News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Including new titles from Donna Leon and James Patterson. Also featuring hardened and haunted homicide cops, a killer with a penchant for blowfish toxin, investigating crime writers, and intrigue and conspiracy aplenty.

The drowning / Camilla Lackberg ; translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally.
“Christian Thydell has been receiving anonymous threats since he began writing his novel THE MERMAID. When one message, secreted within a bouquet of flowers, causes Christian to collapse at the launch party, crime writer Erica Falck is compelled to investigate. Erica’s husband detective Patrik Hedstrom, meanwhile, is puzzled by the disappearance of Christian’s friend Magnus Kjellner four months previously. When a body is found frozen in the sea near Fjallbacka, he finds he has a murder enquiry on his hands…Clues in Christian’s debut novel THE MERMAID point to a horrific secret buried deep in his past…(Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Beastly things / Donna Leon.
“When a body is found floating in a canal, strangely disfigured and with multiple stab wounds, Commissario Brunetti is called to investigate and is convinced he recognises the man from somewhere. However, with no identification except for the distinctive shoes the man was wearing, and no reports of people missing from the Venice area, the case cannot progress. Brunetti soon realises why he remembers the dead man, and asks Signorina Elettra if she can help him find footage of a farmers’ protest the previous autumn. But what was his involvement with the protest, and what does it have to do with his murder? …Both a gripping case and a harrowing exploration of the dark side of Italy’s meat industry, Donna Leon’s latest novel is a compelling addition to the Brunetti series.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The cold room / Robert Knightly.
“The new mystery from the author of Bodies in Winter – NYPD detective Harry Corbin hasn’t been allowed to work on a homicide case for almost a year following his unearthing of corruption amongst his colleagues and superiors. So when a young woman’s body is found dumped and mutilated on a sweltering New York morning, Corbin jumps at the chance to redeem his career and solve the case — and finds himself on a journey into the dark and secretive world of illegal immigrants, where humans are exploited and life is cheap . . .” (Syndetics summary)

The prodigal son : a Carmine Delmonico novel / Colleen McCullough.
“Holloman, Connecticut, 1969. A very rare and lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. It kills within minutes and leaves no trace behind — unless a doctor knows what to look for — and worried biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O’Donnell. Patrick’s cousin Captain Carmine Delmonico is therefore quick off the mark when the bodies start to mount up. A sudden death at a dinner party followed by another at a gala black-tie event seem at first to be linked only by the poison and Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist on the brink of greatness and husband to Millie…Is he being framed for murder — and if so, by whom?…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

11th hour / James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.
“Millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down and Detective Lindsay Boxer discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco’s most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from an SFPD evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer – even her closest friends on the force. Lindsay is then called to the most bizarre crime scene she’s ever seen: two bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous actor. Another head is unearthed in the garden, and Lindsay realises that the ground could hide hundreds of victims… 11th Hour is the most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women’s Murder Club novel ever.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Ready, scrap, shoot : A Kiki Lowenstein scrap-n-craft mystery / Joanna Campbell Slan.Ready, Scrap, Shoot
“With bills piling up and a brassy new partner at her scrapbooking shop, the last thing Kiki Lowenstein needs is a surprise visit from her browbeating mother. But when shots fired into the crowd narrowly miss Kiki at her daughter’s May Day pageant, it’s another mother — St. Louis’s wealthiest matriarch-who winds up dead. While creating a memorial album for the murdered beer heiress, Kiki becomes bait in a dangerous trap as threats from her old foe mount against her. With help from friends in high and low places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum: catch the killer or be cropped out of her own family album.” (Syndetics summary)

Night rounds : A Detective Inspector Irene Huss Investigation / Helene Tursten ; translation by Laura A. Wideburg.
“In the fourth instalment of the Detective Inspector Irene Huss series, one nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case.” (Syndetics summary)

Promise : for every promise, there is a price to pay– / Tony Cavanaugh.
“Top Homicide cop Darian Richards has been seeking out monsters for too long. He has promised one too many victim’s families he will find the answers they need and it’s taken its toll. After surviving a gunshot wound to the head he calls it quits and retires to the Sunshine Coast in an attempt to leave the demons behind. But he should have realised, there are demons everywhere and no place is safe. A serial killer is prowling the Sunshine Coast area and Darian tries to ignore the fact his experience could make a difference hunting him down. All he wants is to sit at the end of his jetty on the Noosa River and ignore the fact that girls from the area have vanished over the past fourteen months. All blonde and pretty. Youngest: 13. Oldest: 16…Darian can’t sit idly by and he decides he is going to find the killer and deal with him … his way.” (Syndetics summary)

Stolen prey / John Sandford.
“Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed-husband, wife, two daughters, dogs. There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts-it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit. Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.” (Syndetics summary)

Afraid to die / Lisa Jackson.
“Others may dread the bone-numbing cold of winter, but the killer relishes it. The way the frigid water preserves his victims, the feel of their icy skin beneath his fingers. Before long, the world will see their beauty – and his vengeance. The Bitterroot Mountains are in the grip of a hard winter when the detectives first see the two bodies: each frozen solid, yet deliberately displayed. Both victims are women known to Detective Selena Alvarez. Each of them is wearing a piece of her jewellery. Selena’s partner Regan Pescoli and the entire department are working on this case, and so is P.I. Dylan O’Keefe, a man Selena got too close to once before. But this killer already knows too much about the mistakes Selena has tried to outrun. The secrets of her past are coming to the surface, one by one. And soon a madman bent on revenge will show her just how much she has to lose . . . (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

New mysteries for April include the return of Harry Hole to Oslo in Jo Nesbo’s ‘Phantom’; a new Leonid McGill mystery from Walter Mosley; Nate Romanowki taking centre stage in the new C. J Box ‘Joe Pickett’ series; as well as some new ‘cozy’ entries from Carolyn Hart, G.A. McKevett, & Lois Winston.

Death comes silently / Carolyn Hart.
“In her 22nd adventure set in Broward’s Rock, SC, Annie Darling, owner of the Death on Demand bookstore, and her husband, Max, become involved in the murder investigation of a local charity shop worker. The victim tried to call Annie right before she was killed, so Annie feels compelled to find her killer. When a second murder occurs, Annie and Max begin to think that another recent death, which was ruled accidental, may be connected. In addition, Annie’s longtime customer Henny Brawley is trying her best to keep an innocent man from being tried for the murders. VERDICT Fans of this popular cozy series will not be disappointed with Hart’s latest entry (after Dead by Midnight). Recommended for all cozy mystery fans, especially for those who like to read Joan Hess, Leslie Meier, and Jill Churchill…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Death by killer mop doll / Lois Winston.
“An overworked, underpaid crafts editor at a women’s magazine, Anastasia Pollock has no peace at home, either…Her mother is recently engaged to an executive of the magazine’s corporate owner, jubilant that he is pursuing her idea for a new reality TV show involving the magazine’s editors. More work, no more pay for Anatasia, whose assignment for the pilot is to build a program around making mop dolls, a craft from an earlier decade. When the rag doll samples are trashed, a Christmas angel mop doll, left at the scene, suggests an inside job. A few days later, the Valentine mop doll is found at the scene of a murder. Anastasia is a crafting Stephanie Plum, surrounded by characters sure to bring chuckles as she careens through the narrative, crossing paths with the detectives assigned to the case and snooping around to solve it…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Cage of bones / by Tania Carver.
“Into the house. Down the stairs. Through the dripping dark of the cellar. Someone is there. Someone that shouldn’t be there. As a building awaits demolition, a horrifying discovery is made inside the basement: a cage made of human bones – with a terrified, feral child lurking within. Unbeknownst to DI Phil Brennan and psychologist Marina Esposito, they have disturbed a killer who has been operating undetected for thirty years. A killer who wants that boy back. But the cage of bones is also a box of secrets – secrets linking Brennan to the madman in their midst. With the death toll rising and the city reeling in terror, Brennan and Marina race to expose a predator more soullessly evil than any they’ve ever faced.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

