November 2010 New Mystery Releases!

Last month I said that I only had one ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) to read, and that hasn't changed even though I did receive another. Fact is, I read the second one almost as fast as I pulled it out of the mailbox.

It's really been fun reading what I want to read when I want to read it. I've had several requests, but none of them intrigued me enough to want to read them so I'm sticking to my own books-- of which I've got plenty!

I even "rotate the stock" now. (Can you tell I used to be in retail?) As I'm putting new acquisitions on the shelves, if the shelf is too full I pull the oldest book(s) off, put the new one on, and the oldest one then goes on my RF (Read First) pile. Some of those books have been on my TBR ( To Be Read) shelves for about two years, so it's more than time that I either read them or send them on to someone else who will.

Even though I'm having fun reading books from my own shelves, you know that I'm paying attention to new releases. No self-respecting bookaholic would totally ignore new books!

The following books are my top picks for new mysteries being released in November. The titles are grouped by release dates, and I've included the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Let's see which titles have me drooling this month....

===November 2 Release===

Title: The Huckleberry Murders
Author: Patrick F. McManus
Series: #4 Sheriff Bo Tully mystery set in Blight County, Idaho
ISBN: 9781439190845
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 272 pages

Title: The Lies That Bind

Author: Kate Carlisle

Series: #3  Bibliophile mystery set in San Francisco, California

ISBN: 9780451231697

Publisher: Signet
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Title: A Butterfly in Flame

Author: Nicholas Kilmer

Series: #7 Fred Taylor mystery set in Boston, Massachusetts

ISBN: 9781590587935

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Trade Paperback, 250 pages

Title: Moonlight Mile

Author: Dennis Lehane

Series: #6 Kenzie & Gennaro mystery set in Dorchester, Massachusetts

ISBN: 9780061836923

Publisher: William Morrow

Hardcover, 336 pages

===November 9 Release===

Title: Daniel

Author: Henning Mankell

Standalone

ISBN: 9781595581938

Publisher: The New Press

Hardcover, 288 pages

===November 23 Release===

Title: The Emperor's Tomb

Author: Steve Berry

Series: #6 Cotton Malone mystery set in China

ISBN: 9780345505491

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Hardcover, 464 pages

Are some of these titles already on your wish lists, or were you lucky enough to snag an ARC?  Do tell-- you know I love details!

REVIEW: The Charlemagne Pursuit

Title: The Charlemagne Pursuit
Author: Steve Berry
ISBN: 9780345485793/Ballantine Books
Protagonist: Cotton Malone, bookseller and former US government operative
Setting: present-day, Germany and Antarctica
Series: #4
Rating: B

First Line: The alarm sounded and Forrest Malone came alert.

Cotton Malone's father was a submariner in the US Navy. When Cotton was ten, Forrest Malone went on patrol and never came back. Cotton always wanted to know what happened, but told the mission was classified, he let it go--until his own son began asking questions about his grandfather. Since he's a former operative for the US government, he knows people in the right places, and he's owed favors. He asks to see the file on his father's last mission...and people start dying. While Cotton finds himself in Germany, dodging bullets and thrown in amongst the very strange Oberhauser family, his former boss finds herself searching for clues and following the trail of an assassin in the eastern US. It all ties in with something called the Charlemagne Pursuit, ancient knowledge known to Charlemagne, with connections to Nazi Germany all the way to the present day.

I don't read many thrillers, but Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series is an exception. I like Berry's characterization of Cotton and his former boss, Stephanie. The author also seems to have a knack of choosing historical bits and puzzles that fascinate me like the Amber Room, the Romanovs, and the Knights Templar. Although the Charlemagne Pursuit is much more a puzzle of the author's own devising, I found it fascinating as well. The pages turned quickly in this book. The only thing in it that I didn't particularly care for was the entire Oberhauser clan. I think that, as I get older, my tolerance for twisted families becomes less and less.

[This is a review of an advanced reading copy.]