News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Welcome to the April Fiction Newsletter. We have a wonderful selection of new fiction from all genres to help pass those long winter nights. This month’s ‘Other Genre’ fiction features Romance fiction, and they are not all the type of romance your grandmother would have enjoyed.

Library News

• Plenty of bargains at the May book sale!
• WCL Mini – our new library app

New mysteries for May include plenty of Foreign intrigue, with new novels from Donna Leon, Camilla Lackberg, Fred Vargas & Andrea Camilleri; a new series set in Barcelona from Antonio Hill; and debut mysteries from Kate Rhodes & Jamie Mason…

The Swedish girl / Alex Gray.
“Eighteen-year-old Kirsty Wilson can’t believe her luck when she lands a room in a luxury Glasgow flat owned by the beautiful Eva Magnusson, a wealthy fellow student from Stockholm. But her initial delight turns to terror when Kirsty finds the Swedish girl lying dead in their home and their flatmate accused of her murder. Kirsty refuses to accept that he is guilty and, inspired by family friend Detective Superintendent Lorimer, attempts to clear his name. Meanwhile, Lorimer calls on his trusted colleague, psychologist and criminal profiler Professor Solly Brightman, to help unravel the truth behind the enigmatic Eva’s life and death. Together, they discover some shocking revelations about this seemingly demure young student…” (Syndetics summary)

Alive! : a Valentino mystery / Loren D. Estleman.
“Actor Craig Hunter’s life was on a downward trajectory that ended with his death from a beating in a San Diego bar. Valentino, among the last of his friends, feels guilty for ignoring Craig’s final pleas for help. The deceased’s ex-wife feels guilty too, but she might have a hidden agenda: it turns out that Craig had unearthed the legendary missing film reels of Bela Lugosi’s horrible audition for Frankenstein. A rare find brings out the worst in collectors, and Valentino has trouble narrowing down which one crossed the ethical line. His formidable suspect list includes a mob boss, an elitist collector, and that ex-wife… Leisurely paced and impressively researched, this is just the ticket for film buffs…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The ghost riders of Ordebec / Fred Vargas ; translated from the French by Sian Reynolds.
“More than ten million copies of Fred Vargas’s Commissaire Adamsberg mysteries have been sold worldwide. Now, American readers are getting hooked on the internationally bestselling author’s unsettling blend of crime and the supernatural. As the chief of police in Paris’s seventh arrondissement, Commissaire Adamsberg has no jurisdiction in Ordebec. Yet, he cannot ignore a widow’s plea. Her daughter Lina has seen a vision of the Ghost Riders with four nefarious men. According to the thousand-year-old legend, the vision means that the men will soon die a grisly death. When one of them disappears, Adamsberg races to Ordebec, where he becomes entranced by the gorgeous Lina—and embroiled in the small Normandy town’s ancient feud…” (Description from Amazon.com)

Bear is broken : a Leo Maxwell mystery / Lachlan Smith.
“Leo Maxwell just received his bar licence and has been shadowing his older brother Teddy, a well known San Francisco criminal lawyer. The novel opens with Teddy being shot point blank in the head as the two brothers eat lunch in Teddy’s usual restaurant. In the aftermath of the shooting, Leo faces a new reality and tries to sort the truth from the lies regarding Teddy’s- business practices, ethics, and private life; in addition, Leo realizes that if his brother survives, Teddy will never be the same man he once was. Because of Teddy’s success as a criminal defense lawyer, the police don’t seem interested in investigating his shooting, and Leo is determined to find the shooter himself…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Crossbones yard / Kate Rhodes.
“British poet Rhodes provides an intriguing backstory for her lead, Alice Quentin, in her fiction debut, about a twisted serial killer. As children, Alice and her brother, Will, witnessed their father beat their mother. This domestic violence affected Will more than Alice. While Alice has become a successful London psychologist, homeless and mentally disturbed Will sleeps in a van he parks outside her apartment building. One morning, Alice is surprised to learn that all her appointments have been canceled so that she can assist the police. Morris Cley, who murdered a prostitute four years earlier, is about to be released from jail, and the authorities want Alice to predict the likelihood that he will kill again. She becomes involved in another criminal matter after she finds a woman’s corpse in Crossbones Yard, the site used until the 19th century as a graveyard for prostitutes. Might Will have committed this recent murder?…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Three graves full / Jamie Mason.
“*Starred Review* First-novelist Mason hooks the reader with her first sentence, There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard. Mild-mannered widower Jason Getty is responsible for burying one body, but he’s shocked when two others are discovered in his yard and found to be the work of the home’s previous owner, Boyd Montgomery, who came upon his wife, Katielynn, in bed with Reid Reynolds three years earlier, just weeks before Reynolds was to marry his childhood sweetheart, Leah Tamblin. Getty, on tenterhooks, is massively relieved when police wrap up the latter two murders, until persistent detective Tim Bayard finds blood traces in Getty’s house that point to a third crime. As Getty prepares a cover-up, Tamblin comes looking for answers and resolution, and what seemed a closed murder case opens up again…Portraying characters so well and so thoroughly, examining and explaining their motives even for murder, requires a level of skill that is rare, marking this as an astonishingly accomplished debut and Mason as a writer to watch very closely…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

The lost boy / Camilla Lackberg ; translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally.
“No. 1 international bestseller and Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller – irresistible for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. Mats Sverin was Fjallbacka’s financial director on a regeneration project worth millions. When he is found murdered, Detective Patrik Hedstrom must find answers. It seems Mats was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew – a man with something to hide…Is it just a coincidence that his high school sweetheart, Nathalie, has returned to the area? What does she know about who Mats really was? However, Nathalie has her own secret. Something has made her and her five-year-old son flee to their remote family home on the ‘Ghost Isle’. And that is where she’ll stay and shield her son from the evils of the world…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

The summer of dead toys / Antonio Hill.
“A riveting crime thriller set during a sultry Barcelona summer, introducing Inspector Hector Salgado, a transplanted Argentine living in Barcelona. While working on human trafficking case, Salgado’s violent temper got the best of him and he beat a suspect within an inch of his life. Ordered on probation, he fled to Argentina to cool off for a few months. Now he’s back in Barcelona and is eager for another big case. But his boss has other plans. He assigns Salgado to a routine accidental death: a college student fell from a balcony in one of Barcelona’s ritzier neighborhoods. As Salgado begins to piece together the life and world of the victim, he realizes that his death was not all that simple: his teenage friends are either overly paranoid or deceptively calm, and drugs might be involved. Hector begins to follow a trail that will lead him deep into the underbelly of Barcelona’s high society where he’ll come face-to-face with dangerous criminals, long-buried secrets, and, of course, his own past. But Hector thrives on pressure, and he lives for this kind of case—dark, violent, and seemingly unsolvable…” (Description from Amazon.com)