Buried in buttercream : a Savannah Reid mystery / G.A. McKevett.
“If the crazies would take a break, Savannah Reid could finally tie the knot with her former police partner, Det. Sgt. Dirk Coulter, in McKevett’s entertaining 17th mystery featuring the San Carmelita, Calif., PI. But between the torching of their original wedding venue and the murder of their wedding planner, it’s clear the only way this duo will get hitched is by first catching the bad guys. Savannah is recovering from near-fatal gunshot wounds received in the previous entry, 2011’s A Decadent Way to Die, a detail overly focused on without any clear explanation for those who missed it. Meanwhile, Tammy Hart, Savannah’s associate in Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency, and Savannah’s brother, Waycross, begin a mutual attraction as Waycross lends a hand with some sleuthing. Readers will relish the author’s trademark wit…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Force of nature / C.J. Box.
“*Starred Review* Some sidekicks provide comic relief, while others serve a darker purpose. Think Easy Rawlins and Mouse or Elvis Cole and Joe Pike the ego and the id. In Box’s Joe Pickett novels, off-the-grid free-agent Nate Romanowki plays a similar role: Joe is a family man, while Nate is a loner; Joe is a poor shot, but Nate is deadly accurate; Joe is rational, while Nate is a force of nature. In some ways, the blood on Nate’s hands allows Joe to remain the sympathetic hero. In the twelfth series installment, Nate takes center stage. His mysterious past has caught up with him, and the black-ops military unit to which he used to belong wants him dead. They’re going after Nate through the people he cares about, including Joe’s family. This is a very different Pickett novel, more a pure thriller and much more violent. Fans who love the books for their thoughtfulness may find this one a bit bloody, but those who love Box’s stunning set pieces will be in heaven…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

A pound of flesh / Alex Gray.
“Detective Superintendent Lorimer’s worst nightmare is a serial killer loose in his city. But two serial killers operating at once on the streets of Glasgow is a nightmare come to life. Is there a link between the brutal slaying of prostitutes in the backstreets of the city and the methodical killing of several unconnected businessmen? Lorimer is never one to jump to conclusions but something about these cases just doesn’t add up. Each killer has a different MO, but their obsession with murder is equally chilling. When the latest death is that of a prominent government minister, Lorimer finds the media’s relentless scrutiny turned on his investigation. Psychologist Solly Brightman is helping with both cases, but someone within Lormer’s team is sabotaging their efforts by leaking confidential police information… (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

All I did was shoot my man / Walter Mosley.
“In Mosley’s fourth Leonid McGill mystery (after 2011’s When the Thrill Is Gone), the best in the series to date, the New York City PI tries to atone for a misdeed from his checkered past. Eight years earlier, McGill helped frame Zella Grisham for a part in the biggest Wall Street robbery in history-$58 million stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp. Zella was guilty of shooting her man, Harry Tangelo, when she found him in bed with her best friend, Minnie Lesser, but the eight years she served were due to the frame, not the shooting. McGill manages to get Zella released, setting in motion a chain of deadly events. Meanwhile, his difficult family life reaches full boil with each of his three adult children, Twill, Dimitri, and Shelly, as well as with his hard-drinking wife, Katrina. Unraveling the truth behind the robbery and the unrecovered millions tests McGill’s skills to the utmost in this complex, satisfying entry…” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Phantom / Jo Nesbo ; translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.
“Following from Jo Nesbø’s electrifying international best-sellers The Snowman and The Leopard, now comes Phantom, which plunges the brilliant, deeply troubled, now former police officer Harry Hole into a full-tilt investigation on which his own tenuous future will come to depend. When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn’t help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city’s highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Mysteries can take many surprising twists as they wind towards a conclusion, no other genre sets out to surprise in quite so many ways. However, amongst all the unpreditabilty is one element that can always be relied upon, an ominous sounding title. Well, that and murder I suppose…

Victims : an Alex Delaware novel / Jonathan Kellerman.
“Drawing from insights gained in his clinical work with mentally distressed children, Kellerman pulls the reader into a macabre case of ritualistic slaughter in his 27th Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis title. After discovering two identically grisly murders, the investigative duo (Delaware is a psychologist, Sturgis an LAPD lieutenant) strive to connect the apparently unrelated victims. As the body count rises, names and experiences from Delaware’s clinical training begin to surface unexpectedly and the case becomes personal. Verdict Kellerman’s bizarre yet plausible thriller will be a treat for his many fans, who will recognize and appreciate the emphasis upon psychological detail and insight instead of more customary sleuthing terminology…” – (adapted from Library Journal summary)

Heart of a killer / David Rosenfelt.
“Edgar-finalist Rosenfelt’s fine stand-alone begins as a legal thriller that twists into a murder mystery before becoming a full-blown suspense chiller. The life of Karen Harrison, a 14-year-old girl with a congenital heart defect, can only be saved by a heart transplant from a matching donor. Karen’s mom, Sheryl, who shares Karen’s rare blood type, wishes to donate her heart. Two complications stand in Sheryl’s way. First, she must die to enable the transplant. Second, in order to commit suicide, she must get out of prison, where she’s serving 15 years to life for her abusive husband’s murder six years earlier. That’s where Sheryl’s underachieving lawyer, Jamie Wagner, comes in. Jamie hopes to file a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey on her behalf, but his plans change when he learns Sheryl may not be guilty…” – (adapted from Publisher Weekly summary)

Cut, crop & die : a Kiki Lowenstein scrap-n-craft mystery / Joanna Campbell Slan.
“Tainted icing triggers a rare allergy, and a hobbyist croaks at a scrapbooking crop sponsored by Time in a Bottle, the store where Kiki Lowenstein works. When it comes out that someone swiped the victim’s emergency medication, the scrappers realize they have a murder on their hands, and the entire community jumps to point the finger at Kiki and her coworkers. Suddenly, the one anchor in Kiki’s stormy life is on the verge of sinking beneath a ruined reputation. But who wouldn’t want to kill Yvonne Gaynor? The nasty woman had enough enemies to fill a memory album. Once again, Kiki gets sucked into a mystery that should be left to that dreamy detective, Chad Detweiller — who hasn’t tried to kiss her yet. With anti-Semitic threats coming in at the store, a quarrelsome teen daughter at home, and constant financial pressure, Kiki needs to keep her cool if she’s going to set things right.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Left for dead : a novel / J.A. Jance.
“Bestseller Jance’s engaging seventh Ali Reynolds novel (after 2011’s Fatal Error) offers plenty of scope for the widowed former reporter, anchorwoman, and graduate of the Arizona Police Academy, who now heads a private charitable fund, to use her sleuthing talents. When 17-year-old Rose Ventana is found dead near the Mexican border, savagely beaten and tortured, the police assume she’s just another casualty of the drug wars. But Ali’s dear friend, Sister Anselm, thinks otherwise, and the two vigorous and persistent women discover links to other cases that suggest a serial killer at work. Meanwhile, the pair involve themselves in caring for the extended family of a local deputy, mysteriously wounded and suspected of dealing in drugs…” – (adapted from Publisher Weekly summary)

