strange and random happenstance

You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper
Published by: Ten Speed Press
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
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The official patter:
"November 1933. London. Seven people receive mysterious letters. Someone knows their terrible secrets. They are summoned to a posh townhouse where one is stabbed right in front of the others, but somehow no one saw a thing. Can you help Scotland Yard solve the mystery?

A "delightfully witty interactive mystery packed with theatrical characters and exciting twists" (G.T. Karber, author of Murdle) from the bestselling author and illustrator of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village.

Dear Detective,

Surely you have seen the papers and read about the dreadful murder of the American novelist - stabbed while in a room with six other people, and yet no one went near him or saw the murder occur. The crime is so devious, so logistically impossible, that it seems to have been committed not by a person but by a disembodied hand.

I must confess that we are at a loss. Who wrote the poison pen letters that lured these seven people to this deadly gathering? A poet, an earl, an actress, a cook, a telephone operator, and a lothario... What do they have in common? And how could a man be stabbed in a room full of suspects, even though no one went near him or saw a thing?

We have had our best people on the case, Detective, and we still can't make heads or tails of it. We are giving this case file to you. Can you decipher the clues, decode the witness statements, and identify the murderer? You are our last hope. Can you help us crack the Creeping Hand Murder?

Yours truly,
Detective Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police"

Follow the facts, not the motive.

Matching Minds with Sondheim by Barry Joseph
Published by: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
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The official patter:
"By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation - celebrated, among other things, for the wit, sophistication, and intricacy of shows from West Side Story to Sunday in the Park with George. But a less well-known avenue for his brilliance was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games, from treasure hunts to crosswords to parlor and board games.

Matching Minds with Sondheim is a journey into this rich but largely unmapped aspect of the composer's creative life, illuminating how Sondheim's playful designs delivered moments of clarity and connection for friends, colleagues, and anyone who's ever been captivated by his genius. This book opens, for the first time, the door into what Sondheim called his "puzzler's mind," helping readers to better understand the man, his work, and - if they accept the challenge - themselves. Gaming expert Barry Joseph draws from over eighty years of Sondheim's activities, including extremely rare and never-publicly-seen puzzles and game designs, scores of original interviews with the celebrity friends who played them, archival deep dives, and illuminating analysis from both puzzle designers and theater professionals from around the world. Packed with illustrations and insights, this book does more than describe Sondheim's life in puzzles: It allows readers to match minds with the maestro by attempting to solve his puzzles and bring Sondheimian games into their own homes."

If you've watched The Last of Sheila, you know how Sondheim loved to craft a conundrum. Even if that conundrum is they lined the people up in the wrong order next to the boat. I will never get over that. 

A Murderous Business by Cathy Pegau
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
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The official patter:
"A sharp, captivating historical mystery about two queer women in turn-of-the-century New York, for fans of Lavender House and A Most Agreeable Murder.

There can be a blurry line between what is ethical and what is legal.

Margot Baxter Harriman took the reins of B and H Foods after her father passed. It's not easy being a business woman in 1912, but she is determined to continue what her grandparents started decades ago, no matter what it takes.

So when Margot finds Mrs. Gilroy, her father's former assistant, dead in the office with a half-finished note confessing to nebulous misdeeds at B and H, she seeks out help from a very discreet, private investigator to figure out what's going on. Her company, and her good name, are at stake if scandal breaks...and she could lose everything, including her freedom.

Loretta "Rett" Mancini has run her father's investigation operation since he started becoming increasingly forgetful. When Margot offers her the chance to look into the potential scandal with B and H, she jumps at it.

But the more the two dig in, the more it becomes clear that Margot's company may be too far lost...and someone is willing to kill them both to keep things quiet.

Charming and witty, Cathy Pegau's A Murderous Business is perfect for fans of Lev A.C. Rosen, Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer, and the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney mysteries by Claudia Gray."

If you lose your company but gain love, can you really call that losing? 

The Cut of the Moon by Cynthia Ellingsen
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 395 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A startling mystery and a longing for love link two women, a century apart, in a haunting novel about family secrets by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lost Letters of Aisling.