Gone West : a Daisy Dalrymple mystery / Carola Dunn.
“In September 1926, Sybil Sutherby contacts her old school friend Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher. Sybil is widowed and living with her daughter at a remote farmhouse in Derbyshire, where she works as the confidential secretary to reclusive novelist Humphrey Birtwhistle, who writes westerns under a pen name. It seems that Humphrey has been ill, and Sybil has taken over writing the books only to have sales increase, along with advances. When Daisy arrives, she meets a household of quirky relatives and would-be suitors who are taking advantage of Birtwhistle’s hospitality. Sybil is afraid that one of them is slowly poisoning her employer to keep him ill so that she can continue writing his books. When he dies under suspicious circumstances before Daisy can investigate, Sybil’s fears appear confirmed. Daisy’s husband, Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher, is unhappy that his wife is once again involved in a murder case…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The dance of the seagull / Andrea Camilleri ; translated by Stephen Sartarelli.
“Camilleri’s agreeable 15th Insp. Salvo Montalbano mystery (after 2012’s Age of Doubt) finds the Sicilian detective sitting on the deck of his home in Vigàta, watching a seagull performing a strange death dance. The image hovers in his mind during the events that follow, the first of which is the disappearance of his right-hand man, Fazio… In addition to searching for the missing Fazio, Montalbano tries to identify a body found in a deserted well. Both investigations are pieces of a larger, satisfying mystery in which Montalbano investigates, among other things, the docks and late-night deliveries from fishing trawlers…(Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The golden egg / Donna Leon.
“Commissario Guido Brunetti, out of a sense of guilt and at the urging of his compassionate wife, investigates the suspicious death of a disabled man, Davide Cavanella, in Leon’s intriguing 22nd mystery featuring the crafty Venetian police inspector (after 2012’s Beastly Things). Davide’s mother is unwilling to discuss his death. Worse, there’s no official evidence of Davide’s existence: he apparently was never born and never went to school, saw a doctor, or received a passport. The colorful locals are uncooperative. Brunetti’s understanding of the Venetian bureaucracy, which operates smoothly on bribery and familial connections, allows his subordinates to enlist the help of various aunts and cousins, as is neatly shown in a subplot involving the mayor and his son. Appreciative of feminine charms, the deeply uxorious Brunetti amply displays the keen intelligence and wry humor that has endeared this series to so many…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

New mysteries for March include more Scandinavian crime from Ake Edwardson & Yrsa Sigurdardóttir; the new Joe Pickett novel from C.J Box; Thomas Perry’s acclaimed new thriller; the latest in J.D Robb’s Eve Dallas series; & some cosy crime with M.C Beaton & Laura Childs….

Room no. 10 / Ake Edwardson ; translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles.
“Meticulous observation and persistent psychological analysis can find solutions that not even modern forensics can provide, as shown in Edwardson’s intricate seventh novel featuring Chief Insp. Erik Winter (after 2012’s Sail of Stone). When the body of 29-year-old Paula Ney is discovered hanging in Room 10 of Gothenburg’s sleazy Hotel Revy, an obvious murder victim, despite a mystifying suicide note, Winter recalls that 29-year-old Ellen Borge disappeared in a case involving the Hotel Revy 18 years earlier and never seen again. Painstaking police work, including endless interviews with Ney’s oddly unemotional parents, alternate with Winter’s recollections of the earlier case and the beginnings of his working relationship with Det. Insp. Fredrik Halders. The old and new investigations intertwine and merge in a fascinating fashion…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The day is dark / Yrsa Sigurdardottir ; translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton.
“Yrsa Sigurdardóttir is widely regarded around the world as one of the best Nordic crime writers working today. Yrsa’s previous book in the series, Ashes to Dust, also featured lawyer and sometime sleuth Thóra Gudmundsdóttir and received rave reviews internationally. In The Day is Dark, when all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the coast of Greenland, Thóra is hired to uncover the fates of the missing people. When she arrives in Greenland, she discovers that these aren’t the first two to go missing. The local townspeople believe that the area is cursed, and no one wants to get involved in the case. Soon, Thora finds herself stranded in the middle of a wilderness, and the case is as frightening and hostile as the landscape itself. Chilling, unsettling, and compulsively readable, The Day is Dark is a must read for readers who are looking for the next big thing in crime fiction coming in from the cold…” (Description from Amazon.com)

Breaking point / C.J. Box.
“Bureaucracy run amok drives Wyoming construction company owner Butch Roberson to the breaking point in Box’s excellent 13th Joe Pickett novel (after 2012’s Force of Nature). When game warden Pickett investigates a cut fence between private land and public land, he comes across Roberson, who says he entered the public land to scout elk. Before leaving, Pickett delivers a friendly warning to Roberson, who resents the laws restricting his access to public land, to repair the fence. Later, Pickett learns that Roberson is the prime suspect in the killing of two armed EPA agents. Vindictive EPA regional director Juan Julio Batista, who quickly arrives on the scene, calls in a lot of manpower, while Pickett leads a team on horseback into the mountains after Roberson….Thrilling wilderness chases, chilling stories of the abuse of power, and Pickett’s indomitable frontier spirit power this explosive novel…” (Adapted from Syndetics review)