Catch me / Lisa Gardner.
“D.D. Warren has returned from maternity leave and is back on the job just in time to investigate a crime spree in which the victims are also child predators. She’s soon contacted by a young woman named Charlie Grant, who announces that she expects to be killed in several days and asks D.D. to investigate her murder. As D.D. copes with personal issues while working with her old team (plus a new face in Detective O) to piece together this crime puzzle, the two seemingly unconnected cases begin to show signs of overlapping. The clues all point in one direction, prompting D.D. to rethink and reevaluate the evidence in the race to put that final piece in place. Verdict New York Times best-selling author Gardner (Love You More; Live To Tell; Alone) always plays in the big leagues, but this scare-your-socks-off thriller is a grand slam, packed with enigmatic characters (some good, some crazily evil), expert procedural detail, and superb storytelling…” – (adapted from Library Journal summary)

Vigilante / Stephen J. Cannell.
“In the last novel by acclaimed producer and New York Times bestselling author Stephen J. Cannell, LAPD detective Shane Scully and his partner Sumner Hitchens investigate a crime with ties to the sometimes violent world of reality TV. Lita Mendez was a thorn in the LAPD’s side. An aggressive police critic and gang activist, she’d filed countless complaints against the department. So when she’s found dead in her home, Detective Scully and his partner Hitchens fear the worst: that there’s a killer in their ranks. Outside the crime scene, Nixon Nash and his television crew have set up shop. Nash is the charismatic host of a hit reality show called “Vigilante TV,” dedicated to beating the cops at their own game: solving murders before they can. Now he has the murder of Lita Mendez in his sights. He presents the detectives with a choice: either join his team, or prepare for a public takedown. But Scully knows that Nash isn’t the folk-hero he seems. He will do anything in the name of self-promotion. If a detective got in his way, would he be prepared to kill? In this new novel, Scully will have to risk everything save himself and the job he loves…” – (description from Amazon.com summary)

Unwanted / Kristina Ohlsson ; [translated by Sarah Death].
“Swedish federal investigator Frederika Bergman is an academic whose intellect assists her in formulating unique theories during her investigations. Unfortunately, her mostly male colleagues show contempt at her lack of previous police experience and push aside her findings and opinions. But before Frederika can quit and work in a profession more appropriate for her talent, a simple custodial interference case quickly turns into a serial kidnapping and murder spree. VERDICT This award-winning first volume in an acclaimed Swedish crime series spends a significant amount of time introducing and setting up Frederika’s investigative team. While this makes for a slightly lengthy thriller, it does not take away from the compelling story line. Ohlsson’s U.S. debut is a complicated novel that delves into every parent’s nightmare. Fans of detective or thriller fiction will delight in discovering this excellent addition to the Scandinavian mystery genre…” – (adapted from Library Journal summary)

The bloody meadow / William Ryan.
“Following his investigations in The Holy Thief, which implicated those at the very top of authority in Soviet Russia, Captain Alexei Korolev finds himself decorated and hailed as an example to all Soviet workers. But Korolev lives in an uneasy peace – his new-found knowledge is dangerous, and if it is discovered what his real actions were during the case, he will face deportation to the frozen camps of the far north. But when the knock on the door comes, in the dead of night, it is not Siberia Korolev is destined for. Instead, Colonel Rodinov of the NKVD security service asks the detective to look into the suspected suicide of a young woman: Maria Alexandovna Lenskaya, a model citizen. Korolev is unnerved to learn that Lenskaya had been of interest to Ezhov, the feared Commissar for State Security. Ezhov himself wants to matter looked into. And when the detective arrives on the set for Bloody Meadow, in the bleak, battle-scarred Ukraine, he soon discovers that there is more to Lenskaya’s death than meets the eye…” – (description from Amazon.com summary)

Here are our picks of the new mysteries for February — including the new V. I. Warshawski novel from Sarah Paretsky, John Lescroart’s new Wyatt Hunt novel, Charles Todd’s new 1920s mystery featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge, and the latest needlecraft mystery from author Monica Ferris. Enjoy!

Breakdown / Sara Paretsky.
“Both Paretsky and her sharp-tongued justice-seeker, V. I. Warshawski, remain formidable in the masterfully suspenseful fifteenth novel in this superb and adored Chicago-set series… called away by Petra, her young cousin, now a regular in the series, to look for the teenage girls Petra works with in a program that brings together daughters of penniless immigrants with daughters of privilege, V. I. finds them in a cemetery, performing a ritual inspired by their ardor for a series of vampire novels. She also finds a dead man with a metal rod driven through his heart. The ensuing morally reprehensible case, which V. I. compares to a Rubik’s Cube, involves class divides, a state mental hospital, warped brother-sister relationships, a tricked-out Camaro, a Holocaust survivor’s tale, a wrongful murder conviction, and the politics of hate…” (Adapted from Syndetics Summary)

The chalk girl / Carol O’Connell.
“Kathy Mallory of the NYPD’s Special Crimes Unit may be the Lord Byron of police detectives. Like Byron, the gorgeous and beyond-eccentric Mallory is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. In this remarkable series, Mallory, wounded by a horrific childhood, concentrates her entire being on the vengeful pursuit of bad guys, using some well-developed criminal skills to flush them out of hiding. Mallory is pulled out of leave (brought on by the department psychiatrist’s labeling her as dangerously unstable) by a case her superiors think that only she, rocky as she is, can solve. The case turns on one witness, an eight-year-old girl with a rare genetic disorder that leaves her physically and emotionally vulnerable, who knew a serial killer’s first victim, found hanging from a tree in Central Park…” (Adapted from Syndetics Summary)

The hunter : a novel / John Lescroart.
“Raised by loving adoptive parents, San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt never had an interest in finding his birth family – until he gets a chilling text message from an unknown number: “How did ur mother die?” The answer is murder, and urged on by curiosity and the mysterious texter, Hunt takes on a case he never knew existed, one that has lain unsolved for decades. His family’s dark past unfurls in dead ends. Child Protective Services, who suspected but could never prove that Hunt was being neglected, is uninformed; his birth father, twice tried but never convicted of the murder, is in hiding; Evie, his mother’s drug-addicted religious fanatic of a friend, is untraceable. And who is the texter, and how are they connected to Hunt?… The cat-and-mouse game leads Hunt across the country and eventually to places far more exotic-and far more dangerous…” (Adapted from Amazon description)

Threadbare / Monica Ferris.
In this needlecraft novel from author Monica Ferris, Betsy Devonshire gets embroiled in an embroidery mystery. When an elderly homeless woman is found dead on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, she’s wearing something that holds the key to her identity but also opens up a mystery. Embroidered on her blouse is her will, in which she bequeaths everything she owns to her niece Emily Hame, a member of the Monday Bunch at Betsy’s Crewel World needlework shop! Emily’s aunt turns out to be the second homeless woman to be found dead under mysterious circumstances. It’s up to Betsy to discover the common thread between the deaths, and to determine if a murderer may strike again. (Syndetics Summary)

The broken blue line / Connie Dial.
“LAPD internal affairs detective Mike Turner and a few colleagues risk lives and careers to follow the spirit, if not the letter, of the law in Dial’s competent follow-up to Internal Affairs (2009). Turner is an important cog in a squad that takes down cops who break the laws they’re intended to enforce. Unfortunately, his boss, Lieutenant Metcalfe, is primarily concerned with career advancement, and squad leader Tom Weaver is careful to play by the book and won’t buck Metcalfe. Turner is willing to protect rasher comrades as they try to catch crooked cop Ian Conner, who’s faked a back injury and is stealing guns and committing felonies with a gang of white boys and Mexicans in the Valley. On the personal side, Turner must deal with an elderly retired cop he takes in as well as his flighty on-again/off-again girlfriend. Dial, a 27-year veteran of the LAPD, paints a dispiriting picture of a force riven by incompetence and ambition…” (Description from Publishers Weekly)

