strange and random happenstance

The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge by Martin Edwards
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rachel Savernake investigates a bizarre locked-room puzzle in this delicious Gothic mystery from the winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger.

1930. Nell Fagan is a journalist on the trail of an intriguing and bizarre mystery: in 1606, a man vanished from a locked gatehouse in a remote Yorkshire village, and 300 years later, it happened again. Nell confides in the best sleuth she knows, judge's daughter Rachel Savernake. Thank goodness she did, because barely a week later Nell disappears, and Rachel is left to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

Looking for answers, Rachel travels to lonely Blackstone Fell in Yorkshire, with its eerie moor and sinister tower. With help from her friend Jacob Flint - who's determined to expose a fraudulent clairvoyant - Rachel will risk her life to bring an end to the disappearances and bring the truth to light.

A dazzling mystery peopled by clerics and medics; reporters and rogues, Blackstone Fell explores the shadowy borderlands between spiritual and scientific; between sanity and madness; and between virtue and deadly sin."

A locked room mystery with a mystic? Oh my yes.

The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A ghost haunting her boarding school uncovers a teen girl's best kept secrets in the Queen of Scream's deliciously terrifying new novel.

Everyone has heard the story of the Narrow. The river that runs behind the Atwood School is only a few feet across and seemingly placid, but beneath the surface, the waters are deep and vicious. It's said that no one who has fallen in has ever survived.

Eden White knows that isn't true. Six years ago, she saw Delphine Fournier fall into the Narrow - and live.

Delphine now lives in careful isolation, sealed off from the world. Even a single drop of unpurified water could be deadly to her, and no one but Eden has any idea why. Eden has never told anyone what she saw or spoken to Delphine since, but now, unable to cover her tuition, she has to make a deal: her expenses will be paid in return for serving as a live-in companion to Delphine.

Eden finds herself drawn to the strange and mysterious girl, and the two of them begin to unravel each other's secrets. Then Eden discovers what happened to the last girl who lived with Delphine: she was found half-drowned on dry land. Suddenly Eden is waking up to wet footprints tracking to the end of her bed, the sound of rain on the windows when the skies are clear, and a ghostly silhouette in her doorway. Something is haunting Delphine - and now it's coming for Eden, too."

Oh, dry drowning mystery!

One Night by Georgina Cross
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"One night. That's all the time a family has to decide what to do with the man they believe murdered their daughter: Do they forgive him, or do they take justice into their own hands?

The anonymous letters arrive in the mail, one by one: To find out what really happened to Meg, meet at this location. Don't tell anyone you're coming. In one night, you'll find out everything you need to know.

Ten years after her murder, the letters tell Meghan's family exactly when and where to meet: a cliffside home on the Oregon coast. But on the night they're promised answers, the convicted killer - her high school boyfriend, Cal, who spent only ten years in prison for murder - is found unconscious in his car after it slammed into a tree near the house where the family is sitting and waiting. Is he really the one who invited them to gather?

As a storm rampages along the Pacific Northwest, the power cuts off and leaves the family with no chance of returning to the main road and finding help. So they drag Cal back to the house for the remainder of the night. How easy it would be to let him die and claim it was an accident. Or do they help him instead? As the hours tick by, it becomes an excruciating choice. Half of the family wants to kill him. The other half wants him to regain consciousness so he can tell them what he knows.

But if Cal wakes up, he might reveal that someone in the family knows more than they're letting on. And if that's the case, who is the real killer? And are they already in the house?"

It's like Clue meets Murder on the Orient Express! 

Death in Print by G.M. Malliet
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A celebration in Oxford for university tutor and bestselling author Jason Verdoot, attended by DCI St. Just and his fiancée Portia, is a night to remember...for all the wrong reasons.

University of Oxford tutor and bestselling author Jason Verdoodt has it all: acclaim, women, money...and an enemy or two. When he's found dead at the bottom of the stairs during a celebratory reception at St Rumwold's College, many wonder if seething jealousy of his literary success has turned someone's mind to murder.

