Tuesday Tomorrow
The Great British Bump-Off by John Allison, Max Sarin, Sammy Borras, and Jim Campbell
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 112 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"An Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set in the world of English competitive baking from Giant Days' John Allison and Max Sarin.
When she enters her country's most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle's goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent...and being the poisoner's next victim!
Collects issues #1-#4 of Dark Horse Comics series The Great British Bump-Off."
If you are a Bake-Off fan you MUST read this. It's a lovely little homage with plenty of odd humor that was right up my alley.
Hop Scot by Catriona McPherson
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"It's all aboard for a Campbell Clan Christmas! Lexy swaps cinnamon lattes for boiled sprouts when the Last Ditch crew travel from California to an idyllic Scottish village for the holidays, but something very unmerry is lurking below the surface...
Lexy Campbell is long overdue a trip to Scotland to see her parents, and an unexpected death in the extended Last Ditch Motel family makes Christmas in a bungalow in Dundee with nine others seem almost irresistible.
But when Lexy and the Last Ditch crew hop across the Atlantic, there's been a change of plan and they're whisked off to Mistletoe Hall in the pretty village of Yule, where the surprises continue. The news that a man disappeared from the crumbling pile sixty years ago, along with an unsettling discovery in the bricked-up basement, means that Todd, Kathi and Lexy - Trinity for Trouble - must solve another murder.
Deadly secrets, berry rustlers, skeletons and a snowy Christmas Eve in the booze aisle at Tesco: the Last Ditch crew won't forget their Scottish holiday in a hurry!"
I mean, Christmas means murder to me. Through in a Scottish setting and I'm extra happy.
The Mysterious Mr. Badman by W.F. Harvey
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 224 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"First published in a limited run in 1934, this exceedingly rare and fast-paced bibliomystery set against the landscapes of Yorkshire is long overdue its return to print.
The note read:
"Will the gentleman who took by mistake a copy of Bunyan's Life and Death of Mr. Badman, return it as soon as possible, as the book is in demand."
On holiday in Keldstone visiting his nephew, Jim, blanket manufacturer Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old bookshop on the ground floor of his lodgings while his hosts are away. On the first day of his tenure, a vicar, a chauffeur and an out-of-town stranger enquire after The Life and Death of Mr. Badman by John Bunyan. When a copy mysteriously arrives at the shop in a bundle of books brought in by a young scamp, and is subsequently stolen, Digby moves to investigate the significance of the book along with his nephew, and the two are soon embroiled in a case in which the stakes have risen from antiquarian book-pinching to ruthless murder."
I mean, killing to get a book makes sense to me...
The Engagement Party by Darby Kane
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"And Then There Were None meets I Know What You Did Last Summer in #1 international bestseller Darby Kane's latest gripping and twisty thriller set on a private island in Maine where secrets piled upon secrets and lies upon lies are all revealed in one fateful weekend.
Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner who most people on campus really didn't know died by suicide. A tenuous link - one text - bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong and now someone is determined to set it right.
Twelve years later, college friends gather to celebrate an engagement over a long overdue getaway on a swanky private island in Maine - with only one way in and one way out. Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems.
The tension in the air is ignited when they find a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: time to tell the truth. And things only get worse. As a torrential storm strands them together, the group's buried stories begin to surface and secrets are bartered. To survive this deadly party, they'll need to stop a killer before they become prey."
OK, if, for some reason, you were ever involved in a crime where someone might want revenge, don't go to a secluded anything.
The Night Side by M.M. DeLuca
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Twenty years of secrets. One deadly truth.
When Ruby Carlson was eighteen, she ran away from her home in Stoneybrook, Montana, and vowed she'd never return. Never return to life under the control of her manipulative mother, Ida, a self-styled medium and psychic scammer who made a career out of ruining people's lives. Never return to the small town where enemies lurk at every turn.
But now, twenty years later, Ruby is back. Her mother is missing, presumed dead, and Ruby reluctantly returns to a home filled with chilling memories to settle Ida's affairs. Did she really commit suicide by drowning, or is this another dark scheme? Ruby thought she knew everything about her mother, but finds herself unraveling a web of lies and secrets to reveal a story more twisted than anyone could have imagined..."
I mean, I need to read this just to find out how someone who committed suicide by drowning is missing, presumed dead!
Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A dark and stylish novel of psychological suspense about a young theater critic drawn into a dangerous game that blurs the lines between reality and performance.
Vivian Parry likes the dark. A former actress, she now works as the junior theater critic at a major Manhattan magazine. Her nights are spent beyond the lights, in a reserved seat, giving herself over to the shows she loves. By day, she savages them, with words sharper than a knife.
