strange and random happenstance

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 368Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""I'm in your blood, and you are in mine..."

The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too.

Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry...and hungry.

Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever."

Could it be vampires? I think vampires.

Gothictown by Emily Carpenter
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In an immersive Southern Gothic with echoes of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets...

Welcome to gentle Juliana, where you can have it all...if you pay the price.

The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she'll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil's bargain.

A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised - two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a "gentle jewel" with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signs...

But Billie's sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana's founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.

There's something about "Gentle Juliana" - something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she's starting to wonder how, and if, they'll ever leave.

For readers of Stacy Willingham, Sarah Langan, Ashley Winstead, and Jess Lourey, a bewitchingly foreboding story about sacrifice, privilege, family, guilt, and the vengeful ghosts of a haunted past - from the bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls."

I really like this new and interesting take on what has become pandemic literature.

The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford
Published by: A John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Disguised by a name she found on a tombstone and accompanying a Vietnam vet she met in a graveyard, an unconventional young snake-handler who talks to the dead returns to the ghosts of her childhood home in 1967 Arkansas...

Readers of Delia Owens, Barbara Kingsolver, Kelly Mustian, and Quinn Connor will be captivated by this haunting Southern debut about found family, folk magic, the long shadow of trauma, the salvation of human connection, and the transcendent beauty of nature.

Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes. In her travels, she's wandered throughout the South, escaping a mental hospital in Alabama, working for a Louisiana circus, and dancing at a hoochy-kootch in Texas. Now for the first time in a decade, she's allowed her winding path to bring her to the site of her grandmother's Arkansas farmhouse, a place hallowed in her memory.

She intends only to visit briefly - to pay respects to her buried loved ones and leave. But a chance meeting with a haunted young Vietnam vet reconnects her with the remnants of a family she thought long gone, and their union becomes a catalyst for change and salvation. An abused woman and her daughters develop the courage to fight back, a ghost finds the path away from life, and a sanctimonious predator becomes the prey. In the process, Genevieve must choose between her longing for meaningful connection after years as an outsider and her equally excruciating impulse to run.

Written by a naturalist and set on the land where her family roots stretch back two centuries, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree is a haunting story about letting go and the things we leave behind, the power of names, and the ties that bind. It is both harrowing and triumphant, a visceral Southern debut as otherworldly and beautiful as it is unflinching and wry."

When roots run deep.

I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A propulsive YA novel in verse that blends the contemporary magic of Jandy Nelson with the simmering feminist rage of Laurie Halse Anderson's Shout.

As far back as anyone can remember, the women of the Strand family have been magical.

Their gifts manifest when they each turn fifteen, always in different ways. But Nell Strand knows that her family's magic is a curse. Her mother's age changes every day; she's often too young to be the mother Nell needs. Her older sister bleeds music and will do anything to release the songs inside her. Nell sees the way magic rips her family apart again and again.

When Nell's own magic arrives in the form of ladybugs alighting on the keys of her beloved piano, the first thing she feels is joy. The ladybugs are a piece of her, a harmless and delicate manifestation of her creativity. But soon enough, the rest come. Thick-shelled glossy beetles that creep along her collarbone when her piano teacher stares at her. Soft gray moths that appear and die alongside a rush of disappointment. Worst of all are the wasps. It doesn't matter how deep she buries her rage, the wasps always come. Nell will have to decide just how much of herself she's willing to lock away to stop them - or if she can find the strength to feel, no matter the consequences.

An intense, emotional read simmering with rage and magic, I Am the Swarm is a captivating YA novel in verse that beautifully speaks to the complicated nature of growing up as a girl."

Damn, I'd hate to have my emotions literally tied to wasps.

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o' them folk in his native Ireland, he can't. Instead, he's cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he's ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead - until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter's drawn into the townsfolk's lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won't.

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter's well-being against that of his new friends and the man he's falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives."

Them folk are dangerous for sure. Just read a book about them. 

Kindred Spirits at Harling Hall by Sharon Booth
Published by: Boldwood Books Ltd
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 362 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The first in a delightfully warm, cosy and romantic new series with a fantasy twist, for fans of the BBC series Ghosts.

Can Callie give some needy ghosts their happy-ever-afterlife, while making Rowan Vale her own forever home?

When cash-strapped single mum Callie visits the beautiful Cotswold village of Rowan Vale on a school trip with her daughter, she is enchanted. It's run as a living museum, with a steam railway, vintage teashop, Elizabethan manor house and old water mill allowing tourists to see history in action.

But there's more to Rowan Vale than meets the eye...

To Callie's surprise, the owner of the village, elderly Sir Lawrence Davenport, requests a meeting with her. It appears Callie has been observed talking to several villagers she shouldn't be able to see - as they're ghosts.

Sir Lawrence then makes an astonishing offer: to sell Callie the whole estate for a tiny sum, if she agrees to protect the village's present tenants and make sure the headstrong ghosts are represented too.

With a spectral lord of the manor and his imperious wife, a naughty 1940s schoolgirl and the man who once taught William Shakespeare among them, it seems Callie's role as owner wouldn't be easy.

And that's without the added complication of Lawrie's disinherited grandson, the gorgeous Brodie.

Rowan Vale and Callie may need each other. But is this a match made in heaven or hell?

Fans of the BBC's Ghosts, or books by Lucy Jane Wood, Laurie Gilmore and Heidi Swain will love this heart-warming and magical novel."

Oh, but think of the money should could make proving exactly who Shakespeare was!

A Wager at Midnight by Vanessa Riley
Published by: Zebra
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The stakes are high in this dazzling and diverse Regency romance, in which a clever duke has made a wager with the now-widowed Viscountess who is the love of his life: To win a second chance with her, he will find husbands for her two sisters - or resign himself to a life of longing in this enchanting tale from award-winning author Vanessa Riley.

Scarlett Wilcox is willing to live out her life as a spinster if it means being able to continue her medical research to help a friend in need. After all, few husbands would tolerate her dressing as a man to attend lectures at the Royal Academy of Science. If the Duke of Torrance finds her such a specimen, she'll agree to a marriage in name only, much to the dismay of her elder sister, the Viscountess.

