Recently received

Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School - Book the First) by Gail Carriger (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers hardcover, 5 February 2013).

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.


The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (Berkley trade paperback, 5 March 2013).

Timothy Wilde tends bar, saving every dollar in hopes of winning the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams are destroyed by a fire that devastates downtown Manhattan, he is left with little choice but to accept a job in the newly minted New York City Police Department.
Returning exhausted from his rounds one night, Tim collides with a girl no more than ten years old… covered in blood. She claims that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of Twenty-Third Street. Timothy isn’t sure whether to believe her, but as the image of a brutal killer is slowly revealed and anti-Irish rage infects the city, the reluctant copper star is engaged in a battle that may cost him everything…


The Burning Air by Erin Kelly (Pamela Dorman books hardcover, 21 February 2013).

The MacBrides lead a cozy life of upper class privilege: good looks (more or less), a beautiful home, tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where Rowan is headmaster, an altruistic righteousness inherited from magistrate Lydia.
But when Rowan and his three grown children gather for the first time since Lydia’s passing at the family’s weekend home—a restored barn in the English countryside—years of secrets surface, and they discover a stranger in their midst. A stranger who is convinced that Lydia was a murderer. A stranger who has been exacting vengeance upon the family for years without their ever knowing. And one who will threaten the youngest MacBride, baby Edie, and the clan’s memory of Lydia, shattering their world forever.


The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress (Dial Books for Young Readers hardcover, 6 December 2012).

Set in turn of the century London, The Friday Society follows the stories of three very intelligent and talented young women, all of whom are assistants to powerful men: Cora, lab assistant; Michiko, Japanese fight assistant; and Nellie, magician's assistant. The three young women's lives become inexorably intertwined after a chance meeting at a ball that ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man.
It's up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder–and the crimes they believe may be connected to it–without calling too much attention to themselves.


A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Viking hardcover, 12 March 2013).

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.
Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Recently received

What Darkness Brings (A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery) by C.S. Harris (Obsidian hardcover, 5 March 2013).

Regency England, September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.

 

For the sake of Kat, the woman he once loved and lost, Sebastian plunges into a treacherous circle of intrigue. Although Eisler’s clients included the Prince Regent and the Emperor Napoleon, he was a despicable man with many enemies and a number of dangerous, well-kept secrets—including a passion for arcane texts and black magic. Central to the case is a magnificent blue diamond, believed to have once formed part of the French crown jewels, which disappeared on the night of Eisler’s death. As Sebastian traces the diamond’s ownership, he uncovers links that implicate an eccentric, powerful financier named Hope and stretch back into the darkest days of the French Revolution.

 

When the killer grows ever more desperate and vicious, Sebastian finds his new marriage to Hero tested by the shadows of his first love, especially when he begins to suspect that Kat is keeping secrets of her own. And as matters rise to a crisis, Sebastian must face a bitter truth--that he has been less than open with the fearless woman who is now his wife.

 

 

Breaking Points (Kate Reilly Mystery #2) by Tammy Kaehler (Poisoned Pen Press, 2 April 2013).

Kate Reilly can’t remember a worse time in her life, on-track or off. She wrecks her race car at Road America in Wisconsin, sending a visiting NASCAR star to the hospital, and loses her cool on-camera, only to end the day by discovering her boyfriend with a friend of hers. A dead friend.
With little time to grieve, Kate finds herself the pariah of the racing world, the target of vicious e-mail messages, death threats, and a frenzy of blame on racing sites and blogs, including an influential, anonymous blogger who’s trying to get her fired. But nothing is as bad as knowing her friend’s killer is still out there—and aiming at Kate.
 
She’s riding a roller coaster of emotion, juggling an exciting new sponsor, a boyfriend she’s not sure she can trust, and new-found family she doesn’t want to claim. Dodging unfavorable media attention and a pit reporter with a bias against women in racing, Kate redeems herself by delivering stunning performances behind the wheel at the next race: Petit Le Mans, the ten-hour endurance classic. 

 

The championship race weekend and an undercurrent of threats on all sides rev Kate’s nerves to their limits. From on-track action, to sponsor parties, to the Series awards banquet, she’s part of the action, uncovering motives, secrets, and powerful ambitions. Ultimately she learns no one can escape the past—but only a murderer is driven by it.


The Memory of Love by Linda Olsson (Penguin trade paperback, 26 February 2013).

Marion Flint, in her early fifties, has spent fifteen years living a quiet life on the rugged coast of New Zealand, a life that allows the door to her past to remain firmly shut. But a chance meeting with a young boy, Ika, and her desire to help him force Marion to open the Pandora’s box of her memory.

Seized by a sudden urgency to make sense of her past, she examines each image one-by-one: her grandfather, her mother, her brother, her lover. Perhaps if she can create order from the chaos, her memories will be easier to carry. Perhaps she’ll be able to find forgiveness for the little girl that was her. For the young woman she had been. For the people she left behind.


The Sound of One Hand Killing (Barcelona Murder Mystery #3) by Teresa Solana (Bitter Lemon Press trade paperback, 7 May 2013).

Two detectives, brothers Borja and Eduard, are contracted by best-selling author Teresa Solana to research the world of so-called alternative therapies. They enrol for a course at Zen Moments, an exclusive meditation centre in the ritziest part of Barcelona, only to discover the director murdered, whacked in the head with a statuette of the Buddha. The violent death of a neighbour - who happens to be a CIA agent - simultaneously drags them into an international conspiracy complicated by Borja's attempt to smuggle a priceless Assyrian figurine, the “Lioness of Baghdad”.