For richer, for danger : a broken vows mystery / Lisa Bork.
“(A Broken Vows mystery.) Jolene Parker and her police-deputy husband Ray have found new love in their life together. They’re foster parents for Noelle, an adorable baby whose fugitive birth parents hightailed it out of their touristy Finger Lakes-area town. Jolene and Ray want to make their parenthood official, but the adoption hits a mysterious roadblock when the given name of Noelle’s mother traces back to a dead girl. As Jolene races to find the true identity of the secretive birth mother, she discovers an unsolved murder . . . and learns that her family may be in extreme danger.” (Syndetics summary)

Vulture peak / John Burdett.
“Burdett’s fifth Bangkok novel (after 2010’s The Godfather of Kathmandu) opens with a memorable tableau-three corpses, laid neatly on a bed in a Phuket mansion and missing all commercially viable body parts, including their faces. It’s clearly a case for the quirky, pot-smoking police detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, whose investigations are often stymied by the double whammy of his country’s corruption and his own personal problems. When Jitpleecheep is on task, he’s doggedly pursuing traffickers in human organs, led by a beautiful but ruthless set of twins, Lilly and Polly Yip. The criminal ring uses as its source material executed Chinese prisoners, while its customers are wealthy Westerners whose internal organs have worn out…” (Adapted from Syndetics Summary)

Physical education / Maggie Barbieri.
“Barbieri adroitly mixes campus politics, mob wars, and religious scandals in her sixth mystery featuring English professor Alison Bergeron (after 2010’s Third Degree). When Paul, the new mail carrier at St. Thomas, the small Catholic university in New York City where Alison teaches, turns up dead in the trunk of Alison’s car, her new husband, Det. Robert Crawford, warns her off the case. Paul, it turns out, is really Vito Passella, a member of a local crime family. Meanwhile, Alison is deeply involved in temporarily coaching the school’s basketball team – a true test of her tact in dealing with incompetent players as well as their pushy parents. What little remains of her time is spent trying to exonerate her friend Fr. Kevin McManus, forced to take leave as school chaplain after anonymous accusations of impropriety. That Crawford becomes evasive and reclusive adds to her stress, but Alison remains irreverent, cynical, and totally engaging throughout…” (Adapted from Syndetics Summary)

The confession / Charles Todd.
“Set in 1920, Todd’s excellent 14th mystery featuring Insp. Ian Rutledge (after 2011’s A Lonely Death) offers an intriguing setup. When Wyatt Russell shows up at Scotland Yard and confesses to murdering a cousin, Justin Fowler, five year earlier, Rutledge is unwilling to accept the story at face value, especially since Russell refuses to explain why he killed Fowler. Russell, who’s dying of cancer, agrees to lunch with the inspector in London, but divulges little more. Rutledge travels to a remote corner of Essex to pursue the few leads Russell provides, but receives an extremely hostile reception from the locals. The cold case takes an even stranger turn after Russell suffers a fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head. The plot convolutions compel, but the book’s main strength is its remarkable lead, who has survived the trench warfare of WWI and remains haunted by what the exigencies of the battlefield forced him to do…” (Adapted from Syndetics Summary)

This selection of new Murder Mysteries includes updates for Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. Plus, three new Scandinavian mysteries, and a new instalment in Martin Walker’s Captain Bruno Courrèges mysteries (set in South-West France). Enjoy!

Red mist / Patricia Cornwell.
“Kay Scarpetta has arranged to meet an inmate at the high-security Georgia Prison for Women. The prisoner is a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brilliant killer. Against advice, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman out – she believes she may hold some answers to the murder of her former deputy. But soon she finds connections to a string of grisly killings, including the slaughter of a Savannah family years earlier. She can see a pattern to these killings, but who is behind them and why?” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Slash and burn / Colin Cotterill.
“Dr Siri, off on what he calls a ‘therapeutic holiday’ in the mountains with his wife and friends and with the help of a little blackmail they are accompanying an American MIA team. Their mission is to discover what happened to a stoned airman downed ten years earlier. Could he have survived? Who is eliminating the last people to have seen him alive? And who, we ask, is lighting the fires that are shrouding the Friendship Hotel in smog? In the remote Plain of Jars, surrounded by a thousand tons of unexploded bombs, Siri and the morgue team have to discover who is the killer in their midst before they too become victims.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Burned / Thomas Enger ; translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.
“A solitary tent is found to contain the body of a half-buried woman. She’s been stoned to death. There are lash marks across her back. One of her hands has been cut off. Two years earlier internet reporter Henning Juul lost his son, Jonas, in a domestic fire. As he returns to work, physically and emotionally scarred, Henning struggles to escape this past and to be taken seriously again as a reporter, by his colleagues, his ex-wife and the police. Told to cover the story of the woman in the tent, he finds an increasingly dangerous trail and, despite an early arrest, he is convinced that the story is more complex than the police think. “(adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Explosive eighteen / Janet Evanovich (Book on CD).
“Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and someone who sounds like Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. The FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying. Only one other person has seen the missing photograph, Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can” (adapted from Syndetics summary).

The territory / Tricia Fields.
“At the end of State Road 170 and just past a ghost town lies Artemis, population 2500. The townspeople had sought out this remote corner of western Texas in hopes of living lives of solitude and independence. None of them realized that their small town would become a hot spot for Mexican drug runners, whose turf battles have turned both sides of the Rio Grande into a war zone. Still, many of the locals would rather take the law into their hands than get help from police chief Josie Gray, even when they’re up against a cartel’s private army. After arresting one of the cartel’s hit men and killing another, Josie finds her own life at risk for doing a job which many people would rather see her quit.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

“V” is for vengeance / Sue Grafton.
“Las Vegas, 1986. A young college graduate is murdered when he is unable to pay back a loan funded by notorious criminal Lorenzo Dante. Two years later private investigator Kinsey Millhone finds her-self assisting to apprehend a shoplifter, Audrey Vance, in a shopping centre. Events take a much darker turn when Audrey’s body is discovered beneath the Cold Spring Bridge, a local suicide spot. Unable to believe she took her own life, Audrey’s fiancé Marvin Striker hires Kinsey to investigate. It soon emerges that the shoplifter had become caught up in a much larger operation. Meanwhile Lorenzo Dante has begun to grow weary of his life in organised crime and frustrated with his violent and impulsive younger brother Cappi. As Kinsey’s enquiries reach a dramatic head, it becomes clear that she and Dante have one thing in common, they must be careful who they trust.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Vacuum / Bill James.
“After his son and wife were shot, Mansel Shale turned to God, leaving DCS Colin Harpur with a potential problem. Instead of keeping a grip on his profitable drugs empire, Shale, ravaged by sorrow and regret, has abandoned that business, leaving it in the hands of an assistant who is reputed to hallucinate about the Spanish Civil War.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The hidden child / Camilla Läckberg ; translated by Tiina Nunnally.
“Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among her late mother’s possessions. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig deep into her family’s past and finally uncover the reasons why. Her enquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher. He was among her mother’s circle of friends during the Second World War but her questions are met with bizarre and evasive answers. Two days later he meets a violent death. Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica’s husband, is on paternity leave but soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old? Reluctantly Erica must read her mother’s wartime diaries. But within the pages is a painful revelation about Erica’s past. Could what little knowledge she has be enough to endanger her husband and newborn baby?” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Until thy wrath be past / Asa Larsson ; translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson.
“It is the first thaw of spring and the body of a young woman surfaces in the River Thorne in the far north of Sweden. Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Karuna. Her sleep has been disturbed by haunting visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body belong to the ghost in her dreams? And where is the dead girl’s boyfriend, also reported as missing the previous winter? Joining forces once again with Police Inspectors Anna-Maria Mella and Sven-Erik Stalnacke, Rebecka is drawn into an investigation that centers on old rumors about a plane carrying supplies for German troops in 1943 that never arrived.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The crowded grave : an investigation by Bruno, Chief of Police / Martin Walker.
“Life in south-west rural France is not the sleepy idyll you might suppose. Local duck and goose farms are being attacked by animal rights protestors attempting to halt the production of foie gras. A senior policeman has been shot by terrorists believed to be the Basque Separatists of ETA. And if that weren’t enough, a group of students have just unearthed a ‘modern’ skeleton during a dig at one of the ancient sites of this famous region and home to pre-historic man, a dig that has brought an influx of foreigners to the Dordogne. It is up to Chief of Police Bruno Courrèges to get to the bottom of these seemingly unrelated events.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Some new mysteries for December include David Baldacci’s new series character; the second instalment of Ian Rankin’s new series featuring Internal Affairs investigator Malcolm Fox; the latest in Jeff Lindsay’s ‘Dexter’ series; Andrea Camilleri’s new Inspector Montalbano case; and the return of ‘author’ Richard Castle with the latest Nikki Heat novel…