The boyfriend / Thomas Perry.
“*Starred Review* Perry is a master at multiple narrators. Here he juggles the narrative reins between PI Jack Till and hitman Joey Moreland. Till takes a case that the LAPD has given up on: the murder of a high-end prostitute whose killer seems to be targeting women of the same physical type lissome strawberry blondes working as female escorts in cities across the country. The parents of the latest victim want to find their daughter’s killer even if the police don’t, and hire Till to help. He quickly determines that the killer is more than just a john; able to ingratiate himself with the various women, he becomes their live-in boyfriend before killing them. But is there more to it than that? Is the killer using the women’s homes as a convenient hiding place while he tends to other business and then, with business concluded, murdering the women to cover his tracks?… The suspense is more intense because the characters, heroes and villains, have worked their way so far under our skin. It’s nothing new to call Perry a master of the genre, but it’s no less true for being widely acknowledged…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Calculated in death / by J.D. Robb.
“In bestseller Robb’s engaging 37th Eve Dallas thriller (after 2012’s Delusion in Death), Dallas and her partner, Delia Peabody, look into the death of Marta Dickenson. Found with a broken neck at the bottom of a stairway in an Upper East Side Manhattan building, which is under renovation by a financial consultant group, Dickenson was employed as an accountant by a firm nearby. And her briefcase, containing files she had been auditing, was stolen. Confident it’s a case of murder, Dallas and her smoothly running team conduct an ever-widening probe of accountants, financial advisers, their spouses, and their lovers. Her husband, Roarke, a former hacker and now owner of his own electronics company, lends his special skills. Robb (the pen name of Nora Roberts) supplies her usual winning blend of keen investigative work, striking characterizations, and enthusiastic sex, all leavened with a fine sense of humor…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Death of yesterday : a Hamish Macbeth murder mystery / M.C. Beaton.
“Near the start of Beaton’s delightful 29th Hamish Macbeth mystery (after 2012’s Death of a Kingfisher), art student Morag Merrilea complains to the Scottish police sergeant about the theft of her sketchbook in a pub where she was drinking heavily one night. When Morag disappears and later turns up dead, Macbeth attempts to solve the crime, but blustery Detective Chief Superintendent Blair keeps ordering him to do the most menial tasks. Meanwhile, Macbeth’s love life has more snags than an old wool sweater, as shown by his strained relationships with Priscilla Halburton-Smythe and Elspeth Grant, not to mention his infatuation with Hannah Fleming, the sister of suspect Geordie Fleming. A second victim found by Macbeth ups the pressure and media interest…Cozy fans are in for a treat…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Sweet tea revenge / Laura Childs.
“While helping her friend Delaine get ready for her wedding, Theodosia, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop, finds the dead body of the would-be groom, Douglas. In between running the shop, she asks questions and chases clues at Delaine’s request. The illegal Cuban cigars sold under the table at Douglas’ cigar shop catch the attention of local police, but Theo is focused on Douglas’ ex-wife, Simone, who is angry and impetuous. Matters are complicated by a team of television ghost hunters who bring Theo and Delaine to the site of Douglas’ death, hoping to connect with his spirit. Childs flavors an intelligent and layered mystery with colorful characters and tea history, along with recipes and resources…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The boy in the snow / M. J. McGrath.
“The two-week 1,150-mile Iditarod dog sled race from near Wasilla to Nome, Alaska, forms the backdrop for McGrath’s outstanding second mystery featuring half-Caucasian, half-Inuit Edie Kiglatuk (after 2011’s White Heat). A native of Ellesmere Island, Edie comes to Alaska to help her ex-husband, Sammy Inukpuk, who’s trying to regain his self-respect by racing. In the forest outside Wasilla, Edie encounters a mysterious bear that leads her to the frozen body of a baby boy lying in the saddle of a snowmobile. Edie, a homesick, guilt-ridden “outsider in her own world,” seeks to untangle the disturbing truth behind the infant’s death, aided by her policeman friend, Derek Palliser, who’s also assisting Sammy in the race…This affecting novel should melt even the most frozen human hearts…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Murder below Montparnasse / Cara Black.
“A tantalizing clue to the whereabouts of Paris PI Aimee Leduc’s mysterious mother puts a personal spin on Black’s intricate 13th mystery set in contemporary Paris (after 2012’s Murder at the Lantern Rouge). Yuri Volodya, an elderly Russian who wants to hire Aimee to protect a valuable painting, possibly a Modigliani, tells Aimee he knew her mother, Sydney, whom she hasn’t seen since Sydney abandoned her at age eight. When the painting is stolen and Yuri is later tortured and killed, the police investigate. Meanwhile, a bizarre accident sidelines Aimee’s part-time hacker helper, “cash-poor aristocrat” Saj de Rosnay. Leduc must also cope amid threats of violence without trusted computer expert Rene Friant, lured to America by a Silicon Valley firm in a lengthy, well-developed subplot…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

New mysteries for February include the latest entry in Alan Bradley’s popular series about 12 year old crime solver Flavia de Luce; the new Alex Delaware novel from Jonathan Kellerman; a continuation of Robert B. Parker’s ‘Spenser’ series by Ace Atkins; David Hewson’s adaptation of the second season of Danish TV crime series ‘The Killing’; & more cozy crime from Leslie Meier & Sharon Fiffer’s…

Speaking from among the bones : a Flavia de Luce novel / Alan Bradley.
“Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is inordinately interested in death and passionate about poisons. When she’s feeling blue, she thinks about cyanide, since its color reflects her mood. She also has a penchant for finding corpses and an extraordinary ability to ferret out the stories behind their untimely deaths. Here she is the first to espy the body of St. Tancred’s Church organist Crispin Collicutt during the excavation of the eponymous saint’s remains to mark his quincentennial, in 1951. Flavia also must deal with a crisis at home when her widowed father is forced to put the family estate, Buckshaw, up for sale. And while uncovering motives, Flavia also unearths a number of local families’ secrets, including some involving her late mother. Bradley’s Flavia cozies, set in the English countryside, have been a hit from the start, and this fifth in the series continues to charm and entertain…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Guilt : an Alex Delaware novel / Jonathan Kellerman.
“A series of horrifying events occur in quick succession in the same upscale L.A. neighborhood. A backyard renovation unearths an infant’s body, buried sixty years ago. And soon thereafter in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helping LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to link these eerie incidents is brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But even the good doctor’s vast experience with matters both clinical and criminal might not be enough to cut down to the bone of this chilling case – and draw out the disturbing truth. Backtracking six decades into the past stirs up tales of a beautiful nurse with a mystery lover, a handsome, wealthy doctor who seems too good to be true, and a hospital with a notorious reputation…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Alex Cross, run / James Patterson.
“Detective Alex Cross arrests renowned plastic surgeon Elijah Creem for sleeping with teenage girls. Now, his life ruined, Creem is out of jail, and he has made sure that no one will recognize him by giving himself a new face. A young woman is found hanging from a sixth floor window, and Alex is called to the scene. The victim recently gave birth, but the baby is nowhere to be found. Before Alex can begin searching for the missing newborn and killer, he is called to investigate a second crime. All of Washington, D.C. is in a panic, and when a third body is discovered, rumours of three serial killers send the city into an all out frenzy. Alex’s investigations are going nowhere, and he is too focused on the cases to notice that someone has been watching him and will stop at nothing until he is dead…” (Syndetics summary)

Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby / Ace Atkins.
“Picked by the Parker estate to continue the late author’s beloved Spenser series, Atkins (White Shadow; Wicked City) must have been well aware that fanatical fans would scrutinize every word to ensure that the new novel would be as good as the original. They won’t be disappointed in certain aspects as Atkins delivers the customary crisp, witty repartee between Spencer and the book’s other colorful characters. An abandoned teenager raising her younger sisters in South Boston’s seedy projects, Mattie Sullivan is convinced the Feds convicted an innocent man for killing her addict mother and coerces Spencer into investigating the cold case. Joined by Hawk, his uncompromising partner, Spenser relentlessly follows clues despite violent threats from Southie thugs. Verdict Atkins avoids the risk of doing anything different with Parker’s characters and maintains the rhythm and cadence of Parker’s pointed prose…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The killing. II / David Hewson ; based on the Bafta award-winning TV series writen by Soren Sveistrup.
“It is two years since the notorious Nanna Birk Larsen case. Two years since Detective Sarah Lund left Copenhagen in disgrace for a remote outpost in northern Denmark. When the body of a female lawyer is found in macabre circumstances in a military graveyard, there are elements of the crime scene that take Head of Homicide, Lennart Brix, back to an occupied wartime Denmark – a time its countrymen would wish to forget. Brix knows that Lund is the one person he can rely on to discover the truth. Reluctantly she returns to Copenhagen and becomes intrigued with the facts surrounding the case. As more bodies are found, Lund comes to see a pattern and she realises that the identity of the killer will be known once the truth behind a more recent wartime mission is finally revealed…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Gun machine / Warren Ellis.
“Detective John Tallow is a classic burnout, sleepwalking on the job until the day his supercop partner (and only friend) is killed by a shotgun-wielding lunatic. The incident was Tallow’s first on-the-job shooting, and he doesn’t disagree with the majority view that he shouldn’t have been the cop left standing. Then, when a shrine of ritualistically displayed firearms is found in the apartment building where his partner died, Tallow finds himself wanting answers. Analysis of the cache connects each weapon to a murder, and Tallow is assigned to work with two wildly eccentric geniuses on the crime-scene unit to try to end the killer’s decades-long killing spree. Gun Machine is built around a trio of intoxicating weirdos who twist the mold of the familiar detective-and-forensic-specialist combo. Strong interplay between historic Manahatta (think Native American) and technology’s future role in policing creates a big-picture backdrop for catch-the-crazy-killer thrills…” (Adapted from Syndetics sumamry)