Jewelry designer Lindsey McKenna is thrilled to be working at an antique exhibit at a local landmark that has been her obsession: the Wind Thorne estate. During the 1920s, it roared. Until an unsolved murder shadowed its legacy. Today, restored as a museum, Wind Thorne draws crowds of visitors to upstate New York. When one of them approaches Lindsey with an old diary, Lindsey is drawn deeper into Wind Thorne's storied past.

It's 1925 when young Ruby Thornhill steals her beloved sister's engagement ring - a naive but heartfelt attempt to stall her upcoming wedding, which Ruby fears will tear the siblings apart. What the theft triggers thrusts Ruby into danger, and with it comes the realization that Wind Thorne is home to potentially inescapable secrets.

Aided by a charming gemologist, Lindsey gradually uncovers Wind Thorne's history - and to her surprise, her own history as well. Now two young women, nearly a century apart, are righting the wrongs of their family and putting the past, and all its heartbreaking mysteries, to rest."

Stealing a ring is a bit risky. It's a pricey item that can trigger extreme reactions...

A Very Bookish Murder by Dee MacDonald
Published by: Bookouture
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 271 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome back to the tiny Highland village of Locharran, where Ally McKinley - guesthouse owner and accidental detective - is about to stumble upon another dead body...and her next case.

When Ally McKinley hears that well-known novelist Jodi Jones is going to host a writers' retreat at the hotel just down the road, she's delighted to offer rooms at her little guesthouse for some of the attendees. Ally is thrilled to join the group for one of their first sessions - but the retreat has barely begun before she finds the famous writer strangled in the ladies' bathroom!

The cake tin and teapot come out at the little guesthouse in the Highlands as Ally begins to question her bookish guests. Accusations of plagiarism and infidelity start flying and it's clear that more than one of the retreat attendees had a grudge against Jodi. But could any of them have resorted to murder?

When Ally discovers a diary in Jodi's bedroom at the guesthouse with several pages ripped out of it, she thinks she's close to cracking the case. But the plot thickens when another of the aspiring writers is found dead, only hours after she said she knew the identity of Jodi's killer.

Not only is the murderer still in Locharran, they're desperate to stop Ally getting to the truth. With her faithful puppy Flora by her side, can Ally unravel the clues and solve the mystery before she's written out of the story for good?

A totally gripping and bookish cozy mystery set in the Scottish Highlands from bestselling author Dee MacDonald. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Clare Chase."

I mean, who doesn't love reading about writing retreats with an extra murderous treat?

Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
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The official patter:
"The new cozy crime novel from the bestselling author of The Marlow Murder Club, soon to be a major TV series on PBS Masterpiece.

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn't come home last night, so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow's resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver's body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him. It's time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated chap with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn't short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they'll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case - otherwise a killer will walk free..."

Soon to be a TV series? Then what have I been watching for the last two years? Someone needs to update their copy.

The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dinner party in a beautiful Notting Hill townhouse turns into a sinister game as six old friends are forced to spill their darkest secrets...or else.

Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor that brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing.

But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game. The old friends are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one-by-one.

It soon becomes clear that their current predicament is related to their shared past. The love questionnaire they helped develop in 1999 for the dating site was also turned into a tool for weeding out psychopaths: The Wasp Trap. This experiment and the other tragic events of that summer long ago may help reveal the truth behind a killer hiding in plain sight.

Alternating between the past and present with a colorful ensemble of characters, The Wasp Trap is a fast-paced and twisty thrill ride that is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Alice Feeney."

In high school we did a early dating profile cupid thing, about three years before this book is set. That caused absolute chaos. I can only imagine this will be the same. 

The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A shocking murder in the New Zealand bush - and the witness who looks all too familiar - draws a woman back to the very place she swore she'd never return to in this breakneck debut thriller.

A child who ran from the forest.
A woman who must return to it.

Growing up with her younger siblings in the unforgiving New Zealand bush, Effie believed their parents had cut them off from civilization because they loved Nature. She never suspected that their reasons might be more menacing. After witnessing a terrifying episode of violence, she escaped the wilderness to forge a life for herself halfway across the globe.