Catalan ‘noir' novelist Teresa Solana mercilessly punctures the pretensions of New Age quacks who promote pseudo-science and pseudo-spirituality. At the same time, Solana draws compassionate portraits of characters trying to live ‘ordinary' lives in circumstances that have ceased to be normal, yet still cope with such every day issues as adultery, the menopause and simply surviving to the end of the month. 

Recently received

India Black and the Shadows of Anarchy (A Madam of Espionage Mystery) by Carol K. Carr ((Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback, 5 February 2013).

India Black, full-time madam and occasional secret agent is feeling restless when Prime Minister Disraeli sends word that he wants to meet wit her -- alone.  Even though all her previous meetings have been organized by the rakishly handsome spy French, it's been decided that this is a mission India must attempt on her own.

Anarchists have begun assassinating lords and earls, one by one.  India must infiltrate the ranks of the Dark Legion, the  underground group responsible for the attacks.  To stop their deadly plot, India will go from the murkiest slums of London to the highest levels of society, uncovering secrets that threaten her very existence...



Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Pamela Dorman hardcover, 31 December 2012).

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.




The Backyard Parables: lessons on gardening, and life by Margaret Roach (Grand Central Publishing hardcover, 15 January 2013).

Margaret Roach has been harvesting thirty years of backyard parables-deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper-and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more.
After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with "horticultural how-to and woo-woo." In THE BACKYARD PARABLES, Roach uses her fundamental understanding of the natural world, philosophy, and life to explore the ways that gardening saved and instructed her, and meditates on the science and spirituality of nature, reminding her readers and herself to keep on digging.

Ghana Must Go by Tiaye Selasi (The Penguin Press hardcover, 5 March 2013).

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before.

In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of their own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.



Helsinki White (An Inspector Vaara Mystery) by James Thompson (Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback, 5 February 2013).

Inspector Kari Vaara, recovering from brain surgery, is back to doing police work—under circumstances most cops only dream of. Reporting directly to the national chief of police, Kari and his partners Milo and Sulo have been granted secrecy and autonomy for their new black-ops unit, and plenty of cash to work with, including whatever they can steal from Helsinki’s mobsters.

 

But Kari's team is too good, and their actions have unintended consequences...The president of Finland wants the team on a new case: the vicious assassination of a prominent immigrants' rights activist. Against a backdrop of simmering hatred spreading across the country, Kari must solve a case that involves the kidnapping of a billionaire’s children, a Faustian bargain with a former French Legionnaire—and his own wife.

 

 

 

Recent arrivals

A Deal to Die For (Good Buy Girls #2) by Josie Belle (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 31 December 2012).

Letting no good deal go undone, the Good Buy Girls are ready to pounce on the St. Stanley flea market, where wealthy Vera Madison is selling off her vintage clothing. The widow’s wardrobe is just what Maggie Gerber needs to give her second-hand shop, My Sister’s Closet, the edge over vindictive rival Summer Phillips, who’s opened her own second-hand shop across the street.

But when Vera is found dead, it turns out that she collected enemies like Dior gowns—and had more than a few skeletons in her walk-in closet. Now it’s up to Maggie and the Good Buy Girls to sort through the racks of suspects for the killer and get back to the business of bargains…



Murder Hooks a Mermaid ((Haunted Souvenir Shop #2) by Christy Fifield (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 31 December 2012).

Inheriting her great-uncle Louis’s bayside souvenir shop should have been a breeze for Glory. Instead it’s been one headache after another—with a lot of them generated by Bluebeard, a parrot with a mouth like a sailor and a personality a lot like her late great-uncle. But Glory’s troubles pale in comparison to those of her best friend Karen, whose ex may still have the personalized key chain to her heart, but whose brother-in-law is about to get locked up.

 

A diver has been found with a gaff hook in his chest, and Karen turns to Glory to help get her brother-in-law off the hook for his murder. But casting the net for the real killer won’t be easy. Glory and Bluebeard are about to find out that the secrets in Keyhole Bay run deeper than anyone ever imagined…

 

 

Murder for the Halibut (Clueless Cook #3) by Liz Lipperman (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 31 December 2012).

Tempted by the offer of a free Caribbean cruise, Jordan accepts a spot as a judge in a week-long big-time cooking competition aboard the Carnation Queen. She just better hope no one finds out that her famous palate is far from refined.

But there are bigger fish to fry when arrogant chef Stefano Mancini falls face first into his signature halibut dish during the first event. While evidence suggests that the handsome Italian chef’s death was an accident, Jordan thinks otherwise. But she’ll have to keep her wits about her—and the sea sickness pills handy—if she’s going to solve this one…  



Panic Button (Button Box #3) by Kylie Logan (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 31 December 2012).

Josie is approached at her shop to appraise a very rare item—a complete charm string. In Victorian times, girls strung buttons on long strings to make the charms. Once the string reached 1,000 buttons—no two alike—the legend was that the owner would meet her beloved.

But the owner of this charm string is not looking for love—she’s desperate to donate the piece to a museum and be rid of it. She believes the string is far from charmed—it’s cursed. When Josie finds the woman strangled with the charm string, she doesn’t know whether the curse is real…but the killer certainly is.



A Function of Murder (Professor Sophie Knowles #3) by Ada Madison (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 31 December 2012).

At the math department’s graduation party, Sophie hears heated arguments coming from the graduates about Mayor Graves, the commencement speaker. Not the mayor’s biggest fan, Sophie is happy to escape the drama with an after-hours campus stroll accompanied by her helicopter-piloting boyfriend, Bruce Granville. However, their date is interrupted by the mayor himself—with a knife in his back.

