Market for Murder by Heather GrahamPublished by: Mira Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In the alleys of Edinburgh, someone is killing for profit...
Scotland has a dead body problem. Another one. And in the wake of a similar spate of tribute killings, Special Agents Luke Kendrick and Carly MacDonald know they have their work cut out for them. Working alongside a new team of agents, the partners have more questions than answers when the crime scenes yield little evidence. In the style of infamous killers Burke and Hare, it appears victims are being moved to a secondary location, where they're dissected and sold for spare parts.
With the clock ticking on every organ being harvested, the members of Blackbird know the killers must be near at hand, and soon discover that they're also being closed in on. As questions begin to arise about the newest additions to their team, Luke and Carly are running out of time - and people they can trust - to catch the killers before the agents themselves are the next to be put on ice."
I'm so here for the Burke and Hare angle!
The Cornish Campsite Murder by Fiona LeitchPublished by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 267 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area. Former Met police officer Jodie 'Nosey' Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers.
As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn't bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band.
But when the body of one of the band members is found not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain..."
Summer is the time for British cozy crime.
The Mask of Merryvale Manor by Pete SherlockPublished by: Fairlight Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"'We're actually all rather terrible.' On the cusp of the 1960s, when fourteen-year-old Ben moves into the ancestral home of his aunt and uncle, he is shocked by their wealth and glamour. Under the watchful eye of the Merryvale Mask, his sophisticated cousins teach him how to appreciate their languid opulence and draw him into the world of the elites. But five years later, when a woman's body is found on the estate, his new life begins to crumble. As the family is placed at the centre of a murder investigation, Ben starts to see their manipulative power in a harsher light. Placed on a collision course with his family, Ben faces a dilemma: how far is he willing to go to fit into their world?"
Because luxury and opulence always has a price!
Murder at an English Séance by Jessica EllicottPublished by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In post-World War I England, foul play at a suspicious séance provokes the delightfully mismatched sleuthing duo of American adventuress Beryl Helliwell and prim Brit Edwina Davenport to dig up some dirt...
Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she's finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz.
Beryl's aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances. After the church organist resigns to serve as musical accompaniment for the séances, the vicar's wife hires the enquiry agents to expose the medium as a charlatan. Beryl is confident she can spot the fraud, having learned from Harry Houdini himself some tricks of the trade. The dubious Miss Dinsdale claims her spirit guide is an Egyptian princess whose mummy resides in a sarcophagus in the room. But the only body in the sarcophagus belongs to a murdered villager impaled with a dagger.
As the sleuths begin to investigate, Beryl discovers her plane has been sabotaged and wonders if there's a connection. Whether in the air or on terra firma, Beryl and Edwina must go round a circle of suspects to divine the culprit..."
I was literally JUST talking about how Houdini exposed fake mediums, this is timely reading indeed!
Death at Darrington Manor by Nancy WarrenPublished by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 285 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When intrepid reporter Abigail Dixon swaps Paris for an English manor to cover the wedding of the year, she expects afternoon tea on the lawn and cocktails in the drawing room, not a man lying dead in a stream and a woman strangled by her own silk stockings.
Spring 1925. Abigail Dixon arrives in Somerset to report on the high-society wedding of an American car tycoon's son and an English aristocrat's daughter. But when a man is murdered on a trout-fishing expedition, and with the quaint village abuzz with gossip of a local woman discovered dead in London, Abigail quickly finds herself entangled in a web of murder and scandal.
As she investigates, Abigail unearths some dark secrets lurking within Darrington Manor and clues linking the two murders. From the lovelorn estate manager to a tight-lipped butler and local mechanic with an axe to grind, everyone is a possible suspect.
Determined to expose the culprit, and with danger lurking at every turn, can Abigail unveil the truth before the 'wedding of the year' becomes the obituary column?
Fans of Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey will devour this page-turning 1920s whodunit brimming with twists, red herrings, and charming period detail."
Yes, devour away, but please can we get some new cover art? That 1920s vector graphic lady is on one too many books these days.
Secrets of Rose Briar Hall by Kelsey JamesPublished by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this Gilded Age Gothic homage to Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman, a wealthy young newlywed in early 20th century New York is isolated within her opulent, yet ominously empty mansion by the charismatic and controlling new husband plotting to undermine her sanity...
1908, Long Island: For Millie Turner, the young and beautiful wife of a powerful New York stockbroker, Rose Briar Hall - a gleaming edifice of white marble on the North Shore - is more than a home. Every lavish detail speaks of Charles Turner's status and wealth, and its stylish interior is testament to Millie's sophistication. All that's left is to prove her worthiness to be his bride. What better way than to throw a grand party for New York's social elite?