When she's unmasked at a lecture on ophthalmology, Scarlett prepares to be disgraced, but she's saved by Trinidadian-born physician Stephen Carew who claims her as a cousin. Dedicated to caring for his community, Stephen has no wish to marry a frivolous and privileged lady, no matter how many fall for his disarming accent and seductive charm. But Scarlett proves the opposite of any he's ever met before. Yet the pressure to marry blinds them both to the chemistry growing between them, pitting their brilliant minds against their reluctant hearts - as the Duke and Viscountess await with bated breath to see who will win...A Wager at Midnight."

How about the Duke of Tolerance, amiright? 

The Lady Sparks a Flame by Elizabeth Everett
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Lady with a past. A man with ambition. A romance far from London society that might bridge their divides.

Lady Phoebe Hunt never anticipated returning from exile. A fatal choice drove her from England, but the death of her father - and the revelation of his debts - has brought her home. Once she settles her father's estate, she will return to America, where she has reinvented herself. There's no reason to remain, not even for one gravitationally challenged but deliciously tempting entrepreneur: Sam Fenley.

Samuel Fenley is all ambition. Rising from shop boy to wealthy investor, he's left knocking on doors that open only for those with a title. Unless he buys the damned door itself - and the estate that goes with it. Sam offers to relieve Phoebe of her burdens, but is her crumbling mansion all Sam wants? Or is it the Lady herself?

When threats from Phoebe's past spark new dangers, Sam and Phoebe discover that neither is what the other expected. Standing on the edge of disaster, the disgraced Ice Queen will have to decide if she wants to forge through life alone, or let an unlikely hero melt her heart."

Come on, new money and old falling for each other, who doesn't love that?

Miss Austen Investigates: A Fortune Most Fatal by Jessica Bull
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A witty, engaging murder mystery featuring Jane Austen as an intrepid sleuth - the second installment in the Miss Austen Investigates series.

1797: A broken-hearted Jane Austen travels to Kent to look after her brother Neddy's children and further her writing. She soon realizes it's imperative she uncovers the true identity of a mysterious young woman claiming to be a shipwrecked foreign princess before the interloper can swindle Neddy's adoptive mother out of her fortune and steal the much-anticipated inheritance all the Austens rely on."

So, I guess we've sticking with this cover design. I thought it was cute on the first, now it's just too repetitive. 

The Whitechapel Widow by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 414 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"London hunts the Ripper. A widow hunts her husband's killer.

London, 1888. While Jack the Ripper's reign of terror grips the city, Emma Langley's world shatters when her husband is found murdered in Whitechapel. But grief is quickly overshadowed by a startling discovery: William Langley was not the man she thought she knew.

As panic fills London's streets, Emma delves into her husband's secret life, uncovering a web of lies that stretches from glittering society drawing rooms to the seedy gambling dens of the East End. Aided by Penny Green, a former reporter with a nose for trouble, Emma follows a trail of blackmail and corruption.

But exposing her husband's killer could make her the next victim and in the shadows of gaslit streets, a murderer waits, ready to strike again...

From the bestselling author of Penny Green comes a spellbinding new Victorian mystery series introducing Emma Langley."

I think Emma is safe from Jack the Ripper and any other killer as she's being proudly "introduced."

Homicide in the Indian Hills by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Intrepid American newlywed Jane Wunderly learns that tigers aren't the only dangers lurking in 1920s India, when a murder in a popular resort town threatens to destabilize the local government and undermine the resistance movement for Indian self-rule...

Ooty, 1927: Accompanying Mr. Redvers on an assignment to Ootycamund to quell revolutionary rumblings, Jane finds there's more than meets the eye to India's Queen of Hill Stations. Ooty's lush tea plantations and tranquil gardens barely conceal its secrets - scandalous affairs, political sabotage, and a mounting anti-colonial movement. Even Redvers intends to subvert his official mission in Ooty, by arranging a series of clandestine meetings with local resistance leaders. But it's not until the shocking death of a British national that Jane and Redvers are truly drawn into Ooty's deepest shadows.

Jane's suspicions that the death is more than a tragic accident are soon confirmed, but word of a murder could stoke Ooty's simmering tensions into a full boil. Navigating corrupt local officials, festering personal vendettas, and a complicated network of bureaucratic entanglements that lead to the top tiers of government, Jane and Redvers edge closer to the truth…and its deadly consequences. Someone is willing to spill blood to protect their interests, will Jane become just another of Ooty's darkest secrets?"

Gotta support local authors! It helps when they're this good.

The Secret Detective Agency by Helena Dixon
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 264 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Meet Miss Jane Treen - the coffee-drinking cat lover dressed head to toe in tweed, who just happens to be a secret super sleuth!

London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn't have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt...

Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke. She bursts into his life unexpectedly, forcing him out of his comfort zone. Placed at his country home to unravel the mystery, together, the reluctant colleagues huddle near the warmth of a crackling fire to piece together the murderous puzzle at hand.

In the sleepy Devon village, someone is hiding something: but is it the busybody vicar and his sister, the dutiful housekeeper and her secretive son, the stern librarian, or someone else altogether? And who were the people with the woman in the lake on the day she died?

No sooner have Arthur and Jane have drawn up a list of suspects, than a parcel reveals a clue that sends them in hot pursuit of a coded diary stashed in a village church. But as the heavy wooden door slams behind them and a key turns in the lock, one thing is sure: they need to unravel the truth and crack this code before the killer decides their number is up...

But if they can catch the culprit in time, might this unusual pair become the finest crime solving partnership since Sherlock and Watson hung up their hats...?

If you love twisty crime novels, top-secret intrigue and the very best of Golden Age mysteries, then you will adore Helena Dixon's totally gripping cozy novel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Verity Bright!"

Personally I'm glad knowing she took her cat with he. That fluffy ginger couldn't be left behind in the Blitz!

The Other People by C.B. Everett
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.

Ten strangers.

An old dark house.

A killer picking them off one by one.

And a missing girl who's running out of time...