As it turns out, the knife is actually a Henley College letter opener—something that is gifted to every member of the graduating class. Sophie is led to a complicated puzzle of scandal and corruption, and it seems that Mayor Graves is at the apex of it all. When Sophie finds out that the mayor was seeking her help on the day he was murdered, she must use her top-notch logic to crack the puzzle and catch the killer running free on campus… 

Recently received

 

Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti (Magical Bakery #2) by Bailey Cates (Obsidian mass market, 31 December 2012).

As a new witch—not to mention owner of Savannah’s most enchanting bakery—Katie Lightfoot is still getting used to casting spells, brewing potions, and mastering her magical powers. But that doesn’t mean she can’t find time to enjoy a picnic with firefighter Declan McCarthy…until she stumbles upon a corpse.

The dead man’s tattoo reveals he was a member of a secret society—and it turns out he's missing an object that was very important to the group. When Katie learns the killer was after more than the man's life, she and her Aunt Lucy leave the baked goods on the rack to cool and set off in hot pursuit of a killer.

 ***

What a Ghoul Wants (Ghost Hunter #7) by Victotria Laurie (Obsidian mass market, 24 December 2012).

Kidwella Castle in northern Wales is rumored to be haunted by a deadly ghost—the Grim Widow, who allegedly drowns unsuspecting guests in the castle’s moat. Not long after M. J. and her crew arrive at the castle to film their ghost-hunting cable TV show, Ghoul Getters, two new victims are added to the Widow’s grisly roster.

Fear ripples through the castle, especially when it’s discovered that the victims may have had help into their watery graves from the land of the living. The local inspector suspects father-son serial killers, but M. J. thinks that theory is all wet. To catch the true culprit she will need to dive deep into the castle’s past and bring some long buried secrets to the surface.

  ***

Fonduing Fathers (White House Chef #6) by Julie Hyzy (Berkley Prime Crime mass market,  31 December 2012).

Olivia has always believed that her father was an honorable man—until a trip to visit her mother reveals that he was dishonorably discharged from the army. Olivia is even more shocked to learn that he was brutally murdered because someone at his company suspected him of selling corporate secrets. Refusing to believe that her father was a scoundrel, Olivia won’t rest until she proves his innocence.

Enlisting the help of her boyfriend, Gav, Olivia must reach out to her father’s colleagues to discover the truth behind his murder. What she’s about to discover may not only put her at risk, but threaten national security as well…

 ***

A Friendly Game of Murder (Algonquin Round Table #3) by J..J. Murphy (Obsidian mass market, 31 December 2012).

Why should Dorothy Parker’s friends be the only ones making “enviable names” in “science, art, and parlor games”? Dorothy can play with the best of them—as she sets out to prove at a New Year’s Eve party at the Algonquin Hotel. Since the swanky soiree is happening in the penthouse suite of swashbuckling star Douglas Fairbanks, some derring-do is called for. How about a little game of “Murder”?

Each partygoer draws a card to be detective, murderer, or victim. But young Broadway starlet Bibi Bibelot trumps them all when her dead body is found in the bathtub. No one knows who the killer is, but one thing is for sure—they won’t be making gin in that bathtub.

When more partiers are put in peril, it becomes clear the game is indeed on, and it’s up to Dorothy, surprise guest Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the members of the Round Table to stay alive—and relatively sober—long enough to find the killer…

 

 ***

 

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma (Viking hardcover, 21 March 2013).

From as early as he can remember, the hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—Narrator of this ambitious debut novel has wanted to become a writer.

From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, the irresistible Narrator will be inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian’s enchanting friend, Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. After the trio has a disastrous falling out, desperate to tell the truth in his writing and to figure out who he really is, the Narrator finds himself caught in a never-ending web of lies.

***

 

Marmee and Louisa by Eve LaPlante (Free Press hardcover, 6 November  2012).

This riveting dual biography explodes the myth that Louisa May Alcott owed her success to her father Bronson, drawing from a trove of surprising new documents to show that it was Louisa’s actual “Marmee,” Abigail May Alcott, who formed the intellectual and emotional center of her world.

Abigail, whose difficult life both inspired and served as a warning to her devoted daughters, pushed Louisa to excel at writing and to chase her unconventional dreams in a male-dominated world.
In Marmee & Louisa, LaPlante, Abigail’s great-niece and Louisa’s cousin, re-creates their shared story from diaries, letters, and personal papers, some recently discovered in a family attic and many others that were thought to have been destroyed.

Here at last Abigail is revealed in her full complexity—long dismissed as a quiet, self-effacing background figure, she comes to life as a fascinating writer and thinker in her own right. A politically active feminist firebrand, she was a highly opinionated, passionate, ambitious woman who fought for universal civil rights, publicly advocating for abolition, women’s suffrage, and other defining moral struggles of her era.

Recent arrivals

City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte (Penguin trade paperback, 27 November 2012).

(PENGUIN BOOKS HAS OFFERED ME A COPY TO GIVE AWAY, SO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!!)
Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood.
Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide.


The Anatomist's Wife (Lady Darby #1) by Anna Lee Huber (Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback, 6 November 2012).

Scotland, 1830. Following the death of her husband, Lady Darby has taken refuge at her sister’s estate, finding solace in her passion for painting. But when her hosts throw a house party for the cream of London society, Kiera is unable to hide from the ire of those who believe her to be as unnatural as her husband, an anatomist who used her artistic talents to suit his own macabre purposes.