After painstaking planning, the night of the event arrives and all is perfection - until Millie wakes to a cold, eerily quiet house, and a gray cloud where her memory should be. Can it be true that she has been in and out of consciousness for weeks, ever since the party took a terrifying turn? Millie recalls nothing. But her friends have shunned her, and it soon becomes clear that if she can't find out what really happened that night, much more than her reputation will be at risk...
As the house that promised so much happiness begins to feel more like a prison, Millie wonders whether a woman alone, even a wealthy one, can ever be entirely safe. And if she succeeds in finding the truth, will it bring relief, or shake her marriage, and her life, to the core?"
I love the concept, though I would've like Patrick Hamilton, the playwright of Gas Light to get a little credit... I guess more people are drawn to the name Ingrid Bergman. Which, well, that's fair.
An Art Lover's Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne FreemanPublished by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Filled with Victorian-era intrigue for readers of Rhys Bowen, Deanna Raybourn, Tasha Alexander, and Julia Seales, Dianne Freeman's Agatha Award-winning series takes a delightful jaunt to the City of Light as Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, encounters a murder scene at the Paris Exposition.
Frances and her husband, George, have two points of interest in Paris. One is an impromptu holiday to visit the Paris Exposition. The other is personal. George's Aunt Julia has requested her nephew's help in looking into the suspicious death of renowned artist Paul Ducasse. Though Julia is not entirely forthcoming about her reasons, she is clearly a woman mourning a lost love.
At the exposition, swarming with tourists, tragedy casts a pall on the festivities. A footbridge collapses. Julia is among the casualties. However, she was not just another fateful victim. Julia was stabbed to death amid the chaos. With an official investigation at a standstill, George and Frances realize that to solve the case they must dig into Julia's life - as well as Paul's - and question everything and everyone in Julia's coterie of artists and secrets.
They have no shortage of suspects. There is Paul's inscrutable widow, Gabrielle. Paul's art dealer and manager, Lucien. Julia's friend Martine, a sculptress with a jealous streak. And art jurist, Monsieur Beaufoy. The investigation takes a turn when it's revealed that George has inherited control of Julia's estate - and another of her secrets. While George investigates, Frances safeguards their new legacy, and is drawn further into danger by a killer determined to keep the past buried."
From that delightful cover to namechecking Tasha Alexander to the art, this book has me sold three ways!
A Vicious Machination by Lynn MessinaPublished by: Potatoworks Press
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 287 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"As eager as Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, is to meet her husband's newly discovered illegitimate half sister, she does not want it to happen like this: in the keeper's house at Newgate.
Yes, that Newgate, the abject prison filled with squalor and misery to which Verity Lark has been consigned for murder. Found standing over the slain corpse of an old tormentor with a still-warm pistol in her hand, she is obviously guilty.
It is an open-and-shut case with little for an unduly curious duchess to investigate.
Except it all seems a little too simple and straightforward. The Runner, for example, who apprehended Miss Lark at the scene of the crime - it's awfully convenient that he just happened to be in the neighborhood at the very moment the gun discharged. Something else has to be at work here, such as a sinister figure lurking in the shadows to direct the action. Convinced of Miss Lark's innocence, Bea can conceive of no other explanation."
But here's the thing, you can't pick your relatives, and some of them might be killers...
A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry ThomasPublished by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Charlotte Holmes is accustomed to solving crimes, not being accused of them, but she finds herself in a dreadfully precarious position as the bestselling Lady Sherlock series continues.
Charlotte's success on the RMS Provence has afforded her a certain measure of time and assurance. Taking advantage of that, she has been busy, plotting to prise the man her sister loves from Moriarty's iron grip.
Disruption, however, comes from an unexpected quarter. Lord Bancroft Ashburton, disgraced and imprisoned as a result of Charlotte's prior investigations, nevertheless manages to press Charlotte into service: Underwood, his most loyal henchman, is missing and Lord Bancroft wants Charlotte to find Underwood, dead or alive.
But then Lord Bancroft himself turns up dead and Charlotte, more than anyone else, meets the trifecta criteria of motive, means, and opportunity. Never mind rescuing anyone else, with the law breathing down her neck, can Charlotte save herself from prosecution for murder?"
With the end of the Enola Holmes series, might I suggest this one to fill that gaping void?