Now, when she learns the only witness to a murder is a little girl who looks just like her, Effie is compelled to return to the scene of her troubled childhood, where the secrets of her upbringing and the terrors of her past come rushing back to the surface. In order to find out once and for all what became of her family - and possibly help this mysterious girl who could be her younger self - Effie must face her greatest fears once more."

For fans of Top of the Lake. 

Extremity by Nicholas Binge
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A time-traveling, end-of-the-world police procedural, Extremity is True Detective if written by Philip K. Dick.

When once-renowned police detective Julia Torgrimsen is brought out of forced retirement to investigate the murder of Bruno Donaldson, a billionaire she worked with whilst undercover, she doesn't expect to find two bodies. Both are Bruno - identical down to the fingerprints - and both have been shot.

As the investigation sucks her back into the macabre world of London's rich elite, she finds herself on the hunt for a mysterious assassin who has been taking out the wealthy one by one. But when she finally catches up with her quarry, she unveils an entire world of secrets: impossible documents about future stock market crashes, photographs of dead clones, and a clandestine time-travelling conspiracy so insidious it might just mean the extinction of the entire human race.

If Julia is to have any chance of preventing this terrible future, she'll have to revisit her own past, the terrible choices she made undercover, and the brutal act that destroyed her once legendary career."

Oh so Philip K. Dick, with a little Altered Carbon thrown in. 

When We Spoke to the Dead by Ilise S. Carter
Published by: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ghosts spoke. Women listened. Everything changed.

It began with whispers in a dimly lit room. In the 1840s, the Fox Sisters - and the legions of mediums they inspired - ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn't merely a parlor trick: It was a political statement, a declaration of self that still echoes. Séances attracted suffragists and scientists, skeptics and charlatans, giving women a voice in a society that often refused to hear them. But as Spiritualism surged, it also blurred the lines between faith, fraud, feminism, and financial opportunity, drawing figures as varied as Harry Houdini, Victoria Woodhull, and even modern self-help gurus into its ever-expanding orbit.

From wartime séances to the rise of televangelists, from Victorian ghosts to goop-approved wellness rituals, When We Spoke to the Dead unearths the forgotten roots of today's obsession with manifestation, mysticism, and the power of belief. Exploring America's deep-seated hunger for the unseen - whether through politics, personal empowerment, or grief - this book traces how the supernatural, once condemned as heresy, became the ultimate commodity.

Step inside the séance room. The spirits have been waiting."

Such an interesting angle to take on Spiritualism. It makes it more empowerment than exploitation. 

The Ghost of Merry Hall by Heather Davey
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling ghost story in which a mother and daughter move into a crumbling house haunted by the ghost of a girl who performed in Victorian freak shows, through which wind whistles eerily, floorboards creak ominously and things go bump in the night. Ideal for fans of Laura Purcell.

In 2025, following the break-up of her marriage, cash-strapped single mother Nell moves into the crumbling Merry Hall with her teenage daughter, Fern, to housesit for its evasive owner. She's determined to make a new life in the gloomy Victorian mansion but the noises, moving objects and strange smells in her new home make her increasingly unsettled.

In the 1840s, showman Abel Wenham seduces Dolly, a talented albino girl and makes her the star of his performing collection of freaks. But after she becomes pregnant with his child, he discards her and imprisons her at Merry Hall, where her only solace is the company of fellow performers Ida the Bear Lady and the Jack the Posturer. They plan to escape with Dolly and her child and set up in business, but Wenham has other ideas.

Is Dolly, just one of the ghosts that haunt Merry Hall, reaching out across the centuries to right the wrongs of the past?"

I needed a book to tide me over until the new Laura Purcell comes out next month!

The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Scottish governess arrives in Singapore to take up her new post, only to find a host of problems await that require her very unique skills in this award-winning and incredibly entertaining historical fantasy novel.

There has never yet been a crisis that Miss Leda Cassidy hasn't been able to fix, be it a lovelorn young charge, perpetually distracted students, or an unruly and malevolent ghost. When she arrives at her new employer's home and discovers the family is being terrorized by a vampiric spirit, she sets about righting the situation without delay.

But it seems that as soon as she puts one supernatural creature to rest, another appears to take its place. A woman's work is truly never done, is it?