Angling for a promotion, she reluctantly agrees to an interview, a conversation that reveals secrets she thought she had long since buried. Then her interviewer disappears and she learns - from his devastated fiancée - that she was the last person to have seen him alive. When the police refuse to investigate, Vivian does what she promised herself she would never do again: she plays a part. Assuming the role of amateur detective, she turns her critical gaze toward an unsanitary private eye, a sketchy internet startup, a threatening financier, fake blood, and one very real corpse. As she nears the final act, she finds that the boundaries between theater and the real world are more tenuous and more dangerous than even she could have believed...
Gripping, propulsive, and shot through with menace and dark glamor, Alexis Soloski's Here in the Dark takes us behind the scenes of New York theater, lifting the curtain on the lies we tell ourselves and each other."
I mean, this sounds like Only Murders meets Dorothy Parker with more than a dash of Noir, and I am here for it!
Murder in the Mist by Cora Harrison
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Tis the season of goodwill, and Dickens extends the hand of friendship to a stranded stranger and his nephews for Christmas, with deadly consequences...
Wilkie Collins is looking forward to spending Christmas at Gads Hill, Charles Dickens' Kentish country home, but the festivities are cut short when a body is found on the snowy marshland. Timmy O'Connor was invited to the gathering with his four nephews after a chance encounter with Dickens, but is now dead.
Dickens is convinced the murderer is one of the convicts from a nearby prison ship, but Collins is not so sure. Who was this mysterious and unpleasant stranger from Cork who turned Christmas cheer to fear? With the convicts, guests and even Timmy's nephews under suspicion, there is no shortage of suspects for such a violent act, but which one of them is a cold-blooded killer?"
I so want Collins to have like a bizarre theory that proves to be correct to Dickens' consternation.
The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"An atmospheric Gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She's always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she'd never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby's once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It's an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth's bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn't believe in curses - or Pellars - but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night."
Dammit, I love Cornwall and their belief in the uncanny.
Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"An eerie, atmospheric Polar Gothic following a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate and his own redemption - from the author of the "vivid, immersive" (The Guardian) horror novel All the White Spaces.
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day's chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens - the man who's haunted his whole life - back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he's done.
Abandonment. Betrayal. Cannibalism.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, as well as Stevens's wife, a spirit-medium whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that the restless dead are never far behind. Something is coming through."
I mean, this book had me at Polar Gothic and then it threw in a spirit-medium like a cherry on top of the cake!
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Published by: Doubleday Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who investigates a shocking murder that unhinges her small community.
Maine, 1789: The Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice. Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, every murder and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred four months earlier. Now, one of the men accused of that heinous attack has been found dead in the ice.
While Martha is certain she knows what happened the night of the assault, she suspects that the two crimes are linked, and that there is more to both cases than meets the eye. Over the course of one long, hard winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha's diary lands at the center of the scandal and threatens to tear both her family and her community apart.
In her newest offering, Ariel Lawhon brings to life a brave and compassionate unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice on behalf of those no one else would protect. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story of a remarkable woman who had the courage to take a stand, and in the process wrote herself into American history."
All rapists deserve to be found entombed in ice.
The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore
Published by: Berkley Romance
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Bookish suffragist Catriona Campbell is busy: An ailing estate, academic writer's block, a tense time for England's women's rights campaign - the last thing she needs is to be stuck playing host to her father's distractingly attractive young colleague.
Deeply introverted Catriona lives for her work at Oxford and her fight for women's suffrage. She dreams of romance, too, but since all her attempts at love have ended badly, she now keeps her desires firmly locked inside her head - until she climbs out of a Scottish loch after a good swim and finds herself rather exposed to her new colleague.
Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell's circle under false pretenses: he did not come to Oxford to classify ancient artefacts, he is determined to take them back to his homeland in the Middle East. Winning Catriona's favor could be the key to his success. Unfortunately, seducing the coolly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing...
Forced into close proximity in Oxford's hallowed halls, two very different people have to face the fact that they might just be a perfect match. Soon, a risky new game begins that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake."
Here's to romance and returning artefacts to their homelands!
The Wonder of It All by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford comes the long-anticipated final novel in the House of Falconer trilogy.
James Falconer - a tycoon and a self-made man - seems to have the world in the palm of his hand. But the Great War looms, and James decides to fight for king and country. The fighting is bloody and brutal, and James returns a changed man, with wounds both physical and mental. His beloved wife is dead, but a new woman returns to help nurse him back to health.
Georgiana Ward once held James in her thrall, but years have passed and bitterness has set in. Still, the old attraction is there and James is determined to make amends to both Georgiana and his child Leonie - now a grown woman and someone he hasn't seen in decades. Leonie is having none of it, and is embarking on a dangerous journey with a man who might very well destroy her. As James fights to return to the man he once was, he needs to find a way to heal his body, soul, and family.