The Golden Calf / Helene Tursten ; translated by Laura A. Wideburg.
“The murder of Kjell B:son Ceder, the so-called restaurant king of Goteborg, kicks off Tursten’s complex and compelling fifth Det. Insp. Irene Huss investigation to be published in the U.S. (after 2012’s Night Rounds). Someone shot Ceder in the head twice at point-blank range. Suspicion initially focuses on his much younger wife, Sanna, who stands to inherit Ceder’s fortune, but subsequent events force Huss and her colleagues to reconsider. Two other men are found murdered in the exact same way shortly after the first killing, and all three deaths may have a connection with a three-year-old financial scandal. The press had dubbed one of the other victims, Philip Bergman, as “the Golden Calf” for his facility in attracting business investors. Once again, the doggedly effective Huss proves herself a capable and sympathetic lead in the service of yet another clever plot that effortlessly meshes police procedural and whodunit…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Easter bunny murder / Leslie Meier.
“At the start of Meier’s delightful 19th Lucy Stone mystery (after 2012’s Chocolate Covered Murder), the families gathered outside elderly Vivian Van Vorst’s mansion, Pine Point, in rural Tinker’s Cove, Maine, for VV’s annual Easter egg hunt are puzzled to find the gates closed. Then the Easter Bunny emerges from the house, runs clumsily toward the gates, and collapses on the ground. The Easter Bunny-VV’s grandson, Van Vorst Duff-dies on the way to the hospital. VV had always been generous with her wealth, but Lucy, part-time reporter for the local newspaper, learns that she has been reclusive recently and funds may have been tight. Did some envious family member off Duff because he was VV’s heir, or did he die of natural causes? If it’s murder, is money or revenge the motive? Cozy fans will enjoy Lucy’s hunt for the truth…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Lucky stuff.
“In Fiffer’s charming if lightweight eighth Jane Wheel mystery (after 2011’s Backstage Stuff), antiques picker Jane decides it’s time for a new life, now that her son has gone to boarding school. After putting her Evanston, Ill., house on the market, Jane sends her treasured curios to her friend, Tim Lowry, for safe storage in her hometown, Kankakee, Ill., and heads there for a brief visit. She finds the town has been turned upside down by comedian Lucky Miller, there with a production crew to film a roast for his comeback. Jane’s mom and dad, who run the EZ Way Inn, are in the thick of all the hoopla. Then, Jane learns that Lucky is looking for much more than a comeback, and a death from peanuts casts a pall over the proceedings. Leave it to sleuth Jane to figure out what’s going on by the time of the climactic bowling tournament…” (Syndetics summary)

Babylon / Camilla Ceder ; translated by Marlaine Delargy.“Inspector Christian Tell and his team are called to the scene of a double murder. University lecturer Anne-Marie Karpov lies dead in her home, alongside her student and lover, Henrik. The crime appears straightforward: Henrik’s girlfriend Rebecca, a woman in therapy for her violent jealousy, had been spotted outside Karpov’s flat, and her fingerprints are found on the door. But shortly afterwards, when Rebecca’s flat is burgled in a seemingly unconnected attack, Tell begins to wonder whether she might be the victim in a larger game. It emerges that items on the Red List – artefacts raided from Iraqi museums – were found among Henrik’s possessions. As the truth behind Anne-Marie and Henrik’s past begins to emerge, the dead woman’s ex-husband, Danish gangsters and Turkish black marketeers all come into the frame. Tell must unravel a web of hidden motives that spans continents, all while trying to salvage his stormy relationship with Seja…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Life and limb / Elsebeth Egholm.
“There is no beauty in death, thinks crime journalist Dicte Svendsen. And so it would appear as she arrives at her next murder scene. A young woman has been found in the carpark next to the sports stadium. Dressed in jeans and a pink T-shirt with I love U written on it, in she sits propped up against a car. The words rag doll come to mind as she seems to be held together by skin and hair alone; as if someone had removed the skeleton. Not only that, her eye sockets were empty.This was the work of a very particular killer…” (Sundetics sumamry)

New mysteries for January include the 2nd entry in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series from Norwegian crime’s ‘Godmother’ Anne Holt; the new Charlie Fox thriller from Zoe Sharp; Andrea Camilleri’s latest Inspector Montalbano; and a new historical tem up from husband & wife team Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.