Zero day : a novel / David Baldacci.
“Decorated army veteran John Puller is a special agent in the military’s Criminal Investigative Division. When a colonel and his family are brutally murdered in West Virginia, Puller partners with the local homicide detective, Sgt. Samantha Cole, to solve the crime. As their investigation deepens, the number of fatalities increases. How are these victims connected? Puller and Cole must discover the truth behind the conspiracy that sent these individuals to their deaths. The clock is winding down. Three. Two. One. Zero. Game over? Verdict: Baldacci fans will embrace this new series hero as Puller doggedly pursues justice in spite of his personal problems: Puller’s retired military hero father suffers from dementia, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason. High-octane suspense and conspiracy thriller buffs who enjoy John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and W.E.B. Griffin will also snatch up this title. (Library Journal)

Double Dexter : a novel / Jeff Lindsay.
“Dexter Morgan, the Miami PD blood-spatter expert who kills evil people in his spare time, the monster posing as a man, has a bit of a problem. While serving up brutal justice to his latest victim (a serial child abuser), Dexter was seen. He barely caught a glimpse of the car as it sped away, but he knows that somewhere out there is a witness. At first he panics, but then his cold, clinical side takes over, and he thinks: I work for the police department, and in my hidden life, I’m an expert at tracking down people who don’t want to be found. So he decides: he’ll find the witness and dispense with him. Fans of the Dexter novels or their spin-off television series will enjoy the opportunity to see their favorite murderous antihero dealing with an unfamiliar situation, feeling the fear and other emotions he usually inspires in his victims. Dexter is continuing along the rocky road to genuine humanity; presumably, if he ever becomes a normal person, that will spell the end of this series, so let’s hope he never quite gets there.(Booklist)

The impossible dead / Ian Rankin.
“Insp. Malcolm Fox proves a worthy successor to John Rebus in Rankin’s satisfyingly layered second novel featuring the Edinburgh Internal Affairs cop (after The Complaints). Fox and his two colleagues receive a frosty reception in Kirkcaldy, where they must decide whether a disgraced officer’s three fellow cops helped cover up his misdeeds. Det. Constable Paul Carter, found guilty of sexual misconduct, intrigues Fox because it was Carter’s ex-copper uncle, Alan, who turned him in. Since interviewing the belligerent Carter and his mates leads nowhere, Fox turns to Alan for insight. He discovers the elder Carter was hired by a prestigious lawyer to look into the 1985 “suicide”-or possible murder-of Francis Vernal, a fellow attorney, well-known orator, and vocal supporter of the fringe Scottish separatist movement. Soon Fox’s attention is divided between following up scant leads in the Carter investigation and unearthing decades-old secrets about Vernal’s life and associates. Rankin elegantly weaves together the two story lines without forcing a connection. (Publisher Weekly)

Heat rises / Richard Castle.
“Fast-paced and full of intrigue, Heat Rises pairs the tough and sexy NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat with hotshot reporter Jameson Rook in New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle’s most thrilling mystery yet.
The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat’s most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York’s most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD. But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers, with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who’s not a cop: reporter Jameson Rook. In the midst of New York’s coldest winter in a hundred years, there’s one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises. (Description from Amazon.com)

The potter’s field / Andrea Camilleri ; translated by Stephen Sartarelli.
“Camilleri’s clever 13th Inspector Montalbano mystery (after 2010’s The Track of Sand) opens with the discovery of an unidentified body, cut into 30 pieces, in a remote field near the Sicilian town of Vigata, known for soil rich with potter’s clay. Montalbano, who has a knack for finding gallows humor in even the most grotesque situations, believes the hacked-up body signifies the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid for his betrayal. Later, Dolores Alfano, a stunning woman whose skin has “the faint scent of cinnamon,” reports that her husband, a sailor with ties to a local mobster, is missing. That Mimi Augello, one of Mantalbano’s most trusted inspectors, is in a permanent rage complicates matters. As usual, Montalbano wants to wrap up both cases quickly so he can get back to his real work-sleeping, eating, drinking, and dealing with his long-distance girlfriend, Livia. (Publisher Weekly)

Death comes to Pemberley / P.D. James.
“It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball. Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery. Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.” (Description from Amazon.com)

The hand that trembles / Kjell Eriksson ; translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg.
“A Swedish county commissioner walks out of a high-level meeting and disappears. Many years later, one of the town’s natives is convinced that he’s caught a glimpse of the missing man while traveling in Bangalore, India.” (Syndetics summary)

The reborn / Lin Anderson.
“When the body of a pregnant teenager is found in a Hall of Mirrors with the full-term fetus surgically removed, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is called in to assist the police. Suspicion falls on Jeff Coulter, a psychotic inmate at a nearby hospital whose hobby is making Reborns—chillingly realistic baby dolls intended for bereaved parents or those unable to conceive. But how could he have orchestrated the murder from a secure mental facility? The investigation leads to a group of teenage girls who seem to have all got pregnant at the same time, and then a Reborn doll is discovered near the crime scene, and a second girl from the group is found dead. Creepy, compelling, and heart-stoppingly tense, this is Lin Anderson’s most powerful novel yet.” (Description from Amazon.com)

City of whispers / Marcia Muller.
“Private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mail asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half-brother, Darcy Blackhawk, but he fails to reply to her response. As her search widens, Sharon uncovers a connection to an unsolved murder of a young woman who was heiress to a multi-million dollar fortune.” (Syndetics summary)

Skeleton letters / Laura Childs.
“The scrapbookers are on a tear in the French Quarter of New Orleans when one of their own is killed with a stolen crucifix. Childs’s ninth outing (after Fiber & Brimstone) has the winning formula, plus tips and recipes. (Library Journal)

Some new mysteries for November include the new Lawrence Block, ‘A drop of the hard stuff’, his first Matthew Scudder novel in 6 years; the next in John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series; a literary debut by Alice LaPlante about an orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia, who is uncertain if she has committed a crime; and the latest in the popular Eve Dallas series by Nora Roberts (writing as J. D. Robb)….