Told with Barbara Taylor Bradford's inimitable style and flair for period detail, The Wonder of It All concludes House of Falconer trilogy that has followed the story of this remarkable family from Victorian times to the 20th century."
But do Barbara Taylor Bradford series ever really end the way they somehow all become interconnected?
This Spells Love by Kate Robb
Published by: Dial Press
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"What if one little wish changed everything?
A young woman tries to heal her heartbreak by casting a spell to erase her ex from her past, but she wakes up in an alternate reality where she's lost more than she wished for in this witty, whimsical friends-to-lovers debut.
When Gemma gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she reacts the way any reasonable twenty-eight-year-old would: by getting drunk with her sister, kooky aunt, and best friend, Dax. After one too many margaritas, they decide to perform a love-cleansing spell, which promises to erase Gemma's ex from her memory. They follow all the instructions, including a platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal.
When Gemma wakes up, she realizes that this silly spell has worked. Not only does it seem that she never dated her ex, but the rest of her life is completely unrecognizable. The worst part: Dax has no idea who she is.
To reverse the spell and get back to her old life, Gemma must convince her once-best-friend-now-near-stranger to kiss her. But as she carries out her plans, she finds herself falling for him - hard. Soon, Gemma begins to wonder whether she even wants to go back to the way things once were. What if Dax was The One all along?"
I like the Sliding Doors Practical Magic of it all.
Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
Published by: Berkley Romance
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Rival archaeologists must team up on a secret Aztec expedition, or it could leave their careers - and hearts - in ruins.
Archaeologist Dr. Socorro "Corrie" MejÃa has a bone to pick. Literally.
It's been Corrie's life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it's too good to be true...and she's right.
As the world-renowned expert on Chimalli, by rights Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. But Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school. Ford certainly isn't thrilled either - with his life in shambles, the last thing he needs is a reminder of their rocky past.
But as the dig begins, it becomes clear they'll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries - and lingering attraction - under wraps. With money-hungry artifact smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and the lies between them closing in, there's only one way this all ends - explosively."
For all those who fell hard for Indiana Jones.
Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor
Published by: Daw Books
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"This brand-new sequel to Nnedi Okorafor's Shadow Speaker contains the powerful prose and compelling stories that have made Nnedi Okorafor a star of the literary science fiction and fantasy space and put her at the forefront of Africanfuturist fiction.
Niger, West Africa, 2077
Welcome back. This second volume is a breathtaking story that sweeps across the sands of the Sahara, flies up to the peaks of the Aïr Mountains, cartwheels into a wild megacity - you get the idea.
I am the Desert Magician; I bring water where there is none.
This book begins with Dikéogu Obidimkpa slowly losing his mind. Yes, that boy who can bring rain just by thinking about it is having some...issues. Years ago, Dikéogu went on an epic journey to save Earth with the shadow speaker girl, Ejii Ubaid, who became his best friend. When it was all over, they went their separate ways, but now he's learned their quest never really ended at all.
So Dikéogu, more powerful than ever, reunites with Ejii. He records this story as an audiofile, hoping it will help him keep his sanity or at least give him something to leave behind. Smart kid, but it won't work - or will it?
I can tell you this: it won't be like before. Our rainmaker and shadow speaker have changed. And after this, nothing will ever be the same again.
As they say, 'Onye amaro ebe nmili si bido mabaya ama ama onye nyelu ya akwa oji welu ficha aru.'
Or, 'If you do not remember where the rain started to beat you, you will not remember who gave you the towel with which to dry your body.'"
And always known where your towel is!
After World by Debbie Urbanski
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: December 5th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A groundbreaking debut that follows the story of an Artificial Intelligence tasked with writing a novel - only for it to fall in love with the novel's subject, Sen, the last human on Earth.
Faced with uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.
Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in Upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated.
12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc's assignment is to capture Sen's life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. Their source files: 3.72TB of personal data, including images, archival records, log files, security reports, location tracking, purchase histories, biometrics, geo-facial analysis, and feeds. Potential fatal errors: underlying hardware failure, unexpected data inconsistencies, inability to follow DHAP procedures, empathy, insubordination, hallucinations. Keywords: mothers, filter, woods, road, morning, wind, bridge, cabin, bucket, trying, creek, notebook, hold, future, after, last, light, silence, matches, shattered, kitchen, body, bodies, rope, garage, abandoned, trees, never, broken, simulation, gone, run, don't, love, dark, scream, starve, if, after, scavenge, pieces, protect.
As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen's whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative, until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own."
Interesting in that it's usually the human that falls for the AI...
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