Kiera wants to put her past aside, but when one of the house guests is murdered, her brother-in-law asks her to utilize her knowledge of human anatomy to aid the insufferable Sebastian Gage—a fellow guest with some experience as an inquiry agent. While Gage is clearly more competent than she first assumed, Kiera isn’t about to let her guard down as accusations and rumors swirl.

When Kiera and Gage’s search leads them to even more gruesome discoveries, a series of disturbing notes urges Lady Darby to give up the inquiry. But Kiera is determined to both protect her family and prove her innocence, even as she risks becoming the next victim…


The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley  (Sourcebooks trade paperback, 2 October 2012).

Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.

Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.

Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.


Dark Lie by Nancy Springer (NAL trade paperback, 6 November 2012).

To their neighbors, Dorrie and Sam Whiteare a contented couple in America’s heartland, with steady jobs, a suburban home, and plenty of community activities to keep them busy. But they’re not quite what they seem. For plain, hard-working Sam hides a depth of devotion for his wife that no one would suspect. And Dorrie is living a lie--beset by physical ailments, alone within herself...and secretly following the comings and goings of the sixteen-year-old daughter, Juliet, she gave up for adoption when she was hardly more than a child herself.

 

Then one day at the mall, Dorrie watches horror-stricken as Juliet is abducted, forced into a van that drives away. Instinctively, Dorrie sends her own car speeding after it--an act of reckless courage that puts her on a collision course with a depraved killer...and draws Sam into a dogged, desperate search to save his wife. As mother and daughter unite in a terrifying struggle to survive, to what extremes will Dorrie go in overcoming her own limitations...and in confronting her dark, tormented past?

 

 

The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow (Sourcebooks trade paperback, 2 April 2013).

Decades ago, as Nazi planes dominated the British sky, eighteen-year-old Lily Verner made a terrible mistake. She's tried for decades to forget, but now an unexpected event pulls her back to the 1940s British countryside.

She finds herself remembering the brilliant, lustrous colors of the silk she helped to weave at her family's mill, the relentless pressure of the worsening war, and the kind of heartbreaking loss that stops time.

In this evocative novel of love and consequences, Lily finally confronts the disastrous decision that has haunted her all these years.

Recently received

Written in Stone (Books by the Bay #4) by Ellery Adams (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 6 November 2012).

Olivia has a lot on her plate preparing for the Coastal Carolina Food Festival. When she hears the news of Munin’s untimely death, however, finding the murderer takes priority. The witch left behind a memory jug full of keepsakes that Olivia knows must point to the killer—but she’s got to figure out what they mean.

With handsome Police Chief Rawlings by her side, Olivia starts to identify some of the jug’s mysterious contents—and finds its secrets are much darker than she suspected. Now Olivia must enlist the help of the Bayside Book Writers to solve the puzzle behind the piece of pottery and put an end to a vengeful killer before any more damage can be done…


Arsenic and Old Cake (Piece of Cake #2) by Jacklyn Brady (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 6 November 2012).

With business going stale at Zydeco Cakes, Rita Lucero has plenty to worry about. But when the blind trumpet player Old Dog Leg Magee asks for a favor, she can’t say no. His brother Monroe disappeared forty years ago, and now someone has shown up claiming to be him. Old Dog Leg needs Rita to be his eyes—and see if it’s really his brother.
The Twisted Palms Bed and Breakfast is full of unsavory characters, Monroe included. Posing as newlyweds, Rita and her friend Gabriel check in, only to discover that Monroe’s true identity isn’t the only mystery they’ll have to solve. When another guest at the Twisted Palms turns up dead, it seems the mysterious man might also be a murderer...



A Novel Way to Die (Black Cat Bookshop #2) by Ali Brandon (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 6 November 2012).

As the owner of Pettistone’s Fine Books, Darla is settling nicely into her new life, even reaching an uneasy truce with Hamlet. Unfortunately, when she needs to hire a new clerk, the finicky feline decides to lend a paw to the hiring process. He chases away applicants who don’t meet his approval, finally settling on an unlikely candidate: Robert, a book-loving Goth kid who has a secret only Hamlet knows.


And Hamlet can’t seem to stay out of trouble. One of the bookstore’s regular customers, a man who is renovating a local brownstone, claims he’s seen Hamlet prowling the neighborhood. When the man’s business partner is found dead, Darla discovers that Hamlet may have been the only witness to what could be murder. With the crafty cat’s help, she wonders if they just might be able to pounce on a killer...



Let it Sew (Southern Sewing Circle #7) by Elizabeth Lynn Casey (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 6 November 2012).

Instead of spending a nice, relaxing Christmas with her fiancé, Tori Sinclair has been drafted into Sweet Briar’s holiday Decorating Committee. And the season has brought sad tidings as well: Charlotte Devereaux, a sewing circle founding member who unraveled after her storybook marriage fell apart, has passed away.


Charlotte’s last days were foggy, distressed, and feverish… except for the sketches she produced. One detail in particular jumps out at Tori and leads to a shocking revelation: Charlotte’s husband didn’t leave her—he was murdered! And as she gets closer to the truth, Tori will discover that just about everyone in town has got notches on the naughty list this year.



Nightshade on Elm Street (Flower Shop #13) by Kate Collins (Signet mass market, 6 November 2012).

