strange and random happenstance

The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City by Susanna Clarke
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

'He had already served three kings. He did not see why he should not be useful to a fourth.'

During the conquest of Northern England, the fairy host sweeps across the countryside. The city of Durham finds itself surrounded. But the encircling forces are not fairies, nor even other humans, but trees that trap the city within an eerie wood.

Ranulf, Bishop of Durham - a consummate politician - understands that the survival of the Northern English people depends on his finding a way to unite the two races, human and fairy. And he's not averse to improving his own position at the same time. With these aims in view, he sets off for the New Castle, in search of the new King - the leader of the fairy host, rumored to be a mysterious human boy, no more than fourteen years old, who speaks no word of any human language.

Set 700 years before the events of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City is a bewitching, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's shelf, featuring beautiful illustrations throughout."

Whenever Susanna Clarke writes a short story everyone is hoping against hope that it is directly tied into the epic tale of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I can put your minds at ease, it is. Though from the timeline I think you'll understand it's someone important to that book's backstory. 

Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Royal Witch: the gripping new novel from the international bestselling author.

Ambition. Sorcery. Treason. How far will one woman dare to go?

1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well.

It is a golden age for England, its royal family's dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into.

Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of…what men's promises are truly worth.

As the safe, comfortable future she'd envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive - and to rise. Her newfound ambition will to carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts..."

I love that Philippa Gregory's stance is that if the people of the time viewed someone as a witch, well then she can write them as a witch. 

The Slantwise Histories by Alix E. Harrow
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Dive into a dazzling collection of short fiction from Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House.

These are stories about the past as it wasn't quite, but might have been - or could still be.

These are stories about dreamers and liars and lovers and ghosts; people just like you.

These are stories about places the world has seen, and some that hide just beyond the periphery of possibility.

Most of all, these are stories for anyone who ever wanted more.

What's a legend, except a history told slantwise?

The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories presents the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" as well as five all-new stories. The collection also includes the author's preferred text of previously published stories "The Long Way Up", "Roadside Attraction", "Mr. Death", "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly", "The Sycamore and the Sybil", "Do Not Look Back, My Lion", "The Whisper in the Weld", "Dustbaby", and Amazon Original short stories, "The Six Deaths of the Saint" and "The Knight and the Butcherbird.""

I am not a fan of short stories. Too short is my opinion. But when they're written by the likes of Alix E. Harrow, bring them on.

The Chosen Ones by Jasmine Ahmad
Published by: Jasmine Ahmad
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 370 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For centuries, witches have lived among humans, hidden in plain sight - their magic passed down through bloodlines, their existence shrouded in secrecy.

Then, the fear of mere mortals nearly destroyed them, and one witch paid the ultimate price, her death meant to protect the future of witch kind.

Generations later, that future has arrived.

Carmen Jimenez knew her daughters' magic was different. Powerful. Dangerous. From the moment they were born, she understood their twin destinies.

The Chosen Ones.

Carmen spent her life preparing them for the darkness hunting them all. But when she sacrifices herself to ensure their kind's survival, the countdown to the end begins.

The underworld eagerly awaits, and now, the Jimenez sisters may be the only witches powerful enough to stop the danger rising from beneath their world.

Even if it costs them everything."

The most important things cost everything.

The Haunting of Lavender House by Natalie Kikić
Published by: Park Row
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood. The Lost Apothecary meets The Hacienda in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.

2026. All Petra has inherited are tales of loss. Which is why, after her mother's passing, she is shocked to learn that her grandmother is not dead like she's always believed, but alive and living on Tolba, a small island in Croatia. Desperate to find her last surviving family member, Petra ventures to her ancestral home, famed for its sprawling lavender fields. While she's happy to be reunited with her grandmother, rarely does a night go by that Petra doesn't lose herself to vivid nightmares and the dizzying sense that something - or someone - is always watching in Lavender House.

1895. Whore. Sinner. Witch. No matter how many people Magdalena heals, the rumors persist. So, when she's asked to help the matriarch of Lavender House, she seizes the opportunity to rehabilitate her reputation. As Magdalena races against time to heal the ailing woman, she finds herself unexpectedly falling for the son of her greatest enemy, the man responsible for her ostracization. But are true love and acceptance possible for a woman who has always lived on the margins?

Back in the present, Petra finds it increasingly difficult to ignore the rumors plaguing her family: that a mora, a spirit from Croatian folklore, haunts Lavender House for revenge. As the sole heir to Lavender House, Petra must discover the truth of her inheritance, or else fall prey to the same curse that claimed her family.

Through the intersecting stories of Petra and Magdalena, Natalie Kikic's gorgeous debut asks us to consider the lengths to which we go to belong, the cost of choosing love, and what it really means to be a monster."

And also, what creates that "monster."

A Lady's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Michelle Maxstoke
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: eBook, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the gaslit dark, love is never tender. It's teeth at your throat. Blood on silk. It is the sweetest surrender - and the most exquisite damnation.

By day Lady Euphemia Butterworth is a dutiful daughter - corseted, perfumed, and groomed to marry a lecherous duke twice her age. By night, she dreams of freedom, the dangerous thrill of adventure and a life not dictated by men with money and cruel smiles. But when a vampire attack shatters her world, Effie is branded hysterical, locked away and desperate to prove the truth.

Liam Rafferty has ghosts of his own. Ex-orphan, ex-boxer, ex-patient of the asylum, he stalks the shadows as a reluctant hunter, his body inked with sins and his soul fraying at the edges. He finds refuge in a travelling circus, but it cannot silence the devil whispering in his ear - or the fangs waiting in the dark.

When Effie's gilded cage collides with Liam's world, the sparks are as dangerous as the bite of the monsters they hunt..."

Rule number one, if you think you've encountered a vampire, do not, I repeat, do not tell someone who has the power to have you locked up.