Detective Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just becomes inescapably drawn into an investigation that takes him down the historic streets of Oxford and into the hallowed halls of its university. Alongside his fiancée, crime fiction writer Portia De'Ath, he uncovers several motives for murdering the celebrated but insufferable Jason - whose next novel may be a threat to many in his orbit - and no shortage of suspects who are nursing a grudge from the first novel. Has someone decided to write revenge into the plot?"

To fill the Endeavour sized hole in your life.

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese's Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words.

It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrow boat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press.

Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them - but as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford's Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. She is extraordinary but vulnerable, and Peggy feels compelled to watch over her.

Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can educate herself and use her intellect, not just her hands. But as war and illness reshape her world, her love for a Belgian soldier - and the responsibility that comes with it - threaten to hold her back.

The Bookbinder is a story about knowledge - who creates it, who can access it, and what truths get lost in the process. Much as she did in the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams thoughtfully explores another rarely seen slice of history through women's eyes."

Ah yes, the responsibilities of love that can hold you back. I know that all too well.

The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs
Published by: Scribner Book Company
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-second high-stakes thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, following a series of bizarre disappearances on the islands of Turks and Caicos, enters a sinister labyrinth in which a new technology may wreak worldwide havoc.

Called in to examine what is left of a person thought to have been struck by lightning, Tempe traces an unusual tattoo to its source and is soon embroiled in a much larger case. Young men - tourists - have been disappearing on the islands of Turks and Caicos. Seven years earlier, the first victim was found in a strange location with his left hand hacked off; subsequently, two other visitors vanished without a trace. But, recently, tantalizing leads have emerged and only Tempe can unravel them.

Maddeningly, the victims seem to have nothing in common - other than the odd places where their bodies turn up, and the fact that none seems likely to have been involved in criminal activity. Do these attacks have something to do with the islands' seething culture of gang violence? Tempe isn't so sure. Disturbingly, she discovers evidence that what's at stake may actually have global significance.

It isn't long before the sound of a ticking clock grows menacingly loud. Then Temperance herself becomes a target."

Because once you're in Turks and Caicos, well, anything illicit is on that table.

A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E. Grant
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Academy Award-nominated actor Richard E. Grant's memoir about finding happiness in even the darkest of days.

Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor. Unexpectedly, he met and fell in love with a renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood, and loss, lasted almost forty years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find a "pocketful of happiness in every day."

This honest and frequently hilarious memoir is written in honor of that challenge - Richard has faithfully kept a diary since childhood, and in these entries he shares raw detail of everything he has experienced: both the pain of losing his beloved wife, and the excitement of their life together, from the role that transformed his life overnight in Withnail and I to his thrilling Oscar Award nomination thirty years later for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Told with candor in Richard's utterly unique style, A Pocketful of Happiness is a powerful, funny, and moving celebration of life's unexpected joys."

As with his acting and his other books, I have always admired Richard E. Grant's ability to find the positive in the bleakest of times.

The Book of Witches edited by Jonathan Strahan
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 512 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"With a breathtaking array of original stories from around the world, P. Djèlí Clark, Amal El Mohtar, Garth Nix, Darcie Little Badger, Sheree Renée Thomas, and two dozen other fantasy and science fiction geniuses bring a new and exciting twist to one of the most beloved figures in fiction, witches, in never-before-seen works written exclusively for The Book of Witches, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and illustrated by award-nominated artist Alyssa Winans.

Witches! Whether you know them from Shakespeare or from Wicked, there is no staple more beloved in folklore, fairy tale, or fantasy than these magical beings. Witches are everywhere, and at the heart of stories that resonate with many people around the world. This dazzling, otherworldly collection gathers new stories of witches from all walks of life, ensuring a Halloween readers will never forget. Whether they be maiden, mother, crone, or other; funny, fierce, light and airy, or dark and disturbing; witches are a vital part of some of the greatest stories we have, and new ones start here!