Blessed are those who thirst / Anne Holt ; translated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce.
“*Starred Review* This second U.S. release in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series, (following Blind Goddess, 2012) is a starkly realistic glimpse of Norwegian policing filtered through Hanne’s self-deprecating narration and Holt’s savvy use of environment as catalyst. In 1994, Hanne is a star police investigator slogging through the unbearable combination of heat and crime waves assaulting Oslo. Hanne’s share of the mountainous caseloads includes the brutal rape of a young medical student and the apparent mystery of blood-doused outbuildings throughout the city, which could indicate violence or just vandalism. Fighting powerlessness, the victim and her father strike back with their own parallel investigations that overtake Hanne’s when she becomes distracted by the constant demands of hiding her sexual orientation and stonewalling those who dare to care for her. Before Hanne can regroup, the vandalized sheds are linked to a series of missing female immigrants, and the two cases begin dueling for resolution. Holt pokes at brittle, surprisingly vulnerable Hanne with an unrelenting combination of humidity, impossible cases, and love until she evolves a bit, professionally and personally. ..” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Die easy : a Charlie Fox thriller / Zoë Sharp.
“In Sharp’s white-knuckle 10th Charlie Fox thriller (after 2012’s Fifth Victim), professional bodyguard Charlie takes on an assignment in post-Katrina New Orleans-the first job with her lover and partner, Sean Meyer, since he recovered from being shot in the head, though he’s forgotten much of their relationship. Tasked with protecting wealthy businessman Blake Dyer during the After Katrina Foundation fundraising event, Charlie is grateful for what appears to be a straightforward task. But when a face from her and Sean’s military past reappears and there’s a calculated attack on the party, Charlie realizes that there might be more at stake than just the financial well-being of several powerful men. Sharp convincingly mixes hand-to-hand combat with the ups and downs of Charlie’s attempts to rebuild her old life with Sean, even as that possibility grows dimmer by the day…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The age of doubt / Andrea Camilleri ; translated by Stephen Sartarelli.
“Near the start of Camilleri’s exquisite 14th mystery featuring Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after 2011’s The Potter’s Field), the self-deprecating, passionately foul-mouthed Sicilian policeman befriends a young woman, Vanna Digiulio, while both are stranded in a traffic jam during a storm that’s washed out the coast road. Vanna’s claim to have been on her way to Vigata to meet her aunt’s yacht, the Vanna, strikes the inspector as suspicious. When the yacht docks with the disfigured body of a man that the Vanna picked up from a dinghy adrift near the harbor mouth, Montalban informs the boat’s owner, an imperious signora, that she must remain in port while he investigates the man’s murder. His proposal that she stay with her niece elicits the reply, “What niece?” The awkward humanity and everyday sadness of Camilleri’s characters make them instantly sympathetic, while wry commentary on language, food, and local customs lend color…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The Bughouse affair / Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.
“Victorian-era San Francisco-based Pinkerton detectives Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon have their hands full with two parallel cases that soon converge. Her pickpocket case escalates into a murder investigation, as does his home burglary probe. On top of all that, a visitor claiming to be Sherlock Holmes just has to meddle and complicate Quincannon’s life. -VERDICT Of course you’ll order multiples; we’re talking Muller and Pronzini here! The locked-room dilemma is familiar territory for Pronzini, and this series launch is sure to delight his readers in particular. The easy and amusing read flows beautifully. Occasionally, the very symmetrical structure of male and female protagonists, victims, and criminals is a stretch, but the authors’ gift for dialog and good storytelling propels us through any historical posturing…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Taboo / Casey Hill.
“Forensic investigator Reilly Steel, Quantico-trained and California-born and bred, imagined Dublin to be a far cry from bustling San Francisco, a sleepy backwater where she can lay past ghosts to rest and start anew. She’s arrived in Ireland to drag the Irish crime lab into the 21st century, plus keep tabs on her Irish-born father who’s increasingly seeking solace in the bottle after a past family tragedy. But a brutal serial killer soon puts paid to that. When a young man and woman are found dead in an apartment, the gunshot wounds on their naked bodies suggest a suicide pact. But Reilly’s instincts are screaming that something’s seriously amiss, and as more bodies are discovered, the team soon realises that a twisted murderer is at work, one who seeks to upset society’s norms in the most sickening way imaginable…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Extra credit / Maggie Barbieri.
“Barbieri’s diverting seventh mystery featuring English professor Alison Bergeron (after 2011’s Physical Education) finds Alison juggling her teaching duties at St. Thomas University in the Bronx with far more dangerous pursuits. Second marriages for both Alison and her new husband, NYPD homicide cop Bobby Crawford, create a spate of complex and delicate family relationships. Alison’s 19-year-old twin stepdaughters bring resentment and some wild romantic entanglements, while Bobby is a little too friendly with ex-wife Christine. But when Christine’s brother, Chick, is found dead in his sleazy apartment with $250,000 tucked into his mattress, events spin out of control. Alison, sarcastic and brash, wins no friends in pursuing the source of the money, as well as losing the trust of her best friend and the seriously annoying Bobby. Quirky characters complement a plot that offers a number of entertaining if sometimes illogical surprises. An irresistible hook at the conclusion will draw readers to the next installment…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Final sail : a dead-end job mystery / Elaine Viets.
“While PI Helen Hawthorne works the cruise ship circuit, her husband Phil Sagemont contends with problems on land. Both are masters at working undercover in number 11 of this fun series (Pumped for Murder)…” (Adapted from syndetics summary)

Murder in the Irish Channel / by Greg Herren.
“It begins as a simple missing persons case–a young MMA fighter’s mother has mysteriously disappeared. But as New Orleans private eye Chanse MacLeod starts digging around, he discovers that she is the leader of a group fighting the powerful Archdiocese of New Orleans over the closing of two churches. As the trail leads from corrupt church officials to powerful real estate developers to the world of cage fighting, Chanse soon realizes there are a lot of powerful people who want to make sure she stays gone–and don’t have a problem with getting rid of a pesky gay private eye…” (Syndetics summary)

Welcome to the fiction newsletter for December were you will find the best fiction over all genres from our recently received new fiction. We hope you will find some great novels that will provide many hours of reading enjoyment over the holiday season. We look forward to selection the best of our new fiction for you throughout the coming year.

Library News

• On holiday? Take library eBooks for the trip
• Speak a different language with Mango

This selection from the new mystery fiction received this month includes the new Colin Bateman, Susan Hill, and Ian Rankin novels – some great holiday reading for mystery fiction enthusiasts.

The prisoner of Brenda / Bateman.
“When notorious gangster ‘Fat Sam’ Mahood is murdered, the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution, he’s known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

A small hill to die on : a Penny Brannigan mystery / Elizabeth J. Duncan.
“When the pregnant teenage daughter of a wealthy newcomer to Llanelen is found dead in the nearby woods, spa owner Penny Brannigan investigates the family’s suspicious financial dealings while her paramour, Detective Inspector Davies, tracks down the killer.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

A death in the small hours / Charles Finch.
“Visiting his uncle’s estate in Somerset for what he hopes will be a quiet working vacation, politician and new father Charles Lenox investigates a series of seemingly small acts of vandalism only to uncover a sinister plot by an adversary who may be targeting someone Lenox loves.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Eleven little piggies / Elizabeth Gunn. “Chief of Detectives Jake Hines’ new-parent nightmares about an impending ecological disaster on a Minnesota farm have a deadly real twist. Forced to choose between the land they love and the easy money they’d get if they sold it to sand miners for oil drilling, a hard-working Minnesota farm family resorts to loud family fights. But when the body of the best farmer of the group is found in the trees behind the field where Chief of Detectives Jake Hines is hunting geese on his day off, the discussion becomes deadly serious.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