My Darling Girls by Marina Scott
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 251 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In 1904 Chicago, where secrets cling as thickly as the soot on every windowsill, Jo earns her living by photographing the dead. The work is quiet and cloistered, allowing her to hide from a past that haunts her: the grief over her husband's mysterious death, a spiraling addiction, and the guilt she carries over the things she's done to survive.

When a notorious crime family hires Jo to make a final portrait of their daughter Millie, it stirs up a spirit that refuses to rest. In opium-fueled dreams, Millie lures Jo into a realm called "the courtyard," where the dead burn to tell her their half-finished stories.

As Jo investigates Millie's murder, she forms a fragile bond with her sister, Grace, who's desperate for an escape of her own. Amid the whispers of the dead is a truth Jo must confront if she is to free them all from the shadows of the past."

So deliciously dark for this time of year!

Needlemouth by K-Ming Chang
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the award-winning author of Bestiary, three cousins are forced to complete an impossible and violent task set by a vengeful demon.

Cousins Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy's hot, tedious summer unfolds in their grandmother's hauntingly familiar house. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online and exchanges emails with a stranger. Yangyang, the youngest, retreats into her own imagination in search of meaning. But every morning Cindy wakes with strange objects in her mouth: a button, a berry, a coin.

One night, a starved figure with a mouth the size of a needle-tip appears at Cindy's bedside. She is hunger-afflicted, a demon with no descendants to feed from: she is Needlemouth. Part vampire, part hungry ghost, Needlemouth forces the girls into a grim task to end a man's life.

Cindy, Yangyang, and Mindy are plunged in and out of the demon realm, where they are called to break out of the indifference and numbness of their claustrophobic worlds, and where they are met with the most rageful and resistant parts of themselves. In a quest to satisfy the demon's hunger, they unravel their shared grief and reckon with the cyclical violence that shaped their family. For readers of Akwaeke Emezi and Carmen Maria Machado, K-Ming Chang has crafted a reimagined coming of age novel that asks: what does it mean to become the monster instead of slaying it?"

Another shudder inducing read.

Is It There or Not? by Natsuhiko Kyogoku and Naoko Machida
Published by: VIZ Media LLC
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 32 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""It's dark up there...I couldn't stop wondering what was up there."

Deceptively simple picture books with sinister stories.

You went to live with Grandma in her rambling old house. High above the rafters is a world of darkness. You can't shake the feeling that something is lurking there.

Natsuhiko Kyogoku and Naoko Machida spin a riveting web of fear of the unknown."

Images can inspire fear more than words.

The Boy Behind the Wardrobe by Suzanne Poulter Harris and Mira Miroslavova
Published by: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 56 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A lonely, imaginative boy becomes the world-renowned author of The Chronicles of Narnia in this spellbinding biography of C.S. Lewis.

Once a boy was born to make stories: C.S. Lewis. He insisted on being called "Jack" and loved to write and draw with his older brother. But after his mother died, he was shipped to boarding school, where he longed for real friends and sought refuge in books. And words and stories would strengthen him during World War I, connect him to bookish friends like J.R.R. Tolkien, and drive him toward his destiny as a world-renowned author...

With lyrical words from Suzanne Poulter Harris and lush, fantastical art from Mira Miroslavova, The Boy Behind the Wardrobe goes beyond the traditional picture book biography to explore the history and emotional trajectory of a child who struggled to fit in, yet created books beloved by millions around the globe. Like the wardrobe transporting the Pevensies to Narnia, this biography will transport readers into Lewis's solitary childhood, his fantastic imagination, and his journey of hope. An author's note, timeline, bibliography, and other back matter offer additional insights into Jack's life and inspiration.

The Boy Behind the Wardrobe is Suzanne Poulter Harris's debut picture book, shaped by the echoes of Narnia that she found in her homeland of Northern Ireland."

I've always found C.S. Lewis more lyrical and a better writer than Tolkien, even if Narnia went a bit too religious for me in the end. This book is a wonderful insight into his becoming.

Black Moon by Stephen Wright
Published by: Little Brown and Company
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An utterly wild, debauched, romantic, and violent ride inspired by the 18th-century Irish pirate Anne Bonny, reimagined here as Amethyst "Meeks" Connell, one of the most extraordinary outlaws of any age. For readers of George Saunders, Percival Everett, and Maggie O'Farrell.

Meeks is a poor Irish orphan whose energy, wit, and native sensitivity to the "main chance" take her to the unlikeliest of places. She marries into the aristocracy and follows her war-besotted husband into the latest of England and France's seemingly endless scrapes where her husband is killed and she, on her way home, is taken prisoner by pirates, resulting in a tryst with the pirate captain that sets in motion an unlikely turn of events, leading her to join his crew. Upon the open sea, her ambition and cunning become her greatest assets as she reinvents herself anew.

From Irish reformatories to the battlefields of Europe to the swashbuckling high seas, Black Moon introduces a character you'll never forget in an adventurous world you'll never want to leave. Throughout Meeks' globe-spanning narrative, we come to know a heroine of unconquerable ambition, boundless intelligence, and insatiable appetite - and to recognize a lawless, brutal, and bounteous world much like our own."

If Becky Sharp boarded a ship.

The Queen's Command by Sarah Raughley
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Inheritance Games meets Bridgerton in the riveting companion novel to The Queen's Spade, where our heroine must play a deadly game and risk everything to get to the truth that's poisoning Victorian England's royal court.

Favored by Queen Victoria, Vicky Davies has survived royal courts, financial ruin, and the loss of her mother, Sarah Forbes Bonetta - the famous African princess turned royal goddaughter - but Cheltenham Ladies' College is about to test her in new and wicked ways.

Every Thursday evening, the senior girls play a secret game and Vicky just became their latest pawn. Truths must be confessed, commands obeyed, and whoever claims the coveted title of winner will have her wish granted, no matter how outrageous and seemingly impossible it may be.