Bringing together twenty-nine stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today, including three tales from a BIPOC-only open submission period, The Book of Witches features Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu - and contains illustrations from three-time Hugo award-nominated artist Alyssa Winans throughout. This extraordinary anthology vividly breathes life into one of the most captivating and feared magical sorceresses and will become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales everywhere."

Because it's never too early to start planning your Halloween reading.

Ravensong by T.J. Klune
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 512 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author T.J. Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and joy. The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack. Ravensong is Gordo Livingstone's story.

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack who left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves. It should have been enough. And it was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. In the end, they faced the beast together as a pack...and won.

Now, a year later, Gordo has found himself once again the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them. But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it's crawling from within. Some bonds, no matter how strong, were made to be broken."

Please tell me that Gordo is named for Mister Gordo from Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

Field of Screams by Wendy Parris
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: August 1st, 2023
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new pulse-pounding supernatural mystery about twelve-year-old Rebecca, who has always wanted to hunt ghosts...until she meets one.

Paranormal enthusiast Rebecca Graff isn't happy about being dragged to Iowa to spend the summer with family she barely knows. But when she tracks a ghostly presence to an abandoned farmhouse, she starts to think the summer won't be a total lost cause!

The trouble is no one believes her. Then Rebecca finds a note stashed in a comic belonging to her late father - a note that proves the same spirit haunted him when he was twelve. Suddenly she feels a connection to the dad she pretends not to miss, and she is determined to uncover the story behind the haunting.

But the more Rebecca discovers, the scarier the ghost becomes. Soon she is in a race to piece together the puzzle and recover a family legacy before it is lost forever and a horrible tragedy repeats itself."

I've always felt that people who want to hunt ghosts have no experience of actually meeting a ghost. Because that experience will sure change their minds fast.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Clue, Endeavour, G.M. Malliet, Georgina Cross, Gothic, Jonathan Strahan, Kate Alice Marshall, Kathy Reichs, Martin Edwards, Oxford, Pip Williams, Richard E. Grant, T.J. Klune, The Book of Witches, Wendy Parris

The Albion Initiative by George Mann
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"George Mann's Newbury and Hobbes steampunk series concludes as our special agent heroes discover a plot of empire-changing proportions in The Albion Initiative..."

But as George said recently on my blog, it's not REALLY the end! Because I couldn't handle that.

The Icarus Plot by Timothy Zahn
Published by: Baen
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New science fiction series from the creator of The Cobra Series and Star Wars' Admiral Thrawn. 

There wasn’t much money to be made as a Trailblazer, searching out new worlds for possible development. Still, it was safer than the bounty hunter career that had cost Gregory Roarke his left arm six years ago. And thanks to his Kadolian partner Selene’s ultrasensitive sense of smell, they occasionally discovered a medically promising seed or spore they could sell under the table. It was a quiet life, uneventful and mostly legal.

Until Roarke was approached by two men with a proposal: track down a mysterious woman named Tera and, through her, locate a secret project called Icarus.

The challenge was intriguing. The unlimited budget was tempting. But Roarke had a more personal reason to accept the job.

The chance for long-delayed payback."

Timothy Zahn made me the reader I am today, so I definitely read everything he writes!

Augusta Hawke by G. M. Malliet
Published by: Severn House
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sometimes it's safer not to know your neighbors' secrets.

Where are Niko and Zora Norman? Crime writer Augusta Hawke puts her sleuthing skills to the test to solve the mystery of her disappearing neighbors in the first entry in a new series.

While Augusta Hawke is a successful author of eighteen crime novels, since her husband's death she's been living vicariously through her Jules Maigret-like detective Claude and his assistant Caroline. Then a handsome police detective appears investigating a real-life mystery.

