There's nothing like trying to compose blog posts with the racket of chain saws right outside the window. We're having some work done on many of the trees on the property with the HUGE project of cutting down the enormous dead Aleppo pine coming Saturday. I'm going to miss that tree, so it's a good thing that I have the distraction of new books to talk about and share with you all.
I've grouped my picks of the best new crime fiction being released during the month of November by their release dates, and the synopses and covers are courtesy of Amazon.
Now it's time to see if any of my choices tickle your fancy, too. Let's take a look!
=== November 1 ===
Title: The Cipher
Author: Isabella Maldonado
Series: #1 in the FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera series set in various US locations
335 pages
Synopsis: "FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at
sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of
the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones
impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven
years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a
grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games
are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to
play along.
His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social
media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to
Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the
FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his
own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue,
victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world
watches."
=== November 3 ===
Title: Consolation
Author: Garry Disher
Series: #3 in the Constable Paul Hirschhausen police procedural series set in Australia.
400 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In Consolation, Tiverton’s only police officer Constable Paul
Hirschhausen is dealing with a snowdropper. Someone is stealing women’s
underwear, and Hirsch knows how that kind of crime can escalate. Then
two calls come in: a teacher who thinks a child may be in danger at
home. A father on the rampage over at the primary school.
Hirsch
knows how things like that can escalate, too. Families under pressure.
Financial problems. But it’s always a surprise when the killing starts."
Title: The Preserve
Author: Ariel S. Winter
Standalone thriller set in the future
256 pages
Synopsis: "Decimated by plague, the human population is now a minority.
Robots—complex AIs almost indistinguishable from humans—are the ruling
majority. Nine months ago, in a controversial move, the robot government
opened a series of preserves, designated areas where humans can choose
to live without robot interference. Now the preserves face their first
challenge: someone has been murdered.
Chief of Police Jesse
Laughton on the SoCar Preserve is assigned to the case. He fears the
factions that were opposed to the preserves will use the crime as
evidence that the new system does not work. As he digs for information,
robots in the outside world start turning up dead from bad drug-like
programs that may have originated on SoCar land. And when Laughton
learns his murder victim was a hacker who wrote drug-programs, it
appears that the two cases might be linked. Soon, it’s clear that the
entire preserve system is in danger of collapsing. Laughton’s former
partner, a robot named Kir, arrives to assist on the case, and they soon
uncover shocking secrets revealing that life on the preserve is not as
peaceful as its human residents claim. But in order to protect
humanity’s new way of life, Laughton must solve this murder before it’s
too late.
The Preserve is a fresh and futuristic mystery that is perfect for fans of Westworld and Blade Runner."
=== November 5 ===
Title: The Diabolical Bones
Author: Bella Ellis
Series: #2 in the Brontë Sisters historical series set in England.
352 pages
UK Release
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are rather losing interest in detecting
until they hear of a shocking discovery: the bones of a child have been
found interred within the walls of a local house, Top Withens Hall,
home to the scandalous and brutish Bradshaw family.
When the
sisters set off to find out more, they are confronted with an
increasingly complex and sinister case, which leads them into the dark
world of orphanages, and onto the trail of other lost, and likely
murdered children. After another local boy goes missing, Charlotte,
Emily and Anne vow to find him before it's too late.
But in
order to do so, they must face their most despicable and wicked
adversary yet - one that would not hesitate to cause them the gravest of
harm. . ."
=== November 10 ===
Title: Shallow Ground
Author: Andy Maslen
Series: #1 in the Detective Ford police procedural series set in England.
367 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Barely a month since his promotion to Inspector, DI Ford is called in
to investigate the murder of a young nurse and her son in a small flat
in Salisbury. There are few clues, and no apparent motive, but Ford can
sense that there’s a serial killer at work. After all, he knows from
brutal personal experience how killers cover their tracks…
It’s
been six years since Ford lost his wife in a climbing accident—an
accident he caused. He is desperate to keep the truth hidden, especially
from his son, Sam. But Ford’s new partner, Dr Hannah Fellowes, is a
crime scene investigator with a ruthlessly analytical mind, and as they
work together to track down the killer, his crippling guilt is
compounded by fear of exposure.