But when the game yields frightening and fatal results, Vicky vows to put an end to this ghoulish tradition that twists minds and makes enemies out of friends. With dangerous foes closing in and truths that could shatter her world clawing to the surface, Vicky must uncover the secrets buried not only in Cheltenham but by her own mother. In a school where survival is a gamble, will she emerge victorious - or fall victim to its deadly game?"

Well if her mother in this book is anything like how she's portrayed in A Thousand Blows.... Watch out!

The Betrayal of Cora Wexford by Bethany Joy Lenz
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Dinner for Vampires, Bethany Joy Lenz, comes a romantic psychological suspense set in Victorian-era London amidst the Jack the Ripper murders.

1880s London. Cora Wexford is alone at thirty-eight, with secrets that drove her to flee life in America and come to London. Now, she makes a living by painting the dead. On the evening of her birthday, she is introduced through friends to a charming stranger named Miles Vale. As Cora falls deeper into trust and surrender with Miles, she's given an opportunity to catapult her career. A suffragist and esteemed gallery owner commission Cora to create a series of portraits featuring ordinary women whose recent deaths have been caused or enabled by a system that ignores them. Then a killer in Whitechapel begins murdering women in the same gruesome way.

As Cora works tirelessly to honor the victims of this "Jack the Ripper," she finds herself increasingly disoriented within her own relationship. Her unraveling leads to one question: will anyone notice a woman being dismantled over time by someone sharing her bed?

The Betrayal of Cora Wexford is a haunting novel of psychological suspense that examines themes of desire, manipulation and community complicity, showing how easily someone surrounded by witnesses can disappear - and how truly terrifying love can be."

I need an ARC of this book! I NEED IT! The artist and Ripperologist in me needs it!

The Body at Waterloo Station by Emily Organ
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 292 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A murdered clerk. A body at Waterloo. A letter with a deadly secret.

London, 1889. In the gloomy Dead Letter Office at St Martin's Le Grand, young clerk Andrew Peverell spends his days sorting through letters that never found their intended reader. When three anonymous notes cross his desk - each inviting a stranger to a public house near Buckingham Palace - Andrew makes a decision that will cost him his life.

Four days later, a foul smell leads to a black leather trunk in Waterloo Station's left-luggage office. Inside is Andrew's body.

When the story reaches the morning papers, Emma Langley recognises the victim's name - a man her late brother once knew as a boy. Together with her friend Penny Green, she sets out to find the truth. Their investigation takes them from the hushed rooms of the Dead Letter Office to the grand halls of Marlborough House, where a footman has vanished and a menacing lawyer is hunting him down.

But the truth about Andrew's death lies somewhere no one has thought to look. And by the time Emma understands what she is really searching for, the killer is closer than she has ever imagined..."

Huh. Naming a murder victim after a Harry Potter character sure is a choice.

Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas - a sweeping, richly layered Victorian novel about a trailblazing female economist who's determined to build Britain's first women's bank, but she must fight both financial corruption and a system intent on destroying the newly found family she's created.

In Victorian England, no woman - not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin - is allowed to open her own bank account. Men will take care of everything, women are told. But Reina knows better. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she's haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer's bills and no coal for the hearth.

So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women's bank, where women can manage their own financial security.

At home, Reina's domestic staff of recently paroled prisoners are building new lives and becoming a found family. But soon Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He's been assigned to investigate Farlow, who's suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive, it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina's expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence.

Now Reina faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Either way, her dream of the women's bank may be over.

But courage and sacrifice aren't limited to the battlefield - they also occur at the kitchen table, where women who believe in compassion and community are working to remake the future. And when the stakes are highest, Reina knows to trust her heart as well as her intellect.

Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain's first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, Queen of Lombard Street brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. How can we know who we are, if we don't know who we were?"

Lisa Kleypas in her Barbara Taylor Brandford era!

The Queen of Roses by Julia Kelly
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Spanning the ballrooms of Pasadena and the sunlit gardens of Altadena, a new novel of love and sacrifice from the internationally bestselling author of The Light Over London and The Last Garden in England.

1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson's life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena's last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house's beautiful garden is Miss Pearce's proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography.

1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family.

Stifled by expectation as Pasadena's newest doyenne, Adele's only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele's feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself."

Of course she falls for the gardener. Honestly I would too.

Miss Wolcott's Ghost by Louise Penny
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Armand Gamache returns!

"There's a body in Lost Nation."

"Where?" demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed.

But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller.

The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. What he does know is that the man was terrified.

And so Armand is thrust out of a deep sleep and into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body.

When he and his team of Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabelle Lacoste find both, the situation only grows more bizarre. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. He's lying in a long-abandoned cemetery, on top of a grave with a date, but no name.

Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Gamache's friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.

Soon, Gamache and his team are faced with tracking down not just the legend of Lost Nation, but a lost ship, lost documents belong to an eccentric Victorian botanist, and a mysterious plant not seen in a century, that might save, or take, countless lives.

As the murder investigation deepens, nightmarish spectres from the past begin to haunt the Sûreté officers, only heightened by the appearance of one of Gamache's former and now disgraced proteges, with whom he must form an uneasy alliance.

As the ghosts begin to gather, Gamache, Beauvoir, and Lacoste, with the help of Reine-Marie, Clara, and the other villagers of Three Pines, realize that the body on the grave is far from the only death. To solve the crime and avert catastrophe they must look to rancid secrets and old lies no longer dead and buried."

Score! Victorian botanist and a mysterious plant not seen in a hundred years!

The Key to a Killer by Olivia Blacke
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A woman and her ghost roommate investigate their most personal case yet in Olivia Blacke's The Key to a Killer, the next book in the Anthony Award winning Ruby and Cordelia Mysteries.