Where are her neighbors, the Normans? No one has a clue what's happened - except Augusta. Although she isn't nosy, spending all day staring out the windows for inspiration means she does notice things. Like the Normans arguing. And that they've been missing a week.

Once the Normans' car is found abandoned, Augusta senses material for a bestseller and calls on the investigatory skills she's developed as a crime writer. But she soon uncovers long-hidden secrets and finds herself facing real-life dangers her characters never faced...ones she can't write her way out of."

Shades of Jessica Fletcher eat your heart out!

Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling thriller writer Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-first novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, after receiving a box containing a human eyeball, uncovers a series of gruesome killings eerily reenacting the most shocking of her prior cases.

Winter has come to North Carolina and, with it, a drop in crime. Freed from a heavy work schedule, Tempe Brennan is content to dote on her daughter Katy, finally returned to civilian life from the army. But when mother and daughter meet at Tempe’s place one night, they find a box on the back porch. Inside: a very fresh human eyeball.

GPS coordinates etched into the eyeball lead to a Benedictine monastery where an equally macabre discovery awaits. Soon after, Tempe examines a mummified corpse in a state park, and her anxiety deepens.

There seems to be no pattern to the subsequent killings uncovered, except that each mimics in some way a homicide that a younger Tempe had been called in to analyze. Who or what is targeting her, and why?

Helping Tempe search for answers is detective Erskine "Skinny" Slidell, retired but still volunteering with the CMPD cold case unit - and still displaying his gallows humor. Also pulled into the mystery: Andrew Ryan, Tempe's Montreal-based beau, now working as a private detective.

Could this elaborately staged skein of mayhem be the prelude to a twist that is even more shocking? Tempe is at a loss to establish the motive for what is going on…and then her daughter disappears.

At its core, Cold, Cold Bones is a novel of revenge - one in which revisiting the past may prove the only way to unravel the present."

Because who doesn't want more Bones?

The Ruins by Phoebe Wynne
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Phoebe Wynne's The Ruins is a suspenseful, femimist Gothic coming-of-age tale with shades of Patricia Highsmith and Atonement, pitched against the sun-soaked backdrop of the French Riviera.

The most dazzling summer casts the darkest shadows.

Welcome to the Chateau des Sètes, a jewel of the Cote d'Azur, where long summer days bring ease, glamour, and decadence to the holidaymakers who can afford it.

Ruby Ashby adores her parents' house in France, but this August, everything feels different. Unexpected guests have descended upon the chateau - friends of her parents, and their daughters - and they are keen to enjoy the hot, extravagant summer holiday to its fullest potential. Far from England, safe in their wealth and privilege, the adults revel in bad behavior without consequence, while the girls are treated as playthings or abandoned to their own devices. But despite languid days spent poolside and long nights spent drinking, a simmering tension is growing between the families, and the sanctuary that Ruby cherishes soon starts to feel like a gilded cage.

Over two decades later the chateau is for sale, its days of splendor and luxury long gone, leaving behind a terrible history and an ugly legacy. A young widow has returned to France, wanting to purchase the chateau, despite her shocking memories of what transpired that fateful summer. But there is another person who is equally haunted by the chateau, and who also seeks to reclaim it. Who will set the chateau free - and who will become yet another of its victims?

With riveting psychological complexity, The Ruins captures the tangled legacy of abuse, the glittering allure of the Mediterranean - and the dark shadows that wait beneath the surface of both."

I was sold at Gothic and Patricia Highsmith, but the hints of Riviera add just the something extra.

Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two cousins who start a food stall at their local night market get a serving of murder in this first novel of a delicious new cozy mystery series by Jennifer J. Chow, author of Mimi Lee Gets a Clue.

When Yale Yee discovers her cousin Celine is visiting from Hong Kong, she is obliged to play tour guide to a relative she hasn't seen in twenty years. Not only that, but her father thinks it's a wonderful idea for them to bond by running a food stall together at the Eastwood Village Night Market. Yale hasn't cooked in years, and she hardly considers Celine's career as a social media influencer as adequate experience, but because she’s just lost her job at her local bookstore, she feels she has no choice.