In addition to running her flower shop, planning her wedding, and juggling two mothers who both want to host an elaborate bridal shower, Abby Knight is facing another complication. Her ditzy cousin Jillian asks her and her longtime beau, Marco, a private detective, to find a woman who’s gone missing from the exclusive beach house belonging to Jillian’s in-laws, the Osbornes. The missing woman is also the fiancée of Pryce Osborne, a wet noodle with a big bank account who dumped Abby just before their wedding several years ago. Merely being anywhere near Pryce makes Abby’s insecurities grow like kudzu….
Then a woman’s drowned body surfaces, and Pryce becomes a prime suspect in her death. Unless Abby and Marco can get a killer to come clean, their bridal shower will turn into a complete washout...and Pryce will be exchanging a sunny beach for a prison cell.



Murder is a Piece of Cake (Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper #8) by Elaine Viets (Signet mass market, 6 November 2012).

As a bride-to-be, Josie’s latest assignment is absolutely fitting—investigating wedding flowers and wedding cakes. Josie can’t wait to pick out the details to make her own wedding perfect, even as her fiancé Ted’s outrageous mother has plans to turn the celebration into an over-the-top extravaganza. Still, the pistol-packing Lenore does come in handy when she draws her gun on Molly—a homicidal bridezilla who threatens to kill Ted unless he agrees to marry her—and saves the day.
Josie thinks the worst pre-wedding disaster is behind her—until Molly is shot and Lenore becomes the prime suspect. With her mother-in-law behind bars and her wedding on hold, Josie’s about to become fully engaged in finding the bridezilla killer and getting her own wedding back on track…

On my porch

This is what I found on my porch this morning:

 And this is what was in all those parcels:

I have a lot of reading to do!

Recently received...

Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay (NAL hardcover, 4 September 2012).

Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never so much as stepping out the door. He pores over and memorizes the streets of the world. He examines every address, as well as the people who are frozen in time on his computer screen.

Then he sees something that anyone else might have stumbled upon—but has not—in a street view of downtown New York City: an image in a window. An image that looks like a woman being murdered.

Thomas’s brother, Ray, takes care of him, cooking for him, dealing with the outside world on his behalf, and listening to his intricate and increasingly paranoid theories. When Thomas tells Ray what he has seen, Ray humors him with a half-hearted investigation. But Ray soon realizes he and his brother have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy that was supposed to remain hidden.

And now that they know, they must be eliminated…


City of Women by David R. Gillham (Amy Einhorn/Putnam hardcover, 7 August 2012).

It is 1943—the height of the Second World War—and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.
Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.
But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets. 

A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit, and soon she is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.


The Girl is Trouble by Kathryn Miller Haines (Roaring Book Press hardcover, 3 July 2012).

Iris Anderson doesn't mean to be trouble, but once she finds out that there's more to her mother's suicide than she thought, it's hard not to go behind her father's back and put her newly honed detective skills to work.  Then there's Benny, the Italian boy at school, who looks like trouble but is proving to be an invaluable asset when it comes to solving what is certainly Iris's most emotional case to date.

 The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai (Penguin trade paperback, 29 May 2012).

Lucy Hull, a children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Ian needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly anti-gay classes. Desperate to save him from the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian when she finds him camped out in the library after hours, and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip. But is it just Ian who is running away? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

I can't wait to read...

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown hardcover, 5 June 2012).

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?


Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4) by Tana French (Viking hardcover, 24 July 2012).

Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French’s bestselling Faithful Place, plays by the book and plays hard. That’s what’s made him the Murder squad’s top detective—and that’s what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands.

On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care.

At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it’s going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can’t be explained. The half dozen baby monitors, their cameras pointing at holes smashed in the Spains’ walls. The files erased from the Spains’ computer. The story Jenny told her sister about a shadowy intruder who was slipping past all the locks.

And Broken Harbor holds memories for Scorcher. Seeing the case on the news sends his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family one summer at Broken Harbor, back when they were children.



Valley of Ashes (Madeline Dare #4) by Cornela Read (Grand Central Publishing hardcover, 14 August 2012).

Madeline Dare trades New York's gritty streets for the tree-lined avenues of Boulder, Colorado when her husband Dean lands a promising job. Madeline, now a full-time homemaker and mother to beautiful toddler twin girls, has achieved everything she thought she always wanted, but with her husband constantly on the road, she's fighting a losing battle against the Betty Friedan riptide of suburban/maternal exhaustion, angst, and sheer loneliness.

A new freelance newspaper gig helps her get her mojo back, but Boulder isn't nearly as tranquil as it seems: there's a serial arsonist at large in the city. As Madeline closes in on the culprit, the fires turn deadly-and the stakes tragically personal. She'll need every ounce of strength and courage she has to keep the flames from reaching her own doorstep, threatening all she holds most dear.

The Haul

I picked up a lot of ARCs (and even a few finished books) at ALA.

Here's a list of what I brought home:

Books for Adults

Adler-Olsen, Jussi.  The Absent One (Dutton)

Anthony, Iris.  The Ruins of Lace (Sourcebooks)

Bowling, Tim.  The Tinsmith (Brindle & Glass)

Coonts, Deborah.  So Damn Lucky (Forge)

Harris, Joanne.  Peaches for Father Francis (Viking)

Hart, Carolyn.  Death Comes Silently (Berkley Prime Crime)

Legault, Stephen.  The Slickrock Paradox (Touchwood)

Macomber, Debbie.   The Inn at Rose Harbor (Ballantine)

Nesbø, Jo.  The Phantom (Knopf)

Phillips, Susan E.  The Great Escape (Morrow)

Segal, Francesca.  The Innocents (Hyperion)

Stuart, Julia.  The Pigeon Pie Mystery (Doubleday)

Books for Teens

Blake, Kendare.  Anna Dressed in Blood (Tor Teen)

Fisher, Catherine.  Darkwater (Dial)

Griffin, Paul.  Burning Blue (Dial)

Jarzab, Anna.  The Opposite of Hallelujah (Delacorte)

Lanagan, Margo.   The Brides of Rollrock Island (Knopf)

Lowry, Lois.  Son (Houghton Mifflin)

McKay, Sharon E.  Enemy Territory (Annick Press)

McNamee, Graham. Beyond:  a ghost story (Random House)

Mingle, Pamela.  Kissing Shakespeare (Delacorte)

Mitchell, Saundra.  The Springsweet (Houghton Mifflin)

Stewart, Elizabeth.  The Lynching of Louie Sam (Annick Press)

Vaught, Susan.  Freaks Like Us (Bloomsbury)

Books for Middle Grades

O'Connor, Shelia.  Keeping Safe the Stars (Putnam).