When Ruby Young discovered that her Boston apartment was haunted, she did what any reasonable person would do: befriend the ghost. Their relationship overcame a shaky start - Cordelia Graves never wanted a roommate in life, she certainly didn't want one in death. After working together to solve a few murders, the two are close friends, but there's a lingering question neither of them have been able to answer: what led to Cordelia's death?

Lately things have been adding up that suggest foul play. And when Cordelia's memories of that day start to come back, the roommates can't ignore it anymore: Cordelia was murdered. Ruby and Cordelia are going to have to piece together what Cordelia's final days looked like - otherwise a killer could go free."

Just saying, you'd think that solving Cordelia's death might be more urgent than to wait until the third book...

A Reunion to Die For by K.J. Whittle
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"They all wanted their bully dead. Now someone's granted the wish. From the author of Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests comes the twisted tale of a school reunion turned murderous - and the suspects must catch the real killer before they're framed. Perfect for fans of Benjamin Stevenson and We Solve Murders.

In a dingy pub, a high school reunion brings five old friends back together. As they catch up after twenty years, painful memories surface, all centered around the disastrous prom night that broke them all apart and the school bully at the heart of it all. King of the class turned handsome sport superstar, Eric Stewart poses as a charming local celebrity, but his old friends know of his hidden cruel streak that made each of them miserable. The more they drink, the more a morbid plan takes shape, with everyone tossing in ideas for how they could get the ultimate form of revenge.

The next morning, heads-pounding and hearts racing, they discover Eric has been found dead, exactly the way they drunkenly planned it.

When a cryptic, anonymous message containing a recording of their conversation from the night before starts to circulate, the group knows they need to act, and fast. Who was listening to them? Who arranged the reunion? And, most importantly, who carried out their murderous plans? Soon, they find themselves dragged into a series of sinister games devised to reveal the truth about prom night and Eric's death. Before they become the main suspects, the group will need to share their secrets from all those years ago, or risk going down for murder."

Things are going to get messy!

The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this festive whodunit, set in a cozy snowed-in country house, an innocent mystery game goes horribly wrong, leaving the real-life couple who invented the game Clue to solve a real murder.

It is Christmas Eve, 1943, when Anthony and Elva Pratt arrive at a snowy English country house to host a murder mystery game, but instead find themselves solving a real murder.

The Pratts had planned on a festive game to liven up the dreary wartime atmosphere, where guests using prop weapons as clues would explore the house to solve the whodunnit.

It is all fun and games until Anthony discovers the cook's sister Miss Silver beaten to death, leaving the sleuthy couple to solve an all-too-real murder. The hotel manager Mr. Browning is trying to keep calm, but the guests are agitated, Colonel Colman seizes the opportunity to take over the hotel for the war effort - and the enigmatic Mrs. Threadgold's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Snowed-in with a murderer in their midst, the Pratts must investigate the novel's colorful cast. But can they solve this Christmas mystery before someone else is killed?"

This is the number one book I'm reading this Christmas! Country House and Clue!?! 

Death Under the Hammer by E.C. Bateman
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: eBook, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brilliant new whodunnit from fan favourite E.C. Bateman, perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton and Richard Osman!

It may be the season of goodwill, but when auctioneer Felicia Grant finds herself in the frame for murder, suddenly life doesn't feel so festive...."

For those who want a festive murder and are going through Lovejoy withdrawal. AKA, this was written for me.

Daphne and Me by Jane Leeves and Isabella Kathryn Coben
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""Oh, hello! Caught me with me hand in the biscuit tin!"

With one iconic line, Daphne Moon burst onto the set of Frasier and Jane Leeves's life changed forever. A former ballerina from a small English town that David Hyde Pierce lovingly nicknamed "Muffin-on-Poot," Leeves perfectly embodied her character - a live-in physical therapist for Frasier Crane's father and a quirky, down-to-earth foil to pompous Frasier and his equally pretentious brother, Niles.

In Daphne and Me, Leeves offers a surprising, behind-the-scenes look at Frasier, filled with unexpected stories from the show's eleven seasons and beyond. She opens the door to the fabled - and shockingly cramped - greenroom, where John Mahoney started each morning with a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper, and where the tight quarters quickly bonded the cast into a family. (Nothing brings people together like sharing a bathroom.) She recounts the times Kelsey Grammer broke his scene-mates by delivering lines in a spot-on Bette Davis impression, and how Moose - the talented terrier who starred as Eddie - was a holy terror on set and upstaged the entire cast with his popularity, even flying in first class.

As Daphne and Niles were falling head over heels for each other in a great television romance, Leeves was finding her true love on the Paramount lot, too, and when she started a family of her own, it was Peri Gilpin who held her hand in the hospital.

Written with Leeves's daughter Isabella, Daphne and Me is the story of a young woman taking a risk, discovering herself, and finding a family on and off screen, and a love letter to one of the most successful sitcoms of all time."

I adore the cover for this book so much, the sketch looks so much like Niles it's eerie. 

Last Night I Dreamed of Home by Sophie Li
Published by: Norton Young Readers
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"After botching the only exam that matters in China, Alice arrives at college eager to party like the North Americans on TV - not to hang out with a studious boy who reminds her why she left home.

All Haoran wants is a business degree. His father has spent all his money sending Haoran overseas, and in return, he must graduate and find a stable job. If only he could get rid of the nagging itch to draw a comic book.

From burnt cooking, a stuck elevator, and late-night bubble tea, Alice and Haoran's unlikely friendship promises something more - unless their differences drive them apart. When a creative opportunity arrives, Haoran must choose between his passion and his family, and Alice must discover her own identity or lose touch with her roots altogether.

Last Night I Dreamed of Home is a richly nuanced and sweetly satisfying rom-com from a brilliant new graphic novel creator."

Can I get a late-night bubble tea?

The Little Shop of Gentle Magics by Jessica Rosenberg
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 300 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Meg MacIntosh comes from a long line of kitchen witches - women who can work miracles with a pinch of flour and a ray of moonlight. But there's nothing magical about Meg, or the beautiful hand-decorated sugar cookies she pours her heart into.