A drop of the hard stuff / Lawrence Block.
“MWA Grand Master Block’s powerful 17th novel featuring PI Matthew Scudder (after 2005’s All the Flowers Were Dying) explores the challenges of an alcoholic attempting to atone for his past misdeeds. In 1970 or ‘71, Scudder, then a Manhattan NYPD detective, recognizes a guy he knew in grade school in the Bronx, Jack Ellery, in a police lineup to identify a robber. The victim picks someone else as the man who held her up at gunpoint, though Ellery’s the guilty party. Years later, after Scudder has left the force, he meets Ellery, now an ex-con, at an AA meeting, where Ellery is trying to take the ninth step-making amends to all the people he’d harmed. Scudder’s efforts to solve the murder that results from Ellery’s quest for absolution place his own sobriety-and life-at risk.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)
 
The Burning Soul / John Connolly.
“Randall Haight has a secret: when he was a teenager, he and his friend killed a 14-year-old girl. Randall did his time and built a new life in the small Maine town of Pastor’s Bay, but somebody has discovered the truth about Randall. He is being tormented by anonymous messages, haunting reminders of his past crime, and he wants private detective Charlie Parker to make it stop. But another 14-year-old girl has gone missing, this time from Pastor’s Bay, and the missing girl’s family has its own secrets to protect. Now Parker must unravel a web of deceit involving the police, the FBI, a doomed mobster named Tommy Morris, and Randall Haight himself. Because Randall Haight is telling lies.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

 
Liquid smoke / Jeff Shelby.
“Private eye Noah Braddock has finally found peace in his once tumultuous relationship with Detective Liz Santangelo and has called a tentative truce with his alcoholic mother, Carolina. So when lawyer Darcy Gill demands that he look into a hopeless death row case, he’s more interested in catching some waves before San Diego’s rare winter weather takes hold. Then Darcy plays her trump card: the man scheduled to die—convicted of killing two men in cold blood—is the father Noah never knew.” – (adapted from Amazon.com description)

 
Turn of mind / by Alice LaPlante.
“A stunning first novel, both literary and thriller, about a retired orthopedic surgeon with dementia…As the book opens, Dr. Jennifer White’s best friend, Amanda, who lived down the block, has been killed, and four fingers surgically removed from her hand. Dr. White is the prime suspect and she herself doesn’t know whether she did it. Told in White’s own voice, fractured and eloquent, a picture emerges of the surprisingly intimate, complex alliance between these life-long friends—two proud, forceful women who were at times each other’s most formidable adversaries. As the investigation into the murder deepens…a chilling question lingers: is White’s shattered memory preventing her from revealing the truth or helping her to hide it?” – (adapted from Amazon.com description)

A mortal terror / James R. Benn.
“Historical background almost overpowers the personal foreground in Benn’s ambitious sixth Billy Boyle WWII mystery (after 2010’s Rag and Bone). As the U.S. Army fights its way up the Italian boot, Billy, a former Boston cop who’s now a military investigator for his Uncle Ike (i.e., General Eisenhower), pursues a serial killer who’s targeting Allied officers. Combat and the psycho steadily reduce the list of GI suspects. Billy realizes that the murderer is playing games with him after he discovers that his kid brother, Danny, is a new replacement somehow assigned to the platoon he’s investigating.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

In sickness and in death : a broken vows mystery / Lisa Bork.
“Jolene Parker is depressed after having to return a foster baby. She is just barely showering again and returning to work at her sports-car dealership when her police-deputy husband brings home 12-year-old Danny, whose father is jailed for car theft. Danny is a bit of a wild child with a fondness for hot-wiring cars. After Danny takes a joyride in a vehicle he claims belongs to his father, Danny and Jolene find a severed arm in the car’s trunk. Naturally, Danny’s dad is the top suspect in what appears to be a murder case, but Danny insists his father is no killer, and Jolene believes him, launching her own investigation into what happened to the woman without an arm…Bork effectively mixes edgy situations with a humorous narrative voice, giving the novel appeal for both cozy and lighter police-procedural fans.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Deadly cove : a Lewis Cole mystery / Brendan DuBois.
“Protests at the Falconer nuclear power station on New Hampshire’s coast form the backdrop for DuBois’s suspenseful, satisfying seventh mystery featuring magazine reporter Lewis Cole, who once “worked as a research analyst for an obscure section of the Department of Defense” (after 2006’s Primary Storm). When someone shoots local peace activist Bronson Toles dead at one of the demonstrations Cole is covering, Cole looks into the backgrounds of Curt Chesuk, leader of the violent Nuclear Freedom Front, as well as the head of the pro-nuclear New England Trade Union Council and Toles’s family. As the demonstrations continue in the emotional aftermath of Toles’s murder, Cole arranges to interview the elusive Chesuk at his secret compound, a meeting that puts both Cole and his best friend, Det. Sgt. Diane Woods, in peril.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

 The end of the wasp season / by Denise Mina.
”When notorious millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from the old oak tree in front of his Kent mansion his death attracts no sympathy. One less shark is little loss to a world nursing a financial hangover. But the legacy of a life time of self-serving is widespread, the carnage most acute among those he ought to be protecting: his family. He leaves behind two deeply damaged children and a broken wife. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered in her home. The genteel community is stunned by what appears a vicious, random attack. When DS Alex Morrow, heavily pregnant with twins, is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that behind the murder lurks a tangled web of lies…which traces the damaging consequences of one man’s selfish actions in a world ravaged by recession and questioning everything it previously held sacred.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk review)

 The Charlestown connection : a novel / Tom MacDonald.
“It’s to his credit that MacDonald has set his debut novel in territory that is very familiar to mystery readers: the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston (an area associated with Chuck Hogan and Dennis Lehane). That took guts. It also took some real skill to make the novel stand out among such stiff competition. Dermot Sparhawk, a former college football star, is stunned when his ex-con godfather, Jeepster Hennessey, is murdered (Jeepster dies right in front of Dermot, from a stab wound to the back). Before he dies, Jeepster gives Dermot a brass key and a cryptic clue. Figuring this could be something important, Dermot withholds the information from the police (and from the FBI, who seem unusually interested in the murder of this small-time crook). As he follows his only clue, Dermot puts together a theory about his godfather’s murder, but if he’s right, it means his own life is on the line, too.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

New York to Dallas / J.D. Robb.
“Bestseller Robb breaks with one tradition in her 34th Eve Dallas novel (after Treachery in Death); “Death” is not part of the title, but otherwise she delivers precisely the kind of rapid-fire thrust and parry action fans expect from the near-future New York Police and Security Dept. homicide lieutenant. Serial rapist/murderer Isaac McQueen (aka “the Collector”), the first major bust of Dallas’s when she was a rookie, escapes from New York City’s Rikers Island prison complex 12 years into his life sentence and immediately resumes his depredations on young girls. McQueen uses a hostage to force Dallas to travel to Dallas, Tex., the site of her own horrific childhood, where he has prepared surprises for her. Working with the FBI, the Dallas PSD, and husband Roarke, Dallas leads the effort to recapture the wily McQueen.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The latest from Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid, Arnaldur Indridason, Kathy Reichs, and more. Have a browse:

Gamble : a Dick Francis novel / by Felix Francis.
“Nicholas “Foxy” Foxton, a former jockey who suffered a career- ending injury, is out for a day at the Grand National races when his friend and coworker Herb Kovak is murdered, execution style, right in front of him-and 60,000 other potential witnesses. Foxton and Kovak were both independent financial advisers at Lyall & Black, a firm specializing in extreme-risk investments. As he struggles to come to terms with Kovak’s seemingly inexplicable death, Foxton begins to question everything, from how well he knew his friend to how much he understands about his employer. Was Kovak’s murder a case of mistaken identity…or something more sinister? (Description from Amazon.com)