Palacio, R.J.  Wonder (Knopf)

I probably won't be able to read all of these, but hope to get through most.

Which do you think I should read/review first?

This week's arrivals

A Single Thread (Cobbled Courts #1) by Marie Bostwick (Kensington trade paperback, 29 May 2012).

It’s a long way from Fort Worth, Texas, to New Bern, Connecticut, yet it only takes a day in the charming Yankee town to make Evelyn Dixon realize she’s found her new home. The abrupt end of her marriage was Evelyn’s wake-up call to get busy chasing her dream of opening a quilt shop. Finding a storefront is easy enough; starting a new life isn’t. Little does Evelyn imagine it will bring a trio like Abigail Burgess, her niece Liza, and Margot Matthews through her door…
Troubled and angry after her mother’s death, Liza threatens to embarrass her Aunt Abigail all over town unless she joins her for quilting classes. A victim of downsizing at the peak of her career, Margot hopes an event hosted by the quilt shop could be a great chance to network—and keep from dying of boredom…
As they stitch their unique creations, Evelyn, Abigail, Liza, and Margot form a sisterhood they never sought—but one that they’ll be grateful for when the unexpected provides a poignant reminder of the single thread that binds us all… 


The Family Corleone by Ed Falco (Grand Central Publishing hardcover, 5 May 2012).
New York, 1933. The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end.
For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business.


Damage Control by John Gilstrap (Pinnacle mass market, 5 May 2012).

The hostages are young: a bus full of teenagers on a church mission. The ransom demands are explicit: deliver three million dollars—with zero involvement from law enforcement—or all captives will be executed. But rescue specialist Jonathan Grave doesn’t believe in ultimatums. For him and his elite team at Security Solutions, it’s all about protecting the innocent. Now Grave must face the chilling possibility that someone within the U.S. government has a deadly secret to protect—one that could jeopardize national security like never before… 



The Bay of Foxes by Sheila Kohler (Penguin trade paperback, 26 June 2012). 

In 1978, Dawit, a young, beautiful, and educated Ethiopian refugee, roams the streets of Paris. By chance, he spots the famous French author M., who at sixty is at the height of her fame. Seduced by Dawit's grace and his moving story, M. invites him to live with her. He makes himself indispensable, or so he thinks. When M. brings him to her Sardinian villa, beside the Bay of Foxes, Dawit finds love and temptation—and perfects the art of deception.

The UPS truck brought me...

Murder on the Half Shelf (Booktown Mystery #6)  by Lorna Barrett (Berkley Prime Crime hardcover, 3  July 2012).

Stoneham, New Hampshire, is a haven to bookstores, including Tricia’s own mystery shop, Haven’t Got a Clue, but is sadly lacking in bed and breakfasts. Pippa and Jon Comfort’s Sheer Comfort Inn opens its doors to the public in a week and the couple has offered some locals a free night as a trial run.

But what should have been a pleasant overnight stay for Tricia becomes a nightmare when she makes two startling discoveries: Pippa’s murdered body in the backyard, and the fact that her husband Jon is actually Harry Tyler, a man Tricia loved—and believed dead—for nearly twenty years.

Now Harry is the prime suspect, but Tricia doesn’t believe him capable of murder, regardless of her own feelings toward him. And even though Harry’s led a life of lies, Tricia’s learning that Pippa had her share of secrets that some people may have not wanted revealed…

Lethal Outlook (Psychic Eye Mystery #10) by Victoria Laurie (Obsidian hardcover. 3 July 2012).

When a mysterious client approaches Abby with a cryptic message about a young mother who has vanished, Abby is more than willing to get involved.  After all, it’s the perfect distraction from dealing with the headache of her sister Cat – who has flown into town and turned Abby and Dutch’s impending nuptials into Weddingpalooza.

After Abby recruits her business partner and BFF, Candice, to assist, they meet with the parents of the missing woman.  But the parents refuse to put their faith in a psychic. What’s worse, due to a grave misunderstanding, the family suspects Abby has a connection to their daughter’s husband – the man they believe to be responsible for her disappearance.

So while the family may be blind to the truth, with a potential killer in her sights, Abby is determined to keep her eyes wide open...

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion hardcover, 15 May 2012).

Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

Recently received...

The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal (Kensington trade paperback, 26 June 2012).

At thirty-one, Meena Shenoy has a fulfilling career at a New Jersey high-tech firm. Not that it impresses her mother and aunts, who make dire predictions about her ticking biological clock. Men are drawn to Meena's dainty looks and she dates regularly, but hasn't met someone who really intrigues her. Someone professional, ambitious, confident, caring. Someone like her new boss, Prajay Nayak.
Just as Meena's thoughts turn to romance, Prajay makes an astonishing request. He wants her to craft a personal ad that will help him find a suitable wife: a statuesque, sophisticated Indian-American woman who will complement his striking height.
Despite her attraction to Prajay and the complications of balancing work and her "marriage consultant" role, Meena can't refuse the generous fee. And as her family is thrown into turmoil by her brother's relationship with a Muslim woman, Meena comes to surprising realizations about love, tradition, and the sacrifices she will--and won't--make for the sake of both.



