How The Dead Speak by Val McDermid
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Val McDermid is an award-winning, crime-writing powerhouse, and now she returns to her explosive, thrilling series featuring psychological profiler Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan in her latest How The Dead Speak.
With Tony behind bars and Carol finally out of road as a cop, he’s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she’s joined forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they’re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried in the grounds. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons are discovered in a far corner, young men from as recent as ten years ago.
When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars - and the subject of one of Carol’s miscarriage investigations - it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other’s orbit once again. A shocking, masterfully plotted novel that will leave readers breathless, How The Dead Speak is McDermid at her best and a can’t miss read long-time fans and new readers alike."
Anyone else missing Wire in the Blood and Tony and Carol as much as me? No!?! Well, then, I'm not talking to you!
A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh welcomes you to a remote town on the edge of the world where even the blinding brightness of the sun can’t mask the darkness that lies deep within a killer...
On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates.
That is until one fateful summer - and several vanished bodies - shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can’t run from the past forever.
Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape.
It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light."
Because everyone should be obsessed with new Zealand, like me and Stephen Colbert.
Ever Dark: The Haunting of Hanna Blake by Eva Simmons
Published by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Kindle, 261 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Hanna might be her name.
The burning house might have been her home.
The bodies might be her family.
If only she could remember.
Hanna doesn't remember anything from before the night she was found. But when Jax and Asher Mahlum blow into town with a photo that ties to her past, she realizes the dead can only stay silent so long. Jax is covered in death, and Asher won’t let Hanna forget she has a price to pay for the night she was discovered. Soon, bodies start piling up in Garland, and Hanna has a nagging feeling that she may have something to do with it. Only one thing is for sure. There’s something dark inside Hanna, and it wants out."
And I know you need to know about the darkness!
Echoes Among the Stones by Jaime Jo Wright
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 386 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Mystery begins to follow Aggie Dunkirk when she exhumes the pasts secrets and uncovers a crime her eccentric grandmother has been obsessing over. Decades earlier, after discovering her sisters body in the attic, Imogene Flannigan is determined to find justice. Two women, separated by time, vow to find answers...no matter the cost."
Family secrets that turn deadly are my kind of secrets.
Thin Ice by Paige Shelton
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"First in a new series set in Alaska from beloved author Paige Shelton, Thin Ice will chill your bones.
Beth Rivers is on the run - she’s doing the only thing she could think of to keep herself safe. Known to the world as thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild, she had become the subject of a fanatic’s obsession. After being held in a van for three days by her kidnapper, Levi Brooks, Beth managed to escape, and until he is captured, she's got to get away. Cold and remote, Alaska seems tailor-made for her to hideout."
At this time of year I go through severe Northern Exposure withdrawal and yearn for Alaska. Thankfully this year I have a fix!
Bryant and May: The Lonely Hour by Christopher Fowler
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The brilliant Arthur Bryant and John May take the late, late shift in a cat-and-mouse hunt with a killer who preys on his victims at the same time every night - the lonely hour of 4 A.M.
When a man is found hanging upside down inside a willow tree on Hampstead Heath, surrounded by a baffling assortment of occult objects, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. Was this a botched satanic ritual pulled off by bored teenagers, a gang initiation, or the work of a mastermind with grander intentions? Bryant and May set off in search of answers and are soon reminded that London is a city steeped in blood and magic.
When another body is pulled from the river at dawn, it becomes clear that a killer lurks in the night. To catch him, the PCU switches to graveyard shifts, but the team still comes up short. As they explore a night city where the normal rules do not apply, they’re drawn deeper into a case that involves murder, arson, kidnapping, blackmail, loneliness, and bats.
May takes a technological approach, while Bryant goes in search of his usual academics and misfits for help, for this investigation reveals impossibilities at every turn. How do you stop a killer who appears not to exist? Luckily, impossibilities are what the Peculiar Crimes Unit does best."
Anyone else really miss the old cover designs?
Laetitia Rodd and the Case of the Wandering Scholar by Kate Saunders
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"M. C. Beaton meets Miss Marple in the second book in the Laetitia Rodd Mysteries, which sees Kate Saunders's Victorian detective on the hunt for a missing Oxford academic.
In 1851, private detective Laetitia Rodd is enjoying a well-earned holiday when she gets an urgent request for her services. Mrs. Rodd's neighbor Jacob Welland is a reclusive, rich gentleman dying of consumption, and he wants Mrs. Rodd to find his brother, who has been missing for fifteen years.
Joshua Welland was a scholar at Oxford, brilliant, eccentric, and desperately poor when he disappeared from the university. Friends claim to have seen him since, in gypsy camps and wandering around the countryside. But the last sighting was ten years before-when Joshua claimed to be learning great secrets from the gypsies that would one day astound the whole world.
Mrs. Rodd travels to Oxford and begins to search for the wandering scholar. But as she investigates, Mrs. Rodd discovers something dark-and extremely dangerous-lurking in the beautiful English countryside.