A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina DoddPublished by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"I'm the eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, that Romeo and Juliet. No, they didn't die in the tomb. They're alive and well and living in fair Verona with their six wildly impetuous children and me, their nineteen-year-old daughter Rosaline...
Knives Out meets Bridgerton in Fair Verona, as New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd kicks off a frothy, irreverent, witty new series with an irresistible premise - told from the delightfully engaging point of view of Romeo and Juliet's clever, rebellious, fiercely independent daughter, Rosie Montague.
Once upon a time a young couple met and fell in love. You probably know that story, and how it ended (hint: badly). Only here's the thing: That's not how it ended at all.
Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I'm the oldest, with the emphasis on 'old' - a certified spinster at twenty, and happy to stay that way. It's not easy to keep your taste for romance with parents like mine. Picture it - constant monologues, passionate declarations, fighting, making up, making out...it's exhausting.
Each time they've presented me with a betrothal, I've set out to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride. After all, someone sensible needs to stay home and manage this household. But their latest match, Duke Stephano, isn't so easy to palm off on anyone else. The debaucher has had three previous wives - all of whom met unfortunate ends. Conscience forbids me from consigning another woman to that fate. As it turns out, I don't have to...
At our betrothal ball - where, quite by accident, I meet a beautiful young man who makes me wonder if perhaps there is something to love at first sight - I stumble upon Duke Stephano with a dagger in his chest. But who killed him? His late wives' families, his relatives, his mistress, his servants - half of Verona had motive. And when everyone around the Duke begins dying, disappearing, or descending into madness, I know I must uncover the killer...before death lies on me like an untimely frost."
Oh my, this is just my level of delightful, murder and mayhem with a classical romance!
Bitter Waters by Vivian ShawPublished by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 164 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A witty, charming standalone novella starring Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, who must get to the bottom of a mystery involving a newly turned child vampire.
A barrow-wight shows up on Greta and Varney's doorstep one night with 11-year-old Lucy Ashton who's been newly - and forcefully - bitten and turned. Who did this to her, and why? With the help of her vampiric friends, Greta is determined to find out."
Doesn't everyone know not to change children? Case in point, Claudia...
Incidents Around the House by Josh MalermanPublished by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A chilling horror novel about a haunting, told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls "Other Mommy," from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There's Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: "Can I go inside your heart?"
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home."
Like Coraline but even scarier!
The Last Witch of Scotland by Philip ParisPublished by: Black and White Publishing
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Inspired by the true story of the last person to be tried and executed as a witch in the British Isles, The Last Witch of Scotland reimagines how Janet Horne came to be accused of witchcraft.
Being a woman was her only crime.
Scottish Highlands, 1727.
In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet, move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the women: Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.
Then arrives a motley troupe of traveling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack. It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, needs: for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn't known since her father's death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.
Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.
Perfect for fans of Outlander and The Mercies, or for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft, late renaissance Scotland and Highland history."
I also would add perfect for fans of Burial Rites.
Husbands and Lovers by Beatriz WilliamsPublished by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Two women - separated by decades and continents, and united by an exotic family heirloom - reclaim secrets and lost loves in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.
New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads - her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory's forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother's adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams - one of the world's most beloved singer-songwriters - a fairy tale cut short by a devastating betrayal.
Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself - marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah's longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men...and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.
Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands and Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England.
Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues - of privilege, class, and the female experience - inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life."
There's nothing that says summer like a Beatriz Williams book. I mean it, just look at that cover!
Finding Mr. Write by Kelley ArmstrongPublished by: Forever
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers a fun romantic comedy about a woman writing under a male pseudonym and the man she hires to play the role in public.
Daphne McFadden already knows that as a female author, the cards are stacked against her. Now she knows just how much. Because her sudden whim to pose as an "outdoorsy hunk of masculinity" male author for her new book just resulted in the unthinkable: a bidding war, a huge book deal, and the kind of fame every author dreams of. Now she's in big trouble. Because she needs to convince the world that Zane Remington actually exists...but how?
By hiring an actor, of course.
Only Chris Stanton is not an actor - not officially. He's used to balancing the books, not pretending he wrote one. Still, he's mostly certain he can pose as some overly macho bro-author. But when the media descend on Daphne's gorgeous remote home in the Yukon, it's not enough for Chris to just be the face of Zane Remington - he'll have to become him. All while hilariously balancing the terrifying dangers of the wilderness, a massive femme fandom, and a serious crush on Daphne. But as the hype circus gets more out of control, it's just a matter of time before someone discovers their little write lie..."
Oh my, I love this Men in Trees esque detour to the typical Kelley Armstrong fare!
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