The retribution / Val McDermid.
”There is one serial killer who has shaped and defined police profiler Tony Hill’s life. One serial killer whose evil surpasses all others. One serial killer who has the power to chill him to the bone: Jacko Vance. And now Jacko is back in Tony’s life. Even more twisted and cunning than ever before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony – and DCI Carol Jordan – for the years he has spent in prison. Tony doesn’t know when Jacko will strike, or where. All he knows is that Jacko will cause him to feel fear like he has never known before ? and devastate his life in ways he cannot imagine…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

 
Flash and bones / Kathy Reichs.
“Just as 200,000 fans are pouring into town for Race Week, a body is found in a barrel of asphalt next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next day, a NASCAR crew member comes to Temperance Brennan’s office at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner to share a devastating story. Twelve years earlier, Wayne Gamble’s sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring racer, disappeared along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette. Lovette kept company with a group of right-wing extremists known as the Patriot Posse. Could the body be Cindi’s? Or Cale’s? At the time of their disappearance, the FBI joined the investigation, only to terminate it weeks later. Was there a cover-up? As Tempe juggles multiple theories, the discovery of a strange, deadly substance in the barrel alongside the body throws everything into question…” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

Outrage / Arnaldur Indridason ; translated from the Icelandic by Anna Yates.
”In a flat near Reykjavík city centre, a young man lies dead in a pool of blood. There is no sign of a break-in: the only clues are a woman’s purple shawl, found under the bed in the next room, and a vial of prescription drugs in the victim´s pocket. With Detective Erlendur away in a remote part of Iceland, Detective Elínborg, who is already struggling to juggle family life and the relentless demands of her job, is assigned the case. Her investigation into the murdered man’s past soon uncovers a squalid tale of double lives, drug dealers and the unsolved disappearance of a young girl many years before. From its explosive opening, Outrage leads down a trail of hidden violence, psychological brutality and of wrongs that will never be fully righted…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

The vault / Ruth Rendell.
“‘Don’t forget,’ Wexford said, ‘I’ve lived in a world where the improbable happens all the time.’ However, the impossible has happened. Chief Inspector Reg Wexford has retired. He and his wife, Dora, now divide their time between Kingsmarkham and a coachhouse in Hampstead, belonging to their actress daughter, Sheila. Wexford takes great pleasure in his books, but, for all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle, he misses being the law. But a chance meeting in a London street, with someone he had known briefly as a very young police constable, changes everything. Tom Ede is now a Detective Superintendent, and is very keen to recruit Wexford as an adviser on a difficult case. The bodies of two women and a man have been discovered in the old coal hole of an attractive house in St John’s Wood. None carries identification. But the man’s jacket pockets contain a string of pearls, a diamond and a sapphire necklace as well as other jewellery valued in the region of £40,000…’’ (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Northwest angle : a novel / William Kent Krueger.
“With his family caught in the crosshairs of a group of brutal killers, detective Cork O’Connor must solve the murder of a young girl in the latest installment of William Kent Krueger’s unforgettable New York Times bestselling series. During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle…” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

A trick of the light : a Chief Inspector Gamache novel / Louise Penny.
““Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.” But now Lillian herself is dead. 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, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there 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. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. 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…” (Description from Amazon.com)

Love you more : a novel / Lisa Gardner.
“One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter? As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?..” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

Unraveled / Maggie Sefton.
“The newest yarn from the national bestselling author of “Skein of the Crime.” Spring is in the air of Fort Connor, Colorado-a time of new beginnings for the House of Lambspun knitters. But for fellow knitter Jennifer’s new real estate client, it is his end. He’s been murdered and Kelly Flynn is left unraveling a tangle of clues. This may prove to be her most challenging project yet.” (Syndetics summary)

One dog night / David Rosenfelt.
“For six years Noah Galloway has lived with a horrible secret and the fear that his rebuilt life could be shattered at any moment. Now his dread has become a certainty, and he has been arrested for the arson murder of twenty-six people. What he needs now is defense lawyer Andy Carpenter, who most definitely is not in the market for a new client. So Noah plays his hole card: a shared love for Andy’s golden retriever…Noah rescued Tara first, and when he wasn’t able to care for her any longer, he did everything in his power to make sure that she was placed in the right home: Andy’s. With that knowledge, Andy has little choice but to take Noah on, and he soon learns that the long-ago event that may destroy Noah’s life is only the beginning of an ongoing conspiracy that grows more deadly by the day…” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

Here are some new mysteries for September, including the new ‘Prey’ novel from John Sandford; Walter Mosley’s latest entry in his Leonid McGill series; the new Joe Pickett novel from C.J Box; and the latest in Tess Gerritsen’s popular Rizzoli & Isles series…

Buried prey / John Sandford.
“When he was a young patrolman, Lucas Davenport insinuated himself into the case of two missing girls. He worked hard, and the result was the death of a troubled street person, which provided the case’s official closure, despite the girls’ bodies never being found. Davenport’s contributions accelerated his career, but he was never quite satisfied that the street person was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the bodies are discovered, and Davenport, now heading Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, gets a second chance. He reviews the original case, reinterviews some original witnesses, and confirms his nagging suspicion that the real killer was never caught…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Watch me die / Erica Spindler.
“At the start of this gripping romantic suspense thriller from bestseller Spindler (Blood Vines), someone bashes in the head of elderly Father Girod at New Orleans’ Sisters of Mercy Catholic School and Church. The unknown killer also spray-paints the church’s stained-glass windows with the words: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” When Det. Spencer Malone questions Mira Gallier, who restored the church’s stained-glass windows after Hurricane Katrina six years earlier and still mourns her husband, Jeff, who perished in that catastrophe, the police detective has to wonder why she appears more distraught by the vandalized windows than by Father Girod’s death…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Fallen / Karin Slaughter.
“Fallen, begins shockingly, with Special Agent Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation finding her life abruptly plunged into chaos. Her mother has been charged with looking after Faith’s child, Emma, but Faith comes home to discover her baby locked in a shed. In the house, a safe is open, a gun missing, and Faith encounters a grim blood-covered scene, with a man lying dead…Questions are plentiful: what were the killers seeking? What does the carnage have to do with the investigation of Ex-Atlanta Police chief Evelyn Mitchell, being undertaken by Faith’s partner Will Trent? And where is her missing mother?…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

When the thrill is gone / Walter Mosley.
“Starred Review. Mosley fills his third thriller featuring New York City PI Leonid McGill (after Known to Evil) with insights even deeper than the mysteries McGill is trying to solve. Chrystal Tyler, a potential new client, tells McGill that she’s afraid her billionaire husband is having an affair and may kill her. While McGill realizes the woman is lying, he needs the case and agrees to see what he can do to make her husband back off. Meanwhile, McGill’s wife of 24 years, Katrina, is having an affair; his favorite son, Twill, has a new scam working; and longtime boxing mentor Gordo Tallman is living in his apartment, fighting cancer… Readers will encounter the full panoply of complex Mosley characters, from deceitful women to ruthless killers, but it’s the often surprising bonds of love and family that lift this raw, unsentimental novel…” (Description from Publishers Weekly)