And then there was one.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who - or what - lurks in the cellar?

Forget what you think you know.

Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?"

Give that cover art I'd say really horrific giant eyes lurk in the cellar.

Saltwater by Katy Hays
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"On glittering Capri, anything can be a mirage. And no one holds a grudge like family.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters comes an electrifying thriller about an opulent family retreat to Italy that's shattered by the resurfacing of a decades-old crime.

In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah's death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it's true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah's death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them - the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

Haunted by the specter of that night, the legendary Lingate family unity is pushed to a breaking point, and Helen seizes the opportunity. Enlisting the help of Lorna Moreno, a family assistant, the two plot their escape from Helen's paranoid, insular family. But when Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah's death is reopened, Helen has to confront the fact that everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago remains a suspect - her controlling father, Richard; her rarely lucid aunt, Naomi; her distant uncle, Marcus; and their circle of friends, visitors, and staff. Even Lorna, her closest ally, may not be who she seems.

As long-hidden secrets about that night boil to surface, one thing becomes clear: Not everyone will leave the island alive."

First question, when did the aunt start being rarely lucid? Could she be hiding something!?!

A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the Inspector Ramsay series featuring a talented, brilliant detective - now in print for the first time in the US.

Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party?

Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster's enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence.

With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness..."

First time in the US unless your mother made you order them from England for her. Just saying...

The Deathly Grimm by Kathryn Purdie
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this spellbinding sequel to Kathryn Purdie's bestselling dark fairy tale, Clara and Axel must return to the forest - and its monsters - if they have any hope of finally breaking the curse on their village.

Emerging from the shadows of the Forest Grimm, Clara and Axel return to their village, the one place they can be safe behind the forest's border. But when the woods begin luring villagers into the forest, it becomes clear that the darkness they battled was merely a whisper of the true horror lurking there.

Burdened by unsettling visions and bound by a love as perilous as the cursed woods that call to them, Clara and Axel must once again enter the forest to unearth the sinister secret at its heart. As they fight murderous woodsmen wielding riddles sharp as blades, spectral maidens who threaten to drag them into an eternal dance, and phantoms able to use the very essence of the forest against them, Clara and Axel realize the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't break the curse once and for all, they may not have a home to return to..."

Yeah, don't go back into the forest. Flee!

Elphie by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in Wicked? Almost 30 years after the publication of the original novel, for the first time Gregory Maguire reveals the story of prickly young Elphie, the future Wicked Witch of the West - setting the stage for the blockbuster international phenomenon that is Wicked: The Musical.

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, will grow to have a feisty and somewhat uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off, from her infancy; Elphie is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl.

Young Elphie is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister, saintly Nessarose, and brother, junior felon Shell, arrive. She first encounters the mistreatment of the Animal populations of Oz, which live adjacent to but not intertwined with human settlements, haunted by a Monkey and receiving aid from Dwarf Bears. She thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship, a possible lifeline from her tricky family life. And she gleans the benefits of an education, haphazard though it must be - until she arrives at the doors of Shiz University, about to meet the radiant creature that is Galinda.

Elphie is destined to be a witch; she bears the markings from childhood - most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors, as she seeks to make do, to slip by, to sneak out, to endure, and to aspire."

I mean, the new cover art direction is fine... I just wish it matched the series as a whole, not the reprints.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi flies you to the moon with his most fantastic tale to date: When the Moon Hits Your Eye.

The moon has turned into cheese.

Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives - over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you'd expect, and then to so many places you wouldn't.

It's a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket."

Freak out. Far Out. In Out.

The Legendary Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The death-defying conclusion to the "audacious," "razor-sharp," and "raucous" exploits of the notorious outlaws Scarlett and Browne from the bestselling author of Lockwood and Co., Jonathan Stroud.

Throughout their lawless careers, Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne have gotten out of trouble by shooting first, then running away. Now that's no longer an option.

In this non-stop thrill-ride of a novel, we witness Albert's return to the terrifying Stonemoor prison, follow Scarlett's search for her long-lost brother, see a town besieged by the cannibal Tainted, and join the final confrontation against the cruel forces of the Faith Houses.

Along the way, our rebellious anti-heroes will have to face up to the secrets of their past, and accept the challenge of shaping a better future."

Damn I love Jonathan Stroud!

Play or Perish by Paige Andrews and John Peragine
Published by: Sterling and Stone
Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 282 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cursed objects. Ruthless collectors. A world of haunted treasures.

Shondra Henry wasn't looking for trouble, but it found her anyway. A paranormal encounter at a college party exposes her to a world of spirits and haunted artifacts she can't seem to shake. In the aftermath, she discovers her connection to the spirit world might be deeper than she thought.

Searching for answers about a mysterious box, the evil it contained, and what it might have to do with her missing uncle, Shondra becomes drawn into the shadowy underworld where arcane relics are bought, sold, and fought over in high-stakes estate auctions.

Before she knows it, Shonda finds herself working with a team dedicated to tracking and destroying cursed artifacts against an organization that would rather exploit them for power.

When a board game turns deadly, Shondra has a choice: play by the rules or break them.

She better choose carefully, because once you enter the world of haunted artifacts, you don’t leave unscathed."

Jumanji meets Warehouse 13.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ann Cleeves, C.B. Everett, Emily Organ, Erica Ruth Neubauer, Gregory Maguire, Hayley Chewins, Helena Dixon, Jessica Bull, Johanna Van Veen, John Scalzi, Jonathan Stroud, Kathryn Purdie, Katy Hays

A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A delightfully funny, fantastically inventive collection of twenty newly unearthed short stories by Sir Terry Pratchett, the award-winning and bestselling author and creator of the phenomenally successful Discworld fantasy series. This special trove - featuring charming woodcut illustrations - is a must-have for Pratchett fans of all ages and includes a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

These rediscovered tales were written by Terry Pratchett under a pseudonym for a British newspaper during the 1970s and 1980s. The stories have never been attributed to him until now, and might never have been found - were it not for the efforts of a few dedicated fans.