For readers of James Runcie, Alexander McCall Smith, and M. C. Beaton, Laetitia Rodd and the Mystery of the Wandering Scholar is a delightful new mystery about Victorian England and an indomitable female detective."
They had me at Oxford. I can NEVER have enough Oxford.
The Penmaker's Wife by Steve Robinson
Published by: Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 255 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In Victorian England, a mother is on the run from her past - and the truth about what she did.
Birmingham, 1880. Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, William. She promises him a better life, far away from the terrors they left behind.
Securing a job as a governess, Angelica captures the attention of wealthy widower Stanley Hampton. Soon they marry and the successful future Angelica envisaged for William starts to fall into place.
But the past will not let Angelica go. As the people in her husband’s circle, once captivated by her charm, begin to question her motives, it becomes clear that forgetting where she came from - and who she ran from - is impossible.
When tragedy threatens to expose her and destroy everything she’s built for herself and William, how far will she go to keep her secrets safe? And when does the love for one’s child tip over into dangerous obsession?
Alias Grace meets Peaky Blinders in this tale of obsession, ambition and murder in Victorian England."
Was this description written just for me with the Alias Grace meets Peaky Blinders mashup?
Murder, She Encountered by Peg Cochran
Published by: Alibi
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Kindle
To Buy
The official patter:
"A gutsy Manhattan socialite encounters murder and corruption at the World’s Fair in this captivating historical cozy mystery for readers of Victoria Thompson, Susan Elia MacNeal, and Rhys Bowen.
New York City, 1939. A rising star at the Daily Trumpet, Elizabeth “Biz” Adams has been sent to the World’s Fair - billed as the “World of Tomorrow,” a look toward a brighter future even as the drumbeats of war grow louder - to cover a robbery. What she stumbles upon instead is a dead woman, dumped into the Aquacade’s pool with a nylon stocking wrapped around her neck.
Elizabeth snaps a photo as the police arrest Joey Dorman, a gentle young hot dog vendor who made no secret of his obsession with the murder victim. Even though she’s thrilled that her photo makes the front page, the fear and confusion evident on Joey’s face are haunting. So Elizabeth vows to prove his innocence - or his guilt - with her partner at the Daily Trumpet, Ralph Kaminsky. Meanwhile, her romance with Detective Sal Marino is heating up, and Elizabeth is more determined than ever to follow her heart.
But when Kaminsky’s efforts to expose the real killer land him in the hospital, Elizabeth is forced to continue the investigation on her own. And as she tries to narrow down the long list of suspects, she discovers a dark secret running through the Fair - a secret some would kill to protect."
I read a book earlier this year that wasted the World's Fair setting, so THANKFULLY I have another book to set this right!
The Festival Murders by Mark McCrum
Published by: Black Thorn
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Kindle, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Bryce Peabody is ready to give a scandalous talk at the annual literary festival in the pretty English town of Mold-on-Wold. Scathing in his reviews and unseemly in his affairs, Bryce is known to have many enemies. So when he is discovered dead in his hotel room festival-goers are desperate to know what happened. Could one of the numerous writers he insulted have taken revenge? Or perhaps one of his scorned lovers? As more festival-goers meet their ends, Francis Meadowes is drawn into a role he knows only from his own fiction; that of amateur detective."
If you're in a Midsomer Murders state of mind...
Brewed Awakening by Cleo Coyle
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi awakens on a bench in Washington Square Park, she has no idea she's been missing for days, or that her friends and family have been frantic with worry. Now that she's back, everyone is overjoyed, including a handsome NYPD detective who claims to be her fiancé. But to Mike Quinn's crushing distress, Clare doesn't remember him, or much of anything about the last fifteen years of her life.
Clare's missing memory is tied to a crime she witnessed. An acquaintance of Clare's elegant employer - and fellow member of an exclusive Gotham circle known as "The Ladies Who Brunch" - invited Clare to her posh hotel to sample gourmet wedding cakes. After their indulgent tasting, they headed to the parking garage, where a camera captured a masked figure with a gun confronting the hotel heiress with Clare looking on. Did the kidnapper take Clare, too? The camera went dark, just like Clare's memory. Soon authorities grow suspicious. Is Clare really a victim? Or merely acting like one? Evidence is mounting that she set the woman up.
To clear her name, Clare must find a way to reclaim her memories and rescue the heiress before this high-stakes crime ends in tragedy. Otherwise, instead of walking down the aisle, Clare may find herself perp-walking to prison as an accomplice to kidnapping and murder."
And now for some cozy mysteries!
Beating About the Bush by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.
The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?"
One of my friends thinks that M.C. Beaton's books are now being ghostwritten. Discuss!
The Peppermint Tea Chronicles by Alexander McCall Smith
Published by: Anchor
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The latest book in Alexander McCall Smith's popular 44 Scotland Street series is a sheer delight.