When she meets Mr. Kay, a widower whose greatest worry appears to be making matches for his twin daughters, she is happy to take a post that might provide her a bit of respite from her more "spirited" friends. But she soon realizes that the Kays are in far more trouble than she realized - and that her presence in their home might have put the family she's grown to cherish in even more jeopardy. Will she be able to save them all before it's too late, or has she finally stumbled upon the one problem she isn't able to solve?"

Marry Poppins meets Supernatural! 

The Curious Case of the Midnight Specter by Moriah Chavis
Published by: Twenty Hills Publishing
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: eBook, 294 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"She can see ghosts, but can she catch a killer?

Stornshire, England - 1890

Leighanna Pauley barely escaped consumption. Now, she's claimed by both Life and Death. Fascinated by justice and why she survived when so many others haven't, she has a new obsession: the murder of a fellow socialite. But the police have no leads.

The investigation emboldens Leighanna to attend the first ball held at the Carmine Estate. When midnight strikes, the unimaginable takes place. Time stops for everyone but Leighanna. Before her stands the ghost of the dead girl, pleading with Leighanna to catch her killer before someone else is murdered.

In a race against time, Leighanna hunts for clues across Stornshire. Will she be able to solve the case before the murderer strikes again, or will she become just another forgotten victim?"

Coming so close to death has to have some benefit, too bad it's that Leighanna now has to solve crimes for the dead...

Livingston Girls by Briana Morgan
Published by: Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Kindle, 265 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"There's a place for troublesome teenage girls: Livingston Academy. When 16-year-old Rose's relationship with her English teacher is exposed, her community mourns his reputation, and she's the one banished to boarding school.

Ashamed and hoping to keep her past under wraps, Rose is surprised to learn she's not the only one with a secret: Livingston Academy was founded by Salem witch trial survivors - and their successors still practice magic in secluded dorm rooms and the woods outside the school grounds. When Rose falls in with the strange and rebellious group of girls that make up the Livingston coven, Rose gets an offer to join that she can't refuse. Soon she's part of a hidden world of whispered spells, charms, summonings, and sisterhood.

But there's a darker side to becoming a witch - there will always be powerful men who resent and envy a witch's abilities. When the headmaster of the nearby boy's school is revealed to be a witch hunter eager to claim the power of the Livingston coven, Rose and her new friends must fight for their very survival.

And Rose might have an even bigger problem. She can't keep her eyes off her prickly coven sister and roommate Charlie. Will she master her power in time to save the school, or will her crush prove a deadly distraction?"

I say burn the next door school to the ground and have a make out session with your roommate. While you're at it go take vengeance on the English teacher too.

The Whistler by Nick Medina
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young man is haunted by a mythological specter bent on stealing everything he loves in this unsettling horror from the author of Indian Burial Ground and Sisters of the Lost Nation.

For fear of summoning evil spirits, Native superstition says you should never, ever whistle at night.

Henry Hotard was on the verge of fame, gaining a following and traction with his eerie ghost-hunting videos. Then his dreams came to a screeching halt. Now, he's learning to navigate a new life in a wheelchair, back on the reservation where he grew up, relying on his grandparents' care while he recovers.

And he's being haunted.

His girlfriend, Jade, insists he just needs time to adjust to his new reality as a quadriplegic, that it's his traumatized mind playing tricks on him, but Henry knows better. As the specter haunting him creeps closer each night, Henry battles to find a way to endure, to rid himself of the horror stalking him. Worried that this dread might plague him forever, he realizes the only way to exile his phantom is by confronting his troubled past and going back to the events that led to his injury.

It all started when he whistled at night...."

OK, I for one am no longer going to whistle at night.

No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"With an expert hand, Rachel Louise Adams's debut No Rest for the Wicked reads like an edge of your seat, heart-pounding scary movie.

In one Halloween obsessed Midwestern town, everyone's on red alert after a local politician goes missing. Little do they know it's only the beginning.