When her marriage falls apart, instead of going home to the family she never fit into, Meg impulsively buys a run-down tea shop in the tiny Scottish town of Banhaven.

Then Art walks through the door. One perfect date back home was all it took for Meg to feel truly seen - and to panic and end things. Now, thanks to a job transfer, a very meddling assistant and a housing disaster, he's suddenly here. With his two kids.

Before Meg can talk herself out of it, the rooms above her shop are full: a moody teenager, a boisterous five-year-old, a stray cat, and a man who already feels like home. It's all happening so fast. But as visions start to swirl in her teacup, Meg begins to wonder if some things are simply meant to be...

Falling apart isn't the end...it's the beginning. With the right people by your side, what comes next is magical. Perfect for fans of The Ex Hex and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches."

Oh, I really am feeling the vibe that falling apart is the beginning. 

Enchanted Village by Lily Starling
Published by: Avon a
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cozy, magical, slice-of-life holiday romance set in a village adjacent to a magic school - if the Dream Harbor series were set at Hogsmeade!

I solemnly swear not to fall in love...

Silas Birchwood wasn't sure what to expect when he joined Emberwind Academy as the school's first non-magical teacher. But he knows he's found his calling, even if his wand-wielding pupils struggle with the scientific method.

Living in Hex Hollow, the quirky village adjacent to the magical school, certainly has its charms - most notably Margaret Nettle, the witch proprietor of The Toasty Owl. Every night, villagers gather in the glow of the fireplace to sip her warming magical drinks.

Margaret has devoted her life to running the pub left to her by her beloved mother and grandmother, even if it stings living so close to the magical school that rejected her.

When a rival bar opens across the street, Silas is determined to help Margaret save her business. And despite herself, Margaret finds herself warming to the man who can fix anything in her pub - with a smile that melts her grumpy heart.

When the secret to her magical drinks is stolen, Margaret fears she's destroyed her family's legacy. Can Silas help her see what he's always known…that the magic was hers all along?"

A bit tone-deaf to be so overtly Harry Potter fanfic. 

Creatures and Corridors by Brandon Auman and Andrea Mutti
Published by: The Lab Press
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 120 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When the line between player and character disappears, a group of friends must face the consequences of the game they started.

In the summer of 1992, a forbidden role-playing game, Creatures and Corridors, takes a dark turn for five high school students, warping reality into a nightmarish fantasy. With orcs, tentacled horrors, and deadly traps, their living room, yard, and basement become a battleground. Now, they must navigate the game's perilous challenges, playing for their lives under the sinister scrutiny of a devilish Gamemaster. Blending fantasy, horror, and tabletop RPG storytelling, Creatures and Corridors explores what happens when survival becomes part of the story."

Here for everything RPG right now!

Goblin Market by A.J. Hackwith
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A goblin changeling caught between the human and fey worlds must find a way to save her home in this warm and heartfelt fantasy from the author of Toto and the Hell's Library series.

Being a changeling is hard enough, but Toast was older than most changeling children when her goblin parents stole her back from her human family and returned her to the harsh, bustling world of the Goblin Market, where anything from your fondest dream to your strongest talent can be bought - or sold.

Nearly a decade later, Toast has grudgingly cobbled together a life there as the Market's guide for mortal visitors. But when the next arrival is her long-lost sister and the ancient beast whose magic the Market depends on disappears under strange circumstances, everything starts falling apart.

Now the Market itself is dying. With the Summer Court of noble fey plotting to claim the weakened Market for themselves, Toast, her friends, and an infuriatingly charming fey knight with an agenda of her own must negotiate their differences to make the trade of a lifetime and win back the Market's future. To do so, Toast will have to decide what home - and the flawed community within - is ultimately worth."

I've always wondered how I would have fared as a goblin changeling. 

Knight of the God King by Lauren Blackwood
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: October 20th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A powerful knight and her handsome squire must stop the deadly schemes of a savior king in this romantic fantasy of dark deeds and court intrigue.

Calliope's wish has always been to become a knight, an elite healer and protector who uses music to summon magic. Yet despite her exceptional skill, she's stuck lifting up her talentless cousin, whose family begrudgingly took Cali in as a child. But when an opportunity to become the royal knight of the immortal God King arrives, Cali finally gets a chance at a fairytale life - until her cousin blackmails her.

Forced to bring her cousin to court so she won't share Cali's shameful past, Cali immediately snubs Beric, the alluring, handsome squire tending to her. Now she must contend with his ire, even while feeling helplessly drawn to him. If that wasn't enough, her duty means accompanying the king into The Dark, a demonic entity that only the king's magic is powerful enough to battle - a fight he has been waging for centuries. She must also keep the king's secret under pain of death: He's not a god at all, and the only thing keeping him alive is the magic held by the royal knight. It seems serving the God King isn't a fairytale at all, and when people start dying around her, she and Beric realize that they have no choice but to take their fate - and that of an entire kingdom - into their own hands.

In Lauren Blackwood's thrilling fantasy, Knight of the God King, a knight's power and her squire's love are the only things that can help her defeat a man playing at being a god."

When your leader isn't capable of leading you might be the one who has to save the kingdom. Never forget, you have the power.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A.J. Hackwith, Alix E. Harrow, Emily Organ, Jane Leeves, Jessica Rosenberg, Julia Kelly, K.J. Whittle, Lauren Blackwood, Lily Starling, Lisa Kleypas, Louise Penny, Nicola Upson, Olivia Blacke, Philippa Gregory, Susanna Clarke

In Every Generation by Kendare Blake
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The first in an all-new series by New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake continues the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer featuring the next generation of Scoobies and Slayers who must defeat a powerful new evil.

A new Slayer for a new generation...