Yale and Celine serve small dishes and refreshing drinks, and while business is slow, it eventually picks up thanks to Celine's surprisingly useful marketing ideas. They're quite shocked that their bubble tea, in particular, is a hit - literally - when one of their customers turns up dead. Yale and Celine are prime suspects due to the gold flakes that Celine added to the sweet drink as a garnish. Though the two cousins are polar opposites in every way, they must work together to find out what really happened to the victim or the only thing they'll be serving is time."

I'm obsessed with anything bubble tea related. So THIS is in my wheelhouse. Though I am pretty sure most gold flakes aren't edible.... And that knowledge is thanks to Dynasty.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for.

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn't worked out. Instead, she's stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage.

She's feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn't be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But death follows her onboard when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold just as one among them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates the Abernathy's increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life.

With seductive glamor, simmering family drama, and dizzying twists, Louise Hare makes her beguiling US debut."

Strip it down and it's a locked room mystery, ON A BOAT! YAS!

A Dress of Violet Taffeta by Tessa Arlen
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sumptuous novel based on the fascinating true story of La Belle Époque icon Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, who shattered the boundaries of fashion with her magnificently sensual and enchantingly unique designs.

Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, and texture in ways few people can begin to imagine. But is the male dominated world of haute couture, who would use her art for their own gain, ready for her?

When she is deserted by her wealthy husband, Lucy is left penniless with an aging mother and her five-year-old daughter to support. Desperate to survive, Lucy turns to her one true talent to make a living. As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her group of playmates. Now, she uses her creative designs and her remarkable eye for color to take her place in the fashion world—failure is not an option.

Then, on a frigid night in 1912, Lucy’s life changes once more, when she becomes one of 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic. She could never have imagined the effects the disaster would have on her fashion label Lucile, her marriage to her second husband, and her legacy. But no matter what life throws at her, Lucy will live on as a trailblazing and innovative fashion icon, never letting go of what she worked so hard to earn. This is her story."

The interesting intersection of a Belle Époque icon AND the Titanic!

Twice Upon a Time: Selected Stories, 1898-1939 by L.M. Montgomery
Published by: University of Toronto Press
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Although L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942) is best remembered for the twenty-two book-length works of fiction that she published in her lifetime, from Anne of Green Gables (1908) to Anne of Ingleside (1939), she also contributed some five hundred short stories and serials to a wide range of North American and British periodicals from 1895 to 1940. While most of these stories demonstrate her ability to produce material that would fit the mainstream periodical fiction market as it evolved across almost half a century, many of them also contain early incarnations of characters, storylines, conversations, and settings that she would rework for inclusion in her novels and collections of linked short stories.

In Twice Upon a Time, the third volume in The L.M. Montgomery Library, Benjamin Lefebvre collects and discusses over two dozen stories from across Montgomery's career as a short fiction writer, many of them available in book form for the first time. The volume offers a rare glimpse into Montgomery's creative process in adapting her periodical work for her books, which continue to fascinate readers all over the world."

I mean, I HAVE to feature this book because of the editor right? Not just for L.M....

Joan by Katherine J. Chen
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: July 5th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Girl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint? From the acclaimed author of Mary B comes a stunning, secular reimagining of the epic life of Joan of Arc.

1412. France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, becoming an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries.

In Katherine J. Chen's hands, the myth and legend of Joan of Arc is transformed into a flesh-and-blood young woman: reckless, steel-willed, and brilliant. This meticulously researched novel is a sweeping narrative of her life, from a childhood steeped in both joy and violence, to her meteoric rise to fame at the head of the French army, where she navigates the perils of the battlefield and the equally treacherous politics of the royal court. Many are threatened by a woman who leads, and Joan draws wrath and suspicion from all corners, while her first taste of fame and glory leaves her vulnerable to her own powerful ambition.