It's been close to twenty years since forensic pathologist Dolores Hawthorne left her hometown of Little Horton, Wisconsin. The town is famous for its Halloween celebrations, but also its history of violent deaths linked to the holiday. To Dolores, it's the place she fled, family, bad memories, and all. Until the FBI calls to tell her that her father - the former mayor turned US Senator - is missing under mysterious circumstances.

Some people count to ten to wake up from a nightmare. Dolores always counts the bones of her head instead: sphenoid, frontal, lacrimal. But no matter how many times she counts them, it doesn't change the fact that her father is missing, that his final words of warning to her were to trust no one, and that now, the rest of her family is giving Dolores a chilling welcome. With Halloween fast approaching, Dolores must face the past she left behind before it's too late."

I mean it's a book set in Wisconsin with cats on the cover, it was written for me, right? Though I think, as a Wisconsinite, that it would really depend on the politician if anyone actually cared...  

The Summer War by Naomi Novik
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this poignant, heartfelt novella from the New York Times bestselling author of Spinning Silver and the Scholomance trilogy, a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.

Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her in a war-torn land, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love.

While Argent wanders the world, forced to seek only fame and glory instead of the love and belonging he truly desires, Celia attempts to undo the curse she placed on him. Yet even as she grows from a girl to a woman, she cannot find the solution - until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors.

Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother's curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War."

After cursing her older brother you think she'd no refer to her middle brother as unwanted... 

Uncharmed by Lucy Jane Wood
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A "perfect" witch must learn to embrace imperfection and live for herself in this spellbinding cozy fantasy sprinkled with love, laughter, and magic, from the author of Rewitched.

Andromeda "Annie" Wildwood is the perfect witch. She is sugar, spice, and everything nice, each element of her life finely curated and polished to irresistibility by her nightly hex-laced potion routine. She loves to please and nothing makes her happier than when everyone else around her is completely happy.

When Annie's coven tasks her with guiding an orphan teenage witch through the process of getting her blossoming magical powers under control, Annie is excited for the chance to please and to prove herself. But the ramshackle cabin they'll be housed in isn't quite the staycation of Annie's dreams - and she and Maeve, the headstrong teen, couldn't be more different.

Just when they're starting to understand each other, the owner of the cabin unexpectedly returns - and this quietly gruff and handsome warlock is not pleased to find that the coven volunteered his house to a high-maintenance witch and her angsty teen companion.

As this seemingly unlikely trio develop a loyalty and fondness for one another, Annie slowly learns that her people-pleasing may have led her down an impossible, lonely path. If everything about her is so right - why does it all feel so wrong?"

Witchy found family! 

Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After the deaths of his parents, a witch returns to his spooky family manor and joins forces with his former crush when his parents' spirits warn them of a sinister threat in this witty and lyrically unique rom-com in the vein of The Crescent Moon Tearoom and The Ex Hex.

Azrael Ashmedai Hart must be cursed. He's a witch twice named for the devil. He's making his way back to his family manor in Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career. He's adopted a cat he's allergic to, and if all of that is not enough, he's also forced to come face-to-face with his childhood best friend and former crush.

Victoria Starnberger, the bubbly girl-next-door Az lost touch with after an awkward incident in college, has just been disowned by her parents for quitting business school and buying Azrael's late parents' Hopelessly Teavoted tea shop against their wishes. Being cut off financially is one thing. But, now Vickie also owes a lesser devil for the souls her parents promised him in exchange for her gift to summon the dead by touching something they treasured in life, destroying the object in the process.

When spirits all over town, including Az's parents, keeping warning her about a sinister threat, Vickie and Az are forced to combine their powers to save the Hallowcross. But to do so, they must prevent her magic from immolating him after Vickie's devil places a curse on them to keep them from touching until she repays her debt. As they race against the clock to find clever ways around their curse, they find it increasingly harder to deny that they've been hopelessly devoted to each other all along."

I like the Pushing Daisies curse of it all.

Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi
Published by: Dell
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this paranormal spicy age-gap romance, a successful author - whose novel is being adapted into a movie - clashes with the actor cast as the male lead, all in a cozy mansion filled with friendly ghosts, from the author of Best Hex Ever.