Summer has come to Scotland Street. The long days have prompted its denizens to engage in flights of fancy. Some, like the Duke of Johannesburg’s plan to create a microlite seaplane, are literal flights, and some, like the vain Bruce Anderson’s idea of settling down with one of his many admirers, are more metaphorical.
With the domineering Irene off pursuing academic challenges, Stuart and Bertie are free to indulge in summer fun. Stuart reconnects with an old acquaintance over refreshing peppermint tea while Bertie takes his friend Ranald Braveheart Macpherson to the circus. But their trip to the big top becomes rather more than the pleasant diversion they were hoping for.
Once again, Scotland Street teems with the daily triumphs and challenges of those who call it home, and provides a warm, wise, and witty chronicle of the affairs in this corner of the world."
Life in a Cold Climate by Laura Thompson
Published by: Pegasus Books
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 444 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson turns her eye to the iconic and enigmatic Nancy Mitford.
Nancy Mitford was, in the words of her sister Lady Diana Mosley, “very complex.” Her highly autobiographical early work, the biographies and novels of her more mature French period, her journalism, and the vast body of letters to her family, to friends such as Evelyn Waugh, and to the great love of her life, Gaston Palewski, all tell an intriguing story.
Drawing from these, as well as conversations with Mitford’s two surviving sisters, acquaintances, and colleagues, prizewinning author Laura Thompson has fashioned a portrait of a contradictory and courageous woman. Approaching her subject with wit, perspicacity, and huge affection, Thompson makes her serious points lightly, eschewing clichés about the eccentricities of the Mitford clan. Life in a Cold Climate is full of the sound of Mitfordian laughter; but also tells the often paradoxical and complex story beneath the smiling and ever-elegant façade."
Enigmatic? I don't think that's a word I'd EVER apply to Nancy...
The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"For everyone who loved Pride and Prejudice - and legions of historical fiction lovers - an inspired debut novel set in Austen’s world.
Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar, and sees to her duties by rote: keeping house, caring for their adorable daughter, visiting parishioners, and patiently tolerating the lectures of her awkward husband and his condescending patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Intelligent, pragmatic, and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life, an inevitable one so socially acceptable that its quietness threatens to overwhelm her. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis, a local farmer and tenant of Lady Catherine..."
I was lucky enough to win an ARC of this earlier this year, so be sure to check it out for yourself Janeites!
Wicked Hour by Chloe Neill
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In the second pulse-pounding novel in the USA Today bestselling Heirs of Chicagoland series, vampire Elisa Sullivan gets drawn into the shifting sands of Pack politics.
Vampires were made, not born - until Elisa Sullivan came along. As the only vampire child in existence, she grew up with a heavy legacy, and tried to flee her past. Then circumstances drew her back to Chicago, and she stayed to keep it safe. With shifter Connor Keene, the only son of Pack Apex Gabriel Keene, at her side, she faced down a supernatural evil that threatened to destroy Chicago forever.
After the dust from the attack has settled, Elisa is surprised when Connor invites her to a usually private Pack event in the north woods of Minnesota, and by the warm welcome she receives from some of Connor’s family, even though she's a vampire. But the peace doesn't last. The shifters tell tales of a monster in the woods, and when the celebration is marred by death, Elisa and Connor find themselves in the middle of a struggle for control that forces Elisa to face her true self - fangs and all."
I love Midwest Urban Fantasy. Can NOT get enough!
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts presents a City with no name of its own where, in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earth - all the Earths.
A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden."
After seeing Anhilation, I can not get VanderMeer's world out of my head! And I'm not alone, look at the write up in Entertainment Weekly right now!
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: December 3rd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.
Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.
With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first title in her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy."
Not sure I like the new cover approach...because the cover was the ONLY thing my book club could agree on as being any good...
The Lady Has A Past by Amanda Quick
The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican
The Nature of a Lady by Roseanna M. White
Bronte by Manuela Santoni
The Shadow in the Glass by Jja Harwood
The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser
I Speak Boy by Jessica Brody
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Rogue Untouched by Alisa Kwitney
Bottle Demon by Stephen Blackmoore
Shadowed Steel by Chloe Neill
Hail Mary by Andy Weir 
Thief of Souls by Brian Klingborg
Friend of the Devil by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
21st Birthday by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Hot to Trot by M.C. Beaton
Murder in the Snow by Verity Bright
Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
Backtrack Vol. 1 by Brian Joines, Jake Elphick, and Dough Garbark
The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill
The Rise of Knight and Sword by Miriam Wade
This is Not a Ghost Story by Andrea Portes
Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton
Egyptomaniacs: How We Became Obsessed With Ancient Egypt by Nicky Nielson
Wild Hunger by Chloe Neill
Black Lotus Kiss by Jason Ridler
The Kill Jar by J. Reuben Appelman
The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo
The Wonderling by Mira Bartók
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
Sleep Like a Baby by Charlaine Harris
The Hunt by Chloe Neill