Frankie Rosenberg is passionate about the environment, a sophomore at New Sunnydale High School, and the daughter of the most powerful witch in Sunnydale history. Her mom, Willow, is slowly teaching her magic on the condition that she use it to better the world. But Frankie’s happily quiet life is upended when new girl Hailey shows up with news that the annual Slayer convention has been the target of an attack, and all the Slayers - including Buffy, Faith, and Hailey’s older sister Vi - might be dead. That means it’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born.

But being the first ever Slayer-Witch means learning how to wield a stake while trying to control her budding powers. With the help of Hailey, a werewolf named Jake, and a hot but nerdy sage demon, Frankie must become the Slayer, prevent the Hellmouth from opening again, and find out what happened to her Aunt Buffy, before she’s next.

Get ready for a whole new story within the world of Buffy!"

I am a sucker for ALL things Buffy!

It Will End Like This by Kyra Leigh
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of They Wish They Were Us and Sadie comes a propulsive thriller that reminds us that in real life, endings are rarely as neat as happily ever after. A contemporary take on the Lizzie Borden story that explores how grief can cut deep.

Charlotte lost her mother six months ago, and still no one will tell her exactly what happened the day she mysteriously died. They say her heart stopped, but Charlotte knows deep down that there's more to the story.

The only person who gets it is Charlotte's sister, Maddi. Maddi agrees - people’s hearts don’t just stop. There are too many questions left unanswered for the girls to move on.

But their father is moving on. With their mother’s personal assistant. And both girls are sure of one thing: she's going to steal everything that's theirs for herself. She'll even get rid of them eventually.

Now, in order to get their lives back, Charlotte and Maddi have to decide what kind of story they live in. Do they remain the obedient girls their father insists they be, or do they follow their rage to the end?"

I'm sure watching a TV movie on Lizzie Borden at such a young age is why I am the way I am, but that also means any book that name checks Lizzie Borden is a must read!

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Where the Drowned Girls Go, the next addition to Seanan McGuire's beloved Wayward Children series, students at an anti-magical school rebel against the oppressive faculty.

"Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you’ve already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company."

There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again.
It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.
And it isn't as safe.

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her "Home for Wayward Children," she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn’t save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming..."

Well, it's the first Tuesday of the year, and to meet her insane number of books published this year, like every year, Seanan McGuire has her first book out!

The Mermaid in the Millpond by Lucy Strange
Published by: Barrington Stoke Ltd
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Kindle, 63 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"History and myth entwine in this atmospheric tale of freedom and friendship from bestselling author Lucy Strange and acclaimed illustrator Pam Smy.

Bess has left the London workhouse behind for a job at a rural cotton mill. But life at the mill is hard and cruel - a far cry from the fresh start Bess hoped for. The only way to survive is to escape, but the mill is like a prison with no way out.

Meanwhile, rumours are spreading about a vicious creature that lurks in the millpond. Bess is sure it’s all nonsense, until one night she sees something stir in the murky water.

But is it really a monster that lives in the depths of the pond? Or a creature trapped and alone, just like Bess, desperate to escape..."

Pam Smy drew me in, the millpond myth made me stay!

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"USA Today bestselling author Jillian Cantor reimagines and expands on the literary classic The Great Gatsby in this atmospheric historical novel with echoes of Big Little Lies, told in three women’s alternating voices.

On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. To the police, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby.

Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Each holds a key that can unlock the truth to the mysterious life and death of this enigmatic millionaire.

Daisy Buchanan once thought she might marry Gatsby - before her family was torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy that sent her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan.

Jordan Baker, Daisy’s best friend, guards a secret that derailed her promising golf career and threatens to ruin her friendship with Daisy as well.

Catherine McCoy, a suffragette, fights for women’s freedom and independence, and especially for her sister, Myrtle Wilson, who’s trapped in a terrible marriage.

Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, when all three of their lives are on the brink of unraveling. Each woman is pulled deeper into Jay Gatsby’s romantic obsession, with devastating consequences for all of them.

Jillian Cantor revisits the glittering Jazz Age world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, retelling this timeless American classic from the women’s perspective. Beautiful Little Fools is a quintessential tale of money and power, marriage and friendship, love and desire, and ultimately the murder of a man tormented by the past and driven by a destructive longing that can never be fulfilled."

If you've ever wondered what the women had to say about Jay Gatsby, well, this is the book for you!

The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The author of the "sweeping, stirring, and heartrending" (Kristin Harmel, author of The Room on Rue Amélie) The Light Over London returns with a masterful, glittering novel that whisks you to midcentury Britain as it follows three of the last debutantes to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II.

When it’s announced that 1958 will be the last year debutantes are to be presented at court, thousands of eager mothers and hopeful daughters flood the palace with letters seeking the year’s most coveted invitation: a chance for their daughters to curtsey to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society.

In an effort to appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nichols agrees to become a debutante and do the Season, a glittering and grueling string of countless balls and cocktail parties. In doing so, she befriends two very different women: the cool and aloof Leana Hartford whose apparent perfection hides a darker side and the ambitious Katherine Norman who dreams of a career once she helps her parents find their place among the elite.

But the glorious effervescence of the Season evaporates once Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family. Faced with a dark past, she’s forced to ask herself what really matters: her family legacy or her own happiness.

With her signature "intricate, tender, and convincing" (Publishers Weekly) storytelling, Julia Kelly weaves an unforgettable tale of female friendship amid the twilight days of Britain’s grand coming out balls."

If you're obsessed with debutantes, like I am, and are fascinated by the end of that longstanding tradition, this book is for you as well as me.

The Maid by Nita Prose
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed. Solving the mystery will turn her once orderly world upside down in this utterly original debut.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter - she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black - but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different - and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart."

Clue-like you say? I will be the final judge on that!

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris
Published by: Pegasus Crime
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Now I'm in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules.

It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.

Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.

But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all, you can't keep a good woman down."

Scholastic and ivy intrigue? Yes please!