Rosemary Shaw's ability to see the dead has never scared her. In fact, it's secretly inspired most of her horror novels. Now at twenty-nine, Rosemary is an acclaimed author, and her most successful book is about to be a blockbuster movie. The film set is in a beautiful manor house in the English countryside, and it's no surprise there are ghosts hanging around. But ghosts are something Rosemary can handle; she's not so sure how to deal with her infuriatingly handsome leading man, who is all wrong for the role.

Ellis Finch is a longtime Hollywood heartthrob with a secret of his own. He's tired of playing the action movie hero and would much rather be gardening with his sweet dog, Fig. Frankly, he's getting too old to maintain the industry's standards of what a man should look like. Starring in a historical horror movie will be perfect for his new image, until he finds out that the author tried to get him kicked off the project, but Ellis won't go down without a fight.

Amidst filming the movie and the chemistry-filled feuding between Rosemary and Ellis, Hallowvale manor comes alive, literally. Trying to balance the mayhem of her writing deadlines, an adorable ghostly dog, and a pair of Regency-era women who are definitely nothing more than friends, Rosemary is at risk of telling Ellis her secret, or worse - falling for him."

Wait, if I admit to seeing ghosts does that mean I can get a sexy aging Hollywood star?

The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two feuding co-stars in a Jane Austen film adaptation accidentally travel back in time to the Regency Era in this delightfully clever and riotously funny debut.

Tess Bright just scored her dream role starring in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It's not just the role of a lifetime, but it's also her last chance to prove herself as a serious actress (no easy feat after being fired from her last TV gig) and more importantly, it's her opportunity to honor her mom, who was the biggest fan of Jane Austen ever. But one thing is standing in Tess's way - well, one very tall, annoyingly handsome person, actually: Hugh Balfour.

A serious British method actor, Hugh wants nothing to do with Tess (whose Teen Choice Awards somehow don't quite compare to his BAFTA nominations). Hugh is a type-A, no-nonsense, Royal Academy prodigy, whereas Tess is big-hearted, a little reckless, and admittedly, kind of a mess. But the film needs chemistry - and Tess's career depends on it.

Sparks fly, but not in the way Tess hoped, when an electrical accident sends the two feuding co-stars back in time to Jane Austen's era. 200 years in the past with only each other to rely on, Tess and Hugh need to ad-lib their way through the Regency period in order to make it back home, and hopefully not screw up history along the way. But if a certain someone looks particularly dashing in those 19th century breeches…well, Tess won't be complaining.

A wickedly funny, delightfully charming story, The Austen Affair is a tribute to Jane Austen, second chances, and love across the space-time continuum."

Oddly I've often thought about how electricity could help with time travel... Not that I've tried it. Not even that once I was shocked so bad I was thrown backwards. Sadly not in time.

The Faerie Morgana by Louisa Morgan
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this atmospheric and bewitching novel, Louisa Morgan reimagines the story of Morgan Le Fay, one of the most enigmatic and powerful women in Arthurian legend.

To the other priestesses of the Nine, a powerful council at the Lady's Temple, Morgana is haughty and arrogant as she performs feats of magic no human should be capable of. Rumors start that she must be a fearsome fae.

To King Arthur, Morgana is a trusted and devoted advisor, but his court is wary of her and her prodigious talent at divination. But his wife sees Morgana as a rival and a malevolent witch.

To Braithe, Morgana's faithful acolyte, she is simply the most powerful priestess Camelot has seen.

Morgana doesn't know why she's so different from everyone else, and she doesn't much care. But when she aids Arthur to ascend the throne before his time, she sets off a series of events that will change everything Morgana believes about her power."

I am here for all things Arthurian. 

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth pulls from Slavic folklore to explore family, duty, and what it means to be a monster in this sequel to the USA Today bestselling novella When Among Crows.

A funeral. A heist. A desperate mission.

When Dymitr is called back to the old country for the empty night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay, it's the perfect opportunity for him to get his hands on his family's most guarded relic - a book of curses that could satisfy the debt he owes legendary witch Baba Jaga. But first he'll have to survive a night with his dangerous, monster-hunting kin.

As the sun sets, the line between enemies and allies becomes razor-thin, and Dymitr's new loyalties are pushed to their breaking point.

