Recently received

A Trick of the Light(Inspector Gamache #7) by Louise Penny (Macmillan/Minotaur hc, 30 August 2011).
A body is found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache is called to the tiny Quebec village where he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hc, 21 June 2011).
Thomas Danforth's friend has a dangerous idea that can change the world. Danforth is to provide a place where a “brilliant woman” can receive training in firearms and explosives. This is to be the beginning of an international plot carried out by the mysterious Anna Klein—a plot that will ensnare Danforth in more ways than one. When the plan goes wrong and Klein disappears, Danforth’s quest begins: it is a journey of ever-shifting alliances and betrayals that will lead him across a war-torn world in search of answers. Now in his ninety-first year, at the dawn of a troubled new era, he sits in luxury at the Century Club and tells his tale to the young man from Washington he has summoned, for reasons of his own, to hear it.

Bad Intentions (An Inspector Sejer Mystery) by Karin Fossum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hc, 9 August 2011).
Konrad Sejer must face down his memories and fears as he struggles to determine why the corpses of troubled young men keep surfacing in local lakes.
The first victim, Jon Moreno, was getting better. His psychiatrist said so, and so did his new friend at the hospital, Molly Gram, with her little-girl-lost looks. He was racked by a mysterious guilt that had driven him to a nervous breakdown one year earlier. But when he drowns in Dead Water Lake, Sejer hesitates to call it a suicide.
Then another corpse is found in a lake, a Vietnamese immigrant. And Sejer begins to feel his age weigh on him. Does he still have the strength to pursue the elusive explanations for human evil?

Clare DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hc, 2 June 2011).
Tattooed, pot-smoking PI Claire DeWitt has just arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans, the city she’s avoided since her mentor was murdered there. Claire is investigating the disappearance of Vic Willing, a prosecutor known for winning convictions in a homicide-plagued city. Has an angry criminal enacted revenge on Vic? Or did he use the storm as a means to disappear? Claire follows the clues, finding old friends and making new enemies — foremost among them Andray Fairview, a young gang member who just might hold the key to the mystery.

Foul Play at the PTA (Beth Kennedy #2) by Laura Alden (Obsidian, 5 July 2011).
PTA meetings at Tarver Elementary School can get pretty heated. But after parent Sam Helmstetter is strangled in his car following a meeting, mom and PTA secretary Beth Kennedy and her best friend Marina fear there may be a cold-blooded killer in the group...

The Bad Beat (Burn Notice #5) by Tod Goldberg (Obsidian, 5 July 2011).
Michael Westen is still in Miami, trying to survive as a spy without a country. Brent Grayson is a nineteen-year-old college kid who claims to own a company that doesn't really exist. And Michael has to save Brent's father from loan sharks and fend off sinister Russian businessman who see every takeover as an opportunity to be hostile.

A Killing in Antiques (Lucy St. Elmo #1) by Mary Moody (Obsidian, 5 July 2011).
Treasure hunting is not for the faint of heart. Luckily, Lucy St. Elmo, owner of the Cape Cod antiques shop St. Elmo Fine Antiques, has more than enough heart. What she needs to improve are her tracking skills-or else the wrong man could be convince of a one-of-a-kind murder.

Taste of the Nightlife (Vampire Chef #1) by Sarah Zettel (Obsidian, 5 July 2011).
Charlotte Caine isn't called "the Vampire Chef" because she's a member of New York's undead community -- she just cooks for them. Her restaurant, Nightlife, is poised to take the top slot in the world of "haute noir" cuisine.
But when a drunk customer causes a scene, a glowing review from the city's top food critic doesn't seem likely-especially when that customer winds up dead on Nightlife's doorstep. Now, with her brother under suspicion for the murder, Charlotte has to re-open her restaurant and clear her brother's name-before they both become dinner.

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