With unforgettably vivid characters, transporting settings, and action-packed storytelling, Joan is a thrilling epic, a triumph of historical fiction, as well as a feminist celebration of one remarkable - and remarkably real - woman who left an indelible mark on history."

Always here for all things Joan.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Bubble Tea, G.M. Malliet, George Mann, Gothic, Jennifer J. Chow, Katherine J. Chen, Kathy Reichs, L.M. Montgomery, Louise Hare, Newbury and Hobbes, Phoebe Wynne, Tessa Arlen, The Albion Initiative, Timothy Zahn

The Elizas by Sara Shepard
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars Sara Shepard makes her mark on adult fiction with this Hitchcockian double narrative composed of lies, false memories, and a protagonist who must uncover the truth for survival.

When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness.

Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Like why are her editor, agent, and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? Her novel is completely fictional, isn’t it?

The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel, until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.

Fans of Pretty Little Liars, S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep, and Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 will be drawn to the drama of feeling like no one is on your side, the high tension of not knowing who you can trust, the hair-raising truths hidden among lies, and a faceless, nameless presence controlling Eliza’s life from the shadows."

I'm all about this book, it's named after me, Miss Eliza right? 

The She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her.

And then she was gone.

Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away.

Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?"

I want to know why her new beau's daughter reminds her of her own!

In Prior's Wood by G.M. Malliet
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Agatha Award-winning author G. M. Malliet has charmed mystery lovers and cozy fans with her critically acclaimed mysteries. In Prior's Wood, featuring handsome spy-turned-cleric Max Tudor, won’t disappoint.

Newly returned from investigating a murder in Monkslip-super-Mare, handsome Max Tudor wants nothing more than to settle back into his predictable routine as vicar of St. Edwold’s Church in the village of Nether Monkslip. But the flow of his sermon on Bathsheba is interrupted when the lady of the local manor house is found in a suicide pact with her young lover.

Lady Duxter’s husband rallies quickly from the double tragedy―too quickly, it is murmured in the village. Lord Duxter already has offered his manor house to a motley crew of writers, including Max’s wife Awena, for his writers’ retreat, and he insists the show must go on.

When a young girl goes missing and a crime writer becomes a target, DCI Cotton asks Max to lend his MI5 expertise to the investigation.

Many suspects emerge as the scope of the investigation widens beyond the writers to villagers who had crossed swords with the insufferably smug crime author. But Max begins to wonder: was the attack on the writer only part of a broader conspiracy of silence?"

English country cozy death!

The Mechanical Devil by Kate Ellis
Published by: Piatkus
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When archaeologist Neil Watson unearths a long-buried mechanical figure in a Dartmoor field, he is determined to discover the truth behind the bizarre find.

Soon, however, the sleepy village becomes the focus of press attention for another reason when two people with no apparent connection to each other are found shot dead in nearby Manor Field, seemingly victims of an execution-style double murder.

DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate, but the two murders aren't his only problem. The daughter of a local MP has gone missing and the pressure is on to find her, especially when it's revealed that she has a connection to one of the murder victims. And Wesley's own life is thrown into turmoil when a woman he helped on a previous investigation finds herself subjected to a campaign of terror...

Is there a link between the double murder and the accidental death of a young history student in Manor Field twenty years ago? And just what is the true identity of the Mechanical Devil?"

So many interconnections, but I really want to know about the mechanical figure! 

Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new smartphone dating game turns the Village Blend into a hookup hot spot, until one dark night, when a gunshot leaves a dead body behind and the landmark coffeehouse becomes the center of a whole new scene--a crime scene.

As Village Blend manager Clare Cosi attempts to finalize a date for her wedding, her ex-husband becomes addicted to making dates through smartphone swipes. Clare has mixed feelings about these quickie matchups happening in her coffeehouse. Even her octogenarian employer is selecting suitors by screenshot! But business is booming, and Clare works hard to keep the espresso shots flowing. Then one dark night, another kind of shot leaves a dead body for her to find.