A question of identity : a Simon Serrailler crime novel / Susan Hill.
“The seventh Simon Serrailler crime novel. Duchess of Cornwall Close: sheltered accommodation, a mix of bungalows and flats, newly built and not quite finished. Despite the bitterly cold weather, elderly residents are moving in. They don’t notice the figure in the shadows, someone who doesn’t mind the cold. Then, one snowy night, an old lady is murdered, dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex. DCS Simon Serrailler and his team are aware of bizarre circumstances surrounding her death, but they keep some of these details secret, while they desperately search for a match. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Undercover : a Harpur & Iles mystery / Bill James. “After a gang shooting involving an undercover police officer, Colin Harpur and his boss Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles are called to another Force’s ground to investigate what the Home Office see as spectacular failings. Harpur can imagine the pressure the officer would have been under. If a gang decided to kill, a spy would have to go along with it. But with careers of fellow officers who might be in secret, dangerous alliance with villains at risk, Harpur knows that he and Iles have an exceptionally tough inquiry ahead.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Standing in another man’s grave / Ian Rankin. “It’s twenty-five years since John Rebus appeared on the scene, and five years since he retired. But 2012 sees his return. Not only is Rebus as stubborn and anarchic as ever, but he finds himself in trouble with Rankin’s latest creation, Malcolm Fox of Edinburgh’s internal affairs unit. Added to which, Rebus may be about to derail the career of his ex-colleague Siobhan Clarke, while himself being permanently derailed by mob boss and old adversary Big Ger Cafferty. But all Rebus wants to do is discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to the millennium. The problem being, no one else wants to go there and that includes Rebus’s fellow officers. Not that any of that is going to stop Rebus. Not even when his own life and the careers of those around him are on the line.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The heresy of Dr Dee : being edited from the most private documents of Dr John Dee, astrologer and consultant to Queen Elizabeth / Phil Rickman. “At the end of the sunless summer of 1560, black rumour shrouds the death of the one woman who stands between Lord Robert Dudley and marriage to the young Queen Elizabeth. Did Dudley’s wife, Amy, die from an accidental fall in a deserted house, or was it a calculated murder? Even Dr John Dee, astrologer royal, adviser on the Hidden and one of Dudley’s oldest friends, is uncertain. Then a rash promise to the Queen sends him to his family’s old home on the Welsh Border in pursuit of the Wigmore Shewstone, a crystal credited supernatural properties. With Dee goes Robert Dudley, considered the most hated man in England. They travel with the entourage of a London judge sent to try a sinister Welsh brigand with a legacy dating back to the Battle of Brynglas, in which close to a thousand Englishmen died at the hands of the Welsh. After the battle, many of the bodies were, according to legend, obscenely mutilated. Now, on the same haunted hill, another dead man has been found, similarly slashed.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Mistletoe, merriment, and murder / Sara Rosett. “Super organizer Ellie Avery could really use some Christmas cheer when Gabrielle Matheson, a grinchy professional rival, sets up shop in the same small Georgia town. But before the halls are even halfway decked with holly, someone uses Ellie’s terrifically tasteless white elephant swap gift as a murder weapon. Ellie’s now a suspect. Besides playing Mrs. Santa for her Air Force pilot husband and their two kids, shielding her eyes from the garishly over-decorated house down the street, and helping a client who’s a hardcore hoarder, Ellie also has to solve this ho-ho-homicide and find a killer who wishes her a very deadly Christmas.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

Beneath the abbey wall : a novel / A.D. Scott.
“On a dark, damp Sunday evening, a man taking a shortcut home sees a hand reaching out in supplication from a bundle of sacks. In an instant he knows something terrifying has happened. In the Highlands in the late 1950s, much of the local newspaper’s success was due to Mrs. Smart, the no-nonsense office manager who kept everything and everyone in line. Her murder leaves her colleagues in shock and the Highland Gazette office in chaos. Joanne Ross, a budding reporter and shamefully separated mother, assumes Mrs. Smart’s duties, but an intriguing stranger provides a distraction not only from the job and the investigation but from everything Joanne believes in.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Welcome to November’s Fiction newsletter. The best fiction from all the genres has been selected to ensure exciting, entertaining, and pleasurable reading. This month’s Other genre features Translated Novels, from all parts of the world. A great way to broaden our knowledge and enhance our understanding of world around us.

New mysteries for November include ‘The Bat’, the latest translation of Jo Nesbo’s work, which was the first of his novels to feature Harry Hole; a newly acclaimed debut, ‘Sacrifice’, from Tim O’Mara; another entry in John Loomis’ witty & well regarded ‘Frank Coffin’ series; Pulitzer-prize winner, Julia Keller’s first crime novel; first Inspector Sejer novel, which launched Karin Fossum’s career as the Norwegian Queen of Crime; and the latest release from David Baldacci…

The forgotten / David Baldacci.
“Army Special Agent John Puller is the man the U.S. Army relies on to investigate the toughest crimes facing the nation. Now he has a new case-but this time, the crime is personal: His aunt has been found dead in Paradise, Florida. A picture-perfect town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Paradise thrives on the wealthy tourists and retirees drawn to its gorgeous weather and beaches. The local police have ruled his aunt’s death an unfortunate, tragic accident. But just before she died, she mailed a letter to Puller’s father, telling him that beneath its beautiful veneer, Paradise is not all it seems to be. What Puller finds convinces him that his aunt’s death was no accident and that the palm trees and sandy beaches of Paradise may hide a conspiracy so shocking that some will go to unthinkable lengths to make sure the truth is never revealed…” (Syndetics Sunmamry)

The Bat / Jo Nesbø ; translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.
”As Harry tracks down the murderer of a Norwegian TV star reduced to living in desperate circumstances, he is fully formed as the difficult, vulnerable personality we have come to know. The evocation of Australia itself has the customary Nesbo expertise (Barry Forshaw Independent )…The Bat appeared in Norway in 1997, and it’s a fascinating book, filling in the gaps in Hole’s biography and telling the story of the murder case in Australia that cemented his reputation as a brilliant investigator.It is a stunning opening to the series (Joan Smith Sunday Times )…Scandinavian noir goes Down Under. what’s fascinating is seeing Hole already equipped with all the obsessional attributes that would merge so brilliantly in subsequent novels (Marcel Berlins The Times )… Even with this first book Nesbo’s command of the idiom is completely in place – there is no sense that the writer was finding his feet and aficionados will be very pleased to slide this onto their bookshelves alongside the other Harry Hole novels (Barry Forshaw Daily Express )…” (Review from Amazon.co.uk)

Sacrifice fly / Tim O’Mara.
“Raymond Donne wasn’t always a schoolteacher. Not only did he patrol the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as one of New York’s Finest, but being the nephew of the chief of detectives, he was expected to go on to bigger things. At least he was until the accident that all but destroyed his knees. Unable to do the job the way he wanted, he became a teacher in the same neighborhood, and did everything he could to put the force behind him and come to terms with the change. Then Frankie Rivas, a student in Ray’s class and a baseball phenom, stops showing up to school. With Frankie in danger of failing and missing out on a scholarship, Ray goes looking for him only to find Frankie’s father bludgeoned to death in their apartment. Frankie and his younger sister are gone, possibly on the run. But did Frankie really kill his father? Ray can’t believe it. But then who did, and where are Frankie and his sister?”…(Syndetics summary)

Some kind of peace / Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff ; translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlén.
“Dr. Siri Bergman runs a private psychotherapy practice in central Stockholm with her best friend Aina. Since her husband’s death in a diving accident, Siri has lived alone in an isolated cottage outside the city. Terrified of the dark, she drinks wine to steady her nerves and leaves the lights on when she goes to bed, unable to shake the feeling that someone is watching through her windows. When the lifeless body of Sara Matteus, a young patient with borderline personality disorder and a tragic history, is found floating in the water near Siri’s cottage, she knows that someone has been watching her – and he’s coming for Siri next. But she is not alone. With a young policeman named Markus, she begins her own investigation. As Siri’s past and present start to merge and disintegrate, virtually everyone in her inner circle becomes a potential suspect…” (Syndetics summary)