The silent girl / Tess Gerritsen.
“Homicide investigator Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles…have a tough case on their hands. It begins with a woman’s severed hand, which is soon accompanied by the rest of the corpse, which itself may be connected to a two-decades-old mystery involving a perpetrator for whom the word inhuman may be a more appropriate description than Rizzoli and Isles care to contemplate… Rizzoli and Isles are likable and industrious, as always, and Gerritsen seems more engaged this time out, her prose livelier, and her dialogue more memorable. Recent series entries have been solid, workmanlike thrillers, but this one has some real spark to it…(Adapted from syndetics sumamry)

Love you more / Lisa Gardner.
“*Starred Review* Detective D. D. Warren of the Boston police and Massachusetts state trooper Bobby Dodge are together again, this time not as lovers but as partners in the investigation of a state trooper who shot and killed her husband. Tessa Leoni’s bruised face leads to speculation that she retaliated when her husband hit her. But there’s a lot that doesn’t fit the model, not the least of which is the disappearance of the couple’s six-year-old daughter, Sophie. Could Tessa, by all accounts an exemplary officer and an exceptionally devoted mother, have shot her husband three times in the chest and then killed her own child? If so, where is Sophie’s body?…Gardner proves herself not only a very clever storyteller here, capable of pulling together a complicated series of events, but also a writer able to invest her characters…with emotional substance…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Nowhere to run / C.J. Box.
” Starred Review. Inspired by a real-life Wyoming game warden’s encounter with sinister mountain-man twin brothers, Edgar-winner Box’s outstanding 10th Joe Pickett novel (after Below Zero) takes Pickett into darker territory than ever before. Pickett’s eerie last patrol as a temporary game warden in a remote mountainous area turns into a savage brush with death, followed by a crisis of conscience that drives the decent Pickett back into the same mountains to rescue Diane Shober, an Olympic runner who vanished there—and to bring Caleb and Camish Grim, twin brothers suspected of poaching (and maybe worse) to justice. Box inexorably builds Joe’s harrowing personal quest into a complex meditation on human greed and government corruption…’’ (Description from Publishers Weekly)

No mark upon her / Deborah Crombie.”Olympic rowing hopeful and senior Metropolitan Police officer DCI Rebecca Meredith goes out alone to train on the river in Henley on a dark afternoon in late October – and doesn’t return. When a desperate search by the police and a K9 team reveals the possibility of foul play, Scotland Yard wants one of their own on the case. Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, returning from celebrating his marriage to long-time partner Detective Inspector Gemma James, is called to Henley to investigate. He soon finds that the world of elite rowing can be brutal, and that Rebecca Meredith’s ex-husband was not the only person with good reason for wanting her dead. Then, when a search-and-rescue team member is threatened, Kincaid realizes the case may be even more complex and more dangerous than he believed…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Dangerous to know / Tasha Alexander.
“Alexander’s new historical mystery takes place in the late-nineteenth century and takes up at the point Tears of Pearl (2009) left off. In Tears, Lady Emily’s honeymoon with second husband Colin ended with her being shot and losing her unborn baby. Now she and Colin are staying in Normandy with his autocratic mother, Mrs. Hargreaves, who takes it amiss when Emily comes upon the body of a murdered young woman while horseback riding. Lady Emily can’t help but investigate the murder, especially when she learns the dead girl came from an aristocratic family in Rouens and was confined to an insane asylum… Readers who enjoy historical mysteries with strong female characters will find much to enjoy here and will want to seek out Lady Emily’s earlier adventures…” (Description from Booklist)

More new mysteries for August, including a new breakout Swedish star Lars Kepler, with the European bestseller ‘The Hypnotist’, the new mystery from John Banville (writing as Benjamin Black), and Janet Evanovich’s latest madcap Stephanie Plum crime caper…

The hypnotist / Lars Kepler ; translated from the Swedish by Ann Long.
“The Swedish invasion continues with the first novel translated into English from the author Swedes are calling the next Stieg Larsson. Unlike the more police-oriented work of Jo Nesbø and Henning Mankell, The Hypnotist, a best-seller throughout Europe, is a psychological thriller likely to appeal to fans of Larsson and the duo of Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom.When a critically injured boy is found at the scene of a horrific murder, former hypnotist and physician Erik Maria Bark is called in to help the cops talk to him. The theory is that only hypnotism will penetrate the distorting maze of drugs and pain to reach the boy’s memories of what happened. What Erik learns sets off a terrifying chain of events that endangers his family, his marriage, and his job. Enigmatic genius investigator Joona Linna, who refuses to accept convenient scenarios for the crimes, leads the investigation…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

A death in summer / Benjamin Black.
“In the latest release (after Elegy for April) from Black (a pen name for John Banville), Detective Inspector Hackett calls his longtime adviser, Quirke, to investigate the shotgun suicide of “Diamond Dick” Jewell, a much-despised newspaper publisher. Quirke, a pathologist with family ties to Dublin’s upper class, does not need long to determine that murder is the likely cause of death, although the exact motive remains elusive. With questionable ethics, Quirke rapidly becomes infatuated with Francoise d’Aubigny, Jewell’s captivating estranged widow, and falls off the wagon. VERDICT Black’s mysteries are not black and white with cut-and-dried villains behind bars at the conclusion. However, readers looking for more character development and ambiguity than Stieg Larsson’s popular Scandinavian thrillers offer will enjoy getting to know Quirke and Hackett by picking up this book and Black’s previous works…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Smokin’ seventeen / Janet Evanovich.
“Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list. Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger…With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

 
The dead of summer / Mari Jungstedt ; translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally. “Mari Jungstedt’s compelling series of novels featuring Inspector Anders Knutas continues to go from strength to strength with, The Dead of Summer, the fifth crime adventure set on the island of Gotland. Her trademark combination of rich characterisation, taut crime plots and the continuing unfolding drama of her series characters’ lives add up to a mix that rivals Henning Mankell’s Wallander series. The murder of a jogger on the beach at Faro is an opportunity for Anders Knutas’s newly-appointed deputy, Karin Jacobsson, to prove her worth while her boss is on holiday. But when a second body is discovered, murdered in the same style, Jacobsson’s investigations point to a horrifying conclusion…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

 
Bel-Air dead : a Stone Barrington novel / Stuart Woods.
“In the newest addition to the “New York Times”-bestselling series, Stone Barrington comes face-to-face with a beautiful woman from his past. . . . Stone Barrington receives a rather unexpected phone call from Arrington Calder, the ex-girlfriend with whom he has a son. Arrington’s much older husband, the actor Vance Calder, has just died, leaving her a fortune in Centurion Studios stock. Arrington has plans for the money and asks Stone to represent her in the sale of the company. But when he arrives at her home in Bel-Air to finalize the deal, things take a nasty turn. It seems many of Hollywood’s rich and beautiful have Arrington and Centurion in their sights, and Stone finds himself dragged into a surprisingly deadly web of intrigue.” (Syndetics summary)

Deadly threads / Jane K Cleland.
“Near the start of Cleland’s well-crafted sixth Josie Prescott Antiques mystery (after 2010’s Silent Auction), Josie is preparing for a workshop on vintage shoes and handbags at her antiques shop in Rocky Point, N.H. When her guest speaker, Riley Jordan, fails to show, Josie decides to begin the class without her. A minute later, Josie discovers why Riley is late after looking under a display table, where she’s horrified to see Riley’s strangled body. Josie teams with Ellis Hunter, Rocky Point’s police chief, and Wes Smith, an investigative reporter for the local newspaper, the Seacoast Star, to find the killer, who soon targets one of Josie’s employees. Authentic details of vintage clothing and jewelry, vivid descriptions of coastal New Hampshire in the early spring, credible characters, and a dramatic conclusion make this cozy a winner…” (Publishers Weekly)