Family gatherings can be brutal. Dymitr's might just be fatal."

When Among Crows was a novella? Hmm. Filing this information away for later. You'll eventually see why.

I Killed the King by Rebecca Mix and Andrea Hannah
Published by: Storytide
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"One of Us Is Lying meets Knives Out - with beasts, murder, and magic - in this first book in a thrilling locked-room whodunnit YA fantasy duology by Andrea Hannah and New York Times bestseller Rebecca Mix.

After a decade of war, the kingdoms of Avendell and Istellia have finally agreed to peace. As nobles and magic wielders from both countries arrive at remote Castle Avendell for a historic all-night masquerade to celebrate, King Costis summons an unlikely group to his chambers: the crown prince, his Istellian bride-to-be, his personal guard, a wild beast tamer, and the palace's questionable new healer. But before Costis can reveal why he has gathered them, the castle goes dark.

When the lights come back, the king is dead - murdered with the princess's knife, in a weak spot only his guard knew of, and with venom from one of the beast tamer's monsters lacing the blade.

With no clear killer - and everyone a suspect - they make a risky pact: Tell no one until the treaty is signed. But when a winter storm seals everyone inside and someone aware of the king's untimely death begins to pick off guests one by one, the six suspects must work together to discover who killed the king...before one of them is next."

Snowbound AND a seemingly impossible death? Yes and yes!

Wickedly Ever After by R. Lee Fryar
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this (delightfully screwball) fairy tale romp, even the most wicked deserve their happily-ever-after.

For almost a thousand years, Wicked Witch Hector West and Good Witch Ida North have maintained the balance of good and evil, preserving a magical Happily-Ever-After that keeps the realm from falling apart. But even Cardinal Witches need a hobby, and every spare moment they have is spent antagonizing each other. But when Ida's latest "harmless" hex goes too far, Hector retaliates with a curse that immediately backfires, making her choose the wrong princess for the year's big pantomime.

Which, if not corrected immediately, could have world-shaking consequences.

One reluctant prince and badly botched dragon kidnapping later, both Hector and Ida are determined to set things right. With love magic gone wild, the two best enemies set off on a quest to save the realm, their lovesick gnome chamberlains at their sides. Yet as they unravel what went wrong with their mixed-up magic, Hector and Ida will have to face a more daunting challenge than trying to avoid their own Wickedly-Ever-After:

Deciding whether a millennium worth of enmity might have been the biggest mistake of their very long lives."

For those who'd like some certain Cardinal Witches to get it on...

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"With the awakening of fire-breathing dragons, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Take your first steps into the epic.

Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall...

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic events that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree."

Prequel wyrm time!

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After a decade, acclaimed science fiction master John Scalzi returns to the galaxy of the Old Man's War series with the long awaited seventh book, The Shattering Peace.

THE PEACE IS SHATTERING

For a decade, peace has reigned in interstellar space. A tripartite agreement between the Colonial Union, the Earth, and the alien Conclave has kept the forces of war at bay, even when some would have preferred to return to the fighting and struggle of former times. For now, more sensible heads have prevailed - and have even championed unity.

But now, there is a new force that threatens the hard-maintained peace: The Consu, the most advanced intelligent species humans have ever met, are on the cusp of a species-defining civil war. This war is between Consu factions...but nothing the Consu ever do is just about them. The Colonial Union, the Earth and the Conclave have been unwillingly dragged into the conflict, in the most surprising of ways.

Gretchen Trujillo is a mid-level diplomat, working in an unimportant part of the Colonial Union bureaucracy. But when she is called to take part in a secret mission involving representatives from every powerful faction in space, what she finds there has the chance to redefine the destinies of humans and aliens alike...or destroy them forever."

I'm here for ALL the John Scalzi content I can take. And it's A LOT.

Watching Evil Dead by Josh Malerman
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling author of Bird Box and Incidents Around the House, an impassioned book about a night that changed the author's life and put into perspective the writing life - and how you too can be inspired to face the fears that might hold you back from doing your best work.