Miss me when I’m gone / Emily Arsenault.
“Author Gretchen Waters made a name for herself with her bestseller Tammyland—a memoir about her divorce and her admiration for country music icons Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton that was praised as a “honky-tonk Eat, Pray, Love.” But her writing career is cut abruptly short when she dies from a fall down a set of stone library steps. It is a tragic accident and no one suspects foul play, certainly not Gretchen’s best friend from college, Jamie, who’s been named the late author’s literary executor. But there’s an unfinished manuscript Gretchen left behind that is much darker than Tammyland: a book ostensibly about male country musicians yet centered on a murder in Gretchen’s family that haunted her childhood. In its pages, Gretchen seems to be speaking to Jamie from beyond the grave—suggesting her death was no accident…and that Jamie must piece together the story someone would kill to keep untold… (Review from Amazon.co.uk)

Fire season / Jon Loomis.
“Beleaguered Police Detective Frank Coffin is on the trail of a firebug in Fire Season, the third in this sharply witty mystery series set in Provincetown, Massachusetts Until a replacement can be found, Frank Coffin is pulling double duty as a detective and interim police chief for the Provincetown, Mass. Police. The off-season has just started for this tourist town and the streets should be quiet. But they’re not. When three fires are sparked in quick succession, it looks like there’s a firebug on the loose. A firebug who doesn’t care who he hurts. With a deputy terrified of UFOs, a severed head in a lobster tank, and the fact that Frank’s mother is setting some fires of her own, it’s another busy season in P’town in Fire Season, an excellent addition to Jon Loomis’ acclaimed series…” (Syndetics summary)

A killing in the hills / Julia Keller.
“Pulitzer-prize winner, Julia Keller’s first crime novel – the first in a new series featuring prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins – set in the beautiful crime-ridden town of Acker’s Gap. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, visitors see only its stunning natural beauty. But for those living there it’s a different story. The mountain roads harbour secret places, perfect for making the prescription drugs that tempt its desperately poor. Bell Elkins left a broken teenager, savaged by a past she couldn’t forget. But, as prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, Bell is back and determined to help clean up the only home she has ever known. As winter sets in and her daughter is witness to a shocking triple murder, Bell finds her family in danger. Can she uncover the truth before her world is destroyed again?”…(Syndetics summary)

Champagne : the farewell / Janet Hubbard.
“Max Maguire, a twenty-nine-year-old female detective with the New York Police Department, flies to France to attend the wedding of her friend, Chloe Marceau, at a grand estate east of Paris in the Champagne region. There Max meets an older man, the urbane Olivier Chaumont, and experiences a fairy-tale evening. But when Chloe’s widowed aunt, the beautiful and successful Lea de Saint-Pern, is found murdered, Max and Olivier are snapped back into their professional roles. To Max’s chagrin, she is banned from an official investigative role, while Olivier, a magistrate, is put in charge of the investigation. She insinuates herself into the victim’s family until their long-held secrets begin to surface like bubbles in a glass of champagne. After another family member is found dead on the day of Lea’s funeral however, Max puts her career and her tentative relationship with Olivier in jeopardy as her determination to find the murderer–and prove herself in the process–takes over…” (Syndetics summary)

In the darkness / by Karin Fossum ; translated by James Anderson.
”The first ever Inspector Sejer novel, which launched Karin Fossum’s career as the Norwegian Queen of Crime.Eva is walking by the river one afternoon when a body floats to the surface of the icy water. She tells her daughter to wait patiently while she calls the police, but when she reaches the phone box Eva dials another number altogether. The dead man, Egil, has been missing for months, and it doesn’t take long for Inspector Sejer and his team to establish that he was the victim of a very violent killer. But the trail has gone cold. It’s as puzzling as another unsolved case on Sejer’s desk: the murder of a prostitute who was found dead just before Egil went missing. While Sejer is trying to piece together the fragments of a seemingly impossible case, Eva gets a phone call late one night. A stranger speaks and then swiftly hangs up. Eva looks out into the darkness and listens. All is quiet. Gripping and thought-provoking, In the Darkness is Karin Fossum’s first novel featuring the iconic Inspector Sejer. The prize-winning series has been published around the world to great acclaim…” (From Amazon.com)

Mimosas, mischief, and murder / Sara Rosett.
’’Rosett’s winning sixth Ellie Avery mystery (after 2010’s Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder) takes amateur sleuth Ellie, husband Mitch, and their two kids to Smarr, Ala., Mitch’s hometown, where they’re first slammed with the news of the sudden death of Mitch’s elderly grandfather, Grandpa Franklin. When someone breaks into the late gentleman’s home, the police are reluctant to confirm a burglary. Even after Grandpa and casket go missing, the authorities insist there’s nothing further to investigate. Complications arise after the stranger who attended Grandpa’s funeral turns out to be the corpse Ellie finds in Grandpa’s guest room. The strange behavior of Uncle Bud and Felicity, the wife of Mitch’s favorite cousin, has Ellie considering adding relatives to her list of suspicious characters. A rumor of hidden money, secret letters from a famous recluse, a fire, a threatening message, and a crazed gunman add to the cozy mischief…” (Review from Amazon.com)

In our picks of the new mysteries this month we’ve included lots of Scandinavian mystery fiction (so much more just keeps being translated – it’s wonderful!), plus the new Kay Scarpetta novel from Patricia Cornwell. Also included are Richard Castle’s new novel (yes, we know – he’s a fictional character, but these are great!), and Deon Meyer’s Seven Days — translated into English from the Afrikaans, and a great opportunity to read a complex crime novel AND peek into South African society all at the same time. Enjoy!

Seven days / Deon Meyer ; translated from Afrikaans by K. L. Seegers.
“Meyer borrows the ticking-clock framework and many of the characters from his novel Thirteen Hours (2010). A sniper has been shooting at Cape Town policemen and then sending threatening e-mails, vowing to shoot one officer a day unless they solve a cold case the murder of financial analyst Hanneke Sloet, who was fatally stabbed with a very large knife. Inspector Benny Griessel, newly transferred to the elite Hawks unit, is chosen to lead the investigation, and he is well aware of the pressure that will be raining down on him not only from the media but also from the highest levels of command. He has gone 227 days without a drink, but his old demons are calling to him, especially when he discovers that the Sloet case seems absolutely impenetrable, with no motive and no forensic evidence. As policemen continue to fall, Benny works to connect the threads, combing through financial records and trying to plumb the psyche of the ruthlessly ambitious victim, looking for something, anything, that makes sense. Sleekly done crime fiction layered with the cultural complexities of the new South Africa…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Sebastian Bergman / [Michael] Hjorth & [Hans] Rosenfeldt ; translation by Marlaine Delargy.
“The electrifying thriller from the writers of BBC4 Swedish TV drama SEBASTIAN BERGMAN and the creator of the hugely successful series THE BRIDGE. The massive Swedish international bestseller and the first in the Sebastian Bergman series. Now a hit BBC4 TV drama starring Rolf Lassgård, the original WALLANDER, as Bergman. Sixteen-year-old Roger has vanished. Days pass and Västerås Police do nothing, blaming his disappearance on teenage antics. Then Roger’s pale, mutilated body is found floating in a shallow marshland pool, his heart missing, and the experts descend. They need Sebastian Bergman: widower, psychologist, top criminal profiler and one of Sweden’s foremost experts on serial killers. Since losing his wife and child Sebastian has become numb to the outside world and has no interest in taking on the murder case – until he is blindsided by a secret from his past. Desperate for access to confidential police files, he agrees to join the investigation and it’s not long until the brittle web of lies and deception seizes his full attention…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