The corpse is a successful entrepreneur who became notorious for his "hit it and quit it" behavior: prowling for women on dating apps, then devastating his conquests with morning-after insults. Though the NYPD quickly arrests one of his recent victims, Clare finds reason to believe she's been framed.

Now, with the help of her ex and crew of quirky baristas, Clare starts "swiping" through suspects in her own shop, determined to find the real killer before another shot rings out.

Includes a bang-up menu of tempting recipes."

A new brew for you!

Noir by Christopher Moore
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more.

San Francisco. Summer, 1947. A dame walks into a saloon...

It’s not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It’s love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. ’Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he’s got the connections on the street.

Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast in Washington State near Mount Rainer, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But the real weirdness is happening on the streets of the City by the Bay.

When one of Sammy’s schemes goes south and the Cheese mysteriously vanishes, Sammy is forced to contend with his own dark secrets—and more than a few strange goings on—if he wants to find his girl.

Think Raymond Chandler meets Damon Runyon with more than a dash of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes All Stars. It’s all very, very Noir. It’s all very, very Christopher Moore."

Hell, I'd be interested just for the San Francisco angle, Moore is just MORE!

Coyotes by Sean Lewis
Published by: Image Comics
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Women are going missing in the City of Lost Girls, a border town in the desert. Officer Frank Coffey is trying to get to the bottom of this when he meets Red, a thirteen girl with a katana blade and a mission: murder the Werewolves stalking the border picking women off one by one. When it's discovered that the Wolves are the men of these villages, both Red and Officer Coffey are thrown together in a thriller of mythic proportions with he lives of their friends and loved ones in the balance."

Oh, I hope my local library gets this! Yes, I have a rule, I'm not allowed to buy graphic novels until I read them first. 

The Case of the Perilous Palace by Jordan Stratford
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The history-mystery-science series concludes as the Wollstonecraft Detectives - Ada Byron Lovelace and Mary Shelley - take on a case by royal request.

Ada's imperious grandmother has absolutely shut the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency down--until they get a case from a princess, that is.

The princess Alexandrina Victoria, age 9 (who will grow up to be Queeen Victoria), is the most closely watched girl in England. She is never alone. Every morsel she eats is catalogued. Every visitor overseen. Every move noted down. She has but one thing of her own--a sketchbook she uses as a secret diary, where she records her private thoughts in code. But now, somehow, that sketchbook has disappeared.

And so the princess enlists Ada and Mary to figure out what has happened to the sketchbook without arousing the suspicions of her minders. A most clandestine case indeed! One that will involve breaking into Kensington Palace and uncovering a host of surprising royal secrets...

This funny, Christmas-time romp of a caper will delight history and mystery fans alike."

What's this "last" BS!?!

Before Mars by Emma Newman
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: April 17th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hugo Award winner Emma Newman returns to the captivating Planetfall universe with a dark tale of a woman stationed on Mars who starts to have doubts about everything around her.

After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist in residence--and already she feels she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth.

In her room on the base, Anna finds a mysterious note, painted in her own hand, warning her not to trust the colony psychiatrist. A note she can't remember painting.

When she finds a footprint in a place that the colony AI claims has never been visited by humans, Anna begins to suspect that she is caught up in an elaborate corporate conspiracy. Or is she losing her grip on reality? Anna must find the truth, regardless of what horrors she might discover or what they might do to her mind."

Mars, it's the new thing that all books should have in them!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Christopher Moore, Cleo Coyle, Coyotes, Emma Newman, G.M. Malliet, In Prior's Wood, Kate Ellis, Lisa Jewell, Sara Shepard, The Elizas, The Mechanical Devil, Then She Was Gone, Wollstonecraft Detective Agency