One night, bestselling author Josh Malerman - then just an aspiring writer - watched Sam Raimi's Evil Dead with his fiancée and two friends. It was a gathering that could've gone unnoticed, another date night with a movie, but for Malerman, it became a landmark. It changed the course of his life, and it will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and to discover existing triumphs that are within you already.

Describing the course of the night, Malerman reflects on his life, from his career as a musician to his stack of rough drafts, written prior to ever being published - and on how meeting the love of his life, a fellow creative, opened him to new experiences and new ways of viewing the world they now quest through together.

Malerman deploys his own story to help readers not only write their unwritten stories but celebrate their uncelebrated victories: to find their voice, their vision, and their joie de vivre. By simply describing an uncommon and uncanny night, he guides aspiring writers beyond the blank page to the immortal life of the writer."

Uncanny and Evil Dead? Yes please. Plus, I love reading about authors and their process. 

Annie Lennox: Retrospective by Annie Lennox
Published by: Rizzoli
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A long-awaited visual memoir from Annie Lennox, a legend of popular music and culture. This is the award-winning artist's first and only official book - destined to be the must-have title for music lovers and will command attention from the fashion and photography worlds.

Over a career spanning almost half a century, Annie Lennox has established herself as one of the true superstars of pop music and an icon of popular culture. With Dave Stewart as Eurythmics, and later as a solo artist, she is responsible for some of the best-selling records of all time, as well as some of the most memorable imagery created around music. Always recognized for her unique approach to style and performance - she has been described as "the singer whose powerful, androgynous look defied the male gaze."

Lennox has been filmed and photographed by all the great image-makers of our time, from Richard Avedon and Paolo Roversi to Bettina Rheims and Ellen von Unwerth. With Polaroids from her personal archives alongside iconic portraits, music video stills, and record covers, Annie Lennox: Retrospective collates more than two hundred images to create an illustrated memoir of a creative's life, both in and out of the spotlight.

Made in close collaboration with the artist, this highly anticipated volume moves chronologically through the entirety of Lennox's life and career - from the early 1970s when she first met Dave Stewart following through with Eurythmics in the 80s, and then as a solo artist starting in the 90s and onwards. Extracts of her lyrics accompany the photographs throughout. Engrossing captions and personal anecdotes shine light on periods of her life, to tell the stories behind the pictures.

At once intimate, revelatory, and celebratory, this is a beautiful and compelling document of the woman behind one of the strongest voices in music."

I mean, if there's ONE ARTIST whose image is just as important an aspect of their art as their voice it's Annie Lennox. I can not wait for this one. 

Do Admit by Mimi Pond
Published by: Drawn and Quarterly
Publication Date: September 16th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 444 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mimi Pond crafts a gorgeous, dazzling biography of the Mitford Sisters.

Born with pedigrees but without the pocketbooks to match, The Mitfords were certainly no strangers to lies, intrigue, or scandal. Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. All six sisters were weaned on their family's well-documented upper class eccentricities: a ne'er do well would-be entrepreneur father; a stern, stiff-upper-lipped mother; a revolving door of governesses of varying propriety, all against the backdrop of a crumbling estate falling into disrepair.

The sisters grew from cloistered turn-of-the-century country girls into debutantes who would marry into political influence - for better or worse. Is it any wonder that a young, working class Mimi in Southern California becomes enamored with The Mitfords' downright fanciful rich-and-famous lifestyle? This charming, inventively cartooned, and lovingly researched biography captures the dramatic, over-the-top antics of high society's strongest personalities as they rubbed elbows with some of history's most infamous fascists and communists.

Pond's genius for classic cartooning in the vein of the Vanity Fair caricature and the satirical illustrations of Charles Addams brings the aesthetic decadence of the 1920s and 1930s to life with effortless aplomb, warts and all."

If you've devoured Outrageous and are in desperate need to know more about the Mitfords, might I suggest this delightful new book? And once you've read it you can come to me and we will dish on all the things Mitford! I have so much hot goss! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Andrea Hannah, Annie Lennox, Briana Morgan, John Scalzi, Josh Malerman, Louisa Morgan, Mark Edwards, Maureen Johnson, Mitfords, Naomi Novik, Nick Medina, Rebecca Mix, Robert Thorogood, Samantha Shannon, Stephen Sondheim

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