As Neil Gaiman writes in his introduction, "through all of these stories we watch Terry Pratchett becoming Terry Pratchett." Though none of the short works are set in the Discworld, all are infused with Pratchett's trademark wit, satirical wisdom, and brilliant imagination, hinting at the magical universe he would go on to create.

Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and embark on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork...

Irresistibly entertaining, A Stroke of the Pen is an essential collection from the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, a "master storyteller" (A. S. Byatt) who "defies categorization" (The Times); a writer whose "novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies" (Independent UK)."

I literally can not believe we're getting a new Terry Pratchett book. I literally might cry.

Nature Tales for Winter Nights edited by Nancy Campbell
Published by: Elliott and Thompson
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of Fifty Words for Snow comes a treasure trove of nature tales from storytellers across the globe, bringing a little magic and wonder to every winter night.

As the evenings draw in - a time of reckoning, rest and restoration - immerse yourself in this new seasonal anthology. Nature Tales for Winter Nights puts winter - rural, wild and urban - under the microscope and reveals its wonder.

From the late days of autumn, through deepest cold, and towards the bright hope of spring, here is a collection of familiar names and dazzling new discoveries.

Join the naturalist Linnæus travelling on horseback in Lapland, witness frost fairs on the Thames and witch-hazel harvesting in Connecticut, experience Alpine adventure, polar bird myths and courtship in the snow in classical Japan and ancient Rome. Observations from Beth Chatto's garden and Tove Jansson's childhood join company with artists' private letters, lines from Anne Frank's diary and fireside stories told by indigenous voices.

A hibernation companion, this book will transport you across time and country this winter."

I want to hibernate with this book but also visit a frost fair!

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka
Published by: Ace Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The super-rich control everything - including magic - in this thrilling and brilliant, contemporary fantasy from the author of the Alex Verus novels.

The wealthy seem to exist in a different, glittering world from the rest of us. Almost as if by...magic.

Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat.

But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge. To survive, Stephen will have to take his talent and build it up into something greater - for only then can he beat them at their own game."

All you need to start out in life is a minimum wage job and a cat.

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 624 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two outcasts find themselves caught in a web of forbidden love, dangerous magic, and dark secrets that could change the world forever in the start of a riveting epic fantasy series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Shadowhunter Chronicles.

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher - the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane's underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces. As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war - and the world into chaos?"

I notice they're no longer touting this as her "adult" debut. They probably realized all her readers were adults all along.

Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher
Published by: Ace Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Grimsby, the newest Auditor in the magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, finds himself in hot water when he intercepts a friend's case in this fast-paced and thrilling urban fantasy.

Against all odds, Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby has become an Auditor, enforcing laws about magic for Boston's Department of Unorthodox Affairs. But Grimsby soon realizes the daily grind of his job is far removed from the glamour he imagined. Overlooked for every exciting case, Grimsby tires of being told to handle mundane magical troubles, and appropriates a case file intended for a friend.

Alongside Leslie Mayflower, the temporarily unretired Huntsman, Grimsby aims to crack the case and discover the origin of a strange, unfinished ritual - one that seems to imitate the handiwork of a foe Mayflower put down twenty years ago.

Together, they'll have to deal with escaped werewolves, a cursed artifact, and a perilous journey to the mysterious subterranean city below Boston, all to uncover the shocking truth. At any cost, Grimsby must stop this ritual from finally being completed. Yet the cost may be paid not by himself but by his friends...."

An Urban Fantasy to fill my Peter Grant void.

The Witch of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The multimillion-copy bestselling story of Wicked comes full circle in The Witch of Maracoor, the final installment of Gregory Maguire's Another Day series.

Following a confrontation with her reclusive great-grandfather, the one-time Wizard of Oz, Rainary Ko - the granddaughter of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West - has re-upped in a mission to settle a few scores and right a wrong or two. Her memory and her passions reviving, Rain turns her gaze back to her native Oz. Though the Grimmerie, which she had cast into the sea, retains its arcane power over her, the lover she left behind in Oz proves no less haunting. Traveling companions and arrivistes can befuddle a young witch coming into her own, but Rain marshals a steely determination to stare her troubles in the eye and see who blinks first.

In the Another Day cycle, a lost young woman grows through a cautious adolescence into an adult state of fervor and daring. Enchantment imprisons and it also liberates. Pay heed, pay respect, but above all, pay attention."

I love that Wicked has "continued" in this new trilogy.

The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Alexandra Christo, the author of To Kill a Kingdom, comes The Night Hunt, a dark fantasy romance about a monstrous girl who feeds on fear and the Gods-cursed boy who falls in love with her.

Atia is a monster who feeds on fear. As the last of her kind, she hides in the shadows of the world to escape the wrath of the unpredictable Gods. Silas is a Herald, carrying messages and ferrying the dead as punishment for a past he can't remember. Stripped of his true name, he yearns to recover his identity.

Atia would never dream of allying with someone like him, but when she breaks a sacred law and the Gods send monsters to hunt her, Silas offers an irresistible deal: he'll help avenge her family and take on the Gods who now hunt her, if she helps him break his curse and restore his humanity. All they need to do is kill three powerful creatures: a vampire, a banshee, and one of the very Gods who destroyed both their lives. Only together can they finally rewrite their destinies."

Because why not kill a God?

The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen
Published by: AThomas and Mercer
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 332 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this ingenious and subversive twist on the classic Gothic novel, the mysterious past of an island mansion lures two sisters into a spiderweb of scandal, secrets, and murder.

Two sisters, strangers since birth yet bound by family secrets, are caught up in a century-old mystery on an isolated island.

After arriving on Block Island to find her birth mother, Blake Bronson becomes convinced she's the heroine of a Gothic novel - the kind that allowed her intermittent escape from a traumatic childhood. How else to explain the torrential rain, the salt-worn mansion known as White Hall, and the restless ghost purported to haunt its halls? But before Blake can discern the novel's ending, she's found dead, murdered in a claw-foot tub. The proprietress of White Hall stands accused.