The Cop With the Pink Pistol by Gray Basnight (Ransom Note Press trade paperback, 6 March 2012).

She doesn't do jiggle. She isn't into shoes or jewelry. She doesn't wear makeup (or, as she calls it, war paint). NYPD Homicide Detective Donna Prima's sole concession to modern womanhood is the pink .38 she wears strapped to her ankle. Not that she has much opportunity to use it, having been demoted to desk duty for a serious infraction of NYPD regulations.
On a routine burglary follow-up in Greenwich Village, Donna meets soap-opera actor Conner Anderson (Crawford on the top-rated Vampire Love Nest), who alerts her to some strange goings-on in a liquor store across the street. Sick of being chained to her desk, Donna decides to investigate. Meanwhile, the Feds need her help on a cold murder case as they investigate a theft from a nuclear power plant.
But would-be detective Conner Anderson wants to come along for the ride. And Donna, an Italian-American from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, can't deny the mutual chemistry she feels with this Southern WASP from Tupelo, Mississippi. Will taking on Conner as a civilian partner be the start of something beautiful or the biggest mistake of Donna's life?


Killing in Time by Elizabeth Carroll (The Wordsmith Press trade paperback, 7 May 2012).

Home should be a place of safety, but when Julianne parks in the driveway of her California mansion and steps out of the car with her young son Teddie, she finds herself standing in a pool of blood.
Julianne is brought face to face with violence, abuse and betrayal, and soon finds herself fighting for her life.


 The Jane Austen Guide to Life by Lori Smith (Globe Pequot/Skirt! hardcover, 
1 May 2012).

The Jane Austen Guide to Life playfully and poignantly examines Austen's life and novels for the timeless advice that still applies for today's women.
Austen may not understand texting or tweeting or platform heels, but as an astute student of human nature, she can surely teach us an awful lot about ourselves--and we might just be surprised by what she has to say.

Recently received

Dead Man Waltzing (Ballroom Dance #2) by Ella Barrick (Obsidian mass market, 5 June 2012).

Champion dancer Stacy Graysin is looking forward to focusing solely on dance classes at Graysin Motion.  But when the grande dame of American ballroom dancing is poisoned at a function, Stacy is thrown into another investigation.

Hearse and Buggy (Amish mystery #1) by Laura Bradford (Berkley Prime Crime mass market 5 June 2012).
Claire Weatherly has fled a high-stress lifestyle for a slower pace—in Amish country: Heavenly, Pennsylvania. She only planned a short visit but instead found herself opening an Amish specialty shop, Heavenly Treasures, and settling in.Claire loves her new home, and she’s slowly making friends among the locals, including Esther, a young Amish woman who works in the shop. So when the store’s former owner,the unlikable Walter Snow, is murdered, and the man Esther is sweet on becomes a suspect, Claire can’t help but get involved.
Newly returned Detective Jakob Fisher, who left Heavenly—and his Amish upbringing—as a teenager, is on the case. But his investigation is stalled by the fact that none of his former community will speak with him. Claire’s connections make her the perfect go-between. As Claire investigates, she uncovers more than she wanted to know about her neighbors. And suddenly, everything she had hoped to find in this peaceful refuge is at risk . . .

The Azalea Assault (Garden Society #1) by Alyse Carlson (Berkley Prime Crime Mass Market, 5 June 2012).
Camellia Harris has achieved a coup in the PR world. The premier national magazine for garden lovers has agreed to feature one of Roanoke’s most spectacular gardens in its pages—and world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges is going to shoot the spread. But at the welcoming party, Jean-Jacques insults several guests, complains that flowers are boring, and gooses almost every woman in the room. When a body is found the next morning, sprawled across the azaleas, it’s almost no surprise that the victim is Jean-Jacques.
With Cam’s brother-in-law blamed for the crime—and her reporter boyfriend, Rob, wanting the scoop—Cam decides to use her skills to solve the murder. Luckily a PR pro like Cam knows how to be nosy…

Quilt or Innocence (Southern Quilting #1) by Elizabeth Craig ( Obsidian mass market 5 June 2012).

Beatrice Coleman, a retired folk art curator, is the newest member of the Village Quilters Guild.  She is enjoying the lush fabrics, beautiful designs, and friendly faces until one of the quilters becomes a suspect in a crime.

Grace Among Thieves  (Manor House #3)  by Julie Hyzy (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 5 June 2012).
When Grace’s former professor calls to warn her that there have been a rash of thefts at various historical sites, Grace isn’t surprised—because Marshfield Manor has been targeted, too. She wonders if it has something to do with the film crew roaming the grounds, digitally immortalizing the manor, but then she gets distracted by an incident much more dire: the shooting of one guest and the murder of another.
Grace does her best not to go looking for trouble, but with a murderer on the loose, she can’t seem to leave the dirty work to the cops—especially since the killer still seems to be lurking around town, waiting to finish the job of making Grace history…

Don't Die Under the Apple Tree  (Rosie the Riveter #1) by Amy Patricia Meade (Kensington mass market, 1 May 2012).

Life is definitely not easy for 32-year old Rosie O’Doyle Keefe, but she can handle working in New York City’s World War II shipyards—until her foreman winds up dead—right after she rebuffed his “requirements” for a promotion...

