stan Jones & Patricia Watts

ASIN: ‎ B099X5C4N8

Bowhead Press © 2021

eBook, 258 pages

 

Police Procedural, #7 Nathan Active mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Big Empty by Stan Jones & Patricia Watts

First Lines: "Son of a bitch." Nathan Active jerked upright in the Navajo's copilot seat at the sudden sound of Cowboy Decker's bush-pilot drawl in the headset.

Chukchi police chief Nathan Active's wife is having a difficult pregnancy, and he'd like nothing better than some quiet time on the job so he can focus on her needs; however, he's not going to get it. When young mother-to-be Evie Kavoonah and her fiancé Dr. Todd Brenner are killed in a plane crash in the remote Brooks Range, bush pilot Cowboy Decker is convinced that the crash was no accident-- and definitely not pilot error. He doesn't rest until he convinces Active to get in his plane to fly to the crash site to check it out.

What they find convinces Active that Decker is right. Now he's got a murder investigation, an anxious adopted daughter, and an extremely nervous pregnant wife to deal with. No rest for the weary!

Stan Jones' Nathan Active mysteries continue to be my favorite series set in Alaska-- and it's for a multitude of reasons. There's a strong cast of characters from all walks of life. There are intriguing-- and often spine-chilling-- mysteries to solve. The setting of extreme northern Alaska is often a character, and last but not least, the cultural information is fascinating. Each book comes with a short glossary at the beginning which I find extremely useful because part of learning about a culture is learning a bit about the language.

The Big Empty is 50% mystery and 50% the personal life of Nathan Active. At times I found that percentage weighing too heavily on the personal life aspect, but only because I find Nathan's wife annoying. I shouldn't. Grace Active has had horrendous things happen to her in the past, and she's finding it daunting to overcome them. Anyone would, and I applaud Jones for not only having a troubled character like Grace but for dealing with her problems honestly and with great sensitivity.

The mystery is a good one, beginning with discovering what caused the crash and then moving into whodunnit territory. I did find the killer's identity to be a bit too easy to deduce, but getting to the reveal was enjoyable.

If you're a fellow armchair traveler/sleuth who loves solving mysteries in exotic places, you should meet Nathan Active and learn about the culture of the Inupiat. I still remember one book scaring me badly when Nathan went out on the pack ice. Even though you can pick up The Big Empty and read it as a standalone, I recommend starting at the beginning with White Sky, Black Ice. You've got some mighty fine reading ahead of you.

The Big Empty by Stan Jones & Patricia Watts

ISBN: 9781641290029

Soho Crime © 2018

Hardcover, 264 pages

Police Procedural, #6 Nathan Active 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!

Tundra Kill by Stan Jones

First Line: "You see, Chief?"

After some restructuring, Nathan Active finds himself the newly appointed chief of public safety for the newly created Chukchi Regional Borough-- an area larger than 15 of the United States. He hasn't even had time to move into his office when he's got a suspicious death on his hands. However, that has to go on the back burner when Alaska's second female governor comes to town. She wants Nathan as her body guard, and what she wants is what she gets. (No matter how much Nathan complains.)

It really comes as no surprise to him when Nathan learns that the governor is the most dangerous woman he's ever met. When he doesn't do what the governor wants, he not only finds his career on the line, he finds the lives of his beloved Grace and her daughter Nita to be threatened as well. In the past Nathan has been a bit gullible when it comes to women. Does he have what it takes to outwit the wily governor?

After a very long seven-year gap, I was thrilled to see another installment of one of my favorite series. Stan Jones makes the remote regions of Alaska and the customs, food, language, and familial relationships of the Inupiat people come to life. He's the only author I've read who can actually make the Arctic ice speak. In Tundra Kill, Jones brings readers right into the heart of the wilderness in an iced-up Cesna-- an excellent section of the book.

Relationships play an important role here, and the relationship between Nathan and Grace is first and foremost. Tundra Kill is a bit more sexually explicit than I'm used to when reading mysteries, but it's in keeping with the story (and never goes overboard). Grace is a survivor of sexual abuse, and the intimate relationship Nathan has with the woman he loves is fundamental to their future together.  

Jones has written a wonderfully twisty plot with touches of humor that can make readers laugh out loud. Nathan is up against some very devious people, and it is fun to watch how he deals with them. Long-time fans of the series-- like me-- are familiar with his naivete and will probably react strongly to some of the twists and turns in the plot. I know I did.

To be honest, I could've done without the Sarah Palin-esque character in Tundra Kill, but Jones kept me from terminal eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head with his fast pace, devilish plot, and Nathan Active. I sincerely hope there isn't another seven years until the next book. This entire series is choice.
   

Tundra Kill by Stan Jones

ISBN: 9780979980381

Bowhead Press © 2016

Hardcover, 320 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Nathan Active mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.


 

February 2016 New Mystery Releases!