Summoned by a letter sent from Blake before she died, Thalia Mills returns to the island she swore she'd left for good. She finds that Blake wasn't the first to die at White Hall under suspicious circumstances. Thalia must uncover the real reason for Blake's demise before the forces conspiring to keep Block Island's secrets dead and buried rise up to consume her too."

Who hasn't convinced themselves that they are the star of their own Gothic novel? Hopefully it ended better though...

Bluebeard's Castle by Anna Biller
Published by: Verso
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Charles Perrault's Bluebeard gets a feminist Gothic makeover in this subversive take on the famous French fairy tale - from the filmmaker behind the cult film, The Love Witch, and for fans of Jane Eyre.

Judith is a successful novelist, but she's a little sensitive. She's from a good family, even if that family favors her more beautiful sister. She loves a drink (or 3) but isn't sure if she loves the handsome doctor who is courting her. She yearns for a romance to yield to but remains a virgin. Judith receives visions from the saints.

Then Judith meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, at a wedding on the Cornish coast. His love transforms her from a plain, lonely girl into a beautiful, glamorous woman overnight.

After a whirlwind honeymoon in Paris, he whisks her away to a Gothic castle in the countryside. But soon her perfect marriage begins to fall apart and she finds herself trapped in a nightmare, as her husband's mysterious nature, and his alternation of charm and violence, become more and more confusing and frightening. And then there are those whispers amongst the staff, unsettling rumors from London, and strange rattlings from the crypt...

From the visionary filmmaker of The Love Witch, this is a modern Gothic feminist take on the classic folktale Bluebeard."

This cover wins this Halloween season. There really is no other competition, I mean, look at it?

Final Acts edited by Martin Edwards
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""... and what a motive! Murder to save one's artistic soul... who'd believe that?"

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing...

This expertly curated thespian anthology features fourteen stories from giants of the classic crime genre such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Julian Symons and Ngaio Marsh, as well as firm favourites from the British Library Crime Classics series: Anthony Wynne, Christianna Brand, Bernard J. Farmer and many more.

Mysteries abound when a player's fate hangs on a single performance, and opening night may very well be their last."

Big props for using the arrival of the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute for the cover.

The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen
Published by: Forge
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Bell in the Fog, a dazzling historical mystery by Lev A.C. Rosen, asks - once you have finally found a family, how far would you go to prove yourself to them?

San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander "Andy" Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective - but his business hasn't exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help.

When James, an old flame from the war who had mysteriously disappeared, arrives in his offices above the Ruby, Andy wants to kick him out. But the job seems to be a simple case of blackmail, and Andy's debts are piling up. He agrees to investigate, despite everything it stirs up.

The case will take him back to the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, and then out into the gay bars of the city, where the past rises up to meet him, like the swell of the ocean under a warship. Missing people, violent strangers, and scandalous photos that could destroy lives are a whirlpool around him, and Andy better make sense of it all before someone pulls him under for good."

San Francisco fog and a PI, my perfect night in.

The Socialite's Guide to Death and Dating by S.K. Golden
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver, the second Pinnacle Hotel mystery finds another murder that strikes too close to home, and hotel heiress Evelyn Murphy knows she's the only one who can save the hotel before it's lights out.

New York, 1958. Even though Evelyn Murphy has made progress conquering her agoraphobia by leaving the Pinnacle, she still feels most comfortable in her father's hotel. With Malcolm Cooper, her new boyfriend and fellow employee at the hotel, Evelyn feels prepared for whatever happens next. In this case, it's throwing a big fundraiser with the who's who of New York City.

The night is a success, and Evelyn finally takes up Malcolm's offer to finally visit his apartment in Yonkers. As the party ends, they sneak away to the garage to get Evelyn's car. But Evelyn's always been good at finding things, and she discovers the dead body of a guest, Judge Baker, in a car - with a needle in his arm.

Detective Hodgson and his new partner, Detective McJimsey, arrive on the scene, but before they can begin to question Evelyn, they are startled by another mysterious discovery: there's a woman in the trunk of the car, and she screams as soon as she sees Evelyn's face. Tangled up in the police investigation, Evelyn's got another problem, too - her father insists she break off her relationship with Mac. The next day, her father is found attacked just like the judge, only this time the detectives find a dead woman nearby.

With Mac accused of the attacks and in police custody, Evelyn will have to find the killer on her own before she's checked out of the hotel - this time, for good."

I think there's a slight difference between being good at finding things a stumbling upon corpses...

Hitchcock's Blondes by Laurence Leamer
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bestselling author of Capote's Women Laurence Leamer shares an engrossing account of the enigmatic director Alfred Hitchcock that finally puts the dazzling actresses he cast in his legendary movies at the center of the story.

Alfred Hitchcock was fixated - not just on the dark, twisty stories that became his hallmark, but also by the blond actresses who starred in many of his iconic movies. The director of North by Northwest, Rear Window, and other classic films didn't much care if they wore wigs, got their hair coloring out of a bottle, or were the rarest human specimen - a natural blonde - as long as they shone with a golden veneer on camera. The lengths he went to in order to showcase (and often manipulate) these women would become the stuff of movie legend. But the women themselves have rarely been at the center of the story, until now.

In Hitchcock's Blondes, bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer offers an intimate journey into the lives of eight legendary actresses whose stories helped chart the course of the troubled, talented director's career - from his early days in the British film industry, to his triumphant American debut, to his Hollywood heyday and beyond. Through the stories of June Howard-Tripp, Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Tippi Hedren - who starred in fourteen of Hitchcock's most notable films and who bore the brunt of his fondness and sometimes fixation - we can finally start to see the enigmatic man himself. After all, "his" blondes (as he thought of them) knew the truths of his art, his obsessions and desires, as well as anyone.

From the acclaimed author of Capote's Women comes an intimate, revealing, and thoroughly modern look at both the enduring art created by a man obsessed...and the private toll that fixation took on the women in his orbit."

Yes, but still trying to understand him through them makes it about him not them...

Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The terrifying sequel to the acclaimed New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel Chasing the Boogeyman, which was hailed as "genuinely chilling and something brand-new and exciting" (Stephen King) and "unforgettable" (Harlan Coben).