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Rachel Hawkins, the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, comes Reckless Girls, a deliciously wicked Gothic suspense, set on an isolated Pacific island with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

ONE ISLAND

Beautiful, wild, and strange - Meroe Island is a desolate spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. It’s the perfect destination for the most adventurous traveler to escape everything... except the truth.

SIX VISITORS

Six stunning twentysomethings are about to embark on a blissful, free-spirited journey - one filled with sun-drenched days and intoxicating nights. But as it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in, sending them on a dangerous spiral of discovery.

COUNTLESS SECRETS

When one person goes missing and another turns up dead, the remaining friends wonder what dark currents lie beneath this impenetrable paradise - and who else will be swept under its secluded chaos. With its island Gothic sensibility, sexy suspense, and spine-tingling reimagining of an Agatha Christie classic, Reckless Girls will wreck you."

I love it when authors explore other locals where the Gothic can reside!

Serendipity edited by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: January 4th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Love is in the air in Serendipity, a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

The secret admirer.

The fake relationship.

The matchmaker.

From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, 10 of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads. Readers will fall for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.

Contributors include Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Abigail Hing Wen."

I love it when tropes are reimagined to become something more.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jillian Cantor, Joanne Harris, Julia Kelly, Kendare Blake, Kyra Leigh, Lizzie Borden, Lucy Strange, Marissa Meyer, Nita Prose, Pam Smy, Rachel Hawkins, Seanan McGuire, The Great Gatsby

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell
Published by: Tin House Books
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 408 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"London, 1893: high up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling, serpentine world of Paraic O’Donnell’s Victorian-inspired mystery, the story of a city cloaked in shadow, but burning with questions: why does the seamstress jump from the window? Why is a cryptic message stitched into her skin? And how is she connected to a rash of missing girls, all of whom seem to have disappeared under similar circumstances?

On the case is Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. Gideon Bliss, a Cambridge dropout in love with one of the missing girls, stumbles into a role as Cutter’s sidekick. And clever young journalist Octavia Hillingdon sees the case as a chance to tell a story that matters - despite her employer’s preference that she stick to a women’s society column. As Inspector Cutter peels back the mystery layer by layer, he leads them all, at last, to the secrets that lie hidden at the house on Vesper Sands.

By turns smart, surprising, and impossible to put down, The House on Vesper Sands offers a glimpse into the strange undertow of late nineteenth-century London and the secrets we all hold inside us."

If that opening description didn't give you chills, I'm sorry, we can't be friends. 

Bryant and May: Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a prominent politician is crushed by a fruit van making a delivery, the singular team of Arthur Bryant and John May overcome insurmountable odds to reunite the PCU and solve the case in this brainy new mystery from acclaimed author Christopher Fowler.

On a spring morning in London’s Strand, the Speaker of the House of Commons is nearly killed by a van unloading oranges and lemons for the annual St. Clement Danes celebration. It’s an absurd near-death experience, but the government is more interested in investigating the Speaker’s state of mind just prior to his accident.

The task is given to the Peculiar Crimes Unit - the only problem being that the unit no longer exists. Its chief, Raymond Land, is tending his daffodils on the Isle of Wight and senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are out of commission - May has just undergone surgery for a bullet wound and Bryant has been missing for a month. What's more, their old office in King’s Cross is being turned into a vegetarian tapas bar.

Against impossible odds, the team is reassembled and once again what should be a simple case becomes a lunatic farrago involving arson, suicide, magicians, academics and a race to catch a killer with a master plan involving London churches. Joining their team this time is Sidney, a young woman with no previous experience, plenty of attitude - and a surprising secret."

A new Bryant and May deserves a hip hip hooray!

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
Published by: Gallery Books
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the international bestseller The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special place.

Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.

1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her ambitious work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens - and the people she meets - promise to change her life forever.

1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House’s treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades.

In this sweeping novel reminiscent of Kate Morton’s The Lake House and Kristin Harmel’s The Room on Rue Amélie, Julia Kelly explores the unexpected connections that cross time and the special places that bring people together forever."

Besides sounding right up my alley, you just named-checked my favorite Kate Morton book!

The Innkeeper's Daughter by Bianca M. Schwarz
Published by: Central Avenue Publishing
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the twilight of a November evening, Sir Henry March, a man of wealth and charm - and a secret agent for the Crown - comes across a badly beaten Eliza Broad, desperate to escape her cruel stepfather. Knowing she has nowhere to go, Sir Henry takes her to his home to recover, and introduces her to a world of culture, art, and literature she never knew existed. But Eliza's brutal world follows her to London, where elite aristocratic salons coexist with the back alleys of the criminal underworld.

As romance blossoms between them, Eliza unearths an old secret that leads them into the dark, sadistic world of sex trafficking, and allows Henry to finally identify a traitor responsible for selling military secrets and causing the death of thousands.

A natural at the spy game, Eliza proves herself a worthy partner in the fight for truth and justice. But with time running out, and the fate of one girl hanging in the balance, Henry and Eliza must find a way to outwit a nasty pimp and eliminate a dangerous enemy agent."

I'm a sucker for a romance with a spy angle.

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sparks fly in this enchanting fantasy novel from the author of Unnatural Magic when a down-and-out fire witch and a young gentlewoman join forces against a deadly conspiracy.

Dellaria Wells, petty con artist, occasional thief, and partly educated fire witch, is behind on her rent in the city of Leiscourt - again. Then she sees the “wanted” sign, seeking Female Persons, of Martial or Magical ability, to guard a Lady of some Importance, prior to the celebration of her Marriage. Delly fast-talks her way into the job and joins a team of highly peculiar women tasked with protecting their wealthy charge from unknown assassins.