A disturbing new trend is emerging, and it has everything to do with my newly recovered passion for knitting. I like knitting gifts for people, and I don't expect payment of any sort. I'd be making the stuff anyway; it's good to know that I can send some of these things to people who will enjoy them.

But they're sending me gift cards as a thank you, and since they know I'm passionate about books, they are gift cards to bookstores. Yikes-- no wonder I have to keep my eye peeled for the latest in crime fiction titles! 

Here are my picks for the newest mystery titles being released in February. They're grouped by release date and have all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book procurement sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Here we go. Let's take a look!

=== February 1 ===

Title: Tundra Kill

Author: Stan Jones

Series: #5 in the Nathan Active police procedural series set in Alaska

ISBN: 9780979980381 

Publisher: Bowhead Press

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Nathan Active, the top cop in a swath of the Alaskan tundra that is larger than fifteen U.S. states, has a new mystery to unravel after a dog musher is killed by a snowmobile. When the case is connected with Alaska’s gorgeous female governor, Active is swept into the bizarre family affairs and outsized political ambitions of the most dangerous woman he has ever met.  Now the counter-moves that have been put into place by the governor threaten the lives of both his beloved Grace Palmer and her daughter, Nita. With his career on the line, Active has to outwit the governor and save the people he cares for most before time runs out." 

=== February 2 ===

Title: A Disguise to Die For

Author: Diane Vallere

Series: #1 in the Costume Shop cozy series set in Nevada

ISBN: 9780425278284

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, her family’s costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to die for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a carving knife over a very dead Blitz.

For Margo, clearing Ebony’s name is anything but elementary, especially after Ebony flees town. Now Margo is left to play real-life detective in a town full of masked motives, cloaked secrets, and veiled vendettas. But as she soon learns, even a killer disguise can’t hide a murderer in plain sight for long."  

Title: A Turn for the Bad

Author: Sheila Connolly

Series: #4 in the County Cork cozy series set in Ireland

ISBN: 9780425273425 

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "After calling Ireland home for six months, Boston expat Maura Donovan still has a lot to learn about Irish ways—and Sullivan’s Pub is her classroom. Maura didn’t only inherit a business, she inherited a tight-knit community. And when a tragedy strikes, it’s the talk of the pub. A local farmer, out for a stroll on the beach with his young son, has mysteriously disappeared. Did he drown? Kill himself? The child can say only that he saw a boat.

Everyone from the local gardai to the Coast Guard is scouring the Cork coast, but when a body is finally brought ashore, it’s the wrong man. An accidental drowning or something more sinister? Trusting the words of the boy and listening to the suspicions of her employee Mick that the missing farmer might have run afoul of smugglers, Maura decides to investigate the deserted coves and isolated inlets for herself. But this time she may be getting in over her head..." 

Title: Off the Books
Author: Lucy Arlington
Series: #5 in the Novel Idea cozy series set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9780425276679 
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The Novel Idea Literary Agency has planned a wedding-themed week for Inspiration Valley, celebrating not only North Carolina’s best vendors but also some of the agency’s most popular bridal books. The fact that Lila can use the event to plan her own impending nuptials is just the icing on the cake.

But wedding bells turn to warning bells when Lila finds a dead man facedown in the frosting. Soon it’s discovered that the victim was connected to several Novel Idea authors, all of whom quickly become suspects in the case. It’s up to Lila and her fellow agents to find the real killer before one of their clients winds up scribbling stories from behind bars..."  

Title: Unreasonable Doubt
Author: Vicki Delany
Series: #8 in the Constable Molly Smith police procedural series set in British Columbia, Canada
ISBN: 9781464205132   
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 266 pages

Synopsis: "What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you? Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it. The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D’Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison―or dead. But for Trafalgar’s police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn’t kill Sophia, someone else did. So, case reopened. It lands on Winters’ desk. The records are moldering. One investigating officer is dead, the other is retired―and not talking. The police are instructed to treat Walt as if he’d never been arrested or convicted. Someone else apparently killed Sophia, someone still walking free. But too many minds remain closed. It’s good luck for Walt that a group of women in town for the dragon boat race are staying in the B&B where he’s booked, women with no local prejudices. But then a townswoman, then a boat woman, are attacked by a rapist, the media gets active, and tempers dangerously flare."  

Title: The Killing Forest
Author: Sara Blaedel
Series: #8 in the Louise Rick/Camilla Lind police procedural series set in Denmark
ISBN: 9781455581542  
Publisher: Grand Central 
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She's assigned a case involving a fifteen-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend's long-ago death . . . 

Louise's investigation takes her on a journey back through time. She reconnects with figures from her past, including Kim, the principal investigator at the Holbaek Police Department, her former in-laws, fanatic ancient religion believers, and her longtime close friend, journalist Camilla Lind. As she moves through the small town's cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets." 