A riveting, haunting sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller Chasing the Boogeyman - a tale of obsession and the adulation of evil, exploring modern society's true-crime obsession with unflinching honesty, sparing no one from the glare of the spotlight. Will those involved walk away from the story of a lifetime in order to keep their loved ones safe? Or will they once again be drawn into a killer's web? As the story draws to its shattering conclusion, only one person holds all the answers - and he just may be the most terrifying monster of them all."

Always here for a true-crime obsession.

Here, and Only Here by Christelle Dabos
Published by: Europa Editions
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 200 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The new novel from the million-copy bestselling author of The Mirror Visitor Quartet.

Welcome to the School of Here, an unsettling and peculiar place that is nonetheless familiar to us all. A place full of codes and unspoken rules that are passed down from year to year.

At Here, society is highly stratified, the pairs, friend groups, and outcasts are all ruled by a godlike prince. This year - as all other years - things are not at all as they seem. A self-effacing first-year student vanishes into thin air. A persecuted outsider delivers himself into permanent exile. A tyrannical upperclassman meets his match. A newly-minted prophetess tests her powers. And, behind the scenes, a cabal of students conducts a top-secret investigation into the unexplained phenomenon at the heart of it all. Back to school season marks the start of a time-honored cycle of revolution and rebirth in which each must play their part.

With Here, and Only Here, Christelle Dabos - author of the international sensation The Mirror Visitor Quartet - gives readers an intriguing and penetrating novel that explores the difficulties of fitting in and the private, individual choices that make up the sometimes abhorrent, always unpredictable Collective."

You really need to read it to understand.

Alice Atherton's Grand Tour by Lesley M.M. Blume
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The heartwarming story of a young girl sent to live with the extraordinary Murphy Family in southern France.

Ten-year-old Alice Atherton is sent by her father to spend the summer with his dear friends the Murphys who live with their three children and pet monkey in the French Riveria. There, Alice will meet and learn from some of the most extraordinary luminaries of the time. She visits a junk yard with Pablo Picasso looking for objects to make into art, performs a dance inspired by celestial bodies with the renowned Ballet Russes, and imagines magical adventures with Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

An uplifting story that will appeal to readers who love books by authors like Kate DiCamillo and Jeanne Birdsall"

And will really appeal to lovers of The Durrells!

The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella
Published by: Dial Press
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sparks fly in this delightful novel about two burned out professionals who meet at a ramshackle resort on the British seaside - from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher.

She can do anything...just not everything.

Sasha has had it. She cannot bring herself to respond to another inane, "urgent" (but obviously not at all urgent) email or participate in the corporate employee joyfulness program. She hasn't seen her friends in months. Sex? Seems like a lot of effort. Even cooking dinner takes far too much planning. Sasha has hit a wall.

Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it's the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other occupant: a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he's sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout (Sasha: manifesting, wild swimming; Finn: drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach).

When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk - about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them - flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion - signify?"

Might I suggest taking a mental health day because you, yourself, are burned out and read this book...

A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
Published by: Avon Books
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An actress and a perpetually single former boy-band member are reunited as costars on a steamy holiday film in this all new spicy rom-com by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, bestselling coauthors of A Merry Little Meet Cute.

Kallum Lieberman is the funny one(TM). As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He's living his best dad bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends' weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he's ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.

Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. Hell, she even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself - and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?

With decade old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars...especially Winnie who can't seem to fake on screen pleasure she's never experienced in real life. She's willing to do the pleasure research - for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there's no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum's teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.

They say opposites attract, but is this holly jolly ever after really ready for its close-up?"

I mean would the "Hope" Channel really do basically Satan Porn? Oh who cares, just embrace the pleasure.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht
Published by: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: October 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 72 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Bill Watterson, bestselling creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and John Kascht, one of America's most renowned caricaturists, comes a mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding.

In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate - a mysterious process in its own right."

Ever since it was announced that Bill Watterson was doing an adult book I have been impatiently awaiting it's arrival. Well it's here, today's the day!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Christo, Cassandra Clare, Gregory Maguire, Hitchcock, James J. Butcher, Julie Murphy, Lev A.C. Rosen, Martin Edwards, Richard Chizmar, S.K. Golden, Sierra Simone, Sophie Kinsella, Terry Pratchett

The Space Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man.

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She's traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling - and keep the real killer from striking again."

Even when money is short, Mary Robinette Kowal is a must buy, no matter what genre the book is in. But space service Asta? Need I really say more?

Dead Man's Hand by James J. Butcher
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the tradition of his renowned father, James J. Butcher's debut novel is a brilliant urban fantasy about a young man who must throw out the magical rule book to solve the murder of his former mentor.

On the streets of Boston, the world is divided into the ordinary Usuals, and the paranormal Unorthodox. And in the Department of Unorthodox Affairs, the Auditors are the magical elite, government-sanctioned witches with spells at their command and all the power and prestige that comes with it. Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby is…not one of those witches.

After flunking out of the Auditor training program and being dismissed as "not Department material," Grimsby tried to resign himself to life as a mediocre witch. But he can’t help hoping he’ll somehow, someway, get another chance to prove his skill. That opportunity comes with a price when his former mentor, aka the most dangerous witch alive, is murdered down the street from where he works, and Grimsby is the Auditors’ number one suspect.

Proving his innocence will require more than a little legwork, and after forming a strange alliance with the retired legend known as the Huntsman and a mysterious being from Elsewhere, Grimsby is abruptly thrown into a life of adventure, whether he wants it or not. Now all he has to do is find the real killer, avoid the Auditors on his trail, and most importantly, stay alive."

Talent AND really good cover art run in the family.

1989 by Val McDermid
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the new installment to her historical crime series that began with 1979, internationally bestselling author Val McDermid delivers a propulsive new thriller that finds journalist Allie Burns has become an editor, and as the Cold War and AIDS crisis deliver a nonstop tide of news, most of it bad, a story falls into her lap. And then there's a murder.