Dick Francis’s bloodline / Felix Francis.
“Francis ably follows in the footsteps of his father, Dick Francis, with his second stand-alone set in the English horse racing world (after 2011’s Dick Francis’s Gamble). Mark Shillingford, a TV commentator who covers horse races, is ridden with guilt over an argument he had with his jockey twin sister, Clare, after discovering that she was losing some races deliberately. In the aftermath of the confrontation, an angry Mark lets Clare’s phone messages go to voicemail, a choice he regrets after Clare apparently leaps to her death from a London hotel window. Mark resolves to discover what really happened in the hotel room before the fatal plunge. Suspecting that his sister’s cheating was more extensive than she admitted, he studies old video images of her recent races to spot a pattern that may identify those who wanted her dead to cover up the fraud. Fans will have a hard time distinguishing this solid thriller from the father’s work…” (Syndetics summary)

The absent one / Jussi Adler-Olsen ; translated by K.E. Semmel.
“Grumpy Copenhagen police detective Carl Morck finds that Department Q, the cold-case Siberia to which he was exiled in The Keeper of Lost Causes (2011), has become a little less chilly since he cracked the famous Lynggaard case although his uneasy partnership with the genial Assad has been complicated by the transfer of a difficult second assistant named Rose. A file lands on Morck’s desk and leads him to a group of industry titans who may have been getting away with murder literally since their days at an elite boarding school. Adler-Olsen riffs on inequality in Danish society, which is timely, although the predations of the bad guys are so over the top that they teeter on the edge of parody. And while Morck’s guilty feelings over his old partner’s injury gave depth to the first book, they’re treated cursorily here. Most memorable is the portrait of Kimmie, the absent one of the title, a damaged but deadly cipher who has fallen out with the group. She’s no Salander, but she’s almost as original. Less riveting than the first one, but worthwhile for fans…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Frozen heat / Richard Castle.
“Hot on the heels of Richard Castle’s #1 New York Times bestseller Heat Rises comes the fourth novel in the Nikki Heat series, Frozen Heat. Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook are together again, facing an unsolved murder mystery that has haunted Nikki for ten years. NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat arrives at her latest crime scene to find an unidentified woman stabbed to death and stuffed inside a suitcase left on a Manhattan street. Nikki is in for a big shock when this new homicide connects to the unsolved murder of her own mother. Paired once again with her romantic and investigative partner, top journalist Jameson Rook, Heat works to solve the mystery of the body in the suitcase while she is forced to confront unexplored areas of her mother’s background. Facing relentless danger as someone targets her for the next kill, Nikki’s search will unearth painful family truths, expose a startling hidden life, and cause Nikki to reexamine her own past. Heat’s passionate quest takes her and Rook from the back alleys of Manhattan to the avenues of Paris, trying to catch a ruthless killer. The question is, now that her mother’s cold case has unexpectedly thawed, will Nikki Heat finally be able to solve the dark mystery that has been her demon for ten years?..(Description from Amazon.com)

The bone bed / Patricia Cornwell.
“In Alberta, Canada, an eminent paleontologist disappears from a dinosaur dig site, and at the Cambridge Forensic Center, Kay Scarpetta receives a grisly communication that gives her a dreadful reason to suspect this may become her next case. Then, with shocking speed, events begin to unfold. A body recovered from Boston Harbor reveals bizarre trace evidence hinting of a link to other unsolved cases that seem to have nothing in common. Who is behind all this? And whom can Scarpetta trust? Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI agent husband, Benton Wesley, are both unhappy with her because of personnel changes at the CFC, and her niece Lucy has become even more secretive than usual. Scarpetta fears she just may be on her own this time–against an enormously powerful and cunning enemy who seems impossible to defeat…” (Syndetics summary)

Stick a fork in it / Robin Allen.Stick a Fork in It
“In Allen’s fun sequel to 2011’s If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Austin, Tex., health inspector Poppy Markham targets a new restaurant still under wraps, Capital Punishment, which features prison decor (electric chair, anyone?) and a menu of executed criminals’ last meals. The restaurant can’t open without her okay, and problem after problem keeps her returning to recheck progress-which stalls when Troy Sharpe, ex-jock and co-owner, is found hanged from the catwalk. The other owners-Troy’s twin brother, Todd, and the Sharpes’ schoolmate, Danny MacAdams-are determined to open on time, but construction chief Miles Archer struggles to get everything working at once. Determined to find out if Troy’s death is suicide or murder, Poppy must also contend with the mystery of the snack truck she can’t catch up with to inspect as well as her complicated love life. Lots of plot twists help make this a must-read for cozy lovers…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Silenced / Kristina Ohlsson.
“Fifteen years ago, a teenage girl is assaulted and raped as she picks flowers for a Midsummer’s Eve ritual. Cut to the present, and a man is killed in a hit and run. He has no identification on him, he is not reported missing nor wanted by the police. At the same time, a priest and his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide. Fredrika Bergman, along with Alex Recht’s federal investigation unit, is assigned to the seemingly unconnected cases. The investigations lead to a clandestine people-smuggling network: a new player on the international human smuggling market operating out of Bangkok. As the police slowly uncover the shocking hypocrisy behind the network, they begin to find a trail that runs all the way back to the 1980s, to a crime that went unreported, but whose consequences will reach further and deeper than anyone ever expected…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

What the cat saw / Carolyn Hart.
“This appealing first in a new paranormal cozy series from Agatha-winner Hart (Death Comes Silently and 21 other Annie Darling bookstore mysteries) introduces unemployed investigative reporter Nela Farley, who can read cats’ thoughts. When Nela’s flighty sister, Chloe, an employee of the charitable Haklo Foundation, suddenly decides to take a vacation, Nela comes to Craddock, Okla., to fill in for Chloe. Nela stays in the apartment of Haklo’s late chief operating officer, Marian Grant, who recently died in what seemed to be an accident, though Nela gathers from Marian’s cat that she was a victim of foul play. The suspense builds as everyone on the foundation’s small staff becomes a suspect, from trustee Blythe Webster, a powerful woman who expects to be treated with deference, to newly hired assistant curator Abby Andrews. Reporter Steve Flynn provides a romantic foil for Nela, while Det. K.T. Dugan believes Nela is up to no good. Traditional mystery fans will find a lot to like…”(Adapted from Syndetics summary)