Title: Murder at the Manor:Country House Mysteries

Editor: Martin Edwards

Standalone

ISBN: 9781464205736

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Paperback, 384 pages

Synopsis: "The English country house is an iconic setting for some of the greatest British crime fiction. This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic ‘closed circle’ plot, in which the assorted guests at a country house party become suspects when a crime is committed. In the more sinister tales featured here, a gloomy mansion set in lonely grounds offers an eerie backdrop for dark deeds.

Many distinguished writers are represented in this collection, including such great names of the genre as Anthony Berkeley, Nicholas Blake and G.K. Chesterton. Martin Edwards has also unearthed hidden gems and forgotten masterpieces: among them are a fine send-up of the country house murder; a suspenseful tale by the unaccountably neglected Ethel Lina White; and a story by the little-known Scottish writer J.J. Bell." 

=== February 9 ===

Title: Runaway

Author: Peter May

Standalone set in Glasgow and London

ISBN: 9781623657895

Publisher: Quercus

Hardcover, 432 pages

Synopsis: "Glasgow, 1965. Headstrong teenager Jack Mackay cannot allow for even the possibility of a life of predictability and routine. The seventeen-year-old has just one destination on his mind--London--and successfully convinces his four friends, and fellow bandmates, to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom.

Glasgow, 2015. Jack Mackay dares not look back on a life of failure and mediocrity. The heavy-hearted sixty-seven-year-old is still haunted by what might have been. His recollections of the terrible events that befell him and his friends some fifty years earlier, and how he did not act when it mattered most is a memory he has tried to escape his entire adult life.

London, 2015. A man lies dead in a one-room flat. His killer looks on, remorseless. What started with five teenagers following a dream five decades before has been transformed over the intervening decades into a waking nightmare that might just consume them all.

Runaway is a tense crime thriller spanning a half-century of friendships solidified and severed, dreams shared and shattered, passions ignited and extinguished, all set against the backdrop of two unique cities at two unique and transformational periods of recent history." 

=== February 16 ===

Title: The Quality of Silence
Author: Rosamund Lupton
Standalone, Psychological Thriller set in Alaska
ISBN: 9781101903674
Publisher: Crown
Hardcover, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric, The Quality of Silence is the story of Yasmin, a beautiful astrophysicist, and her precocious deaf daughter, Ruby, who arrive in a remote part of Alaska to be told that Ruby's father, Matt, has been the victim of a catastrophic accident. Unable to accept his death as truth, Yasmin and Ruby set out into the hostile winter of the Alaskan tundra in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realizes that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them. And with no one else on the road to help, they must keep moving, alone and terrified, through an endless Alaskan night." 

Title: The Widow
Author: Fiona Barton
Standalone Psychological Thriller set in England
ISBN: 9781101990261
Publisher: NAL
Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...

But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.

There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.

The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…" 

Title: Apricot's Revenge
Author: Song Ying
Standalone Thriller about an investigative journalist set in China
ISBN: 9781250016447
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "A business tycoon in China is found dead; he apparently suffered a heart attack while swimming. His body is washed onto a beach in a popular resort known as the Hawaii of the East. But soon it becomes clear that he was murdered. Three immediate beneficiaries of his death become the suspects: the vice president of the company, Zhou, who is in line to take over his position; his young widow, Zhu, who stands to inherit a huge amount of wealth; and his arch business rival, Hong, who is competing in a bid over a piece of hot property.

Nie Feng, a young investigative reporter for a magazine, interviewed the victim just a few days before he died. Through his own research, Nie Feng discovers a new suspect who is not on the police’s radar.

Apricot’s Revenge is an absorbing detective novel and more. Song Ying uses an ingenious plot to investigate social problems in modern China, which makes the book a profound and captivating read, leaving readers thinking long after reaching the last page." 

Title: The Blood Strand
Author: Chris Ould
Series: #1 Faroes novel, a police procedural set in the Faroes Islands
ISBN: 9781783297047
Publisher: Titan Books
Paperback, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Having left the Faroes as a child, Jan Reyna is now a British police detective, and the islands are foreign to him. But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Then a man’s body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna’s father responsible?

Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother’s flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good." 

Title: The Silence of the Sea
Author: Yrsa Sigurđardóttir
Series: #6 in the lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series set in Iceland
ISBN: 9781250051486
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "As The Silence of the Sea opens, a luxury yacht crashes into a Reykjavik pier. But the boat is empty; no one is on board. What has happened to the crew? And what has happened to the family who were very much present when the yacht left Lisbon?

What should Thora Gudmundsdottir, the series sleuth, make of the rumors that the vessel was cursed? She is spooked even more when she boards the yacht and thinks she sees one of the missing children. Where is Karitas, the glamorous young wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore?" 



There's a little something for everyone in this month's choices, isn't there? I have to admit that the one I'm most excited about is Stan Jones' Tundra Kill. It's been seven long years since his last Nathan Active book, and that's much too long for this excellent series that really gives you a feel for the culture and the landscape of the Arctic. 

Which titles caught your eye? Inquiring minds need to know these things!