Hailed as Britain's Queen of Crime, Val McDermid's award-winning, internationally bestselling novels have captivated readers for more than thirty years. In her Allie Burns series, she returns to the past - both ours and in some ways her own - with the story of a female journalist whose stories lead her into world of corruption, terror, and murder.

It's 1989 and Allie Burns is back. Older and maybe wiser, she's running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there's plenty to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service for the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction. The world of newspapers is undergoing a revolution, there's skullduggery in the medical research labs and there are seismic rumblings behind the Iron Curtain. When murder is added to this potent mix, Allie is forced to question all her old certainties.

Readers are having a great time time-traveling with Val, and 1989 is a seamless, riveting novel that brings us once again face to face with how very much past is prologue, and how history's sins stay with us."

What I love most about this series is that it's crime solving when it was still really compelling, not all tied into gadgets.

The Socialite's Guide to Murder by S.K. Golden
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The hotel was her refuge, but scandal is afoot - and a killer stalks the halls in this charming series debut perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Ashley Weaver.

It's 1958 and Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy has not left the Pinnacle Hotel in fourteen months. She suffers from agoraphobia, and what's more, it's her father's hotel, and everything she needs is there. Evelyn's always been good at finding things, she discovered her mother dead in a Manhattan alleyway fifteen years earlier. Now she's finding trouble inside her sanctuary. At a party for artist Billie Bell, his newest work is stolen, and Evelyn's fake boyfriend (and real best friend), movie star Henry Fox, is accused of the theft. But just as Evelyn sets out to prove Henry's innocence, she finds Billie Bell dead.

The murder weapon links the crime to the hotel's chief of security. But why would he use a knife with his initials on the handle? With her beloved home in disarray, Evelyn joins up with hotel employee (and her secret crush) Mac Cooper to get to the bottom of the case.

As Mac picks locks and Evelyn snoops around the hotel, they discover the walls around them contain more secrets than they previously knew. Now, Evelyn must force herself to leave the hotel to follow the clues - but when she and Mac set off to chase a lead, their car crashes and they barely escape with their lives. Someone snipped Evelyn's brake lines, and now the stakes have become dangerously high.

Evelyn's knack for sleuthing - and her playful imagination - are always hard at work, and she throws an elaborate party at the hotel where every guest is a suspect. But will the killer emerge from the glamorous lineup? If not, Evelyn just might find herself…next in line for murder."

I really have a thing for murders at hotels.

The Dark Between the Trees by Fiona Barnett
Published by: Solaris
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An unforgettable, surrealist gothic folk-thriller with commercial crossover appeal from a brilliant new voice.

1643: A small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated part of Northern England. Their only hope for survival is to flee into the nearby Moresby Wood...unwise though that may seem. For Moresby Wood is known to be an unnatural place, the realm of witchcraft and shadows, where the devil is said to go walking by moonlight...

Seventeen men enter the wood. Only two are ever seen again, and the stories they tell of what happened make no sense. Stories of shifting landscapes, of trees that appear and disappear at will...and of something else. Something dark. Something hungry.

Today, five women are headed into Moresby Wood to discover, once and for all, what happened to that unfortunate group of soldiers. Led by Dr Alice Christopher, an historian who has devoted her entire academic career to uncovering the secrets of Moresby Wood. Armed with metal detectors, GPS units, mobile phones and the most recent map of the area (which is nearly 50 years old), Dr Christopher's group enters the wood ready for anything.

Or so they think."

Folkloric Annihilation.

The Premonition at Withers Farm by Jaime Jo Wright
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In 1910 Michigan, Perliett VanHilton is a self-proclaimed rural healer, leaving the local doctor, George Wasziak, convinced she practices quackery. It doesn't help that her mother, Maribeth VanHilton, is a Spiritualist who regularly offers her services to help others speak to their dearly departed. But when Perliett is targeted by a superstitious killer, she relies on both George and an intriguing newcomer for help.

In the present day, life has not developed the way Molly Wasziak dreamed. Facing depression after multiple miscarriages, Molly is adapting to her husband's purchase of a new farm. A search for a family tree pulls Molly deep into a vintage web of deceptions, made more mysterious by the disturbing shadows and sounds in the old farmhouse.

Perliett fights for her life, and Molly seeks renewed purpose for hers as she uncovers the records of the dead. Will their voices be heard, or will time silence their truths forever?"

Say it with me: Spiritualists!

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Andy Davidson's epic horror novel about the spectacular decline of the Redfern family, haunted by an ancient evil.

Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate. She throws everything she can think of in a bag and flees to Georgia with her eleven-year-old son, Max, in tow.

It turns out that the "estate" is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest, but Nellie is thrilled about the chance for a fresh start for her and Max, and a chance for the happy home she never had. So it takes her a while to notice the strange scratching in the walls, the faint whispering at night, how the forest is eerily quiet. But Max sees what his mother can't: They're no safer here than they had been in South Carolina. In fact, things might even be worse. There's something wrong with Redfern Hill. Something lurks beneath the soil, ancient and hungry, with the power to corrupt hearts and destroy souls. It is the true legacy of Redfern Hill: a kingdom of grief and death, to which Nellie's own blood has granted her the key.

From the author of The Boatman's Daughter, The Hollow Kind is a jaw-dropping novel about legacy and the horrors that hide in the dark corners of family history. Andy Davidson's gorgeous, Gothic fable tracing the spectacular fall of the Redfern family will haunt you long after you turn the final page."

A family inheritance of Gothic horror? Yes please!

Little Eve by Catriona Ward
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Catriona Ward, the international bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street comes Little Eve, a heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist.

Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel.

"A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away."

On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.

The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.

A reckoning beyond Eve's imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.

And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered."

Shades of The Wicker Man anyone?

The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton
Published by: Head of Zeus
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Disturbing. Original. Terrifying. The 'master of horror' is back with the chilling tale of what lurks in the walls of an abandoned hospital.

Those who walk their dogs along the Sussex coastline in the morning might wander past St Rosalia's Hospital, and wonder what happens inside the large, mysterious Victorian building that overlooks the sea. Until recently, the hospital was run by one doctor with a total of 15 patients, all of whom were terminally ill. The epidemiologist Dr Vincent Grayling was a pioneering practitioner for his radical belief that old medicinal practices should not be so-readily dismissed. But the doctor recently passed away, and so the building was sold to John and Petulia Pearson, hoteliers from Dorset.