Never one to sit back and hope for the best, Rosie discovers that everyone who knew the foreman had good reasons to kill him off. She also finds that she has a surprise ally in the darkly handsome police lieutenant Jack Riordan. But Jack also has to produce a viable suspect for his captain in five days—even if it has to be 

Rosie…

Before long, the mystery spirals onto the streets of wartime New York. With the clock ticking and her freedom on the line, Rosie and Lieutenant Riordan will need to join forces to find the truth and catch the now very desperate killer…who may be much closer then they think!

Corpse in the Crystal Ball (Fortune Teller #2) by Kari Lee Townsend (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 5 June 2012).

After clearing her name as the prime suspect in a murder, Sunny Meadows hopes she can finally enjoy some serenity in the idyllic town of Divinity in upstate New York. She’d also like a second chance with Detective Mitch Stone. But when Mitch’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend Isabel Gonzales shows up, Sunny’s not sure she can compete. Then Isabel mysteriously disappears.

When the police turn to Sunny for help, her visions lead to the discovery of Isabel’s corpse in the woods. Before she died, Isabel scrawled a message in the dirt implicating Mitch in her murder. Now Sunny must help the man she’s falling in love with as she sets out to find the real killer. But this time Sunny’s clairvoyant abilities might not save her—as what she doesn’t see can hurt her…

Recently received

The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (Viking hardcover, 14 June 2012).

An assistant at a nursing home, twenty-year-old Oscar Lowe has made a life for himself amid the colleges and spires of Cambridge and yet is a world apart from the privileged students who roam its grounds and study in the hallowed halls. By chance, he meets the wealthy, charismatic Bellwether siblings, Iris and Eden, after the otherworldly sounds of an organ entice him inside the chapel at King’s College.
Oscar falls in love with beautiful, quirky Iris, a medical student, and is drawn into her opulent world. He soon becomes entangled in the strange obsessions of her brilliant but emotionally troubled brother, Eden, who believes he can heal people with his music—and who will stop at nothing to prove himself right. Oscar and Iris devise a plan to determine just how dangerous Eden really is, but it might already be too late to keep him from his next treacherous move.


An African Affair by Nina Darnton (Plume trade paperback, 29 May 2012).

Corruption, drug smuggling, rampant human rights abuses-New York journalist Lindsay Cameron finds plenty to report, covering the regime of Nigeria's president Michael Olumide. But in the aftermath of two probable assassinations, her inquiries attract unwanted government attention. As rebel factions call for free elections, Lindsay races to penetrate the intricate network of corrupt government officials, oil interests, and CIA agents who really run the Nigerian show.

Meanwhile, her entanglement with a rare art dealer leads her still deeper into terrain that's confounding in every respect-from matters of the heart to those of politics and trade. Drawing from Nina Darnton's own experiences living in Africa during the mid-1970s-including imprisonment in Nigeria with her two small children.


Cast On, Kill Off (Knitting Mystery #10) by Maggie Sefton  (Berkley Prime Crime hardcover, 5 June 2012).

Kelly Flynn’s knitting pal, Megan, is about to get hitched, and all the planning is falling into place. Megan has found the perfect seamstress, Zoe Yeager, to create the dresses for Kelly and the other bridesmaids. And each bridesmaid is knitting her own loose-knit shawl to drape over the lovely dresses. But Zoe has more than bolts of fabric and seam-cutters stashed away in her shop—she’s harboring a secret. Bruises on her face show a troubling side of her marriage, and just after she finds the courage to leave her husband, Zoe’s found dead from a single bullet shot.

Though her husband is a key suspect, it turns out there are others who might have had designs on Zoe’s death. One is fellow seamstress Leann O’Hara, who recently discovered Zoe won a bridal gown design contest with one of Leann’s own designs. Now it’s up to Kelly and her knitting pals to use their sleuthing savvy to solve the case, while helping Megan stay cool and collected as the big day approaches. They’ll have to stitch up all the loose ends before they can don their dresses and shawls and escort Megan into the land of happily ever after…

Faithful Unto Death (A Sugar Land Mystery) by Stephanie Jaye Evans (Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback, 5 June 2012).

No one knows that better than Walker “Bear” Wells, a former college football player now serving as a minister in this upscale Texas town, where famous athletes mix with ranchers and the local parish priest wants to arm wrestle. It’s a beautiful master-planned community, but people can’t be held to neighborhood restrictions, and Bear deals daily with emotional and spiritual problems, in both his flock and his own family.

But never murder. Not until a man is found dead on the nearby golf course, his skull crushed.

Bear has no interest in playing detective. His job is praying for the dead, not searching for their killers. But every time he turns around, another facet of the investigation tangles with his own life…like the fact that the murdered man’s son—and a main suspect—is currently dating his own rebellious teenage daughter. 

Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas (Sourcebooks trade paperback, 1 February 2012).

Forever a girl obsessed with all things French, sweet freak Amy Thomas landed a gig as rich as the purest dark chocolate: leave Manhattan for Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton. Working on the Champs-Élysées, strolling the charming streets, and exploring the best patisseries and boulangeries, Amy marveled at the magnificence of the City of Light.

But does falling in love with one city mean turning your back on another? As much as Amy adored Paris, there was part of her that felt like a humble chocolate chip cookie in a sea of pristine macarons. PARIS, MY SWEET explores how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a salted caramel souffle's rise, as intensely satisfying as molten chocolate cake, and about how the life you're meant to live doesn't always taste like the one you envisioned.