Delly quickly sets her sights on one of her companions, the confident and well-bred Winn Cynallum. The job looks like nothing but romance and easy money until things take a deadly (and undead) turn. With the help of a bird-loving necromancer, a shapeshifting schoolgirl, and an ill-tempered reanimated mouse named Buttons, Delly and Winn are determined to get the best of an adversary who wields a twisted magic and has friends in the highest of places."

Magic! Magic magic magic magic magic!

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series.

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines - a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem...

A standalone Wayward Children story containing all-new characters, and a great jumping-on point for new readers."

A great "jumping-on point" but if you are smart enough to subscribe to the Tor newsletter around Thanksgiving they gave free copies of all the previous volumes for your e-reader!

Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A gripping, multilayered debut in the tradition of Tana French and Donna Tartt about four friends, an empty manor, and a night that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

It's the summer of 1996 and school's out forever for Andy, her boyfriend Marcus, her best friend Peter, and Em. When Andy's alcoholic mother predicts the apocalypse, the four teenagers decide to see out the end of the world at a deserted manor house, the site of a historic unsolved mystery. There they meet David - charming and unreliable, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

David presents an irresistible lure for both Andy and Peter and complicates the dynamics of their lifelong friendship. When the group learns that a diamond necklace, stolen fifty years ago, might still be somewhere on the manor grounds, the Game - half treasure hunt, half friendly deception - begins. But the Game becomes much bigger than the necklace, growing to encompass years of secrets, lies, and, ultimately, one terrible betrayal.

Meticulously plotted and gorgeously written, Before the Ruins is a page-turner of the highest order about the sealed-off places in our pasts and the parts of ourselves waiting to be retrieved from them."

Oh, 1996, just when I graduated high school! Sadly I never went to a manor house that lead to horrors and secrets... or did I?

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair returns with another delicious, twisty novel - about a grand estate with many secrets, an orphan caught in a web of lies, and a young woman playing a sinister game.

1988. Beth Soames is fourteen years old when her aunt takes her to stay at Raven Hall, a rambling manor in the isolated East Anglian fens. The Averells, the family who lives there, are warm and welcoming, and Beth becomes fast friends with their daughter, Nina. At times, Beth even feels like she's truly part of the family...until they ask her to help them with a harmless game - and nothing is ever the same.

2019. Sadie Langton is an actress struggling to make ends meet when she lands a well-paying gig to pretend to be a guest at a weekend party. She is sent a suitcase of clothing, a dossier outlining the role she is to play, and instructions. It's strange, but she needs the money, and when she sees the stunning manor she'll be staying at, she figures she’s got nothing to lose.

In person, Raven Hall is even grander than she'd imagined - even with damage from a fire decades before - but the walls seem to have eyes. As day turns to night, Sadie starts to feel that there’s something off about the glamorous guests who arrive, and as the party begins, it becomes chillingly apparent their unseen host is playing games with everyone...including her."

Can you tell I love me a grand estate?

Dear Miss Kopp by Amy Stewart
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The indomitable Kopp sisters are tested at home and abroad in this warm and witty tale of wartime courage and camaraderie.

The U.S. has finally entered World War I is and Constance is chasing down suspected German saboteurs and spies for the Bureau of Investigation while Fleurette is traveling across the country entertaining troops with song and dance. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location in France, Norma is overseeing her thwarted pigeon project for the Army Signal Corps. When Aggie, a nurse at the American field hospital, is accused of stealing essential medical supplies, the intrepid Norma is on the case to find the true culprit.

The far-flung sisters - separated for the first time in their lives - correspond with news of their days. The world has irrevocably changed - will the sisters be content to return to the New Jersey farm when the war is over?"

Epistolary Kopps!

The FBI Way by Frank Figliuzzi
Published by: Custom House
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The FBI’s former head of counterintelligence reveals the Bureau's field-tested playbook for unlocking individual and organizational excellence, illustrated through dramatic stories from his own storied career.

Frank Figliuzzi was the "Keeper of the Code," appointed the FBI’s Chief Inspector by then-Director Robert Mueller. Charged with overseeing sensitive internal inquiries, shooting reviews, and performance audits, he ensured each employee met the Bureau's exacting standards of performance, integrity, and conduct. Now, drawing on his distinguished career, Figliuzzi reveals how the Bureau achieves its extraordinary standard of excellence - from the training of new recruits in "The FBI Way" to the Bureau's rigorous maintenance of its standards up and down the organization. Unafraid to identify FBI execs who erred, he cites them as the exceptions that prove the rule.

All good codes of conduct have one common trait: they reflect the core values of an organization. Individuals, companies, schools, teams, or any group seeking to codify their rules to live by must first establish core values. Figliuzzi has condensed the Bureau’s process of preserving and protecting its core values into what he calls “The Seven C’s”. If you can adapt the concepts of Code, Conservancy, Clarity, Consequences, Compassion, Credibility, and Consistency, you can instill and preserve your values against all threats, internal and external. This is how the FBI does it.

Figliuzzi’s role in the FBI gave him a unique opportunity to study patterns of conduct among high-achieving, ethical individuals and draw conclusions about why, when and how good people sometimes do bad things. Part pulse-pounding memoir, part practical playbook for excellence, The FBI Way shows readers how to apply the lessons he’s learned to their own lives: in business, management, and personal development."

I love Frank!

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: January 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one's First Black Friend and everyone is, as she puts it, "stark raving normal." But Amber's sister Lacey? She's still living in their home state of Nebraska, and trust us, you'll never believe what happened to Lacey.

From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. She's the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think "I can say whatever I want to this woman." And now, Amber and Lacey share these entertainingly horrifying stories through their laugh-out-loud sisterly banter. Painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores), this book tackles modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity."

I also adore Amber.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amber Ruffin, Amy Stewart, Bianca M. Schwarz, Bryant and May, C.M. Waggoner, Christopher Fowler, Emma Rous, England, Frank Figliuzzi, Julia Kelly, Magic, Paraic O'Donnell, Seanan McGuire, Victoria Gosling