At first, the couple are brimming with excitement for their seaside hotel. But before long, they start to hear coughs and groans in the middle of the night. And when they discover Grayling's medical notes, it becomes clear that the noises are not in their head..."

Places I would never stay but want to read about, old abandoned hospitals.

The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.

Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.

For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she’s on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can't spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins - she proposes to Captain Blunt.

In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride - and to read - as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes..."

A girl with dreams I totally relate to!

To Capture His Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen
Published by: Shadow Mountain
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Seaside, England, 1886.

Eva Caldwell is an accomplished and well-known photographer who often works with the local constabulary to assist in documenting crime scenes, which means she also often works alongside the handsome and charming detective, Nathan Winston. She appreciates his intellect and how he treats her like an equal, but Eva's heart is still healing from a past relationship, so, for now, she decides to keep her feelings for Nathan a secret.

One evening, Nathan arrives on her doorstep asking for a personal favor. Would Eva be available to photograph his mother's legendary, week-long dinner party and matchmaking event? The catch is that Eva would also have to pretend they are courting in order for Nathan to avoid the many single women seeking his attention.

Though wary of the charade, Eva agrees. Spending a week with the two things she loves most - her detective and her camera - sounds simple enough. And if she wants to imagine that Nathan's pretend courtship of her is real, well, what's the harm in that?

But when a criminal from Nathan's past threatens revenge on the detective, Nathan must be extra vigilant to keep his mother and the rest of the partygoers safe. He confides in Eva, and as the two work together to solve the mystery and apprehend the criminal, they find that they might capture more than they expected - each other's heart."

Bridgerton meets Miss Scarlet and the Duke! 

The Secrets of Summer House by Rachel Burton
Published by: Aria
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"1976. Rushing out of the University Library, undergraduate Alice Kenzie bumps straight into PhD student Tristan Somers. There begins a whirlwind romance, and Alice falls pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Then Tristan is killed in a car accident. Unable to cope, Alice takes her baby to Summer House, Tristan's family home in Suffolk, leaves her there and disappears.

2018. Olivia Somers has always been told that her mother died in the same accident as her father. But when she finds a bundle of old letters in Summer House, everything she ever believed about her mother is called into question. Can she find her  - and even more importantly, forgive her?"

Family secrets that sound a lot like an episode of Inspector Morse. I'm in!

The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night Book 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Published by: Abrams ComicArts
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The first volume in a new graphic novel horror trilogy from Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda - the creative team behind the New York Times bestselling series Monstress.

Chinese American twins, Milly and Billy, are having a tough time. On top of the multiple failures in their personal and professional lives, they’re struggling to keep their restaurant afloat. Luckily their parents, Ipo and Keon, are in town for their annual visit. Having immigrated from Hong Kong before the twins were born, Ipo and Keon have supported their children through thick and thin and are ready to lend a hand - but they're starting to wonder, has their support made Milly and Billy incapable of standing on their own?

When Ipo forces them to help her clean up the house next door - a hellish and run-down ruin that was the scene of a grisly murder - the twins are in for a nasty surprise. A night of terror, gore, and supernatural mayhem reveals that there is much more to Ipo and her children than meets the eye.

Eisner Award–winning and bestselling author Marjorie Liu and illustrator Sana Takeda have crafted a wild and wicked tale that will leave readers hungry for more. She Eats the Night is the perfect start to The Night Eaters trilogy, which is a combination of Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith and Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan."

Even if the story didn't sound amazing, the talent of Marjorie Lie and Sana Takeda would make it so!

Joe Golem Occult Detective by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 536 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Joe Golem is an occult detective...and so much more.

In an alternate, half-submerged version of Manhattan, Joe Golem uncovers the truth behind strange and occult happenings that threaten the city’s inhabitants. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all is his own past. Fight demonic rats, pursue forbidden knowledge, and much more as Joe and his compatriots tackle the supernatural together.

Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden bring us a heartfelt and harrowing saga that combines hardboiled detective with emotional drama and lots of magic and mystery! Featuring art by Patric Reynolds and Peter Bergting with colors by Dave Stewart and Michelle Madsen.

Collects Joe Golem: Occult Detective Volumes 1–4."

Who loves Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden collaborations? Is it me!?! Yes it is!

The Oracle of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 11th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Multimillion-copy bestselling author Gregory Maguire brings us the enchanting second novel in the series Another Day, returning to the world he first created in Wicked.

The Oracle of Maracoor, the second in the trilogy called Another Day, continues the story of Elphaba’s green-skinned granddaughter, Rain. That strange land, Maracoor - across the ocean from Oz - is beset by an invading army. In the mayhem, Rain and Cossy, a child felon, break out of prison. Helped by a few flying monkeys, they struggle to escape the city before it falls under siege. Their arresting officer, Lucikles, also retreats with his family to a highland redoubt. But safety eludes them all. Chaos thunders upon them in the form of warriors, refugees, and brigands. The very fabric of reality loosens, liberating creatures of myth and legend - huge blue wolves, harpies, and giants made of the very landscape.

Cued in by secrets known only to the most highly placed members of the royal court, Rain and her companions hunt the fabled Oracle of Maracoor for guidance and soothsaying. Rain has to recover her forgotten past if she is to consider returning home. Cossy, the ten-year-old convicted of murder, must become invisible to avoid being taken into custody again. Meanwhile, the Fist of Mara, an arcane artifact that renders all around it barren, hammers against human lives. If the reclusive Oracle should spin a prophecy, might the desperate wicked years promise another day, one less perilous?"

The only thing I object to is that Gregory Maguire reinterpreted and expanded this world of Oz, he didn't create it. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Catriona Ward, Christopher Golden, Gregory Maguire, Jaime Jo Wright, James J. Butcher, Marjorie Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mike Mignola, Mimi Matthews, Nancy Campbell Allen, S.K. Golden, Val McDermid