When instinct leads him towards a
high-profile suspect, his superiors’ warnings just make him more
determined to connect impulse and fact. But can Ford hold it all
together—the case, his life—long enough to stop the killer?"
Title: Moonflower Murders
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Series: #2 in the Susan Ryeland series set in Greece and England.
608 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life. She is
running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend
Andreas. It should be everything she's always wanted. But is it? She's
exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an
island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she's beginning to
miss London.
And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and
mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place
on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was
married—a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye
Hall—fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts.
One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders,
knew the murder victim—an advertising executive named Frank Parris—and
once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based the third book in his
detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime.
The
Trehearne’s, daughter, Cecily, read Conway’s mystery and believed the
book proves that the man convicted of Parris’s murder—a Romanian
immigrant who was the hotel’s handyman—is innocent. When the Trehearnes
reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to
England and find out what really happened."
Title: Murder in Old Bombay
Author: Nev March
Historical mystery set in 19th century Bombay, India.
400 pages
*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books.
Synopsis: "In 1892, Bombay is the center of British India. Nearby, Captain Jim
Agnihotri lies in Poona military hospital recovering from a skirmish on
the wild northern frontier, with little to do but re-read the tales of
his idol, Sherlock Holmes, and browse the daily papers. The case that
catches Captain Jim's attention is being called the crime of the
century: Two women fell from the busy university’s clock tower in broad
daylight. Moved by Adi, the widower of one of the victims ― his
certainty that his wife and sister did not commit suicide ― Captain Jim
approaches the Parsee family and is hired to investigate what happened
that terrible afternoon.
But in a land of divided loyalties,
asking questions is dangerous. Captain Jim's investigation disturbs the
shadows that seem to follow the Framji family and triggers an ominous
chain of events. And when lively Lady Diana Framji joins the hunt for
her sisters’ attackers, Captain Jim’s heart isn’t safe, either.
Based
on a true story, and set against the vibrant backdrop of colonial
India, Nev March's Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime
Novel Award-winning lyrical debut, Murder in Old Bombay, brings this tumultuous historical age to life."
Title: After All I've Done
Author: Mina Hardy
Standalone psychological suspense set in the US.
310 pages
Synopsis: "Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and
missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's
started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident.
Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just
slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something.
Or someone.
She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's
been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might
find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become,
the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night--and how
Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be
involved, too.
Who was with her that night? What really
happened? As her life unravels thread by thread and the dreams become
too real to ignore, Diana will have to face the unthinkable--and do the
unforgivable."
=== November 24 ===
Title: Meet Isabel Puddles
Author: M.V. Byrne
Series: #1 in the Mitten State cozy series set in Michigan.
336 pages
Synopsis: "The only thing widow Isabel Puddles loves as much as her hometown of
Gull Harbor on the shores of Lake Michigan is cozying up to a good
mystery--but she never expected to be caught in the middle of one...
To
the tourists and summer residents, Kentwater County is a picturesque
community of small-town charm, fruitful farmland, and gorgeous
freshwater beaches. To middle-aged widow Isabel Puddles, it's where she
enjoys breakfast every morning at a local café with her childhood best
friend and spends her evenings cozying up with a good book and her
devoted Jack Terrier, Jackpot. In between, Isabel makes ends meet
through a variety of trades--preserving pickles, baking pies, working
the counter at her cousin's hardware shop, and occasionally helping
"fix-up" the hair of corpses at the local funeral parlor.
When
Isabel discovers a two-inch nail embedded in the skull of Earl Jonasson,
it seems the octogenarian may not have died of a stroke. His son is
quickly arrested when his alibi doesn't check out. But Isabel has known
Earl Jr. since they were kids and can't believe he'd murder his own
father, regardless of his financial difficulties. As gossip about Earl
Sr.'s land and insurance policy money starts to spread around the
county, Isabel finds herself conducting her own investigation to clear
her friend's name. But real detective work isn't like Jessica Fletcher's
Murder She Wrote mysteries, and she's meeting dangerous suspects who
don't like Isabel poking around in their business..."
There's certainly a wide-ranging selection of new books this month, isn't there? Did any of them tickle your fancy? Which ones? Inquiring minds would love to know!
